Open-government proponents say the use of auto-deleting messaging platforms for government matters violates the spirit of public records laws, and a recent state investigation finding that former State Superintendent of Schools Mohammed Choudhury and some of his staff used the app Signal for work-related exchanges highlights those concerns once again.

The topic also became a local flashpoint in 2022, with Democratic Maryland lawmakers calling for reforms after The Washington Post reported that then-Gov. Larry Hogan, now running for U.S. Senate, was using the self-deleting messaging features of an app called Wickr to communicate with his executive team.

“Unfortunately, at all levels of government, whether federal, state or local, we see elected officials and government officials try to avoid public records laws and retention laws by using messaging apps and self-deleting messages,” said Aaron Scherb, senior director of legislative affairs for the national government accountability group Common Cause.

Many exchanges among Maryland officials, such as emails about state business, are presumed open for public inspection — the general public can request them under the Maryland Public Information Act. Not all records are releasable; the law contains rules for what is exempt, and other records may be destroyed in time frames set by agency retention schedules.

“Ultimately, it just comes to down to transparency and sunlight — making sure that the public and voters can get an understanding of how their elected officials and public officials are spending their time, how they’re representing us,” Scherb said.

The situation becomes blurrier when officials use apps intended to keep those conversations private. Several apps have features that automatically delete messages, opening up the possibility of infringing upon records-retention programs and open records laws, at least in spirit. It’s hard to determine if, and how, officials are on those apps. And even if they’re using the apps, it’s difficult to tell what their conversations are about and if they should be considered public.

The Maryland Office of the Inspector General for Education said in its report last month that Choudhury had said he used Signal to communicate with members of his executive team and that “occasionally, work-related matters got ‘mixed in’ with personal issues.”

“Often, there’s a blur, a shade of gray between personal and official,” said Scherb, noting that an exchange could start as a “purely personal communication” but then “dip into their professional responsibilities.”

“We would always err on the side of open records laws capturing more of those communications,” Scherb said. “It’s all about the public having a right to know and having that transparency to ensure that the public — and especially voters — have the information that they need.”

In Choudhury’s case, the inspector general’s report said it opened its probe after receiving a complaint that the superintendent used Signal “to discuss government policy and vendor contract decisions.” It concluded that Choudhury and “key members” of the Maryland State Department of Education executive team used Signal “for communications relating to both personal and work-related matters,” and identified a “pattern” of education officials using the app to discuss “work topics.” But the report doesn’t specify what matters were discussed nor if and how Choudhury used the app’s feature that automatically deletes messages.

Choudhury was initially confronted over his use of Signal last September by FOX45, telling a reporter that he didn’t use Signal “for my job.” The television station had obtained screenshots of work-related communications, which included Choudhury discussing licensing for a data analytics program used by the state education department. The screenshots also show the former state superintendent, who stepped down from his post last October and has since been replaced, setting a timer to make his messages disappear after one hour.

The problem isn’t necessarily that officials are using Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram or any of the dozens of encrypted messaging platforms now available, said Del. Vaughn Stewart, a Montgomery County Democrat. It’s mainly how those apps have been used — especially the auto-deleting functions — without regard to records-retention schedules and open records laws, he said.

Stewart and fellow Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation in the wake of Hogan’s Wickr revelations to ensure “any written, electronic, audio or video communication” involving public business would be subject to the state’s public records laws. Although open records laws and retention schedules would cover most of those records, Stewart said that the bill, which did not pass, was mainly to make the law clearer.

The bill also stipulated that the Office of the Governor is a “unit of government” required to retain and archive certain records. Hogan’s team had said that the governor’s office was not a “unit” of government subject to such retention laws but rather the head of state government.

In the Wickr chatrooms, Hogan’s staff used the app’s “Burn-On-Read” timers to schedule messages for destruction 24 hours after they were read. Stewart noted that one could use similar tactics on basic platforms like Apple’s iMessage, though it would be slightly more tedious.

