Scott Rolle

Scott L. Rolle (born June 30, 1961 ) is a Circuit Court Judge in Frederick County, Maryland.

He is a graduate of the University of Dayton (1984), the Ohio Northern University School of Law (1986) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Law Institute (1997).

Rolle has served as an adjunct professor of Criminal Law at Mount Saint Mary's University and Frederick Community College.

He is a member of the Maryland State Bar Association, West Virginia Bar Association, and Bar Association of Frederick County, as well as the United States Federal District Court for Maryland and the United States Army Court of Criminal Appeals.

Prior to becoming State’s Attorney, Rolle was in private practice from 1991 to 1994 and again from 2007-2014.

He had earlier served as Assistant State’s Attorney (chief narcotics prosecutor) for Frederick County.

Rolle was the youngest State's Attorney elected in Maryland at the time of his victory in 1994.

He defeated a long-term incumbent and was subsequently re-elected twice for a total of three terms.

From 1995 to 2007 Rolle was the State's Attorney for Frederick County, Maryland.

He served three consecutive terms in that position.

He is also an actor who co-starred on the television series Brad Meltzer's Decoded that was aired on the History Channel with 23 episodes spanning two seasons.

He also landed a role on Lifetime Discovery Channel's "Twisted Fate", the independent films "Substance", "Money Matters" along with other film, television and stage acting credits.

Rolle retired after 21 years as a lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserves.

In 1999, Rolle established a youthful offender program to identify at-risk youth early on and provide interventions.

He established Maryland’s first animal cruelty prevention and prosecution team to assist animal control officers in investigating and prosecuting animal cruelty cases.

He also initiated a mediation project in an effort to keep minor criminal cases from clogging up the court system.

He has been recognized with many awards for his work as a prosecutor including awards for his work fighting animal cruelty, advocating victim's rights, and his efforts to combat domestic violence.

In 2006, Rolle was recruited by Governor Robert Ehrlich and Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele to run for Maryland Attorney General on the Republican ticket.

Despite winning 17 of Maryland's 23 counties, Rolle lost to Democrat Douglas Gansler in what was considered a hard-fought race.

As State’s Attorney, Rolle tried numerous high-profile criminal jury trials, obtaining convictions on all of them.

After leaving the State's Attorney's office in 2007, Rolle began his own law firm, the Law Offices of Scott L. Rolle, LLC, located in Frederick, Maryland.

The firm handled Criminal Defense cases, personal injury/auto accidents, domestic relations, business law, and wills and estates.

He served as defense counsel in many high-profile criminal matters around the state of Maryland.

In late 2009, Rolle successfully defended a Washington County man charged with first-degree murder.

After a weeklong trial, the man was acquitted of first and second degree but guilty of manslaughter.

In February 2011, Rolle successfully defended a Pennsylvania man charged with first-degree murder.

This man was also acquitted of first and third-degree murder, but convicted of manslaughter.

Instead of a sentence of life in prison without parole, the man received a 5-year sentence.

In this highly publicized trial, many long-time courtroom observers called Rolle's closing argument to the jury one of the best they have seen.

Rolle also won full acquittals on three courts-martial he handled while on active duty in the US Army, and also on five recent civilian trials including a felony drug case, first-degree assault, and domestic violence.

Rolle also won a double jeopardy case he recently argued in the MD Court of Appeals.

The case, State v. Fennell is a reported opinion.

In a close election in late 2014, he was the first lawyer to defeat a sitting judge in Frederick County by way of election in modern history.

On November 4, 2014, Rolle was elected as Circuit Court Judge, for Frederick County, Maryland.

It is the first time ever that a "sitting" judge appointed by Governor Martin O'Malley (Danny O'Connor in 2014) lost the general election.

O'Connor served for less than a year.

Rolle began his 15-year term after his investiture on December 15, 2014.

He served in the 154th Legal Support Detachment, and the 2nd Legal Operations Detachment located in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Rolle was mobilized and deployed to Afghanistan from October 2018 through April 2019 serving as the USFOR-A Chief Investigator for Gross Violations of Human Rights (Leahy Law).

Upon completion of his tour of duty, he was awarded the Joint Commendation Medal with Combat "C" device, NATO non-article 5 medal, and the Afghanistan Campaign medal with bronze service star.