Fourth Baltimore County officer charged in connection with September pepper-spraying of suspect

A Baltimore City grand jury indicted a fourth Baltimore County police officer earlier this month on charges related to a September encounter in which an officer pepper-sprayed a handcuffed suspect in the face and grabbed him by his hair.

Officer Thomas Desmond, 34, was indicted April 11 on one count of misconduct in office, the same charge facing county officers Justin Graham-Moore, 24, and Jacob Roos, 28. Desmond is due in court May 20, according to online court records.

All three are accused of failing to intervene when Cpl. Zachary Small, 52, allegedly sprayed a man in police custody with pepper spray nine times, then threw him to the ground and grabbed him by his hair. Small faces charges of second-degree assault, excessive force and reckless endangerment in Baltimore City.

The arrest took place Sept. 27 near Johns Hopkins Hospital, where a 32-year-old man wanted for armed robberies escaped police, according to Small’s indictment. Because the arrest happened in the 400 block of North Washington Street in Baltimore, city prosecutors brought charges against the four officers.

The man, who was in handcuffs and leg shackles in the back of a police vehicle, was hitting the window and complaining he couldn’t breathe.  Small pepper sprayed the man in the back of the vehicle, then pulled him out of the car and threw him to the ground, according to the indictment. He yanked his head back and forth using his hair, as the man said he couldn’t breathe.

“You asked for it. Just remember this. I warned you,” Small said, according a body-camera video police released.

Desmond, who joined the county department in 2021, is suspended, a police spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Granville Templeton III, Desmond’s attorney, said that Desmond was not the leading the arrest and could not have prevented Small from pepper-spraying the arrestee.

“Initially the state wanted him as a state’s witness and they dangled leaving him out of the case if he testified the way that they wanted,” Templeton said. “He didn’t give them what they wanted, so they indicted him.”

A spokesperson for the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office declined to comment, saying the case is open and ongoing.

Templeton said he understands the need to hold police accountable for allowing other officers’ misconduct, but he questioned why none of the Baltimore City officers present at the scene were charged.

“This is not the test case,” Templeton said. “This is not the case for that, especially when Officer Desmond did the right thing.”