For two years Harford County’s top government leader and its sheriff have been locked in back-and-forth court battles over transparency and ethics.

Sheriff Jeff Gahler has filed 20 formal Maryland Public Information Act requests since 2023, asking County Executive Bob Cassilly’s office to disclose things such as internal county emails containing the words “sheriff” or “Gahler,” handwritten notes from county officials, text messages and more, according to records obtained by The Baltimore Sun.

Of his 20 requests, Gahler said Cassilly denied six. Last month, a judge ruled for the third time that Cassilly was in the wrong for not disclosing information outlined in one of Gahler’s requests.

County officials say they responded to all but two of Gahler’s requests because they were “standing on principle to protect the county government’s deliberative process.”

Gahler, who has disagreed with many of Cassilly’s decisions in the past, says the reason for the public information requests is to get “transparency from the current administration and to understand the truth behind the government’s operations.”

“I can’t trust what the man says so the MPIA exists to add some transparency to government,” Gahler said. “I filed them because it became very obvious early on in Bob Cassilly’s administration that he has no intention of being honest with me, the state’s attorney, the schools or any other party.”

But Cassilly says the constant requests are a nuisance and are retaliation from Gahler over Cassilly’s decision to deny Gahler a new police precinct that Gahler was promised by former county executives.

“This has nothing to do with transparency — it’s all about politics,” Cassilly said, noting Gahler’s support for Harford County Council President Patrick Vincenti, who launched a campaign for county executive against Cassilly last month.

“It is not surprising that the sheriff is also openly supporting the county executive’s opponent who has stated that he will not question any spending increases that the sheriff demands,” Cassilly said.

The request recently ruled on by the Harford County Circuit Court asked for text messages sent from Cassilly to Vincenti during a council meeting in 2024 when the council was minutes away from voting on whether to pay out a $1 million settlement to the family of John Fauver, a suicidal man who was shot and killed by Harford County sheriff’s deputies after they confused a cane for a gun in April 2022.

Gahler condemned the settlement and called the county’s decision to settle “frivolous and unnecessary,” and said he filed the information request to understand what Cassilly was texting Vincenti before the vote.

Cassilly said during the meeting that discussions about an ongoing legal matter were happening from the dais and that he was texting Vincenti to advise him not to discuss the county’s legal position as it could jeopardize it.

“In all jurisdictions in Maryland, such discussions take place in private and are privileged,” Cassilly said. “Continuing that discussion publicly could have jeopardized the county’s legal position, undermined our ability to settle, and potentially exposed county taxpayers to tens of millions of dollars in additional liability.”

Cassilly said he plans to appeal the court’s recent decision over the disclosure of the text messages as he said “communications between the executive branch and council members regarding the potential settlement of a lawsuit are privileged” and that “protecting that confidentiality is essential to the effective and responsible operation of county government.”

The other two times Cassilly was found in violation of state public information laws date back to September regarding the disclosure of handwritten notes taken by the county’s director of administration, Rob McCord, during Gahler’s budget hearing before the County Council.

Cassilly ultimately posted McCord’s notes online and said he also plans to appeal that ruling due to what he said is the absurdity of the county having to retain the “many thousands” of handwritten notes created by county employees each day.

In December 2024, a Harford County Circuit Court judge found Cassilly’s administration violated the law for not fully disclosing emails between county officials and an architectural firm regarding the planned police precinct Cassilly canceled. County officials said they responded to the request but wanted a court ruling before they searched the county’s database for emails since Cassilly said the county was criminally investigated on wiretapping allegations for searching for emails, early in 2024.

Gahler said he has one more request he submitted to the county that he anticipates will go to court that he said will be “one more loss” for the county.

Have a news tip? Contact Matt Hubbard at mhubbard@baltsun.com, 443-651-0101 or @mthubb on X.