Nasty may be an understatement in a case that has been brewing for three years and has yet to seat a jury.
Heated testimony from former Baltimore Internal Affairs Chief Zeinab Rabold in a deposition is painting a picture of anger and intolerance for minority officers in a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by 14 current and former Baltimore City police officers, who are alleging discrimination and harassment in the department.
Rabold testified in a December deposition for Hopson v. the City of Baltimore ? a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore in 2004 that alleges black police officers are disciplined more harshly than white officers ? that she found a dead rat on her car windshield and that city officials called her repeatedly, asking her to stop an investigation of domestic abuse against her former boss, former City Police Commissioner Kevin P. Clark.
City attorney Joshua Auerbach grilled Rabold, who at one time was the highest-ranking African-American female officer in the department, about her knowledge of discrimination in the department, asking her repeatedly if she had encountered firsthand experience.
“Try finding a dead rat on your car with a racist flyer next to it,” she testified.
Perhaps Rabold?s most startling testimony was directed at Clark?s dismissal, when she said the investigation of Clark was irregular. “They were too busy trying to set up the man to fire him,” Rabold testified.
Rabold said that the officers involved in the investigation did not interview witnesses, failed to notify the Internal Investigations Division and rewrote the report of the assault. Rabold said she was forced to end the inquiry of the investigation.
“I got letters telling me to cease and desist,” she testified.
Clark was fired in November 2004 after allegations of domestic abuse against his girlfriend prompted Mayor O?Malley to call him a “distraction” from the city’s crime-fighting efforts. Rabold was fired along with him. An independent investigation by Howard County police cleared Clark of any wrongdoing.
Since the deposition, attorneys for the plaintiffs have asked a judge to compel the city to release more details on Clark?s dismissal.
A trial date has yet to be set.
