The Lagasse Report

14/04/2024

TLR apologizes for accidentally uploading an annotated version of the appellant brief earlier today. A clean copy has now been uploaded to the document library.

14/04/2024

To accompany the two-part review of the opposing counsel’s briefs in the appellate court case (see previous post), TLR’s document library has been updated with the latest filings including the complete record abstract, which contains the circuit court documents that the judges will refer to in deciding the case.

As a public service, TLR is making available copies of selected documents filed in the court cases resulting from the question of whether District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D) is allowed to …

14/04/2024

As TLR recently reported on Facebook, the Appellate Court of Maryland has agreed to hear oral arguments in the appeal filed in October 2023 by District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D) seeking to overturn the circuit court's decision to permanently bar her from participating in votes related to the employment contract of County Administrator Mark Belton....

This story is the first of two parts. Part 2 will be published soon. As TLR recently reported on Facebook, the Appellate Court of Maryland has agreed to hear oral arguments in the appeal filed in O…

13/04/2024

According to MD Case Search, oral arguments in the appeal have been scheduled for October. The specific date and time, plus the names of the judges assigned to hear the oral arguments, have not been announced yet. TLR will provide that information when it becomes available.

06/04/2024

All parties have filed their briefs with the Maryland Court of Appeals, and TLR is preparing a summary of both sides' arguments — watch this space!

Something else we're tracking: Following the circuit court decision last September, the judge in the case mailed an attorney's-eyes-only written summary of his legal reasoning to counsel to help them prepare their appeal briefs. The attorneys for District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D) have filed a motion requesting permission to include the document in the record abstract (the collection of circuit court filings that the appeals court will refer to in deciding the case) and to remove the AEO seal. Counsel for the commissioner appellants (District 3 Commissioner Amanda M. Stewart (D) and District 1 Commissioner Gilbert Bowling III (D)) responded that they don't object to including the document in the record abstract but requested that the court leave the AEO designation in place.

Chief Judge Gregory Wells ordered the document temporarily sealed while the three-judge panel assigned to the case considered the request. TLR will post the panel's decision when it is published.

04/02/2024

The Charles County Ethics Commission on Wednesday issued an advisory opinion recommending that District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D) should recuse herself from voting on whether the county should pay for her legal expenses related to her appeals of last September's circuit court ruling. The opinion, the commission's first in over a year, says that Coates would violate the county's…...

The Charles County Ethics Commission on Wednesday issued an advisory opinion recommending that District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D) should recuse herself from voting on whether the county s…

18/11/2023

On Tuesday, the Appellate Court of Maryland ordered Commissioner Coates' appeal of the circuit court's permanent injunction to proceed to oral arguments (date TBD, but likely no earlier than January).

TLR has set up a new page to track the filings in this latest court battle and will be posting updates as events unfold.

As a public service, TLR is making available copies of selected documents filed in the court cases resulting from the question of whether District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D) is allowed to …

04/10/2023

Judge Green has scheduled a hearing on Commissioner Coates’ motion to reconsider his Sept. 21 ruling to enforce a permanent injunction on Coates’ ability to vote on the employment of the current county administrator.

Read the motion and responses in TLR’s document library: https://lagassereport.com/court-filings/selected-circuit-court-case-filings/

30/09/2023

The document libraries for the circuit court and appellate court cases have been updated with filings uploaded to MDEC as of Friday:

* The circuit court case document library includes the motions for and against reconsidering Judge Green's Sept. 21 order (which has not been published as of yesterday).

* The appellate court case document library includes the various motions and lines for and against declaring the appeal moot following the circuit court decision, and the court's final Order dismissing the appeal as moot.

As a public service, TLR is making available copies of selected documents filed in the court cases resulting from the question of whether District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D) is allowed to …

29/09/2023

BREAKING: The Appellate Court of Maryland ruled today to dismiss Commissioner Coates’ appeal as moot following last week’s circuit court ruling granting a permanent injunction.

24/09/2023

District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D) has been permanently barred from voting on the employment contract of the current county administrator following a circuit court order issued Thursday afternoon. In granting the request by District 3 Commissioner Amanda M. Stewart (D) and District 1 Commissioner Gilbert Bowling III (D) for a permanent injunction that would prevent Coates from participating in any votes related to County Administrator Mark Belton's employment — or even from communicating directly with him — Judge Leo E....

District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D) has been permanently barred from voting on the employment contract of the current county administrator following a circuit court order issued Thursday a…

21/09/2023

BREAKING: Judge Green has ruled to grant the permanent injunction to enforce the terms of the PRA prohibiting District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D) from having any authority to vote on the employment contract of County Administrator Mark Belton. The court will issue a written order in the coming days to memorialize the ruling for the record.

