Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold was indicted by a grand jury, Maryland state prosecutor Emmet C. Davitt announced Friday afternoon.
Leopold, 69, is accused of misconduct in office for allegedly using his executive protection squad for his own benefit.
Public officials criminally abuse the public trust when they treat public resources as their personal property and public personnel as their personal servants, Davitt said.
The indictment details allegations that Leopold used his police security detail to investigate political opponents and for a variety of campaign tasks, including posting and distributing campaign signs, the Baltimore Sun reported.
The indictment also alleges the security detail drove Leopold to several locations, where the Republican county executive himself removed and discarded the signs of a political opponent, the Sun reported.
Leopold is also accused of using police officers to bring him to public places where he engaged in sexual encounters with a female county employee.
The county executive vowed to fight the charges and refused to step down.
"The citizens of the county can look at my decades-long record of public service and know that I've always put the interest of the taxpayers first," Leopold told the Sun. "I would ask my fellow citizens to reserve judgment until both sides of the story can be heard.”
