MECHANICSVILLE, Md. — A 44-year-old Leonardtown man is facing drug and identity-related charges after sheriff’s deputies found him lying in a dugout near a local ball field and arrested him on multiple outstanding warrants.
According to the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office, Deputy Morgan encountered a man on June 16, around 9:40 a.m., in the dugout behind Cooper D’s on Loveville Road while actively searching for another wanted suspect. The man, later identified as John Patrick Furey, allegedly gave deputies the name Patrick Witt in an attempt to avoid arrest.
However, Furey’s identity was confirmed through an MVA photograph, and he was taken into custody without incident. During a search incident to arrest, deputies say Furey made a spontaneous statement about possessing a pipe and requested it be removed from his pocket so he would not be ‘charged with it.’
Deputies located the item in Furey’s left shorts pocket and identified it as a glass smoking device with burnt residue, which law enforcement recognized as commonly associated with crack cocaine use. The discovery was supported by Deputy Morgan’s training from the Southern Maryland Criminal Justice Academy and experience handling controlled substance cases in St. Mary’s County.
Furey is charged with one count of possession of CDS paraphernalia and one count of providing false identification to avoid prosecution, both misdemeanors under Maryland law.
If convicted, he faces up to one year in jail for each charge and fines up to $1,000 per offense.
He appeared for his initial hearing on June 16 and was released on a $700 unsecured personal bond. His trial is scheduled for Aug. 5 in St. Mary’s County District Court.
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