In the 39 cases in which the Maryland Attorney General’s Office has completed an investigation of police-involved fatalities, the office’s Independent Investigations Division has brought charges in just two cases — the first of which was dismissed 10 months later.
In the first cases, two Anne Arundel County officers were indicted when they chased a car at over 100 mph in an area with a 35 mph speed limit without using emergency lights, and were later said to have lied about the chase when the car they were pursuing crashed and the passenger, 22-year-old Damione Gardner, died. But a judge dismissed the case in September 2025, saying the IID had not sufficiently met the burden of proof. Last April, the office indicted Anne Arundel County Officer Alexander Rodriguez for engaging in an unauthorized chase, which killed a Navy linguist, and then leaving the scene of a crash. The office has declined indictments in the 37 other investigations they have completed since being charged with investigating police-involved fatalities in October 2023.
The head of the IID, Allison Green, and the Deputy Chief Renee Martel Joy resigned from the agency in October following the September ruling. Jonathan Smith, the head of the Civil Rights Division, is acting director of IID…