I Have an Endorsement

Which I am sure that my reader(s) in Baltimore County are waiting for with bated breath.

Specifically, I am endorsing Robbie Leonard over incumbent Scott Shellenberger in the race for Baltimore County State's Attorney.  (Another name for DA, you can get a good start on the issues involved here.)

The short version is that Schellenberger is a soft on cops, refusing to prosecute misconduct, and he threatened a rape victim in an attempt to keep her from filing charges on her own.

………

Shellenberger is a defendant in a federal lawsuit alleging unfair treatment of female victims of sexual assault. A judge dismissed most of the lawsuit, but let one claim go forward: an allegation that Shellenberger and others in his office violated a woman’s constitutional rights.

The remaining case centers on events that followed a Towson University student’s report she was raped by three men in 2017. After county prosecutors declined to charge the men, the woman tried to file charges on her own through a court commissioner. Shellenberger and others in his office, according to the lawsuit, told police to go to her home to tell her to stop seeking charges.

The judge handling the lawsuit wrote that the case should be heard because a reasonable jury could find that Shellenberger and other defendants had a “retaliatory motive.“ A civil trial is scheduled for September.

Shellenberger said he acted out of concern that the men would sue the woman or file criminal charges against her.

So, as opposed to, for example, having someone call and explain the legal jeopardy, he sent cops to this woman's home.  Does not sound like concern to me.

It sounds like he did not want his office embarrassed by a private prosecution after soft pedaling a gang rape, and used the cops as his bully-boys.

Stay classy, my friend.