FreeState Justice Executive Director Jeremy LaMaster on Monday announced their resignation after they said the organization’s board of directors declined their request to step down.

“This morning, I requested the FreeState Justice board of directors to submit their immediate resignations due to persistent violations of our board handbook, consistent failures in their fiduciary responsibilities, and using positions of power to engage in partisan lobbying within FreeState Justice and their repeated refusal to add new members and leadership to the board,” said LaMaster in an email they sent from his FreeState Justice email account. “They declined, and it is with a heavy heart that I announce my resignation as executive director and make a public call for their resignation instead: For the resignation of Lindsey Young, board president; Riley Roshong, board vice president; Brianna January, board secretary; Lee Carpenter, Brenda Dorsch, Andrew Adelman and Jess Landers Hopkins.”

LaMaster in June 2020 succeeded Mark Procopio as executive director.

LaMaster in his email noted they “exhausted every avenue over the past two years to get our board fully staffed and running, and I made good faith efforts to work with the board to ensure that our clients and low-income LGBTQ Marylanders remained at our center.” 

“Instead, the board has refused to accept any new board members since 2021 and refused to staff and run core board activities as per our handbook,” wrote LaMaster. “Instead, they have worked to consolidate power and amend the board handbook in secret to lower the minimum number of board members required and ensure that our policy positions prioritize relationships with legislators, not the best interests of our clients and community. I have provided clear warnings and consistent concerns over these issues that were repeatedly ignored.”

“These are the hallmarks of white supremacist culture: the concentration of power, power hoarding, defensiveness, right to comfort, fear of open conflict, hyper-individualism, and a false sense of urgency,” added LaMaster.

A link to LaMaster’s letter can be found here.

The Washington Blade has reached out to Carpenter for comment on LaMaster’s allegations.

Former FreeState Justice Education and Outreach Director Ezra Halstead in an email they sent to the Blade on Monday sharply rebuked LaMaster.

“The claims that are being made are 100 percent false, and the reality is that Jeremy has single-handedly destroyed the organization on their own,” wrote Halstead.

Halstead attached a letter that former FreeState Justice Legal Director CP Hoffman wrote to the organization’s board on March 31, 2022, the day their resignation took effect. 

Hoffman in their letter noted “historically poor provision of legal services” that “centered almost entirely on name and gender change cases for transgender individuals” and a “poor reputation statewide, especially among the transgender community and communities of color.” Hoffman also noted “employee retention has been a longstanding issue for FreeState Justice” along with “hiring decisions” and “board disengagement.”

Hoffman also made specific allegations against LaMaster.

“Mr. LaMaster’s mismanagement extends well beyond myself and the leadership team at the time he assumed office,” wrote Hoffman in their letter. “Numerous employees hired over the past two years have come to me to express concerns regarding his management, citing concerns from discriminatory pay structures and broken promises about advancement, inappropriate delegation of personal tasks, providing little or no instruction or oversight of delegated tasks, and even inappropriately using the legitimacy of a minority-led organization as a front for grant applications where the majority of funding would go directly to FreeState Justice.”

A copy of Hoffman’s letter can be found here.

The Blade has reached out to LaMaster for comment on the allegations that Hoffman and Halstead have made against him.

Hoffman told the Blade they are unable to comment because of the “non-disparagement agreement” they were asked to sign “as a condition of my severance.”

“As such, I am contractually unable to offer public comment at this time about FreeState’s former executive director, Jeremy LaMaster,” said Hoffman. “I will, however, confirm that I did draft the March 31 memo, that it was sent to the FreeState Justice board of directors, and that I stand by the recommendations made in that memo.”

FreeState Justice on Tuesday announced Phillip Westry will succeed LaMaster. Tina Jones will be the organization’s new deputy executive director.

The announcement said FreeState Justice on Sept. 16 fired LaMaster “after prolonged and thoughtful deliberation.”

“Every effort was made to make this transition as efficient and amicable as possible,” said FreeState Justice. “In the wake of LaMaster’s termination, he issued a statement that does not reflect the views or ideals of FreeState Justice’s board and staff. The board of directors has earnestly fulfilled its fiduciary duties to the organization and takes these responsibilities very seriously. In working to fulfill FreeState’s mission, the board also remains committed to promoting diversity and inclusion within the organization and in the larger LGBTQIA+ community.”