Three Baltimore County Police officers walked into a cell at the Woodlawn precinct to confront the man held there. A fourth officer stood outside the door, his body camera recording the scene.

After about four minutes of conversation, Sgt. William McGladrie shoved Robert Jackson III, 28. Then the three officers threw him to the cell floor and hit him repeatedly, according to a police internal affairs report.

“This is racist,” Jackson, who isAfrican American, can be heard saying in footage of the beating. “Yup, it is,” replied McGladrie, who is white, after punching him in the face. The officers handcuffed Jackson as he lay face down, his blood dripping onto the floor.

Although the police department determined more than two years after the February 2020 beating that McGladrie committed misconduct and lodged three administrative charges against him, he did not lose vacation time or pay. And in April of this year, a panel of three officersconstitutinga trial board ruled McGladrie didn’t use unnecessary force. The panel’s members agreed he should receive a written reprimand for “inappropriate and profane language.”

After The Baltimore Sun filed Maryland Public Information Act requests this spring, the county provided last month internal affairs documents and the footage of the beating.

When Jackson learned of the trial board’s decision from a reporter, hecalled McGladrie’s punishment “less than a slap on the wrist.”

“He didn’t lose anything,” Jackson said. “He’s still out there working.”

McGladrie, a 25-year veteran of the department, was one of its last officers to appeal internal discipline under the county’s former process, in which a panel of officers had the final say. He did not respond to an email seeking comment.

“You want to f— with me?” he said in the footage. McGladrie and two of the other officers present punched Jackson as he initially struggled with them on the cell floor. “You gonna step to me? You want to step? Let’s f——— step!” The Internal Affairs Section wrote in charging documents that these comments “seemed to escalate the situation, rather than de-escalate.”

The two other officers, Cpl. Steven Angeletti, who is white and Officer Aaron Norton, who is Black, were investigated for unnecessary force, but those allegations were not sustained, police spokesperson Joy Stewart said.

Then-Baltimore County Deputy State’s Attorney Robin Coffin declined in April 2021 to bring criminal charges against McGladrie, Angeletti or Norton, according to the internal affairs report. The document does not lay out the reasons for Coffin’s decision.

Angeletti and Norton could not be reached for comment.

Under a new system that went into effect July 1 in Baltimore County, mandated by a state law passed in 2021, a county Administrative Charging Committee reviews internal police investigations into citizen complaints of officer behavior and decides if officers violated department policies, placing that authority in the hands of civilians for the first time.

Any appeals will go to a panel made up of an officer, one person appointed by the county’s Police Accountability Board and a current or retired judge.

Three such trial boards are planned in the coming months, Chief Robert McCullough told the accountability board last month.

As for the beating of Jackson, County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. has “concerns” about McGladrie’s conduct, according to a statement from county spokesperson Erica Palmisano. But Olszewski “acknowledges that this case, which went before a police trial board under the previous structure, is considered settled,” she added.

“The administration remains focused on ensuring effective implementation of the County’s new Police Accountability Board and Administrative Charging Committee in accordance with the welcome reforms under the Maryland Police Accountability Act of 2021,” Palmisano said.

Randallstown NAACP President Ryan Coleman said the “disturbing” video showed why changes were needed.

“The police have been telling Black Americans, ‘Don’t believe your own eyes,’ even though it’s on video,” Coleman said. “That’s the thing that really erodes trust.”

“I am aware of this incident. This matter was investigated and three administrative charges resulted from that internal investigation,” Chief McCullough said in a statement. He added that sworn members of the department are afforded due process, including hearing boards.

Maj. Douglas Irwin, the chair of the April 3 trial board, wrote in a summary that the department had failed to provide the defense with exculpatory evidence — a review of McGladrie’s use of force by the Training Section that found his actions in line with what officers are taught — because an Internal Affairs investigator misplaced documents.

The trial board prosecutor, Assistant County Attorney Joseph Allen, dropped one of the three administrative charges — related to treatment of a prisoner — at the beginning of the board hearing.

The department had said earlier that McGladrie should not have left Jackson lying on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back after he said he was in pain.

McGladrie’s attorney, MichaelDavey, told The Sun that he wanted to review his client’s file before commenting, then did not respond to phone calls.

