C8 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MAY 29 , 2022
BY LEE O. SANDERLINA Baltimore state’s attorney’s
office list of more than 300
Baltimore police officers with
credibility issues, many of
whom continue to be called to
testify in court, has been made
public for the first time after a
court ordered its release last
fall.
State’s Attorney Marilyn Mos-
by told a state policing commis-
sion in December 2019 that she
maintained a list of police offi-
cers about whom she had con-
cerns regarding their integrity
and whether their testimony in
court could be trusted.
“These are integrity issues.
They pertain to theft, planting
evidence, perjury, corruption
and fraud,” Mosby told members
of the state Commission to Re-
store Trust in Policing at a
meeting at the University of
Baltimore Law School.
Attorneys with the Baltimore
City public defender’s office
have expressed concerns for
years about officers on the list
being allowed to testify in court.
Deborah Katz Levi, the direc-
tor of special litigation for the
city public defender’s office,
called Wednesday on Mosby to
disclose even more information
about the officers.
“Ms. Mosby needs to disclose
why these officers are on the list,
when they got on the list, and
she needs to review the hun-
dreds of cases in which they
have testified, without any dis-
closures, since being on the list,”
Levi said.
In a statement Wednesday,
state’s attorney’s office spokes-
woman Zy Richardson said de-
fense attorneys have “always
been notified” about the officers,
following a 2018 agreement with
the city solicitor’s office.
The identities of the 305 offi-
cers are now public after Balti-
more Action Legal Team, a com-
munity nonprofit known as
BALT working to make the legal
system more accessible to the
public, won a lengthy court bat-
tle to force the state’s attorney’s
office to release its list.
“There is no accountability
without transparency,” said
Iman Freeman, BALT’s execu-
tive director. “This request for
this list is just one part, just one
tactic in our entire campaign.”
The newly released roster of
305 names approximately triplesthe number of names on a list
Mosby’s office released in Octo-
ber 2021. Unlike the October list,
the vast majority of people on the
new list still are employed with
the Baltimore Police Depart-
ment, according to a comparison
of BALT’s list and city salary
records.
The list of roughly 100 officers
released in October was what’s
commonly referred to as a “do
not call” list of officers that her
office would not call to testify,
but most of the officers listed no
longer worked for the police
department.
Before BALT sued Mosby’s of-
fice for the list, she said she
wanted to release the full list but
could not because it was techni-
cally a personnel record under
the Maryland Public Informa-
tion Act. However, the Maryland
Court of Special Appeals dis-
agreed, ordering her in October
2021 to release the list. She did
not release the full list to BALT
until Wednesday.
Even after the Court of Special
Appeals ordered her to release
the list, Mosby refused through
Richardson.
“Many have allegations that
were unfounded and unsubstan-tiated,” Richardson said in Octo-
ber. “It would therefore be unfair
and unethical to publicly release
those names.”
On Wednesday, Baltimore po-
lice spokeswoman Lindsey El-
dridge said the department re-
cently received a copy of the
disclosure list from the state’s
attorney’s office, which she said
“includes members that have
mere allegations or information
that could be used to impeach
them in court.”
The list, she said, is distinct
from a “do not call” list.
“Under Commissioner [Mi-
chael] Harrison’s administra-
tion, our department continues
to be accountable and transpar-
ent in taking appropriate actions
when complaints are made
against members, especially
those that may rise to miscon-
duct,” Eldridge said.
While the list does advance
transparency, Freeman called it
incomplete. Absent is any de-
scription of the behavior or inci-
dent that created the credibility
concerns in the first place, and
without that information, it is
impossible to determine exactly
what the issue is with each
officer, Freeman said.BALT and other organiza-
tions plan to analyze the list in
the coming days to expound on
the initial findings, Freeman
said.
Freeman said officers with
impeachable credibility harm
the criminal justice system be-
cause so much of prosecution
relies on officers telling the
truth.
“An officer’s credibility props
up the system, and if one actor
in the system has decided these
officers aren’t credible to stand
trial, then what else? What else
do we depend on their credibili-
ty and integrity for?” Freeman
said.
Police leadership previously
downplayed the existence of the
list, with Deputy Commissioner
Brian Nadeau telling the state
commission in 2019 that most of
the officers do not have credibili-
ty issues.
