Laurel jewelry merchant alleges theft and racial profiling by city police

Officers have not responded to the allegations, spokesman says

Plunkett said he was letting his guard dog outside behind his shop around 2 a.m. Jan. 2 when a police officer approached him and asked what he was doing at the store. Plunkett said he told the officer the store was his and that he was going to put his dog, which was growling at the officer, back inside and then return, but as he was about to come back out, the officer yelled at him to put his hands up. The officer then handcuffed Plunkett and sat him in Plunkett’s own office chair, Plunkett claimed.

‘‘He said, ‘You know why we’re here: It’s two o’clock in the morning and you’re a black man. It’s either drugs or guns,’” Plunkett said of the officer. ‘‘When he said ‘black man,’ I knew it was racial profiling at its worst. ... I [was] scared for my life.”

Laurel police spokesman James Collins said the officers against whom Plunkett filed complaints have not responded to any of the allegations, but that Laurel Police Chief David Crawford would likely make a statement after the investigation is complete.

Sgt. Arthur Betts, a spokesman for the Maryland State Police, said he did not know how long the investigation, which began in January, would take.

‘‘All I can say is [we are] conducting an investigation into alleged thefts at ‘M the Jeweler’ at the request of the Laurel police, and the investigation continues,” Betts said.

The Gazette reviewed footage from the jewelry store’s security cameras, which do not have sound.

The footage shows Plunkett seated and handcuffed in the back room of the store while uniformed people walk through the building looking into cabinets and drawers and shining flashlights. Plunkett said seven police officers were in his store that night.

The incident clocks in at just under an hour, according to the ticker in place on the security system. Plunkett said that immediately after the incident — at about 3 a.m. — he went to the Laurel Police Department to collect a complaint form.

‘‘The only thing we can comment on since it’s under investigation is that the city takes allegations against its officers very seriously,” Collins said. He declined to answer specific questions related to Plunkett’s allegations.

‘‘We’ve handed [the investigation] over to the Maryland State Police,” he said, adding that giving over an investigation involving the officers of one department to another department is common procedure.

Ramon Korionoff, communications officer for county State’s Attorney Glenn F. Ivey, said his office will get involved in the investigation if it is determined that criminal activity took place.

‘‘Information [about the investigation is] shared at an appropriate time, when we believe that there is criminal wrongdoing,” Korionoff said.

He said he was not at liberty to discuss specifics of the investigation.

Betts said that while he could not state the current employment status of the Laurel police officers in question, there is no set protocol for suspension or dismissal in the event of complaints.

‘‘Sometimes [officers] may not be suspended until something criminal is confirmed,” he said.

The Laurel police department has 57officers.

Collins said in recent months there has been a rash of criminal activity in the Baltimore Avenue⁄Bowie Road area, where ‘‘M the Jeweler” is located.

‘‘We’ve had problems in that area with robberies early in the morning, late at night,” Collins said. ‘‘The officers are actually working to ... identify” people in the area who are outside at odd hours.

Collins said the charges of racial profiling and theft are being conducted as one investigation.

Maryland State Police Sgt. T. Hart said that to the best of his knowledge, this was the first time racial profiling complaints had been brought against Laurel police officers.

Plunkett said that he works mostly alone in his store. He said that after he returned from picking up the complaint form, he noticed the $800 in cash —which he had withdrawn that night from an ATM — and approximately $1,200 in jewelry missing from a tote bag he usually carries, and which was in the store during the incident. He only rechecked the contents of the bag, which he did not take with him to the police department, upon returning to the store in the early hours of that morning, he said.

A portion of the security footage The Gazette saw showed two men with flashlights looking into a bag on a counter in the store. Plunkett said the bag shown in the video was the one in which he had placed the cash and jewelry. Investigators will review the tape to determine whether one of the officers removed any item from the bag.

Plunkett’s attorney, Mike Winkelman, said he plans to file a civil lawsuit on Plunkett’s behalf.

E-mail Anath Hartmann at ahartmann@gazette.net.