Corrupt ex-Norfolk detective got city pension during prison – and still is – records suggest

NORFOLK, Va. (WRIC) – A former Norfolk police detective who was convicted for taking bribes and is tied to multiple wrongful convictions -- including the infamous “Norfolk Four” case -- got his taxpayer-funded pension during and after his time in federal prison, records suggest.

Records also indicate that the ex-detective, Robert Glenn Ford, is still getting the city pension—collecting a total that would, per a 2011 report, currently be over $600,000.

According to a 2023 release from Norfolk’s top prosecutor, Ford elicited false confessions from several people who have since been cleared, including some pardoned by governors. One man in prison claims Ford assaulted him and forced a false murder confession from him when he was 16 years old.

Ford “put innocent people in prison,” Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi told 8News, pointing to gubernatorial pardons, cases reviewed by the Innocence Project at UVA School of Law and courts vacating convictions in cases tied to Ford's police work.

“There is no question about that,” Fatehi said in an interview. “And that is a deep, deep injustice, and it's a dagger to the heart of the integrity of the justice system.”

In 2011, Ford was sentenced to 12 years and six months in federal prison -- ultimately serving 10 years -- after being convicted of extortion and conspiracy offenses and making false statements to the FBI.

“Glenn Ford betrayed his fellow cops, the court system, the public, and the law he swore to uphold,” former U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride said after the sentencing. “He disgraced his badge extorting money from drug dealers to fix cases dating back to the 1990s.”

Ford denied the charges against him and maintained his innocence after being convicted, per a Virginian-Pilot report.

Ford, who retired four years before he was sentenced, is covered under the city’s retirement system, allowing him to collect his taxpayer-funded pension after being convicted, during his prison sentence and after being released, responses to public records requests suggest.

No provision in the Norfolk City Code stops Ford or others in similar situations from collecting these unlimited monthly checks after breaking the law.

But Norfolk isn’t alone.

Richmond also has a locality-specific retirement system without any way to require employees to forfeit their pensions if they are convicted of crimes.

The human toll of Ford’s misconduct

Ford’s reputation as a corrupt detective is known in the Norfolk criminal justice system for those over 40, Commonwealth’s Attorney Fatehi told 8News.

“It was a huge scandal in the local legal and law enforcement community,” Fatehi said about Ford’s indictments on federal charges.

Per an FBI release, Ford got over $80,000 in bribes dating back to the 1990s for helping get people released on bond or reduced sentences by lying about their assistance in homicide investigations.

Ford was also known to have extracted false confessions and testimony, according to the 2023 release from Fatehi’s office announcing a “conviction integrity review” of all his closed cases.

Several convictions and cases are tied to Ford’s police work, per the Innocence Project Clinic at UVA School of Law.

“I think the wake of problems that a corrupt officer like Detective Ford causes is really widespread,” Jim Neale, a partner with McGuireWoods who has volunteered on multiple cases tied to Ford, said in an interview.

Ford was known to have elicited false confessions in high-profile cases, per Fatehi’s office, including from a group of four sailors wrongfully convicted of rape and murder in 1997 known as the “Norfolk Four.” All four were eventually released and settled with the city of Norfolk and the state.

Per Fatehi’s office, Ford extracted false confessions from three teenagers about a 1990 robbery and murder of a Norfolk restaurant owner. Per court documents, Ford was demoted for getting false confessions in the case, which was known as the “Lafayette Grill” case, but later returned to the police department’s homicide unit.

Before being released on parole in 2016, Joey Carter spent 25 years in prison after being convicted of murder, robbery, attempted robbery and burglary in 1989. Carter provided an alibi and fingerprints at the crime scene didn’t match his, but another person who testified against Carter, per the Innocence Project Clinic.

Carter’s conviction was largely based on the eyewitness identification from a neighbor obtained by Ford and a partner, according to the Innocence Project Clinic. The neighbor later recanted her testimony in 2018, and Carter was granted an absolute pardon by then-Governor Ralph Northam (D) in 2021.

“Mr. Carter was an unfortunate victim of Norfolk Detective Glenn Ford, who used his official capacity to extort witnesses in order to yield high solvability percentages and was eventually convicted on federal charges,” Northam noted in his pardon order.

In another murder case, Ford requested a $10,000 bribe from Kevin “Suge” Knight to make it go away, per UVA’s Innocence Project Clinic. When Knight refused, the clinic claims that Ford “coerced witnesses and found unreliable snitches to build a case against an innocent man.”

Northam granted a conditional pardon to Knight, writing in his pardon that Knight “was prosecuted based on the work of Norfolk Detective Glenn Ford, who used his official capacity to extort witnesses in order to yield high solvability percentages and was eventually convicted on federal charges.”

Gilbert Merritt was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2001 for the 2000 murder of Vincent Burdette “based almost entirely” on false witness testimony that he confessed to the killing, per a Norfolk Circuit Court order vacating his convictions.

Nearly two decades later, the witness said Ford, the case’s senior investigator, told her what to say on the stand and promised to help her avoid a potential 80-year sentence on drug charges she was facing.

One man in prison, Arsean Hicks, claims he was 16 years old when Ford questioned him without a parent present, beat and coerced him into a false confession for a 1999 robbery and murder.

The day after the confession, Hicks claimed he was innocent, and that Ford assaulted him and forced his confession. Then in 2006, a former roommate of Hicks signed an affidavit saying he told Ford during an interrogation that the gun, shoes and mask used were his and no one else could have used them, per the Innocence Project Clinic.

