The Maryland Court of Special Appeals has sided with the county in a dispute over a police officer who authorities say ignored an armed robbery call less than a block away from where she was sitting in her police car but challenged her one-day suspension.
The ruling, which overturns an earlier judgment by the Montgomery County Circuit Court, gives Police Chief J. Thomas Manger more control over how his officers are punished by letting him pick the officers who make up hearing boards that review cases of officer misconduct.
“It’s another tool that’s available,” said Ed Lattner, a division chief in the county attorney’s office.
The ruling stems from two cases of alleged officer misconduct, including the case of Cpl. Nancy Swandic, who court records show was in her patrol car outside a Bethesda police station when she heard “part” of an emergency dispatch call that a gas station on the same block had just been robbed.
In the other case, Manger said an officer “acted in a belligerent/and or hostile and/or unprofessional manner” toward two other officers who had pulled over his girlfriend, who was driving the officer’s car without current registration.
Manger offered both officers a one-day suspension as penalties. The officers refused and sought to have hearings before what’s called an “alternate” hearing panel made up of an officer picked by Manger, one officer picked by the Fraternal Order of Police union, and an agreed-on neutral panel member.
But the county contended, and the Court of Special Appeals agreed, that the officers didn’t have the right to request an “alternate” hearing because they were being accused of “minor” offenses that carry less than a three-day unpaid suspension as punishment. Instead, they could appeal their punishment solely to a panel made up of three officers picked by Manger.
The county attorney’s office has told The Examiner that the disciplinary process in the department has been tilted in favor of the union, and the neutral panel member of the “alternate” hearing boards almost always sides with union members.
In 2007, none of the 24 cases that went before the “alternate” hearing board resulted in the punishment originally sought by Manger, according to Assistant County Attorney Chris Hinrichs.
FOP officials have disputed those claims, saying the county has a history of seeking unreasonable punishments and bringing “weak” cases against its members.
