An eighth Baltimore police officer federal charges in connection with a corruption case.Sergeant Thomas Allers is accused of robbing people and filing false affidavits and official incident reports. Federal prosecutors say Allers stole 90-thousand dollars from various victims while he was in charge of the city's elite Gun Trace Task Force. Seven other members of the unit are accused in the racketeering case. Two of them have already pled guilty.
The indictment was announced by Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Stephen M. Schenning and Special Agent in Charge Gordon B. Johnson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office.
In a released statement, the U.S. Attorney’s office says Sergeant Allers joined the Baltimore Police Department on July 22, 1996. He became the officer-in-charge of the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF), a specialized unit created to investigate firearms crimes, on or about July 25, 2013.
The racketeering conspiracy alleges robbery and extortion violations committed by Allers in 2014, 2015 and 2016 when he was the officer-in-charge of the GTTF. Allers was reassigned out of the GTTF on June 14, 2016. In some cases, there was no evidence of criminal conduct by the victims; Allers stole money that had been earned lawfully. The amounts stolen ranged from $700 to $66,000.
According to the indictment, Allers allegedly prepared and submitted false official incident and arrest reports, reports of property seized from arrestees, and charging documents. The false reports concealed the fact that the officers had stolen money from individuals. In addition, the indictment alleges that Allers obstructed law enforcement by alerting other members of the GTTF about potential investigations of their criminal conduct.
Allers has been charged with nine counts of Robbery and Extortion and the indictment alleges that he stole over $90,000.00. Allers faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy, the robberies and for racketeering. Allers is scheduled to have his initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Baltimore today at 3:00 p.m. in Courtroom 7D.