Stewart noted that deleting communications about governmental business, no matter how it’s done, goes against what records-retention schedules are intended for: transparency. The public has a right to know about how policy is made, and Hogan’s staff was using the “Burn-On-Read” chatrooms to communicate about policy with “people like Roy McGrath,” Stewart said, referring to the former Hogan aide who became a fugitive on wire fraud charges and died during an encounter with federal agents.

And at the very least, retaining communications and other records gives historians a way to look back on what led to major policy decisions, Stewart said.

The inspector general’s summary of the superintendent’s office said that “the practice continued until public scrutiny increased,” despite a former member of the executive team expressing concern about “the optics and potential implications of using such an application.”

The summary says that Choudhury considered the Signal messages to be “miscellaneous records that could be discarded as he saw fit,” apparently referring to the department’s records-retention schedule, which provides that “telephone messages” are “miscellaneous records” to be “retain[ed] until no longer needed by the office” and then destroyed. That schedule was most recently revised in 2005, according to a Maryland State Archives database.

The inspector general’s office recommended that the state education department “update its internal policies to address the use of encrypted or ephemeral messaging applications” and develop requirements for retaining work-related messaging data. A spokesperson for the department said it was working on updating those policies.

Crafting a policy to curb the use of such apps is a “tricky, challenging kind of thread,” said Scherb, but it could be as simple as a directive from the top not to use any sort of messaging apps for state business.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson banned the use of a similar app called Confide within the state’s governor’s office — his predecessor, Eric Greitens, was found to be using the app along with his staff, prompting an attorney general’s investigation that ultimately found no wrongdoing. Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer once warned his staff that using Confide and Signal was a violation of the Presidential Records Act, though his warning came during a crackdown on leaks to the press.

In addition to the money from coach Mike Locksley’s desk, the suspect is also accused of stealing $1,000 more in cash and a pair of Oakley sunglasses from the office of the football program’s chief of staff, Brian Griffin, according to an indictment handed down in late August.

The suspect, a 48-year-old from Reisterstown, had also been accused four years ago of stealing from offices at different schools’ athletic departments over the course of several months. In multiple theft cases, including the one in College Park, investigators noted that he dressed up to blend in on campus, sometimes carrying props to solidify the act.

It was not clear in court records if the suspect had been served with the Aug. 20 indictment, and a spokesperson for the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office was not able to immediately answer when asked about his status on Monday afternoon. A call to a phone number associated with the suspect was not returned.

The indictment, which charges the 48-year-old with four burglary and theft offenses, replaces a shorter set of charges issued in early July in connection with the June 16 thefts, though authorities never served him with an arrest warrant issued for those offenses, according to court records.

Surveillance footage from June showed the suspect following a couple into the Jones-Hill House, the football program’s training complex and administrative headquarters, at around noon, a campus police detective wrote in charging documents.

An employee opened the front door for the couple, and the suspect followed from behind while pretending to be on his phone, according to the charging documents. He was clad in a button-down shirt and dress pants, and also wore a camera with an extended lens around his neck “as if he was there to take photographs,” the officer wrote.

The suspect lingered around a staircase while the couple and the employee proceeded into the building. Then, he stopped using his phone “as soon as they left his view,” darting up the stairs to the football program’s administrative offices, which were unoccupied, the investigator wrote.

He “quickly went into multiple offices,” eventually entering Locksley’s through an open door and then proceeding to Griffin’s, where he exited with a gray pair of sunglasses, according to charging papers. The suspect left the building and waited for an Uber, which police said took him to a nearby parking lot, where he got into a BMW.

Baltimore Police stopped the BMW the next week, leading to campus investigators identifying the suspect and getting the warrant for his arrest.

Police noted that the same suspect was seen on surveillance footage “sneaking” into the university’s Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center earlier in June, though he was “spooked by an employee” who passed him in the office area.

The campus police investigators’ description of how the suspect carried out the June burglary appears strikingly similar to what Baltimore County Police wrote in a 2020 application for theft charges against the same man. The Reisterstown resident was charged that year in connection with a series of thefts from athletic offices at Stevenson University and the nearby Jemicy School.

