Ex-city homicide detective charged with perjury, misconduct related to shooting
A Baltimore city homicide detective has been accused of lying about a shooting in which he was injured in a downtown parking garage, according to a criminal information unsealed this week.
Anthony N. Fata, a 14-year veteran, has been charged with perjury, misconduct in office, and making false claims, records show [click here to view the document]. He was shot Jan. 18, 2011 in a city-owned parking garage near police headquarters. Fata said an unknown man fired at him, but investigators soon raised concerns that the bullet had come from Fata's weapon.
Fata denied the allegations, and the police department said they had no evidence to suggest the story was a hoax. According to police, the investigation into his shooting remains open and came to no conclusions about who fired the shot.
But prosecutors have determined that Fata was not shot by someone else. The indictment says that Fata "falsely swore that he was shot and injured by an unknown individual while on duty in a garage" when he applied for benefits at a workmen's compensation hearing last June.
A spokesman for the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office could not immediately be reached for comment. Police deferred comment to prosecutors.
Fata's attorney, Michael Davey, denied that his client lied to investigators. "He cooperated completely with homicide detectives [who were investigating the shooting], and his testimony during his worker's compensation hearing was consistent with what he told homicide," Davey said. "We're kind of at a loss at this moment until we get more information."
Gene Ryan, the vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police union, said attorneys for the union who represented Fata during the investigation say "there's nothing to prove these charges at all, whether physical evidence or witness statements."
Ryan said Fata was removed from the homicide unit and has been working out of the department's property section.
The charges were filed June 22, but were only made public on the state's court records database on Tuesday.
Fata, 38, told detectives he was retrieving running shoes from the trunk of his car Tuesday night and saw a man with a small black revolver in a second-floor stairwell. He said the two exchanged fire and the gunman fled.
A department spokesman said the bullet that grazed the officer's left thigh was recovered and was being examined to determine whether it came from his .40-caliber Glock handgun or another weapon. But the bullet was too badly damaged after hitting the concrete walls of the stairwell to be conclusively linked to any weapon.
"There is no evidence that supports that it's an accidental discharge or to contradict it," the chief spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, said at the time. "Unless we have evidence to indicate otherwise, this is actively being investigated as a police-involved shooting.
But, said Guglielmi, "the jury is still out. We're awaiting the results of ballistic tests. He is a police officer. We have no reason to doubt his account of what happened. However, if evidence shows that his account is not supported by the facts, you can rest assured that the police commissioner will hold him accountable. It would be a betrayal of the public trust."
jfenton@baltsun.com
An earlier version of this post misstated the date that Fata was shot. The Sun regrets the error.
Read More @ Source NBC Dateline - Vegas Undercover 6/6
Criminal Stories Here
Comments