Natural Resources Police Blotter

Maryland Natural Resources Police officers charged poachers in Queen Anne’s and Washington counties with fishing and hunting violations and arrested a felon with multiple firearms in Frederick County in recent cases.

Frederick County
On Sunday, an officer responding to a trespassing call from the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office arrested Thomas Blain Lease, 31, of Taneytown on a charge of being a felon in possession of five rifles and issued citations for numerous hunting violations.

The officer went to the 5100 block of Ijamsville Road and encountered two men standing by a pick-up truck with a field dressed deer and two deer skulls in the bed. Neither the carcass nor the skulls were tagged, as required by state law.

Lease told the officer the deer was given to him by a friend, who had struck the animal with his vehicle. But the officer noticed what appeared to be a .22-caliber bullet hole in the carcass and a .22-caliber rifle nearby.

Lease told the officer the rifle was unloaded, but it was not. A consent search by the officer found four additional unloaded rifles in the truck. Lease said several of the guns were lent to him by a friend.

Upon questioning, Lease said he had wounded the deer with his crossbow earlier in the day, but needed the rifle to kill it. He and his father were tracking the wounded deer when a resident reported they were trespassing.

Lease had already checked in six deer this season, including a 14-point buck killed with a crossbow on Oct. 21. However, he had not purchased a Bonus Antlered Deer Stamp before killing the deer on Sunday.

During his investigation, the officer found that Lease had been convicted in 2008 on a charge of second-degree assault, a felony.

In addition to the illegal firearms possession charge, Lease was cited for carrying a loaded weapon in a vehicle, hunting with a rifle out of season, hunting for bonus deer without a stamp, hunting with a rifle that fails to meet muzzle energy requirements, possessing untagged deer parts and driving with an expired registration.

A date to appear in Frederick District Court has not been set.

Queen Anne’s County
Three men were charged Thursday with poaching striped bass by officers on an overnight saturation patrol in Kent Narrows.

Officers stopped two vehicles under surveillance and found 28 striped bass, 21 of which were undersized.

Alejandro Argueta Lanaverde, 38, and Gonzolo Martinez Pena, 46, both of Annapolis, and Franklin Rafael Flores Santos, 27, of Hyattsville, received citations for exceeding the daily creel limit, possessing undersized striped bass and possessing striped bass between midnight and 5 a.m.

Santos is scheduled to appear in Queen Anne’s District Court on Jan. 7. The Annapolis men have a Feb. 4 court date. If found guilty, each man could be fined as much as $3,000.

Washington County
John Andrew Corbett, 33, of Winchester, Va., was charged Friday with illegal waterfowl hunting by an officer on patrol near Beaver Creek.

The officer saw two hunters near duck decoys in the creek and asked to check their licenses.

Corbett had neither a license nor a Maryland Migratory Game Bird Stamp. In addition to receiving citations for those two violations, he also received a warning for hunting without a federal duck stamp.

He is scheduled to appear in Washington District Court on Jan. 21. If found guilty on both charges, he faces a maximum fine of $3,000.