Sign Caper Comes to Unusual End

Badillo folds like a cheap suit, drops charges against McDonough

Sleep them well all them dry bones
After we shot to his death
The horse and the rocking boy
Folded up like a dead balloon

“Signs”, The Cardiacs

The saga over whether or not Pat McDonough stole Darren Badillo’s signs in the Baltimore County Executive was always weird. To recap:

• Pat McDonough was accused of stealing signs by Tim Fazenbaker;

• The Baltimore County Central Committee voted to condemn McDonough for his actions;

• McDonough was charged criminally;

• McDonough threatened a lawsuit against the Baltimore County Republican Central Committee;

• McDonough won the Republican primary anyway, by a comfortable 25% margin. Darren Badillo finished 4th.

So now we get to the final act of this story:

Baltimore County prosecutors have dismissed a misdemeanor theft charge filed against Pat McDonough, the Republican nominee for Baltimore County executive, over allegations by a primary opponent that McDonough stole a campaign sign.

State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said the case was dropped “at the request of the victim.”

McDonough, 78, was charged with one count of theft under $100 after Darren Badillo — a Rosedale deacon whom McDonough trounced in the primary — accused the former state delegate of stealing one of his campaign signs on East Joppa Road in May.

Shellenberger said Badillo, 39, asked that the charge be dismissed; Badillo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

So to be clear, Darren Badillo pressed charges against McDonough and then dropped them after the primary when it was clear that it wasn’t politically expedient to pursue them anymore.

None of this should be a surprise after Badillo endorsed McDonoughlast month.

The questions now should not be focused not at McDonough, but at Darren Badillo. Such as why Badillo decided to press charges before the election, but decided he didn’t want to press them after the election? And if Badillio decided to press criminal charges against Pat McDonough, why would he decide to support him fully after the primary election?

With the Baltimore County Executive general election race pretty much preordained, this has stopped being a question about Pat McDonough’s character¹ and now become one about Darren Badillo’s character. If McDonough was such a criminal for stealing his signs, how could he ever support him?

1. Not that there was ever a real question there.