Days after a Baltimore cop was suspended for unwittingly filming himself apparently planting evidence, the Baltimore Public Defender’s Office has announced that they’ve uncovered a second video, with a different group of cops, which also “appears to depict multiple officers working together to manufacture evidence.” Additionally, prosecutors announced on Friday that they will drop felony drug and guns charges in 34 cases linked to testimony from the three officers in the original video. As many as 77 cases are still being reviewed. 
 
 Last month, Baltimore police suspended Officer Richard Pinheiro after body camera footage seemingly showed him planting a bag filled with pills into a soup can in an abandoned lot. Pinheiro, apparently unaware that the department’s body cameras save footage from 30 seconds before officers hit record, set his body camera to begin recording video a few seconds later, after he planted the baggie but before he “discovered” it. Pinheiro was suspended, and two other officers seen in the video, Hovhannes Simonyan and Jamal Brunson, have been placed on desk duty. 
 
 During the news conference announcing the dropped charges, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, referenced a second video under review. As the Baltimore Public Defender’s Office described it to The Baltimore Sun, the video features seven officers recovering drugs during a traffic stop. Police told the paper that there is a gap in the footage “before the final recovery of additional drugs” and two of the seven officers have been suspended pending an investigation by internal affairs. Cases linked to these two officers are being delayed as well. 
 
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 “Pending the Baltimore Police Department’s investigation pertaining to the officer’s conduct, the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office is requesting postponements on all cases involving the officers,” said a spokesperson for Mosby. “We look forward to continuing the advancement and pursuit of justice for all.” 
 
 This isn’t the only case of falsified body camera footage leading to dropped charges. Earlier this year, a felony case was dropped in Colorado after an officer admitted to finding drugs in a suspect’s car without filming the discovery, and then “re-creating” the search with his body camera turned on. 
 
 [ Baltimore Sun via Ars Technica] 

 BALTIMORE (WBFF) - Baltimore City prosecutors have dropped drug charges against a man after public defenders say body-camera video reveals that officers may have tampered with evidence. 
 
 Debbie Katz Levi, head of the Baltimore City Public Defender Special Litigation Section, says the body-camera video involved at least six officers during a traffic stop in southeast Baltimore in November 2016. 
 
 "Multiple times they searched the vehicle to no fruition; they find nothing in the car," said Levi. 
 
 But, she says, body camera video appears to show one of the officers placing something in the front seat of the car. 
 
 "We see one officer leaning into the front driver's side, and he comes out and then all the officers stand around, and then another officer says, 'Has anyone searched that compartment?' Now we know that compartment has been searched previously by at least two other officers who searched the car," said Levi. 
 
 Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby briefly mentioned the case last week during a news conference in which she announced that charges were being dropped in more than 30 other cases involving other officers. 
 
 Mosby says two officers are being investigated by the police department's internal affairs unit. 
 
 But Public Defender Levi questions why other officers involved in the November traffic stop are not being investigated as well. 
 
 "How many cases are pending with all of the these six officers? How many people have been imprisoned unfairly, not being able to get to this information since November 2016?" said Levi. 

 The Baltimore Public Defender’s office said Monday that it has a second police body-camera video that “appears to depict multiple officers working together to manufacture evidence.” 
 
 It said related charges against one of its clients were dropped Monday in Baltimore Circuit Court. 
 
 The same office recently released a body camera video that it said showed an officer planting a bag of drugs in a back yard as two other officers looked on. Police and prosecutors both launched investigations into that footage. 
 
 The police department suspended Officer Richard Pinheiro, whose camera was recording and who was handling the alleged drugs in the video, and placed the two others — Officers Hovhannes Simonyan and Jamal Brunson — on administrative duty. 
 
 The new video involves different officers, the public defender’s office said. The officers were not named. 
 
 Melissa Rothstein, a spokeswoman for the public defender’s office, said the latest video shows a co-defendant of her office’s client. That person is not represented by the public defender’s office. Therefore, the office is not releasing the footage, she said. 
 
 The public defender’s office said the related case that was dropped Monday involved seven officers, though Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby’s office has only referred two officers to the police department’s Internal Affairs division. 
 
 Melba Saunders, a spokeswoman for Mosby, confirmed prosecutors had referred two officers to Internal Affairs, saying they “had questions” about the video. But she also urged caution in assessing the officers’ actions “as deceptive and/or a credibility issue” before a thorough review is conducted. 
 
 “Pending the Baltimore Police Department’s investigation pertaining to the officer’s conduct, the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office is requesting postponements on all cases involving the officers,” Saunders said. “We look forward to continuing the advancement and pursuit of justice for all.” 
 
 T.J. Smith, a police spokesman, said the new video is one of two mentioned by Mosby at a news conference last week. Mosby’s office declined to confirm that. 
 
 At last week’s news conference, Mosby announced the dismissal of felony drug and gun charges in 34 cases that rely on the testimony of Pinheiro, Simonyan and Brunson. She said 12 cases were moving forward on the strength of “independent corroborative evidence,” and that 77 cases were still being reviewed. 
 
 Mosby also said a second video had been flagged by prosecutors as potentially problematic, but declined to describe that video. She said it had been forwarded to Internal Affairs for review. Police said it “involves two arrests and the recovery of drugs from a car during a traffic stop.” 
 
 Police also said there is a gap in the video “before the final recovery of additional drugs” that is now being investigated. They did not say whether any officers had been reprimanded or had their status changed pending that investigation. 
 
 “The police department works closely with the Office of the Public Defender and the State's Attorney's Office,” Smith said in a statement. “Anytime an allegation of misconduct is made, we take it seriously and investigate it fully. Right now, we are investigating the allegation that was brought forth by the Office of the Public Defender and the State's Attorney's Office.” 
 
 Debbie Katz Levi, who heads the special litigation section in the Baltimore public defender office, slammed Mosby’s office for a “lack of transparency” about the number of videos of concern that have been found. 
 
 “The lack of transparency to the public and refusal to disclose to the defense both prejudices defendants and violates the prosecutor’s constitutional obligations,” Levi said. “Hundreds of individuals are awaiting trial on cases that rely on these officers, and hundreds more have likely been convicted based on their testimony.” 
 
 krector@baltsun.com 
 
 twitter.com/rectorsun 

 BALTIMORE (WJZ) — The public defender’s office says another body camera video shows evidence of possibly being tampered with. 
 
 The office says a case was dropped on Monday, and they’re wondering if the newly-disclosed video has anything to do with that outcome. 
 
 A public defender’s office attorney said what they saw on this new video was “concerning.” 
 
 Baltimore City Police may be forced to answer more questions after there was a gap in body camera video, as police made a possible drug bust. 
 
 The public defender’s office defender said in November, a body camera captured the officers during a traffic stop for a suspected drug deal, but the office believes officers may have tampered with the evidence. 
 
 The video has not been released, but the Office of the Public Defender says there were possibly seven officers in the area. 
 
 “What’s most concerning about this particular video is that it appears that officers are working in concert with each other. There are approximately six officers standing around while this suspected misconduct is taking place,” says Debi Katz Leci, with the Office of the Public Defender. 
 
 Baltimore City Police are investigating after the recent questionable video was brought to their attention, but at this point, no officer has been placed on administrative leave. 
 
 In a separate case, earlier this month, a video was released of an officer possibly planting evidence. The state’s attorney’s office announced it had to drop 34 felony weapon and drug cases, involving those officers. 
 
 But with this latest case, the city’s top prosecutor says she’s referred it to the police department. 
 
 “It was a video that the prosecutor, his concerns were heightened, he brought it to our attention and we subsequently reviewed it and we have referred it to the police department at this time,” says Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. 
 
 The state attorney’s office says two officers were referred to the police department because of questions about their body cameras. 
 
 But once again, the investigation is ongoing. 
 
 The state attorney’s office says it’s requested a postponement on all cases involving the officers involved in this most recent investigation. 
 
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– More drug charges have been dropped in Baltimore as a result of a second body-camera video that apparently shows police officers planting evidence. The unreleased video "appears to depict multiple officers working together to manufacture evidence," according to the city's public defender. The news comes less than two weeks after a separate video was released seeming to show a police officer planting drugs in an alley while with two other officers. The latest video involves different officers, reports the Baltimore Sun. It shows authorities repeatedly searching a vehicle during a November 2016 traffic stop but finding nothing, lawyer Debbie Katz Levi of the public defender's office tells WBFF. Later, she says, an officer looks like he places an item in the car. Two officers are under investigation, but Levi says the video shows "approximately six officers standing around while this suspected misconduct is taking place," per CBS Baltimore. The public defender's office said it would not release the video because one of the suspects featured in the video isn't a client; meanwhile, charges were dropped Monday in this case. Days earlier, the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office announced 34 drug or weapons cases had been dropped in connection with a Jan. 24 body-cam video allegedly depicting officer Richard Pinheiro planting drugs in the company of officers Hovhannes Simonyan and Jamal Brunson. The cases relied on the officers' credibility as witnesses, reports CBS News. Another 77 cases were under review as of Friday.