Former Baltimore Police officer sentenced to 60 days after he failed to intervene and stop an assault
A former Baltimore Police officer was sentenced to two months of incarceration for failing to stop an assault by the owner of a used car lot who accused the victim of stealing a truck.
Prosecutors held former officer Christopher Nguyen, 27, responsible for the incident, saying he “created a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury to the victim,” and charged him with reckless endangerment and misconduct in office last year. He was convicted of reckless endangerment in August.
On Thursday, Nguyen, of Hanover, Pa., was sentenced to one year with all but 60 days suspended and 18 months of supervised probation. He also was ordered to avoid contact with the victim and to complete “implicit bias/cultural sensitivity counseling,” according to the state’s attorney’s office.
His attorney, Chaz Ball, did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
A Baltimore Police spokeswoman said Friday that Nguyen is no longer with the department.
He also is listed as a defendant in an ongoing lawsuit by the victim of the alleged assault, according to online court records. An attorney in the civil case did not comment Friday.
Prosecutors said previously that Nguyen “failed to properly supervise, secure or otherwise detain suspect Kenneth Sommers, which created a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury to the victim, Wayne Brown, a physically incapacitated individual at the time.”
A search of online court records shows no charges against Brown alleging vehicle theft.
Body-worn camera footage from the incident showed Nguyen arriving on the scene and speaking to Sommers, who was waiting in the street by his pickup truck. Sommers tells Nguyen that a man stole the vehicle from his business, Crazy Kenny’s Junk Cars in the Belair-Edison neighborhood, and he had tracked the car to Kolb Avenue, where he confronted him.
Sommers pulled the man from the car and beat him up, according to charging documents.
The camera footage showed Brown lying in the grass nearby, outside the vehicle Sommers said was taken from him. Sommers is then seen walking up to the victim, leaning over him and talking to him as Nguyen moves closer.
“Hey, can you see that? Can you see? So you can remember me,” said Sommers, before kicking the man in the head in a brief interaction.
Sommers was later charged and convicted of first-degree assault and reckless endangerment, according to online court records.
After charges were filed against Nguyen, city police union leaders criticized the state’s attorney’s office for pursuing the case and said charges were the latest example of officers being discouraged from doing their jobs.
But the state’s attorney defended her office’s work.
“I applaud my Public Trust and Police Integrity Unit for holding Officer Nguyen accountable for his failure to protect the victim in this case,” said State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby in a previous statement. “The citizens of Baltimore deserve to feel protected in the presence of a police officer and not fearful that they will stand idly by while an unrestrained suspect attacks them.”
