By Adam Pagnucco.
MCPS is well-known to MoCo activists for its occasional reluctance to turn over documents. Even Montgomery County Council President Andrew Friedson has noted that county officials have had to use the Maryland Public Information Act to get the system to release information. But when MCPS resisted providing information in a lawsuit, a Montgomery County judge got involved. That didn’t end well for MCPS.
I have previously written about plaintiff Jane Doe’s lawsuit against MCPS and former Principal Joel Beidleman. Doe filed suit against them last October alleging that Beidleman had harassed her and MCPS had covered up his conduct. Beidleman responded by asking the court to force Doe to reveal her identity, a motion that is still pending at this writing.
In the meantime, the parties have been wrestling over disclosure. On December 22, the parties jointly requested that the court institute a Confidentiality Order protecting the public release of disclosure materials. The court granted the order six days later while cautioning that it would apply only to materials containing “sensitive personal information, including but not limited to personally identifiable information and confidential personnel information, which is in fact confidential.” So one might expect that this would ease the discovery process, yes?
Not so fast.
A month later, the plaintiff’s attorney – Jerry Hyatt – was embroiled in a discovery dispute with MCPS’s attorney, Kevin Karpinski. On January 23, Hyatt sent a 14-page letter to Karpinski asking him to comply with his discovery requests. Hyatt wrote:
This letter is sent in good faith efforts to resolve a discovery dispute. We have received the Board’s Responses to our Request for Documents and its document production. There are deficiencies as noted below. Please supplement the deficiencies on or before February 7, 2023 [sic]. If you are willing to rectify some of these deficiencies but not others, please provide, in detail, which deficiency you are not willing to rectify.
First, in virtually every document request, you provide improper boilerplate objections. These are often followed up by the statement that “notwithstanding the foregoing objections, this Defendant is producing responsive, non-privileged documents.”
Among the documents requested by Hyatt but not turned over by MCPS were:
- Beidleman’s complete personnel file.
- Any documents relating to disciplinary action, complaints or other issues concerning Beidleman. Also, any documents of this kind related to other employees involved with investigations of Beidleman.
- Unredacted documents and exhibits referred to by the Jackson Lewis report.
- “Any and all oral or written protocols, policies, regulations, directives, procedures, guidelines or training programs” relating to sexual harassment, workplace bullying, intimidation and complaints made through the state’s and MCPS’s tip lines.
- Documents related to Khalid Walker’s investigation of Beidleman. (Walker was the in-house investigator MCPS initially assigned to look into Beidleman.)
- Documents about Beidleman from the specific schools in which he worked.
Hyatt also asked MCPS’s lawyer to meet with him to discuss these issues on February 8.
Apparently not obtaining resolution from MCPS, the plaintiff filed a motion to compel discovery on February 16.
Circuit Court Judge Louis Leibowitz ruled on the motion on April 5. He ordered MCPS to turn over many of the documents requested by the plaintiff, including Beidleman’s complete personnel file, documents related to complaints about Beidleman and his discipline, “any documents relating to any agreements for compensation paid to Defendant Beidleman arising out of his discipline or termination,” relevant training videos and presentations and more. The judge also ordered MCPS to provide documents for his review related to Jackson Lewis’s interviews of employees, Khalid Walker’s charge of discrimination against MCPS and disciplinary documents “for any MCPS employee other than Beidleman who was disciplined, placed on leave, or terminated as a result of Beidleman’s conduct or the failure to investigate Beidleman.” The judge would then decide which of these documents, if any, should be provided to the plaintiff.
The above means that the plaintiff is going to learn A LOT about not only Beidleman’s actions but how MCPS handled them. Unfortunately, the public will not see these revelations owing to the court’s earlier confidentiality order.
Additionally, one more fact of interest appears in the case file. On January 23, the plaintiff’s lawyer told MCPS’s lawyer that he intended to depose the following 25 people if the case was not settled. I supply titles in parentheses.
Defendant Beidleman
Corporate Designee for the BOE (Board of Education)
Dr. Monifa McKnight (former superintendent)
Diane Morris (area associate superintendent)
Patrick Murphy (former deputy superintendent)
Dr. Donna Redmond Jones (associate superintendent)
Dr. Eugenia (Jeanie) Dawson (Office of School Support and Well-Being)
Susan Marks (former head of human resources)
Michaele Simmons (former director of compliance and investigations)
Khalid Walker (an investigator initially assigned to Beidleman’s case)
Brian Hull (chief operating officer)
April Key (chief of human resources)
Chris Cram (director of communications)
James (Jason) McCoy (coordinator, administrator and supervisor staffing)
Danielle Miller, Esq. (assistant general counsel)
Eric Minus (former director of school support and improvement)
Steven Neff (director of pupil personnel and attendance services)
Amy Councilman (assistant principal, Farquhar Middle School)
Christina Putman (assistant principal, Forest Oak Middle School)
Brian Stockton (former chief of staff)
Rebecca Smondrowski (school board member)
Four other non-leadership staff who were colleagues of Beidleman at schools where he worked.
This list contains a large chunk of former Superintendent Monifa McKnight’s leadership team as well as several people who worked in Beidleman’s schools. Just because the plaintiff’s attorney wants to depose them, that does not mean that they have done anything wrong. But together, they can help the plaintiff compile a comprehensive picture of Beidleman’s activities and MCPS’s response.
How much taxpayer money would MCPS fork over to keep these people from testifying in court?