Judge Orders Sheriff to Talk

LEONARDTOWN --- St. Mary’s Sheriff David Zylak (D.) will have a lot of explaining to do to attorneys for a Hermanville man who has been seeking the return of property seized from him by deputies nearly 5 years ago, as a result of a ruling Wednesday by Circuit Court Judge C. Clarke Raley. The Sheriff is going to have to answer the question, ‘where is the loot?"

It only took Judge Raley one day, following the filing of a response to a motion seeking to keep Zylak from talking, to rule on the case and speed it on towards a resolution.

The motion response filed by the attorneys seeking to question the Sheriff called the effort to protect the Sheriff from questioning, based on "fanciful legal argument, undisclosed material information and self-serving speculation intended to thwart Plaintiff’s right to conduct discovery of material information".

The response which won favor with Judge Raley, states "Sheriff Zylak has information reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence."

The loot sought, a tractor-trailer load of building supplies and other assorted items, such as a lawn tractor, a bathtub, a refrigerator and a safe, were all ordered returned to Wendell Ford, 36, by District Court Judge John Slade.

Ordinarily, when a Judge grants a request for an order to return property, which has been seized by police to a citizen, such orders are complied with immediately.

All it takes is for a lawyer to present the court order to the Sheriff’s Department and stand at the counter for the property to be handed over. Custody of the property is signed for, in a chain of custody, which runs back to the date on which it came into the custody of the Sheriff and was then put under lock and key.

Or in this case, the lawyer could have his client drive a truck up to the secure storage area and wait while deputies, using a forklift, load the truck with the material seized from Ford in a raid in January of 1999.

But when Judge John Slade made his ruling on March 28, 2002, ordering the return of Ford’s property, Ford and his attorneys made numerous trips and phone calls to the Sheriff’s headquarters seeking compliance with the court order.

After looking around the law enforcement center, Ford and his attorney, Shane Mattingly, of Leonardtown, were told the property is, well, we’ll let you know. The big stall was begun. No straight answers were forthcoming.

Anywhere from $40,000 to $80,000 (depending on what statements of the Sheriff’s Department you wish to believe) worth of property was simply not available with which to comply with the court order.

Ford was told to go away and not to bother the deputies. One deputy told him that the State’s Attorney really screwed up, referring to the dropped theft charges against Ford.

One source that told ST. MARY’S TODAY about the missing loot, said he saw Sheriff’s Department stickers on building materials being used to remodel a deputy’s home.

Many deputies who have undertaken home improvement projects in the last couple of years frantically searched for receipts for the building materials they used as the state prosecutor’s probe began to heat up.

One deputy who built a new deck before the missing loot story was reported, tore the deck off his home after the probe began.

Must have been in the wrong place to get the morning sun.

Now most residents and occasional visitors to St. Mary’s County are used to the Alice in Wonderland type of life that takes place here in the land of the flask, the fiddle and the dark roasted possum.

But in the missing loot case, while it was nothing new for property to disappear from the Sheriff’s lockup, this was the largest quantity of property to go missing….that we know of.

ST. MARY’S TODAY learned of the latest scandal to rock the administration of Sheriff Richard Voorhaar and after the news story was printed in June of 2002, the State Prosecutor called asking for a copy of the news story to be faxed to him.

Then-Sheriff Voorhaar, a Republican ending his second term, reportedly was "stonewalled" in the matter by his appointed Assistant Sheriff Capt. Steve Doolan. Voorhaar defrocked Doolan of his title and suspended him from active duty.

Voorhaar failed to file for reelection after the story hit the fan and his endorsed candidates in both the primary and general election both lost their races.

Enter Sheriff David Zylak on Dec. 2, 2002.

Zylak was sworn into office and in June of 2003, he was given a report on State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli’s yearlong investigation.

St. Mary’s State’s Attorney Richard Fritz, who dropped the charges against Ford in October of 2000, also was given the report.

Fritz and Doolan are old political pals and repeatedly Fritz made comments to the media attempting to explain away the missing loot. Creative tales attempting to explain how loads of building supplies may have been given to someone, other than the person the property was seized from, were spun by the Enterprise newspaper after that paper’s reporter consulted with his longtime associates, Fritz and Doolan.

Just a big mistake, was the prevalent theme which was tried out on a public who knew better.

Doolan’s wife has been Fritz’s election campaign treasurer in 1998 and last year, therefore there is little surprise that Fritz has yet to file charges of criminal theft against Doolan.

Another option for Fritz would be to ask the Circuit Court to appoint a special prosecutor to review the investigation of Montanarelli’s office.

A federal lawsuit claiming that Doolan, a friend of his who works for Eagan, McAlister and Associates and Doolan’s stepson stole the property and converted it to cash and their own use, has also been filed by Ford.

But the real surprise has been the lack of action on the part of Sheriff Zylak, who now is one year into his term and can be said to "own" this situation, as it is his option to simply fire Doolan.

Zylak told ST. MARY’S TODAY in November that he expects that his department’s investigation into the information contained in the report issued to him by Montanarelli will conclude by Christmas.

Sheriff Zylak reiterated his determination to put this matter behind him on Wednesday and said he was comfortable that the probe would be done as he had forecast.

While some question the Sheriff’s lack of action thus far, he says he is simply being methodical and careful in all of his official actions.

As part of a lawsuit filed by Ford to obtain the return of his property, his attorneys, Mattingly and Michael Suessmann, have scheduled depositions of Montanarelli and Zylak, both of whom are believed to have intimate knowledge of ‘where is the loot’.

Montanarelli told ST. MARY’S TODAY two weeks ago that he had been deposed but would not say whether or not he actually disclosed the contents of his investigation.

Baltimore attorney Kevin Karpinski, attorney for Sheriff Zylak, made a lengthy legal motion for a protective order to keep Sheriff Zylak from spilling the beans on the missing loot.

Why would Zylak not want to get out from under the cloud of the missing loot and restore the public perception of his agency to one of respect?

Sheriff Zylak says that he wants exactly that, thus the decision to attempt to avoid providing information that would assist Ford’s attorneys, comes not from Zylak but from the lawyers who represent the county and the county’s insurance company, the Local Government Insurance Trust (LGIT).

The motive for the law firm to drag out the issue could be that they bill the county’s insurance company and the county by the hour.

The attorneys for Ford noted in their court pleadings that Sheriff Zylak had knowledge of the issues in the case as demonstrated in comments made during a campaign debate more than a year ago, as well as in comments he made in an article in ST. MARY’S TODAY on Oct. 26^th when he said his probe would be over by Christmas.

"Since December 25 is less than three weeks from now, it is readily apparent that Sheriff Zylak presently has information that directly goes to the core of Plaintiff’s case or that can provide leads to such information."

Ford’s attorneys said that they were pleased at the decision by Judge Raley to let the case proceed and that a scheduling conference is set for Dec. 15^th. They hope to be able to question the Sheriff before Christmas.

Perhaps by Christmas, Sheriff Zylak’s investigators will find out who has been naughty. Ford’s attorneys may find that development to be nice.