Our view: In dumping case, judge tries blaming his accusers | Maryland Gazette (HometownGlenBurnie.com)

County inspectors found cinder blocks, rebar and even bathroom fixtures on 470 feet of shoreline in front of the judge's home but, according to his attorneys, the problem isn't illegal dumping - it's the state attorney general and an overzealous county executive.

Judge Gatewood's attorneys want the case dismissed because they say County Executive John Leopold brought political pressure against the Attorney General's Office to charge the judge. In response, they say, Attorney General Douglas Gansler tried to make an example of the judge to promote his environmental agenda. If that wasn't enough, the attorneys also played the race card - maybe the state is pursuing this case is because their client is African American.

You expect such nonsensical courtroom rhetoric from thieves accused of petty crime - but not from a judge who should just have acknowledged a mistake and agreed to restitution. County inspectors discovered the construction debris in October 2006 along the shoreline of property belonging to the judge and neighbors. The county notified the Environmental Crimes Unit of the AG's office, but no action was taken against the judge for a year. After the delay was brought to the public's attention by The Capital, the attorney general charged Judge Gatewood with unlawfully filling in wetland, unlawful dumping, water pollution and nine counts of construction without a sediment control plan. In addition, he is being sued by the state and county under civil statutes.

The AG's office was rightfully insulted by the suggestion that the case is racially motivated. It didn't exactly walk the county's shorelines looking for only African-American violators to charge. Toilets, rebar and cinder blocks were still visible at the water's edge - and the judge thinks there was an ulterior motive in charging him with illegal dumping? And is the motive of the AG's office and the county executive more important than whether the judge broke the law?

Judge Gatewood says he repaired his shoreline in 2003 after Hurricane Isabel, but he doesn't know who dumped the construction debris three years later. We can't imagine someone not knowing who left ugly cinder blocks and parts of toilets on his beach, but that will be up to a jury to sort out. The judge's neighbors, who were charged with the same offense, settled with the state and agreed to remove the debris. The judge will face a jury on June 2. We wonder what his lawyers will claim then.