Baltimore cop, caught planting evidence by own body camera, begins trial

The Baltimore police officer, who gained national attention after his own body camera exposed him allegedly planting evidence, is finally having his day in court.

Last year, public defenders released footage they claim showed officer Richard Pinheiro Jr. planting evidence in a soup can in a trash-strewn lot, but Wednesday witness offered a very different explanation of the clip in Baltimore Circuit Court, according to the Baltimore Sun.

“He definitely confirmed that he did not plant anything,” assistant state’s attorney, Jay Malik, told the judge, the Sun wrote.

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Michael Belsky, Pinheiro’s attorney, called the incident a misunderstanding. He said the officer forgot to turn on his body camera before recovering a stash of heroin in Southwest Baltimore. Upon realizing his mistake, he turned on his camera and intentionally re-enacted the find for his records, the lawyer said.

Drug charges against the Baltimore man as a result of Pinheiro’s arrest were dropped after the body camera footage was made public.

Wednesday, Malik who was assigned to prosecute the drug case, testified that he called Pinheiro to question him about the video.

“He said, ‘I made a mistake. My body camera was off. I went back and documented what I found.’ Is that correct?”  during the trial.

Pinheiro also allegedly told Malik that police commanders would often punish officers who forgot to turn on their body cameras, which is what led him to stage the re-enactment.

But officers are known to write notes into their body camera software program to explain videos when they’re taken on purpose. And Lt. Hans Nicolas who runs the body camera program for the Baltimore police, testified that Pinheiro left no such notes. Prosecutors said the omission could lead one to believe the officer had no idea his camera was on, and was instead caught in the act.

Last January, Pinheiro was suspended and indicted on charges of misconduct and fabricating evidence, the report said. The charge of fabricating evidence is a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

His video is just one of three from the summer 2017 that public defenders said show misconduct by Baltimore officers. The officers in the other videos have been cleared of wrongdoing, the Sun wrote.

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