Rodricks: Disbarred attorney for a county ethics board? A brotherly, but bad, call by Harford’s new executive.

Upon hearing news that Maryland’s highest court had disbarred him, Joe Cassilly said, “Oh, whatever.” I remember exactly what I was doing when I read that soaring bit of rhetoric from the former Harford County State’s Attorney: sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and a copy of The Baltimore Sun on a Saturday morning in October 2021. To the allegation that he had intentionally withheld evidence that would have been favorable to the defense of a man convicted of murder in the 1980s — and lied about it for years — Cassilly said: “Oh whatever. I’m retired anyway.” To the court’s conclusion that he had violated both the defendant’s rights and the rules of professional conduct for attorneys, Cassilly made himself the victim.