Bernice Mireku‑North is one of Emerge Maryland’s early alumni — a criminal‑justice reform attorney whose work in Montgomery County helped define the organization’s mission in its formative years. A former prosecutor and founder of The North Law Group, she has been a consistent voice for public‑safety reform, community engagement, and survivor‑centered policy. Her trajectory into the House of Delegates reflects exactly what Emerge set out to build: capable, principled women stepping into public leadership long before it was fashionable.
Excuse me, but why would the Comptroller of the state of Maryland promise a constituent that she'd hire someone? I mean, I realize that political favors are asked for and given out all the time, but most people don't complain in public that they didn't get the favor. (Or, as you do it, insist, 'It's NOT about that she didn't come through on her promised favor.")
But your honesty does give me reason to be skeptical of whatever you say about Brooke Lierman, so thanks for that.
Pat, I understand how it could be a little bit difficult to understand. So let me try and give you the full picture. In 1970, my mother's older sister asked me if I'd like to work at a polling place. Somehow I got hooked and politics is my hobby and has been since that fateful election back in 1970. Some people hunt or fish or watch sports or watch TV. I play politics. So in the the lead off to the 2022 races, I was supporting Tim Adams for comptroller. Now race plays a thread through this so I hope everybody will excuse. If I explain the racial terrain. Tim was Black from Prince George's County. Brooke was white from Baltimore City. Because of the political realities of vote counts and how people vote. It's virtually impossible for somebody to win statewide without a strong showing in Prince George's County. If you can break PGC down to roughly 50/50, you have a chance to win but left to its own devices. It normally comes out 70 to 90% for its homegrown candidates.
I was having some problems with Tim's campaign and Tim was dismissive about it. So I was talking to Brooke's campaign and they were encouraging. I finally had a conversation with Brooke. I explained that I could support her if she could guarantee to me that there was a strong identifiable figure from Prince George's County who would have a seat at the table. Maybe not as comptroller but a seat that would mean they would not blocked out of the discussions. What Brooke and I came to was that she promised that she would hire Courtney Finklea Green As senior staff. As Brooke told me she could not promise chief of staff but she could promise senior staff. Green is a very nice young lady and that seemed like a suitable accommodation. I had never met her but I had spoken to her on the phone and she seemed like a good person. I was able to talk to friends and allies of mine and Prince George's County and stretched to them that if Brooke won, Prince George's County still had a seat at the table through Courtney. Now this may sound a little convoluted but politics tends to be personal and I could explain to people why they should support Brooke and it worked.
At that point the campaign went very well. I got behind it and I did everything I could to help them win. Now Brooke had made a promise to me personally guaranteeing a job for somebody else. Now. Keep in mind this was a person I had never met. A person but this was not about any benefit to me. This was not about me getting any job or anything special? This was about a deal and when I uphold my end of the deal I expect her to uphold her into the deal. This is where it gets especially difficult. Brooke's father is in a state of diminishing capacity from my non-medical non-legal standpoint. I look at the guy and I see Terry isn't the same guy he was when I first met him more than 20 years ago. I don't think he quite understands how things work in today's world. There's times when I don't think. I really understand how things work in today's world, but Brooke was tied up at something else. So Courtney and Terry went to the afrogala to celebrate an important anniversary. It could have been the 123rd anniversary of the afro newspaper but it was a big deal. Courtney wore a black gown that Was quite impressive and eye-catching. At the gala there was a great deal of picture taken going on. You know how people are at these events. The women look great. The men are dressed up. Everybody wants to get their picture taken with everybody else. Poor old Terry found the pictures very upsetting. He was upset that Courtney was there working for Brooke who wasn't there by the way and everybody wanted to get their picture taken with Courtney and he wanted to control who she got her picture taken with. Terry thought it was great when Courtney got her picture taken with Kweisi Mfume Congressman city of Baltimore but then Glenn and Jolene Ivey were there and Terry forbade Courtney from getting her picture with the Iveys. Nobody took Terry seriously because it was hard for anybody to imagine. What would be an objectionable about getting your picture taken with somebody who was about to be the congressman from Prince George's County and his wife who was a County council member. So with encouragement, Courtney just went over to get her picture taken and at that point Terry grabbed her. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. He's an old geezer. He probably didn't realize what he was doing but he grabbed her by the breast.
