Kathleen Easley (Facebook Photo)
On Friday, May 23, 2019, Deputies from the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office responded to a residence on Upland Drive in Bushwood, in reference to a possible burglary in progress.
Upon their arrival, they contacted the adult female victim and an adult complainant. The male complainant advised he was woken up by the female victim frantically knocking on his door requesting to enter his house. The woman was saying something about a gun and drugs, the man allowed the female to use his phone to contact the police.
The woman advised after meeting her neighbor, Kathleen Easley, age 47 of Bushwood, for the first time, earlier on Thursday, May 22, she accompanied Easley back to the Easley’s residence. While at Easley’s residence the woman and Easley began to drink alcoholic beverages in the kitchen of the residence in excess.
Police recovered a fully loaded black .38 Caliber Taurus Revolver where the victim said she had dropped it.
Police made contact with Easley at her residence and asked her if she owned a firearm, which she indicated she did and described it as a black .38 Caliber Taurus Revolver. Easley told police the gun was currently located inside her bedroom and advised she would show officers where the firearm was located. Once in Easley’s bedroom, she opened a dresser and the gun was not located. Easley then described the firearm as “missing” from the drawer, police located ammunition consistent with the ammunition previously recovered from the firearm in the front yard.
Easley told police she had not registered the firearm with the state of Maryland when she moved to the state approximately 2 years prior. A check of the recovered firearm was ran through the Maryland Gun Center, and found to not be currently registered.
Easley denied any altercation/argument with a firearm at the time of the incident.
On Thursday, May 30, 2019, Kathleen Easley, was charged via a criminal summons for the following: Assault first and second Degree, Handgun on Person, Loaded Handgun on Person, Firearm Use/Felony-Violent Crime.
Kathleen Easley, is currently employed as the Deputy Director of St. Mary’s County Department of Land Use and Growth Management (LUGM).
SMNEWSNET asked a spokesman from the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office how a person could be charged by criminal summons and not arrested for a felony first-degree assault and were told it was decided by a court commissioner not to issue an arrest warrant.
When a person is charged by criminal summons, there is no booking photo or fingerprinting. A criminal summons is a written order, issued by the court that requires the person named in the complaint to appear in court on a specific date and time to answer the alleged charge. They are required to sign the charging document promising to appear in court without a bond to ensure their appearance.
Police and prosecutors will often use a criminal summons rather than arrest a person they believe will appear in court and who poses no immediate threat to the public. Criminal summonses are typically used in low level, nonviolent misdemeanors, and most traffic offenses.
