Drunk Driver Hits Intoxicated Pedestrian

Daniel Allen Marshman

On May 25, 2013, at approximately 7:30 p.m. Ocean City Police responded to a pedestrian collision on Baltimore Avenue north of 19^th Street. The pedestrian, identified as Gina Marie Corio, 26, of Staten Island, NY was intoxicated, did not use a marked crosswalk and failed to yield to a vehicle when she was struck by an SUV driven by Daniel Allen Marshman, 46, of Gordonville, PA.

During the on-scene investigation, witnesses related to officers that Marshman, had been driving the vehicle at the time of the collision, Officers also suspected that Marshman was under the influence of alcohol. Officers, who suspected that Marshman was under the influence of alcohol, administered a field sobriety test, which he was not able to successfully complete. Marshman was charged with Driving under the influence of alcohol and agreed to a chemical test.  The results of the test indicated a .15 Breath Alcohol Concentration (BrAC).  Corio, who was also under the influence of alcohol, was cited for illegally being in the roadway.

Ocean City Police are committed to enforcing drunk driving and pedestrian safety. Police urge citizens to utilize the many safe modes of transportation available in the town of Ocean City.   Citizens are also reminded to always use marked crosswalks and “Walk Smart”.

Submitted:
Ocean City Police Department

Pocomoke City Police Department Sobriety Checkpoint

POCOMOKE CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT PRESS RELEASE

 

ST. PATRICKS DAY

SOBRIETY CHECKPOINT

Date:                        March 18, 2013

Authorized by:        Chief Kelvin Sewell

Command:               Lt. Lynell Green

Checkpoint Mgr.     Officer Damien McGlotten

 

As a result of the increasing incidents of drinking and driving, the Pocomoke City Police Department applied for, and was granted Temporary Traffic Control Application to conduct a Sobriety Checkpoint.  The "Sobriety Checkpoint" is the most effective method of deleting and apprehending impaired operators.

 

A review of records has shown that the use of alcohol by individuals who operate motor vehicles has resulted in an alarming number of deaths and personal injury accidents.  Most recently a pedestrian was killed by a drunk driver in the area.  Therefore, in an effort to maintain safe roads in Pocomoke City, the Pocomoke City Police conducted a Sobriety Checkpoint S/B Route 13 South of Old

Virginia Road on March 16, 2013

 

The Pocomoke City Police Officers brought a total of 213 motor vehicles into the sobriety checkpoint with the following results:

 

1 arrest for Driving While Intoxicated
1 arrest for Driving on a Suspended License

 

 

 

 

 

POCOMOKE CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT
1500 MARKET STREET
POCOMOKE CITY, MARYLAND
410-957-1600
PCPD@VERIZON.NET 
  
 

Mason Pleads Guilty To Negligent Homicide

Written by: Jennifer Shutt

Staff Writer

SNOW HILL -- Sobs could be heard from all sides of the courtroom, including the defense table, as Hunter Lee Stonnell's parents talked about how their lives have changed since the death of their son.

The parents spoke after Jesse James Mason, the man charged in the death of 21-year-old Stonnell, pleaded guilty to homicide by motor vehicle while impaired.

Mason, 23, was charged last September after Stonnell was killed trying to prevent Mason from driving drunk. Witnesses told police Stonnell had grabbed the side of Mason's white Ford pickup truck, attempting to prevent him from driving, when he was thrown from the vehicle.

Mason later told police he heard Stonnell's head hit the pavement and knew he was injured, but drove home anyway from the parking lot on Market Street in Pocomoke City.

"Nobody who knew him called 911 ... a stranger called 911," said Malcolm Stonnell, the victim's father.

Court records and witness statements indicate Mason's wife and his father were in the parking lot when Stonnell was injured.

"How do you drive past someone who is dying?" asked mother Belinda Ann Stonnell, looking directly at Mason.

Before he spoke, Malcolm Stonnell placed a framed 8-by-10-inch photograph of his son on the defense table, facing Mason.

"Since the death of my son I have cried every day," he said.
Malcolm Stonnell also criticized a former state's attorney in his remarks but did not mention him by name.

In a brief interview, Joel Todd, who was the Worcester County state's attorney when the death occurred, said Mason's defense attorney, Cathi Coates, is the sister-in-law of Bryan Randall Coates, who was a treasurer for Todd in several campaigns.

Mason's prosecution in Circuit Court was handled by current State's Attorney Beau Oglesby, who defeated Todd in last fall's elections.
Malcolm and Belinda Stonnell described their son as a caring young man who liked to help others. He graduated from Crisfield High School in 2007 and was working as a heavy equipment operator with the Vulcan Materials Co. in Pocomoke City.

"I want the courts to show you as much compassion as you and your family showed to my son on Sept. 10," Belinda Stonnell said to Mason.

As part of the plea agreement, Mason could serve a maximum of three years in prison, with a request by the state's attorney's office for him to serve 18 months of active incarceration.

Mason has two previous alcohol-related charges in Worcester County on his court record, including one in February 2006 for possession of an intoxicating beverage under the age of 21 and one in September 2006 for possession of an alcoholic beverage under the age of 21. In both cases he pleaded guilty and paid court imposed fines.

