La Plata, MD – Rory James Kyle Parnell, 32 of Indian Head, was in court for sentencing before Charles County Circuit Court Judge Amy J. Bragunier Wednesday, Feb. 25 on a DWI charge.
It was an interesting case, because more than a few defendants who come to court to face the reckoning of justice have done very little to better themselves in the interim. That was not the case with Parnell, who told the court he entered a drug therapy program in Prince Frederick and has been going four times a week for treatment.
Charles County Assistant State’s Attorney Jared I. Albert was reluctant to let the defendant off the hook, however, telling the court, “He has had his breaks.”
Albert told Bragunier and Charles County Circuit Court Judge Thomas R. Simpson Jr. that the September 2013 incident involving Parnell began when deputies responded to a report of a car accident.
“When officers approached the subject, he was combative and aggressive,” Albert said. “He threatened to knock the deputy’s glasses off and ‘destroy him.’ He told the deputy, ‘Take these cuffs off so I can —- you up.’ ”
Public defender John Getz told the court that it was the defendant’s first alcohol or drug related offense.
“There is obviously no excuse for his behavior and he acknowledges that,” Getz said. “He’s been going to treatment four days a week. He’s clearly detoxed and cleaned up.”
“I know I messed up,” Parnell told the court. “I wasn’t myself. I was in the middle of a divorce and a horrible custody battle. I didn’t care about anything or anyone. I was no good to anybody the way I was. When the divorce went through I lost all hope. I didn’t care.”
He told the court he was “trying to get myself together.”
When Bragunier asked the defendant what types of drugs he was using before he sought treatment, Parnell responded, “heroin, coke, crack—all of it,” he told her.
He told the court he is tested regularly.
“They set up all of these firewalls so there’s no possibility of me messing up,” he stated.
“Until I heard from you I was prepared to do exactly what the state was suggesting—jail time,” Bragunier told him. “Basically, you did seek out and enter into treatment, Step Into Recovery, which is an intensive outpatient prevention program. It seems like you are one of the people who got something out of that.”
Bragunier handed down a 60-day suspended sentence and placed Parnell on five years of supervised probation. She added that a condition of his probation was that he continue with treatment.
“You need to provide proof to the state’s attorney’s office that you’re in treatment,” she said. “The burden is on you to do that.”
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com
Artwork by Joseph Norris