Trio charged in destruction at park playground

Stolen excavator used to cause $63,000 in damages

Friday, April 3, 2009

A court commissioner ordered early Thursday morning that 23-year-old Matthew Scott Wentz of Hollywood be jailed in lieu of 10 percent of $50,000 bond on charges of theft, fourth-degree burglary and property destruction. Christopher Bryan Clausen, 24, of Lexington Park was charged with the same offenses and released Thursday morning on personal recognizance.

St. Mary's detectives report that a 17-year-old Lexington Park boy was detained in a state juvenile facility after he also was charged this week through the investigation of the March 18 incident at Elms Beach Park, located along the Chesapeake Bay north of Dameron.

Shortly after dawn that day, Alva Watson Jr. discovered that an excavator had been stolen at nearby Bay Forest Road, court papers state, and he followed its muddy tracks about 150 yards to the park's entrance.

"He observed portable restrooms [had been] destroyed," court papers state, and "the metal gate at the entrance, which appeared to have been torn from the ground."

Watson called authorities, and he and sheriff's deputies walked toward the beach to discover the damages to several pieces of playground equipment and buildings, detective Michael Grimes wrote in court documents. The excavator also was found in the park area.

Investigators also found three separate sets of shoe tracks in the muddy area, court papers state, and a neighborhood check found muddy shoe prints outside the teenage suspect's home. A tip called in four days later to the county Crime Solvers program identified the teenager and Wentz as suspects in the case.

Clausen also was identified by a witness as a participant in the destruction, charging papers allege, before detectives questioned all three suspects on Wednesday and seized a pair of shoes during a raid at the home of Wentz's parents.

Commissioner Daniel H. Raley (D) said Thursday of the vandalism that it was "absolutely terrible to go and destroy a playground."

He said of the suspects, "I hope they're prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

In addition to the destruction at the park, Wentz and Clausen are charged with stealing the Kubota excavator from Watson's yard, and damaging a large water truck on his property. Watson's loss was estimated in court papers at $55,000.

jwharton@somdnews.com

Staff writer Jason Babcock contributed to this report.