School Principal Is Forced to Proclaim: ‘I’m Not Married to Any Mob’ : Crime: The drug charges against pillar of the community Patricia Emory expired for lack of sufficient evidence. Her estranged husband is still under a cloud.

Patricia Emory knows who her friends are. They sent her poinsettias, $20 checks with a note to “buy something” for her son, food and fruit baskets, tapes of Christmas songs, a Bible.

She also knows who her adversaries are. They’re the ones who believe the charges, since dropped, that this highly acclaimed elementary school principal--an anti-drug crusader--was, in fact, a member of a drug ring.

“She may be a pillar of the community by day, but she’s a drug kingpin at night,” prosecutors said in court papers.

She retorts: “I’m a school principal. I’m not married to any mob.”

The parents who send their children to Severna Park Elementary School don’t know what to think. Should she be allowed to return to her suburban school?

“I have a mixed reaction,” said Ron Riegel, as he waited to pick up his granddaughter from school. “I find it hard to believe that she could have been around all that money and not know what was going on. Maybe she was innocent.

“It’s hard to tell.”

*

On Oct. 29, Emory and her husband, Mitch, were arrested in a raid on their home. Mitch Emory’s brother and seven others were arrested as well.

Prosecutors accused her of being “part of the largest marijuana operation in the history of Anne Arundel County . . . operating for more than 15 years . . . part of the board of directors of a massive criminal enterprise.”

They alleged that the ring met in her $400,000 contemporary home and had contacts extending to North Carolina, Texas, New Mexico and abroad.

“Whatever shiny public image she had, there’s a dark side to her that severely tarnishes that image,” the prosecutor said at her bail hearing.

In mid-December, the charges against Patricia Emory expired without a grand jury indictment. But her husband, a popular youth league soccer coach who has had drug and alcohol problems, was indicted. He is in jail awaiting trial.

Why was there no indictment against Patricia Emory?

“Just as there is no crime in being married to the mob, an individual cannot be indicted for being the wife of a drug kingpin even though a briefcase containing over $10,000 and drug deal tally slips was found secreted under the marital bed,” said Frank Weathersbee, Anne Arundel County state’s attorney.

“We didn’t have sufficient evidence to convict and therefore we didn’t request an indictment, at least as of this time,” Weathersbee said in an interview in his Annapolis office. The term of the grand jury expired at the end of the year, Dec. 31.

Patricia Emory, 45, testified before the grand jury for 4 1/2 hours and passed a defense-administered polygraph test, according to her lawyers. She says the state had insufficient evidence because the charges are lies, politically inspired by publicity-seeking prosecutors.

Take her home--and prosecutors mean to do just that, having filed a civil petition to seize it as part of the drug enterprise. Patricia Emory said her husband built the house with a $200,000 loan and with savings and investments.

The alleged drug meetings, Patricia Emory suggested, were teen-age friends of her 16-year-old son, Jason, coming by to play pool.

She denies any knowledge of her husband’s alleged drug connections, saying she knew only that he was a building contractor and that she was kept busy working 12-hour days at the school. She and her husband had separate briefcases for 25 years and she did not know her husband carried money in his, she said.

On advice of her attorney, Patricia Emory has separated from her husband and has not visited him in jail. Their 25-year marriage has been a rocky one; they have separated three times because of her husband’s drug and alcohol problems. A second son, now 25, also was counseled for drugs.

“I don’t know how to feel right now,” Patricia Emory said. “My husband and I grew up together. We’ve known each other our whole lives and I have no reason not to love him.

“I don’t know how it will turn out. There are so many people involved in this case that I don’t know if my husband was involved at all, a little bit, or a lot. I’m going to support him until I find out differently.”

*

Patricia Emory says the episode has destroyed her career and left her personal life a shambles. “I think my integrity will always be questioned, that there will always be doubts,” she says.

She is on paid administrative leave from Severna Park, a 15-minute drive from her home. She and her attorney, Ann Hurlock, are awaiting a meeting with school officials to discuss her future, which she said will be dictated by “what is in the best interest of the children.”

She’s having doubts about whether she wants to return to Severna Park.

“I will either return or I will hopefully be reinvested in a job that’s very similar,” she said. “But it will be difficult because I know that all eyes will be on me continually.”

There is support for Patricia Emory. This is, after all, a woman who was named one of five outstanding principals in Anne Arundel County; she supervised police drug awareness programs at county schools, citing as inspiration the heroin addiction of her younger brother, who is in jail for using and dealing drugs.

“Most are convinced of her innocence and most feel that she was a wonderful principal,” said one parent, who did not want to be identified by name for fear of reprisals from Patricia Emory’s opponents. “A lot of the parents would feel like I did. They would welcome her back.”

“There’s a good deal of suspicion about whether she is guilty,” said Dennis Sachs, who has a son in the fifth grade. “But I think many of us probably would feel that if she is not charged, there’s really no reason why she shouldn’t resume being principal.”

But others, like Mel Jenkins, would not welcome her return.

“Even though the charges were dropped, I still feel the police department must have had some reason for even charging her and I can’t believe she didn’t know that it was going on right under her nose,” he said.

“I hope she doesn’t return to this school. It would be difficult for her and for the parents, difficult for the children to understand why their principal was arrested and hauled off and then came back. Children don’t understand what it means when they say the charges are dropped.”

As if to confirm his father’s point, 9-year-old Jarrod Jenkins broke in to say, “I’ve been complaining ever since she got arrested about when she kept coming into our classroom and saying that she didn’t want us taking drugs. Then she went out and took drugs anyway and sold drugs.”

Patricia Emory opened a bureau drawer filled with more than 400 letters of support from students, friends, strangers and colleagues, including her boss. They sent checks ranging from $50 to $1,000 for her bail and a defense fund.

But she knows others who are hostile. She said she is afraid to go out because people stare and talk about her. Jason is physically in distress, she said. Both are having difficulty sleeping. Both are afraid of the police.

Patricia Emory recently shuttered the windows of her home and installed an alarm system. Cars drive by every day with sightseers taking photos.

On the sidewalk outside her home, in 4-foot letters, vandals painted their verdict.

“Dope sold here,” the graffiti read.