Abrams files charges against Owen-Williams

Friday, Nov. 24, 2006

Montgomery County school board member Steven N. Abrams has filed a counter charge of second-degree assault against Montgomery County Republican Central Committee member Adel T. Owen-Williams.

Abrams’ complaint, filed Tuesday, accuses Owen-Williams of grabbing him by the throat — which is what Owen-Williams’ complaint, filed Nov. 15, accuses Abrams of doing.

Owen-Williams also accuses Abrams of pushing the back of Owen-Williams’ head against a wall and of trying to extort money through an accusation.

‘‘I’m quite confident that this will be resolved without any finding of guilt on my part,” Abrams said Wednesday. He declined further comment.

Owen-Williams said he ‘‘seriously thought” of dropping his charges if Abrams agreed to attend anger management classes, but that was before Abrams filed his complaint.

So his olive branch is being withdrawn, Owen-Williams said. ‘‘He’s digging his own grave,” Owen-Williams said. ‘‘I’m going to seek full prosecution. I’m going to bring witnesses to show he has a history of assaulting people, abusing people. I’m going to ask for jail time if possible.”

Owen-Williams also says Abrams repeatedly called him ‘‘boy,” a racially offensive slur, during the Nov. 13 argument that followed a meeting of the GOP Central Committee. Both men are members; Owen-Williams is black and Abrams is white.

At least one critic is calling for Abrams to resign from the school board or be removed.

In an e-mail to The Gazette and County Council members, Jay Weinstein of Bethesda suggests Abrams resign or be ousted and replaced by Councilman Howard A. Denis (R-Dist. 1) of Chevy Chase, who lost his re-election bid. (Denis would not be eligible for Abrams’ board seat because he lives in the wrong district.)

The County Council may remove a school board member for immorality, misconduct in office, incompetency or willful neglect of duty, according to the Education Article of the Maryland Annotated Code.

Asked about such a move Wednesday, County Council President George L. Leventhal said he was unaware of the statute, and no conversations about Abrams’ removal have been held with council members.

‘‘I’ve been on the council four years and it’s never come up where a sitting school board member has been accused of assault and making racially insensitive statements, so I have no experience in this,” said Leventhal (D-At large) of Takoma Park. ‘‘I don’t think we would have that conversation before things went to court and a ruling is made as to whether or not he did commit assault. There are a lot of steps along with way.”

But Leventhal suggested Abrams should decide for himself whether he should remain on the board.

‘‘Mr. Abrams will have to judge whether he can be effective and represent the diverse population of the county school system if he is convicted of these allegations.”

The dispute between Abrams and Owen-Williams can be traced back to shortly after the Sept. 12 primary election.

Abrams lost the GOP primary for state comptroller’s race and asked one of the four Republican candidates in the County Council’s at-large race to drop out so he could run. Owen-Williams said he bowed out so that county GOP Chairman Tom Reinheimer would not and if Abrams paid him $5,000 for his campaign expenses.

Abrams lost the council race. After the Nov. 13 Central Committee meeting at the party’s Rockville headquarters, Owen-Williams said he asked Abrams when he was going to pay him the $5,000 he owed.

‘‘He said, ‘Listen, son, you don’t need to bring that topic up to me,’” Owen-Williams said. ‘‘I said, ‘I’m not your son,’ and he said, ‘Listen, boy.’ Then he charged up the stairs at me and when he got to the top of the stairs, he squeezed his hands around my neck. I yelled at him, ‘Have you lost your mind?’”

Owen-Williams said he touched Abrams to only defend himself. Reinheimer told The Gazette last week that he heard the exchange between the two men.

Reinheimer said he heard Owen-Williams shouting at Abrams to keep his hands off him. Reinheimer went to the stairway to see what was going on.

‘‘I told them to cut it out,” Reinheimer said. ‘‘They separated at that.”

Abrams told Reinheimer ‘‘to call off his boy,” Owen-Williams said.

Reinheimer confirmed that Abrams referred to Owen-Williams as a ‘‘boy” several times.

Abrams ‘‘needs to be stopped,” Owen-Williams said Wednesday. ‘‘He’s a threat to society. He’s been tolerated politely, but he’s going to harm someone.”

Colleagues acknowledge Abrams can be hot-tempered.

‘‘He has a short fuse,” said county school board member Patricia B. O’Neill (Dist. 3) of Bethesda. ‘‘He picks fights.”

Some fights have come during open sessions of the county school board, where Abrams has been known to spar verbally with speakers.

O’Neill cited two incidents last year: One was with County Councilman Thomas E. Perez (D-Dist. 5) of Takoma Park over Perez’s proposal that the school board offer prescription drugs imported from Canada to school employees. Another with the leader of an African-American parents group continued in a heated exchange after the man walked away from the board table.

‘‘Shouting matches are pretty common with him,” O’Neill said.

O’Neill also said she has seen Abrams poke a finger in someone’s chest, but never anything more physical than that.

Still, she said, the assault allegations seem ‘‘out of character” for him. ‘‘Steve’s best weapon is his tongue.”

Board member Valerie Ervin (Dist. 4) of Silver Spring, who will leave the board next month for the County Council, said she has not seen Abrams since the allegations arose.

‘‘So far, it’s been very quiet,” said Ervin, who has had a sometimes contentious relationship with Abrams. ‘‘But I think Mr. Abrams is going to have to have a conversation with members of the board and explain to us where this thing is going. It could have implications.”

Abrams has been absent from two public hearings on proposed amendments to the school system’s construction budget. He also skipped Monday’s board vote on the budget amendments.

His last public appearance was at a Nov. 14 school board meeting in Rockville. During that meeting, which came the morning after the incident with Owen-Williams, the board heard from a ninth-grader who raised questions about an English lesson that discussed the use of the ‘‘N-word.”

‘‘Now this [Owen-Williams’ accusation of racism] is going to cause some problems for the superintendent and people who are trying to move us past the paradigm,” Ervin said. ‘‘So [Abrams] is going to have to make some kind of statement.”

The same day, the board tentatively approved changes to the student code of conduct that calls for student leaders to be held to a higher standard of behavior.

‘‘You can’t say out of one side of your mouth, ‘Do as I say and not as I do,’” Ervin said.

Staff Writers Janel Davis and Sean R. Sedam contributed to this report.