The Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office has dropped charges against the seven supporters of Macedonia Baptist Church cited earlier this year for disorderly conduct at Housing Opportunities Commission meetings.
The church reported the development and a spokesman for the office confirmed the charges were dropped on Thursday.
“This is the best way to resolve the situation for all involved parties,” Ramon Korionoff, a spokesman for prosecutors, said in an email.
Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, Tim Willard, Mary Rooker and Lynn Pekkanen were removed from a public meeting in January after protesting to protect land in Bethesda’s Westbard neighborhood believed to have been a historically black cemetery.
Segun Adebayo, Jeffrey Slavin and Lucy Perez were cited and escorted by police from a February meeting.
The church has been working since 2017 to memorialize the Moses Cemetery, but discussions between supporters and the HOC haven’t gained much traction. The HOC bought the property in December 2017, and most of the site is taken up by the parking lot of the Westbard Tower apartments.
Steven Chasin and Jennifer Semko of the law firm Baker & McKenzie LLP represented the supporters pro bono, and the firm has assisted the church during the two-year battle.
Chasin said prosecutors on Wednesday moved to drop the charges, though online records have yet to be updated.
The first four protesters had their initial hearing waived in early March, and at the time Chasin and Semko expressed confidence the case would not proceed to trial.
The church is working toward a solution at the cemetery site, and recently sent a team of engineers to the parcel to assess alternative parking arrangements for the Westwood Tower residents.
“Our position has not changed,” Coleman-Adebayo, who chairs the church’s Social Justice Ministry, said in a statement. “We maintain that [the church] is the sole representative of the descendent community and as such Moses African Cemetery should be conveyed to MBC.”
Coleman-Adebayo has said the church wants to erect a memorial and potentially a museum at the site.
The group has asked County Executive Marc Elrich to organize a meeting between the parties associated with the property, including the HOC, developers and county representatives, pastor Segun Adebayo said in a statement.
Charlie Wright can be reached at charlie.wright@moco360.media
