Sept. 11--An internal investigation into whether the county police's Western District commander committed perjury in U.S. District Court has been completed, but county officials are remaining mum on the probe's findings.
Last month former Anne Arundel County employee Karla Hamner filed a complaint against Capt. Eric Hodge, a 15-year-veteran on the force, after testimony provided by two officers seemed to contradict testimony Hodge gave in affidavits filed in Hamner's lawsuit against the county for gender discrimination and retaliation.
Hamner was informed that the investigation was completed in a letter dated Sept. 6 and signed by Lt. Shawn Urbas, the commander of the police department's Internal Affairs section.
When Hamner sought the conclusions of the investigation from the county Office of Law, Senior Assistant County Attorney Julie T. Sweeney declined the request. In emails provided to Capital Gazette, Sweeney said the information is "personnel records."
Hamner accused the department of turning a "blind eye" toward the complaint.
"We really hoped to get a fair shot at a fair investigation and it didn't happen," Hamner said. "Of all the things that have happened to me, this makes me the angriest. It all just doesn't add up."
County police spokesman Justin Mulcahy referred requests for comment to the county Office of Law.
Reached by phone Friday afternoon, County Attorney Jonathan Hodgson confirmed that the investigation had been concluded but declined to comment further.
Hamner's lawsuit, filed in 2010, alleges her firing was ordered by Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold after she filed a personnel complaint against the county executive. She is seeking $300,000 in damages.
Hamner's suit is one of two filed against the county alleging gender discrimination and wrongful termination.
In a lawsuit filed in March, former constituent services specialist Joan Harris alleges she was fired for failing to support Leopold's re-election campaign in 2010 and for helping Hamner with her case.
Hamner was hired as a full-time county employee in August 2007. A year later, she was transferred from the Arundel Center to the county police department in a provisional position until she applied for a job as the department's public information officer.
The move came after Hamner complained to county's Office of Personnel after Leopold grabbed her and yelled at her about her hairstyle, according to the initial complaint.
In September 2008, she was informed that she was not being chosen for the position and was offered two weeks of severance pay, according to lawsuit.
In a June affidavit filed by the county Office of Law in a motion to dismiss the case, Hodge said he had "no reason to retaliate" against Hamner. He said the allegations that Leopold or anyone from his office influenced the hiring process were false.
Then, last month, Lt. Thomas Kohlmann testified that Hodge had referred to himself as a "problem solver" and a "fixer" in Hamner's firing.
Kohlmann testified that in August 2008 he had a conversation with Hodge at the department's Millersville headquarters in which Hodge told him Leopold "had a problem with a woman down at the Arundel Center ... we're going to do interviews for the position, but she ain't getting the job."
While Maj. Edward Bergin testified that he had never directly heard Hodge talk about his involvement in Hamner's firing, he said that he had been approached by Kohlmann and police fleet coordinator Justin Duncan, both of whom told him that Hodge had referred to himself as "the fixer."
"All I know is he had came to certain people and said he was the fixer," Bergin testified. "That was the word in the police department. Everybody knew she wasn't getting the job."
Bergin also testified to being present when former Police Chief James Teare Sr. received a phone call from Leopold ordering Hamner's firing.
Reached by phone on Monday at the Western District police station, Hodge declined to comment.
Some 10 months after Hamner was fired, Hodge was promoted to Western District captain. He received a 5 percent pay increase, making his annual salary $90,167.
He was promoted alongside Norman Milligan and Frederick Plitt, two lieutenants also promoted to the rank of captain, who both received similar pay increases of 4.9 percent.
Hamner said she was particularly disappointed given the recent change of leadership in the department.
Former police Chief Larry Tolliver returned to the post in late July after Teare retired. Teare's retirement came after the state prosecutor's office announced it was dropping a criminal probe into former chief's conduct.
Leopold is scheduled to stand trial in January on charges of misconduct and misappropriation. He is accused of asking officers to rip down an opponent's campaign sign, compile dossiers on his supposed political enemies and drive him to local parking lots to have sex with a county employee.
The March indictment against Leopold stated that Teare knew about the alleged activity but failed to take action.
"The department had a chance to clean this mess up -- I thought that's what Tolliver was there for," Hamner said.
Copyright 2012 - The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