20/09/2023

Judge Green’s ruling in the circuit court case will be live-streamed via Zoom tomorrow at 3pm (link below). TLR plans to publish a deep dive into the ruling, with a recap of the litigants’ arguments and selected highlights from key documents, this weekend.

18/09/2023

Closing arguments ran three hours and 45 minutes. Commenting that “This [case] is a tough one,” Judge Green said he will issue an oral ruling this Thursday, 9/21 at 3:00 pm, via Zoom. More details to follow.

18/09/2023

In the second of two Orders issued on Sept. 14, Judge Green ordered the unsealing of the depositions of Charles County Administrator Mark Belton, District 1 Commissioner Gilbert Bowling III (D), District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D), and Board of Charles County Commissioners’ President Reuben B. Collins II (D). TLR has obtained copies of the deposition transcripts and has made them available in the document library (scroll down to “Depositions” at the bottom of the page).

The complete deposition of County Attorney E. Wesley Adams III, which was released earlier this month as part of a separate motion filed by Commissioner Coates’ legal team, is also available in the document library.

As a public service, TLR is making available copies of selected documents filed in the court cases resulting from the question of whether District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D) is allowed to …

17/09/2023

Tomorrow’s closing arguments in Stewart et al. v Commissioners WILL BE LIVE-STREAMED. See the link on the Circuit Court website below. The hearing begins at 9am.

16/09/2023

In preparation for Monday’s closing arguments in the evidentiary hearing for Stewart et al. v Commissioners, I have updated the document library with the latest filings, most notably Commissioner Coates’ trial brief, which lays out the arguments her attorneys tried to raise at last week’s hearing, most of which Judge Green dismissed as being incidental to the issue at hand.

The trial brief includes two supporting exhibits consisting of the record abstract submitted to the Appellate Court of Maryland. The record abstract contains all of the important motions, responses, counter-motions, orders, transcript excerpts, etc. from the circuit court case. Appellants are required to prepare and submit record abstracts to the appellate court as part of filing their appeal. While all of the individual files in the record abstract are already available in the document library, think of it as a collection of the case’s “greatest hits.” It is a valuable resource.

As a public service, TLR is making available copies of selected documents filed in the court cases resulting from the question of whether District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D) is allowed to …

13/09/2023

Judge Leo E. Green Jr. on Wednesday issued a written order unsealing the minutes of the two closed sessions of the Board of Charles County Commissioners, effectively bringing to an end nearly ten months of speculation and rumor about the events that led to a landmark lawsuit over District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates’ (D) authority to vote on the employment contract of the county administrator....

Judge Leo E. Green Jr. on Wednesday issued a written order unsealing the minutes of the two closed sessions of the Board of Charles County Commissioners, effectively bringing to an end nearly ten m…

08/09/2023

BREAKING: The first details of today’s evidentiary hearing are coming in to TLR. The hearing, scheduled to begin at 9:30 am, lasted until 6:00 pm. District 3 Commissioner Amanda M. Stewart (D), Board of Charles County Commissioners’ President Reuben B. Collins II (D), District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D), and Charles County Administrator Mark Belton all took the stand to testify during the hearing.

Final argument are scheduled for Monday, Sept. 18 at 9:00 am via Zoom. TLR will try to learn whether that will be a public stream. TLR will share more details as they become available.

06/09/2023

Heard from the circuit court that Friday’s hearing (9:30 am in Courtroom G) will not be live-streamed. Here is what the court administrator wrote:

“Judge Green, the presiding judge, consulted with the parties to the case and determined that the hearing should not be live streamed. To accommodate for any influx of in-person spectators, the court will open a second courtroom with a Zoom connection to the primary courtroom.”

Not surprising, since the court reached the same decision for the (subsequently canceled) July 28 hearing. If you are able to attend in person, I will be interested to hear how it goes! I won’t be able to attend, but I will be writing about the ruling when published.

04/09/2023

Judge Leo E. Green Jr. ruled Saturday to grant a request by the Board of Charles County Commissioners' counsel to block two subpoenas that would have compelled attorney Bernadette Sargeant to turn over documents related to her investigation into the events that led to a lawsuit over District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates' (D) authority to vote on the employment contract of the county administrator, addressing a key remaining point of contention prior to Friday's scheduled evidentiary hearing....

