La Plata, MD – The eighth time was the charm.
Daniel Edmund Madden, 29 of Nanjemoy, confessed to Charles County Circuit Court Judge H. James West Friday, Sept. 25 that he was involved in an auto accident involving a rental car and that the company took a lien out against his license.
Since then he has accrued a slew of driving while suspended charges.
“This will be number seven,” said Charles County Assistant State’s Attorney Tiffany Campbell. “Actually,” she said, “it’s eight.”
“I didn’t think he had that many priors,” said Charles County Assistant Public Defender Allison Heldreth.
“In light of the fact that this is the eighth time, the state feels he should be punished,” Campbell stated.
“I think he wants to go forward with sentencing,” Heldreth offered. “He owns his own business. He went to the MVA and was able to get a work-restricted license. He does have a license to go back and forth to work. We are asking for any sentence to be served on the weekends,” she added. “Those priors have a lot of age on them.”
“I set up a payment plan with the rental car company,” Madden told West. “I’ve got four children. I’m the only one working.”
“This is his eighth offense,” West said. “I’m going to sentence him to 50 days. If he wants, he can do 25 weekends, but I would suggest work release, because those I sentence to weekends, it’s $50 a weekend. Those who do the straight time have fewer problems.”
“He would elect to do the weekends,” Heldreth said.
“I have no other choice,” Madden stated.
“He understands what he is getting into,” his attorney said.
West sentenced the defendant to 60 days with all but 50 days suspended, allowed him to begin serving his sentence Oct. 3 and placed Madden on two years unsupervised probation following his release.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com