Still In Control! BGF Leader At City Jail To Testify For Government At Corruption Trial!

RadioOnFire.com - Black Guerrilla Family gang leader who prosecutors say essentially took over Baltimore's jail while an inmate there will be the government's star witness against the eight remaining defendants, attorneys said as the trial opened Wednesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Reeves Harding said the prosecution would demonstrate breathtakingly rampant corruption, "an upside-down world where ... corrections officers took direction from gang leaders." And he said BGF leader Tavon White would help to make that case.

Defense attorneys made clear that they will attempt to discredit White's testimony, saying he has cut a deal with prosecutors and can't be trusted. White is serving a 20-year sentence for an unrelated attempted-murder conviction but, under his plea agreement, would not face additional time for the jail corruption charges.

"He gets no time from this case if he satisfies them," attorney Richard B. Bardos told the jury.

White's intercepted telephone conversations in which he called the Baltimore City Detention Center "my jail" and revelations that he fathered children with multiple corrections officers helped catapult the case into national headlines, and led to scrutiny and reforms at the state-run facility.

The eight defendants — five corrections officers, two inmates, and a kitchen worker — are the first and only ones to go to trial in the racketeering conspiracy case. Prosecutors secured 35 guilty pleas from the others charged.

The case will be closely watched for revelations about the scandal, and some high-ranking officials — including the director of pretrial services, Wendell "Pete" France — are expected to be called to testify.


Prosecutors opened their presentation by displaying White's more colorful quotes from wiretapped conversations on large poster boards, including the "my jail" assertion. They outlined a slew of sordid allegations involving jail cell sex, love triangles, extortion, drug dealing, smuggling, assaults and jockeying for power.

Much of the evidence, defense attorneys countered, is mere gossip with no supporting evidence.

"It's worse than the worst reality TV show," defense attorney Carmen D. Hernandez told jurors later. "Jerry Springer has nothing on it."

White was one of the first defendants to plead guilty in the racketeering case, and in his plea agreement, he implicated more corrections officers than originally charged, including some of those now on trial.

Prosecutors say White rose to power during a three-year stay at the jail awaiting trial for attempted second-degree murder.