Woman Said House Was 'Ransacked'
By Matt Zapotosky
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Calvert County commissioners called the sheriff and his top commander into a closed-door meeting last week to question what some considered a heavy-handed search of a woman's home.
Sheriff's deputies said they burst into the St. Leonard home of 89-year-old Ruth Mason on Nov. 22 and searched it top to bottom, looking for evidence of drug dealing. They said Mason's grandsons had recently sold drugs to a confidential informant at the house on Mackall Road, prompting the search.
By Mason's account, the five or six deputies, dressed in black, broke down her door at 5 a.m. and shone a flashlight in her eyes. Her grandsons were not there, she said. Deputies emptied her dressers and her purse and took the lid off her toilet tank -- and they did not put anything back, Mason said.
"Every time I go in a room and look at different things, it's all torn up to pieces," she said. "They just ransacked my home."
The deputies, who had a warrant to search the house, seized scales and about $1,200, which is thought to be drug money, said Calvert Sheriff Mike Evans (R). He disputed Mason's claim that she had been saving the $1,200 to pay taxes, saying deputies recovered it with other items belonging to one of the grandsons.
"Without going into too much detail, it was in with the grandson's stuff," Evans said. "It was in a drawer with other things that belonged to him."
Evans said he would not identify Mason's grandsons because they had not been charged. Mason said that one of them stayed at her house off and on but that she did not know whether he was involved in selling drugs.
After the search, Mason complained to Calvert officials. Her complaints reached all five county commissioners, who asked Evans to review the incident. Lt. Col. Thomas Hejl, Calvert's assistant sheriff, said that a review had been completed and that the search was deemed appropriate.
"We've looked into it, and it is all absolutely a good case," Hejl said. "We treated Miss Mason with absolute kid gloves, and we went out of our way to make sure she was comfortable while we were at the house."
Commissioner Barbara A. Stinnett (D-At Large), who visited Mason at her home last week, said that the search efforts were "excessive" and that deputies should have repaired Mason's door and put things away.
"A little bit more compassion should have been used, considering the fact that she was . . . not a threat at all," Stinnett said. "If they were going to go searching for things, they could've frankly left them back in order."
Mason said she was not upset with the sheriff. She just wants her money back and her door fixed.
"They never put their hands on me or nothing," she said. "My door is still busted, but I got tape over it, so the air won't come in."
Evans said he wished deputies had straightened things up before they left, although he said it is not their responsibility to do so. He also said he was considering whether to replace Mason's door, and he said he would give her the $1,200 back if she can prove it's hers.
But Evans bristled at the suggestion that the search was heavy-handed. He said that drugs can be hidden in small areas and that police followed standard procedures in breaking down the door and searching every nook and cranny.
Unfortunately, he said, Mason got caught up in the chaos.
"I feel for the lady," Evans said. "But the bottom line is, this goes back to her family."
Staff writer Christy Goodman contributed to this report.
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