Former Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley illegally fired former Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Clark in 2004, Maryland’s highest court ruled Thursday.

“The court has upheld the fact his firing was illegal,” said A. Dwight Pettit, Clark’s attorney. “Therefore he is still legally police commissioner.”

The Court of Appeals ruling sent Clark’s $120 million lawsuit to Baltimore City Circuit Court, where Clark will seek damages and reinstatement, Pettit said.

State law allows only the mayor to fire a police commissioner for several specific reasons: Official misconduct, malfeasance, inefficiency or incompetency, including prolonged illness, the judges wrote.

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Therefore, a contract Clark signed that allowed O’Malley to terminate the contract at any time for any reason was illegal, the judges said.

O’Malley was “anxious, perhaps understandably so, to have the right to terminate the Police Commissioner without cause,” Chief Judge Robert Bell wrote in a 7-0 unanimous decision. “That desire, however, does not determine the legality or appropriateness of their actions to terminate him.”

O’Malley fired Clark after a domestic dispute with his girlfriend made headlines in 2004, but Howard County police cleared him of any wrongdoing. He was never arrested or charged.

Clark argued that his firing violated state law and that using a SWAT team to force him from his office amounted to a violation of his rights. Clark has said publicly he was fired for investigating officials at City Hall.

Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for Mayor Sheila Dixon and Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld, said the city’s legal department would “like to take more time to take a look at” the ruling, which officials received Thursday. Clark and two of his top commanders also have filed a $20 million lawsuit against O’Malley and several other defendants in federal court over their terminations.

Clark and Pettit have scheduled a news conference about the ruling for 11:30 a.m. today.

Click here to read the court's opinion.

lbroadwater@baltimoreexaminer.com

sjanis@baltimoreexaminer.com