It’s supposed to be a time of relaxation. The kids are out for summer, the weather is nicer, and everyone should be slowing their roll. But alas, tis not the case round these parts!
We all know about the High Sheriff’s indictment, but you may not know that Jenkins is feigning victimhood! According to the Frederick News Post, Jenkins regrets signing the letters, claims he was “duped” into signing them AND because he didn’t receive anything in return, it shouldn’t matter anyway. Is that how the law works….no it is not! According to aforementioned article the government responded to Jenkins’ claim in this fashion:
Finally, the response said Jenkins’ assertion that he didn’t receive anything from Krop in return for the letters didn’t mean that Jenkins was absolved of the crimes or of fraud. Jenkins’ motion argued that there was no evidence Jenkins benefited from the alleged conspiracy, and that there was no fraud.
“The fact that Jenkins did not receive anything of monetary value in return does not speak to [the letters’] falsity,” the response said.
Seems to us that if you are the High Sheriff, there’s certain points of law you should be acquainted with! Dan Cox’s claims, in his poor attempt to throw out the charges against his client, were hilariously refuted by the government as well. We present the following for your viewing pleasure:
“The Government will not address the various inaccurate factual assertions that Krop made in these 44 pages, the erroneous legal arguments he advances in them or the political statements he makes which have nothing to do with either the law or facts in this case,” the response said.
The first point the government pushed back on was Krop’s allegation that he and Jenkins were misrepresented to the grand jury and in the indictment since they were addressed in the past tense. For example, the indictment says Krop was a Frederick County resident, not that he is a Frederick County resident.
The government said this use of past tense was standard practice, and included a citation to the definition of “past tense” in the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Cox did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.
The government then criticized Krop’s references to an ATF agent who is a former Ukrainian resident, calling them unacceptable “personal attacks.”
It also accused him of going on a “fishing expedition” in the grand jury process, despite having no evidence that any wrongdoing occurred.
Several of Krop’s motions asked for certain evidence to be turned over. The government said that everything he was asking for had already been turned over to him, and that he signed a document, like Jenkins, that he would get additional information a week before trial.
Finally, the government pushed back on Krop’s claim that the search and seizure at The Machine Gun Nest was unlawful. It argued that there was probable cause, which stemmed from lawful investigation, and a lawful warrant.
To make things even more crazy, today the Frederick News Post reported that Jenkins’ leave of absence isn’t really an absence as he’s still collecting his full salary AND attending meetings.
In a phone interview on Thursday, Jenkins said he attended sheriff’s office budget meetings and has gone back to the office on occasion to do work.
He said the letter about his administrative leave speaks for itself.
“I am still the head of the agency,” he said. “That’s not going to change.”
Jenkins wrote in the letter that Col. David Benjamin would take on day-to-day operations of the sheriff’s office and “perform the duties of the Sheriff.”
Not sure if the High Sheriff understands what a leave of absence is!
In other happenings, we recently shared an article on our Facebook account about who interacts with local government the most. As you may guess it’s the 55 and up crowd. Don’t think for a moment that we are in anyway disparaging the older crowd as we Lady Yokels are practically there ourselves, but they can’t be the only ones giving their feedback.
Here’s two examples of what we are dealing with around here. First of all, we have this FCPS reconsideration committee that’s examining books that Cindy Rose et al. decided that no kid should be allowed to read. (If you haven’t read it yet, look at our legislative suggestions on how to curb the problem of a handful of people being allowed to potentially ban books.) Her research consisted of going to ratedbooks.com and printing out the most salacious bits. While her opinion may matter, being a local citizen and all, she needs pushback. (Thankfully we’ve all pushed her back from sitting on the school board itself four times now!) Another example of the older crowd attempting to influence the school board is the former Citigroup executive who has taken up the mantle of banning transkids from sports, not allowing these same kids to identify as their gender of choice in school, and has complained on our posts about the imagined teaching of CRT in the public school system. He’s been joined by the likes of Tom Neumark, who likes to write about how horrible FCPS is in the editorial section of the FNP. The formerly mentioned executive claims on his website that he got into this game, despite having no children in FCPS and with no background in education, because of failing scores on tests. However, the only things he’s been vocal about are the same things that national Republican party has used as scare mongering techniques in order to get more votes. If you haven’t seen it, and these folks should take a look as well if they weren’t so allergic to actual journalism, there’s a great article explaining how the American Principles Project needed to find a new social issue to rile up their side and transgender kids is what they landed on. All of this book banning, anti-history, and discriminating against gay and trans people is all part of the Republican strategy to win back votes. We cannot allow it to happen in our neck of the woods. So make sure you check the Board of Education’s agenda, and the county council’s agenda in order to give your feedback. It’s when the majority doesn’t pay attention that these folks and their outdated and harmful ideas sneak in.
There’s sparks of hope that the Trump way of governing is losing its sheen around here. A group that pretends to be non partisan tried to organize a pro-Trump rally on the overpass on Route 15 on Monocacy Blvd. last week. Guess how many people showed up?
And don’t forget to attend Frederick Pride tomorrow! All the best people will be there.
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