A former Maryland police officer who was fired by four small departments in the D.C. area in less than a decade was convicted Monday of illegally pepper-spraying a motorist during a traffic stop but acquitted of a charge related to his filing of a court affidavit that prosecutors said gave a false account of the incident.
Maryland state records show that Dupree was fired by the Capitol Heights Police Department in 2013, by the District Heights Police Department in 2015, by Prince George’s Community College’s police force in 2018, and by the Fairmount Heights department after he was criminally charged with violating Sinclair’s civil rights. All of the departments are just outside D.C.
Violating a person’s civil rights while acting in a law enforcement capacity is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. However, depending on the circumstances of a case and a defendant’s background, advisory federal sentencing guidelines often recommend a shorter period of incarceration than the statutory maximum. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly did not immediately set a sentencing date.Dupree’s lawyer, Christopher Macchiaroli, declined to comment on the verdicts as he left the courtroom Monday.
Dupree and five co-defendants face federal charges in Maryland for allegedly falsely reporting thefts of their debit cards or vehicles to collect insurance money while they were police officers. Dupree has pleaded not guilty in that case.