After County Executive Cassilly attacked the President of the Deputy Sheriff’s Union (DSU) yesterday afternoon in a press release, my Office released camera footage from the incident and information showing that the Cassilly Administration was very aware of these serious public safety concerns. In his intentionally misleading comments to the public, Mr. Cassilly falsely claimed his Administration could not take action without the video footage and claimed the DSU’s concerns were unfounded and politically motivated. He went so far as to actually defend the actions of the arrested individual.
The Cassilly Administration was made aware of the arrest the day after it occurred and senior members of his staff were permitted to hear the audio of the vile comments within ten days of the arrest, once Sheriff’s Office command became aware of the threatening and offensive language. In addition, on January 16th, after learning that this DES dispatcher had returned to work as a Dispatcher and Emergency Call Taker, the following 5-page memorandum (link below) was sent to the Director of DES and the Director of Human Resources, with the full details of the incident and the transcript of the comments along with our serious concerns. For the past two weeks, the County Administration has been fully aware of all the information and yet the employee was still permitted to remain at her post, potentially putting public safety professionals in jeopardy. Make no mistake, same as Sheriff’s Office employees, county employees can be reassigned to non-critical assignments during any administrative investigation and the decision to not reassign this employee has nothing to do with any due process and is simply complicity and/or incompetence.
The County Law Department did make a request on November 18 in the days after the arrest which was denied as the case had not been adjudicated. After the case was heard in District Court and concluded with a finding of guilt, the video footage became disclosable and will be released to those requesting individuals and entities in accordance with Maryland Law, including the County Government which submitted a new request just last Friday, January 22, 2026.