It was an ugly scene and Courtney refused to ever comment on it. She's never gone public with any accusation. Terry got hustled off of the campaign trail for a while but it was a big hit for Brooke. It made her look sub-optimal in a campaign setting. But she won and Courtney was able to deliver an extremely good vote total in Prince George's County which allowed Brooke to win. Then the job offers came instead of getting senior staff or even mid-level staff. Brooke had a senior aide all for Courtney and entry-level position.
What happens between Brooke and Courtney is between them and not something that I in a position to talk about. But a promise had been made to me that Courtney would be offered a senior staff position and she wasn't. That's a lie. Brooke lied to me then. I talked to Brooke on the phone and we had a fairly contentious call where she didn't deny anything. She merely told me it was it personnel issue and she couldn't talk about it. I pointed out to her if she couldn't talk about it and it was a personnel issue. Why did she make a promise about it and that's when we agreed to disagree. I also explained to Brooke that if she was not going to apologize and not going to keep her word and not tell the truth, I would do the cruelest thing to her that I could. I promised to tell the truth about her. I'm not lying. Everything I'm saying is provable and Brooke knows it. I think she was upset when she found out that the phone call was recorded but it was legally recorded.
This isn't about emerge. This is a story about an unscrupulous woman who went through the EMERGE program and lied to me.
Thanks for the background on that. I have trouble reading your posts sometimes because you seem to assume the reader is already familiar with the people and situations you allude to. At least one of them isn’t!
That is laziness on my part. I started this as a project in Dec 2013. I have been writing virtually every day since then. When I got kicked out of Afghanistan I thought Maryland politics would be an easy segue. but sometimes I forget that Subtack readers are mising 12 years of backstory. I am not a reporter. rather I am an OSINT intelligence analyst treating Maryland politics the same way i acted with Southwest Asia for 30 years.
M.B.
Bernice Mireku‑North is one of Emerge Maryland’s early alumni — a criminal‑justice reform attorney whose work in Montgomery County helped define the organization’s mission in its formative years. A former prosecutor and founder of The North Law Group, she has been a consistent voice for public‑safety reform, community engagement, and survivor‑centered policy. Her trajectory into the House of Delegates reflects exactly what Emerge set out to build: capable, principled women stepping into public leadership long before it was fashionable.
Excuse me, but why would the Comptroller of the state of Maryland promise a constituent that she'd hire someone? I mean, I realize that political favors are asked for and given out all the time, but most people don't complain in public that they didn't get the favor. (Or, as you do it, insist, 'It's NOT about that she didn't come through on her promised favor.")
But your honesty does give me reason to be skeptical of whatever you say about Brooke Lierman, so thanks for that.
Pat, I understand how it could be a little bit difficult to understand. So let me try and give you the full picture. In 1970, my mother's older sister asked me if I'd like to work at a polling place. Somehow I got hooked and politics is my hobby and has been since that fateful election back in 1970. Some people hunt or fish or watch sports or watch TV. I play politics. So in the the lead off to the 2022 races, I was supporting Tim Adams for comptroller. Now race plays a thread through this so I hope everybody will excuse. If I explain the racial terrain. Tim was Black from Prince George's County. Brooke was white from Baltimore City. Because of the political realities of vote counts and how people vote. It's virtually impossible for somebody to win statewide without a strong showing in Prince George's County. If you can break PGC down to roughly 50/50, you have a chance to win but left to its own devices. It normally comes out 70 to 90% for its homegrown candidates.
I was having some problems with Tim's campaign and Tim was dismissive about it. So I was talking to Brooke's campaign and they were encouraging. I finally had a conversation with Brooke. I explained that I could support her if she could guarantee to me that there was a strong identifiable figure from Prince George's County who would have a seat at the table. Maybe not as comptroller but a seat that would mean they would not blocked out of the discussions. What Brooke and I came to was that she promised that she would hire Courtney Finklea Green As senior staff. As Brooke told me she could not promise chief of staff but she could promise senior staff. Green is a very nice young lady and that seemed like a suitable accommodation. I had never met her but I had spoken to her on the phone and she seemed like a good person. I was able to talk to friends and allies of mine and Prince George's County and stretched to them that if Brooke won, Prince George's County still had a seat at the table through Courtney. Now this may sound a little convoluted but politics tends to be personal and I could explain to people why they should support Brooke and it worked.
