Baltimore city schools to spend $2.5 million on civil lawsuit legal fees, including case claiming taxpayer fraud

The Baltimore City Public School System has allocated $2.5 million since 2020 for legal fees in two civil lawsuits — one saying the state underfunded city schools and the other accusing the system of wasting taxpayer dollars. At a meeting May 28, the school board added $775,000 to a contract with Baltimore law firm Whiteford, Taylor & Preston, which it has already paid nearly $1.725 million since 2020 to defend it in two cases: Keith Bradford vs. the Maryland State Board of Education and Jovani Patterson vs. Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners. Baltimore schools did not provide specifics on how much money was spent to defend the individual cases. The 30-year-old Bradford case, which found the state failed to provide enough funding for city schools, was revived in 2019 on claims the state violated a consent decree requiring additional funding. A Baltimore Circuit Court judge sided with the state. Bradford’s attorneys in a Monday hearing argued for the Maryland Appellate Court to reverse the circuit court’s decision. The state Supreme Court last year declined to hear their appeal. There is no timeline for when the three-judge panel could rule on the case, said Arielle Humphries, an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense. The school system is also preparing for a lengthy fight in the Patterson taxpayer lawsuit. City schools’ attorneys are briefing for dispositive motions and a potential trial, according to district records. Patterson, a parent of a former Baltimore public school student, sued the district in January 2022, claiming BCPSS defrauded taxpayers by failing to educate its students, inaccurately reporting student enrollment and not enforcing truancy rules. Discovery in the case has dragged out in a flurry of heated legal motions. In January, Patterson testified that he met David Smith, the executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcasting Group and co-owner of The Baltimore Sun, several times, starting in late 2020 or early 2021, before he filed the suit. Patterson also said his legal fees are being paid by Election Law Integrity, a limited-liability company for which Smith is a corporate representative. During a 17-minute deposition on April 8, Smith testified about where he attended high school in the late 1960s. He did not say much else, under advisement from his attorney. School system attorneys subsequently filed a motion seeking to compel Smith to testify. Smith has opposed the motion as untimely and irrelevant to the case’s claims and Patterson’s standing as a city taxpayer. Smith lives in Baltimore County. The legal battle continued in competing filings as recently as May 20.