Jessica Anderson
Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE — A former Baltimore Police Department officer who was previously sentenced to 60 days in prison for failing to stop an assault doesn’t have to serve time anytime soon.
Circuit Judge Kendra Young Osby on Monday suspended the full sentence of Christopher Nguyen, 27, but gave him 18 months of supervised probation and implied probation, according to a video review of the hearing. I ordered you to complete prejudice training.
“He pretty much lost everything else,” Orsby said before announcing the verdict. She suggested that Nguyen had always wanted to be a police officer, but said that due to his beliefs, he would likely be ineligible to be hired by another agency.
“It’s the end for him and it’s been his lifelong dream,” the judge said.
Nguyen was charged with reckless endangerment and office misconduct in 2021 after prosecutors said he did not intervene in the 2020 attack.
Furthermore, the judge said the victim’s family simply wanted Nguyen not to work as a police officer, and that the victim’s mother “didn’t want him to be a police officer.”
“That was all she wanted,” said Osby.
Nguyen did not speak at the hearing. He was then hugged by several uniformed officers who attended the hearing.
Prosecutors previously said Nguyen “failed to adequately monitor, secure, or otherwise detain suspect Kenneth Sommers,” and accused the victim, Wayne Brown, of Sommers’ business, Bellair. – Accused of stealing a car from Crazy Kenny’s Junk Cars in the Edison District.
Somers tracked the car to Kolb Avenue, where he confronted Brown. In front of Nguyen, Sommers said to Brown, can you see? Before you kick your head, remember me, according to prosecutors.
Body-worn camera footage of the incident showed Nguyen arriving at the scene and talking to Somers, who was waiting on the street in his pickup truck. Somers tells Nguyen that a man stole a car from his business, Crazy Kenny’s Junk Cars, in the Berea Edison neighborhood, and tracked the car to Kolb Avenue, where he confronted him.
Nguyen was convicted of reckless endangerment in August.
Somers was charged and convicted of first-degree assault and reckless endangerment, according to online court records.
A search of online court records found no charges against Brown alleging vehicle theft.
A spokeswoman for the Baltimore Police Department confirmed Friday that Nguyen is no longer with the police force.
Ball will file a motion to reconsider the sentence and have Nguyen finish his sentence in home custody or out of jurisdiction so he does not have to risk his safety serving alongside people he may have encountered as a police officer. I asked Nguyen for help.
Assistant State Attorney Ernest Rights said at the hearing that the state and Brown’s family were against home detention, but not against Nguyen serving a prison sentence outside of the jurisdiction.
©2022 Baltimore Sun.
Visit baltimoresun.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Download: Digital Edition: Cultivating a Culture of Accountability
