Gerald Purnell Removed

Gerald Vaughn Purnell, former Administrative Judge for Maryland's District Two, faces a civil citation for official misconduct from the Maryland Office of the State Prosecutor after an investigation found he allowed a law clerk to collect a full-time salary for nearly a decade while she worked only part-time. According to investigators, Purnell hired the woman, identified in an affidavit only as "B.L.," as a full-time law clerk in 2015 while she simultaneously held a full-time position as a college professor, with an informal understanding that she would work only as needed. Over the following ten years, the clerk received approximately $485,000 in salary.

The State Prosecutor's office is seeking a $10,000 penalty against both Purnell and the clerk, and separately accuses Purnell of failing to notify the Judiciary of the arrangement as required. Senior Maryland Judiciary members learned of the decade-long payroll arrangement in June 2024 and raised internal concern about it — the same month Purnell suffered a stroke and, weeks later, discussed the matter with the Chief Judge of the District Court before resigning that October, ahead of the formal misconduct citation that wasn't filed until July 2025.