Fresh off a legal victory from the state’s highest court, the lawyers for former Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Clark plan to resume the investigation into City Hall that they say led to his firing.

Clark’s attorney Neal Janey said Clark’s team of lawyers plans to take sworn depositions from Gov. Martin O’Malley and Deputy Legislative Officer Sean Malone, and seek a court order for Malone’s computer.

“[Clark] was in the middle of conducting criminal investigations that could have some impact on the administration,” Janey said. “It’s against public policy for a mayor to terminate the police commissioner while he’s conducting investigations that could affect the mayor’s administration.”

Clark would not say specifically what he was investigating at City Hall when O’Malley removed him from office using a SWAT team in 2004. But Janey said one of the items was information on Malone’s computer.

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“One of the matters was Sean Malone’s computer,” Janey said. “We intend to depose any and all current or former officials. Yes, Mr. Malone will be deposed. And we’re issuing a subpoena for the hard drives from the computer. There are five hard drives for that computer. There’s no question the city has them. [Former Police Commissioner Leonard] Hamm took them and turned them over to the city solicitor, who indicated he reviewed the material. It would be awfully surprising if, for some reason, they’re missing.”

In an interview after a Friday morning news conference, Clark said all of his staff’s internal investigations were shut down when he was fired — and his internal affairs chief’s office was raided. An inexperienced Marcus Brown, now the Maryland Transportation Authority Police Chief, was “suddenly elevated” to the chief of internal affairs, though “he had no understanding” of the unit, Clark said.

“Every case was closed out,” Clark said. “Every case I was looking at was done. There were some pretty serious cases.”

Janey said he’s looking forward to questioning O’Malley, particularly about why he used a SWAT team to remove Clark from office.

“We will have the opportunity to ask him under oath: Why did he do it?” Janey said. “Why did he ignore ... state law? Why was it necessary to use a SWAT team?”

The governor’s office in Annapolis declined to comment on Clark’s statements.

On Thursday, Maryland’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, ruled that O’Malley illegally fired Clark in 2004, sending his $120 million lawsuit to Baltimore City Circuit Court, where Clark will seek damages and reinstatement.

lbroadwater@baltimoreexaminer.com

sjanis@baltimoreexaminer.com