Maryland
FreeState Justice executive director resigns, says board has ‘white supremacist culture’
Former staffers sharply critical of Jeremy LaMaster
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 FreeStateās 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 LaMasterās termination, he issued a statement that does not reflect the views or ideals of FreeState Justiceās 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 FreeStateās mission, the board also remains committed to promoting diversity and inclusion within the organization and in the larger LGBTQIA+ community.”
Maryland
At Salisbury University, an alleged hate crime shakes LGBTQ studentsā sense of safety
Authorities have charged 12 men in connection with attack
BY ELLIE WOLFE | Gigi Levin said she wasnāt particularly shocked when she heard a group of her classmates had been accused of luring a gay man to an apartment and attacking him.
āThis is a problem rooted in our campus culture,ā said Levin, a 24-year-old Salisbury University student from Montgomery County. āThe administration can help, but ultimately we are responsible for our safety as LGBTQ+ students.ā
Levin was one of the first to arrive at a vigil on Monday afternoon, planned by an LGBTQ faculty group after University President Carolyn Ringer Lepre announced inĀ an email to the campus last week that several students been arrested.Ā The Salisbury Police Department chargedĀ 12 men, all students between 18 and 21,Ā with first-degree assault, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment and associated hate crimes.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Maryland
VIDEO: Salisbury University students attack gay man
Suspects recorded homophobic assault; video posted to TikTok
(Editorās note: The accompanying video contains graphic violence and homophobic slurs. Viewer discretion is advised.)
The assault of a gay man by a group of Salisbury University students in Maryland has drawn national media attention since last week.
So far, 12 men ages 18-21 have been arrested in the brutal attack. The students allegedly lured the man to an apartment because of his āsexual preferences,ā according to local police.
The victim, a male in his 40s, allegedly propositioned someone on Grindr who claimed to be 16 years old, an attorney for one of the suspects told the Baltimore Banner. The age of consent in Maryland is 16.
Once the victim arrived at the apartment, a group of more than 12 suspects emerged from the bedrooms and attacked, punching, kicking, and spitting on the victim while using anti-gay slurs.
The Washington Blade obtained video of the attack apparently recorded by one of the suspects that was posted to TikTok and circulated among students at Salisbury University. In the video, the victim can be seen being struck from behind while seated in a chair, then repeatedly punched as he tries to flee. The Blade is not identifying the victim and not posting the full video in which the manās face is clearly visible.
The suspects are charged with first-degree assault, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment, and hate crimes. The suspects are: Cameron Guy, 18, of Baltimore; Jacob Howard, 19, of Elkridge; Eric Sinclair, 21, of Mount Airy; Patrick Gutierrez, 19, of Salisbury; Dylan Pietuszka, 20, of Friendship; Zachary Leinemann, 18, of Crofton; Ryder Baker, 20, of Olney; Bennan Aird, 18, of Milton, Del.; Riley Brister, 20, of Davidsonville; Cruz Cespedes, 19, of Jarrettsville; Dylan Earp, 20, of Gambrills; and Elijah Johnson, 19, of Crofton.
The Banner reported that all 12 students have been suspended along with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, to which some of the suspects belonged.
Maryland
Delivery driver found not guilty of murder in fatal shooting of Bel Air trans woman
Meghan Lewis shot two days after Christmas
By CLARA LONGO DE FREITAS | A food delivery driver who fatally shot a trans woman in the parking lot of her Bel Air apartment community last year was found not guilty on Wednesday of first- and second-degree murder.
Brian Delen, 48, of Bel Air, was convicted in Harford County Circuit Court of second-degree assault and use of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence following a trial during which his attorneys argued he acted out of fear and in self-defense when he shot Meghan Lewis.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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