B4 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22 , 2022
BY KEITH L. ALEXANDERThe family of a man who was
left paralyzed in 2019 after a
Prince George’s County police
officer allegedly slammed the
man to the ground during a
traffic stop has filed a $75 million
federal civil rights lawsuit
against the county.
About two dozen family mem-
bers and supporters of Demonte
Ward-Blake, including his moth-
er and aunts, joined Baltimore-
based attorneys William “Billy”
Murphy Jr. and Malcolm P. Ruff
in announcing the court action
Monday at a news conference.
The lawsuit, which also names
former Prince George’s County
police corporal Bryant W. Strong
as a co-defendant, alleges Strong
used excessive force on Oct. 17,
2019, when he slammed Ward-
Blake to the ground after pulling
the 24-year-old over for driving a
car with expired tags. Ward-
Blake’s girlfriend arrived at the
scene later but her 6-year-old
daughter was in the car the
entire time.
Officials said Ward-Blake be-
came agitated during the traffic
stop and tried to flee as officers
removed him from the car and
handcuffed him. T hat move, offi-
cials said, prompted Strong to
pull him to the ground. Ward-
Blake hit his head on the ground,
his attorneys said, breaking ver-
tebrae in his neck and spine and
leaving him paralyzed from the
chest down.
Murphy called the lawsuit an
“indictment of the racist, unlaw-
ful and unchecked pattern of
practice of excessive force of the
Prince George’s police.”
Ruff added that “addressing
police misconduct” was a key
initiative for the firm. “We will
never back down from this core
mission in the face of this type of
flagrant police violence directed
at Black and Brown people,” Ruff
said.
A P rince George’s County po-
lice spokesman referred calls to
the county. Gina Ford, a spokes-
woman for the county, declined
to comment.
Murphy has represented sev-
eral plaintiffs in f ederal lawsuits
involving police officers. In 2015,
Murphy secured a $6.4 million
settlement with the city of Balti-
more after the fatal injury of
25-year-old Freddie Gray in po-
lice custody. Gray’s death set off
days of civil uprising across the
city.
Murphy also represented the
family of 43-year-old William
Green, who was shot six times
with his hands cuffed behind his
back in the front seat of a police
cruiser by then-Prince George’s
Cpl. Michael A. Owen Jr. Owen
was charged with second-degree
murder in Green’s death and is
awaiting trial.
In 2020, the county agreed to
pay $20 million to Green’s family,
which at the time was one of the
nation’s largest single settle-
ments involving someone killed
by law enforcement.
In the Ward-Blake case, a
grand jury indicted Strong in
2020 on charges of second-
degree assault, misconduct in
office and reckless endanger-ment. Strong is scheduled to go
on trial in May.
In their 40-page filing, Ward-
Blake’s attorneys argued that
their client was unarmed at the
time of the arrest and alleged the
officers did not seek immediate
medical attention for Ward-
Blake after he was injured. The
complaint also included a photo
of Ward-Blake in a hospital bed
with a neck brace and tubes to
his throat and mouth.
“This image of Plaintiff De-
monte Ward-Blake as he lay inshock trauma on a respirator, is
the tragically foreseeable out-
come of a failed and biased
system of policing in Prince
George’s County, to which Coun-
ty leaders turned a blind eye.
Plaintiff Demonte Ward-Blake
paid the ultimate price for their
unacceptable apathy,” the attor-
neys wrote in the complaint.
Ward-Blake, who was using a
wheelchair, died in 2021 at the
age of 26 after injuries he sus-
tained in a shooting in District
Heights in November 2020.Ward-Blake was shot three times
in his abdomen, according to
police reports. A second person
with Ward-Blake was shot in the
jaw and upper torso.
The lawsuit alleges in a wrong-
ful-death complaint that Ward-
Blake’s paralysis contributed to
his death, leaving him unable to
flee the shooting or protect him-
self and that his body was al-
ready in a weakened condition as
a result of his spinal injuries
sustained during the traffic stop.
Murphy and Ruff allege thatStrong had been the subject of
multiple excessive force investi-
gations by the department be-
fore his interaction with Ward-
Blake but that supervisors with-
in the department did not take
appropriate action. The attor-
neys said Strong was cited in an
internal review, known as the
Michael Graham report, that was
made public in 2020. The report
cited Strong as one of the officers
who had the highest rates of
using excessive force within the
department between 2016 and
2019.
Murphy and Ward-Blake fam-
ily members criticized county
officials and encouraged individ-
uals to register to vote — not only
to replace elected officials who
have failed to address police
brutality issues but also to en-
sure jury pools, drawn from
voter rolls, are diverse.
Murphy accused the county
government of not protecting the
rights of its residents but
stopped short of criticizing
County Executive Angela D. Also-
brooks (D), who he said has done
the “right thing” by addressing
police brutality within the de-
partment. But he added that
more work needs to be done.
The attorneys and Ward-
Blake’s family repeatedly pro-
claimed the number 653, which
they said was the number of days
Ward-Blake lived while using a
wheelchair.