County police investigators wrote that a set of keys belonging to the private institution’s head baseball coach were stolen from an unlocked office during a 2019 open house event. They pointed to footage of a “well-dressed male, carrying a folder” seen wandering the halls of the school’s sports complex “as if he belonged there” before entering the coach’s office and leaving with a set of keys.

A month later, the same person was seen taking $200 of student government money from the desk of a Jemicy School coach, charging papers say. In February 2020, he was again seen entering a different Stevenson coach’s office — $120 was taken from her purse that night.

He was identified as the suspect in that string of thefts after a Stevenson employee confronted him in a player locker room. The charges against him — four misdemeanor theft counts — were ultimately shelved, or placed on the inactive docket, in a 2022 agreement with county prosecutors, according to court records.

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Tuesday is expected to be sunny with a high around 83 before dropping into the upper 50s at night.

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Wednesday afternoon is predicted to be sunny with a high near 84. Wednesday night should be clear with a low in the upper 50s.

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Friday, Saturday and Sunday are expected to be mostly sunny in the afternoon with temperatures in the 80s and cloudy at night with temperatures in the 60s.

Warren Curtis Grant died in a hospital Friday afternoon after being shot during the dispute in a first-story bathroom, Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler said at a Friday afternoon news conference. Police did not identify the suspect, a 16-year-old Joppatowne High student, noting they would release his name once he is formally charged as an adult, which Gahler said could be expected later Friday or Saturday morning.

Officers responded to the school at about 12:36 p.m. after the single shot struck the teenaged victim in the chest, Gahler said. The suspect fled the school grounds, and Grant was dragged out of the bathroom by other students. The wounded 15-year-old was tended to by school personnel, including a nurse, a resource officer and Principal Melissa Williams, before being airlifted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in serious condition, Gahler said during another news conference earlier Friday afternoon.

Gahler said later that he was notified of the student’s death shortly after the initial news conference in the parking lot of Redner’s Warehouse Market. His family was notified at the hospital, he said.

The shooting took place shortly after a class change near the principal’s office, said Harford County Superintendent Sean Bulson.

In brief remarks following Gahler’s, Williams said her thoughts and prayers were with the family and friends of Grant, who she described as an “amazing young man,” as well as the school’s students and staff.

“Joppatowne is a loving and strong community who will without a doubt rally around our families, support one another and continue to support our community and our families,” she said.

The suspect was “quickly” apprehended after traveling a “short distance away to some houses,” and residents called the police, Gahler said, also noting that Friday was the suspect student’s first day attending school, despite Tuesday being the first day of classes for Harford County Public Schools.

Bulson remarked about the “sea of lights” from emergency responders that he saw after arriving after the shooting.

“Our hearts are breaking for the victim, and this victim’s family,” Bulson said, thanking first responders. “The circumstances are absolutely terrible, and this should not be happening in schools.”

Just two days before the shooting in Joppatowne, a 14-year-old student opened fire at a Georgia high school, killing two students and two teachers.

“We prepare for things like this, but it’s never the same as when it actually happens,” he said.

Parents with worried looks rushed through the grass to get to a reunification center at Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church where students waited to get picked up. School staff in light purple shirts manned lines separated in alphabetical order, communicating by walkie-talkie and shouting out the names of different students.

People waited from the front door down to the parking lot of the church, many on the phone, some holding young children. Law enforcement officers stood by as the sun beat down and some people passed out water bottles.

As students came out, some were met with tears and big hugs. Others were on the phone.

Joppatowne High School shooting | PHOTOS

Daniel Cornitcher, a junior, said students had to wait in line to get into the church after leaving the school. He said some students were told to walk through the woods to get to the church.

The incident happened during the third lunch period, Cornitcher said. He decided to take his lunch in his classroom, which is near the cafeteria and the main exit, he said, but was instead rushed into an office.

