Jenkins: "Got two suspects casing Olympic Park."
Officer Vance: "You call it in?"
Jenkins: "Nah. Going to shake them down. They look like they're holding."
Jenkins closed his eyes. The text message destroyed any defense of proactive policing. It proved premeditated harassment. But Jonathan wasn't done.
"That text message gets you five years in federal prison," Jonathan said softly.
"But that is not why we are here. When our dogs swept your cruiser, they did not just find your patrol bag. They alerted on the trunk."
Jenkins's face went from pale to a sickly chalky white. The air completely left his lungs. Sam slid three more photographs across the table.
The first showed the trunk of Jenkins's APD cruiser with the spare tire removed. The second showed a false floor pan welded beneath the tire well. The third showed what was inside: a black duffel bag containing four unserialized Glock handguns, 50 bundles of heroin wrapped in electrical tape, and a vacuum-sealed brick of $100 bills totaling nearly $80,000.
"We pulled your GPS logs for the last 18 months," AUSA Kavanaugh stated, his voice clinical and lethal. "They perfectly match the dates and locations of 12 unsolved stash-house robberies in APD Zone 5, where dealers claimed the assailants wore police tactical gear and used APD-issued flash-bang devices."
"You were not coming over because you thought we were casing the park," Sam said, looking at Jenkins with disgust. "You saw two black men you assumed were street-level dealers. You thought we had cash. You did not call dispatch because you wanted to steal from us, assault us, and send us into the system, believing no one would trust two suspects over a decorated APD officer."
"It... it's not what it looks like," Jenkins whispered, his voice trembling so violently he could barely speak.
The reality of his situation had just crushed him. He wasn't just a racist cop who made a bad stop anymore. He was a corrupt officer running a robbery crew.
"It looks exactly like what it is," Jonathan said, his voice hard as iron. "A corrupt, prejudiced coward used his badge as a license to rob and abuse the citizens he swore to protect. You thought you were preying on the weak today, Brian, but you walked into the middle of an active FBI RICO investigation and exposed yourself."
Kavanaugh closed the folder with a sharp snap.
"Possession of narcotics with intent to distribute. Possession of unserialized firearms. Armed robbery. Deprivation of rights under color of law. Assault on a federal officer," Kavanaugh listed, looking Jenkins dead in the eye.
"And because you derailed a federal cartel sting, we are also pursuing racketeering charges. You are facing decades in federal prison. There is no parole in the federal system. You will spend most of your life in a concrete cell."