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Maryland Natural Resources Police Blotter
Anne Arundel County – On Thursday, June 21, Otis Backe, Jr., 58, of Reva, Va. pled guilty to operating a tree expert business without a license and false advertising or soliciting an unlicensed tree expert business.
Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) filed the charges in April after the Maryland Forest Service received a complaint that Backe had been working in the Davidsonville area since a winter ice storm. A check of Department records showed that Backe is not a licensed tree expert and is not working under the license of another licensee.
State law prohibits a person from soliciting, advertising or representing himself or herself to the public as a tree expert, or assuming to practice as a tree expert without having received a license. He was fined $570.
Garrett County – On Saturday, June 23, at 11:50 p.m., the Maryland Natural Resources Police charged four men and arrested one woman for disorderly conduct in the campground of Big Run State Park.
An NRP officer was in the area of the campground at 8 p.m. and observed a large group of individuals consuming alcohol and playing a radio loud while setting up camp. The officer approached the group and reminded them of the 11 p.m. quiet hour policy. When NRP returned to the area at 11:15 p.m., loud music could be heard from 200 yards away from the site.
Philip Ranson Yates, 19, George Daniel Nolan, 26, Jeremy Scott Livesay, 28, and Jeffrey Lee Custer, Sr., 42, all of Frostburg were issued citations. Gloria Marie Phillips, 43, also of Frostburg was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and failure to obey a lawful order of a police officer. She was transported to the Garrett County Detention Center.
Worcester County – On Saturday, June 23, the Maryland Natural Resources Police charged Amanpreet Singh Johal, 25, of Potomac and Anil Kumar Shukla, 25, of Darnestown with reckless operation of a motor vessel after their vessel struck the Route 90 Bridge in Assawoman Bay near Ocean City.
As Johal, Shukla and Eric Liu, 25, of Silver Spring were traveling south from Assawoman Bay in a 21-foot open style vessel, the vessel struck a concrete bridge support, veered out of control and struck a second concrete bridge support before coming to rest on the south side of the bridge. The three men had rented the vessel earlier that afternoon.
Shukla was transported to shore and airlifted to Peninsula Regional Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. Johal refused medical treatment at the scene and Liu was not injured. Ocean City Paramedics, Maryland State Police and the U.S. Coast Guard assisted NRP with the incident.
June 27, 2007Maryland 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 449,000 acres of public lands and 17,000 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 12 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.