Maryland’s Shawn Marshall Myers, 42, has been sentenced to one year in prison after being convicted of two counts of failing to comply with an emergency order over a pair of house parties in violation of the state’s ban on gatherings over 10 people, CBS News reported.
The first of his parties drew law enforcement to his home on March 22.
At the time, Governor Larry Hogan had recently announced a statewide ban on gathering of more than 10 people as part of a strategy to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
When officers arrived at Myers’ house, they found “approximately fifty people in attendance,” according to a statement from the Charles County State’s Attorney Office.
“Upon arrival, officers told Myers that his party violated the current mandate. Myers was argumentative with officers but eventually agreed to disband his party,” the statement continued.
However, police had to come back to Myers’s residence just five days later.
On March 27, yet another large gathering was reported to law enforcement. On this occasion, Myers “was argumentative claiming he and his guests had the right to congregate,” the statement said.
“Beyond being argumentative, Myers directed his guests to stay in defiance of Governor Hogan’s Orders and the officers’ lawful orders to disband the party. Officers tried to reason with Myers and obtain his cooperation to no avail. Myers was then apprehended.”
While Myers disputes some of the numbers of attendees at his parties, he has admitted that he broke Gov. Hogan’s order.
In an interview with Fox 5 while he waited for his trial, Myers expressed some remorse for his parties, saying that he initially brushed off the seriousness of the disease, but had since learned better after a friend became infected.
“I definitely regret the way I handled it. I wish I had been more informed and given the opportunity to do it over again, I wouldn’t do it the same way,” he told Fox 5, adding that he now understood why Gov. Hogan had issued the order.
The judge at Myers’s trial immediately handed down a sentence of one year after his conviction.
Myers will also spend three years on unsupervised probation after serving his sentence, and will have to pay a $5,000 fine.
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