The University of Maryland hired a former Baltimore Police officer just months after he was accused of using excessive force during the Freddie Gray unrest, according to court documents and state officials.
The former officer, Philip Meadows, is in a legal fight with the state’s police licensing and training board over its decision to strip him of his police powers due to more recent accusations of sexual misconduct involving a student.
Meadows is one of only two sworn law enforcement officers to be stripped of their badge in Maryland since 2020.
In April 2015, Meadows, then a Baltimore Police officer, arrested Branden Owens near the Mondawmin Mall, days after Gray’s death in police custody. In a civil lawsuit filed in November of that year, Owens said he was walking with his fiancée and her son to buy groceries at a supermarket when they encountered Meadows dressed in full riot gear.
Owens said in his lawsuit that he asked Meadows whether he could approach the store and the officer struck him in his chest with a baton, telling him to “back up.”
Upset over the encounter, Owens said, he asked Meadows for his badge number. The officer responded by saying the number was “666” and added that he was the devil, according to the lawsuit that made national headlines. Meadows then arrested Owens, who spent more than 48 hours in a Baltimore jail but was never charged with a crime.
In January 2016, an internal review by Baltimore Police into Meadows’ conduct concluded that allegations of use of excessive force or that he engaged in a false arrest, failure to provide name or badge number and making inappropriate comments were “not sustained,” according to records provided by the department.
A month later, while the civil lawsuit against Meadows was pending, the University of Maryland Police Department hired him to join its force, trumpeting its ability in a February 2016 press release to bring on “experienced police officers.”
And in October of the same year a jury ruled against Meadows, finding him responsible for the alleged battery and ordering him to pay roughly $16,000 in damages, according to court records. The jury ruled in Meadows’ favor on two other claims of excessive force and negligence.
The Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commissions, the state board that decertified Meadows, confirmed he worked at the Baltimore Police Department before his university employment. A university police department spokesperson this week declined to comment on whether the agency was aware of the allegations in the lawsuit when it hired Meadows, citing current pending litigation.
Meadows continued to work for the university police department for nearly a decade, until he left on Jan. 20 of this year, according to the department, which declined to say whether he was fired or resigned.
Shaun Owens, an attorney representing Meadows in his case against the state licensing board, said he was unfamiliar with the allegations from the 2015 civil lawsuit.
In his bid to save his license, Meadows filed multiple lawsuits challenging the authority of the commission, one of which was dismissed by a Baltimore County judge this week in favor of letting a similar pending lawsuit in Carroll County play out.
Court filings show the university police department accused Meadows of meeting a student on a BDSM dating website in 2024, when he was reportedly 54 years old and the student was 22.
According to a university internal investigation filed in court, the relationship started as a consensual one before the student said Meadows violated her sexual boundaries and harassed her.
The investigation found Meadows met the College Park student on a social media website known as “FET: Kinky BDSM Dating.”
He had been warned by a supervisor in 2022 about “similar behavior on a similar social media website” where he made inappropriate comments and wore a university police department academy drill instructor uniform in photos, according to the investigation.
Over nine months in 2024, Meadows gave the student rides to and from her car, classes and a nearby shopping center, according to the investigation. He was also accused of sharing police intelligence with her and of engaging in sexual acts while on duty and in uniform.
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