Harford County officials said Councilmember Dion Guthrie (D) has been removed from office after entering a plea in a felony theft case in Baltimore County. File photo by Bryan P. Sears.
A Harford County Councilman pleaded nolo contendere Thursday to one felony charge of stealing funds from a union he led for more than five decades, a plea that county officials said will cost him his seat.
Dion Guthrie, one of two Democrats on the council, entered the plea and was sentenced to probation before judgment and one year of unsupervised probation. A nolo contendere plea allows Guthrie to maintain his innocence while acknowledging prosecutors have enough evidence to obtain a conviction on charges that he stole more than $23,000 from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1501, where he served as president for 52 years.
Following the plea in Baltimore County Circuit Court, an elated Guthrie left the courtroom with family and supporters. Standing in the hallway moments after his hearing, the councilman said the court proceedings would have no effect on his ability to serve.
“I intend to serve my two years and if voters want to remove me, they can remove me two years from now,” Guthrie said, speaking over his attorney Domenic Iamele.
But county officials said Thursday afternoon that the state constitution is clear: An elected official who enters either a guilty or a nolo contendere plea to a criminal charge “shall be removed from the elective office by operation of law and the office shall be deemed vacant.”
“Due to Mr. Guthrie entering a plea of nolo contendere, by operation of law, he is removed from elected office and his Harford County Council seat is deemed vacant as of today,” said a statement from Meaghan G. Alegi, the attorney for the Harford County Council.
Under county law, she said, the vacancy starts a 60 day clock during which the rest of the council has to choose a successor from a list of candidates provided by the county’s Democratic Central Committee.
Harford County Democratic Central Committee Chair Henry S. “Sandy” Gibbons said that the party was aware of the plea and was waiting for official notification. But he said in a statement that committee members “stand at the ready to perform our role as mandated in the County Charter should a vacancy be formally declared. We thank Councilman Guthrie for his service to the residents of District A and to Harford County.”
Harford Council President Patrick Vincenti (R) was not immediately available for comment Thursday on the court proceedings and Guthrie’s situation. But Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler (R) issued a statement shortly after the hearing calling for Guthrie to immediately step down.
“In the weeks since these charges came to light, Mr. Guthrie has egregiously claimed that these charges were nothing more than politics and that since this purported theft occurred in Baltimore County, it has no bearing on his service here in Harford County,” Gahler wrote. “Both claims are complete nonsense.
“The Harford County Council is the final fiscal authority that is entrusted with the management of more than a $1 billion Operating and Capital budget and it is imperative that citizens of Harford County have faith, full confidence and trust in our elected members sitting on the Council to appropriately manage these funds,” Gahler’s statement said.
Guthrie was charged last month with one felony count of stealing more than $23,000 from the union. Prosecutors, in a criminal complaint, alleged Guthrie stole more than $15,112 from the general fund by using a union American Express credit card for personal expenses, and that another nearly $8,400 was misappropriated from the union’s health and welfare fund “to pay benefits for people not eligible for such as to redirect monies to his personal credit cards and repair work.”
The money was used to pay for personal expenses including iTunes purchases, plane tickets, thousands in resort homeowner association fees for a Florida timeshare as well as condo rental in Ocean City.
Guthrie almost immediately agreed to a plea deal. As part of the deal, he paid nearly $23,500 in restitution. He made the payment in advance of a hearing.
Following the nolo contendere plea Thursday, Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Dennis Robinson Jr. struck the plea and entered a sentence of probation before judgment.
After the hearing Guthrie appeared to peg his claim to retaining his council seat on the fact that Robinson struck the guilty finding as part of the probation before judgment sentence.
“There was no finding of guilt. Let’s focus on that, OK?” he said. “This was a negotiated plea. There was no finding of guilt.”
Adam Lippe, chief of the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s office economic crime unit, who prosecuted the case, called probation before judgment “a legal oddity” that “allows people to say that they’re not convicted.” But “you can go on the Maryland Judiciary website and see that they are convicted,” Lippe said.
Lawyers for the Harford County Council were present in the Towson courtroom as Guthrie entered his plea. They left the courtroom without comment. As they passed Guthrie and his attorney, the councilman called out to them, “No guilty, don’t forget about it.”
His attorney, Iamele, told reporters the matter should have been handled in civil not criminal court.
Guthrie was scheduled to meet with council leadership late Thursday afternoon to discuss his future, according to council sources, but that meeting was canceled. Alegi’s statement was released shortly before 5 p.m.
Lippe said he consulted with the Office of the Attorney General about the plea and was told Guthrie’s plea creates a vacancy in the office.
“They confirmed it, that’s their reading,” said Lippe, adding that Guthrie’s ability to remain on the council is outside the scope of his prosecution.
“The state constitution is pretty clear on when you’re a public official and you do bad things, bad things happen to your position,” Lippe told reporters after the hearing.