Posts about Corruption

A police department statement pointedly noted that Toles's "violations [were] observed by a uniformed patrol officer operating a marked police cruiser on the Capital Beltway..."

Apparently, it took more than the usual amount of effort from police to stop the speeding councilmember. The Examiner reports that Toles's vehicle was "surrounded by officers"—indicating that multiple vehicles and officers were involved in the chase prior to the vehicle being stopped on Branch Avenue. WJLA states that "some officers approached Toles's car with their guns drawn."

Multiple officer accounts state that Toles repeatedly identified and referred to herself as the District 7 county councilmember and acted in a belligerent manner toward the officers throughout the traffic stop.

After police realized that they had stopped a member of the county council and not some ordinary scofflaw, they decided to issue her a citation only for an unsafe lane change, which carries a $90 fine and one point against her driver's license. The officer gave Toles a written warning for speeding.

Police defend their actions, claim no preferential treatment

Police were quick to defend their initial handling of this matter. However, they also left open the possibility that additional charges may be forthcoming after further review of the situation by police brass.

In response to growing concerns from the media and the public about apparent preferential treatment of a county official, the police stated:

The issuance of a warning citation for the speed is consistent with the typical discretion applied by police officers to speeding motorists. The traffic violations were captured on the police officer's in-car camera, and the incident will be subject to command review. At the moment, the video is evidence in a pending District Court traffic case, and will not be released.

Clearly, most drivers who are observed by a uniformed police officer going 50 miles over the speed limit would be immediately ticketed, and possibly arrested for reckless driving. This is especially so if, like Toles, they are crossing multiple lanes on the Capital Beltway, not immediately stopping in response to multiple police lights and sirens, and acting belligerently toward police, who felt the need to draw their weapons in response to the traffic stop.

For the county police to suggest that the issuance of a warning under such circumstances is "consistent with the typical discretion applied by police officers to speeding motorists" defies logic.

Toles released a statement shortly after the incident, stating that she "consider[s] moving violations serious matters," that she regrets the incident, and that she intends to pay the $90 ticket for the unsafe lane change. She later said she would temporarily give up her county vehicle and also take a driver safety course.

Toles is no stranger to serious traffic violations

Based on her driving record over the past couple of years, the public has ample reason to question whether Toles genuinely regards moving violations as "serious matters."

On August 5, 2010, Toles pled guilty in Upper Marlboro District Court to making an unsafe lane change on March 31, 2010, at Martin Luther King Jr. Hwy and Greenleaf Road. She paid a $90 fine. This is the exact same charge for which she received a ticket in the February 22, 2012 incident.

On April 1, 2011, Toles pled guilty in Hyattsville District Court to driving off the roadway while passing a vehicle on September 7, 2010, at the Capital Beltway and Pennsylvania Avenue. She also pled guilty to failing to display her registration card upon demand by the police during that same incident. She paid a total of $150 in fines.

In both of those 2010 instances, court records reflect that Toles' driver's license was temporarily suspended for several weeks, prior to her guilty pleas, after the councilmember failed to appear in court to answer the charges.

Justice and fair play require that Toles face charges

After the Jack and Leslie Johnson scandals, the last thing Prince George's County needs is for another of its public officials to get away with gaming the system by trading on their political office.

Two days before Toles was stopped by police, another driver killed herself and injured 4 others in a horrendous crash. She was driving similar 100+ mph speeds on Martin Luther King Jr. Highway. Like Toles, the driver in that fatal incident was a repeat traffic offender. Indeed, she actually had received a ticket on January 22 for traveling 91 mph in a 55 mph zone—which is 14 mph less than Toles' alleged speed on February 22.

Toles knew exactly what she was doing when she belligerently and repeatedly identified herself as a county councilmember after leading police on a high-speed chase. She wanted to intimidate the police into not charging her with serious traffic violations. And in that effort, she has been successful—at least up to this point.

Based on the police officer accounts that have been reported thus far, there appears to be ample probable cause to support charging Toles with multiple serious traffic violations arising out of the February 22 incident, including but not limited to reckless driving, fleeing or eluding police, and obstruction of justice.

Police claim that one of the reasons the ticketing officer did not cite Toles for exceeding the speed limit initially was that the officer had no radar, had not properly calibrated his speedometer, and did not have time to pace her actual speed while giving chase. However, the determination of Toles's precise speed is not an essential element to either of the above charges.

Under Maryland's point system, a conviction on these traffic charges could result in mandatory suspension or revocation of Toles's license, in addition to any other applicable fines or jail time.

The Prince George's County Police have said they will review the situation and may charge Toles with additional violations. Hopefully, Chief Mark Magaw, Assistant Chief Kevin Davis (301-772-4740), and the rest of the executive review panel will take this opportunity to do the right thing and charge the council member in the same manner as any other driver would have been charged under similar circumstances.

If the police don't do their job, then it is up to the State's Attorney's Office to protect the interests of Maryland's citizens in Prince George's County. The office's District Court Division, headed by Chief Mary Brennan (304-952-3967) and Assistant Chief Michael Glynn (301-952-2875), is ultimately responsible for prosecuting misdemeanor crimes in Prince George's. That office should not hesitate to pursue these charges directly if the county police department lacks the political will.

Once properly charged, Councilmember Toles should be afforded all the constitutional protections and presumptions that any other criminal defendant would have under our justice system—including the presumption of innocence, the right to a jury trial, and the requirement that the state prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Repeated reckless driving on Maryland's roads is, to use Karen Toles's own description, a very "serious matter." Nearly 600 people die each year in Maryland as a result of automobile crashes. If the police saw the councilmember engaging in such conduct on February 22, as multiple media reports suggest, they should not turn a blind eye toward that conduct, and neither should the State's Attorney's Office.

In America—including in Prince George's County—no one, regardless of their position in government, should be above the law.

It's pretty blatant, too. Brown isn't rearranging all the committees. He's just singling out Wells for punishment.

Wells will get the Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation, generally considered the least desirable post one of the least desirable posts. Mary Cheh, who is still close to Brown and his number two as Chair Pro Tempore, will take over Public Works and Transportation as well as keeping the Department of the Environment. Muriel Bowser, who got Parks and Rec in January because of her support for Mayor Fenty, will get Government Operations.

Committees are rarely shifted mid-term, and only to take responsibilities away from a member facing scandal. This may be the first time in history a committee is taken away midway from a member for being honest.

Brown had the opportunity to alter committees because Harry Thomas, Jr. stepped down from the Committee on Econmic Development amid his own ethical problems. Brown moved economic development into the Committee of the Whole, under his direct control.

Vincent Orange (at-large) wanted Economic Development, but Brown didn't want to give it to him because of their rivalry in the race for chair (and, perhaps, because Orange has a poor track record on economic development).

Instead, Brown is proposing a new, smaller committee with only oversight of the Department of Small & Local Business Development and some other smaller agencies, and is keeping Economic Development in the Committee of the Whole.

Since Orange has no committee today, there's no need for any further reshuffling. But apparently Brown is still sore from the report.

Ironically, however, that report could have been the best thing for Brown. It got the issue fully into the spotlight, reducing the long drip of new scandal news. It put a fair amount of blame on the Department of Public Works as well as on Brown.

Had Brown embraced the report, apologized for his missteps, and pushed to fix policies around official vehicles for the future to stop such failures from recurring, he could have put the issue behind him.

Brown had many opportunities to start rebuilding the Council's reputation. Instead, he has continued to drag it into the gutter. He told colleagues that his own campaign finance scandals didn't go any deeper, and then they did.

The Council started the year with very high esteem among the populace, after a term of steady and effective leadership under Vincent Gray. Now, it's widely derided, and rightly so, with many of its members facing some ethical questions.

Now, he's even transferring the DC Council's voting seat on the WMATA Board. That's quite ironic. Last year, before becoming chair, Kwame Brown participated in a secretive committee to study WMATA governance, dominated by the Board of Trade. One of the better recommendations from that committee was to make board appointments based less on politics. Now, Brown is reassigning the post once again based solely on politics, and dirty personal ones at that.

By putting politics over progress, Brown is abandoning a commitment to make transportation better in DC. The people of Ward 7, where Brown himself lives, could suffer. Wells was making improving bus service east of the Anacostia a cornerstone of his chairmanship. He hosted listening sessions in wards 4, 5, 7, and 8, got WMATA to promise technological upgrades for Metrobuses east of the river, and pushed the east of the river Circulator even though it meant losing some service in Ward 6.

Cheh, on the other hand, complained in the budget that the Circulator is going east of the river but doesn't go to the Palisades. Was that just posturing for her ward, or will she really push for more transportation spending in Ward 3 over other parts of DC?

Cheh is one of the least bad alternatives to head transportation, but it'll break the forward momentum that's been built with Council working closely with DDOT. Wells' staff has a deep understanding of transportation issues, including some carried over from when Jim Graham ran the committee. That institutional memory will likely be lost.

Plus, as Brown's closest confidante on the Council, Cheh could have tried to talk him out of this move which clearly makes him look petty. Does she also think keeping Brown's scandals quiet is the top public policy goal for the Council? Or is she sore with Tommy Wells for stymieing her plan to pretend to support the bond tax in place of an income tax, but then try to get both out of the budget?

DDOT is at a crossroads. New Director Terry Bellamy, formerly Gabe Klein's deputy, could aggressively move to implement the ambitious Action Agenda that Klein put together, including pedestrian safety, bikeshare expansion, cycle tracks, bus priority lanes, real-time bus information, Circulator expansion, performance parking and more.

Or, Bellamy could let inertia win out, not making the tough calls and allowing projects to stagnate when the public isn't unified for or against them, as they usually aren't. Wells and his team were well situated to push DDOT to achieve its potential.

By taking Wells off the committee for transparently political reasons, Brown is showing that forward progress in the District isn't foremost in his mind. Instead, punishing those who don't cover up his own ethical failings is the priority. At least now, we know exactly what kind of man we have as Chairman.

The Council typically goes along with a chairman's committee choices, but they all have to vote on the recommendation this morning. Will this Council really stand by and let Brown do this? If they do, each member will be sending the message that it's appropriate to cover up a colleague's misdeeds.

What, then, should the public assume is behind each future decision the Council makes? Or the difficult decisions they do not make? Email Brown and the Council or call Brown's office at (202) 724-8032 to remind them that this unprecedented, vindictive move will further degrade the reputations of Brown, each member who votes aye, and that of the Council as a whole.

Update: Mary Cheh has sent me the following statement:

Kwame decided to reshuffle and make more coherent committee functions. And yesterday he told me of his plan to emphasize the environmental work in one committee, bringing back environment to public works and transportation (stormwater, recycling and waste management, transportation policy, pollution and vehicles, etc. brought together with environmental policy) and he offered the committee to me. I jumped at it and am very enthusiastic.

The argument about making committees more coherent makes little sense when he's also splitting up the traditional Economic Development functions into smaller committees to limit Vincent Orange. We all know why this one area is being singled out. I'm disappointed that Cheh is defending such an ethically suspect move.