Before he sentenced the sergeant, Baltimore County Circuit Judge Robert E. Cahill Jr. remarked about how he’s a big supporter of law enforcement.

Cahill said he’s proud to know police officers who work hard and treat people well. He said he thinks that they’re often unfairly portrayed in the press. And he said he did not believe for one minute the notion that cops are bad.

But Cahill described the actions of Baltimore Police Sgt. James Lloyd as “just unforgivable” — and ones that required incarceration. Lloyd had threatened to arrest a home contractor if he did not issue a refund for a patio, prosecutors said.

“The public trusts us, you and me, Mr. Lloyd, to take care of public business without misusing the powers,” said Cahill, who later compared the allegations in the case to the HBO miniseries “We Own This City,” which is about the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force corruption scandal.

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“It’s evocative in these times,” he added. “It’s thuggish. It’s ‘We Own This City.’”

Cahill then sentenced Lloyd, 47, of Gwynn Oak, who is a 22-year veteran of the department, to three years — with all but one year suspended — and ordered him to immediately begin serving his time in the Baltimore County Detention Center. He must also pay restitution and spend 1 1/2 years on probation.

Lloyd had entered an Alford plea to misconduct in office. That means he maintained his innocence but acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence to get a conviction.

The Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office agreed to drop charges of extortion and kidnapping as part of the plea agreement.

On June 25, 2020, Lloyd was on duty when prosecutors say he threatened to arrest the contractor, Luis Hernandez, if he did not refund him $3,500 for the installation of a patio with pavers and a fire pit. Two police officers — Manuel Larbi and Troy Taylor — were inside an unmarked van partly blocking the driveway. Meanwhile, Detective Juan Diaz later showed up in the backyard.

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Next, Lloyd drove Hernandez in an unmarked police vehicle to a Navy Federal Credit Union bank branch, prosecutors said, and had him sign a receipt indicating that a check was for a refund and repairs.

Earlier in the hearing, Deputy State’s Attorney Robin Coffin said the crime has greatly affected Hernandez, describing what happened as “law enforcement being abused for the worst purpose.”

If Lloyd had a problem with the work, she said, he could’ve taken the contractor to civil court. Lloyd looked up Hernandez’s driver’s license eight times in a police database, Coffin said.

“This wasn’t a spur of the moment. He had this planned,” Coffin said. “This was premeditated.”

Hernandez was not in the courtroom, though he wrote a victim impact statement in the case. “He does not wish to see this defendant ever again,” Coffin said.

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Meanwhile, Matthew Fraling, Lloyd’s attorney, described his client as a hardworking, conscientious and distinguished man who was born into abject squalor but pulled himself up by his bootstraps and dedicated his life to public service.

Lloyd, he said, accepts responsibility for misusing the police database but otherwise maintains his innocence. At one point, Fraling described the other allegations in the case as “poppycock.”

Hernandez, he said, is a disreputable and unethical shyster who did not have a valid license from the Maryland Home Improvement Commission at the time.

Fraling called five character witnesses, including one of Lloyd’s former teachers in Baltimore City Public Schools, Barbara Melfa, and his uncle, Derwin Hannah.

That’s along with Elsie Rose, who lost her brother to homicide in 2010. Lloyd, she said, kept her family up to date about the investigation, assuring them that their loved one was not just another Black man lost to violence in the streets. “He gave us his word,” Rose said, “and he kept his word.”

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Lloyd’s supporters filled the gallery of the courtroom in the Baltimore County Courts Building. He cried as some of them spoke on his behalf.

Lt. Terrence McLarney, a 45-year veteran who both supervised and worked with Lloyd, described him as a dedicated detective who cared about victims of crime and did not give up on homicide cases.

He said he’s never seen Lloyd lose his temper or yell at anyone. “This is a shock to me as it is to everyone,” McLarney said. “It’s totally, totally out of character.”

“I love this man like he’s a brother,” said Corey Alston, a retired homicide detective who’s known Lloyd for at least 15 years. “His character is above reproach.”

Lloyd apologized to the contractor and thanked his supporters.

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Neither Larbi nor Taylor were charged with a crime. Prosecutors dropped the case against Diaz, 48, of Columbia, who had been facing counts of extortion and misconduct in office.

In an email, Lindsey Eldridge, a police spokesperson, said Lloyd is on “no pay status” and suspended. The other three have had their police powers suspended and are assigned to administrative duty.

Lloyd previously worked as the lead investigator in the case of Baltimore Police Detective Sean Suiter, who died after being shot in the head in West Baltimore on Nov. 15, 2017, one day before he was set to testify before a grand jury in the federal corruption investigation into the Gun Trace Task Force.

An independent review board determined that Suiter killed himself. The case remains officially classified as a homicide.

dylan.segelbaum@thebaltimorebanner.com

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