Greensboro police Officer AJ Blake has been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation of an alleged assault that occurred while he was off duty, the department announced today. The 32-year-old Blake joined the department in 2001 and earns $44,147 in his current assignment with the investigative bureau, according to police records.
In his work as a member of the GPD’s gang enforcement unit, Blake has had a number of encounters with members of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation, or Latin Kings. North Carolina Latin King leader Jorge Cornell says he first met Blake in December 2007, following Cornell’s arrest on a charge of assaulting a government official (police officer). Cornell was acquitted of the assault charge by a district court judge in December 2008, and pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was convicted of resisting arrest.
Cornell believes that after the arrest, Blake tried to frame him for assaulting a police officer.
“That night was the first night I met the gang unit,” Cornell said. “We go back to the department, and I’m talking to AJ Blake. I took a comfortability to him; he’s Honduran. I said, ‘This is crazy. I didn’t assault no government official.’ He asked me what hand did I write with? I told him my left. So then you see the warrant specifically says that I used my left arm to assault this officer.”
Blake’s supervisor, Sgt. Ron Sizemore, said at the time that he was unfamiliar with the incident.
More on Blake to come.
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