baltimoresun.com
Critics protest Baltimore prosecutor
Outside courthouse, activists decry handling of assault case, relationship with police
By Justin Fenton, The Baltimore Sun6:01 PM EST, January 24, 2011
If the city's most outspoken activists gave Gregg Bernstein a honeymoon period after being sworn in earlier this month as Baltimore's new top prosecutor, it appears to be over.
Two groups of loosely affiliated community organizations and special interests protested on opposite sides of the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse on Monday, accusing Bernstein of being tight-lipped on a racially charged assault case and criticizing his "unholy" alliance with the Police Department.
On the west side of the courthouse, protesters formed a picket line, calling the shooting of Officer William H. Torbit Jr. a murder and carrying signs with such incendiary slogans as "Arrogant Racist State's Attorney."
On the east side, people who said they represent black media and civil rights groups called on Bernstein to say more about his office's decision to drop felony assault charges against a member of a Jewish community patrol group.
"'No comment' will not suffice in the African-American community," said Hassan Giordano, a blogger, talk-show host and campaign consultant.
Bernstein, who defeated 15-year incumbent Patricia C. Jessamy in last year's Democratic primary election, had been supported by Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, who said a better relationship with prosecutors would help keep violent repeat offenders off the streets.
Two high-profile and controversial cases are testing Bernstein's public mettle early. City police in November charged Eliyahu Werdesheim, a 23-year-old member of a Northwest Baltimore patrol group called Shomrim, with striking a black teenager in the head with a radio and telling him that he "didn't belong here."
The teen's injuries have been in dispute, and Bernstein's office dropped the first-degree assault charge last week against Werdesheim. But prosecutors are proceeding with charges of second-degree assault, false imprisonment and use of a deadly weapon with intent to injure. Prosecutors also brought charges against Werdesheim's brother, Avi, who was not initially charged in the incident.
Bernstein's office will also play a key role in whether charges are considered in the shooting of Torbit by other police officers Jan. 9 outside a club near downtown.
As protesters gathered on the courthouse steps, Bernstein's office issued a terse statement on the assault case, saying the handling has been "consistent with both the facts and the law."
"No factors beyond the facts and the law were considered, nor will any factors outside the facts and the law ever be considered in making charging decisions in any future case," the statement read.
That response wasn't enough for activists keeping a close eye on the case.
"This almost led to race riots in Park Heights, and some people you see here had to calm that," said Michael Eugene Johnson, director of the Paul Robeson Institute and a candidate for City Council. "We want to be very clear as to the handling of this case."
Since his swearing-in, Bernstein has kept a low public profile and has declined to comment on his office's role in cases.
Glenn F. Ivey, the former Prince George's County state's attorney who is now a lawyer in private practice, said top prosecutors generally face a challenge of balancing their legal restrictions with public pledges of transparency.
"When an investigation is ongoing, you can undermine the police investigative work if you put too much information out," Ivey said. "At the same time, the community wants to know how the case is being handled, how it's moving forward. … Sometimes it's almost impossible to [balance those obligations] in the short run."
The invective outside the courthouse ran the gamut. Some were measured in their comments, saying they simply needed Bernstein to be more forthcoming in his decision-making process.
Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, for example, said her first concern is coming up with a plan for Northwestern High School to make sure the assaulted teen's schoolmates aren't being intimidated or harassed. She said she had met with Bernstein to discuss the assault case.
Past NAACP chapter president Marvin "Doc" Cheatham said he didn't expect Bernstein to discuss a pending case in detail but expected more transparency and dialogue.
But others decried what they said was racism and called for Bealefeld to step down.
"I'll just say it — he's dropping it because [the suspect] is Jewish," insisted Leo Burroughs, a community activist who helped organize the picket line. He was joined by Susan Black of the All Peoples Congress, a socialist group whose members believe Israel violates the rights of Palestinians who are seeking an independent state. Her group's representatives carried yellow signs reading "Prosecute Shomrim for Hate Crimes."
"This vigilante hate group must be disbanded," Black said.
Cortly "C.D." Witherspoon, a pastor who says he is president of the Maryland chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, denounced what he called the "unholy alliance" between Bernstein and Bealefeld.
However, Howard Creecy, vice president of the national Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said there is no record of a Maryland chapter or a pending application for one, and denied that Witherspoon is affiliated with the group. Witherspoon did not return a phone call seeking clarification.
Witherspoon said at the protest that his group was to deliver a letter to the Justice Department in Washington asking it to investigate all "justice-related" cases in Baltimore.
"We're going to bypass the state's attorney's office until we feel there's some objectivity and impartiality there," he said. "This issue is racially charged, whether people want to address it or not."
While the FBI is routinely asked to intervene in such cases, it rarely does. "I would say we are more selective than not with these requests," Richard J. Wolf, a spokesman for the FBI's Baltimore field office, said in an e-mail.
Those who said they represented black media, meanwhile, said they were crossing into activism because they felt the community wasn't getting answers.
Giordano, who led the news conference on the east side of the courthouse, blogs for the Examiner and since July has received more than $8,000 from City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young for consulting, though he said Monday's event was not related to that political work.
Giordano said members of the city's black media have recently started meeting weekly, "strategizing how we can be more effective at reaching our constituencies."
"It just seems the state's attorney is going out of his way for these [Werdesheim] brothers," Giordano said. "The African-American community is up in arms."
A spokesman for Young said the council president supports Bernstein "100 percent."
"The council president is not calling on the state's attorney to do anything other than what he's doing, which is to hit the ground running and perform his duties," said spokesman Lester Davis.
justin.fenton@baltsun.com
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