Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Clark has agreed to a temporary leave until investigators from another county finish a probe into a domestic dispute he had with his fiancee on Saturday. The announcement came as reports surfaced indicating Clark’s fiancee might have been injured in the dispute. Police reports quote a friend of Clark’s fiancee saying, “This is not the first time he has done this to her,” the Baltimore Sun reports.
Mayor Martin O’Malley said Executive James N. Robey of Howard County, south of Baltimore, would assign police investigators to probe the incident that Clark has described as a “disagreement like any other couple would have.” Clark and his fiancee, Blanca Gerena, said they argued early Saturday at the commissioner’s apartment but there was no assault.
Deputy Commissioner Kenneth Blackwell will command the police department while Clark, 47, is on paid leave. Police union officials have asked State’s Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy to conduct a criminal investigation into the domestic dispute. Dan Fickus, president of the city’s Fraternal Order of Police, said the incident warrants a follow-up criminal investigation. “If it would have been anyone else … that individual would have been arrested,” Fickus said.