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February 3, 2023

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News Maryland News

After Years of Legislating, Anton’s Law Goes Into Effect

October 1, 2021 by Maryland Matters

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After several legislative attempts in past years fell short, beginning today, civilians will have the right to request to review police misconduct records.

Anton’s Law, named after 19-year-old Anton Black, who died in police custody in 2018, reclassifies police administrative and criminal misconduct records from personnel records to public records, allowing them to be inspected by civilians through the Maryland Public Information Act.

“Let me be clear, we are not seeking justice for Anton because justice would have been Anton being alive today — with his daughter, with his family, with the very community that raised him,” Del. Gabriel Acevero (D-Montgomery), the bill’s House sponsor, said at a news conference Thursday. “But what we can get and what we’re fighting for is accountability … that will not only ensure transparency but ensure that those members of the public who are seeking information about investigative and misconduct records, that that information is not only accessible but we’re changing the way law enforcement operates in our communities.”

The law also puts limits on when no-knock search warrants can be utilized by police agencies, alters the standard requirements placed on general search warrants and requires law enforcement agencies to provide annual summarized data reports regarding their use of search warrants to the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth and Victim Services.

Acevero and Sen. Jill P. Carter (D-Baltimore City), the bill’s Senate sponsor, unsuccessfully worked two versions of legislation bearing Black’s name in the General Assembly before their bill passed in 2021.

“My hope is that with the passage of Anton’s Law, we will no longer allow the patterns and practices of unconstitutional policing … and most importantly, we will save lives by preventing other heinous, brutal, extrajudicial killings such as that of Anton Black,” Carter said Thursday.

On Sept. 15, 2018, Black was chased on foot by police to his Greensboro home, forcibly dragged from a locked car, put in restraints and subdued under the weight of law enforcement officers for several minutes.

He died on the ground, feet away from the entrance of his mother’s home.

“Out of fear, this mother, this loving mother, Anton’s mother, had to compose herself the entire time while they were killing her son,” said René Swafford, an attorney representing the Black family. “And even in the midst of her pain, her anguish and her fear, she was the only one on the scene that night that did anything to try and de-escalate the situation.”

Carter said that Anton was “one of 31 extrajudicial killings” in Maryland in 2018.

“They threw him on the ground, they beat him, they choked him. He’s crying for his mother,” said Anton’s father, Antone Black. “My son was George Floyd before George Floyd, and there’s no justice, so far, for Anton Black, and there’s no peace for me.”

According to an autopsy report published by The Baltimore Sun, Maryland’s former chief medical examiner, Dr. David Fowler, ruled that sudden cardiac death with factors contributed by Black’s diagnosis of bipolar disorder was the cause of his death.

Fowler testified for the defense during the murder trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin in the George Floyd case. In his expert testimony, Fowler ruled that Floyd did not die because he was restrained, but because of sudden cardiac arrest exacerbated by drug use and potential carbon monoxide poisoning from vehicle exhaust.

Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) called for an audit of deaths in police custody overseen by Fowler during his nearly 20-year tenure.

‘The murders will not stop’

The Black family struggled for months to access police and autopsy records following his death.

Black’s sister, LaToya Holley, testified before the House Judiciary Committee in 2020 that only after the media pressed Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) to comment on the case did they receive any State Police or Medical Examiner reports.

Holley said Thursday that, in the meantime, her brother was “demonized purposefully and was made out to be this really bad young man to … prevent the media from actually reporting accurate information.”

“They took the narrative that was provided to them by the law enforcement officers and ran with it,” she said. “It is something that I’ve never forgotten; of course it’s forgiven, but the killings aren’t going to stop.”

One of the police professionals who pursued Black, former Greensboro officer Thomas Webster IV, had multiple use of force reports on his record during his time as an officer on a Delaware police force.

Kenneth Ravenell, an attorney for the Black family, said that, while working in Delaware, Webster “assaulted over 29” Black people, and that the Caroline County police chief “falsified records” to allow him to work in Maryland.

Webster has since been decertified as a police officer by the Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission, though he was cleared of criminal charges in Black’s death.

In December 2020, the Black family and the Coalition for Justice for Anton Black, backed by the ACLU of Maryland, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court against the state, the town of Greensboro, Fowler and Webster, among other municipalities, medical experts and members of law enforcement.

