The Baltimore city police union is suing a former city police commander to overturn a controversial pension agreement made between him and the city.
The Fraternal Order of Police went to court to overturn the pension awarded three months ago to Marcus Brown. Brown is the former deputy police commissioner in Baltimore and is currently chief of the Maryland Transportation Authority police.
The police union's lawsuit seized on the key issue in the Brown pension case -- the circumstances surrounding his departure from the city police department in January, said WBAL TV 11 News I-Team lead investigative reporter Jayne Miller.
By all public accounts, Brown left voluntarily to take a job in the administration of Gov. Martin O'Malley. But behind the scenes, then-police Commissioner Leonard Hamm told the police pension board in writing that Brown had been laid off -- making Brown eligible for the pension before he'd completed the 20 years of required city police service.
The union's lawsuit faults the pension board, claiming "the board was legally bound to deny Brown a retirement benefit … because Brown's 'removal' was due to his decision to accept another position" -- not because he lost his job or because his job was abolished.
The lawsuit argues that Brown is getting pension benefits he didn't earn and demands the pension board adjust the payments.
The lawsuit also finds fault with the city for the decision by the Board of Estimates in 2005 to approve Brown's contract as deputy police commissioner. Signed by O'Malley when he was mayor, it is what set up the early retirement deal, Miller said.
The lawsuit argues that the contract stepped on the authority of the pension board. It asks the court to "order the (pension) board to rescind the retirement benefit awarded to Brown" and to "order Brown himself to refund all funds received as a result of the retirement benefit."
Brown has been collecting a $55,000 per-year, taxpayer-funded pension since the spring -- on top of his state salary of $127,000 a year.
The chair of the police pension board -- an outspoken critic of Brown's deal -- said Monday that he welcomed the lawsuit, even though he's named as a defendant.
A spokesperson for Brown said Brown had no comment on the lawsuit.
A spokesperson for Mayor Sheila Dixon said that the mayor hadn't seen the lawsuit. He called the union's decision to file it unfortunate.
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