Captain Crook

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Captain Crook?
Trial Board of Deputy Nears
LEONARDTOWN --- St. Mary's Sheriff David Zylak told ST. MARY'S TODAY that Lt. Steven Doolan has notified the agency that he has hired an attorney to represent him in a pending trial board. Sheriff Zylak has placed administrative charges against Doolan in connection with a tractor trailer load of building materials which were taken from the secured storage area of the St. Mary's Sheriff's Department.
The loot was first seized in a raid conducted by Sheriff's deputies at the time that Doolan was the Assistant Sheriff and held the rank of Captain. Then Captain Doolan's step son and Doolan's friend allegedly were allowed to have possession of the loot by order of Doolan, according to court filings in the case.
The man from whom the materials were seized, Wendell Ford, 37, of Hermanville, represented by attorney Shane Mattingly, of Leonardtown, requested that District Court Judge John Slade order the Sheriff's Dept. to return his property after theft charges placed against him in January of 1999 were dropped in October of 2000 by States Attorney Richard Fritz.
On March 27, 2002, Judge Slade issued an order to the St. Mary's Sheriff's Department to return the building materials.
In June of 2002, ST. MARY'S TODAY first reported that the loot, allegedly first stolen by Ford, was now missing and no longer in the custody of the Sheriff and that the loot had been taken by deputies who used the materials at their own homes.
One deputy allegedly ripped off a deck around his home which had been built with the loot and the State Prosecutor intervened and conducted a year long investigation, handing over copies of his report to Fritz and Sheriff David Zylak, who was elected in 2002.
Zylak conducted a six month investigation and in December placed administrative charges against Doolan and property clerk Gary Dicks, a retired DC police officer.
Sources say that Dicks should have notified then Sheriff Richard Voorhaar of Doolan's instructions to give the property away to someone other than the victim or to the person from which it was seized.
Court filings allege that Doolan's stepson sold some of the materials for cash while State Prosecutors seized some of the materials from the home of Doolan's friend.
Sheriff Zylak has requested that the trial board be conducted in public, a move which has been criticized by the Fraternal Order of Police, who do not want the charges of corrupt conduct to be aired in public. Doolan has a right to deny the public to view the proceedings but if he wishes to appeal any decision of the trial board, that proceeding would be held in Circuit Court and will be open to the public.
Some citizens question why the FOP would want to protect crooked cops, as is alleged in this matter, and say that they will never again donate to FOP fundraisers.