Man sentenced to jail for hosting party during covid-19 lockdown

LA PLATA, MD—Tony Covington, Maryloand’s State Attorney for Charles County, announced that on Friday, September 25, 2020, Shawn Marshall Myers, after a bench trial before District Court Judge W. Louis Hennessy, was convicted of two counts of Failure to Comply with an Emergency Order. Immediately after the trial, Judge Hennessy sentenced Myers, 42 of Hughesville, to 1 year of active incarceration to be served at the Charles County Detention Center. Upon release, Myers will be on unsupervised probation for a period of three years.

On March 22, 2020, multiple officers responded to Myers’ residence located in the 15200 block of Lukes Lane in Hughesville for the report of a large party violating Governor Larry Hogan’s State of Emergency and Large Gathering Orders. Large gatherings were strictly prohibited under the orders. Myers had approximately fifty people in attendance at his residence. Upon arrival, officers told Myers that his party violated the current mandate. Myers was argumentative with officers but eventually agreed to disband his party.

Less than a week later, on March 27, 2020, officers responded back to Myers’ residence for another report of a party exceeding fifty people. Officers told Myers to disband the party, but again he was argumentative claiming he and his guests had the right to congregate. Beyond being argumentative, Myers directed his guests to stay in defiance of Governor Hogan’s Orders and the officers’ lawful orders to disband the party. Officers tried to reason with Myers and obtain his cooperation to no avail.Myers was then apprehended.

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