Jessamy

Standing on stage before a crowd of cheering supporters, Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy declared her candidacy for re-election last night, promising to make decisions based on what's right - not popular opinion. "As state's attorney, I make tough decisions every day. I make them and I can live with them, because I have a moral compass," she told more than 100 supporters at Payne Memorial Outreach Center. "Justice matters to this state's attorney." Behind her stood a panel of local luminaries, including Stuart O. Simms, secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, and African Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop Vashti McKenzie, who compared Jessamy's hardships in office to those of Jesus.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III has taken down the campaign signs that prompted accusations of impropriety from State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy, but some officials continued to criticize his actions as they rallied behind the prosecutor. Bealefeld's yard signs for attorney Gregg Bernstein were taken down Monday, before Jessamy's news conference Tuesday in which she questioned the police commissioner's integrity and called for a probe of whether he was politicking while on the job. In an e-mail sent from his private account — as well as in brief remarks at an event promoting the seizure of marijuana plants — Bealefeld said fighting crime was his priority.

Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy is saying her primary opponent would "set us back 60 years" if elected, a claim her critics contend is stoking fears about whether challenger Gregg Bernstein's anti-crime policies would target black residents. The Democratic contest pits Jessamy, an incumbent who fought for civil rights in the South, against a white lawyer promising to get tougher on crime. Jessamy has been promoting and defending her efforts to weave intervention and treatment into her office's traditional role of prosecuting criminals.

In a new "community newsletter" published by her office, Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy excoriates the mayor in a three-page commentary, claiming he has pushed "failed" reforms and starved her overburdened office of funding. She also accuses The Sun of inaccurate reporting and unfair editorials about her and her office. Jessamy says the newsletter is meant to educate city residents about what her office is doing, but some people wonder whether Jessamy, who intends to run for re-election next year, is improperly using public money for political purposes.

Patricia Jessamy -- arguably the gutsiest state's attorney Baltimore has ever had -- has been raked over the coals the past few days by the League of the Perpetually Oppressed. But Jessamy shouldn't fret. As with all criticism, you have to consider the source.In this case, the source is the League, whose members are those black folks whose entire philosophy of life can be summed up in two words: blame whitey.Within what seemed microseconds of Jessamy's announcement that she would not charge Baltimore City police Officer Charles Smothers in the fatal shooting of James Quarles on Aug. 9, we had reaction from League members spouting the familiar lines: Jessamy was a sell-out, a handkerchief-head.

Calling the city state's attorney's attack on him "silly" and her understanding of her own budget "incomplete," Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley said yesterday that he would rather Patricia C. Jessamy concentrate on fighting crime. O'Malley was responding to reporters' questions about a recent "community newsletter" Jessamy's office produced that included a long, critical commentary of the mayor signed by her. About 28,000 copies of the newsletter were distributed as an insert in the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper, and mailed to groups, churches, hospitals and elsewhere.

A proposal to establish a special unit in the state's attorney's office to prosecute police officers accused of criminal misconduct has not been made final, city officials said yesterday. State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy has not signed a memorandum - which she formulated and police drafted - outlining how the ethics unit would be set up and operated. Jessamy's office did not respond to interview requests yesterday. The tentative agreement was reached this week, in the wake of Mayor Martin O'Malley's becoming irate because Jessamy dropped corruption charges against a city officer accused of planting evidence on an innocent man. It also follows a call by Police Commissioner Edward T. Norris for Assistant State's Attorney Elizabeth A. Ritter to step down from police cases, after she called a radio talk show using her middle name and attacked his department.