2,700 Signatures. Where Things Stand

I just want to start by saying thank you again to everyone who has taken the time to read this petition, sign it, share it, or send support. The fact that 2,700 people have taken the time to read what happened and put their names behind this means more than I can really explain.

There still has not been a meaningful update from the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office. I understand that prosecutors deal with heavy caseloads, competing priorities, and backlogs, and silence is not the same thing as a decision. For now, I am still waiting to learn what, if anything, will come from the police investigation that was referred for charging review.

There have, however, been a few meaningful responses from elected officials.

Maryland State Senator Dawn Gile took the time to read the petition and acknowledged that allegations involving financial exploitation of an elderly or vulnerable adult are serious and deserve to be taken seriously. She also explained that, as a legislator, she cannot interfere with or weigh in on an individual prosecutorial charging decision. That distinction matters, and I appreciated that she engaged with the substance of the issue rather than dismissing it.

Delegate Sandy Bartlett also responded and asked for permission to forward my message directly to the Register of Wills, which I authorized. That may sound procedural, but it matters. Every time someone in a position of responsibility reads the record, acknowledges the issue, or directs it to an office with authority over some part of the process, the wall of silence gets a little smaller.

There are also still other legal avenues being evaluated. Maryland probate law contains specific provisions dealing with fraud, failed notice, material mistake, substantial irregularity, and the duties of a Personal Representative. Whether any of those paths ultimately produce relief will depend on the courts and will require more work, but the door is not necessarily closed simply because this estate is old.

And that matters, because this process has been exhausting.

I have had to carry a version of my grandmother’s story in which I was effectively rewritten out of her life, as though I was not raised with her from the beginning, as though she was not one of the central people in my childhood, and as though I was not still there near the end. I have had to watch documents replace lived reality while the people responsible for those documents continue without meaningful accountability.

But government silence does not rewrite the evidence.

A prosecutor delaying a decision or remaining silent does not make a disputed codicil authentic. It does not make a false address accurate. It does not turn an unclaimed notice into received notice. It does not explain why a longstanding estate plan changed nine days before death. It does not resolve the conflicts surrounding the witnesses. And it does not answer the basic moral question at the center of this case.

Delay is not exoneration. Silence is not a decision. And neither one changes the record.

So for now, I keep going.

Thank you to all 2,700 of you who have helped make sure this story is not buried. Let’s keep sharing and signing as we get closer to 3,000 signatures.