March 25, 2020: When Kelvin Sewell was the police chief of Pocomoke City, Maryland, he asked the Office of the State Prosecutor (OSP) to look into threats and harassment against Black police officers in Worcester County. In response, city officials fired him and two other Black officers. The OSP and Worcester County State’s Attorney’s Office also began investigating Sewell, the county’s first Black police chief. Despite inadequate evidence and witness intimidation, Sewell was charged with “misconduct” and convicted.
This March, the Public Justice Center, together with Citizens for a Better Pocomoke, Pocomoke City Councilwoman Diane Downing, Worcester County Branch of the NAACP, and the Caucus of African American Leaders, contributed an amicus brief to a case challenging the unjust conviction of former Chief Sewell.
Our brief argued that this prosecution is an outgrowth of longstanding practices on Maryland’s Eastern Shore of denying blatant race discrimination, holding Black residents to a higher standard than their white counterparts, and punishing those who resist white officials’ abuse of authority. The brief chronicles the region’s history of race discrimination, from enslavement through Jim Crow, segregation in schools and jobs, and resistance to establishing a fair voting system, to the present. The brief examines how this legacy continues today, providing examples of how a largely white city government has dismissed and retaliated against employees of color who express concerns about a racially hostile work environment, including within the police department. As members of Worcester County’s Black community with firsthand experience of this toxic culture, Citizens for a Better Pocomoke, Pocomoke City Councilwoman Diane Downing, the Worcester County Branch of the NAACP, and the Caucus of African American Leaders believe that it is important to understand the vindictive prosecution of former Chief Sewell in the context of this history.
Our brief joins three others from other civil rights groups and law enforcement associations. Read about the other briefs in a press release by the ACLU of Maryland, the author of one of the other briefs.