Anderson not satisfied with Cardin’s silence
Del. Curt Anderson, a Democrat and chairman of Baltimore City’s House Delegation, said he’s not satisfied with Del. Jon Cardin’s explanation regarding the use of city police resources for a marriage proposal last month.
Anderson, speaking Friday on Sen. Clarence Mitchell IV’s C4 show on WBAL radio, said Cardin has not yet taken full responsibility for his actions.
“Cardin never came forward and said, ‘I did this and that’s how it happened,’ ” Anderson said. “That’s the way you take responsibility — not apologize after the fact and write a $300 check.”
Cardin, in a Sept. 1 interview with Patuxent Publishing Co., declined to provide specifics about the Aug. 7 marriage proposal to then-girlfriend Megan Homer, now his fiance. The proposal came aboard a boat owned by a still unidentified friend of Cardin during an cruise in the Inner Harbor.
Anderson has been previously vocal about the incident including an Aug. 18 story in The Baltimore Sun.
“How in the world did he get something like that?” Anderson, in that story, said of Cardin, also a Democrat. “If I wanted to do this myself, I wouldn’t have the first clue as to how to get that accomplished. This is totally astonishing that a state delegate, especially one from Baltimore County, could commandeer the forces of the Baltimore City Police Department like that. It’s a big waste of the city’s money if that actually happened.”
Cardin has since acknowledged that he was involved in the planning. A police spokesman said Cardin asked an officer with the department’s marine unit to board the boat. The spokesman did not name the officer but said Cardin did not have a previous relationship with him.
Cardin, in an interview earlier this month, would only agree with the spokesman’s statement.
Since the incident, Cardin has provided several public apologies in the form of a press release on his Web site and open letters to the editor to several local publications. He also wrote a $300 check to cover the cost of the use of a police boat, helicopter and the time for an undisclosed number of police officers involved in the brief incident. He also donated $1,000 to the department’s mounted patrol.
Cardin said he was cooperating with an internal affairs investigation being conducted by the police and declined additional comment.
“I’ve apologized. I’ve reimbursed,” Cardin said during the Sept. 1 phone interview. “That’s it. Done.”
What do you think? Has Del. Cardin taken responsibility for his actions? Does the public deserve a more detailed explanation?