As a police officer, who doesn't have any stake in the current State V. Mattingly and Brown Case, I will say this. I think Rick Fritz is a dedicated public servant. I don't like every decision he has made, however I don't know a police officer out here that likes every decision a prosecutor makes. There are a lot of variables when it comes to prosecuting a case, and there are a lot of considerations to be made. It has been my experience that when Fritz makes these decisions, he makes them with the victim in mind.
I think there was a time when Mattingly came out and attacked Fritz for tying plea agreements, (stet dockets) to donations to things like project graduation and community service. I think there are a lot of people out there who would rather make a donation than have the points on their insurance. Things like that show me he cares more about things going on in St. Mary's County than making some insurance company wealthy.
I've heard your one sided rants about Fritz. I don't by your arguments. You sound as cheap as the distorted rag that writes the one sided stories about him. You've mis-stated his offices failures, which there are few, but neglected to speak of their accomplishments which there are many.
Again, i'm a cop, but no dog in this fight. I'm not one of the people who are on Fritz' campaign, I haven't even been to one of his fundraisers yet.
I will be voting for Fritz. In my estimation, he is the only person running which will have the people of St. Mary's County in mind when he takes the oath of office. I believe that Mattingly is ONLY running and only filed because he knew he was soon to be indicted.
The reason I stpped posting the way that I did in the beginning was because I realized I wasn't willing to listen to other peoples honest thoughts about Fritz, I also realized that if many people thought the way I do then we wouldn't be arguing about the man because he would have been votoed out of office a long time ago.
Walter Dorey statred project graduation many years ago, and to his credit Fritz has continued with the program because I don't think anyone thinks that it does anything but good for our communty.
You won't believe me when I say that I am not now nor have I ever been a close friend of Mattingly. I really didn't know much about him except for the things I heard from others and a few newspaper articles about some of his cases. We are to this day just acquaintanc's of one another.
You also won't believe me when i say that he told me in 2006 that he intended to run for the office of SA that year and was side tracked helping his cousin Shane Mattingly run for election but that he fully intended to run this year.I don't think that he was criticizing Fritz for using doantions for traffic offenses becase evryone knew about that,a nd that Dorsey had been the one to begin the practice. I think he was trying to say that money was being donated in lieu of much more serious offenses, and not all of it ended up going to the worthy causes you mentioned.
That's all I am going to say now, but I am going to print Mattingly's version of what happened at the first trial, I am going to put a link to some interesting comments made by Walter Dorsey before Fritz was elected in 1998. and the real reason Fritz pulled his office out of the Mattingly case.
Trial Highlights: July 23, 2010
These highlights were provided bv John Mattingly
* No "victim" had filed any complaint or charges against Mattlngly or Brown. All charges were initiated by the State's Attorney's Office.
* .The so-called "victims" admitted their stories had changed after being coached by Assistant State's Attorney Daniel J. White.
* White had made three visits to the victims, coaching their testimony prior to giving a statement.
* Numerous witnesses stated that White had threatened them in an effort to influence- their testimony.
* So corrupt was the "investigation" of Mattingly and Brown that no law enforcement witnesses were called by the State in its case. After a one and a half year "investigation," costing the taxpayers untold hundreds of thousands of dollars, the prosecutor could not call a single cop to the stand. In fact, Mattingly had to subpoena the cops in order for the jury to hear the bizarre and corrupt investigation which had incurred.
* Mattingly had met with the specially assigned prosecutors on two separate occasions for over ten hours prior to trial.
Mattingly actually requested to meet with the prosecutors to explain what really happened. In fact, Mattingly offered to give his proffer under oath with a court reporter present. In response to Mattingly's proffer, the State merely changed its version of events and theory of the case twice before trial.
* As a result of Mattingly's trial subpoena of the Sheriff's Office, the week before trial, magically a covert file was found. Two business days before trial, a report was uncovered which corroborated Mattingly's version of events. This report was taken 'by Det. Ray (who presumably because of his honesty in reporting the "first" story by the so-called "victims" was promptly removed from the case). Det. Ray's report reported the initial contact with "victim" Shirley Gilliam." Det. Ray was accompanied by Assistant State's Attorney Daniel J .White. Interestingly, Ray's report not only corroborated Mattingly's version of events, but further listed the Complainant as "Assistant State's Attorney Daniel J.-White." This report was over one year old.
* It should be particularly noted that Mattingly challenged the State to produce more police reports as early as March of this year. In response to the direct inquiry by Hon. Sean D. Wallace, in open court, as to whether the State had more police reports, White stated that he had given them all to Mattingly ("actually twice your Honor"). This, of course, was a lie. White had
failed to give many reports. More importantly, White was present when the critical interview was taken by Det. Ray. White lied and buried the report.
* Capt.
Alioto, called as a witness not by the State; but by Mattingly, was asked why he gathered no evidence of the alleged forgery, he stated that he didn't need evidence. .
* Mattingly, waiving his rights, took the stand in his own defense. The State could not impeach or rebut Mattingly. In fact, the State called no witnesses to rebut nor offered any evidence to impeach Mattingly. .
* Following 'a four-day trial, Mattingly was acquitted of all charges.
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