Police briefs

Friday, May 16, 2008

Two men forced a clerk into an office Wednesday night at the Movie Gallery store in the Leonardtown Centre shopping area, authorities report, and the pair left with an undisclosed amount of money.

No injuries were reported from the 10 p.m. robbery, and detectives with the St. Mary’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations requested that anyone with information about the case call them at 240-298-1928 or the county Crime Solvers program at 301-475-3333.

Iron starts apartment bathroom fire

A hot iron left unattended on a bathroom vanity led to an accidental fire Wednesday afternoon at an apartment in Lexington Park, authorities report, resulting in $50,000 damage and displacing its tenant. Twenty-two Bay District, Patuxent River and 2nd District firefighters responding to a 1:37 p.m. alarm quickly doused the blaze at Joan T. Courtney’s first-floor home at Hilton Drive, according to a release from the investigation by deputy state fire marshal Don Brenneman.

A smoke alarm was activated by the fire, the release states, and a neighbor discovered the blaze.

Man held on arson threat charge

A judge ordered Wednesday that Jeffrey Allen Wathen, 24, of Mechanicsville remain jailed in lieu of $25,000 bond on charges of making a threat of arson last week at a Callaway area residence and violating a protective order.

Ashley Michelle Evans told police that Wathen was intoxicated when he arrived at her home on May 6 to visit their two children, and that he said, ‘‘I’m going to come back tonight and burn your house down,” St. Mary’s sheriff’s deputy James Stone wrote in a charges application.

Wathen was instructed earlier this year in a protective order to not threaten or harass the woman, court papers state.

Man chargedwith sex offenses

Richard Allen Richardson, 22, of Great Mills was jailed Wednesday in lieu of $10,000 bond on an indictment alleging he committed a third-degree sexual offense with a 7-year-old boy in September 2006 in Great Mills.

Grand jurors also charged Richardson with attempting to commit a second-degree sexual offense during the incident investigated by state police Trooper F.V. Dolinger of the Bureau of Criminal Investigations.

Police report arrestsin school fight

Maryland State Police reported this week that two 15-year-old boys attending the county’s White Oak School on Great Mills Road have been charged with second-degree assault from an alleged May 8 altercation at the school.

Both boys were released to their parents to await further action by juvenile services authorities, according to release from the investigation by state police Trooper M.W. Laney.

Reward offered in probe of robbery

Law officers in St. Mary’s are seeking the public’s help through the county Crime Solvers program in their probe of a May 9 robbery at Capt. Sam’s store in Bushwood, where the culprit left in a dark pickup truck traveling south on Colton’s Point Road.

Citizens with information about this case and other crimes in St. Mary’s County can call detectives at 240-298-1928, or collect a cash reward by calling Crime Solvers 24 hours a day at 301-475-3333. They can withhold their name and later collect their reward through a number-identification system.

St. Mary’s County Crime Solvers is a nonprofit organization that assists law enforcement in solving open investigations that may not have been closed without the extra incentive of anonymity and an offer of a reward of up to $2,000, providing the information leads to an arrest or indictment.

The Crime Solvers board of directors meets for about one hour on the second Thursday of every other month at 7:30 p.m., in the conference room of the sheriff’s office at 23150 Leonard Hall Drive in Leonardtown.

To be considered for membership on the board, attend a meeting or call the sheriff’s office at 301-475-8008.

JOHN WHARTON