His Big Game Harvest Record did not show any deer kills for the 2015-16 season. The only legal deer hunting on Dec. 26 was for antlered deer taken with a muzzleloader. “He provided a written statement, and the officer seized the rifle and the deer meat, which was donated to charity,” said the NRP press release.
Hillbilly Poacher Pirates Nabbed by Cops
Seven deer poachers were caught recently by Maryland Natural Resources Police officers in cases ranging from the Eastern Shore to Western Maryland.
Mervyn the highway menace among those charged with poaching
CENTREVILLE, MD. — Natural Resources Police report that four men will be in Queen Anne’s District Court on Jan. 27, 2016, to face 30 charges of illegal hunting as the result of an extensive investigation by three NRP officers, county deputy sheriffs, and Maryland State Police.
Officers responding to a call on Dec. 13, 2015, about the sound of gunfire near Merrick Corner Road found two men in a field and a deer carcass along the road.
After talking to residents and tipsters, NRP Officer R. Karge charged Michael Tyler Brown, 18, of 2405 Ruthsburg Road, Centreville, Md.; Chad Alexander Doney, 21, of 10470 Worton Road, Worton, Md.; Heath Chaney Dorrell, 20, of Centreville, and Mervyn Jay Downes III, 21, of Ridgely with: hunting during a closed season; hunting at night; hunting from a vehicle; having a loaded weapon in a vehicle; hunting on private land without written permission; and hunting with spotlights.
Brown also was charged with shooting on or across a road. Doney and Downes also were each charged with two counts of trespassing.
If found guilty, each man could face up to a year in jail and fines more than $9,000.
Doney was charged with DUI by Ocean City Police Officer Kenneth Reed on May 17, 2015, in Worcester County District Court. He was also charged with driving in violation of license restrictions in regards to alcohol. In a plea deal with the Worcester County States Attorney on July 13, 2015, Doney was allowed Probation without Judgement, given no jail time and fined $500. The new arrests for poaching will cause him to be charged with violation of his probation and could send him to jail. For the DUI charge, Doney represented that he could not afford an attorney and was allowed to have a taxpayer-provided free attorney from the public defender’s office.
On May 16, 2015, Doney was charged with reckless driving and spinning his wheels by Maryland State Trooper N. Hager while operating his 1989 GMC on Baltimore Ave. at 5th street in his road trip to Ocean City, Md. Court records reflect these charges are still an active case.
Proving that he is as big a hazard to the public on highways as he is in field and forest, Doney was charged with negligent driving, speeding, negligent driving and participating in an illegal drag race on a public highway on May 9, 2015 at 10:36 pm by Queen Anne’s Sheriff’s Deputy E. Johnston as he careened down Spaniard Neck Road at Burrisville Road in a 2015 Ford. In an amazing case of malfeasance on the part of the Queen Anne’s County States Attorney Lance Richardson, Doney was let off all of the charges with no jail time and only a fine of $117.50, when he entered a guilty plea. An illegal drag race on a public road often can lead to death for an innocent person, if not the drag race participants. The deal made by Richardson to gain a guilty plea was made after the DUI arrest in Ocean City and the reckless driving tickets. That information was available to Richardson via computer when he cut the sweet and easy deal for Doney on July 31, 2015. Prosecutors in Maryland are allowed by law to cut any deal they want without answering to the public. States Attorneys run for election and accept campaign donations from lawyers with business before the courts and who arrange plea deals for their clients. Members of the general public also are free to donate to the election campaigns of prosecutors or to their favorite charities in return for light treatment in court.
Mervyn Jay Downes III, of 11829 Eveland Road in Ridgely, Md., will appear in District Court in Queen Anne’s County on Jan. 27, 2016.
In another Dukes of Hazzard adventure in Ocean City, Downes was charged on June 5, 2015 at 5:08 am by Ocean City Police Officer Aaron Morgan with several traffic charges of reckless driving, spinning wheels, loud exhaust and doing double the speed limit on 8th Street – sixty miles an hour in a thirty-mile speed zone. In Worcester County District Court in a plea deal with the Worcester County States Attorney, Downes entered a guilty plea to the speeding charged with all the others dropped; he received a fine of $174.50 and no jail time.
