Nilson: Panel will reject pact with teen

A judge has ordered the Baltimore City Board of Estimates to vote within 30 days on a proposed $150,000 settlement with the family of a teenager who was picked up and allegedly abandoned by three police officers, two of whom were subsequently convicted of misconduct.

Friday’s order by Judge W. Michel Pierson followed testimony from City Solicitor George A. Nilson in Baltimore City Circuit Court, where the teen‘s family sought to enforce a settlement agreement that Nilson’s Law Department approved six months ago.

In his testimony, Nilson said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake decided last winter not to submit the settlement with the family of Michael B. Johnson Jr. to the spending board. The mayor, who opposed the settlement, had counted the votes on the five-member board and concluded it would not be approved anyway, Nilson said.

Nilson, a mayoral appointee who also sits on the board, testified he generally votes with the mayor but would have abstained from the vote because he had approved it as part of the Law Department’s settlement committee.

Also on the board are Public Works Director Alfred H. Foxx, a mayoral appointee who always votes with the mayor; City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young, who has long opposed all settlements involving police misconduct; and Baltimore Comptroller Joan M. Pratt.

Of those, the mayor concluded that only Pratt’s vote was unknown, Nilson testified.

Rawlings-Blake’s decision prevented an “inevitable” no vote, added Nilson, who said he had the mayor’s permission to testify about their private meeting.

Pierson, though, cited boilerplate in the settlement agreement that makes it subject to the Board of Estimates approval. Thus a board vote must be taken, even if the result is a “foregone conclusion,” he said.

“There was a duty to present [the proposed settlement] to the Board of Estimates,” he said.

If the board does reject the settlement, the family can proceed with the lawsuit against the officers, the judge added.

Pierson told attorney A. Dwight Pettit and his co-counsel, Baltimore solo practitioner Allan B. Rabineau, he would “make sure there is no undue delay in setting a new trial date” if the board rejects the settlement.

Outside the courtroom later, Pettit said he was disappointed with the city’s delaying tactics designed to thwart Johnson and his family from being compensated.

Pettit voiced strong displeasure with Nilson’s statement he would abstain from the Board of Estimates’ vote after his earlier support in the settlement committee.

“How do you abstain when you are the one who approved the [settlement] contract?” said Pettit, a Baltimore solo practitioner.

Nilson said he is in the “awkward” position of considering proposed settlements within the Law Department while also serving as counsel for the city’s executive branch, including the mayor.

“I wear two hats,” Nilson said. “I am the chairman of the settlement committee, and I am supposed to vote the same way the mayor does.”

When he disagrees with the mayor, Nilson said he does so privately.

“If I have a different view on a matter, I express it vigorously with the mayor” before the spending panel’s meeting, Nilson said.

Rejection of the proposed settlement would not be unusual in a case in which officers had been convicted of criminal activity, Nilson said. The board has rejected other proposed accords in which officers were acting beyond their authority, he added.

The settlement, if approved, would resolve the lawsuit Johnson’s family brought against officers Tyrone Francis, Milton G. Smith III and Greg Hellen for picking up the boy, as well as another West Baltimore teenager, on May 4, 2009, and allegedly abandoning Johnson shoeless near Patapsco Valley State Park in Howard County. The second teen, who is not a party to the suit, was dropped off in East Baltimore.

A Baltimore City Circuit Court jury last year found Francis and Smith guilty of misconduct in office, a misdemeanor. In a separate bench trial, Judge Timothy J. Doory found Hellen not criminally responsible.

All three officers were acquitted of more serious charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment and assault.

Francis and Smith received 18-month suspended jail terms and probation.

In the civil case, Smith and Hellen are represented by Troy A. Priest, of Wong Fleming LLP in Baltimore.

Michael L. Marshall is representing Francis. Marshall is with Schlachman, Belsky & Weiner PA in Baltimore.