Executive Protection

Robert L. Oatman does executive protection - and no, he isn't a beefy, brainless bodyguard. He is a fit, trim and congenial figure who likes to wear crisp suits and who works with his team to draw up complex plans for shielding people they're paid to protect. It's a point of professional pride that none of his clients have ever been attacked on his watch over the past 20 years. "If you've got to touch your gun, it means you've made a mistake," said Oatman, 62, whose R.L. Oatman & Associates Inc. is based in Towson.

Act first and ask questions later is not always a great management strategy, but in the case of Anne Arundel County Executive Laura Neuman's response to a mysterious network of surveillance cameras in and around government buildings, it's hard to consider it rash. Ms. Neuman has now been on the job for a little over a week, after being named by the County Council to replace former executive John Leopold, and given the circumstances of his departure, Ms. Neuman can't act fast enough to convince county workers and residents that a new leader has taken charge at the Arundel Center.

For years, Robert L. Oatman has helped to protect public officials and business executives from organized terrorism.Now, Oatman, a former Baltimore County chief of detectives whose Towson-based security agency has a worldwide clientele, is working against new threats to his clients: disgruntled employees and random acts of violence."

Former Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold stands alone among Maryland's recent crop of disgraced politicians in that he actually appears to feel disgraced by the recent airing of his misdeeds at trial. In one case after another — Sheila Dixon, Janet Johnson, Daryl Jones, Tiffany Alston, Ulysses Currie — elected officials have displayed precious little shame and regret for their illegal or unethical behavior. Upon his conviction for offenses related to the misuse of his executive protection detail and his scheduler for political and/or scatological purposes, Mr. Leopold not only resigned but acknowledged "serious errors in judgment.

Baltimore police are requesting about $2,000 to send an officer to California to provide security for Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on her family vacation next week. Officer Kyle E. Gooden, who is on the mayor's executive protection team, is requesting the Board of Estimates reimburse him about $1,900 for his expenses on the Aug. 20-26 trip to San Diego, Calif. The department is also asking for about $150 to cover the cost of a rental vehicle. The spending panel is expected to approve the expense Wednesday.

A disgruntled employee at the Maryland branch of an international company finally worked up his resentment to the point recently that he threatened to kill his manager.Worried executives called Robert L. Oatman, a former Baltimore County chief of detectives who is now an international security specialist. His team assessed the situation, and concluded the threat was genuine and should be dealt with immediately, before tragedy had a chance to strike.The employee was fired, with the specialists on hand to support the company's security staff.

Friday afternoon in a spacious Annapolis courtroom with a flat-screen monitor, Dr. Roy E. Bands Jr., board-certified orthopedic surgeon, presented a side view of John Leopold's lumbar region - how his lower spine, abdomen and bladder looked in January 2010. Too bad the doctor didn't have a scan of the Anne Arundel County executive's prefrontal cortex. And too bad technology does not exist to tell us what Leopold was thinking when he treated his staff - mostly the police officers assigned to protect him - like a bunch of stooges and lackeys.

Those who criticize the John Leopold case - that it was "too much squeeze for too little juice," a waste of taxpayer money - should read the 40-page memorandum by Dennis M. Sweeney, the judge who presided over the Anne Arundel County executive's trial. It is a superb document that navigates through foggy territory - how and when an elected official deploys the police officers provided by taxpayers for his protection - and draws a clear line between the criminal and the just creepy, between use and abuse.

An Anne Arundel County police corporal told a judge Tuesday that County Executive John R. Leopold told him to watch a cash box at a political fundraiser, to plant campaign signs for him, and to compile a dossier on his 2010 challenger. Cpl. Howard Brown, a former member of Leopold's taxpayer-funded executive protection detail, also described driving Leopold weekly to the parking lot of an Annapolis bowling alley to meet a county employee. After one such meeting, Brown said, Leopold emerged to describe having had a sexual encounter that he rated highly.

The names of the Secret Service detail guarding President Bush's daughter Barbara. The number of agents providing protection to former President George H.W. Bush. The cover name the FBI director's wife uses so she can travel incognito. The arrangements for top National Security Agency officials to avoid airport screening. Cell phone numbers of security officials. These and many other usually secret security details of federal, state and local executive protection activities are contained in hundreds of pages of documents released this month by Gary W. McLhinney, chief of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police.

Those who criticize the John Leopold case - that it was "too much squeeze for too little juice," a waste of taxpayer money - should read the 40-page memorandum by Dennis M. Sweeney, the judge who presided over the Anne Arundel County executive's trial. It is a superb document that navigates through foggy territory - how and when an elected official deploys the police officers provided by taxpayers for his protection - and draws a clear line between the criminal and the just creepy, between use and abuse.

Friday afternoon in a spacious Annapolis courtroom with a flat-screen monitor, Dr. Roy E. Bands Jr., board-certified orthopedic surgeon, presented a side view of John Leopold's lumbar region - how his lower spine, abdomen and bladder looked in January 2010. Too bad the doctor didn't have a scan of the Anne Arundel County executive's prefrontal cortex. And too bad technology does not exist to tell us what Leopold was thinking when he treated his staff - mostly the police officers assigned to protect him - like a bunch of stooges and lackeys.

An Anne Arundel County police corporal told a judge Tuesday that County Executive John R. Leopold told him to watch a cash box at a political fundraiser, to plant campaign signs for him, and to compile a dossier on his 2010 challenger. Cpl. Howard Brown, a former member of Leopold's taxpayer-funded executive protection detail, also described driving Leopold weekly to the parking lot of an Annapolis bowling alley to meet a county employee. After one such meeting, Brown said, Leopold emerged to describe having had a sexual encounter that he rated highly.

House Republicans in Annapolis requested last week that Gov. Martin O'Malley reimburse state taxpayers for nearly $100,000 in travel costs incurred by the state police for protecting him on out-of-state trips - a debate sparked by a routine records request by The Baltimore Sun. The governor's emergence as a national star has been a topic of considerable discussion in Maryland political circles, both by allies who are buoyed by his successes and...

Baltimore police are requesting about $2,000 to send an officer to California to provide security for Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on her family vacation next week. Officer Kyle E. Gooden, who is on the mayor's executive protection team, is requesting the Board of Estimates reimburse him about $1,900 for his expenses on the Aug. 20-26 trip to San Diego, Calif. The department is also asking for about $150 to cover the cost of a rental vehicle. The spending panel is expected to approve the expense Wednesday.

A judge's decision this week that the trial against Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold can go forward, and the subsequent announcement by embattled Police Chief James W. Teare that he will retire, offer hope that the cloud that has been hanging over the county may soon be lifted. Judge Dennis Sweeney's rejection of Mr. Leopold's motion to dismiss the charges against him gets us no closer to an accounting of whether the conduct he is accused of is criminal or merely reprehensible - or whether he in fact did the things listed in his indictment at all. And Mr. Teare's resignation erases all doubt, if any remained, about whether he would answer the County Council's questions about what he knew and when about Mr. Leopold's alleged misuse of the police officers assigned to his executive protection detail.

A former Anne Arundel County employee filed a $2.5 million lawsuit Friday against embattled County Executive John R. Leopold, alleging that he discriminated against female employees, pressured workers to make campaign donations and retaliated against those he viewed as disloyal. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore by Joan M. Harris, alleges that Leopold was "demeaning and intimidating" toward women for much of the time she worked for the county. She was a constituent services specialist from December 2006 to Nov. 3, 2010 — the day after Leopold won re-election.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold was smiling and upbeat Saturday after eating at a diner in his hometown, part of a county he has led for more than five years and where he now faces the political and legal fight of his career. Just one day before, Leopold was indicted on corruption charges alleging he used his taxpayer-funded security detail to arrange sexual liaisons and to defeat political adversaries. But he didn't want to discuss the allegations on his way out of the Double T Diner in Pasadena.

The last time I saw John Leopold, the Anne Arundel County executive who has been charged with using his taxpayer-funded police security detail for, uh, personal stuff, he was standing in a buffet line at opening night of the Maryland Live Casino in June. He was by himself, sans entourage, and he had a small, white plate in his hand. He appeared to be waiting, just like everyone else, for a slice of carved meat. He didn't seem to be expecting special treatment, and at no time did the county executive attempt to schmooze his way to the front of the line.

MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blakesays the City Council is putting Baltimore residents at risk from increased crime, among other calamities, because of its preliminary decision to cut about $6 million from her $2.3 billion budget proposal. She has called the effort, led by Council PresidentBernard C. "Jack" Young, to divert some money into increased funding for recreation centers, youth employment and after school programs "unadvisable, unworkable and irresponsible. " Indeed, there is an opportunity cost associated with many of the council's proposed cuts - if not so dire a consequence as the mayor predicts.