July 31, 2020

Sisters and Brothers,

In early 2019, SBWD attorneys discovered several violations by the Baltimore Police Department’s Internal Affairs Section regarding the administrative charges against members of the FOP.  At this time, Attorney Mike Davey and President Mike Mancuso brought these violations to the attention of Chief of Staff Melancon, as well as BPD Legal, to point out the Department’s weak position.  The Department was asked to throw out the affected complaints, but they refused to do so.  In April of 2019, attorneys at SBWD filed Show Cause complaints in the Baltimore City Circuit Court for each case.  The Court ruled in favor of FOP #3 in June of 2019 which then caused the City to file an appeal to the Special Court of Appeals.

Oral arguments were heard in the Special Court of Appeals in May 2020, presented by Adam Davey. Yesterday, July 30, 2020, the Court handed down a decision in which it agreed with the Circuit Court of Baltimore City in their assessment that the statute of limitations had expired, and that all the administrative cases should be dismissed.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Adam Davey and SBWD for their responsiveness in representing our Lodge and our members.  We are aware that the Department continues to flagrantly violate past practices as well as our rights under the MOU and we will, as always, continue to fight all further attempts to do so.

Mike