Ousted police Commissioner Kevin P. Clark has filed a lawsuit against Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley that contends he was unlawfully fired, in part because his department was investigating a city official closely allied to the mayor.
The lawsuit was filed in Baltimore Circuit Court a week after O'Malley dismissed Clark, and it provides the first detailed glimpse into the "communication breakdown" and dwindling trust that O'Malley gave as reasons for Clark's firing. It also lays out just how rapidly their relationship deteriorated after a domestic dispute May 15 involving Clark and the ensuing internal investigations conducted on high-ranking officers who responded to the incident.
Through spokesmen, O'Malley repeatedly declined to comment yesterday, but his City Solicitor Ralph S. Tyler said the lawsuit is without merit and filled with "wild allegations."
In the lawsuit, Clark demands to be reinstated and accuses O'Malley of overstepping his authority, not only by firing him on Nov. 10, but by dispatching Tyler to intervene in the internal police investigation of high-ranking officers who initially investigated Clark's domestic altercation with his fiancee. He seeks $60 million.
Clark alleges in the lawsuit that O'Malley was partially motivated to dismiss him because of several "sensitive investigations" being conducted by his officers that threatened to reveal official misconduct in O'Malley's City Hall and the Police Department.
"The actions taken by the Mayor on Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2004, are nothing short of bizarre," the lawsuit states.
Clark points out in the lawsuit that within two weeks O'Malley went from praising the commissioner's success at reducing violent crime to firing him. During that time, the mayor lost a legal battle with The Sun and WBAL-TV that forced him to release an independent investigation of Clark's May domestic dispute.
The investigation, conducted by Howard County police, did not substantiate any allegations, though it turned up other alleged - but unproven - domestic disputes from Clark's past in New York.
Clark claims in the lawsuit filed late Tuesday that O'Malley cannot dismiss him without showing "official misconduct, malfeasance, inefficiency or incompetency."
The lawsuit goes on to describe the disintegrating relationship between O'Malley and Clark. It alleges that O'Malley stymied Clark and his close adviser, the chief of police internal affairs, as they sought to investigate city and police officials close to the mayor.
