Steffey v. State

573 A.2d 70, 82 Md. App. 647, 1990 Md. App. LEXIS 77
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland
DecidedMay 7, 1990
Docket1226, September Term, 1989
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 573 A.2d 70 (Steffey v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Special Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Steffey v. State, 573 A.2d 70, 82 Md. App. 647, 1990 Md. App. LEXIS 77 (Md. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

*649 ALPERT, Judge.

The central question in this appeal is whether a violation of a police officer’s immunity under § 728(b)(7)(ii) of the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights (LEOBOR), Md. Ann. Code art. 27, §§ 727-734D, warrants dismissal of an indictment against that officer. A Prince George’s County grand jury indicted the appellant, George B. Steffey, on six counts, including misconduct in office. Appellant moved to dismiss the indictments. At a pre-trial motions hearing, Judge Robert J. Woods denied appellant’s motion. Appellant then was tried before a jury, which found him guilty on the misconduct count. He appeals from that conviction.

Appellant was an officer with the Prince George’s County Police Department working the night shift at the time of the subject incident in September 1988. The following statement of facts is based upon his unrefuted testimony concerning the incident. On the night before the incident, while assisting another officer in a routine arrest following a traffic stop, appellant found a BB handgun in the arrestee’s car. He placed the gun in the back of his police cruiser so he could inventory the gun when he returned to the station at the end of his shift. Appellant did not perform the inventory, however, because he did not see the officer he had assisted in the arrest and therefore could not get the case number from him.

While working a second job as a security guard later that day (following the night shift), appellant purchased a C02 cartridge and a package of BBs from a hardware store at Eastover Shopping Center where he worked. At one point, he went behind the shopping center and fired the BB gun several times, discovering that it only fired about every fourth time because of a malfunctioning spring.

That night, appellant and Corporal Clarence Voundy were specially assigned to patrol certain open-air “drug markets.” On the way to one of the drug areas in two separate cruisers, the officers stopped behind an elementary school to allow appellant to put on his blue jumpsuit uniform over *650 his standard uniform. While appellant was putting his uniform on, Voundy noticed the BB gun in the back of appellant’s car. After asking appellant if he could see the gun, Voundy took it out and began shooting at nearby signs.

Appellant and Voundy then proceeded to the assigned drug area. As they exited their vehicles, Voundy again asked appellant for the BB gun. Appellant handed the gun and the remaining pellets to Voundy, who outranked appellant. The officers took a concealed route toward the drug market, hoping to surprise the alleged dealers who were standing around possibly engaging in drug transactions. Before appellant and Voundy “could implement their plan of attack,” someone else fired a gunshot and the crowd dispersed.

Moments later, the officers came upon three individuals whom they believed had run from the drug area. Appellant and Voundy identified themselves as police officers and told the three suspects to lie on the ground. Appellant took control of two of the suspects, Calvin Proctor and another, unidentified man. Voundy handled the third suspect, Rodney L. Simms. Appellant had conducted a search of his two suspects and was beginning to question Proctor about drugs he had found on the ground near Proctor when he heard Simms yell, “Ouch! Ouch! That hurt.” Appellant then looked over and saw Voundy standing over Simms, pointing the BB gun at him. Appellant noticed blood running down the side of Simms’s face. Appellant testified that:

I didn’t know what to do. I took and told Mr. Proctor to get on the ground. Clarence started hollering. “There’s nothing coming out of the damn gun.” He was taking the gun and he was doing this (indicating) with his hand with the gun.
I walked over to Clarence and I placed my left hand on Corporal Voundy’s left shoulder and I said, “What did you do that for?”
*651 Corporal Voundy started laughing and said, “Steffey, they’re drug dealers. They’re never going to say nothing.”

Within hours after the incident, Simms filed a complaint with the Prince George’s County Police Department, alleging the use of unnecessary and excessive force in effecting an arrest. According to Simms’s version of the incident, he and Proctor were on their way to pick up a friend when they were stopped by two officers, one black and one white. (Voundy is black; appellant is white.) When Simms denied having any drugs, the black officer took out a gun and began firing at the back of his head. Simms felt only air coming out of the gun until the black officer yelled, “It’s nuthin’ in this damn gun. It’s nuthin’ in this damn gun.” The white officer then went over to the black officer and Simms heard what sounded like a pinging sound against metal. Moments later, the black officer fired two more times at the back of Simms’s head, striking him with BBs both times. The black officer then lifted up Simms’s jacket and shirt and shot him in the back six times. After the attack, Simms and Proctor were ordered to run away from the scene.

At the trial Simms admitted that he never saw the white officer pass any BE pellets to the black officer. He alleged, however, that he had heard the white officer say to the black officer, “I have something for you to put in this gun.” Simms admitted during cross-examination that his written statement to the police on the night of the incident made no mention of the white officer saying anything to the black officer.

Appellant was called into the police department’s Internal Affairs Section (IAS) a few hours after the incident. Pursuant to the LEOBOR, Lieutenant Phillip Constantino informed appellant (1) that he was under investigation in connection with the incident, (2) that he was being ordered to write a “duress statement” concerning the incident, and (3) that he had the right to postpone making the duress statement for ten days in order to obtain an attorney. *652 Appellant exercised his right to wait until he found an attorney.

That night appellant was again called into IAS. During this period, appellant was not free to leave the police station. Constantino served appellant with a document notifying him of the administrative charges against him. According to Constantino’s testimony at the motions hearing, while he was serving appellant with the document, appellant said, “That is not me. I was there. I didn’t do this.” Constantino testified that he then advised appellant that he should have an attorney present. Because Constantino felt “uncomfortable” listening to what he termed appellant's “utterances,” he called his commanding officer, Captain McDonald, into the room. According to Constantino, McDonald then asked appellant where he got the BBs. The trial judge and Constantino then held the following discussion:

THE COURT: So, who asked that question?

THE WITNESS: The Captain did, sir.

THE COURT: He asked him . that question?

THE WITNESS: And then it was realized that we were probably wrong in asking that and everything stopped. He was told he should have his attorney.

THE COURT: Did he answer the question?

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Bluebook (online)
573 A.2d 70, 82 Md. App. 647, 1990 Md. App. LEXIS 77, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/steffey-v-state-mdctspecapp-1990.