Dion Guthrie continues a fight to be reinstated to the Harford County Council even as his colleagues prepare to appoint a new member to fill a vacancy created in November when Guthrie pleaded nolo contendere to a felony theft charge. File photo by Bryan P. Sears.
A Harford County Circuit Court judge on Friday rejected a former county council member’s request to block his former colleagues’ attempt to fill the seat they say he vacated when he entered a plea in a theft case last year.
Judge Yolanda L. Curtin also ruled late Friday afternoon that a hearing be scheduled on the county’s request to dismiss the lawsuit by Dion Guthrie, a Democrat, who has been challenging his ouster from the council.
The council is currently considering three Democrats to fill a vacancy created two months ago when Guthrie was removed from the panel. A replacement could be named as early as Tuesday.
Guthrie, who went to court to try to be reinstated to his seat, asked Curtin in his most recent filing to prevent the naming of a replacement. Douglas Gansler, the former Maryland attorney general who represents Guthrie, said the restraining order is needed “to prevent irreparable harm … resulting from the defendant installing an unelected person to ‘replace’ the duly-elected plaintiff.”
Guthrie’s seat was declared vacant on Nov. 14. He was removed from office after pleading nolo contendere to felony theft charges in Baltimore County in connection with the theft of funds from International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1501, which he led for five decades.
Following the sentencing hearing, Harford County Council President Patrick Vincenti issued a statement saying Guthrie was automatically removed from office as an “operation of law” once he entered the plea.
Guthrie eventually filed suit against Vincenti to reclaim his seat, and continues to press his case before Curtin so far without success. The failed equest to block the council’s consideration of a replacement, filed Thursday, is Guthrie’s second request for a restraining order.
Curtin, in early December, issued a 10-page order rejecting Guthrie’s first request. The sharply worded decision also undercut Gansler’s assertion that a 2012 amendment to the Maryland Constitution was incorrectly applied, and that Guthrie was illegally removed.
Curtin wrote that “the law is clear and the facts that led to the Plaintiff’s automatic removal are also clear and subjected to only one interpretation.” Granting that first restraining order request would be “contrary to the public interest,” she added.
“Entering a TRO, based on the facts here, would be contrary to the public interest of ensuring swift action in removing elected officials based on conduct that meets the requirements of” the state constitution,” Curtin wrote at the time.
Curtin’s December decision was not appealed
Attorneys hired by the council argued that Guthrie’s latest request for a restraining order “merely re-hashes the same arguments, with some added irrelevant hyperbole. The court ‘easily’ dispatched the prior motion on an identical record.”
They asked Curtin to deny the motion without a hearing and to issue a judgment in favor of the council declaring Guthrie was legally removed as required by law. Curtin issued her denial late Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the Harford County Democratic Central Committee sent three names to the council as possible replacements for Guthrie, who was one of two Democrats on the seven-member council. The council must name a replacement by Jan. 13, or the appointment will fall to Harford County Executive Bob Cassilly (R).
The council could appoint Guthrie’s successor as early as its Jan. 7 meeting.