Vice Lords associate snitches on hospital patients

Detroit — An associate of the Vice Lords street gang admitted Tuesday he snitched, not on his buddies but on a bunch of Detroit Medical Center patients.

Detroiter Jamerio Clark, 27, pleaded guilty to witness tampering in federal court, admitting he accessed a private database of DMC patients, including three victims of gang shootings.

The guilty plea is the latest development in a gang crackdown led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, FBI and other agencies that has secured dozens of convictions of Vice Lords members in recent years.

Clark worked for the Karmanos Cancer Institute from 2015-16 and had access to the patient database. A Vice Lords member asked Clark to look at the database and find personal information about people shot by the Traveling Vice Lords, an offshoot of the national gang. The plan was to convince the victims not to cooperate with investigators, federal prosecutors said.

Clark admitted accessing the database at least 15 times and providing names, dates of birth, phone numbers, addresses and other information to his brother, Antonio Clark, 26, a gang member.

Jamerio Clark will be sentenced Jan. 18 by U.S. District Judge David Lawson and could be ordered to spend more than seven years in federal prison.

“Protecting victims and witnesses is our highest priority,” U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said in a statement. “Stealing personal information to facilitate witness intimidation is a serious crime that undermines our criminal justice system.”

Eight Traveling Vice Lords members and leaders have pleaded guilty to related charges, including Antonio Clark, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison.