By Marc Korman.
Last time we reviewed two of the priorities State’s Attorney John McCarthy discussed at a recent visit to the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Breakfast Club. Today, we will look at what the State’s Attorney had to say about his third priority, Internet Safety, and other issues.
Internet Safety
McCarthy expressed concern about two issues involving what he called Internet safety, both affecting school children: sexting and cyber-bullying.
Sexting is the practice of sending explicit pictures electronically, typically by cell phone. The problem becomes acute if the recipient shares the pictures broadly. As with senior awareness, McCarthy has visited schools and tried to emphasize to students that anything they send electronically could end up exposed to the public. Cyber-bullying involves a young person being impersonated online or being harassed online through negative comments and messages.
As with his senior outreach, McCarthy is working with Superintendent Weast and Police Chief Manger on outreach to public schools.
Other Issues
McCarthy touched on a few other issues important to his office.
On gangs, McCarthy said there are 40 gangs in the County with 1600 to 1800 members. However, the three biggest are the Bloods, the Cryps, and MS-13. Although the amount of gang members incarcerated is going up, McCarthy estimated that only 5% of the crimes committed in the County were actually gang related. He also emphasized that gangs and undocumented immigrants are not synonymous.
McCarthy also talked about the need for more engagement with students. 56% of juvenile crimes occur between 2pm and 6pm. The State’s Attorney believes that decreasing the rate of truancy could reduce juvenile crime. Of course, 2pm is usually the end of the school day so there is a need for more after school engagement as well. One idea McCarthy advanced was sending attendance records to juvenile parole and probation officers on a daily basis so they can see how their charges are doing.
In 2006, the major issue McCarthy’s competitor raised was the poor state of IT in the State’s Attorney’s office. McCarthy acknowledged that IT advances have been slow due to the goal of an interoperable system where the prosecutors, law enforcement, social workers, and others could all access the same case management system. However, McCarthy said the new, integrated system would be online within 30 days to monitor and manage the State’s Attorney’s 30,000 annual cases.
But all is not rosy administratively. The State’s Attorney’s budget, provided by the County, has been cut by 9% over two years. One way McCarthy has tried to mitigate this is an increased emphasis on seeking grants. His grantwriter is Seth Zucker, McCarthy’s spokesperson, one of the architects of his 2006 campaign, and brother of D14 Democrat Craig Zucker. Despite the cuts, the office still has a $12.5 million budget and 125 full time employees.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
John McCarthy at the BCC Breakfast Club, Part Two
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
John McCarthy at the BCC Breakfast Club, Part One
By Marc Korman.
On November 2nd, John McCarthy visited the Bethesda Chevy-Chase Breakfast Club. He announced, though not for the first time, that he was seeking reelection and discussed three of the key issues he has worked on over his three years as State’s Attorney: domestic violence, senior fraud, and Internet safety. He also discussed a few other issues facing his office.
The visit was McCarthy’s third to the BCC Breakfast Club. The first came during his campaign, where he jointly appeared with the other Democratic primary candidate, Dan Fox. That visit and some of the comments made during it were part of a defamation suit Fox filed against McCarthy. The suit was dropped and Fox paid McCarthy’s legal fees. McCarthy also visited the Club in 2008 to describe some of his office’s work.
Domestic Violence
According to the State’s Attorney, Maryland had 72 domestic violence homicides in 2008, with 5 of them occurring in Montgomery County. That was a bit lower than previous years, as in some years domestic violence homicides make up half the total homicides in the County. In 2008 there were 21 total homicides throughout the County.
In 2010, McCarthy will head the Maryland State’s Attorneys. That means he will be the point person on legislation in Annapolis affecting the State’s Attorneys, primarily criminal laws. But he was also active during the last legislative session and touted the state’s passage of a law allowing judges to remove guns from those who have temporary domestic violence protective orders against them and requiring their removal for final protective orders.
The County has also opened the Family Justice Center in Rockville. The center houses 40 different organizations and agencies, both government and private, who can provide services for victims of domestic violence ranging from food, career counseling, and legal services. After a similar center was established in San Diego, their domestic violence homicides dropped from 32 to 4. All of those should not be attributed to the center, but providing victim services likely does help the abused escape terrible circumstances and avoid repeat incidents.
Senior Fraud
Elder abuse crimes are on the rise. While the term usually refers to physical abuse or neglect, there is also a good deal of exploitation against seniors through financial crimes. McCarthy usually emphasizes crime prevention, but in this case he has a particular concern with crime reporting. Only 4% of crimes committed against seniors are reported by those seniors, though McCarthy did not elaborate as to whether that was due to embarrassment or lack of awareness that a crime had occurred. McCarthy has been touring the County and speaking to seniors groups as part of a Senior Exploitation awareness program to try to improve that statistic.
Crimes that are reported are prosecuted using evidence based prosecution. Due to the specific nature of the victim, who may be elderly and in some cases infirm, the prosecutors put more of an emphasis on other evidence besides the victim’s statement.
In Part Two, we will see what else the State’s Attorney had to say.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Battle Joined on Fourth Circuit Nominee
Bethesdan Rod Rosenstein, the U.S. Attorney for Maryland, has been nominated for a Maryland seat on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Fourth Circuit has long been seen as the most conservative in the federal judiciary. Judicial appointees have become highly partisan and controversial and the Fourth Circuit currently has only 10 of the 15 judgeships are currently filled. However, staunch opposition by Maryland's two Democratic senators promises to torpedo any chance of Rosenstein being confirmed by the Senate:
Maryland's senators exercise virtual veto power over a nomination from their state, and they have criticized Rosenstein's dearth of legal experience in the state and his lack of strong Maryland roots. They also bemoaned the inability to settle on a compromise candidate with the White House.President Bush, long famed for his bipartisan approach, attacked the Senate in response as he continued his tradition in speaking only to groups inside the bubble by giving an address to the conservative Federalist Society:
"Rod Rosenstein is doing a good job as the U.S. attorney in Maryland, and that's where we need him. He plays a vital role in fighting crime and protecting our communities in Maryland," Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski said in a statement. "In the twilight of the Bush administration, we don't need an acting U.S. attorney in Maryland. In light of the mismanagement of the Bush administration Justice Department, we cannot risk another vacancy."
In the joint statement, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin added: "I regret that the White House did not listen to our recommendations to keep Rod Rosenstein as U.S. attorney. We had had hoped to work with the administration to find a consensus candidate for the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals with deep roots in the Maryland legal community."
Praised for his effective stewardship of about 70 federal prosecutors in Baltimore and Greenbelt, Rosenstein - who remains in the post during the confirmation process - is nonetheless likely to see his nomination wither without the support of Mikulski and Cardin, said one longtime court watcher.
"It's extremely unlikely that he'll be confirmed," said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.
"The Senate is no longer asking the right question, whether a nominee is someone who will uphold our Constitution and laws," he said in excerpts of a speech he was to deliver last night to the Federalist Society, a conservative group that emphasizes legal matters.Not all Democrats agree with Mikulski and Cardin's approach. Montgomery State's Attorney John McCarthy supports the nomination:
"Instead, nominees are asked to guarantee specific outcomes of cases that might come before the court," he said. "If they refuse - as they should - they often find their nomination ends up in limbo instead of on the Senate floor."
"I think he is a phenomenal nominee," said Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy, who lauded Rosenstein's efforts to reach out to local prosecutors' offices. "I think he has done an extraordinarily fine job as U.S. attorney, uniformly respected by prosecutors and defense attorneys alike."And Mikulski did support him for the post of U.S. Attorney. Of course, supporting someone for a temporary post as prosecutor is different than a lifetime appointment to the federal circuit court overseeing Maryland. No doubt our two liberal senators do not relish the idea of solidfying conservative control of this court for many more years. Rosenstein is only 42 and could easily spend decades on the court.
