What Is Baltimore County Prosecutor Scott Shellenberger Hiding About Sexual Assault Cases?

Previously, we asked whether Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger cares about sexual assault cases, and unearthed several alarming data points showing that he does not. 

For example, the county’s elected prosecutor has artificially raised the bar in rape cases, saying that it’s not rape unless the attacker uses some sufficient amount of force (a position contrary to law, according to legal experts); refused to prosecute baseball players alleged to have gang raped two college feshman; and opposed a law to require testing rape kits, undermining his own ability to prove rape cases in court. 

That’s damning stuff.  

But it gets worse. Scott Shellenberger and the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office apparently do not even keep track of sexual assault cases. 

With evidence mounting that Shellenberger cares neither about holding rapists accountable nor protecting rape victims, we wanted to see the big picture that only data can provide. So we asked the office for routine information about how it handles such cases. Basic data like how often it files charges in cases that police present, the rate at which they secure convictions in sexual assault cases, and how often they succeed at trial when cases get that far. We thought it safe to assume that Shellenberger would keep close tabs on such information, if only to prove his critics wrong. 

Instead, Deputy State’s Attorney John P. Cox responded with a stunning admission: “this office does not possess any records which would reflect prosecution rates, conviction rates or trial rates of sexual assault cases.”

It is almost as if Scott Shellenberger . . . doesn’t care about sexual assault cases.  

Rignal Baldwin V, a Baltimore attorney who represents sexual assault victims, pointed out that in 2019 the State’s Attorney’s Office claimed to have implemented a policy to make a written record of all sexual assaults brought to it for prosecution. But according to prosecutor John P. Cox, at least, that never happened.

“It’s baffling to me that an organization with measurable performance metrics would not track or assess its performance, particularly given recent controversy over how . . . Shellenberger and his prosecutors have fostered a culture where sexual assault victims are denigrated and dismissed,” Baldwin said. “The public should have ready access to this basic information, and such lack of transparency underscores that the State’s Attorney is still not taking sexual assault seriously.”

Shellenberger’s opponent in the state’s attorney race, attorney Robbie Leonard, told Baltimore County Watch that “it is not a surprise that his office does not keep statistics of sexual assault victims,” noting that, as we previously reported, Shellenberger is currently a defendant in a federal lawsuit alleging that he attempted to silence a rape victim from pressing charges against her rapists. “How many sexual assault survivors have been treated similarly by Mr. Shellenberger? We don’t know,” Leonard said. If elected, he promised to “track the type of data that was requested and denied by Mr. Shellenberger’s office” because “it is the right thing to do for the brave victims who came forward to report a crime.”

The indifference reflected in Shellenberger’s “baffling” lack of transparency sadly answers the question we raised before, offering further proof that, in Baltimore County, sexual assault cases are at best a low priority. But it also raises a new one—namely, what is Scott Shellenberger hiding?

Consider the growing pressure that Shellenberger faces. National media stories have put a critical spotlight on the county’s treatment of survivors, Shellenberger’s challenger in the state’s attorney race has made sexual assault a key election issue, and victims have filed lawsuits alleging that Shellenberger and others “have intentionally made sexual assaults committed in Baltimore County nearly impossible to prove and prosecute.” If basic data could help quell this controversy, then wouldn’t Shellenberger make sure that it was compiled and released?

“We take the prosecution of sexual assault cases very seriously,” Shellenberger told Baltimore County Watch. “We have a dedicated unit that reviews every case and have Assistant State’s Attorneys assigned to each case early on until completion. We do not keep separate records of specific crimes handled by this office.”

For now, we can only speculate what these records would reveal, but we think you deserve to know what Shellenberger is hiding. Baltimore County Watch will stay on top of this developing story.