When Maryland Natural Resources officials fired Gunpowder Falls State Park Assistant Manager Dean Hughes in November 2022, they accused him of multiple misdeeds.

They said Hughes, the top deputy to longtime Gunpowder Manager Michael Browning, took key evidence from his boss’ truck shortly after Browning was arrested on charges of raping a park employee, according to a state investigation cited in court records.

They also said park employees had accused Hughes of bullying and “making inappropriate sexual comments toward subordinate employees,” the records said.

But none of the three DNR officials who informed Hughes of his termination had the legal authority to fire him, due to a quirk of state employment law.

And that, Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Thomas R. Tompsett Jr. wrote in an opinion issued late last week, was grounds to overturn Hughes’ termination.

“The Court concludes that the Department failed to comply with the statutory and regulatory requirements governing appointing authority and delegation,” Tompsett wrote.

Through his attorney, Hughes cheered the ruling and said he planned to return to work in the park service. He had been the assistant manager of Gunpowder, Maryland’s largest state park, since 2015.

“He is gratified that the court has ordered his reinstatement and looks forward to resuming his career in the park service,” his attorney, Timothy Maloney, wrote in an email.

Hughes denies all allegations of wrongdoing, Maloney said. Hughes contends he had been authorized to “clean up” Browning’s vehicle, the attorney said.

“In the rush to find scapegoats, DNR suspended due process and decapitated the top leadership of the park service,” Maloney wrote, adding that Hughes “was denied the basic procedural safeguards that most state employees are entitled to.”

DNR Secretary Josh Kurtz wrote in a statement that Hughes’ firing was “appropriate and lawful.”

“The court did not overturn any of the fact findings of the Administrative Law Judge regarding the behavior of Mr. Hughes, which were appropriate grounds for his termination,” wrote Kurtz, who was appointed to lead the department months after Hughes’ termination.

Kurtz pushed back against Hughes’ assumption that he could return to the department, noting the judge “did not make any rulings about Hughes’ potential reinstatement or other relief.”

“DNR is consulting with the Office of the Attorney General about the next steps in this ongoing litigation,” Kurtz wrote. “The well-being of DNR staff is our paramount concern and all decisions in this matter will be made toward supporting staff and visitors to public lands.”

Tompsett’s ruling came in response to Hughes’ second appeal of his termination. An administrative law judge had ruled against Hughes in 2024.

Hughes was fired shortly after the publication of a Banner investigation that revealed workers had filed complaints about alleged harassment, bullying and impropriety at Gunpowder Falls but the top leaders of the agency appeared to ignore their concerns.

Former employees said Hughes harassed a female worker with whom he’d had a romantic relationship, including cornering her in her truck and storming into her house on park property. He and Browning retaliated against the worker and managers who backed her, former employees alleged.

Former Gunpowder workers also said employees had raised concerns about Hughes romantically pursuing young female seasonal workers, a potential violation of state policy. One woman wrote in an email to state park leaders that Browning had told her, as soon as he learned about Hughes having a romantic liaison, “he’s moved onto the next one.”

In addition to Hughes, the long-serving superintendent of the park service and the regional manager who oversaw Browning were also terminated in fall 2022.

Browning was arrested in September 2022 on charges he had raped a younger female employee with whom he had been having a consensual sexual relationship. Weeks later, he was charged with raping a second worker with whom he was also having a consensual sexual relationship.

Court records in Hughes’ appeal allege that, despite being told to “avoid the Park Managers’s residence while state law-enforcement equipment was inventoried and retrieved,” Hughes went to Browning’s home, removed Browning’s “state-issued cell phone” and a “bag of items” from his truck and kept them.

The following spring, a Baltimore County jury found Browning not guilty of rape but convicted him of a single misdemeanor sexual offense.

Browning’s trial exposed a striking lack of oversight in the park service. In addition to repeatedly having sex with two employees on park property during work hours, Browning, 75, had assigned park housing as a means of reward and control, according to testimony.

Because Browning — unlike the employees who were fired — was considered a law enforcement officer, DNR officials were unable to fire him. He retired months after his arrest and began collecting a $94,500 annual pension.

Shortly after Gov. Wes Moore took office in 2023, he appointed Kurtz, the former Maryland executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, to lead DNR.

Kurtz chose Angela Crenshaw, a highly respected ranger, to lead the park service, and the two have since worked to reform the culture of the park service.

Baltimore Banner reporter Dylan Segelbaum contributed to this article.