MONTGOMERY COUNTY

JUDGE BODYSLAMS

COUNTY COUNCIL,

EXECUTIVE FOR

"SCAPEGOATING"

POLICE OFFICERS

Wow, someone else in Montgomery County is finally saying what I've been saying for months. That the County Executive, County Council and Inspector General had falsely accused police officers, and one officer who ran a private law enforcement training firm, of ripping off the taxpayers. And of buying "subsidized guns using taxpayer money."

Of course, this was all hogwash. Ike Leggett and the County Council are in a terrible financial hole, thanks to their out of control budget practices. To close the budget gap, they have tried to scapegoat county police officers to cover up their own fiscal mismanagement. They tried to bankrupt Officer (and firm owner) Aaron Bailey, by demanding almost $1 million dollars in compensatory and punitive damages.

In truth, however, these officers were innocent of all charges, and were simply taking the courses approved by Mr. Leggett and the County Council. And, as I argued on this blog months ago, who in the county would we want to have a gun more than a well-trained, law enforcement professional? What is the danger in a police officer owning an additional gun?

Now, a highly-respected Montgomery County Circuit Court judge has ruled in the case, finding the defendant not guilty. In the process, the judge spoke out, and was quoted in the back pages of yesterday's Washington Post, which had initially failed to report this very important story.

Take it away, your honor:

"There was an amount of embarrassment at some point that caused the county to bring this action. If the [executive and council] feel they got duped, or they feel embarrassed, or they feel they shouldn't have to pay [Bailey], well, that's their fault, that's not the defendant's fault. ...I am going to assume that these [officers] got quality courses and are better law enforcement officers for it, and that our county is safer now for having gone to this course. And I'm also going to assume that they got a discount on a gun, and we want law enforcement officers to have guns. It helps to fight bad guys."

- Circuit Judge Terrence J. McGann

What it boiled down to is this, in the words of Post reporter Dan Morse:

"Montgomery County officials were so stung by criticism over a tuition assistance program that they filed a groundless lawsuit against a police officer to recover more than $400,000, a judge said as he dismissed the suit this week."

The exonerated defendant's attorney summed up the executive and council's action in this analysis:

"The county filed its complaint in bad faith and without substantial justification in an effort to deflect clearly anticipated criticism aimed at the responsible county officials... and to attempt to preserve their reputations in the upcoming elections in November 2010. [Bailey and his firm] thereby became the scapegoats for the county's egregious mismanagement of taxpayer monies."

- Attorney Charles S. Rand, on behalf of Officer Bailey

These are words to take with you to the polls on November 2, as you can throw out the politicians who have repeatedly made county police officers scapegoats for their own fiscal mismanagement.