“We’re here for a Black life that
mattered,” Murphy said. “De-
monte Ward-Blake’s life mat-
tered. The Black and Brown lives
of Prince George’s residents who
have been repeatedly victimized
by police officers here in this
county for decades now, their
lives matter.”MARYLAND
Family of man left paralyzed after tra∞c stop sues P rince George’s County
Civil rights suit alleges
former officer used
excessive force in 2019KEITH L. ALEXANDER/THE WASHINGTON POST
Attorneys William “Billy” Murphy Jr. and Malcolm P. Ruff join the family of Demonte Ward-Blake in
announcing a $75 million lawsuit a gainst P rince George’s County and a f ormer county police officer.trust that communities of color,
immigrant communities have
with the police,” Jawando, an
outspoken advocate for changes
to policing, said in an interview.
“It has to be done properly.”
Others, however, said the
county should not eliminate en-
tire groups of people from being
able to serve on the board. All
three members of the public safe-
ty committee — Albornoz and
council members Sidney Katz
(D-District 3) and Tom Hucker
(D-District 5) — said they pre-
ferred to keep eligibility guide-
lines broad and allow officials to
select the best candidates from
the applicant pool. Lee Holland,
president of the county’s police
union, said that if community
members want the board to be
inclusive, they have to agree to do
so “on all fronts,” including by
allowing former law enforcement
officers to apply.
“We are not scared at all of
having a civilian determine our
fate,” Holland said in an inter-
view. “But the board has to be fair
for everyone, for the civilians as
well as for the police officers. ...
These cases determine the future
of officers’ livelihoods.”
The council has set an internal
deadline of March 31 to approve
legislation setting up the new
oversight boards, giving the exec-
utive branch two months to find
and appoint members. But offi-
cials say part of the challenge in
meeting that deadline is that the
Maryland Police Training and
Standards Commission is still
debating statewide regulations
for how these boards should
function.
“We’re really flying in the dark
here on how to successfully com-
plete this process,” said Earl Stod-
dard, assistant chief administra-
tive officer to County Executive
Marc Elrich (D).
The council is expected to re-
sume discussion of the legislation
on March 1.ceived significant backlash —
said members would need to have
experience “managing or evaluat-
ing the management of a law
enforcement agency; evaluating
citizen complaints against a po-
lice officer; or in personnel disci-
plinary proceedings.” Ponder, of
the Silver Spring Justice Coali-
tion, said this description limited
possible candidates to civilians
with close links to law enforce-
ment agencies, contradicting the
original intent of the state law.
“It read like we were going to
replicate the internal affairs
process,” she said, “Except this
time, elected officials were going
to slap on a label that said ‘pub-
lic.’ ”
After the outcry, lawmakers
promised to change the eligibility
guidelines, but they have yet to
settle on precisely what they will
be. The council’s public safety
commission recently agreed to
several other recommendations
from the coalition, including ex-
panding the PAB from 5 to 9
members, and allowing immi-
grants and people with criminal
records to serve on the board.
During a committee work ses-
sion l ast week, activists, along
with County Council member
Will Jawando (D), pushed to bar
former law enforcement officers
from being allowed to sit on the
board. Even if former officers
were able to objectively review
misconduct cases, the “appear-
ance” of any conflicts of interest
could compromise the trust that
community members have in the
board’s independence, they said.
In response to suggestions that
former officers might have rel-
evant expertise in disciplinary
matters, activists noted that the
PAB was conceptualized as a
citizen-led oversight body and
that active-duty officers are in-
volved in other aspects of the
disciplinary process.
“This [bill] is a very important
component of rebuilding thePrince George’s, said that while
applications for the PAB have
closed — 95 people in the county
of 960,000 applied — there will
still be opportunities for the pub-
lic to weigh in on how it operates
when lawmakers introduce the
legislation needed to formally
establish the board.
In Howard County, officials
initially proposed having two law
enforcement officers sit as ex
officio members on the PAB and
binding members of the board to
a code of confidentiality. A group
of longtime residents organized
under the Police Accountability
Task Force of Howard County
pushed back, successfully per-
suading lawmakers to scrap both
provisions.
In Montgomery, an initial pro-
posal for the PAB — which was
released in December and re-Thursday evening over the issue
of implementing the PAB.
Activists in the majority-Black
county were caught off guard
when County Executive Angela
Alsobrooks (D) in January tweet-
ed out an invitation for people to
apply for the new PAB within a
one-week deadline. At the time,
no public discussion had been
held on how the board would be
structured, who would be eligible
to serve or what county resources
the board would have access to,
John said. Officials also hadn’t
addressed how the new board
would affect the county’s existing
citizen complaint oversight pan-
el. Alsobrooks later extended the
application deadline but has yet
to unveil details of how the board
would operate.
Anthony McAuliffe, deputy di-
rector of communication foring allegations of police miscon-
duct, and in certain cases, in
meting out administrative reper-
cussions.
