Meet Richard Fritz, America's Most Unelectable Elected Official

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://defector.com/meet-richard-fritz-americas-most-unelectable-elected-official/

It takes a village to allow an incident as grotesque as the killing of 16-year-old Peyton Ham by Maryland State Police officer Joseph Azzari to be forgotten as quickly as it has in St. Mary’s County. But Richard Fritz, who has been the state’s attorney—the equivalent of a DA—in this rural Southern Maryland county since 1998, is as responsible as anybody for its going away.

After Defector’s coverage of the killing, several people from the region contacted me wanting to tell me that Fritz was as incompetent and powerful as the Ham case made him seem. They said that if I looked into Fritz’s background I’d be shocked that he ever won one election, let alone six. Given Fritz’s role in the Ham case, and because he’s now campaigning for a seventh term, I did look into his record. Turns out they didn’t exaggerate. Put plainly: He should have been out of office long before he let Ham’s killer walk. (Fritz did not respond to Defector’s requests to be interviewed about the Ham case and his campaign.)

Any reasonably complete get-to-know-your-candidate bio for Richard Fritz, which I will try to deliver here, would lead off with the incredible tale of his failed effort to prevent voters from learning of his record as a sex offender. Fritz used the county sheriff’s office to stop a local newspaper from distributing its election day issue, with a front-page story headlined “Fritz Guilty of Rape.” A federal judge was so disgusted by Fritz’s censoring news about his predatory past that he compared the prosecutor and his henchmen to “members of the [Ku Klux] Klan.”

Then there’s the heinous tale of Fritz conspiring with a local sheriff to raid the office of a former colleague who just one day earlier had filed to run against Fritz for state’s attorney. That colleague-turned-rival was then indicted on more than 100 criminal counts of fraud and forgery. The case blew up when Fritz’s office got caught withholding exculpatory evidence, but by then the rival’s campaign was crippled financially and dead in the water.

*snip*

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Do you live in southern Maryland?

You had a thread about the Ham incident in September 2021.

Thu Sep 30, 2021: A Teen With A Toy Was Killed By Police, And Few Want To Talk About It

[Nevilledog]

3. I don't. Don't even remember that post.

[Boomerproud]

2. Vet your candidates people.

I don't vote for judges because the only time I hear about them is election time.