The Carroll commissioners asked the state prosecutor's office to take over an unresolved county ethics investigation of Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge yesterday, as State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli said his office's inquiry into Gouge's possible ethics violations has become a criminal investigation.

"We have initiated an investigation on our own within the last two weeks," Montanarelli said yesterday, explaining that the commissioners' request will not affect his efforts. "We have the basis for conducting it, and we will do so."

The board of commissioners offered to turn over to Montanarelli county ethics commission files that presumably involve the panel's investigation of Gouge, a four-term Republican commissioner. The ethics panel has looked into allegations that Gouge influenced a county contractor to lower by $1,000 the price of a sewer-line extension at her daughter's business in Hampstead.

Gouge has said that she did not try to effect a price reduction.

"I would like to see the records turned over," she said yesterday. "My family and I would like to find out what it is that I was supposed to have done. I would like closure."

The county ethics board has not charged Gouge, but it never closed its investigation.

Two weeks ago, Montanarelli said his office had "made inquiries" into alleged ethics violations by Gouge, but he added at that time that the state had not started a criminal investigation of her. In stating for the first time yesterday that the inquiry had evolved into a criminal investigation, Montanarelli said the probe stems from complaints made to his office by at least two citizens.

"Our inquiry is not connected with the ethics commission, but we are looking at the same things," he said. He would not discuss additional details.

The county commissioners, in a letter to Montanarelli dated yesterday, formally requested that he "assume responsibility for all ongoing investigations involving alleged inappropriate conduct by Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge currently being considered by the Carroll County Ethics Commission."

The commissioners and the county ethics panel are locked in a dispute that includes charges and countercharges of making politically motivated decisions. The commissioners, noting incompetence, bias and misuse of office, have demanded the resignations of all three members of the county ethics commission.

The ethics panelists said they won't resign, and they accused the commissioners of trying to thwart their investigation of Gouge. They further alleged that a member of the county attorney's office, acting on orders from an unnamed commissioner, had improperly seized ethics commission documents.

In the commissioners' letter to Montanarelli, they said the ethics panel's files are being kept in a locked cabinet in the county attorney's office. The Rev. James F.W. Talley, ethics panel chairman, has the only key to the cabinet, and he also has files related to the Gouge matter in his possession, according to the letter.

Reached at his office yesterday, Talley - who has served as spokesman for his ethics panel colleagues - said he has had no communication from the commissioners on the offer to hand over the investigation to the state prosecutor. He refused to discuss his panel's investigation, files that might be in his possession or the state prosecutor's investigation.

"This is Christmas and I will not comment," said Talley, who is pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Upperco.

A locked file cabinet was moved from a conference room used by the ethics commission to County Attorney Kimberly A. Millender's office after the commissioners called for the suspension of the ethics board Dec. 3, Millender said.

"If the prosecutor needs to get into the cabinet, we will have a locksmith here," Millender said.

As one of the commissioners' first official acts after taking office this month, they suspended the ethics commission and demanded the resignations of Talley and the panel's other two members, John Harner and Suzanne Primoff. Gouge recused herself from that vote.

Commissioners Dean L. Minnich and Perry L. Jones Jr. have said repeatedly that they asked for the resignations to restore the ethics panel's credibility. Last week, the commissioners voted to consider eliminating the panel in favor of a single ethics officer who would funnel complaints to outside investigators.

Minnich said yesterday that referring the investigation to Montanarelli's office could be the quickest way to settle the matter involving Gouge.

"I would like an even fuller disclosure so we can put this thing to rest, but I can't think of anything more that is not an incursion into Montanarelli's area," said Minnich.

Jones added that the new board has many pressing issues to address, and he wants the ethics matter settled as soon as possible.

The ethics panel members and the commissioners had been scheduled to meet last week, but the meeting was postponed until next month because of scheduling difficulties.