Maryland Man Has Been Sentenced to 1 Year in Jail for Holding Large Parties Amid COVID Emergency Order
In March, Maryland put a cap on the number of people that could gather to a maximum of 10 people. This means that anyone who had more than 10 people in their home would be violating the order by the state’s governor, Larry Hogan.
Shawn Marshall Myers completely ignored this order and had a party at his house in late March with about 50 guests. When police arrived at his house and told him his guests would need to leave because they were violating the governor’s order, Hogan was argumentative, but eventually, he agreed to break up the party.
The officers left, and you can assume they hoped that Hogan wouldn’t violate the order again. They were wrong.
Just 5 days later, Hogan had another party at his home, and this time there were about 60 guests. When police arrived this time, Hogan was not only argumentative but completely refused to tell his guests to go home.
According to a press release, “Officers told Myers to disband the party, but again he was argumentative claiming he and his guests had the right to congregate. Beyond being argumentative, Myers directed his guests to stay in defiance of Governor Hogan’s Orders and the officers’ lawful orders to disband the party.”
Since Hogan refused to comply with the officers, they had no choice but to arrest him. He was also ordered to pay a $5000 fine. Now, a judge has sentenced him to 1 year in jail for violating the governor’s order.
Watch the video below for more details about Hogan’s defiance and resulting jail sentence.
We do not know if there were any COVID-19 cases caused by Hogan’s large parties in March. According to Johns Hopkins University’s Covid-19 tracking project, there are currently 124,311 confirmed cases and 3,946 COVID-19 related deaths in the state of Maryland.
Do you think a 1-year jail sentence and a $5000 fine in an appropriate punishment for the crime?
