Judge denies request from David Linthicum’s attorneys to remove prosecutors in attempted murder case
Cassidy Jensen
The Baltimore Sun
August 29, 2024
The judge overseeing the case of a Cockeysville man accused of shooting two police officers denied defense attorneys’ request to remove the state’s attorney’s office from the case this week.
Baltimore County Judge Dennis M. Robinson Jr. wrote in an order this week that there was not a sufficient legal basis to throw out the attempted murder case against David Linthicum or recuse the Baltimore County’s Attorney’s Office, as Linthicum’s lawyers requested in a motion last month.
Linthicum is accused of shooting Baltimore County officer Barry Jordan when police responded to his home for a report that he was suicidal. He fled into the woods around his home, launching a two-day search that ended in Harford County. During the search, police say Linthicum also shot and critically injured Det. Jonathan Chih, then swiped his police vehicle.
Linthicum is set to stand trial Sept. 16 on attempted murder, assault, carjacking and firearms charges. He will turn 26 during the trial, if it proceeds as scheduled. A motions hearing set for Thursday was canceled after Robinson ruled on motions in the written orders this week.
In one order, Robinson rejected the legal argument from Deborah Katz Levi and James Dills, Linthicum’s attorneys, that Baltimore County prosecutors “were personally invested in the outcome of this criminal prosecution.” They had cited, in part, a donation to Chih’s GoFundMe listed as coming from the state’s attorney’s office.
In addition to asking Robinson to remove prosecutors, Levi, the director of special litigation for the Office of the Public Defender, and Dills, the district public defender for Baltimore County, had suggested Robinson could dismiss the case entirely or exclude testimony from any members of the Baltimore County Police Department.
Robinson also addressed the public defenders’ broader claims of misconduct by prosecutors, saying none of the “alleged missteps” warranted kicking the office or the Baltimore County Police Department off the case.
“The State’s failure to respond to some of Linthicum’s motions in this case may not be the most effective strategy, but it is not the basis to dismiss the charges or recuse the entire Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office,” Robinson wrote.
In a separate order Monday, Robinson partially granted a request from the defense to force prosecutors to turn over some county officers’ internal affairs files, but did not order them to produce all the evidence Linthcum’s attorneys sought.
Deputy State’s Attorney John Cox and Assistant State’s Attorney Zarena Sita had disagreed with the demands for evidence in their own motion, writing that prosecutors were not required by law to provide the police internal affairs records that defense attorneys wanted.
Attorneys for both sides have squabbled over evidence in multiple hearings since Linthicum’s indictment. Robinson agreed in some cases that prosecutors had taken too long to turn over some records. Last year, the state tried unsuccessfully to remove Levi from the case, calling her brother-in-law’s representation of Chih in a worker’s compensation case a conflict of interest.