In a Bel Air courtroom on Friday, Circuit Judge W. Michel Pierson signaled he is ready to undo the 2025 order that forced Republican Aaron Penman off the Harford County Council, but he stopped short of putting Penman back in the District B seat. Instead, Pierson recessed the hearing so he could draft an order vacating the earlier injunction and formally adding Alison Imhoff, the current appointee for the district, as a party to the case.
Pierson made the comments during a hearing in Bel Air and said he wants Imhoff to have a chance to be heard before he makes any call on reinstatement, according to Maryland Matters. He told attorneys he would begin drafting an order that wipes out the January 2025 injunction removing Penman and brings Imhoff into the case. If Imhoff appears when the hearing resumes, the judge suggested, she could choose to waive some procedural protections that have tangled the litigation so far.
Appellate Ruling Shifted The Case
The hearing follows an April decision by the Appellate Court of Maryland that reversed the part of the circuit court ruling that found Penman ineligible to serve while employed as a deputy sheriff and sent the matter back for further proceedings. The unreported opinion said the trial court misread Charter §207 and directed additional action in the circuit court. The Appellate Court of Maryland opinion lays out the court’s reasoning and the steps the lower court must now take.
Why Penman Was Removed
The underlying fight turned on whether Charter §207 blocks a council member from holding other government employment. A January 2025 circuit court order said Penman’s job with the sheriff’s office disqualified him from serving. The Harford County Sheriff’s Office has rejected that reading and publicly backed Penman’s return, saying the Bennett decision left room for his rehiring. A news release from the Harford County Sheriff's Office cast Penman’s law enforcement background as a plus for public safety.
What Pierson Did Friday
At Friday’s hearing, Pierson said he was “willing to vacate” the prior injunction but would not decide on whether Penman should be put back in the council seat until Imhoff is heard, according to reporting in the Baltimore Sun. He then recessed the proceedings so he could draft an order that would erase the January 2025 injunction and formally list Imhoff as a party in any future restoration hearing. The move sets a procedural path that keeps both legal arguments and Imhoff’s rights front and center in whatever comes next.
Legal Next Steps
Vacating the injunction would remove the circuit court’s earlier directive but would not automatically return Penman to the council. Instead, the remand requires the circuit court to hold further proceedings with Imhoff included so the restoration question can be resolved. The Appellate Court cautioned that when statutory language is ambiguous, “the ultimate judgment belongs not to this Court, but to the ballot box,” underscoring that the fight is political as well as legal. The Appellate Court of Maryland opinion is guiding how the lower court now proceeds.
Politics And Timing
Penman had filed to run in 2026 to reclaim his District B seat, but later withdrew his candidacy before the filing deadline and went on to endorse Alison Imhoff, according to reporting. Those moves had already reshaped the local race. With the judge’s order still in flux, candidates and voters will be watching to see how the court’s next steps ripple through the ballot. Maryland Matters has tracked the filings and endorsements.
Pierson recessed the hearing to get his draft order on the record, and the circuit court will set the next hearing date once that order is filed. Until then, both the legal battle over eligibility and the political contest for District B remain very much unresolved.
