Efforts fail to change system that lets anyone file for criminal charges in Maryland

The Maryland House of Delegates Judiciary Committee holds a meeting in the final half hour of the General Assembly session on Monday to discuss a bill that would have made changes to the process for seeking criminal charges from district court commissioners. (Pamela Wood/The Banner)

Efforts to reform a system that allows anyone to file for criminal charges without input from police or prosecutors failed on Monday at the 11th hour of the Maryland General Assembly’s 90-day legislative session.

Del. Jackie Addison was minutes away from scoring a victory. Her bill cleared the House of Delegates three weeks earlier and finally won passage in the Senate with less than one hour before the assembly adjourned at midnight.

The House Judiciary Committee held a rushed meeting and was ready to agree to tweaks made in the Senate — but the bill never came up for a final vote. Addison sat near two of her fellow Baltimore Democrats, Dels. Malcolm Ruff and Caylin Young, who made a last-minute plea from their seats: “336!” they called out, in reference to the bill number.

Then the clock struck midnight.

Addison said she felt the legislation was held up during the last several days of session and lamented that the measure “did not make it across the finish line.”

“We worked really, really hard on this bill,” Addison said. “I’m so disappointed. Because I feel like this bill could have made it, and it would have saved lives.”

She vowed to reintroduce the bill in 2027.

Sine Die, the final day of the legislative session, is unpredictable, said Del. N. Scott Phillips, a Democrat from Baltimore County and chair of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland, which considered the bill one of its priorities.

“The system is broken. And we’ve got to work on it,” Phillips said. “We have a unique system here in Maryland, and it’s been in place for a very long time. And when that occurs, it is hard to change.”

Phillips said he believes that lawmakers will figure out a solution to reform the process between now and the start of the next session.

In Maryland, anyone can seek charges with a district court commissioner, a judicial officer who is not required to have a law degree.

The bill would have eliminated their ability to issue arrest warrants to anyone other than police officers and state’s attorneys.

Under the proposal, district court commissioners would have maintained the power to approve charges and issue summonses for people to appear in court.

District court commissioners would have had to refer cases in which they believed someone posed a danger to another person or the community to the state’s attorney. Prosecutors would then have been required to promptly review those accusations and decide whether to seek a judge’s arrest warrant.

The measure would have also increased the maximum sentence for making a false statement from six months to one year and required the Maryland Judiciary to report data each year about the process.

The system was designed to increase access to justice, and advocates maintain that it provides a critical alternative to some survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. The Banner found that the procedure can be easily abused and wreck people’s lives.

District court commissioners cannot investigate these allegations. They can only rely on what people write in an application for charges and swear is true under penalties of perjury.

The Vera Institute of Justice, a national nonprofit criminal justice advocacy group based in New York, found that Maryland is one of eight states that give people the most leeway to initiate charges.

More than one-third of states do not allow the practice.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, president of the Maryland State’s Attorneys’ Association, lobbied for the bill.

Bates noted that these charges rarely go anywhere. His office found that only 11 recent cases in which no police officer was involved have resulted in a conviction.

“Today is a sad day for the people of Maryland,” Bates said in a statement. “A bill that is focused on stopping illegal arrests and mass incarceration was mired in political games.”

Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates testifies on behalf of House Bill 336 in February. (Jessica Gallagher/The Banner)

He said “it is truly disheartening that some have chosen to disregard the collective will of the people in favor of personal political agendas.”

Maryland Public Defender Natasha Dartigue said the failure of lawmakers to pass the bill “leaves in place a broken civilian complaint system that is vulnerable to abuse and has resulted in the wrongful arrest of innocent people.”

In a statement, Dartigue called on legislators to end the practice and prioritize reform in 2027.

Though advocates for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault agree there are issues with the system, they did not support the proposal that lawmakers put forward.

“It was very disappointing that the legislature did not take the opportunity to reform a badly broken system,” said Lisae Jordan, executive director and counsel for the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault. “But the language the Senate added to the bill would have endangered victims of abuse.”

State Sen. Sara Love, a Democrat from Montgomery County, offered an amendment to permit district court commissioners to issue arrest warrants in cases in which people entitled to seek a protective order were in immediate danger.

Her proposal would have lasted two years and put six-month reporting requirements on the judiciary.