The lawsuit asserts that excessive force, racial bias and “positional asphyxiation” — rather than Fowler’s ruling of a cardiac condition — caused Black’s death.

Ravenell, who represents the Black family in the suit, said that law enforcement is trying to get the case dismissed on the basis of qualified immunity.

Qualified immunity is a Maryland law that exempts state and municipal employees from civil liability for actions that infringe upon the rights of others if they fall within the scope of their job description, were objectively reasonable or were enacted without malice or gross negligence.

“We know that until we get rid of things like qualified immunity — when these police officers have this protection under the law that the Constitution never guaranteed them — that we are not going to get justice and the murders will not stop,” said Ravenell.

In addition to Anton’s Law, a bill sponsored by Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chairman William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery) that limits law enforcement’s ability to procure military equipment and would set forth a process to independently investigate use of force incidents that result in death will also go into effect Friday.

By Hannah Gaskill

Filed Under: Maryland News Tagged With: anton black, inspect, Maryland, misconduct, police, public information, records

Report: Harris Voted Against Honoring Officers Who Responded to Deadly Jan. 6 Capitol Riot

March 18, 2021 by Spy Desk

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Axios reports: “The House voted 413-12 on Wednesday to honor police officers who responded to the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot with Congressional Gold Medals, among the highest of civilian honors.

“If passed by the Senate, the legislation would award one medal to the U.S. Capitol Police, another to the Metropolitan Police Department of the District Columbia and a third to the Smithsonian in recognition of the officers who responded to the siege.”

The 12 congressmen voting no, Axios reports, were all Republicans and included Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md.-1st, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

According to HuffPost, those voting against the measure primarily objected to two words: “The language that describes the Capitol as a ‘temple’ of American democracy and another line that categorizes the mob of pro-Donald Trump supporters that stormed the building as ‘insurrectionists.'”

The Washington Post reports that Harris, in a statement, said:

“The men and women on the thin blue line, including the brave men and women of the United States Capitol Police, should never be used as props for politically charged publicity stunts like this bill.

“I truly commend the Capitol Police for their actions on January 6th, and am very grateful for their service in keeping us safe each day. But I cannot support partisan charged language found in this bill.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.-5th, in a statement, said:

“It is deeply unfortunate that a number of House Republicans opposed this action as they attempt to erase the events of January 6 and deny the responsibility of a far-right, insurrectionist mob incited by former President Trump.

“The alternative resolution they have proposed insults the memory of the officer who was killed defending the Capitol and the two others who died as a result of the attack in its immediate aftermath, using language implying that the three officers did not lose their lives in the line of duty.

“Such disrespect for the heroes who courageously tried to protect the American people’s Capitol is disgusting.”

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POLITICO reported that: “A competing bill circulated by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) named the fallen officers but made no mention of Jan. 6 or the Capitol attack,” according to a copy of the bill it had obtained.

CQ Roll Call reported that: “Capitol Police officers stationed outside the chamber during the vote were overheard questioning which members voted against the bill.”

The Senate had previously voted to award a Congressional Gold Medal to Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who led rioters away from senators who were still in the Senate chamber, actions widely seen in video footage from a Huffington Post reporter.

Filed Under: Maryland News Tagged With: andy harris, capitol, congressional gold medal, first district, Jan. 6, Maryland, police, riot

Lawmakers Ask: Is Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights Necessary?

August 28, 2020 by Maryland Matters

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Members of the House Workgroup to Address Police Reform and Accountability in Maryland pushed back Thursday as Maryland law enforcement representatives steadfastly defended the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights.

“I hope that your group hasn’t completely misread the movement that’s going on across America,” said Workgroup Chairwoman Vanessa E. Atterbeary (D-Howard). “I hope you haven’t misread the tea leaves but change is a-comin’. I can’t sit here and say how change is coming because I don’t know that, but change is a-comin’.”

Lawmakers on the workgroup questioned police chiefs, sheriffs, state troopers, advocates and attorneys during a briefing Thursday about maintaining the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, which gives police due process safeguards in investigatory and disciplinary scenarios.

Maryland laid out the blueprint for the controversial statute in the 1970s and remains just one of 16 states to still have the law in effect.

In light of the summer’s civil unrest following the high-profile police deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., advocates have decried the statute, demanding its repeal.

Calls for its removal have been compounded by the case of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man who was shot in the back seven times by police in Kenosha, Wis., last week.

