CALVERT COUNTY MAN PLEADS GUILTY
TO DUMPING SCRAP TIRES

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that Thomas Wilson Brown, 40, of the 3400 block of Brookside Drive, Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, has been convicted of unlawfully disposing of scrap tires to a location that was not an approved facility. The Honorable Stephen L. Clagett, in the District Court for Calvert County, sentenced Brown to one year in jail and suspended the sentence in favor of three years of probation. Brown was ordered to complete ten days of community work service within ninety days, and to properly remove the tires within sixty days. Judge Clagett also imposed a fine of $2,000, which he suspended. The maximum penalty for the offense, which is a misdemeanor, is up to five years in jail and a $25,000 fine.

The conviction results from Brown illegally disposing of a truck load of scrap tires onto a property containing an abandoned house at 2818 Dalrymple Road in Calvert County.

On February 6, 2006, an Inspector with the Maryland Department of the Environment, Waste Management Administration, while driving along Dalrymple Road, observed and followed a truck loaded with scrap tires. He was able to observe and photograph the Defendant as he dumped the tires. The truck displayed a sign “Tom Brown, Handyman” on its side. On March 15, 2006, Investigators with the Environmental Crimes Unit of the Office of the Attorney General contacted Mr. Brown. After confronting him with the evidence, the Defendant admitted to the illegal dumping.

The conviction follows an investigation conducted by the Environmental Crimes Unit of the Office of the Attorney General and the Maryland Department of the Environment, Waste Management Administration.