Montgomery County Tree Technician Jailed, Fined for Soliciting as an Unlicensed Tree Expert Business

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SILVER SPRING — James Michael DeNoon of Potomac, Maryland, pled guilty to False Advertising or Soliciting as an Unlicensed Tree Expert Business in Montgomery County District Court this morning. The judge sentenced DeNoon to 180 days in jail with 178 days suspended, $1,000 in fines with $500 suspended, and 12 months of supervised probation. DeNoon was remanded to the custody of the court to begin serving the two-day sentence immediately.

Additional charges of Operating a Tree Expert Business Without a License were placed on the Stet docket. This involves a suspension of the prosecution and provides that the State may reopen the case without the need for the defendant to be recharged. A case may be a reopened because of the defendant’s arrest on additional charges or his/her failure to live up to an agreed upon condition within a reasonable time after the entry of the stet.

The charges were filed by the Maryland Natural Resources Police in October of 2006 related to a complaint received by the Maryland Forest Service, a division of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The complaint came from City of Rockville officials, who advised that DeNoon had attended a site construction pre-bid meeting purporting to be the applicant’s Licensed Tree Expert, and that at the meeting he distributed business cards advertising his business as licensed and insured. A check of Departmental records showed that DeNoon is not a Licensed Tree Expert and has no Licensed Tree Experts on staff.

In August of 2001, DeNoon was charged with committing the same two offenses. He failed to appear at trial but subsequently pled guilty to two charges of failure to appear and to the two natural resources violations, and was sentenced to $720 in fines and ordered to pay $240 in court costs.

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January 11, 2007

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the state agency responsible for providing natural and living resource-related services to citizens and visitors. DNR manages more than 446,000 acres of public lands and 18,000 miles of waterways, along with Maryland's forests, fisheries and wildlife for maximum environmental, economic and quality of life benefits. A national leader in land conservation, DNR-managed parks and natural, historic and cultural resources attract 11 million visitors annually. DNR is the lead agency in Maryland's effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay, the state's number one environmental priority. Learn more at www.dnr.maryland.gov