Posted on 04/22/25
| News Source: FOX45
Baltimore, MD - April 22, 2025 - Baltimore police are facing another federal lawsuit that alleges misconduct by the internal agency responsible for overseeing police conduct.
In a 22-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for Maryland, Kenneth Phillips alleged he “observed a pattern of mismanagement relating to the processing of latent print samples collected from crime scenes.”
By 2022, this mismanagement led Mr. Phillips to complain that there were as many as 26,000 unprocessed latent prints,” the lawsuit claimed. “Mr. Phillips made numerous complaints to state and city agencies and BPD’s PIB relating to the mismanagement of the Forensic Science Division.”
Phillips’s attorneys wrote in the federal filing that their client was terminated on April 15, 2022, after speaking to the Baltimore Sun about what he described as an ongoing issue with managing critical crime scene data.
“The reason I turned to the press is because for over two years total, I have been working within the system to get wrongdoing and mismanagement corrected,” Phillips told the Baltimore Sun in August 2021. ‘[N]ot only has nothing been done, but my work life has become very uncomfortable for reporting wrongdoings.”
Mark Conway, chairman of the Baltimore City Council’s public safety committee, told the Baltimore Sun that after Phillips came forward in 2021, he demanded a written explanation from the BPD to address the claims. Recently, concerns have reemerged regarding BPD’s evidence processing and collection.
After the city’s worst mass shooting in its history in July 2023, Victor Avila, a retired federal agent, told FOX45 News that BPD may have mismanaged critical evidence. The incident occurred during the annual ‘Brooklyn Day’ block party in a public housing project in southern Baltimore.
Crews began cleaning the sprawling crime scene before police were reportedly able to process all the evidence.
“This is the type of thing they teach us not to do at the academy,” Avila told FOX45 News. “Were they drinking? Did they use a cup? This type of DNA evidence can’t be received if you get rid of it. We may never know.”
Spotlight on Maryland pressed Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott on Saturday after he spoke at a 10-year commemoration at the site in Gilmore Homes where Freddie Gray was arrested. Gray later died in police custody, sparking days of violent protests across the city.
Mayor Scott was asked about the lawsuit's allegations and his administration's measures to ensure that fingerprint and crime scene data are collected in compliance with regulations and to maintain public safety.
“We know that you guys have an inability to not understand the kind of moment we’re in right now, but I’m going to look past that for a second,” Mayor Scott said. “[T]he Baltimore Police Department has improved tremendously since 2015, and we will continue to do that. Every part of the department. Whether it is evidence and fingerprints, as you can imagine, when you think about what has happened since 2015, use of force incidents have been cut in half.”
We’re going to continue to do that work until it's complete because yes, we are better than we were in 2015, but no, we are not perfect and we have a lot of work to do,” Mayor Scott added.Spotlight on Maryland asked BPD on Friday to confirm the total number of fingerprint cases awaiting processing. After multiple requests, Lindsey Eldridge, BPD’s chief of public affairs, acknowledged the email requests and wrote that the “proper division” was going to obtain the requested data.
“Once we receive the information we will send it to you,” Eldridge said in an email. “However, I will note that today is a city holiday and some professional members are off today.”
After not receiving any response to multiple emails sent on Monday, Spotlight on Maryland posed additional questions to BPD, including:
- Are officers correct who told Spotlight on Maryland that they submitted evidence a year ago and are still awaiting results?
- Should residents be concerned about evidence processing delays?
- What actions have been taken to ensure that the agency’s Public Integrity Bureau addresses internal complaints, including complaints about crime lab delays?
- Is Commissioner Richard Worley concerned about BPD’s crime lab certification status if substantial delays exist?
BPD did not acknowledge or respond to these inquiries.
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), the city police for Washington, D.C., had its crime lab accreditation revoked in May 2021, according to ANSI National Accreditation Board reports. MPD’s accreditation was restored in December 2023, allowing it to conduct fingerprinting, DNA testing, and drug testing.
Fingerprints collected by police agencies at crime scenes are typically uploaded to the national Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or AFIS. The database enables police to identify potential suspects and can be used in court.
Detectives from the Harford County Sheriff's office shared AFIS data during the murder trial that led to the conviction of undocumented immigrant Victor Martinez-Hernandez. Fingerprint evidence was collected at the scene of the murder of 37-year-old Rachel Morin along the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air, Md., in 2023.
Phillips's lawsuit follows a series of allegations against leaders of the Baltimore Police Department's (BPD) internal affairs. Similar to recent lawsuits that allege retaliation and mismanagement of BPD’s accountability team, Deputy Police Commissioner Brian Nadeau, head of the agency’s Public Integrity Bureau (PIB), is named as a defendant.
A former and current Baltimore police officer filed a lawsuit in late January, claiming there is widespread corruption and misconduct within the police agency’s PIB. After the case was filed, the couple’s attorneys told Spotlight on Maryland that Deputy Commissioner Nadeau “weaponized the investigative and disciplinary powers” against their clients, Jeffrey and Raquel Lilly.
Retired BPD Major Stephanie Lansey submitted a sworn affidavit in February as part of the Lillys’ lawsuit, detailing her experience as an officer assigned to the PIB before departing from the agency.
I left PIB to take a Major position within a district because I am not a person who can live in the gray,” Lansey said. “PIB cases are black and white and should stay that way.”“Brian Nadeau routinely utilized discrete scare tactics to influence investigations and manipulate the outcomes of investigative hearings,” Lansey added.
Deputy Commissioner Nadeau did not respond to requests for comments on Monday regarding Phillips' new lawsuit against him and BPD.
According to his initial proposal, Mayor Scott’s fiscal year 2026 budget calls for more than $26 million in funding for the BPD’s crime lab and evidence control.