BALTIMORE — Long before former Baltimore Police officer Daniel Hersl’s arrest and conviction on federal racketeering charges, he had an outsize reputation for brutality and misconduct — among citizens, defense attorneys, and even fellow officers.
But his disturbing pattern of internal affairs complaints remained buried in police files.
A searing new report into the roots of the Gun Trace Task Force corruption scandal, in conjunction with the passage last year of a new law making police disciplinary files public, shows for the first time how Hersl racked up serious complaints of misconduct over the course of 15 years, and how little punishment he faced.