Wisconsin also still maintains its Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights.

Del. Darryl Barnes (D-Prince George’s), the Legislative Black Caucus chairman, told a panel representing the Maryland Chiefs and Sheriffs Association that it’s “hard time” Maryland “lead by example” and put measures in place to fix police-community relations.

“As the chairman of the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus, I am frightened for my members as they come to me and tell me how afraid they are of the police,” he said.

Karen Kruger, an attorney for the Maryland Chiefs and Sheriffs Association, said she believes the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights should have been named the “Law Enforcement Accountability Act,” because it was established, in part, to grant power to management to investigate instances of alleged misconduct. She also expressed concern that its repeal could create obstacles in disciplining officers charged with misconduct.

Charles County Sheriff Troy Berry (D) said he’s concerned about what disciplinary procedure for police officers would look like should the law be repealed.

“If we take away the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights where it stands, I don’t know what we’re moving towards,” he said.

Berry referenced Jacob Blake, noting that his shooting investigation has been taken out of the hands of local law enforcement.

“As a sheriff, I’m held accountable for what criminally happens in our community and I think … it would be very difficult for me to sit idly by and let the outside organization do the investigation,” he said.

Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg (D-Baltimore City) asked the panel of chiefs what would happen to a Maryland police officer under the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights if they were implicated in a situation similar to Floyd’s or Blake’s.

Kruger said a criminal investigation would open “immediately,” and that an internal investigation into the incident could occur simultaneously.

Atterbeary asked the group of managing officers if they would support civilians participating in misconduct investigations or serving on charging committees, having subpoena power and making trial boards more transparent by recording them and opening them to the public.

“I think we are looking to see what is it that you support so that the community feels like they are involved — so that the community feels like they understand what’s going on, and this isn’t a hidden process,” she said.

A bill passed in 2016 mandated that, under the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, hearing board procedures be open to the public and police forces may permit up to two civilians to sit on the boards.

Kruger explained that chiefs have the authority to nominate citizens to these bodies, but that local municipalities must pass legislation approving the chief’s authority to appoint someone.

At the workgroup’s first meeting in June, Berry told lawmakers that no civilians have sat on a review board or undergone training.

Atterbeary questioned how civilians are recruited.

“If people don’t know it’s open to the public, then it really it’s kind of a meaningless, you know, ‘Wave the banner, we’re doing a great thing here,’” she said.

Kruger said she provided training to a group of civilians that expressed interest in sitting on the Baltimore City Police Department’s hearing review board a few weeks ago.

On each panel, the conversation ultimately came down to what would happen if the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights were repealed.

Attorney Michael Davey told lawmakers that, should the law be stricken, police would still be subject to due process under the constitution, but that the General Assembly would have little-to-no control over the state’s 148 law enforcement agencies’ varying departmental practices.

“If the LEOBR was repealed, there would be due process rights for law enforcement officers consistent with the civil service policies of each jurisdiction, so everyone would have their own policy based on the civil service policies that their jurisdiction has,” he said. “It would not be a straight state policy, it would be whatever the whatever is in place at that jurisdiction.”

Del. Wanika Fisher (D-Prince George’s) asked panelists why Maryland should remain in the minority of states that still has a Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights. She noted that, since 2005, only six officers have been charged in police killings.

According to the Mapping Police Violence database, 138 people were killed by police officers from 2013 to 2019.

“We appreciate officers who want to do their jobs, but you’re not the jury, judge and executioner,” Fisher asserted. “We pay a whole lot of other people to do that. That is not your job. I just got to be 100 with you. It’s just not.”

Kruger said the law may be called a “bill of rights,” but its purpose is to set up procedure.

“With respect to the impact of the LEOBR on police encounters that end in tragedy, I’m not sure we could really establish a nexus between those two things.”

Fisher responded that law enforcement’s ability to self-regulate is not working.

“I think it’s time to really question yourself,” she said. “Can you self regulate when only six officers in the state of Maryland have been held accountable since 2005? And I don’t really think you can, especially when your agency is dealing with life or death.”

By Hannah Gaskill

Filed Under: Maryland News Tagged With: bill of rights, civilians, law enforcement, Maryland, police, police reform, trial boards

U.S. House Passes Police Reform Mandate, GOP Balks at Democrat Led Bill

June 26, 2020 by Maryland Matters

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The U.S. House of Representatives passed a sweeping police reform package Thursday night in response to massive civil unrest over police brutality.

