A grand jury has indicted Maryland police officer Philip Dupree on charges of kidnapping, perjury and misconduct in office — the second time this year the man has been accused of committing crimes in uniform.
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The Maryland State Prosecutor’s Office said that Dupree, an officer with a small police department in Fairmount Heights, Md., conducted a late-night illegal traffic stop outside his jurisdiction in D.C. in August 2019. He arrested the driver, chemically sprayed the man while he was in handcuffs and took hours to transport him to the county jail, according to the indictment.
Then, prosecutors allege, Dupree lied about it in charging documents.
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All charges against the driver, Torrence Sinclair, were later dropped. Sinclair has filed a lawsuit in Prince George’s County Circuit Court against Dupree and the town of Fairmount Heights.
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Dupree is also facing federal conspiracy charges related to a separate case pending in U.S. District Court. He was indicted over the summer alongside five other police officers who are accused of working together to orchestrate false thefts of their own debit cards or vehicles, and then reporting the fake crimes to law enforcement to collect insurance money.
As of last month, Dupree was still employed by the Fairmount Heights Police Department, authorities said. He has been previously terminated from three other Maryland police departments, state records show, including from the Capitol Heights Police Department in 2013, the District Heights Police Department in 2015 and the Prince George’s Community College’s police force in late 2018.
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Dupree has also been involved in several court cases and appeals fighting against his terminations, records show, including a lawsuit he filed against the community college claiming retaliation and wrongful termination. That lawsuit was dismissed.
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In his lawsuit, Sinclair accuses Dupree of violating his rights during the arrest. The suit also alleges that town leaders were negligent when they hired the officer in 2018, despite his employment record.
“He’s the quintessential example of a bad cop,” said Jonathan Y. Newton, Sinclair’s attorney. “He has gone from department to department, and it’s beyond me why anyone would hire him as a police officer.”
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Dupree’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to Dupree’s most recent indictment, the officer pulled over Sinclair and his sister while they were driving near Eastern Avenue and Booth Lane in the District. Dupree put Sinclair in handcuffs and deployed pepper spray into the man’s face and chest while he was handcuffed, according to the indictment.
At 2:16 a.m., prosecutors said, Dupree told dispatch he would be transporting Sinclair to the county jail. Instead, he took the man to the Fairmount Heights police department, where there are no holding cells, prosecutors allege. Dupree left Sinclair in handcuffs for hours, at times unattended, and did not take him to the jail until 5:30 a.m., according to the indictment.
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But in charging documents, prosecutors said, Dupree omitted details of that detour and falsely claimed that paramedics treated Sinclair after he was hit with the pepper spray. Dupree wrote in his report that he took Sinclair to the jail “without incident.”
“Any law enforcement officer who abuses their power, and then intentionally provides false information regarding their actions, should be held accountable,” Maryland State Prosecutor Charlton T. Howard III said in a statement. “Our office will work to ensure individuals who abuse police powers are investigated and where appropriate, prosecuted.”
Newton said Dupree’s employment history reflects a “pattern” in American policing — in which problem officers are allowed to stay in law enforcement.
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The Fairmount Heights Police Department has experienced recent turnover because of alleged misconduct.
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As of September, Dupree was among only two officers at the department, according to information provided then by the only other officer there, Lt. Earl Ivey. Ivey did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
In late 2019, another Fairmount Heights officer, Martique Cabral Vanderpool, resigned after a 19-year-old woman accused him of sexually assaulting her after a traffic stop for speeding late at night in Capitol Heights, Md., according to court documents. He faces state and federal charges related to the incident.
Dupree’s firing from the District Heights department stemmed from “multiple use-of-force issues, just language, things like that,” the department’s chief, Kinsey Weems, said Tuesday. Weems said Dupree remained at the District Heights department for less than a year and never made it out of his probationary period.
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Capitol Heights Police Chief M.W. Cummings told The Washington Post in an email last month that the department no longer has any records related to Dupree’s departure. State records also show he was terminated from Prince George’s Community College’s police force in late 2018, but a lawyer for that department said last month it could not release any misconduct records related to Dupree or other officers because they are not technically considered “police officers” as defined in a new state law allowing for the release of such records.
“With the police accountability act of 2021, this is exactly the kind of issues that that act is geared towards,” Weems added, referring to a package of measures approved this year by state lawmakers. “It’s aimed at making sure that folks like Mr. Dupree cannot be police officers and not affect the public in a negative way.”