BALTIMORE– A federal judge has denied a request for compassionate release filed by a former Baltimore police officer who was convicted in 2018 as part of the Gun Trace Task Force corruption scandal.
Daniel Hersl, the most senior member of the deeply corrupt and now disbanded Baltimore police department, was sentenced to 18 years behind bars after a jury found him guilty of racketeering and theft.
Last month, he filed the request for release, saying he was recently diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer that has spread to his lymph nodes, liver, lungs and more. He said a prison doctor concluded he had less than 18 months to live and asked for house arrest.
Hersl, 53, was one of eight indicted members of the once-vaunted Gun Trace Task Force, which was created to get illegal guns off the streets of a city plagued by violent crime. But instead, the members robbed drug dealers, planted narcotics and guns on innocent people, and randomly attacked civilians. Since 2017, more than a dozen officers have been convicted in the scandal. Hundreds of cases that depended on their testimony were later dismissed.
Prosecutors said Hersl “devalued” the people he interacted with as an officer and “abused his power to prey on them.” They said he also defrauded taxpayers by committing massive overtime fraud, including an entire month spent renovating his home while he was still on the clock.
In his Monday order denying Hersl’s request, U.S. District Judge George L. Russell III noted the seriousness of the ex-detective’s crimes and said they “irreparably harmed the reputation of the Baltimore City Police Department and all the many law-abiding officials therein. .”
“Certainly a message needs to be sent that if you commit criminal conduct or otherwise participate in a racketeering plot, you will be held accountable and punished,” Russell wrote.
In a last-minute court filing Monday, Hersl’s attorney, William Purpura, cited recent emails from Hersl in which he complains of “constant pain” and says he hopes to “make the trip home to spend time with my son . & family before my days are done.”
Russell said the Federal Bureau of Prisons will continue to manage Hersl’s medical care and allow him visits with his family during his continued incarceration.