A former Detroit police officer who faced up to five years in prison for lying to FBI agents during an investigation has been sentenced to the one day in jail he’s already served for the crime.
U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith on Tuesday sentenced Dametri Wade, 26, to time served after his October guilty plea to a federal charge of making a false statement. Wade served one day in jail before his sentencing, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The former officer was additionally sentenced to two years of supervised release, with the first approximately seven months to be served in a residential re-entry facility, also known as a halfway house.
According to court documents, Wade played a role in an August 2022 larceny in which $200 cash and $4,000 worth of cologne were taken from a Detroit man living on the east side.
The perpetrators of the larceny used false court documents in an attempt to convince the man he was being evicted from his home on St. Marion Street, Wade’s plea agreement says. The then-officer’s role was to show up in his scout car to legitimize the eviction ruse, authorities said.
Wade lied about his involvement to FBI agents in December 2022, telling them he was at the location because “he was just driving around the city and stopped around St. Marion Street because he saw a dog,” then “got out of his scout car and made contact with the animal because he likes dogs,” according to the government’s pre-sentencing memo.
Wade went on to tell agents he believed there was going to be an eviction when he knew there was not, but instead a larceny to steal personal property, as per the plea agreement. Camera footage from the area proved that Wade’s statement to the FBI was false, a pre-sentencing memo filed by his attorney said.
U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson Gina Balaya declined to comment on the sentencing decision Wednesday.
Prosecutors had requested Goldsmith sentence Wade to up to six months in prison, calling his crime “serious” as “a police officer who took an oath to serve and to protect the citizens of Detroit,” adding that “instead of providing information that could have been helpful to the FBI, he chose to lie.”
Wade resigned from the Detroit Police Department in January 2024, the memo by his attorney said, adding that he “regrets and is ashamed of his conduct,” “understands punishment is deserved,” and “views this Court’s sentence as an opportunity for redemption and a return to society with a more upstanding ledger.”
Of Goldsmith’s decision not to give Wade jailtime, the former officer’s attorney said “anytime your client doesn’t go to (federal) prison it’s good for the client so he can stay (in state) with his family.“
“Mr. Wade would like to put this behind him and move on with a productive life that doesn’t have any issues hopefully,” said the attorney, Abed Hammoud.
In November, less than a month after pleading guilty, Wade was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and misdemeanor malicious destruction of property, for allegedly driving his truck onto the lawn of his children’s mother’s home, damaging the lawn, honking repeatedly and playing loud music, according to the government’s pre-sentencing memo.
He pleaded guilty to both charges in state court and was sentenced to two months’ probation.
Violet Ikonomova is an investigative reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact her at vikonomova@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ex-Detroit cop convicted of lying to feds gets 1 day in jail
Reporting by Violet Ikonomova, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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