The package cleared the chamber largely along partisan lines, with 236 lawmakers (mostly Democrats) voting for it and 181 lawmakers (180 Republicans and one Independent) voting against it. Three Republicans sided with Democrats in backing the bill — Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Fred Upton of Michigan and Will Hurd of Texas.

“There is justifiable anger in this country because justice is not being upheld,” House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said on the House floor.

“That does not mean it’s never being upheld, but it ought to be always upheld. There is a deep frustration because some of those charged with enforcing our laws are doing so without tolerance, in a way that disregards the rights and welfare of victims without just cause. That does not damn all members of the police. In fact, not the majority. But it does damn actions that are inconsistent with justice and peace and tolerance and liberty,” Hoyer said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hailed the package on the House floor Thursday, saying it would “fundamentally transform the culture of policing to address systemic racism, curb police brutality and save lives.”

But the bill — passed one month after George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was killed while in police custody — is unlikely to become law.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tried and failed to advance a modest GOP bill Wednesday and is not expected to take up the Democrats’ more comprehensive measure.

The bill backed by Democrats and passed in the House is “a crucial first step to rooting out racial injustice in our police system,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said in a statement, urging “Senate Republicans to listen to Americans, heed their calls for change, and allow immediate consideration of this legislation.”

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, threatened on Wednesday to veto the Democratic bill, arguing it would deter people from pursuing law enforcement careers, erode public safety and weaken relationships between police departments and communities.

House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) urged Democrats to instead “get on board” with the GOP bill, which he said “has a real shot at becoming law.”

The Democratic legislation would ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants at the federal level, bar racial profiling, limit the transfer of military-grade equipment to state and local law enforcement officials and make it easier to prosecute police misconduct in the courts by eliminating the “qualified immunity” doctrine that shields law enforcement officials from lawsuits, among other things.

The bill drew objections from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which called increased funding for law enforcement a non-starter. “The role of policing has to be smaller, more circumscribed and less funded with taxpayer dollars,” ACLU legislative counsel Kanya Bennett  said in a statement when the bill was introduced this month.

House passage comes a day after Senate Democrats blocked a GOP bill authored by Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican in the Senate GOP conference.

Scott’s bill would incentivize departments to increase the use of body cameras, improve training in de-escalation tactics and require that performance records be taken into greater account when making hiring decisions. It would also increase data collection on the use of force, weapon discharge and no-knock warrants, among other provisions.

Unlike the Democratic bill, it would not ban chokeholds or no-knock warrants at the federal level or make it easier for victims of police brutality to sue officers and seek damages. Nor would it bar racial and religious profiling or limit the transfer of military-grade equipment to state and local law enforcement officials.

McConnell tried to bring the bill to the floor Wednesday, but he fell five votes short of the 60 votes he needed to advance it.

Democrats and leading civil rights advocates called the Senate GOP bill “weak” and said it failed to live up to an historic moment in which diverse coalitions of protesters are taking to the streets to demand racial justice and equality in the wake of Floyd’s death. Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis officer who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes, was fired and has been charged with second-degree murder.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the GOP bill “weak tea” on the Senate floor Wednesday. He cited a letter from civil rights groups who said the bill “falls woefully short of the comprehensive reform needed to address the current policing crisis and achieve meaningful law enforcement accountability.”

On the other side of the Capitol, Pelosi said the GOP bill is “inconsistent with a genuine belief that Black lives matter” and said she hopes passage of the Democratic bill will force the Senate to act. The Senate, she said, has the choice to either honor Floyd’s life or do nothing.

McConnell, meanwhile, painted Democrats with the do-nothing label. “Our Democratic colleagues tried to say with straight faces that they want the Senate to discuss police reform — while they blocked the Senate from discussing police reform,” he said Thursday.

By Allison Stevens

Filed Under: Maryland News Tagged With: George Floyd, police, reform, senate, U.S. House

Chestertown Man Faces Murder Charges in Delaware

February 12, 2020 by Daniel Menefee

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Ervin Christy, Jr.

Ervin Christy, Jr., 35, of Chestertown was indicted by a New Castle County grand jury on Feb. 3 for the New Year’s Eve murder of Cornelius Wright, 37, of Middletown, Del.

New Castle County detectives apprehended Christy in Philadephia on Feb. 6, with assistance from federal agents and the Philadelphia Police Department.

