An off-duty member of the Secret Service’s uniformed division was arrested Friday morning after allegedly trying to kick in the front door of his former girlfriend’s apartment.
Arthur E. Baldwin, 29, was charged with first-degree burglary and destruction of property. According to D.C. Superior Court charging documents, police arrived at the apartment in the 3200 block of D Street SE and noticed dents, broken hinges and a boot print on the front door. Also, two apartment windows were shattered.
The woman — who according to the report was crying, shaking and “appeared to be in fear of her life” — told officers that her ex-boyfriend wouldn’t “leave me alone.”
Baldwin, according to the report, left the scene before officers arrived. The woman told the responding officer that her ex-boyfriend was a police officer and that she did not want him to lose his job.
Minutes later, according to the charging documents, Baldwin, who was in uniform, returned to the apartment. The responding officer asked Baldwin for his service weapon, and Baldwin told the officer that the pistol was in his vehicle in a book bag. The officer recovered a Sig Sauer 229 with one magazine loaded with live ammunition.
Baldwin told the officer that he kicked the door but denied breaking the windows, according to the documents. Police said in the documents that Baldwin had not gotten close enough to notice that the windows had been broken.
In a statement, Brian Leary, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said Baldwin was assigned to the Foreign Missions Branch. As a result of the arrest, Baldwin was placed on administrative leave and his security clearance was suspended. The Secret Service is also investigating the incident, Leary said.
At Baldwin’s initial hearing, a judge ordered him released from custody and said he must stay away from the woman. His next hearing is scheduled for April 23. Calls to Baldwin’s public defender were not returned.
The Baldwin arrest is the third incident in recent weeks that has prompted an investigation of Secret Service employees. Earlier this week, The Washington Post reported that a senior Secret Service manager, Xavier Morales, 48, was put on leave and his security clearance was suspended after a female agent accused him of assaulting her following a March 31 party. D.C. police’s sex crime unit and a government inspector general were investigating the allegation.
[Secret Service manager put on leave during probe of alleged assault]
Also, the Obama administration is looking into a March 4 incident in which two senior agents, returning from a retirement party at a downtown bar, drove an agency car into an active White House bomb threat investigation.
