Officer Who ID’d Kilmar Abrego Garcia As Gang Member Fired for Misconduct
Police department clarifies record of Maryland man wrongly imprisoned
While Donald Trump and members of his administration falsely accuse the Maryland man who they wrongly sent to one of the most brutal prisons on Earth, the local police department where the man had lived peacefully for several years with his wife and family is setting the record straight.
A citizen of El Salvador, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was in the United States legally when he was snatched by federal agents near his home in the Washington DC suburbs and sent without a hearing to an indefinite detention at CECOT, El Salvador’s notorious prison which has been called a “black hole of human rights.”
The Trump administration is ignoring an order from the US Supreme Court to return Abrego Garcia to the United States. Democratic Sen Chris Van Hollen, of Maryland, traveled this week to El Salvador to intervene on behalf of Abrego Garcia, and was finally allowed to meet with the wrongly imprisoned man.
Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi and others in the administration repeatedly called Abrego Garcia a “terrorist,” and a member of the MS-13 gang.
Except that is not true, according to the police department where the allegations of his gang affiliation first surfaced.
The police department in Prince George’s County, Md, released and posted online what it called a review of its records on the matter.
It began in 2019, when officers from the police department in Hyattsville, Md, contacted Prince George’s police about a stop of four men, including Abrego Garcia.
A Hyattsville officer identified one of the group as an MS-13 member, according to the Prince George’s records review.
Police continued investigating the four — including Abrego Garcia — about their potential gang ties.
However, they found no wrongdoing among the men.
“The PGPD [Prince George’s Police Department] did not charge or arrest any of the individuals. The PGPD has not had any further interactions with Abrego Garcia nor received any new intelligence related to him,” the posted review said.
Further, the investigation of Abrego Garcia and the others was tainted by an officer who left the force due to his own wrongdoing in another matter.
“One of the PGPD detectives who interviewed the group that day and helped generate the interview form was former officer Ivan Mendez. In April 2019, in connection with an unrelated matter, Mendez was suspended pending investigation,” the posted review revealed. “He ultimately pled guilty to Misconduct in Office for that unrelated matter. The department proposed his termination. He accepted the discipline and was terminated from the agency in December of 2022.
“There will be no further statements or information provided on these subjects.”
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