While huddling together and hiding, Cornitcher said they were able to see about 20 to 30 sheriff and state trooper patrol cars arrive through a window.

Cornitcher said communication was unclear at first. Students weren’t aware of what was happening, he said, and initially thought it was a stabbing or “a really big fight.”

“We did see a lot of people run out,” Cornitcher said. Students scattered as others broke down from emotions in front of the school’s steps.

Closer to 1:13 p.m., the students were told to leave their belongings and “get out, get out,” Cornitcher said. He walked to the reunification area.

“I don’t believe everybody fully took it seriously until the rumors of it being a gun really got around,” Cornitcher said, noting that if communication was more clear, “we would have had a better shot at knowing what the safe move was to do.”

Afternoon traffic was snared by the shooting, with a series of roads closed as distraught parents made their way to the church and the school. Reunification is “one of the hardest parts of any significant issue like this,” Bulson said.

Mandy Mcready waited near Redner’s Market in the early afternoon for updates on when she could pick up her son, a tenth grader at Joppatowne High. The shooting took place “right outside his classroom,” she said.

“He’s very shaken up,” she said.

Jamie Myers said that she had received an email and a voicemail to pick up her son at the church, but she was unable to get to him quickly.

“We can’t get to them yet, it’s so frustrating for us and frustrating for them,” she said.

When the reunification process had mostly wrapped up at around 3 p.m., school staff walked back to a corner near the school, waiting for the OK to reenter, and later got approval to head to their cars. Sheriff’s deputies stood outside of the apartments across the street from the school as an officer led a search dog around one area.

Bulson said Friday afternoon that school officials had not decided on an exact approach for school on Monday, but noted that “a great deal of support,” including counseling will be available.

Some roads near the school were still closed later Friday afternoon as police continued to investigate the shooting, which had at that point, become a homicide. Gahler said that there was “overwhelming evidence” linking that 16-year-old suspect to the shooting, but police had not yet located a firearm and detectives had not determined what prompted the altercation.

The sheriff said investigators had not interviewed the suspect, bemoaning a state law requiring for juveniles to consult with an attorney about their rights before being interrogated by police.

“There are families of every other student at that school, and the parents of the shooter, who have a right to know why we all stand here today,” Gahler, a Republican, said.

The sheriff said the teenage suspect was known to police from prior interactions, later adding that the sheriff’s office had handled more than 10 “incidents” since 2022 where he had was listed as a victim, witness or suspect. He also said there was an “incident involving some Joppatowne High School students” on Thursday, but he had not heard the event was related.

Reporters Tony Roberts and Matt Hubbard contributed to this article.

Advertising at those events violated rules intended to prevent cannabis companies from marketing to children, according to an Aug. 5 consent order with the Maryland Cannabis Administration. It says 2023’s Hot Summer Music Festival in Cockeysville, where Curio operated a canopy, and that year’s Baltimore Running Festival, where the 5K race was named for its cannabis brand sponsor, both offered activities for people of all ages — including those under 21.

Curio’s leadership, which signed on to the consent order, noted in an interview that the violations came within the month that followed the state changing its advertising regulations as it moved to legalize recreational cannabis. The Baltimore Sun’s principal owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group Executive Chair David D. Smith, is an investor in the cannabis brand.

In the legislation that ultimately launched the state’s recreational cannabis industry in July 2023, Maryland adopted some of the nation’s strongest regulations on legal cannabis, with public health experts hailing stringent product testing requirements and laws aimed at preventing marketing cannabis to children. Maryland law restricts advertising cannabis “directly or indirectly” to minors, with rules restricting images attractive to children, such as food products, cartoons, toys or animals, in advertising.

Cannabis companies are also barred from some advertising efforts without showing that at least 85% of the marketing audience is “reasonably expected” to be over the age of 21. Curio did not provide “reliable and current” audience composition data information for either event, the consent order says.

Wendy Bronfein, the company’s chief brand officer and director of public policy, said balancing the company’s marketing with Maryland’s “highly restrictive” regulations was “a really hard space,” adding that she believed the company had proved themselves “in a responsible way” over the course of the past several years to avoid any appearance of malicious intent.

