An Anne Arundel County Orphans’ Court judge has been indicted for allegedly recording a conversation with two fellow judges without their consent, according to the Maryland State Prosecutor’s office.

A county grand jury on Friday indicted Marc Knapp, an associate judge on the orphans’ court, on one count of interception of communication and one count of misconduct in office, online court documents show.

Knapp is charged with secretly recording deliberations on June 4 “without the knowledge and consent of the other parties to the conversation,” the state prosecutor’s office said in a news release. Maryland law prohibits recording conversations without all parties’ consent.

Though filings list Knapp’s colleagues as JUDGE A and JUDGE B, the county’s orphans’ court has only three judges. At the time, they were Knapp, Judge David Duba and Chief Judge Vickie Gipson. Duba has since resigned.

Peter O’Neill, Knapp’s attorney, said the allegations made against Knapp are not true.

“Judge Knapp maintains his innocence. We look forward to an opportunity to address these charges in court,” he said Saturday.

This year, Gipson accused Knapp of violent outbursts and aggressive conduct toward her and staffers and of stalking her, prompting a district court judge to issue a peace order. In the complaint, which was filed two weeks before the alleged recording incident happened, Gipson also alleged that Knapp had yelled and cursed at Duba and her.

Knapp told The Banner that the crux of the issue was that Gipson did not have authority over him.

The peace order and a subsequent one were tossed out due to a delay in bringing the case to trial and a lack of evidence, respectively, the Capital Gazette reported.

According to the newspaper, Knapp denied recording Gipson and Duba. He said he told them he was recording himself and advised them not to speak if they didn’t want to be captured on audio. Police then charged him with harassing Gipson by recording her and tampering with evidence by deleting the audio, the Capital Gazette reported.

O’Neill said the state prosecutor’s office declined to prosecute those criminal charges before bringing the new ones, which he called “unfortunate.”

“Judge Knapp felt he was being placed in a position where he did not feel comfortable with the circumstances surrounding the deliberations,” O’Neill said. Knapp, he added, had asked not to have deliberations in chambers and acted “as a means of self-protection” amid rising hostilities on the court.

Orphans’ Court judges are responsible for supervising estate management, such as approving administration accounts and ensuring the proper distribution of assets to beneficiaries. They are elected and serve four-year terms. Knapp was elected in November 2022 and started his term in December of that year.

Banner editor Norman Gomlak contributed to this report.