Darryl De Sousa
Despite petitions from his friends and family, he was sentenced to 10 months in prison, one year of supervised release, 100 hours of community service, and ordered to pay restitution on March 29, 2019.
He was held in the Federal Correctional Institution, Fairton, from May 13 to February 14, 2020, when he was moved to a halfway house; he was planned to be released on March 11.
[4][6] He said he was drawn to law enforcement after attending school in a racist area of Jamaica and only seeing white New York Police Department officers.
As commander of the Northeast District, De Sousa claimed "we drove violence down to a point where it was probably the highest reduction in over a decade".
James's mother Doris and Tracey Day sued De Sousa, Richardson, and Ruth for US$1 million ($2 million in 2023), accusing them of firing shots "in a wild and uncontrolled manner; without stopping", and saying that only one of 30 shots hit Thomas, while one hit James, who was half a block away.
[8] On January 19, 2018, mayor Catherine Pugh announced the firing of commissioner Kevin Davis and the appointment of De Sousa as acting commissioner, saying that "we are not achieving the pace of progress that our residents have every right to expect in the weeks since we ended what was nearly a record year for homicides in the City of Baltimore", citing a record 343 homicides in 2017.
Tyrone Powers, director of the Homeland Security and Criminal Justice Institute of Anne Arundel Community College, said that while De Sousa "has the talent and the integrity", he would have to manage a damaged department in the aftermath of the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF) scandal.
Police union president Gene Ryan supported De Sousa's plan, stating "If you're not familiar with what's going on there, how can you solve the problems?
While hot-spot policing was previously successful in Baltimore, it forced the city to pay settlements with people who claimed the BPD violated their civil rights.
De Sousa said "I have a real strong message for the trigger pullers: it's that we're coming after them", while vowing to target them "in a constitutional manner".
He promoted LaTonya Lewis to a lieutenant colonel managing the homeland security division, making her the first African American woman to serve above the rank of major in over 30 years.
He also created an inspectional services and integrity division, led by Osborne Robinson, to give random polygraph tests to special unit members in the aftermath of the GTTF scandal.
He denied claims that Alicia White, who was acquitted in the killing of Freddie Gray, was promoted to the internal affairs division.
[15]Despite De Sousa declaring the complaints invalid, he said on February 13 that he and Casella agreed to not follow through with the promotion and that he would announce a new deputy commissioner soon.
After the verdict, De Sousa said that "our job moving forward is to earn back the trust and respect of the community" and vowed to "[root] out anyone who thinks they can tarnish the badge and violate our citizen's rights".
Alongside the inspectional services and integrity division, De Sousa announced that he was considering moving the internal affairs department from the BPD to the mayor's office.
[16][17] On February 21, 2018, after nearly four hours of testimony, the Baltimore City Council executive appointments committee unanimously approved De Sousa's nomination as commissioner.
According to De Sousa, he found a loaded gun in the glovebox of a car after Thompson fled from the passenger seat during a traffic stop.
Ilene Frame, Thompson's public defender, criticized De Sousa's arrest as "sloppy", saying he failed to take a photo of the gun when he found it or activate his body camera.
The program was removed when the BPD shifted towards zero tolerance, but De Sousa reinstated it to increase community trust.
While there is no excuse for my failure to fulfil my obligations as a citizen and public official, my only explanation is that I failed to sufficiently prioritize my personal affairs.
On May 6, 2018, De Sousa was charged with three misdemeanor counts for willingly failing to file a federal tax return.
After his resignation, Pugh launched a search for the next permanent commissioner and vowed "this development in no way alters our strategic efforts to reduce crime by addressing its root causes in our most neglected neighborhoods".
[32][33][34][35] De Sousa's 116-day tenure was the second-shortest of a commissioner of the BPD, behind Ronald L. Daniel, who served 88 days from January to March 2000.
[40][41] During the sentencing procedure, De Sousa's friend Darren Sanders and his sister Denise asked U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake for leniency, with Denise describing growing up with Darryl in New York City, saying he took his great-aunts to doctor appointments and waiting until midnight to walk his mother, who had Alzheimer's disease, home.
Despite Sanders and Denise's petitions, Blake sentenced De Sousa to 10 months in prison, one year of supervised release, 100 hours of community service, and ordered him to pay US$60,645.10[d] in restitution.
At the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Robert Hur said that De Sousa's "failure to file was a crime – not an oversight", and that "corrupt public employees rip off the taxpayers and undermine everyone's faith in government".
[46][47][48] On February 14, 2020, De Sousa was moved to a halfway house, where he was placed under a curfew and required to attend programs for inmates; he was still set to be released on March 11.