She noted that Curio had sponsored the Baltimore Running Festival for several years prior to the adoption of stricter regulations. The company produces non-psychoactive topical products for aches and pains, which Bronfein said made the brand a “really good fit” for the event. The music festival was an “adult-centric event” that made most of its money off alcohol sales, she said.

But the music festival at Oregon Ridge Park had also advertised activities “specifically for children and families,” the consent order says. The running festival, where Curio’s name and logo appeared on the runner handbook, lanyards and the title of the 2023 Curio Wellness 5K, allowed individuals of all ages to participate and had a designated “Kids Fun Zone” with inflatable activities and games, according to the order.

Curio leadership, which the cannabis administration said cooperated with the investigation, signed off on the consent order in late July, waiving their right to contest the violation.

The Timonium-based cannabis company, which also operates in Missouri, has faced regulatory scrutiny before — in February, the business was ordered to pay a $26,000 fine after its flagship dispensary, Far & Dotter, sold 64 Amnesia OG flower packages that had been in a dumpster for two days.

Although Maryland’s cannabis laws include stringent rules covering marketing, many of the companies with public actions against them have faced charges for violations regarding inventory and ownership matters.

But Curio is not the only company to face a financial penalty under cannabis marketing laws. Cookies, a dispensary in South Baltimore, had its license temporarily suspended and was ordered to pay a $81,500 fine last year for a combination of security failures and marketing violations related to an advertisement that depicted cartoons including “several local mascots,” as well as the “likeness of two celebrities.”

Baltimore County Police said in a Tuesday news release that they responded at about 4:20 p.m. Monday to the 8400 block of Leefield Road, near the White Oak School, for the shots-fired call.

Officers found the victim, identified as Romy Bogier, suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper body, police said. He was taken to a hospital, where he died. A second man was also found with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Those with information are asked to contact detectives at 410-307-2020 or anonymously use Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-756-2587.

The probe of former Maryland State Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury and key members of his executive team found that the officials used the encrypted messaging service Signal to communicate about personal and work-related matters. The Office of the Inspector General for Education did not find any rules explicitly barring the use of privacy-centric messaging apps but noted the practice underscored concerns about transparency and the retention of government records.

“Despite a former executive team member’s concern regarding the optics and potential implications of using such an application, the practice continued until public scrutiny increased,” the two-page investigative summary says.

Choudhury told investigators that he used Signal “for its ease and security features” and that work matters would sometimes get “mixed in” with personal issues when he used the app to communicate with members of the education department’s executive team.

Signal has a function that allows messages to be automatically deleted. Choudhury said he was aware of the department’s records-retention policy but that he “considered the messages sent via Signal to be miscellaneous records that could be discarded as he saw fit.”

He said he had not received official training on the state’s communication policy but “believed the state should develop policies regarding encrypted messaging applications.”

A host of messaging apps, including Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram, include encryption features and the option to have messages automatically delete after a certain timeframe.

Controversy over state officials using self-deleting messaging apps, which potentially skirt open-records laws, is not new in Maryland. When he was governor, U.S. Senate candidate Larry Hogan and his staff used Wickr, an app featuring quick-deleting messages, prompting concerns from lawmakers and good government advocates.

The education report notes that “messaging applications are challenging to keep up with due to continuous technological changes” but recommends that the education department update its policies to address their use, including by setting a records-retention schedule for such communications.

An MSDE spokesperson said the department and the Office of the State Superintendent are “actively working to update MSDE record retention procedures.”

“We appreciate our continued collaboration with the Maryland Office of the Inspector General for Education,” the spokesperson, Raven Hill, said.

Choudhury, who was hired during the coronavirus pandemic to be the state’s education leader and implement the early stages of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future reform plan, began to face scrutiny over his leadership style toward the end of his tenure. He ultimately decided not to seek a second term, and Carey Wright stepped into the role permanently in April.

