Valley Lee man faces charges for steroids, cocaine

Indictment followed firing and search of office at defense firm

Friday, May 23, 2008

Charles Edward Wise Jr., 35, was released on $50,000 bond last week after his arrest on the indictment alleging that last fall he possessed testosterone propionate, nandrolone, testosterone enanthate and oxandrolone with the intent to distribute the drugs.

St. Mary’s grand jurors also charged Wise with the possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute.

Wise was fired in November, a police report states, from his job at Integrated Systems Solutions Inc. in California, on the day another employee reported previously seeing Wise inject steroids into his buttocks.

White film on Wise’s desk and on the floor under his desk tested positive for cocaine, the police report states, and a search of a box on a shelf in the office found five bags of cocaine, totaling about 2 ounces, and 12 vials of suspected steroids.

‘‘They were syringes with steroids in them,” division commander Lt. Daniel Alioto said last week. ‘‘It’s not new in St. Mary’s County.”

The history of crime and steroid use in St. Mary’s dates back more than 20 years. In 1986, a Prince George’s judge ruled that a prize-winning bodybuilder stationed at Patuxent River Naval Air Station could not be held criminally responsible on charges of breaking into six St. Mary’s homes and setting three of them on fire. The judge concurred with the defendant’s lawyers that he was suffering from a mental disorder caused by the toxic levels of anabolic steroids he had taken to win bodybuilding contests.

Last week, Alioto discounted the supposed benefits of the drugs to athletes. ‘‘It’s something that’s been in the media recently,” he said.

In another case involving chemically processed controlled substances, 64-year-old Shirley Ann Morris of Avenue was served through a summons with an indictment charging her with possessing methadone, hydrocodone and oxycodone last fall with the intent to distribute the drugs. Grand jurors also charged Morris with possessing the drug alprazolam.

The indictment followed Morris’ arrest and release on personal recognizance last November on charging papers stating a police raid at her residence found pill bottles and a ‘‘tally sheet” listing people’s names, the drugs they bought and amounts of money.

‘‘She had numerous different pills that she had been distributing from her home,” Alioto alleged.

The lieutenant said arrests through the three-day roundup, some from investigations initiated as far back as last year, reached high into the ranks of local drug distribution.

‘‘These aren’t nickel-and-dime guys,” Alioto said. ‘‘These guys are major players ... that a lot of people rely on for drugs.”

Patrick Wayne Fenwick Jr., 23, of Great Mills was jailed without bond on an indictment charging him with the possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute last January and possessing a firearm related to drug trafficking.

Andre M. Obrien, 23, of Avenue was jailed in lieu of $25,000 bond on a charge of distributing crack cocaine on May 9 to a plainclothes police officer in Lexington Park, and George M. Sewell, 39, of Lexington Park was jailed in lieu of $15,000 bond on a charge of conspiring with Obrien to commit the offense. Charging papers allege that Sewell led the plainclothes officer down a street to Obrien, who carried out the $20 transaction.

Jackie Pixley Jr., 19, of Mechanicsville and Tina Renee Hancock, 39, of Leonardtown were released on $5,000 bond each after their arrest on indictments alleging they conspired to distribute cocaine last November.

Calverio Terrill Somerville, 19, of Lexington Park was released on $10,000 bond after his arrest on an indictment charging him with the possession of marijuana last February with the intent to distribute the drug.

Jeffrey Neil Shade, 23, of Hollywood was released on $10,000 bond after his arrest on an indictment accusing him of possessing cocaine with the intent to distribute the drug on Feb. 26 and attempting to elude a police officer that day.

Zachary Matthew Williams, 22, of Mechanicsville was released on $2,500 bond on an indictment charging him with the possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute.