Task Force

Howard County's General Plan Task Force meeting has been rescheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at Burleigh Manor Middle School, 4200 Centennial Lane.The meeting originally was planned for tomorrow evening.Information: 410-313-2350.Pub Date: 10/13/99

For all intents and purposes, the Carroll County Narcotics Task Force no longer exists.By pulling out of the drug enforcement group, Carroll Sheriff John H. Brown put an end to this misconceived organization that was more successful in creating controversy than in fighting drug dealing.The idea of assembling people from the state police, sheriff's office, Westminster police department and state's attorney into a cooperative task force to fight drugs in Carroll County was flawed from the beginning.

Carroll County's Narcotics Task Force has become a political tar baby.Anyone who gets near it gets covered with goo, and Westminster's Mayor W. Benjamin Brown is the latest victim. In his effort to develop oversight of the task force, Mr. Brown convened a secret council meeting two weeks ago in violation of the state's open meetings law.Instead of reaping political brownie points for his effort, Mr. Brown now finds that his initiative has backfired. Some members of the Westminster City Council are angry that he dragged them into the closed session, and the mayor now has to repair that political damage.

WESTMINSTER -- The Carroll County Narcotics Task Force can continue to avoid working with clients of defense attorney Stephen P. Bourexis, a judge ruled last week.In hearing preliminary motions in the Main Street attorney's $10.5 million lawsuit against the task force, Circuit Judge Raymond E. Beck Sr. denied Mr. Bourexis' request to prevent task force officers from excluding his clients from plea deals or other consideration.Also Friday, Judge Beck reserved judgment on the task force's motions for dismissal of the suit.

The state's highest court has affirmed the dismissal of a $10.5 million suit filed against the Carroll County Narcotics Task Force by a Westminster defense attorney.Without comment, the Maryland Court of Appeals last week declined to hear Stephen P. Bourexis' appeal of a Carroll Circuit judge's dismissal of his 1992 suit.Mr. Bourexis' suit contended that the task force blackballed his clients from becoming informants or entering plea negotiations. He had sought damages against the task force, state police Tfc. Richard Heuisler and Westminster police Sgt. Andrew McKendrick.

While the Carroll County Narcotics Task Force may not have $50,000 stashed in a secret fund, as some county employees contended, no one outside the drug task force seems to know much about the finances of this law enforcement group. That is unfortunate. This group must start accounting for the tens of thousands of dollars it has confiscated and allegedly spent since its inception in the late 1980s.After hearing rumors of thousands of dollars squirreled away in task force accounts, the county commissioners (in need of $10,000 to purchase desperately needed police radios)

Chief Sam Leppo's decision to remove the Westminster Police Department from participation in the Carroll County Narcotics Task Force should serve as a warning sign. Of all the policy-making personnel involved in the task force the past five years, Mr. Leppo was its most responsible member.Mr. Leppo hasn't explained his decision for pulling out, but he has been uncomfortable with the task force's conduct in the past. Although others resisted the calls for an audit to investigate task force finances, Chief Leppo did not. He opened his books to inspection by auditors and newspaper reporters.

Sheriff John H. Brown pulled his department out of the Carroll County Narcotics Task Force yesterday, leaving only the state police and the state's attorney's office as participants in a drug enforcement group that, until last month, encompassed all four major county law enforcement agencies."

A county auditor questioned the Carroll County Narcotic Task Force about its finances recently after the commissioners became concerned the drug unit might have a rumored $50,000 in undisclosed cash.The auditor, who made the inquiries about two weeks ago, didn't find the rumored money, and the commissioners apparently are satisfied it doesn't exist."We heard the rumors that they had the extra money, and, without any undertones or overtones, we wanted to look at that," Commissioner Elmer C. Lippy said Friday.