Man who dragged Baltimore Police sergeant defiant at sentencing
Dylan Segelbaum
The Baltimore Banner
August 7, 2024
Joseph Black told Detective Sgt. Kenneth Ramberg that he needed to take responsibility for his role in a traffic stop in 2022 that left him with life-changing injuries.
Retiring as a lieutenant in the Baltimore Police Department was his dream.
But on June 28, 2022, Baltimore Police Detective Sgt. Kenneth Ramberg said, that dream was shattered when Joseph Black dragged him two blocks during a traffic stop in Park Heights and inflicted life-changing injuries.
Ramberg said he’s undergone multiple surgeries. And he said he’s not done going under the knife.
“I wish I could yell and scream at Mr. Black,” Ramberg said on Wednesday inside a courtroom in Baltimore, which was filled with police officers, detectives and union leaders. “I hate him.”
But Ramberg said he will always be a Baltimore Police officer. Black, he said, will never be able to take that away from him.
When he had the opportunity to address the court, Black, 38, of Rosedale, said he did not intend to hurt anyone and apologized. Then he turned the tables.
“Sir, you have not yet taken responsibility yourself,” Black said to Ramberg, a more than 29-year veteran of the force, who sat next to his wife, Luana, in the first row of the courtroom gallery.
“You held onto the vehicle,” he added. “I didn’t drag you down the street.”
Citing his lengthy criminal record, history of infractions in jail and prison and lack of remorse, Circuit Judge Levi S. Zaslow ordered Black to serve the maximum sentence for dragging Ramberg: 10 years in prison.
“It did not have to happen this way,” Zaslow said. “You made the decision to drive off.”
Black stood trial two times in Baltimore Circuit Court.
At his first trial, a jury found him not guilty of attempted first- and second-degree murder but could not reach a unanimous verdict on the remaining courts.
A jury convicted Black of second-degree assault at his second trial but acquitted him of first-degree assault and illegal possession of regulated firearm.
His attorney, Assistant Public Defender Isabel Lipman, asked for a sentence of five years in prison.
Lipman said her client was in fear. Black, she said, did not act with malice.
Meanwhile, Assistant State’s Attorney Twila Driggins pushed for the maximum sentence — which she said was still not enough.
Driggins said Black has demonstrated a lack of regard for law and order.
Black, she said, cosplayed as a victim of police misconduct on the witness stand and accused Ramberg of being a dirty cop “without any scintilla of evidence.” She described that testimony as grotesque.
“This country’s at an inflection point, your honor, and the city is wracked by violence,” Driggins said. “His defense was to lean into lies.”
When he finished handing down the sentence, Zaslow assured Black that he remained fair and impartial.
Zaslow left open the possibility that in the future he’d recommend Black for a program at the Patuxent Institution, a maximum-security prison.
A correctional officer then opened his pair of handcuffs, the sound piercing the quiet of the courtroom.
After law enforcement escorted Black out of the courtroom, Driggins turned around and walked up to Ramberg. They embraced.