Baltimore man sues HBO over portrayal in ‘We Own This City’

*Editor’s note: An earlier version of this headline stated former AUSA Leo Wise was being sued, which is not the case. Baltimore Fishbowl regrets the error.

A Baltimore man is suing HBO over what he claims is a false portrayal of him in the network’s limited series “We Own This City,” which depicts the short-lived operations of the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF). He is also alleging Leo Wise, the prosecutor in his case, leaked documents with the false narrative to HBO.

NEW LEGAL FILINGS

Antonio “Brill” Shropshire is suing HBO, Inc. and HBO Service Corporation for defamation of character, copyright infringement, and negligence. He seeks $3 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages. He wants the companies to issue a public retraction and correction.

Shropshire also filed a Petition to Correct the Public Record under the First Amendment, raising issues of prosecutorial misconduct by then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Leo J. Wise. He claims that Wise’s actions led to the repetition of harmful, inaccurate narratives in court, the media, and the HBO series and “continue to influence judicial rulings and public perception.”

THE TRIAL/LEO WISE

Shropshire is serving a 300-month (25-year) federal sentence resulting from the 2017 trial for conspiracy to distribute heroin and for distribution of heroin and cocaine. He admitted to the charges of distribution, but denied conspiring with his co-defendants. Shropshire was found guilty by a jury on conspiracy and distribution counts.

According to the petition, days before Shropshire’s trial, jail staff seized his legal documents. He had notes, impeachment questions, and other preparation for his defense he said he needed to testify. During the trial, he told the judge he could not take the stand without those documents. Wise and the U.S. Marshals claimed they did not have the papers, but the issue was never resolved during the trial and Shropshire felt unable to testify without those materials he had prepared. He said they were eventually returned to him long after the trial was over.

Shropshire claims Wise was responsible for the confiscation of those materials, and accuses him of misleading the court when he said the materials had been returned. He also holds Wise responsible for pushing false narratives: about overdoses being tied to the drugs Shropshire sold, which was never proven in court, and that a robbery that took place was Shropshire’s idea – a narrative rejected by the judge. Shropshire also believes Wise leaked documents to HBO.

HBO

This trial was central to HBO’s series “We Own This City,” based on the 2021 book of the same name by journalist Justin Fenton, documenting corruption in the GTTF. Shropshire self-published his own memoir, “The Real Shropshire Organization,” in 2021 as well. HBO released its miniseries based on Fenton’s book in 2022.

In Shropshire’s lawsuit against HBO, he alleges that the network added content to the miniseries that was not included in Fenton’s book, nor disclosed or presented during any judicial proceedings. The added content involved Shropshire being involved in the robbery, retaliation, overdoses, and/or violence. He is claiming this amounts to defamation of character, since they were either rejected by the court or not proven in court.

Shropshire also claims HBO engaged in copyright infringement, taking several distinctive creative elements from his memoir that appear nowhere else. The filing details specific examples, like the use of certain slang, narrative, verbatim interactions, and scenarios he says HBO could not have sourced from trial transcripts, police records, or court evidence.

Among the instances of negligence, Shropshire cites HBO’s “duty of care to individuals depicted or reasonably identifiable in the series…to portray events accurately and avoid fabricating harmful or defamatory content.” He claims they falsely portrayed him as cooperating with law enforcement, selling deadly drugs to overdose victims, and violence that was never supported by trial records. In addition to harming his reputation and subsequent legal proceedings, Shropshire contends HBO increased risk to his safety while incarcerated.

REMEDIES SOUGHT

Shropshire is requesting a total of $13 million in compensatory and punitive damages, and a public retraction and correction by HBO. Regarding Wise, Shropshire’s filing requests only that the court “acknowledge and address the unresolved concerns on the public record,” for a hearing to be held on the matter, or for the government to clarify the handling of Shropshire’s confiscated trial materials, and the correction of a Pre-Sentence Report. He seeks no monetary damages from Wise.

Baltimore Fishbowl received no response to multiple attempts to reach out to Leo Wise and HBO.