Baltimore officer sentenced in drug suspect's assault
Officer Anthony Williams gets 45 days in jail for assaulting man
A Baltimore City police officer has been sentenced for assaulting a drug suspect in police custody in October 2011.
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It's the case that involves what has become known as "ratgate," uncovered by the WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team. It's called "ratgate" because the key witness in the case, also a police officer, had a dead rat left on his car, an incident of alleged witness intimidation.
The officer sentenced Wednesday did himself no favors by claiming what he did the night of the drug arrest he'd do again.
The arrest happened in October 2011 in an east Baltimore neighborhood. Drug suspect Antoine Green was locked up without incident, but then taken back off the police wagon into a house and assaulted while handcuffed by city police Officer Anthony Williams.
Williams arrived at the scene off-duty to intervene on behalf of his then-girlfriend who lived in the house in question.
Williams was convicted by a jury of assault and hindering the investigation that followed.
In court Wednesday for sentencing, Williams was unapologetic, saying, "I shouldn't be in this situation. I did nothing wrong. Would I change what I did that day? No."
Judge Brook Murdock saw it differently, saying, "The community has a right to expect police will obey the law. The court cannot look away and pretend this is like any other day."
She sentenced Williams to 45 days in jail.
The case involves Detective Joe Crystal, who was involved in the arrest of Green and blew the whistle to internal investigators on what really happened.
As previously reported by the 11 News I-Team, Crystal said he then was targeted with taunts and threats from four different police supervisors, discouraging his role as a witness in the case. He kept a journal, which was known to police and prosecutors. He was targeted at his home in Baltimore County, when someone left a dead rat on his car in November 2012.
In court Wednesday, Crystal's father called on the FBI to investigate the allegations of intimidation.
"I think it would be better to have an impartial federal agency look into all the matters so it could be properly investigated. After two years, Joe has not given an official statement, so there is no way there has been an official investigation into this matter by the Internal Affairs Unit," Bob Crystal said.
The supervisor the night of the drug arrest, Sgt. Marinos Gialamas, was convicted of misconduct in this case. He will be sentenced Friday. The police union has come to his defense as the union president is expected to testify for him as a character witness.