John Leopold, small-government conservative Anne Arundel County Executive, expected his scheduler to help him with other things:
After he was discharged, Leopold told Medlin he would need help with his catheter. Medlin testified that she felt she could not object for fear of being branded disloyal and losing her job.
“You don’t tell him, ‘no,’ ” she said.
Once Leopold summoned her, she would follow him into a bathroom where he kept an empty green coffee can under the sink.
“I would get on my hands and knees,” she said, crying as she described emptying the bag into the coffee can and dumping the contents of the can into a toilet.
Medlin spoke up in January 2011, after seeing him bend down and tie his shoelace.
Leopold also requested extra security when he was in the hospital to make sure his mistress and wife remained separated. And he had his security detail “ferry him to parking-lot sexual encounters with a county employee, compile dossiers on political rivals and accompany him as he tore down an opponent’s campaign signs.”
Maybe some Marylanders can let us know if catheter emptying is business as usual in Anne Arundel County.
Baud
Wait, so most of you don’t have underlings who assist you with your bodily discharges?
cathyx
He has a catheter and a mistress? How does that work?
MattF
Anne Arundel County is just to the east of the DC metro area, so it is going through the transition from ‘old-boy, small-town, “it’s not a conflict of interest because it doesn’t conflict with any of my interests”‘ governance to more modern types of corruption. Pass the popcorn, please.
Maude
Why did Medlin comply? Nothing is worth that type of nonsense.
LosGatosCA
When smallgovernment conservatives use that word small its simply projection. They are actually simultaneously referring to the sizes of their brain, penis, ethical choices, as well as how they play basketball.
Mark B.
Leopold probably sees his mistake as tying his own shoelace instead of getting an underling to do it.
LosGatosCA
When smallgovernment conservatives use that word small its simply projection. They are actually simultaneously referring to the sizes of their brain, junk, ethical choices, as well as how they play basketball.
cathyx
There’s nothing sexier than an old man with a urine bag in his pants.
LosGatosCA
When smallgovernment conservatives use that word small its simply projection. They are really letting you know what they are as a person and how they play basketball.
LosGatosCA
I did not want to leave a comment anyway
TD
OT, but I realized I never posted this article I wrote just prior to the election. Not terribly topical these days, but if anyone wants to read yet another piece on how crazy the Republicans are…have at it!
quannlace
Wow, this guy really goes beyond seeing everybody around him as the ‘help.’
General Stuck
Can we just stipulate that republicans are sexual deviants across the board without graphic rundowns of pervy wingnuts and the Foley catheters that love them?
Not to mention all the other daily demented Penthouse Forum for the Rape Nuts crowd? Jeebus, it’s Sunday Morn and I ain’t even had my whole grain oats yet.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
Wait. So the shoelace thing was a tipoff that he didn’t need help with his pissbag? Why would a person want someone else involved with that distasteful operation anyway? Wouldn’t it be humiliating to both?
Violet
From the article:
“Thrice-daily”. Wow. Once ever would be one time too many. Three times a day? WTF?
Mistermix said:
The article says:
Live-in girlfriend, not wife. Family values for thee but not for me.
Maude
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
Only to the helper.
Omnes Omnibus
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: My guess is that he got a rush from knowing he could make someone do it.
MomSense
@Baud:
In fact I was an underling who took care of all the bodily discharges but the overlords were infants.
mir13
Best pick up scam evah. The more I hear about the Reichwingnuts and their sexytime escapades with wetsuits, catheters, and the like, makes me appreciate the Big Dog’s creativity and resourcefulness. And at least he kept it organic.
Yes, I know it’s still wrong, but at least it’s not demented.
Scott S.
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: He strikes me as someone who gets a charge out of making people do distasteful shit for him, so no, not humiliating for him at all. It was humiliating for someone else, and that’s what he wanted most of all…
LosGatosCA
I’m appreciating the message that my comment has not been published, obviously.
Mark S.
The greatest legal mind of our generation, Colonel Oliver Wendell Mustard Holmes, says five accidental shootings on Gun Appreciation Day is irrelevant because there have been deaths at rock concerts.
