By Randall Chase
Associated Press
POCOMOKE CITY, Md. — Residents of a small town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore are continuing to vent their frustrations and concerns about the ouster of the town’s first black police chief.
Two local pastors who support former Pocomoke City police Chief Kevin Sewell were scheduled to address the City Council on Monday evening, followed by comments from other residents.
Sewell says he was dismissed for refusing city officials’ demands that he fire two fellow black officers who filed complaints saying they had been treated unfairly.
“Basically, they said they wanted me to resign,” said Sewell, who told officials they would have to fire him.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Sewell said. He said officials told him he was fired because of incompetence.
After Sewell’s firing, some residents of the town, which bills itself as “The Friendliest Town on the Eastern Shore,” began a petition to have him reinstated and called for the ouster of Mayor Bruce Morrison, who is white. The Justice Department sent community affairs representatives to a church gathering last month to listen to residents’ concerns.
Sewell joined the Pocomoke City Police Department in 2010 after retiring from the Baltimore Police Department and was promoted to chief in 2011. He filed a complaint earlier this year with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming he was not given a contract and was paid much less than his white predecessors. Sewell is now amending the complaint to add that he was fired for refusing to fire Officers Franklin L. Savage and Lynell Green.
Andrew McBride, a lawyer for the three men, said city officials viewed Savage and Green as “troublemakers.”
City officials deny the allegations, but their ability to address the issue publicly is limited because of pending litigation and privacy rules regarding personnel issues.
“I believe that when all of the facts are in, the actions of the council will be vindicated,” City Attorney William Hudson said.
“We emphatically deny the allegation that the chief’s separation resulted from a refusal on his part to terminate the officers,” Hudson added.
The allegations of discrimination stem from Savage’s two-year stint on the Worcester County Criminal Enforcement Team, a multijurisdictional drug unit. Savage, the only black officer on the task force, filed an EEOC complaint last year saying that he was repeatedly subjected to racial slurs and harassment.
“It was extensive, and no discipline was imposed on the two leaders of the task force,” McBride said.
The Maryland State Police, however, informed Savage in a letter that it would penalize one of its officers for “unbecoming conduct.”
Green says he was harassed and his overtime hours were restricted after he attended an EEOC mediation session with Savage.
Diane Downing, the lone black member of the five-person City Council and sole vote against firing Sewell, said city officials and outside authorities wanted Savage fired because he could not be trusted after filing his EEOC complaint and would not be allowed to testify in court cases.
The role Sewell’s relationships with other local law enforcement agencies may have played in his firing is unclear. On at least two occasions, most recently in June, representatives of outside agencies have come into Pocomoke City to make drug arrests without Sewell’s prior knowledge or participation.
“Everybody was concerned about why the other agencies were in town,” Downing said.
Lt. Ed Schreier, a spokesman for the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office, said the multiagency drug unit notified Pocomoke police about a drug bust in their town in late June as search warrants were being served.
“When we have an investigation, we don’t tell everybody about it,” Schreier noted. “We have ultimate jurisdiction over every town in the county.”
Schreier declined to comment about Savage’s allegations of racial harassment while a member of the task force.
“We cannot comment on any ongoing legal proceedings,” he said. “It’s not for us to play this out in the media.”
The state’s attorney’s office for Worcester County also declined to comment.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press