Candidate for state's attorney criticizes probe by police

Search warrant in raid of house alleges attempt to bribe witness

Friday, Oct. 16, 2009

The handling of $20,000 provided by the defendant in the shooting was detailed in a search warrant application filed by St. Mary's detectives, leading to a raid last month at the house of attorney John A. Mattingly Jr.'s mother, where his business partner Daniel Brown lives.

The search warrant application also refers to ongoing investigations of the notarizing of real-estate transactions involving Brown and Mattingly's corporation, Graydon Sears LLC, and states that Mattingly "immediately encouraged" a client receiving a $500,000 settlement in a lawsuit to hire Brown to do work on her home that cost her $184,000 and was never completed.

No charges have been filed against either Mattingly or Brown.

"I know I didn't commit any crimes. Period," Mattingly said this week, reiterating his contention that the investigation involving prosecutors working for incumbent State's Attorney Richard D. Fritz was initiated to undermine Mattingly's political aspirations.

Brown also asserted his innocence, and said that the only wrongdoing in the handling of witnesses has been committed by authorities carrying out the investigation.

"I think witness tampering has been going on. I think it's all been done by the state's attorney's office," Brown said. "They're abusing their power."

David Weiskopf, the county government's assistant attorney and a police witness, told detectives that he was present when $20,000 was delivered in December 2007 to Mattingly's office, according to the search warrant application, which states that the money was from Terry Anthony Clarke, a 45-year-old California man identified by authorities at that time as an owner of the Tiki Bar in Solomons.

Clarke, who pleaded guilty 20 years earlier to a felony cocaine charge, was arrested after a Dec. 29, 2007, incident in which he allegedly fired a rifle across a pond at people who were retrieving birds from the water where they'd been hunting.

Clarke called Mattingly for help as police were raiding Clarke's home, according to the search warrant application filed by St. Mary's sheriff's captain Daniel Alioto.

"Clarke advised, and his bank records support, that he was instructed to withdraw $20,000 on December 31, 2007, and deliver the money in cash to Mattingly," the detective wrote in the search warrant application. "He did so, and indicates that the money was still wrapped in bank currency holders."

Weiskopf confirmed to police that the money later was used to "bribe" a witness, but Mattingly subsequently told Weiskopf that the money had disappeared, according to the search warrant application.

Tina Russo said Thursday from her Charles County home that Brown approached her offering money for her son, a teenage boy among the hunters who were fired upon. "He had a stack of it. He wanted me to see that he was serious about making the offer," Russo said. "He said that Clarke was a good man, and he didn't want him to have to go to court if there was something he could do to stop it."

Russo said she declined the offer because Brown wouldn't agree to prepare paperwork on the proposed agreement. "I wanted documentation showing that the offer was being made, [and] it was a legal thing," she said. "He wouldn't do that."

Brown said this week that he felt that police were trying to unfairly punish Clarke in the shooting incident, and that he was candid in his approach to the witnesses in seeking to resolve the matter.

"I made that perfectly clear to the people, that I didn't want to do anything outside the law," Brown said.

Clarke pleaded guilty last winter to three charges of second-degree assault, one count of reckless endangerment and eight weapons violations. He remains free on $25,000 bond as he continues to await sentencing of up to 75 years in prison through the plea agreement.

An inventory of items seized last month at the Leonardtown area home where Brown lives includes two handguns, a shotgun, ammunition, a notary seal belonging to Jenna Delozier, land records and 12 boxes of files belonging to Mattingly.

Brown said he has a handgun permit, and that the weapons should not have been seized during the police "fishing expedition" at the residence. Brown added, "John Mattingly is guilty of only one thing, wanting to run a better state's attorney's office."

jwharton@somdnews.com