Game. Set. Etc.
MomSense
@General Stuck:
Yes Republicans do seem to take an awfully wide stance on all the sexual topics.
General Stuck
@MomSense:
Ha!
merrinc
This guy is scum, obviously, but I’m having a little trouble summoning sympathy for Medlin. Grow a fucking spine and say no. You don’t have to be a mental giant to know that sort of activity couldn’t possibly be considered a typical duty of the job.
cathyx
@merrinc: Do you really think that Medlin, who is 63, can just quit and find another job at her age? No one will hire a 63 year old.
Elizabelle
I hope the powers that be look carefully at the state employees who knew of Leopold’s behavior ON THE CLOCK and allowed it to continue.
I’m amazed the guy got away with so much, for so long.
Elizabelle
Yeah, he didn’t want a jury trial.
Is it illegal to laugh out loud from the jury box?
Mike in NC
According to the local Sunday paper, the small government conservatives over in SC are busy pushing their nutty nullification ideas on everything from health care to gun control to light bulbs to making their own currency. Target #1 is Lindsay Graham, who is considered “not a true conservative” by these loons.
Steeplejack
@merrinc:
This woman found herself working in a very lowly position for a very powerful tyrant–the boss of the whole organization. Who’s she going to complain to? Some county board that reports to, and is probably under the thumb of, the very guy she’s complaining about. Good luck with that.
Add to that the fact that she probably really needed the job and also that sometimes these bizarre situations develop very gradually, and it’s not hard to see how she could be victimized.
Finally, and unfortunately, it is true that some people are more susceptible to being victimized than others.
Baud
@MomSense:
After I wrote that, I realized that’s who I am to my dogs.
MomSense
@Baud:
At least the kids grow out of it but the dogs and cats are forever. My dog actually stops and looks at me like “ok, get to it. I’m waiting”.
WaterGirl
Every day that this guy remains in office is a day too long.
Allen
Woo-hoo, Anne Arundel county, that’s where we live. John Leopold, making us proud!
Fair Economist
So this is what Republicans mean by “carrying water” for them.
Villago Delenda Est
Assholes like this should be dealt with in Place de la Concorde fashion.
Starfish
@Allen: Are you more or less proud of John Leopold than you are of the Wings to Go CEO [link to the Baltimore Sun, limited to 10 or 15 free articles a month.]
Robin G.
I grew up in AA. One day Glen Burnie will grow big enough to dominate, but until then, you won’t pry a Republican out of office with a crowbar.
Side note: IIRC, there were rumors that the parking lot encounter was with a guy.
Other side note: I’m surprised anyone called 911 about people having sex in the Annapolis Mall parking lot. There’s ALWAYS someone having sex in the Annapolis Mall parking lot.
mir13
Makes me wonder just how small his “government” really is. And is that what they’re calling it these days? Sounds like a Costanza-at-the-beach thing to me. And it puts a whole new spin on their hatred of Obama’s “Big Government”.
H-m-m-m, that gives me a very twisted idea for a pr0n vid. And, ewww, the possibilities are endless and disgustin’.
rikyrah
@cathyx:
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
John M. Burt
@cathyx:
Two words:
1) Determination.
2) Suprapubic.
hitchhiker
What the hell am I missing here? The guy’s hands work, right? Why can’t he empty his own bag?
She should have left it full so the urine would back up into his kidneys and poison him. No, I don’t really mean that. But I sort of mean it.
red dog
Why is this asshole still alive?
Mnemosyne
@cathyx:
Exactly. And I seriously doubt she would be able to get much of a pension (assuming there even is one) if she tried to retire early over the whole situation.
She had to keep the job, and I’m guessing this a-hole was well aware of that fact.
Patricia Kayden
There are Republican politicians in Maryland? Who knew? I live in Southern Maryland and it seems like a very blue state. Sure Leopold is not helping his party’s cause here.
Allen
@Starfish: I’d have to say less, since Wings to Go is a business, but Leopold was actually elected.
anonymouse
@Maude:
because you guys view workers’ rights as quaint anachronisms from a long-dead age.