Carroll County State’s Attorney Haven Shoemaker is calling out Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, alleging that he is “poaching” and luring away prosecutors from Carroll to work for the state.

Shoemaker sent a news release Monday morning, claiming that since 2020, eight of Carroll’s 22 prosecutors have resigned and gone to work for the state attorney general’s office.

Shoemaker took office in January 2023, and said during his tenure, Brown’s office has lured three prosecutors away. Brown also took office in January 2023. The Carroll office has three open positions for prosecutors, Shoemaker said.

“Just this calendar year, we’ve lost an up-and-coming District Court prosecutor, our District Court chief, who had been here 19-and-a-half years, and now our felony narcotics prosecutor,” he said. “That’s three, all to the attorney general’s office. Since 2020, we’ve lost eight to the attorney general’s office, which, thanks to its enablers in the legislature, offer better pay and more work-from-home days.”

Brown’s office did not immediately issue a response or comment on Shoemaker’s claims.

Shoemaker said since taking office he has seen the state office “poach and plunder” prosecutors from jurisdictions throughout the state. He declined to give specific examples.

“I don’t want to get too specific, but in several instances, the attorney general’s office has actively recruited my prosecutors to fill the additional positions that the legislature keeps giving them,” he said.

Shoemaker, a Republican, stated in the news release that he blames Democratic lawmakers in the Maryland General Assembly for giving Brown, a Democrat, the OK to take experienced staff from the Carroll office.

“The Democrat-controlled General Assembly likewise has not only turned a blind eye, but has aided and abetted Brown by giving him money and by enacting jurisdiction-stripping legislation,” Shoemaker states. “This empire building in Baltimore has come at the expense of local, duly elected prosecutors in Maryland’s 23 counties and Baltimore City.”

Shoemaker states that while Annapolis lawmakers provide Brown’s office with funding needed to “accomplish his mission,” they in turn slap local offices with mandates and no money to accomplish them.

“The first shot across the bow occurred when the legislature created the Independent Investigation Unit within the Office of the Attorney General in 2021, as part of a large package of police accountability and reform bills,” he states. “The (Independent Investigation Unit) investigates all police-involved incidents that result in the death of an individual or injuries that are likely to result in the death of an individual occurring in Maryland.”

Shoemaker said local offices must now decide whether a police officer’s conduct crossed the line, which constitutes a criminal violation.

“This type of review requires seasoned prosecutors who know the law, the lay of the land, and police policies and procedures,” he said. “The easiest way to staff such a unit, of course, would be to snatch able-bodied prosecutors from one of the 24 local jurisdictions.”

Shoemaker also claims Democrats want to require local jurisdictions to gather what he calls an “exhaustive” list of demographic data regarding each prosecution, all in the name of transparency.

“The cost of gathering such data in terms of money and manpower is staggering and would require (if enacted) most of the state’s attorneys’ office in Maryland to pay hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, to modify their case management software or buy new systems to comply,” he said. “The amount offered by Annapolis to help offset these costs — a paltry $1 million for all of the State’s 24 subdivisions, would not fund these changes for even a single jurisdiction.”

Shoemaker contends that hiring experienced prosecutors to replace those who have left is not easy.

“In today’s competitive job market, it is extremely difficult to find even an entry-level attorney who wants to be a prosecutor, much less an experienced litigator with jury trial experience who can work cooperatively with law enforcement to take dangerous drug dealers off our streets,” he said.

Entry level prosecutors in the Carroll office earn an annual salary of $80,000. Salaries increase as they gain experience and responsibility.