A second Anne Arundel County police officer in a week has settled a criminal charge against him stemming from claims of violence at his home.
Richard Mauk, 37, of Davidsonville, is at least the third county police officer to face such allegations in little more than a year.
A fourth is scheduled to be tried next month on charges of misconduct after he was accused of taking a photo of himself groping a teenage girl during a traffic stop and threatening to jail her for drunk driving if she failed to cooperate.
Three of the four men remain on the force, Sgt. David Feerrar, a department spokesman, said yesterday. He would not discuss any of the cases, saying they are considered personnel matters and not public.
"Whenever you have officers charged criminally, it reflects on all of us," he said.
County prosecutors dropped charges July 6 against Mauk, who had been charged with assaulting a girlfriend, causing a hairline fracture of her finger, on March 4.
The case was short on evidence: The victim, who was not interested in a prosecution, wavered in her account of what happened, saying she may have hit him first; and she was pleased with a condition that provides for continuing counseling for Mauk, said Assistant State's Attorney Mark Tyler.
The arrangement, which puts his case on the inactive docket, allows Mauk, an 11-year veteran of the force whose police work was commended in 2003, to keep his badge. The Police Department's Internal Affairs Division could still take administrative action against him.
Kristin Riggin, a spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office, said that police officers get no special treatment in prosecutions. An officer whose criminal case has not been expunged is far less likely to be of value as a prosecution witness, she said, because his credibility can be questioned.
"There is a trickle-down effect on the 99.9 percent of the other police officers," Riggin said.
The department has nearly 700 sworn officers, very few of whom get criminally charged.
One of them was Shane T. Poteet, 37, of Greensboro, who agreed two weeks ago to give up his gun.
After about 8 1/2 years, the decorated officer quit this spring, days before he was charged with putting a gun to his daughter's head and beating her in April 2002 when she refused to clean up his spilled drink, according to charging documents.
She was 8 years old then, visiting her father in Glen Burnie after her parents' recent separation.
The charges arose in March, after the child learned that her father's girlfriend was going to seek a protective order. In response, she asked her mother, Did he "put a gun to her head and say he was going to kill her, too?" charging papers say.
Poteet agreed never to work in law enforcement or carry a gun in exchange for having a six-count child abuse and assault indictment dropped, said Gregory P. Jimeno, his lawyer.
Riggin, the prosecutors' spokeswoman, said it was in the best interest of the child, now 12, not to testify.
The charges were made inactive, and the case will not come back to court unless Poteet violates conditions placed on him, which include no visits with his children. Poteet also agreed not to ask to have the charges expunged.
On July 18, 2006, another officer, Robert S. Burkindine, 37, was given five years of supervised probation before judgment on charges that he assaulted his wife in February at their Pasadena home, according to court records.
Charging documents say that she told police he had been drinking before he came home, and that an argument erupted into a fight. He punched her in the head and face, shoved her so that she fell into the shower, and repeatedly pushed her.
Conditions of his probation included attending counseling and anger management classes and performing 200 hours of community service, according to court records.
Feerrar said that officers can participate in the county's employee assistance program for family and personal issues.
"Officers receive training in stress management during the academy and refreshers throughout their career during in-service training," Feerrar said.
While those charges reflect allegations of violence against women in officers' personal lives - and surveys have indicated that domestic violence is higher among police than in the general population - a fourth officer is accused of groping a female driver he stopped while on patrol.
Joseph Francis Mosmiller, 23, is accused of taking a cell phone picture of himself fondling a teenage driver's breasts during a Jan. 20 stop in a church parking lot, administering a field sobriety test and telling her that she would be jailed if she didn't go along with him, according to charging documents.
Mosmiller did not file a report on the stop. No charges were filed against the teenager.
Mosmiller was charged with misconduct in office, a fourth-degree sex offense and two other related counts. A trial is scheduled for Aug. 7.
A rookie officer commended for foiling a robbery in December, Mosmiller was assigned to desk duty after the incident. Three other rookies were taken off the road in connection with the allegations though they were not charged. Police would not say what roles they might have played.
Yesterday, police refused to say whether any of them were returned to jobs that involved contact with the public.
Lawyers for Burkindine, Mosmiller and Mauk did not return phone calls.
andrea.siegel@baltsun.com