Judge Leo E. Green Jr. ruled Saturday to grant a request by the Board of Charles County Commissioners’ counsel to block two subpoenas that would have compelled attorney Bernadette Sargeant to…

02/09/2023

The second and final batch of updated filings has been uploaded, bringing the document library up to date as of Friday.

An important document in this batch is a reply brief by Commissioner Coates' attorneys, accompanied by numerous documents produced during discovery, alleging that County Administrator Mark Belton "directed and closely monitored the [Bernadette] Sargeant investigation," that County Attorney Wes Adams was "deeply conflicted in his involvement in the Sargeant investigation and the proceedings against Coates," and that Sargeant "was in fact working for and under the direction of Belton and Adams."

As a public service, TLR is making available copies of selected documents filed in the court cases resulting from the question of whether District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D) is allowed to …

02/09/2023

In preparation for next week's motions ruling and evidentiary hearing in Stewart et al. v Commissioners, this weekend TLR is updating its library of court filings. The first batch includes motions and responses related to the effort by Commissioner Coates' attorneys to compel deposition testimony from attorney Bernadette Sargeant and County Attorney Wes Adams.

My apologies to TLR readers for the delay in keeping the filings up-to-date. It's been an unusually busy few weeks in my life as well as in the courts!

As a public service, TLR is making available copies of selected documents filed in the court cases resulting from the question of whether District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D) is allowed to …

02/09/2023

Late last week, Judge Green issued a brief memorandum announcing that he would rule on the remaining motions in Stewart et al. v Commissioners no later than this coming Tuesday. This includes motions related to efforts by Commissioner Coates' attorneys to compel deposition by County Attorney Wes Adams III, among other motions.

The evidentiary hearing is still on the docket for Friday, Sept. 8. As with the (canceled) July 28 hearing, TLR expects that the parties will fail to reach an agreement to live-stream the hearing.

28/07/2023

TLR has learned that the evidentiary hearing in the circuit court case has been rescheduled for Friday, September 8 at 9:30 am.

27/07/2023

BREAKING: TLR has learned that Judge Green has granted a request from Commissioner Coates’s attorney for a continuance (a type of postponement) in the circuit court case. The parties will be meeting this afternoon to pick a new date for the evidentiary hearing.

TLR will provide updates as they are available.

26/07/2023

I received the following response from the Court Administrator regarding the request to live stream Friday’s evidentiary hearing:

“Judge Green, the presiding judge, consulted with the parties to the case and determined that the hearing should not be live streamed. To accommodate for any influx of in-person spectators, the court will open a second courtroom with a Zoom connection to the primary courtroom.”

TLR is unable to attend the hearing in person but will be providing analysis of the published ruling and any other documents submitted into the docket when they are made available. Not the outcome I had hoped for, of course.

26/07/2023

The Appellate Court of Maryland has set a date for oral arguments in Commissioner Coates’ appeal of the temporary restraining order in the circuit court case. The arguments are scheduled for Monday, October 2 at 9 a.m. at the Robert C. Murphy Courts of Appeal Building in Annapolis.

During the oral arguments, a three-judge panel will be considering the following question: “Did the trial court abuse its discretion when it entered a temporary restraining order that, among other things, enjoined a commissioner on the Charles County Board of County Commissioners from participating in a vote to terminate the employment of the County Administrator?”

TLR hopes to be able to cover the arguments in person. You can find the latest filings in the case on the website.

As a public service, TLR is making available copies of selected documents filed in the court cases resulting from the question of whether District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D) is allowed to …

23/07/2023

The Board of Charles County Commissioners' counsel is seeking to block two subpoenas that would compel attorney Bernadette Sargeant to turn over documents related to her investigation into the events that led to a lawsuit over District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates' (D) authority to vote on the employment contract of the county administrator. Arguing that the information is exempt from disclosure because it was "created in the course of investigations into confidential personnel matters," the board's legal counsel filed a motion earlier this month in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia…...

The Board of Charles County Commissioners’ counsel is seeking to block two subpoenas that would compel attorney Bernadette Sargeant to turn over documents related to her investigation into th…

19/06/2023

UPDATE: Following the submission of the appellant brief on May 30, the Appellate Court of Maryland notified Commissioner Coates’ attorneys that the brief exceeded the court’s 9,100-word limit and instructed them to resubmit an amended brief. As a result, the deadline for appellee briefs has been pushed back to Monday, July 17. The revised brief is available on TLR's case filings page.

As a public service, TLR is making available copies of selected documents filed in the court cases resulting from the question of whether District 2 Commissioner Thomasina Coates (D) is allowed to …