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02-15-2013, 11:19 AM
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911 Sex Tip Led to Anne Arundel Executive
John R. Leopold resigned as Anne Arundel County Executive on Feb. 1, 2013, after a misconduct conviction in a case that resurfaced a 2009 911 tip about "naked people" and possible sexual activity in a government-issued car at Westfield Annapolis Mall. An anonymous caller to Anne Arundel County's 911 center on Jan. 30, 2009, told a dispatcher he saw "naked people" and possible sexual activity inside a car parked near Nordstrom, according to recordings of the call and police radio traffic. The car belonged to Leopold, the county's top elected official. A patrol officer found a black government-issued Chevrolet Impala carrying the plate "County Executive 1." Leopold, then in his first term as county executive, was inside. Radio traffic captured the officer marking the call "unfounded," and no written report was filed. Leopold, a Republican first elected in 2006, said officers had found nothing improper and that he would not "dignify the matter with further comment." Anne Arundel County police would not say whether anyone else had been in the car with him. County council members later questioned why officers had not followed the standard practice of speaking directly with any woman present to confirm her safety. Police never identified a second occupant, and no charges followed. The episode faded, and Leopold won reelection in 2010. It resurfaced in March 2012, when Maryland prosecutors indicted him on charges that he misused his taxpayer-funded police security detail, including driving him to sexual encounters with women and directing staff to empty his urinary catheter bag for months. A judge convicted Leopold in January 2013 on two counts of misconduct in office, while acquitting him of a separate count alleging his detail drove him to a bowling alley parking lot for a liaison with a county employee. He was fined $100,000 and ordered to serve 60 days between jail and home detention, with the balance of a two-year sentence suspended. Laura Neuman succeeded him as county executive.
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