The Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics recommended Thursday that Sen. Ulysses Currie be removed immediately and permanently from all leadership positions in the Senate and be subject to a vote of censure by his peers.

The report was released to the public shortly before 5 p.m. Currie declined to comment. Members of the committee could not be reached.

The committee also asked Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. to ask Currie to apologize publicly for the “dishonor he has brought to the Maryland General Assembly.”

In a statement released moments after the report was made public, Miller said the issue will be taken up on the Senate floor Friday morning.

Currie (D-Dist. 25) of District Heights was investigated by the committee to determine whether he violated the General Assembly’s ethics rules. Federal prosecutors accused him of taking nearly $250,000 he did not report in mandatory ethics disclosure forms from Lanham-based Shoppers Food Warehouse in exchange for legislative influence.

He was acquitted of federal criminal charges in November after a six-week trial.

The committee could have recommended Currie’s expulsion from the Senate as the most severe punishment.

Reprimand and censure can hurt a politician’s electability and career but, alone, make no material change in a senator’s power.

The 12-member committee, empowered to take sworn testimony and issue subpoenas, concluded Currie was guilty of violating ethics rules by: filing inaccurate and incomplete financial disclosure statements, failing to disclose various conflicts of interest, failing to abstain from voting on a matter involving a conflict of interest, abusing the prestige of office and improperly representing a person in a matter before various state and local governments.

Federal prosecutors accused Currie of using his position as a senator to influence state agencies and officials to obtain benefits for Shoppers, such as traffic lights that eased access to store locations and the transfer of a liquor license from a store in Takoma Park to one in College Park.

Currie faced nine charges, including a count of making a false statement to investigators, and could have been imprisoned for as long as 20 years on an extortion charge.

During the trial, character witnesses, including Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-Dist. 5) of Mechanicsville and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown (D), testified that Currie was honest but disorganized.

Currie stepped down from his position as chair of the powerful Budget and Taxation Committee when he was indicted in September 2010, and was elected to a fifth Senate term that November.

The ethics committee recommends he be removed from all committee leadership positions and memberships to all but one standing committee.

In making the decision, the committee found Currie’s actions were not “intentionally malicious or deceitful.”

During testimony, “Senator Currie Spoke with passion and conviction regarding his work to bring economic development, particularly, grocery stores to low-income communities and to make nutritious foods more available at affordable prices to residents of these communities,” according to the report.

“It is because of Senator Currie’s many positive contributions to the citizens of Prince George’s County and Maryland, his leadership capabilities, and his reputation for honesty and integrity, that the findings of the Joint Committee are made with heavy hearts and great pain by his colleagues and friends,” according to the report, which was signed by co-chairmen Del. Brian K. McHale (D-Dist. 46) of Baltimore and Norman R. Stone Jr. (D-Dist. 6) of Dundalk.

dgaines@gazette.net; dleaderman@gazette.net