Choudhury was recently appointed deputy superintendent of leading and learning at a school district in Fort Worth, Texas.

After completing work on the station’s exterior this spring, development group Penn Station Partners estimated that the next phase of construction would cost more than what Amtrak had committed. Citing the gap in costs, Amtrak ordered the developers to temporarily stop work on the project in late April, according to a letter obtained by The Baltimore Sun through a public records request.

The letter released by Amtrak does not specify the developer’s updated cost predictions, and an Amtrak spokesperson did not say how large the initial funding gap was.

“We continue to coordinate closely with Penn Station Partners to advance this important program,” said W. Kyle Anderson, an Amtrak spokesperson.

Representatives from Beatty Development Group and Cross Street Partners, which together make up Penn Station Partners, did not return requests for comment.

Representatives from Beatty Development Group and Cross Street Partners, which together make up Penn Station Partners, did not return requests for comment.

Amtrak initially refused to release the May 6 letter, citing a provision of the Freedom of Information Act that exempts “trade secrets” and certain financial information from being released. The quasi-public corporation later released documentation after The Sun appealed that decision.

The letter gives an inside look at the ongoing dispute between Amtrak and the private development group, as well as the decision to pause work, referencing failed negotiations between Amtrak and the development group after receiving the higher-than-expected cost estimates.

In the letter, National Passenger Railroad Corporation leadership said that despite negotiations, Penn Station Partners “has indicated it wants Amtrak to solely issue” the stop work order “rather than enter into a mutually acceptable agreement.”

“Amtrak commits to [Penn Station Partners] that it will work in good faith to help resolve this issue and understands that [the development group] will do the same,” Barney E. Gray, who was then Amtrak’s assistant vice president for major stations, wrote in the letter. Gray, who could not be reached for comment, left that post in June, according to his LinkedIn page.

The letter ordered Penn Station Partners to “temporarily cease all work” on the project in order to “mitigate against any unnecessary expenditures” while Amtrak and the partnership “work to understand and resolve this situation.” The development group was still permitted to continue work on the exterior of the station’s headhouse, as well as some necessary work on restoring parapet stone, according to the letter.

But the monthslong cost dispute represents one of the first major hurdles since construction began on the long-awaited project to refurbish the 1911 rail station, touted by officials as a public-private partnership that would bolster both the city’s flagship train station and the Station North neighborhood.

The development partnership was picked by Amtrak in 2019 for the investment of up to $600 million to transform the area around Penn Station and complete improvements to the building, which saw its last major renovation four decades ago. The standstill came shortly after the Penn Station revitalization project reached a milestone of completing the historic structure’s exterior facade as well as a new boarding platform.

Meanwhile, some of the rail agency’s Baltimore-area projects have also faced resistance — more so from the outside. West Baltimore residents have lashed out at plans to replace the Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel, a 150-year-old underground path near Penn Station that has long been a bottleneck for Amtrak and MARC trains, with concerns of pollution and structural racism. And, an effort boosted by a rail startup has sought to upend Amtrak’s ongoing work to demolish a series of 1866 bridge piers as the federal rail corporation builds a new bridge over the Susquehanna River.

“He was the only person I know that would hug me and pick me literally off the ground,” said Sherrod Kearney, one of Leslie’s older cousins, from the lectern.

Kearney, like several others, noted that one of the most important things to remember about Leslie was his big heart.

“The love he showed everybody else, that’s how much he loved everything he did” — drawing, painting, singing and recording TikToks of his dance moves — Kearney said at his cousin’s funeral service at Vaughn Greene Funeral Home in Randallstown.

Noble, of Reisterstown, died earlier this month after suffering a medical emergency and collapsing on Franklin High School’s field during a preseason football practice. The 16-year-old was a junior guard on Franklin’s varsity football team.

Noble’s family is still awaiting answers about his death. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has not determined his cause of death. That day, police dispatchers repeated that the initial 911 call said the student had suffered heatstroke. An athletic trainer was at practice that day.

