Former Baltimore Police Commissioner who apologized for 200 years of unjust policing, sentenced in tax fraud case

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On Friday, former Baltimore Police Commissioner Darryl De Sousa was sentenced to 10 months in prison for purposely not paying federal taxes.

According to the Baltimore Sun, prosecutors wrote that De Sousa didn’t merely make a mistake, but he willfully tried to defraud state and federal authorities owing $67,587.72. In a plea agreement, De Sousa admitted to falsely claiming nine tax allowances, claimed deductions he was not entitled to like phony employee expenses and property taxes when he owned no property and falsely claiming he donated thousands of dollars to charity.

“I stand here before you humbled and ashamed of what I did,” De Sousa told U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake, who handed down the sentence. “I have no explanation other than to say it was horrible, poor and a failure of good judgment, of judgment period.”

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The Baltimore Sun also reported that De Sousa’s attorney Gerard Martin claims his client did not fully understand the schemes and had been advised on the tactics by co-workers who thought he could save money.  Judge Blake was not convinced and said he wanted to send a strong message to deter crimes like this in the future.

“This is a sad day. It’s a sad day for you. It’s also a sad day for our city,” she said. “This city needs a police force it can trust.”

De Sousa, who was named commissioner in January 2018, made headlines in April 2018 after apologizing for over 200 years of policing during Baltimore Soundstage.

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“Two hundred years ago, all the way to Civil Rights. All the way to the age where crack was prevalent in the cities and it affected disproportionately African-American men. All the way to the nineties, all the way to the 2000s, where we had zero tolerance. I want to take the time to apologize for what police did, and I apologize. We’re going to make a change in the future.”

Fox 5 reported that De Sousa received quite a bit of support. TheGrio reported that he was fired in January after a record year of homicides in Baltimore.