The Black Guerrilla Family (BGF) prison gang has offered $10,000 to Dead Man Inc., a white prison gang, to do hits on correctional officers—and anyone else who helped with or conducted the investigation that resulted in the recent federal indictment of 24 alleged BGF members—assistant U.S. attorney James Wallner disclosed in federal court on Apr. 21.

"There’s been a hit placed out on several correctional officers named in this kite, and all others involved in this investigation, and that would include prosecutors," Wallner told U.S. District Court magistrate judge Beth Gesner. A “kite,” U.S. Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Marcia Murphy explains in an e-mail, is “a letter or note sent secretly between inmates in a prison setting.”

Dead Man Inc., is already known to have had dealings with the BGF, Maryland Secretary of Corrections Gary Maynard confirmed for City Paper at the Apr. 16 press conference announcing the indictments. "It's highly unusual for black and white gangs to join up,” Maynard said, but “it's to their advantage if they can get over their racial animosity."

In court on Apr. 21, Wallner said he’d learned of the kite only that morning. He brought it up while pressing the government’s case that BGF defendant Deitra Davenport should remain in jail pending trial. The kite, he said, elevates the danger of releasing Davenport because she is accused of serving as a “conduit of information” among BGF members, both in and out of prison. “She is the central location of communication among members and Eric Brown,” the imprisoned BGF leader who Davenport claims as her husband, Wallner said.

The judge, while noting the kite and Davenport’s possible role in distributing BGF information, ordered Davenport released to a halfway house, with heavy restrictions over her communications.

Email Van Smith and Edward Ericson Jr.