ICAP successfully represented Ivan Potts, a Baltimore man who was wrongfully convicted and incarcerated after three Baltimore Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF) officers assaulted and planted a handgun on him. The central legal issue in the civil suit was whether the Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) could be held financially liable for the officers’ egregious misconduct or if it could avoid payment by claiming the officers were acting outside the “scope of employment” when they committed their crimes.
In a groundbreaking decision in April 2020, the Maryland Court of Appeals held that even though the officers’ actions were willfully criminal and malicious, they were still acting within the scope of their employment because their conduct—stopping, searching, and arresting individuals—was “interwoven” with their authorized police duties. This victory ensured that victims of police corruption could actually collect the judgments and settlements they are owed, while also establishing that the BPD could not shirk responsibility for the “toxic culture” that operated within the GTTF for years.
