Maryland spends millions to settle suits every year – and officials don’t like it

BY SOFIA APPOLONIO

The state of Maryland is spending millions of dollars to settle lawsuits every year, and top elected officials aren’t happy about it.

At a meeting of the Board of Public Works on Wednesday, two officials questioned why the state was being asked to approve yet another payout – this one having to do with strip searches by public safety employees.

Although the board approved the $50,000 settlement request, Comptroller Brooke Lierman and Treasurer Dereck E. Davis questioned the prison agency’s decision to settle instead of heading to trial.

“If somebody has been wronged, we should be paying that person and the employees should be retrained or released, but we can’t have strip searches that were done properly cost the state $50,000 each,” Lierman said.

The request stems from a lawsuit alleging misconduct by employees during a strip search, but the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services did not detail the case at the public meeting.

Joseph Sedtal, the agency’s deputy secretary of administration, told the board that the employees involved in the suit followed proper procedures regarding strip searches.

But, Sedtal said, it’s difficult to go to trial and prove this because, due to privacy concerns, there are no cameras allowed in the strip search room.

Often, he said a case is the defendant’s word against that of the facility.

Even though the board voted to approve the settlement, Lierman asked that the agency come back with more information.

She asked for follow-up on how many such cases are filed, how often the state fully litigates them and how many result in complete dismissals.

State Treasurer Dereck E. Davis questioned the logic, asking whether juries would be more inclined to believe the defendants over the correctional officers if the officers proceeded with proper protocol.

“I would like to think settlements are more of a rarity as opposed to a regularity,” Davis said. “It bothers me because this is money, public dollars that I know could be put to good use.”