“This statement was never turned over to Hicks’ defense team,” the Innocence Project Clinic at UVA School of Law’s website reads. “After that affidavit, the clinic helped change state law on exculpatory evidence as part of our ongoing efforts on behalf of Mr. Hicks; unfortunately, Mr. Hicks could not himself benefit from the change to the law, which was not retroactive.”

Hicks, who got a 150-year sentence, is challenging his conviction in Norfolk Circuit Court.

“For each of those murders, not only are innocent people being convicted and sent to prison, but the victims' families are being told that there were legitimate arrests made, and then that's undone," Neale told 8News.

Fatehi echoed Neale, calling it a “double injustice” to imprison innocent people and allow murderers to walk free.

“It is just a wound in the body politic every time it happens, and the human cost is immeasurable and tragic," he told 8News.

Records suggest Ford is getting his pension

8News made Freedom of Information Act requests with the city of Norfolk for records of any retirement benefit payments to Ford from Jan. 1, 2010, months before Ford was indicted, until Nov. 1.

A Norfolk FOIA analyst said the city has 178 records of “retirement pay stubs of Robert Glenn Ford” during that period that were being withheld entirely, citing Virginia code exempting the release of records with personnel information of identifiable individuals. (Norfolk police retirees get monthly checks and the FOIA request covered a total of 178 months)

Per a Virginian-Pilot report from 2011 about Ford claiming he was indigent, Ford was collecting “more than $3,000 a month from his pension” while appealing his federal case. ‘

Using the $3,000 a-month figure, Ford would have collected more than $620,000 from the time he retired on Aug. 1, 2007, until Nov. 1, 2024.

This figure is likely higher because it doesn’t account for potential post-retirement supplements. (Since Ford’s retirement, the Norfolk City Council has approved two budgets each with additional post-retirement supplements of 2%)

Through an attorney, Ford declined to comment for this story.

Jim Neale, the McGuireWoods partner, said the existence of the city’s retirement pay stub records would suggest to him “that the individual whose pay stubs they are is getting a pension.”

“It's a real problem that Virginia taxpayers are not only paying to incarcerate people who shouldn't be in prison because of Detective Ford and paying settlements to victims of Detective Ford’s who were wrongfully incarcerated,” Neale said in an interview. “But also, at the same time apparently, paying Detective Ford the same pension that a decent and honorable retired officer would get."

Breaking the law strips benefits for many – but not all

While many Norfolk city employees are covered under the Virginia Retirement System, which has a path for pension forfeiture after a conviction, the city also has a retirement system that covers certain employees.

The Norfolk Employees' Retirement System (NERS), established in 1942, is closed to new members. It only covers the full-time and permanent part-time city employees hired or rehired before 2022 who chose to stay in the system.

An 8News review of the Norfolk City Code’s section on NERS did not find any provision for retirement benefits to be revoked or forfeited in case of a conviction or other reason.

Michael Lynch, president of the Norfolk Chapter of the Police Benevolent Association, told 8News in an email he didn’t know the specific circumstances Ford falls under, but “as it stands right now” retirees under NERS who receive retirement pay get it “no matter what happens after that.”   

Per the 2011 Virginian-Pilot report, Ford wasn’t the only officer convicted of felonies who was collecting their pension at the time. Former officers convicted of violent crimes, including one who fatally shot his estranged wife and her boyfriend, were collecting their pensions at the time of the 2011 report, the late, award-winning journalist Timothy McGlone reported.

The Norfolk City Council has the authority under city code to change its rules for the retirement system, “but no amendment shall be adopted which will reduce the then accrued benefits of employees or beneficiaries below the extent they are then covered by accumulated reserves, which reserves shall constitute a trust fund for the payment of such benefits.”

Commonwealth’s Attorney Fatehi declined to comment on the records indicating Ford is getting his pension, referring 8News to the Norfolk City Attorney’s Office.

8News reached out to the city on Nov. 20 for an interview about its retirement system and the records concerning Ford’s retirement pay.

Kelly R. Straub, the city’s Department of Communications & Marketing director, responded on Nov. 20 with an email that said they received the inquiries “and are looking into it.” 8News reached back out on Nov. 25, giving the city a 3 p.m. deadline, but have yet to hear back.

8News also reached out to city and state elected officials seeking interviews or comments for this story but did not get responses from Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander, any of the Norfolk City Council members or most of the city’s delegation in the Virginia General Assembly.

The office of state Sen. Angelia Williams Graves (D-Norfolk) told 8News she didn’t have a comment at this time and a staffer for Del. Jackie Glass (D-Norfolk) exchanged a couple of emails with 8News, but the delegate did not provide a comment for this story.

Unlike Ford, Norfolk city employees covered under the Virginia Retirement System can lose their benefits if they are convicted of a crime linked to their employment.

Under Virginia law, any active or retired VRS member can lose their retirement benefits if they are convicted of a felony related to their position for misconduct on or after July 2011. After all appeals have been exhausted, employers can use a forfeiture request form to notify VRS of any such convictions to strip an employee of their benefits, per VRS Public Relations Director Jeanne Chenault.

“Convictions that occurred before July 1, 2011, are handled on a case-by-case basis, following the direction of the court,” Chenault wrote in an email.

While some localities say all their employees are covered by VRS, including Henrico and Hanover counties, others are not. Richmond has yet to fully transition to VRS and there’s “no provision in the City Code providing for forfeiture of retirement benefits under the Richmond Retirement System,” a city spokesperson said in an email.

The possibility of former law enforcement officers such as Ford getting their retirement pay after a conviction tied to their work raises concerns for Neale, the McGuireWoods partner.

“I'm struck by the fact that we seem to be paying the criminal and imprisoning his victims,” he told 8News. “And I think if that's the case, it's absolutely backwards from what it should be.”