La Plata, MD – At one point last year in the litigation between Charles County and the Bel Alton Alumni Association over the historic African-American high school which the county took possession of in early 2015, Charles County District Court Judge Louis Hennessy told both parties, “This case is a mess.

“If it ever goes to circuit court, it could be tied up for years,” the judge predicted.

District Court Judge Michelle Saunders ruled Aug. 11, 2015 that the complex case should move to the higher court.

After a meeting in circuit court chambers Tuesday, April 19, the case is likely to proceed in December, according to former Charles County Attorney Roger Fink, who is representing the alumni association until they can procure new counsel.

No discussions from the meeting in chambers were disclosed, but the decision to move forward is significant.

The Bel Alton High School Alumni Association Community Development Corporation has not been allowed into the building and filed suit after the county barred the doors and changed the locks.

Fink, in an interview last year before Saunders’ decision, told The BayNet “in the past, whenever there was a problem, the county commissioners would meet with the association and work things out.”

Fink called the civil proceedings, “a request for the county to change the lock back as restore the status quo of the association.”

He said federal and state grants with different requirements of $4.5 million for the restoration of the building and another USDA grant of $1.5 million are in limbo as a result of the county’s actions.

“It will get a lot more complicated as we get down the road,” he noted.

Charles County Commissioner President Peter Murphy said last year that the county intends to lease different parts of the building to see if the county can’t recoup some of the expenses the county has been burdened with in an attempt to keep the building operational—an amount that exceeded $200,000 annually.

“We do intend to allow space so that the Bel Alton High School Alumni Association can have museum space there,” Murphy said, “but the utilities for the building are very expensive and we need to see if we can make some of that money back the county has had to shell out.”

The longer the case drags on in court, however, the longer building remains empty.

Elizabeth Theobolds, also a former county attorney, called the case “a tenant-landlord dispute” before Saunders last August.

Fink said originally, the group thought they could resolve it as a tenant-landlord dispute in district court, but argued it became bigger than that and his clients were filing a claim for damages in excess of the court’s jurisdiction.

“Why the county erected a stone wall is not clear,” Fink stressed. “The county and the organization entered into this agreement over 20 years ago. The Bel Alton Alumni Association operated programs for the elderly, the unemployed, the under privileged. They were fairly successful.”

“The county is alleging this breach of relief,” Theobolds countered last August in district court. “The county filed a new petition alleging landlord-tenant breach of relief. It was appropriate to file because the school is clearly county property. The county is needing to refinance the loan. It’s over a year and a half they’ve been in default.”

Fink told Saunders back in August that the association was seeking other counsel as his having been county attorney when the agreement was entered into appeared to be a conflict of interest.

Although the group was vigorously seeking new representation, he was still on the job in circuit court April 19.

Previous story from The BayNet

http://www.thebaynet.com/articles/0715/oldschoollawsuitmovesforward.html

Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com