The Sheriff says Hagen Interfered with a traffic stop last year; Hagen says it was not him.
Frederick, Md (KM) Frederick County Councilman Kai Hagen is calling on the Sheriff to recant his recent comments about a traffic stop last year. During a recent appearance on WFMD’s “Mid-Maryland Live,” Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said Councilman Kai Hagen interfered in a traffic stop last year. Hagen denies it.
Jenkins says in October, 2020, a deputy stopped along southbound Route 15 near North Seton Avenue in the Emmitsburg area for a motorist who was changing a tire. “Actually, got out of the car to help the African-American driver and his family who was in the car; helped him change the tire because he was concerned that the operator would struck because it was so close to the traffic lane,” said Jenkins
The deputy couldn’t break the lug nuts lose so he “set up a block with his car,” and called a tow truck.
While that was going on, a white Prius pulls up, and deputy contacted the occupants. The Sheriff said the deputy asked if everything was okay. A woman who was passenger in the Prius said they were checking on the traffic stop to make sure that the driver was not being mistreated because of his color. The deputy said we don’t do that in this county.
“The deputy says it’s your right to check on it, but I’m asking you now for your identification,” the Sheriff says, reading from the deputy’s report. “Instead of producing identification, the driver pulls off–and remember we believe this is Councilman Hagen, or the deputy believes this is Councilman Hagen–so as they drive off, the female passenger blows the deputy a kiss and gives him the middle finger.”
Councilman Hagen says neither he nor his wife was at the scene that day. In a statement, Hagen said the Sheriff has “zero evidence” that he and his wife were there. “This is truly a grotesque and disturbing abuse of his office, the truth and common decency,:” he says in his statement.
The Sheriff says the deputy recognized Councilman Hagen as the person driving the Prius after seeing a photograph of Hagen in the newspaper. “So again, remember, I said, he’s almost positive it’s Councilman Hagen after seeing the photograph,” says Jenkins.
Hagen, in his statement, says he and his wife do not own a Prius, and he’s never driven one.
As for what he was doing that day, Hagen says in his statement “my wife worked that day and we had a relative over for a walk and dinner after that.”
In his comments on WFMD, Sheriff Jenkins says the reason he went on the radio is he can’t get anyone to take action against Councilman Hagen. “The damn County Council, the Democrats on there–and I’ll name ;’em all. {Council President MC} Keegan-Ayer won’t do anything; Mike Blue has at least backed me to some degree; {Jessica} Fitzwater won’t address it; certainly Jerry Donald won’t address it. So I’m going to get no action from them. So where do I go with it? This can’t continue,” he said.
Council Vice President Michael Blue is a Republican.
Councilman Hagen, in his statement, said “it’s no fun to have an unhinged sheriff so desperate to discredit me and attack a county official that he would go on the radio again and accuse me (and especially, in this case, my wife) of another roadside incident with a sheriff’s deputy last October, when it was not me, and it was not my wife.”
By Kevin McManus