On Dec. 31,  New Castle Police responded to a reported shooting at the Ashton Condominiums on Willings Way at around 7 p.m. When police arrived, Wright was found in a parked car with multiple gunshot wounds. He was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to a police press release. 

An investigation by New Castle County Homicide Squad identified Christy as the suspect.

Christy was charged with first-degree murder, possession of a firearm during a felony, attempted first-degree robbery and second-degree conspiracy. 

He is currently awaiting extradition from Philadelphia to Delaware.

Filed Under: Archives, Local Life Tagged With: Courts, police

Cerino and Council Secure Future of Chestertown Police Department

January 29, 2020 by Daniel Menefee

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The Chestertown Police Department’s future was secured Monday when the Town Council voted unanimously to keep it intact–and at the current level of 12 officers, which includes acting Chief John Dolgos.

This is down from a previous high of 14.

The decision ends a rollercoaster ride that began last fall when the Town Council considered options to cut the public safety budget, which included shuttering the department altogether–the “nuclear option.”

In his presentation before the vote Monday, Mayor Chris Cerino said the costs to run the department had climbed to $462,000 in the last decade, a 33 percent increase, while revenues had remained relatively flat.

“The model that we’ve been on for the last eleven years hasn’t been sustainable,” Cerino said. “We just can’t keep doing that.”

Other options considered last fall included making a payment every year to the Kent County Sheriff’s Office to staff police in Chestertown, which could potentially save the town upwards of $600,000. The savings would come from cuts in infrastructure costs to maintain a force.

“What that does is potentially gain efficiencies because we wouldn’t need our own police headquarters or any administrative staff, ” he said during Monday’s presentation. “[We would] essentially pay the county for officers that would be assigned full-time to Chestertown.”

The option that was adopted was to simply find efficiencies in the CPD’s budget and Cerino credited Dolgos for working with the town to find cost savings. 

“Our acting chief has been very open to that,” He said. “He’s making a really good faith effort.”

“The public sentiment has been very overwhelming that we really like having our own police force,” Cerino said. “As long as people understand it’s one of our biggest line items.”

He said keeping CPD at 12 officers, including Dolgos, is a “cost savings.”

Cerino said while 14 officers were normally on the payroll, the department usually operated with 12 officers, due to staff on leave for various reasons.

“The nice thing about having our own police force is the control we have,” Cerino said. He said CPD is helpful with many town events.

“These guys know our streets and they know our town pretty well,” Cerino said.

Dolgos told the council during his police report that officers on his staff were looking elsewhere for employment because of uncertainty facing the department’s future. 

Currently, there are three officers looking to leave, Dolgos said.

Cerino recognized that the uncertainty was harmful to the work culture at CPD.

“The uncertainty is not helping us with retention or morale or anything that makes a workplace a positive place to be,” he said. 

Cerino recommended giving Dolgos the authority to keep the number of officers at 12. 

“Right now [Dolgos] is in limbo where we’ve kind of undercut cut his ability to do his job well,” Cerino said. “I feel bad about that and I want to try and rectify it.”

Ward 3 Councilman Ellsworth Tolliver said it was important for Chestertown to have its own police force and was hopeful that CPD could return to a staff of 14 when revenues make it affordable. He said he appreciates the quick response he gets from Dolgos when issues arise in his ward.

Ward 1 Councilman David Foster said he applauded Dolgos for “making a good faith effort” to cut costs. Foster added that there is a need for “new ideas” to find efficiencies at CPD. 

“At the same time, and this is not disrespectful to our current police force, I think it is important from time-to-time to ask if we have a source of new ideas coming in here,’” he said. “I have no expertise in public safety but I do know that there are people out there who do have that.”

Ward 2 Councilman Tom Herz also praised Dolgos but agreed with the Foster that as a “matter of form” a search should be on for a permanent police chief. Dolgos was made acting police chief after former Chief Adrian Baker left on short notice to lead the Maryland Natural Resources Police in September.

Ward 4 Councilwoman Meghan Efland expressed concern about the overtime costs and if staffing 12 officers would give Dolgos the resources needed to run the department.

She recommended an efficiency study to find savings and improve scheduling to reduce overtime.

“I think that’s our best option at this point,” she said.

 

Filed Under: Archives, News, News Homepage Tagged With: police, Public Safety

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