“Nobody on that list that I
wouldn’t have working on the
street, making cases,” Nadeau
said in 2019.
He said at the time that many
of the officers named were sub-
jects of complaints that were not
sustained.
Mosby was adamant in thathearing, telling the commission
her office discloses members of
the list to the poli department
so “hopefully they don’t put that
officer in a position where he
has to come in and testify.”
Her office later clarified Mos-
by’s comments, saying the list
does not mean those 305 officers
can’t testify, just that they have
information in their past that
requires disclosure to defense
attorneys in criminal cases the
officers are involved with.
“These folks are shared with
the defense counsel automatical-
ly,” Richardson said Wednesday.
In reality, Levi said, the disclo-
sures are not automatic and are
often not made, despite what
Mosby’s office says.
The fact that officers on the
list are allowed to testify at all,
and the lack of transparency
about what landed them on the
list to begin with, are serious
issues, Levi said.
“The continued reliance on
these officers and lack of disclo-
sure violates discovery rules and
ethical obligations, and directly
causes harm to the citizens of
Baltimore and the criminal jus-
tice system,” she said.
— Baltimore SunMARYLAND
Baltimore prosecutors’ list of o∞cers with credibility issues is made public
every turn. To hold her ground,
Carson has seized on the issue
that the businesses brought up
when they refused to keep pay-
ing taxes: that Pound needs a
forensic audit. It has become her
mantra at meetings.
Kennedy argues that they can-
not do a forensic audit until the
town catches up on the past
three years of regular audits.
That will take money, so they
need the businesses to pay taxes
again.
But they won’t pay taxes, Car-
son argues, until the audits reas-
sure them that the money is
being well spent.
And so, with a June 30 dead-
line looming to get a town budg-
et passed, Kennedy and Carson
are circling one another in stale-
mate.
Early this month, the council
held a budget workshop. After
only a few minutes, Carson and
Kennedy began to clash over the
audit. Back and forth, for nearly
an hour, until finally Kennedy
had had enough.
“I think we need a few min-
utes,” she said, then took a drink
from her water bottle, stood and
walked out.
“Okay,” Carson said. “We will
recess until 8:30.”
A few months ago, the meeting
might have ended there, another
breakdown, another walkout.
But after 10 minutes or so,
Kennedy came back. The session
resumed. Next item: police budg-
et. And on they went, step by
painful step, attempting to re-
build their town as the clock
continues to tick.is stepping in temporarily as
town attorney, free of charge.
Nearing retirement and recover-
ing from cancer, Baker, 62, said
he feels obligated to help.
It’s rudimentary stuff. Four of
the five council members are
new, and Carson — who as mayor
votes only in case of a tie — is
shaky on parliamentary pro-
cedure. Call the roll, Baker re-
minds them at the start of April’s
monthly meeting. No, you don’t
need a second roll call after a
public hearing. Make a motion.
Now vote on the motion.
When bickering flares up, Bak-
er — whose booming voice can
drown out the whole room —
cuts things off quickly. “Y’all
sound like y’all got a lot of
personal issues with each other,”
he thundered at one point in the
meeting. “I’m here for free. I’m
gonna walk out that door. I’m
tired of all this stuff.”
Baker knows the work to save
the town will fail if the spirit
fails. And that is where both he
and Erard are uncertain, because
elements of the mistrust that got
the council into this mess still
linger.
Particularly between Kennedy
and Carson.
Until recently, Pound’s mayor
often served as its paid town
manager, an arrangement not
uncommon in small Virginia
towns. But after Carson won the
seat in 2020, no one seemed
interested in letting her do both.
Carson, 55 and originally from
Kansas, said she feels like an
outsider — slighted by the new
council and stripped of power atraphy and tradition, many in
Pound express little faith in Wise
County to look out for their
interests. Exhibit A: the demoli-
tion of the local high school,
which forced students to travel
over the mountains to a new
county school.
“They couldn’t care less what
happens to the town of Pound,”
said Harold Greer, 70, a retired
retailer who now works part-
time at Fielder’s Choice, an an-
tiques/sporting goods/bargain
shop in the ramshackle building
that used to be the hardware
store.
“If we lose [the charter], we
lose the ability to control our
own zoning and planning,” he
said. An unincorporated commu-
nity would be unable to stop the
county from plopping down a big
polluting industry, Greer said. As
a town, “we control our own
destiny.”Lingering mistrust and a
looming deadline
So sympathetic volunteers are
lending a hand.
“They really do want to be a
town, they just need some help to
get back to being functional,”
said Michelle Gowdy, executive
director of the Virginia Munici-
pal League.
The VML has agreed to help
chart a course forward, making
connections with officials in oth-
er towns and counties who can
lend expertise, such as attorney
Erard.
Linda Meade, a retired town
clerk, has volunteered to pitch in
at her old job. Lawyer Greg Bakerclaimed in an August editorial:
“It’s time to abolish the town of
Pound.”
Even those who would like to
see it preserved are no longer
sure that is possible.
“I don’t want to see my little
town go away,” said David Wil-
liams, 59, who has owned a TV
repair shop in Pound for nearly
30 years. He did not sign the
no-tax pledge, but Williams said
he can understand why some
might want to surrender the
charter.
“It’s a mess,” he said. “It’s a
nice little community here, it just
sorta fell apart since we don’t
have the coal business we used to
have.”
Others say there are practical
reasons to fight. With mountain
communities separated by geog-stopped holding council elec-
tions. Kilgore sponsored a bill
this year to rescind that charter,
as well — noting that St. Charles
was never incorporated by the
General Assembly, but rather
had a rare charter granted by a
judge. As of July 1, St. Charles
will become an unincorporated
part of the county. No one is
contesting.
Not everyone is convinced it is
worth fighting to save Pound.
“Let it go back to the county,”
said one former merchant, who
spoke on the condition of ano-
nymity for fear of retribution
over the deeply emotional sub-
ject. “We don’t have any benefits
from the town.”
The Kingsport Times-News, a
Tennessee newspaper that has
chronicled Pound’s travails, pro-So one member, Clifton Cau-
thorne, took what he called the
“kamikaze option” — he quit,
dropping the council’s member-
ship low enough that a local
judge was required to step in and
appoint three new members.
“I kind of forced their hand,
because we were at a standstill,”
Cauthorne said.
The task before the new coun-
cil is huge. The town has no paid
clerk/treasurer, no paid attorney
and only a part-time police chief.
Tax receipts and bills alike are
piled in offices at town hall. No
one is sure who owes taxes or
how much revenue to expect for
the coming year.
Kennedy spends Fridays and
Saturdays at town hall, going
through paperwork. She never
knows what she might find when
she opens a drawer.
Once it was $20,000 in checks,
another time a $15,000 unpaid
bill for the town’s insurance
policy.
The state offers few, if any,
formal resources to help towns
such as Pound — no training for
newly elected council members
and no mechanism to flag prob-
lems or provide aid. For towns
under 3,500 in population, there
is no state requirement for audits
or for conflict of interest disclo-
sures by local officials. Pound’s
audits were voluntary or, in some
cases, to satisfy banks that had
provided loans.
Next door in Lee County, the
town of St. Charles has dwindled
to fewer than 100 residents and
FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
Trying to rebuild a t own government from scratch after so much dysfunction
STEVE HELBER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
House Majority Leader Terry Kilgore (R-Scott), left, introduced a
bill to dissolve Pound’s charter. It was signed into law last month.BY FREDERIC J. FROMMERFour years ago, when — as now
— the nation was reeling from the
horror of a mass school shooting, a
retired Supreme Court justice sug-
gested a radical solution: get rid of
the Second Amendment.
John Paul Stevens issued the
call after 17 people were killed at
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High
School in Parkland, Fla., in Febru-
ary 2018. The attack prompted
hundreds of thousands to demand
action to end gun violence the next
month at the March for Our Lives.
In a March 27, 2018, New York
Times op-ed, Stevens praised the
protesters and their call for strict-
er gun-control laws. “But the dem-
onstrators should seek more effec-
tive and more lasting reform,” he
wrote, about a year before his
death at 99. “They should demand
a repeal of the Second Amend-
ment.”
Stevens said the amendment
was adopted out of concern that a
national standing army might
pose a threat to the security of the
states. “Today that concern is a
relic of the 18th century,” he wrote.
He called repeal a “simple but
dramatic action [that] would
move Saturday’s marchers closer
to their objective than any other
possible reform” and would make
schoolchildren safer.
But Stevens didn’t acknowl-
edge the herculean challenge that
his proposal entailed, as there was
(and remains) zero chance that
gun-control advocates would get
anywhere close to the two-thirds
majority in both chambers of Con-
gress and ratification by three-
fourths of the states needed for
repeal.
Stevens’s proposal didn’t gener-
ate a lot of momentum, but it did
get pushback from some fellow
liberals.
“I admire Justice Stevens but
his supposedly ‘simple but dra-
matic’ step of repealing the 2d Am
is AWFUL advice,” tweeted Lau-
rence Tribe, a Harvard law profes-sor. “The obstacle to strong gun
laws is political, not legal. Urging a
politically impossible effort just
strengthens opponents of achiev-
able reform.”
Tribe expanded on his argu-
ment in a Washington Post op-ed,
headlined “The Second Amend-
ment isn’t the problem.” “The
NRA’s strongest rallying cry has
been: ‘They’re coming for our be-
loved Second Amendment,’ ” hewrote. “Enter Stevens, stage left,
boldly calling for the amend-
ment’s demise, thereby giving aid
and comfort to the gun lobby’s
favorite argument.”
In his op-ed, Stevens wrote that
repeal was necessary to overturn
the Supreme Court’s 2008 District
of Columbia v. Heller ruling that
Americans have an individual
right to bear arms. He was one of
four dissenters in that case.“For over 200 years after the
adoption of the Second Amend-
ment, it was uniformly under-
stood as not placing any limit on
either federal or state authority to
enact gun control legislation,” Ste-
vens wrote in the op-ed.
Republican President Gerald
Ford nominated Stevens to the
court in 1975, when the nomina-
tions were not as politicized as
they are today. Stevens eventually
became one of its most liberal
members. Although his 2018 pro-
posal didn’t go anywhere, calls for
repeal continue today.
“Who will say on this network
or any other network in the next
few days, ‘It’s time to repeal the
Second Amendment?’ ” liberal
filmmaker Michael Moore chal-
lenged during a feisty appearance
on MSNBC’s “All In With Chris
Hayes” last week.
“Look, I support all gun-control
legislation,” Moore said. “Not sen-
sible gun control. We don’t need
the sensible stuff. We need the
hardcore stuff that’s going to pro-
tect ourselves and our children.”
Writing in the New Republic on
Thursday, Walter Shapiro, a fellow
at the Brennan Center for Justice
at New York University School of
Law and a lecturer in political
science at Yale University, said
that “the hard truth is that the core
problem is the Second Amend-
ment itself. And America is going
to reel from one mass murder to
another unless the Second
Amendment is repealed or the Su-
preme Court drastically reduces
its scope.”
“As a starting point,” he added,“Democrats should drop the
mealy-mouthed formulation, ‘No-
body supports the Second Amend-
ment more than I do, but still... .’
Claiming fidelity to the Second
Amendment has never convinced
a single NRA supporter of a candi-
date’s sincerity, but it has stopped
bold thinking about lasting solu-
tions to America’s gun crisis.”
But repeal hasn’t been a main-
stream cause. Just last month,
President Biden declared, “I sup-
port the Second Amendment,” al-
though he said that didn’t mean
people could get any gun they
wanted. In the wake of last week’s
Texas elementary school massacre
that left 19 children and two teach-
ers dead, Biden said the Second
Amendment is not absolute, and
that common-sense gun control
would not “negatively affect” it.
Stevens’s op-ed came just a few
years after he issued a proposal to
amend the Second Amendment in
his book “Six Amendments: How
and Why We Should Change the
Constitution,” which was excerpt-
ed in a 2014 Washington Post opin-
ion piece. Stevens suggested add-
ing five words (in italics below) to
the amendment: “A well regulated
Militia, being necessary to the se-
curity of a free State, the right of
the people to keep and bear Arms
when serving in the Militia shall
not be infringed.”Fr ederic J. Frommer, a writer and
sports historian, is the author of
several books including “ You Gotta
Have Heart: Washington Baseball
from Walter Johnson to the 2019
World Series Champion Nationals.”RETROPOLIS
A justice’s Second Amendment answer t o gun violence
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens issued a c all in an op-ed to get rid of the Second
Amendment after 17 people were killed in a mass shooting at Parkland, Fla., high school in 2018.