ANNAPOLIS — A joint legislative committee on ethics met in closed session Thursday, drawing criticism from Common Cause Maryland, which has called for the censuring of state Sen. Ulysses Currie.

Although committee members refused to say whether they discussed Currie’s case, Susan Wichmann, executive director of the public interest group, said the panel risked damaging the legislature’s credibility by keeping the public out.

The Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics is slated this session to take up an ethics investigation of Currie (D-Dist. 25) of District Heights, who in November was acquitted of federal bribery charges.

Prosecutors accused Currie of taking nearly a quarter of a million dollars from Lanham-based Shoppers Food Warehouse in exchange for legislative influence and failing to report his work as a paid consultant for the chain on mandatory ethics disclosure forms.

If the committee finds that Currie violated the General Assembly’s ethics rules, it could recommend that the legislature reprimand, censure or expel him.

“We believe the process should be open,” Wichmann said of the committee meeting. “We certainly hope they don’t sweep it under the rug.”

Common Cause has called on the legislature to censure Currie.

In closing the session to the public, the committee’s Senate chairman, Norman R. Stone Jr. (D-Dist. 6) of Dundalk, cited a provision in state law that allows the committee’s proceedings to remain confidential in cases in which it “will discuss the issuance of confidential advisory opinions, or the possible discipline of members of the General Assembly, or both.”

After emerging from the session, committee members said they were prohibited by law from speaking about the meeting or whether they specifically discussed Currie’s case.

Del. Brian K. McHale, the committee’s House chairman, said members spent the meeting mostly talking about the process the group will follow.

“We want to make sure we understand the process,” said McHale (D-Dist. 46) of Baltimore.

In a later interview, committee member Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-Dist. 20) of Takoma Park, a law professor, said that state law and the General Assembly’s rules require confidentiality in ethics proceedings.

The 12-member committee, which is empowered to take sworn testimony and issue subpoenas, also can investigate whether a member of the General Assembly violated state law, said William G. Somerville, counsel to the committee.

“The committee is not restricted in terms of scope,” he said.

Depending on its findings, the committee can dismiss a case against a legislator, recommend disciplinary action to the full General Assembly, or, in the case of an alleged criminal offense, refer the matter to the proper prosecuting authority.

The committee also can decide to open its proceedings to the public if nine of the 12 members vote that “disclosure is necessary to uphold the integrity of the ethics investigation process,” according to state law.

The committee has not scheduled its next meeting.

Currie, who has spoken very little about the trial and subsequent ethics review, said Wednesday that he does not expect either will have much of an impact on him or the General Assembly session.

He compared Wednesday’s opening day tenor and his relationship with colleagues to the more than two decades he has served in the legislature.

“This is my 25th session, so I come in with the same expectations,” he said.

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