On May 16, 2015, Downes was charged by Maryland State Trooper J. Corron with negligent driving, speeding, spinning wheels and operating in a careless and imprudent manner endangering property life and person. Downes was driving a 2011 Chevy on Baltimore Ave. at 2nd Street in Ocean City, Md., at 9:55 pm – at a time of evening when the sidewalks are busy with people and traffic can be heavy. Losing control of a dangerous vehicle could have a serious impact. Worcester County States Attorney Beau Oglesby, on June 18, 2015, accepted a plea deal with Downes for a fine of $140 and no time in jail.
Downes, the III, was charged in Caroline County District Court with malicious property destruction and dumping litter by Denton Police Cpl. Cynthia Komenda. The charges were dropped by the Caroline County States Attorney on Nov. 20, 2014, with no time and no fine.
Proving that poaching on the Eastern Shore may be generational, Natural Resources Police officers charged Mervyn Jay Downes Jr., perhaps the father of Mervyn Jay Downes III, with three violations including a weapons charge on May 21, 2015. Queen Anne’s County States Attorney Lance Richardson put the charges on the Stet Docket in a plea deal on July 22, 2015, with no fine and no time. Mervyn Jay Downes Jr., 43, also of Ridgely, was charged with spotlighting by Natural Resources Police Officer Charles W. Creason II, on Dec. 23, 1993. In Caroline County District Court on May 5, 1994, Downes entered a plea of not guilty and was found guilty, fined $100 and given ninety days in jail, all of which was suspended.
The couple that jacklights together, lives together and goes to court together might get a spot on Jerry Springer
LOCH RAVEN, MD. — In Baltimore County, officers arrested two poachers early Sunday morning, Dec. 27, 2015, on ten natural resources violations.
Shortly after five a.m., Baltimore County officers responding to a call about gunfire stopped a vehicle on Cromwell Bridge Road near Loch Raven High School. A Natural Resources Police officer arrived and determined the two were hunting.
Hugo Cervantes Salazar, 24, and Denise Jasmine Garza 21, both of Dundalk, each was charged with: casting rays with an implement (spotlighting); hunting on Sunday; hunting at night; having a loaded weapon in the vehicle; and hunting without a license.
The officers seized a .22-caliber rifle, ammunition, and a spotlight.
A date has not been set in Harford District Court. No charges have been placed against either Salazar or Garza at the Maryland Court Records listings as of Dec. 30, 2015. However, Garza, who apparently doesn’t both with obtaining tags or a driver’s permit, was blanketed with a half dozen traffic tickets to match the ones she was given in 2013 for the same reasons – no permit or plate illumination.
Spear chucked the dead deer; flatfoot tracked him down
FRIENDSVILLE, MD. — Natural Resources Police report that in Garrett County, Jeffrey Eugene Spear, 35, of Friendsville, received two citations Sunday for hunting out of season after an officer traced two antlerless deer carcasses to him.
While on patrol at about 11 a.m., the officer noticed fresh tire tracks leading off a paved road in Friendsville. The officer followed the tracks and found the first freshly butchered carcass on the dirt road.
Further up the dirt road, the officer found a second antlerless carcass and a burlap sack containing a small “button” buck, which had recently been butchered.
The officer noticed tire tracks with a distinctive tread mark and followed them.
After checking several homes and speaking with residents, the officer noticed a pickup truck behind a garage on New Gravel Hill Road that had tires that matched the trail.
Spear acknowledged that he had killed an antlerless deer and the button buck on his property the previous day. However, he denied killing the third deer. He told the officer that he killed the two deer with his Browning Medallion .243 Winchester caliber bolt-action rifle.
His Big Game Harvest Record did not show any deer kills for the 2015-16 season. The only legal deer hunting on Dec. 26 was for antlered deer taken with a muzzleloader.
“He provided a written statement, and the officer seized the rifle and the deer meat, which was donated to charity,” said the NRP press release.
It is unknown what purpose the charity has for the rifle but could auction it to raise money.
If found guilty of both counts, Spear could be fined as much as $3,000. A date has not been set in Garrett District Court.
- His Big Game Harvest Record did not show any deer kills for the 2015-16 season. The only legal deer hunting on Dec. 26 was for antlered deer taken with a muzzleloader. “He provided a written statement, and the officer seized the rifle and the deer meat, which was donated to charity,” said the NRP press release.