Coates requested time for a presentencing investigation, which was granted. Mason will likely be sentenced in about 60 days.

Source; delmarvanow.com http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201104070432/NEWS01/104070359

If You Drink- Don't Drive

Maryland State Troopers from the Berlin Barracks and officers from other local police departments will be conducting saturation patrols throughout Worcester County.

Maryland State Police – Berlin, Maryland Launches DUI Enforcement to Target Impaired Driving Super Bowl Sunday – 2011

Police Vow to Arrest Everyone Found Driving ‘Over the Limit’

Berlin, Worcester County Maryland – The problem of impaired-driving is a serious one. While America witnessed a decline in the number of impaired-driving fatalities from 2007-2008, the numbers are still too high. That’s why the Maryland State Police and their partners in Law Enforcement in Worcester County Maryland announced it will join other law enforcement agencies throughout the country in support of an intensive crackdown on impaired driving on February 6, 2011 (SUPERBOWL SUNDAY), known by its tagline,

Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest.

Sentence Is Given To Drunk Driver For Cyclist's Death Near OC

SNOW HILL -- A Worcester County District Court judge sentenced a Berlin man to two and a half years in jail for running down two bicyclists while driving drunk, leaving one of them for dead, then fleeing the scene.

Judge Gerald V. Purnell sentenced Daniel Matthew Bren to 12 months for leaving the scene of an accident, the maximum sentence available, followed by 18 months for negligent manslaughter by automobile.

In Snow Hill District Court early Thursday, Bren wore a suit and a heavy expression. His wrists and ankles were shackled. He had been incarcerated since being found guilty in an April 16 plea agreement.

Bren, 35, called it "one of the deepest, darkest moments of my life."

"There's not a day that goes by that this tragedy is forgotten," he said quietly in the hushed courtroom. "I struggle daily with my own demons. I apologize for my poor choice in judgment. I stand before you today a grateful, recovering alcoholic. I promise to continue working as hard as I can every day. All the good I do this day forward will be in honor of your loved one's family."

According to Maryland State Police, bicyclists Maxim Matuzov, 20, and Edward Joseph Zisk, 41, were heading west on the Harry W. Kelley Memorial Bridge at about 2:30 a.m. on June 26, 2009. They were struck from behind by Bren's 2006 Chevrolet Silverado.

Police said Bren fled the scene by taking West Ocean City back roads before returning to westbound Route 50. Prosecutors said a taxi driver saw what happened, called police, and followed Bren's pickup truck.

When State Police pulled him over, they found him glassy-eyed and disoriented behind the wheel. He had an open container of beer in the truck. Later, Bren was found to have a blood-alcohol content of .25.

Matuzov, who police said was a Russian student spending the summer in Ocean City, was hospitalized and recovered. Zisk died at the scene as a result of his injuries.

Kathleen Zisk, the victim's younger sister, gave a victim impact statement before the judge announced his sentence. She called Bren a "coward" for leaving the scene.

"You made one of the worst choices that night," she said, visibly shaking from head to toe. "Why didn't you take a cab? You didn't even stop. You left my brother Eddie like roadkill. Did you see my brother's face when you hit him?"

Judge Purnell sentenced Bren to 10 years for manslaughter and suspended all but 18 months. Bren's sentence also will be credited with 168 days for time already served while awaiting his sentencing hearing.

When he leaves jail, Bren will serve three years' probation, during which he must wear an electronic device that detects, through sweat, if a person has consumed alcohol.

Purnell ordered Bren to serve 250 hours of alcohol-related community service, including speaking appearances at Worcester County's three high schools. He also must pay $2,486 in restitution for funeral costs.

www.delmarvanow.com

Employment Authorization Document No Longer Accepted by DMV in Virginia

RICHMOND, Va. — A federal document that immigrants use to prove they are legal U.S. residents is not longer good enough to get a Virginia driver's license.

Gov. Bob McDonnell ordered the Department of Motor Vehicles to no longer consider Employment Authorization Documents evidence that a person is in the country legally. About 20 other federal documents will still be accepted.

The governor acted after a 23-year-old Bolivian national with drunken driving convictions in 2007 and 2008 was involved in a crash that killed a nun and injured two others in her order in Prince William County. Police say Carlos Martinelly Montano was drunk at the time.

Montano had used the form to get a Virginia license even though he faced deportation proceedings, authorities say.

WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., reported Tuesday that a grand jury indicted Montano on a murder charge that could land him in prison for 40 years if he's convicted.

Prince William police chief Charlie Deane last week asked federal authorities to stop issuing employment authorization cards, known as I-766 documents, to immigrants who face deportation. The cards are issued by the Citizenship and Immigration Service arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

An advocate for immigrants said the governor's response was political pandering that ignores what she said was the problem of scant punishment for repeat drunken drivers.

"The governor should be asking why he (Montano) was released from jail after serving just 20 days instead of the full 364," Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, a Richmond-based lobbyist on behalf of immigrants' rights. Montano had been sentenced to a serve a year on his second DUI conviction.

"The real situation here is we're not enforcing our drunk driving laws," she said.

Montano got his I-766 card, in January 2009 as federal deportation actions were pending. He presented the card to the DMV to establish legal presence in the U.S. But he did not have a Virginia license on Aug. 1 when his car slammed head-on into a car carrying three Benedictine nuns on their way to a retreat.

Sister Denise Mosier was killed in the crash. Sisters Connie Ruth Lupton and Charlotte Lange were critically injured.

"We must ensure that documents accepted as proof of legal presence are reliable," McDonnell, a Republican and a Roman Catholic, said in a news release. "Virginia law is clear in the requirement that an individual be lawfully in the United States to be eligible for an identification card or to have the privilege to drive."

Gastanaga said the federally issued cards are not given to illegal immigrants, and that they are merely records information about the bearer's physical appearance such as height, weight, hair and eye color information.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in August advised police across Virginia that they have the authority to ask about the immigration status of anyone they've stopped or arrested. His advisory opinion, which lacks the legal force of a court ruling, would give Virginia officers many of the same powers police in Arizona have under a new law there intended to crack down on illegal immigration.

The American Civil Liberties Union urged police to ignore Cuccinelli's guidance, saying lacks any legal foundation and conjures constitutional conflicts.

www.usatoday.net

Bride-to-be Arrested For DUI On Wedding Day

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- A 31-year-old bride-to-be heading home from her bachelorette party was arrested for drunken driving hours before she was to get married.

Washington State Patrol Trooper Christina Martin says the woman was driving over 90 mph Saturday morning and weaving in and out of traffic on Interstate 405 in Bellevue when she was stopped.

Martin says a trooper arrested the woman, processed her and let her take a cab home in time to make it to her early afternoon wedding in Burien. says the bride's alcohol level was nearly twice the legal state limit. The woman will face charges in King County District Court".

www.timesdispatch.com

Prosecutors Not Allowed To Revive Dismissed Drunk Driving Charges

SMITHFIELD, N.C. (AP) - A North Carolina judge says prosecutors cannot revive charges against more than 30 people whose drunken driving charges were dismissed several years ago as part of a ticket-fixing case.

Multiple media outlets reported that Judge Joseph Setzer denied the request on procedural grounds.

Johnston County District Attorney Susan Doyle had argued that the cases were improperly dismissed with the signature of an assistant prosecutor who had resigned. Setzer said the cases couldn't be reactivated under a "motion for appropriate relief" because that's only supposed to be used after a verdict has been issue.

Four defense attorneys and a prosecutor pleaded guilty this year as part of the ticket-fixing case.

www.wavy.com

Motorist Pleads Guilty To Manslaughter

A man from Friendship (MD) admitted guilt Monday in the drunken-driving death of an elderly motorist, a man who was on his way to the home of a disabled friend whom he drove to work almost every day for more than 15 years.

Sean Kevin Fitzgibbon, 28, pleaded guilty to automobile manslaughter in the death of Robert Francis Burdette, 74, of Clinton, before Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge William C. Mulford II. Assistant State's Attorney Brian Marsh said prosecutors intend to seek a jail term followed by five years of supervised probation when Fitzgibbon is sentenced in September.

Outside the courtroom, John Hutchinson said no sentence can soften the loss of the uncle he affectionately called "Dad," who helped raise him since birth and with whom he and his single mother lived.

"He spent most of his day taking care of others," said Hutchinson, a resident of Mechanicsville. On the morning of the crash, Burdette was driving from Clinton to Dunkirk to help a disabled man he knew from church get out of bed and ready for work, Hutchinson said. Burdette generally drove the man to work at the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, returned to Clinton at 6:30 a.m., did custodial work at the Clinton United Methodist Church, then drove back to Washington around 2 p.m. to bring his friend home to Dunkirk.

Hutchinson said that since retiring from work as a cashier supervisor at an A&P grocery store, Burdette also helped several neighbors with shopping and medical appointments. After Burdette's death, others have told him of Burdette's kindness toward them, Hutchinson said.

Mulford is expected to hear about the victim at sentencing.

State sentencing guidelines recommend up to two years in jail. A typical sentence for a first-time offender in the county is no more than 18 months. Hutchinson said he hoped state legislators would increase penalties for automobile manslaughter.

About 2:30 a.m. last Oct. 7, Fitzgibbon's Chevrolet Malibu, estimated by witnesses to be going 80 mph in a 55-mph zone, rear-ended Burdette's pickup truck on rain-slickened southbound Route 4 near Plummer Lane in Lothian, launching the pickup into a tree. Burdette died Nov. 1 after 25 days in intensive care in Prince George's Hospital Center, said Carol Hutchinson, the wife of Burdette's nephew.

Fitzgibbon's blood-alcohol level was 0.21 percent at the time of the crash, more than twice the level required for a drunken-driving conviction. Defense lawyer Kevin Joyce said Fitzgibbon was waiting to be called for Navy boot camp, but the crash likely ended his enlistment. Fitzgibbon, who has been on house arrest since he was charged in March, acknowledged having an alcohol problem and completed an outpatient treatment program, Joyce said.

The Burdette family's civil suit against Fitzgibbon is pending.

www.baltimoresun.com