A week after a state parole-and-probation agent was killed while visiting the home of a registered sex offender he was monitoring, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services announced Friday that it was shaking up its leadership ranks.
In a statement, the department said it had named three new interim leaders, including one to lead the parole and probation division, though it did not make clear what had become of those in the jobs previously.
The department said Bobbie Jo Fockler would serve as the interim director of the Division of Parole and Probation, Shina Castain-Thompson would serve as the interim director of administration, and Christopher T. King would serve as interim deputy director of operations while officials searched for permanent people for those posts.
Advertisem*nt
A department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a message seeking to clarify what had happened to those in the jobs previously, and whether the staffing changes were tied to Agent Davis Martinez’s killing.
The news comes after an impassioned campaign from AFSCME, the labor union representing state employees, which spent days calling for the dismissals of Secretary of public safety and correctional services Carolyn J. Scruggs, director of parole and probation Martha Danner and deputy director Walter Nolley.
“The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Agent Davis Martinez,” the department said in the statement announcing the changes. “Agent Martinez was a six-year veteran of the department, and he served the state with distinction. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and colleagues during this difficult time.”
Danner and Nolley could not immediately be reached for comment.
Patrick Moran, President of AFSCME Maryland, said that while his members are encouraged by Gov. Wes Moore’s swift action in the aftermath of Martinez’s killing, the shake-up did not go far enough.
Members want Scruggs gone, too, and a guarantee that a host of other demands be met to protect parole-and-probation agents, including urgent reviews of safety protocols and worksite security systems, he said.
Martinez, 33, was killed on May 30 at the Chevy Chase home of 54-year-old Emanuel Edward Sewell, a registered sex offender who the agent had been sent to check on. When Martinez, a six-year veteran of the department, did not return from the “resident check,” Montgomery County police officers were sent to the home to look for him.
They found Martinez dead, police said. An autopsy showed he had suffered multiple injuries, the police said. Sewell was not there.
Advertisem*nt
About 5 p.m. the next day, Sewell was arrested on Interstate 64 near Hurricane, W.Va., after a U.S. Marshals task force made a traffic stop, the Montgomery police said. He was charged with second-degree murder.
Moran said that there are documents showing agents raised concerns over Sewell long before the incident — evidence he says directly conflicts with a statement Scruggs made soon after Martinez’s death. Sewell, she said at a news conference on June 1, “had not been shown to pose a risk prior.”
“This guy was known to be a problem,” Moran said. “He was known to be a problem with other agents.”
The department declined to comment on that assertion and Scruggs’s previous comment about Sewell.
When agents interacted with him, according to Moran, Sewell repeatedly claimed he was no longer subject to their supervision. Sewell would claim that he had met with the governor about his case, according to Moran, and tell agents “I am not on probation anymore.”
Advertisem*nt
An attorney for Sewell could not immediately be located Friday evening.
“Agent Martinez is never coming back,” Moran said. “He’s not coming back because management didn’t do their job.”
Moran said union representatives have been in contact with officials from Moore’s administration throughout the week, and some of their requests have been enacted or are in the works.
“But we said there has to be leadership, there has to be accountability, and there has to be action here,” Moran said, noting that his members had been pressing for improved safety procedures for years. “That’s what we need in order to ensure our members are working in a safe environment.”
Rayneika Robinson, president of the Parole and Probation employees’ local of AFSCME Maryland, said agents like Martinez do not carry firearms and they visit clients alone.
Advertisem*nt
“It’s actually our reality,” Robinson said. “We have a bulletproof vest and OC pepper spray and go out by ourselves … Unfortunately, that’s our reality.”
As a convicted sex offender, Sewell was classified in a higher risk than some other offenders monitored by agents, Robinson said, but Martinez was still expected to visit him unarmed and by himself. Robinson said whether agents should carry guns is a complicated issue, but two factors could make their jobs safer without firearms: More agents and better policies.
Moore took office in January 2023 and appointed Scruggs as secretary soon after, making her the first Black woman to serve in the role. Before that, she had been serving as Acting Secretary, an appointment made by then-outgoing Gov. Larry Hogan.