At the start of Wednesday’s services, a montage set to Boyz II Men’s “One Sweet Day” played on the chapel’s projector showing pictures and videos of the 16-year-old dancing, working out, laughing and smiling. Family and friends hugged and cried. Some donned T-shirts bearing Noble’s uniform number — 74.

A procession of his family and other loved ones walked in to say goodbyes to Noble, who was dressed in pink in an open casket. Some close relatives, including his mother, Daonna Tucker, lingered and began weeping as they said their farewells.

Leslie was a “gentle giant” who “loved everybody, his friends, everything,” said Rashad Williams, who playfully described himself as Leslie’s “favorite cousin.” He recalled hearing Leslie talking about how he was excited to go back to school.

“I’m like, ‘Leslie, why do you want to go back to school in the summertime?'” he said.

“His presence just like, filled you with joy,” Williams said.

Shortly before services began, the chapel in Randallstown filled with members of the Franklin community. Students spoke about how caring Leslie was as a friend.

“Everybody needed a person like Leslie in their life,” one classmate said.

He enjoyed staying late after school, helping teachers decorate, make posters or set up class, according to his obituary.

“Leslie was a person who lived a life of passion and purpose,” said Jase Martin, a special educator at Franklin who knew Leslie closely.

Martin said Leslie “had the incredible ability to connect with people, to make you feel seen, heard and to leave you with a smile on your face.” Leslie approached challenges with determination and excitement, and “invited others to be their best selves,” he said.

At Franklin, Leslie served with the Student Government Association and was involved in multiple clubs, said his older sister, Dream Smith. He helped younger boys learn how to tie their ties, he taught her a little about cooking — and “gave me a little bit of rhythm” as far as dancing, she said.

“He was loved — from his dad’s side, to his mom’s side, to his friends,” said Noble’s father, Leslie Noble III.

Joshua Matthew Duerk, who owns Duerk & Associates Commercial Bulk Trash Removal, was released from the Howard County Detention Center on Tuesday after posting a $10,000 cash bond, according to court records.

Duerk’s attorney, Justin Lake, said that his client has been “fully cooperative” with the investigation.

“It is important to remember that the presumption of innocence is a foundational component of our criminal justice system,” he said. “We stand firm in our commitment to protecting his rights and ensuring that he receives the fair and impartial process that every person accused of a crime is entitled to.”

Duerk faces three sex abuse charges in connection with allegations made by a 16-year-old boy, who told investigators that the 54-year-old had touched him while sleeping in his bed earlier this month, according to charging documents. The boy and his three brothers, who were all employed by Duerk, indicated they would normally sleep over at Duerk’s residence in the Turf Valley area prior to and during their shifts.

The teen’s parents told police that they had known Duerk for roughly a decade, having met him when their sons were running a lemonade stand, police wrote in charging papers. Two of the four siblings are now adults.

Duerk is only charged in connection with the 16-year-old’s allegations, though the charging documents indicate that police suspect Duerk made inappropriate contact with the teen’s siblings as well. The teen’s younger brother described a previous, similar encounter with Duerk, adding that he had requested for the 54-year-old to purchase him a $200 gift card “and the two would call it even,” requesting another gift card earlier this month “now that the police were involved,” charging papers say.

The 16-year-old told police that Duerk had asked him questions about being “mad or disappointed” with him following the previous night, when the teen said Duerk had touched him after they watched a movie together, police wrote in charging papers. Duerk later took him to a convenience store and purchased a gift card, and provided the 16-year-old with $20 before taking him home, police wrote.

Police also noted that they found that authorities in Montgomery County had also investigated a similar sexual assault report involving Duerk, though court records do not show any previous charges under his name.

A Howard County Police spokesperson said that the investigation into other possible victims is continuing. Police said that Duerk “is known to regularly attend athletic events” at Centennial High School, where he once served as a volunteer coach, and that detectives are asking “any additional victims” and those with information to speak with them by calling police at 410-313-STOP or HCPDCrimeTips@howardcountymd.gov.