La Plata, MD – Every time a defendant is brought into Charles County Circuit Court for arraignment, the sitting judge, whether it’s Judge James H. West, Judge Amy J. Bragunier, Judge Helen I. Harrington or Judge Thomas R. Simpson Jr., will inform them of their absolute right to be represented by an attorney or public defender.
This information is always provided.
Sometimes such instructions might be considered boring or even irrelevant by the defendant, but there is a reason for them. In La Plata Tuesday, March 3, a Charles County Circuit Court jury discovered why.
James Williams Jr., 52 of Waldorf, representing himself before West on charges of driving on a suspended license, is not a lawyer..
Take the inordinate number of exasperating objections by the defense to literally every piece of evidence submitted by Charles County Assistant State’s Attorney Jonathan Beattie, too many bench consultations to count, and you have in a nutshell, a break from the often tense and severe nature of court room proceedings to, in no small way, comic relief.
At one point Beattie fired off six or seven objections in a row—all sustained by the judge—when the defendant asked arresting officer Jason Squirewell of the Charles County Sheriff’s Office if he had knowledge of the state legislature’s intent of the word “traffic,” “drive,” “transportation,” “vehicle,” “motor vehicle,” etc.
The assistant state’s attorney’s objections almost matched the number of objections raised by Williams during his earlier questioning of the witness.
The facts are that Williams was stopped by Deputy Squirewell around 9 p.m. July 13, 2014 for having a headlight out. Squirewell testified, and the jury was shown video from the officer’s squad car as well, that Williams was driving the vehicle and when asked to produce his driver’s license and registration, could only produce his registration.
With no license to call in information from, the deputy relayed the defendant’s name and date of birth. He got two James Williams Jr.’s back, one the defendant, and another of James Tyrone Williams Jr.
Amanda Farrell from the Charles County State’s Attorney’s Office testified that when she plugged in the defendant’s name and date of birth for this particular case earlier in the day, there were two responses from the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, just as the officer received from communications the night of Williams’ arrest when he was found to be driving on a suspended license.
Beattie asserted that Williams may have provided the false identification when pulled over previously for the same offense.
The defendant, for his part, tried to get the officer to say he had no knowledge of who was really behind the wheel of the vehicle he stopped July 13 of last year.
“The video showed that you were operating the vehicle,” Squirewell said. “You were sitting behind the wheel in the driver’s seat.”
“How does the video show it was me?” Williams demanded.
“Sir, the vehicle wasn’t driving itself,” the officer responded.
The trial will resume Wednesday morning, March 4.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com
Artwork by Joseph Norris