Lawyer seeks to depose O’Malley

ANNAPOLIS — The lawyer for a former state employee wants to depose Gov. Martin O’Malley for statements he made last week about the employee being fired.

“Certainly it is the thought that [Mr. O’Malley] has potentially admissible evidence to offer,” said Kate Masterton, who represents former Department of General Services official Nelson Reichart in a lawsuit against the state. “We intend to delve very deeply into the extent of the state’s comments, including the governor’s.”

Mr. Reichart was fired June 29 by the O’Malley administration, one day after he said in a news account the state paid $1 million more than it should have for an Eastern Shore land parcel.

In the lawsuit, Mr. Reichart said he was fired for being a white Republican and that his comments in the press about the property were warranted. The lawsuit also states Mr. Reichart worked 29 years for the state before being fired 12 months before full retirement and that other white Republicans also were fired, then replaced with Democrats.

Mr. O’Malley, a Democrat, last week declined to comment, then defended the administration’s decisions.

“We will, when necessary, put professional and competent people into important government jobs to do the important work of our state,” he said. “We do so with one litmus test and one litmus test only, and that is: Are you capable? Are you committed? Are you professional? Are you the best person to [do] this job? We don’t do our party loyalty calls, nor do we ever discriminate on the basis of race.”

Mr. O’Malley’s spokesman referred calls this week to the attorney general’s office.

Mrs. Masterton said the governor’s response could establish his involvement in the lawsuit, but a judge would have to allow her to depose Mr. O’Malley.

In a deposition, Mr. O’Malley would sit down with Mrs. Masterton outside a courtroom and give testimony under oath that could later be used in the case.

The lawsuit and the possibility of deposing the governor are the most recent developments concerning the land deal, which has been a problem for the administration throughout the summer.

Mr. Reichart was fired one day after he said the state would normally pay $1 million less than the $4.6 million it paid for the 271-acre parcel in Queen Anne’s County.

Shortly before that, Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary John R. Griffin revealed that before taking his current state job he had done contract work for the land owner, David Sutherland, and recommended that Mr. Sutherland work on Mr. O’Malley’s transition team. The agency recommended that the state purchase the land, and the Board of Public Works approved the deal in June.

Appraisers found much of the parcel the state bought was not developable. However, the section of the original property that is developable was subdivided and sold for development to Petrie Ross Ventures, according to an investigation by the Easton Star Democrat newspaper.