Getting the apology was the hardest part.
As late as three weeks ago, two months after court records show the state of Maryland agreed to settle a lawsuit with money and words of contrition over the arrest of a musician accused of e-mailing a bomb threat to the airport, he was still in court fighting to get authorities to say they were sorry.
A frustrated attorney representing the man complained in a court filing, argued before a judge July 1, that the state had failed to live up to its May 25 settlement agreement and that an attorney representing the state had told her "it would be a cold day in hell" before her client could have his "sought-after retraction and apology forwarded to anyone."
The words George F. Spicka waited 27 months to hear finally came Wednesday at 1:29 p.m. in the form of an unusual two-paragraph, 94-word statement from Kelly Melhem, spokeswoman for the Maryland Transportation Authority, whose officers had led the investigation. She sent it to the news media in an e-mail.
"The MdTa advises the public that it has no information connecting George F. Spicka with any illegal activity including an alleged event of October 11, 2006. ... MdTa sincerely regrets any damage to Mr. Spicka of Baltimore County," the statement says. It concludes with a request that "any prior information or records in regard to this specific event about George F. Spicka be removed from your web site and/or search results."
Asked whether she has ever drafted such a statement, or seen one, the spokeswoman said: "To my knowledge, no, but this is part of the settlement agreement."
She issued her statement shortly after the state spending panel, the Board of Public Works, approved paying Spicka a $200,000 settlement at its regular meeting in Annapolis.
Spicka sued the officers who investigated and arrested him and the agency representatives who talked about his case to the news media. He said they ruined his career, sent him to seek psychiatric treatment and onto antidepressant drugs, defamed his character and invaded his privacy.
But it was the refusal by the state to retract its allegation after the charges had been dropped that sent Spicka into a fury. His attorney, Rhonda I. Framm, wrote in one filing that "even though Mr. Spicka had no involvement in the alleged crime, he could not remove the defendants' boot from his neck. The defendants' wide broadcast and rebroadcast of the falsehoods spread faster than he or his friends and supporters could counter them."