At that point the campaign went very well. I got behind it and I did everything I could to help them win. Now Brooke had made a promise to me personally guaranteeing a job for somebody else. Now. Keep in mind this was a person I had never met. A person but this was not about any benefit to me. This was not about me getting any job or anything special? This was about a deal and when I uphold my end of the deal I expect her to uphold her into the deal. This is where it gets especially difficult. Brooke's father is in a state of diminishing capacity from my non-medical non-legal standpoint. I look at the guy and I see Terry isn't the same guy he was when I first met him more than 20 years ago. I don't think he quite understands how things work in today's world. There's times when I don't think. I really understand how things work in today's world, but Brooke was tied up at something else. So Courtney and Terry went to the afrogala to celebrate an important anniversary. It could have been the 123rd anniversary of the afro newspaper but it was a big deal. Courtney wore a black gown that Was quite impressive and eye-catching. At the gala there was a great deal of picture taken going on. You know how people are at these events. The women look great. The men are dressed up. Everybody wants to get their picture taken with everybody else. Poor old Terry found the pictures very upsetting. He was upset that Courtney was there working for Brooke who wasn't there by the way and everybody wanted to get their picture taken with Courtney and he wanted to control who she got her picture taken with. Terry thought it was great when Courtney got her picture taken with Kweisi Mfume Congressman city of Baltimore but then Glenn and Jolene Ivey were there and Terry forbade Courtney from getting her picture with the Iveys. Nobody took Terry seriously because it was hard for anybody to imagine. What would be an objectionable about getting your picture taken with somebody who was about to be the congressman from Prince George's County and his wife who was a County council member. So with encouragement, Courtney just went over to get her picture taken and at that point Terry grabbed her. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. He's an old geezer. He probably didn't realize what he was doing but he grabbed her by the breast.
It was an ugly scene and Courtney refused to ever comment on it. She's never gone public with any accusation. Terry got hustled off of the campaign trail for a while but it was a big hit for Brooke. It made her look sub-optimal in a campaign setting. But she won and Courtney was able to deliver an extremely good vote total in Prince George's County which allowed Brooke to win. Then the job offers came instead of getting senior staff or even mid-level staff. Brooke had a senior aide all for Courtney and entry-level position.
What happens between Brooke and Courtney is between them and not something that I in a position to talk about. But a promise had been made to me that Courtney would be offered a senior staff position and she wasn't. That's a lie. Brooke lied to me then. I talked to Brooke on the phone and we had a fairly contentious call where she didn't deny anything. She merely told me it was it personnel issue and she couldn't talk about it. I pointed out to her if she couldn't talk about it and it was a personnel issue. Why did she make a promise about it and that's when we agreed to disagree. I also explained to Brooke that if she was not going to apologize and not going to keep her word and not tell the truth, I would do the cruelest thing to her that I could. I promised to tell the truth about her. I'm not lying. Everything I'm saying is provable and Brooke knows it. I think she was upset when she found out that the phone call was recorded but it was legally recorded.
This isn't about emerge. This is a story about an unscrupulous woman who went through the EMERGE program and lied to me.
Barry
Cell 570-447-4395
Thanks for the background on that. I have trouble reading your posts sometimes because you seem to assume the reader is already familiar with the people and situations you allude to. At least one of them isn’t!
That is laziness on my part. I started this as a project in Dec 2013. I have been writing virtually every day since then. When I got kicked out of Afghanistan I thought Maryland politics would be an easy segue. but sometimes I forget that Subtack readers are mising 12 years of backstory. I am not a reporter. rather I am an OSINT intelligence analyst treating Maryland politics the same way i acted with Southwest Asia for 30 years.
Barry
It’s a gatekeeper as it’s meant to be.
I have to wonder who you're trying to keep out.