Jackson, the man in the body camera video, called the department in December 2020 to complain about his treatment at the Woodlawn precinct.

The department investigated an allegation of racial harassment stemming from Jackson’s complaint, but found it “not sustained” in April 2022 when it determined his other administrative charges.

“The entire experience was shocking,” Jackson told The Sun. “Officers who do stuff like that should lose their jobs.”

The video shows McGladrie wearing a T-shirt with a symbol of the “Punisher,” a Marvel vigilante character whose popularity among law enforcement officers has been controversial.

The department has punished McGladrie for violating policy in the past. He lost three days of leave after he supervised a pursuit that violated department policy on Oct. 16, 2020, and was reprimanded for an incident on Oct. 29, 2020, when he “humanely destroyed a deer, then removed its head and took possession,” according to Internal Affairs records.

The department also investigated McGladrie for allegedly using unnecessary force against a different prisoner in January 2022, but exonerated him in October 2022.

County police arrested Jackson on Feb. 24, 2020, and accused him of violating a protective order. His case was placed on thestet,or inactive, docket in November 2020,which means prosecutors could revive the case without recharging him.

After Jackson’s arrest, he blocked a camera in his holding cell at the Woodlawn precinct, prompting officers, including McGladrie, to come inside to clear the camera.

Jackson said in a recent interview that he had never been incarcerated before and wanted officers to give him more information.

“I know jail is not supposed to be comfortable, obviously, but someone’s gotta tell me what’s going on,” Jackson said.

In the video, Jackson told officers he obstructed the camera after being left alone for hours. “I just want some water. That’s all I asked for, man,” he said in the video.

The video shows officers removed a sleeping mat from the cell while talking to an agitated Jackson.

Jackson called McGladrie a “cracker,” and the sergeant replied “I’m a saltine.”

After exchanging insults with McGladrie and threatening to kill him, Jackson leaned back, according to the video. McGladrie wrote in a report that Jackson “balled up his fist, took a fighting stance and stepped towards me.” Jackson’s hands can’t be clearly seen in the video.

“Guess what you did?” McGladrie asked in the video. “You backed up.” McGladrie pushed Jackson, and then Jackson stepped forward again. “I administered several compliance strikes about his head while standing and as we went to the ground,” McGladrie said in a report, writing that Norton and Angeletti also “administered body strikes in an attempt to gain compliance and cuff” Jackson.

In administrative charges, Internal Affairs investigators wrote that “a reasonable officer ... would have certainly considered the use of physical force or restraint” in the same situation.

“What becomes problematic, is Sergeant McGladrie’s continued use of force by striking Mr. Jackson in the face several times with a closed fist when he was lying face down in the cell and Sergeant McGladrie’s body was positioned on top of him, without giving verbal commands,” the department wrote in Internal Affairs documents.

“The officers were not cornered. There were no weapons,” said Roland N. Patterson Jr., vice president of the Baltimore County NAACP, after watching the video. “He was in custody, so he was not a threat.”

After the officers subdued Jackson, they handcuffed him as he bled from his face. McGladrie left Jackson in a prone position for about a minute and a half, according to Internal Affairs documents.

“This hurts so bad,” Jackson said in the video. “Good,” McGladrie said, “this is what you’re gonna get again if you decide you’re not gonna listen and you’re gonna act up.”

The officers next took Jackson outside the cell and chained him to a bar above a bench, as the video shows him shouting and threatening officers.

McGladrie wrote in his report that Jackson refused treatment from medics who arrived. Jackson said he didn’t decline treatment, but the medics who responded didn’t treat him. Baltimore County Fire Department records show a medic unit spent 19 minutes at the scene, but a spokeswoman for the agency said they don’t provide further detail. Jackson said officers propped him against a wall to take photos of his face while he was still spitting out blood.

The department never told Jackson the outcome of his December 2020 complaint, although he called multiple times to find out.

Stewart, the police spokesperson, said in a statement that the department normally sends a letter when an internal investigation is closed and discipline is administered, but that did not happen in Jackson’s case. After The Sun asked about Jackson’s complaint, the department sent Jackson such a letter.