By Guy Leonard, The St. Mary's County Times
HOLLYWOOD, Md. (July 23, 2015)—After a brief investigation by county sheriff’s office detectives into an alleged e-mail threat from one board of education member to another State’s Attorney Richard Fritz has decided not to pursue any charges, he told The County Times this week.
In a letter sent to The Enterprise newspaper two weeks ago Board Member Rita Weaver wrote that she had been threatened by fellow board member Marilyn Crosby who had told Weaver in an e-mail of her own that she “had a team that would take care of you.”
Citing this threat Weaver announced to Board Chair Karin Bailey and Schools Superintendent Scott Smith that she would resign her position as vice chair of the board.
Weaver is expected to return to board meetings as a regular member in October.
Crosby has said in the aftermath of the e-mail flap that she meant to say she would work to get Weaver ousted from the board in the next election and that it was not a physical threat.
Fritz said he agreed with that assessment.
“I didn’t see much there,” Fritz said after reviewing the facts in the case. “It’s just two politicians arguing with each other.
“We [the prosecutors office] have more to do than to be criminally litigating arguments between two politicians.”
Last week The County Times reported on a similar finding from within the school board’s own ranks.
It was revealed in a letter addressed to Weaver signed by Bailey that a unanimous vote of the four remaining board members found that the e-mail spat between the two had not reached the level of an actual threat.
“At the conclusion of the board’s discussion, the board unanimously determined that the e-mail did not rise to the level of a threat and did not warrant any further action by the board,” the letter read. “The board further determined that it would not be appropriate to forward your request to [ the board’s legal counsel] of the Office of Administrative Hearings for action, to censure [or] reprimand the board member in question, or to read your prepared statement during the public segment of [the July 8] board meeting.”
Weaver declined to comment for this article.