But those who helped to lead
the push for this change — many
of whom say they represent Black
and Latino communities that
have been subject to over-polic-
ing — argue that they’ve been
kept out of drafting the local
regulations for both bodies, in-
cluding key details such as appli-
cation timelines and member-
ship qualifications. County offi-
cials, they say, are consulting
police leaders on details of their
bills months before they’re invit-
ing community members to par-
ticipate.
“We’ve been the victim of a
sneak game,” Beverly John, a
Prince George’s County activist,
said at an activist town hall heldThese changes are set to take
effect July 1, but as of mid -
February, only a handful of coun-
ties had passed the necessary
legislation to establish the new
civilian oversight boards that will
be charged with reviewing in-
stances of police misconduct
against civilians. More than a
dozen jurisdictions had yet to
introduce any proposals for im-
plementation and of those that
have, virtually all were criticized
by activists for initially or contin-
ually neglecting community in-
put and inserting regulatory pro-
visions that go against the “spirit”
of the reforms.
Their renewed push for atten-
tion comes at a time when Repub-
lican leaders, including Gov. Lar-
ry Hogan (R), have blamed soar-
ing crime rates on Democratic-
led efforts to overhaul policing.
“[The legislative changes] have
the potential to be a major vehicle
in changing the way that this
branch of local government has
operated for forever,” said Car-
lean Ponder, co-chairperson of
the Silver Spring Justice Coali-
tion, a criminal justice activist
group in Montgomery. But that
potential hinges on how it is
implemented, she said.
Since the 1970s, Maryland law
has stated that police officers
accused of misconduct, including
the excessive use of force, can
only be investigated by fellow
officers — not civilians. Lawmak-
ers in Annapolis voted last spring
to repeal a powerful state bill that
gave officers this special work-
place protection, granting civil-
ians a role in deciding police
discipline matters for the first
time. The Maryland Police Ac-
countability Act requires coun-
ties to assemble Police Account-
ability Boards (PAB) and Admin-
istrative Charging Committees
(ACC) where civilians will have a
role in reviewing and investigat-
POLICING FROM B1
Activists: Oversight boards for police conduct stumbling on implementation
KATHERINE FREY/THE WASHINGTON POST
M ontgomery County Council member Will Jawando (D-At Large), center, has pushed to bar former
law enforcement officers from being allowed to sit on the Police Accountability Board.When guys like this show up,
they’re building the case to take
control of D.C., something
House Republicans already
promised to take on if they win
control in the next election.
Repealing home rule would help
prevent their D.C. statehood
nightmare.
And even though WMATA is a
regional authority,
incompetence and dysfunction
fit their narrative to hobble local
leadership.
The hacker wrote “yo this
isn’t breaking news it BRAKE-
ing news.”
Making fun of Metro is a D.C.
tradition, but at this point,
they’re clowning themselves.wonder for visitors to the
nation’s capital who would
marvel at “America’s subway.”
You know it’s bad when the
local Democrats are upset.
But even harsher were
criticisms from Rep. Frederick
B. Keller (R-Pa.).
Keller, who also wants to tell
D.C. how we should treat guns,
statues and the police, kvetched
that the transit authority is
“even more reliant on federal
government funds” after getting
$2 billion in federal grants.
This comes from a guy who
just secured about $3 million in
federal grants for a winery,
brewery and dairy in his
district.Oversight and Reform
subcommittee on government
operations, during that Feb. 9
hearing.
He ravaged WMATA for
“falsified track inspection
reports, the failure to document
or investigate more than 3,000
criminal complaints from riders,
and now a disastrous defect
with 60 percent of the system’s
rail car fleet that was allowed to
languish for four years.”
Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.)
piled on.
“Metro needs to better,”
scolded Hoyer, one of the guys
who fought for federal funding
for Metro back in the days it was
marketed as a whiz-bangmaking me late every day, and I
don’t know what to do now.”
This was the story I heard
from college administrators, a
lawyer, a store clerk, a janitor
and a judge. Public
transportation is an equal
opportunity disrupter.
It has to change, and for
reasons that go beyond the
jugular function that public
transportation serves. This was
clear in a congressional hearing
earlier this month.
“As the system has jumped
from crisis to crisis, this culture
of mediocrity has been a
common theme,” said Rep.
Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.),
chairman of the HouseWhen Metro suddenly pulled
more than half of the fleet off
the tracks because of flaws in
the new 7000-series cars that
caused a derailment, an entire
region that relies on public
transportation was jilted.
“I’m leaving a little after 5
a.m.,” Wayne Parker, who lives in
District Heights and works at
the Columbia Lighthouse for the
Blind, told me when they pulled
the trains in October.
He gives himself plenty of
time to get to work, slowly
making his way through crowds
with his white cane. “But this is
messing with me big time. It’s
DVORAK FROM B1
PETULA DVORAK
Bizarre hacking of Metro’s Twitter f eels on brand for the beleaguered agency
An entire regionthat relies on publictransportation hasbeen jilted.