Leonardtown, MD – A waterman from Maryland’s Eastern Shore who was cited in December 2015 for allegedly violating a state order not to harvest oysters was acquitted of the charge Thursday, April 6 in St. Mary’s County District Court. According to a Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) press release issued a few days after the accused—identified as Keith Eric Thomas, then 43 of Stevensville—was “already prohibited from harvesting wild oysters” when officers on patrol in the Patuxent River near Broomes Island stopped a work boat to check 30 bushels of oysters. The NRP press release indicated Thomas “had his commercial license permanently revoked by the Department of Natural Resources after he was twice charged in a one-month period with harvesting oysters from a sanctuary off the Choptank River in Talbot County.”
On April 6, Thomas, represented by Public Defender Ryan Posey, pleaded not guilty to the December 2015 charge. A judgement of acquittal was issued by the presiding judge.
According to online court docket summaries, in April 2013 Thomas pleaded not guilty in Talbot County District Court to a charge of harvesting oysters from a sanctuary and received unsupervised probation before judgement. He also pleaded not guilty to harvesting oysters 150 feet from a sanctuary. He was found guilty. Thomas was ordered to pay small fines in both cases.
“I am a hard-working man that was never ticketed,” Thomas wrote in a statement he forwarded to TheBayNet.com regarding the Southern Maryland case. “They tried to make a charge up but the judge looked at the facts and found I did nothing wrong, and was acquitted of all and any charges. We were working in the right area and they called the oysters all of the right size.”
According to online records, Thomas has no further pending court matters in Southern Maryland.
Contact Marty Madden at marty.madden@thebaynet.com