A Rockville man has been arrested after police say he offered an acquaintance money and a quantity of pills as payment for a potential murder. Forty-two-year-old Richard Bernard Boyd has been charged with one count each of distribution of a controlled substance and solicitation of murder for his role in planning the crime.

Montgomery County police say Boyd approached the man, whose identity has not been disclosed to press, and offered him $1,000 and five Oxycontin pills as payment for the murder of his estranged wife. Capt. Paul Starks of the Montgomery County police confirmed the sequence of events to press, saying:

"Mr. Boyd had told the subject that he had wanted his estranged wife killed, and he was willing to pay a sum of money."

Detectives say Boyd and his wife, whose identity was also not disclosed to press, were in the midst of a divorce when Boyd hatched the scheme to precipitate her murder. Capt. Starks said Boyd was not pleased with the "potential outcome" of the divorce proceedings, and was concerned with the final details of the case.

The would-be assassin informed a Rockville City police officer of the offer Boyd made and the investigation began September 30th. The man continued to meet with Boyd throughout the first week of October and the pair met for the last time on October 8th. Boyd gave the man a layout of the house on Rocking Spring Drive and suggested the crime be carried out using a gun. No date was set on which the murder was to occur.

Boyd is currently being held without bond. A bond review will be held on Tuesday. He is currently being held without bond pending a review in court. It was not disclosed whether he was assigned or retained a Maryland criminal defense lawyer to face the charges against him.

This article is presented by Price Benowitz LLP, serving Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. For more information, please visit our DC DWI Lawyer and Virginia DUI Lawyer websites.

A second suspect in the murder of Washington DC middle school principal Brian Betts is set to plead guilty in Montgomery County on November 18th. Nineteen-year-old Alante Saunders pled guilty earlier this month to murder, admitting to pulling the trigger and firing the shots that killed Betts in his Silver Spring home in April of this year.

Co-defendant nineteen-year-old Sharif Lancaster is expected to plead guilty to charges of robbery and use of a handgun in the commission of a felony in Rockville Circuit Court on Thursday. Lancaster, the second of four young men charged in relation to the murder of Betts, was originally charged with first-degree murder among other charges in the case. Deontra Gray and Joel Johnson, both 19 years old, have also been charged for Betts' murder. According to Lancaster's Maryland criminal attorney, all four men initially denied responsibility for the shooting death of Betts and implicated their co-defendants in the crime.

The teens met Betts over a phone sex chat line, entering his home through a door Betts deliberately left unlocked after the chat. Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy conceded that the teens likely killed Betts accidentally during the commission of a robbery:

"We do not believe that this was a case where the homicide of Mr. Betts was pre-planned prior to arriving at the home."

According to police, Lancaster's fingerprints were found inside Betts's home. Prosecutors say that Saunders entered the home, heading upstairs to Betts' bedroom where the victim was shot from a distance. At some point after Saunders went in, Lancaster, Gray and Johnson followed suit. A sentencing date for Lancaster has not yet been determined, but under sentencing guidelines in the plea, he faces between twenty and thirty-five years in prison for the charges to which he is expected to plead guilty.

This article is presented by Price Benowitz LLp, serving Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. For more information, please visit our Virginia Criminal Lawyer and Washington DC Criminal Lawyer websites.

A Delaware woman is facing several charges after an incident that left her car in a canal. Twenty-three year old Taylor Cole Vanderhook drove her vehicle into the water near 54th Street in Ocean City, a little after 2 a.m. early Monday morning. She is said to have drove through the parking lot of Macky's Bayside Grill before nudging a pontoon boat in the lot and continuing on into the canal behind Chauncey's Surf Shop. Though she was lucky to have been rescued by a witness, she will be in Ocean City District Court with her Maryland DUI attorney on December 16.

Chris Sullivan, general manager of the nearby Yang's Palace restaurant, was staying in an apartment above the restaurant that night. He said he heard her rimless wheel scraping pavement and looked out the window in time to see Ms. Vanderhook's Camry drive into the water. Being hailed a hero, Sullivan ran outside to lend assistance. He found Vanderhook sitting calmly in the car not making any effort to get out. Sullivan is said to have grabbed a wooden plank and busted the rear windshield for her to escape. Vanderhook didn't immediately exit the vehicle instead allegedly telling Sullivan that she was "going to kill him" for breaking her car. Even after being pulled from the water, she is reported to have asked where her car was, seeming confused and disoriented. Ironically, Vanderhook called Sullivan a drunk before leaving the scene. Police later found her at a bus stop on Coastal Highway.

After being arrested, on the ride to the police station, the arresting officer reports that Vanderhook offered several bribes to be let out, increasing her offers from $20 to $200 for her release. She now faces charges of bribery, reckless driving, failure to provide identification, driving under the influence, and driving while intoxicated. This isn't the first time Vanderhook was caught driving drunk--court records indicated a 2007 drunk driving conviction. As for Sullivan, he will be honored with a police award for outstanding service.

This article is provided by Price Benowitz, LLP,representing clients in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. For more information, please visit our Virginia DUI Lawyer and DC DWI Lawyer websites.

A former doctoral student and lecturer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has been arrested for second-degree murder after she allegedly shot the man with whom she shared a southern Maryland home. Forty-year-old Joanna Joyce Findlay was apprehended after police were called to the home Saturday night on a report of a domestic disturbance with shots fired. It is unknown at this point whether Ms. Findlay has retained a Maryland criminal attorney.

Law enforcement officials in St. Mary's County told press that Findlay, who is originally from Scotland, shot fifty-five-year-old Gary Alan Trogdon during the disturbance. When police arrived on the scene, Trogdon was dead from a gunshot wound. Information regarding what may have precipitated the shooting is unavailable, but those who knew both Findlay and Trogdon at the University of Nebraska say that the fatal incident came as a massive shock.

Sue Hart, a secretary for the English graduate program, commented to press:
"I knew her as a nice person, and I'm surprised," English graduate program secretary Sue Hart said Tuesday.

Trogdon, a military historian for the army who was a faculty member at the online school American Public University, received his doctorate at UNL. His doctoral supervisor, Peter Maslowski, expressed sadness over Trogdon's fate:

"He was always outgoing and friendly -- always had a smile. That's my recollection of him," Maslowski said. "I'm sickened by this."

According to his biography, Trogdon was working on documenting the experiences of Japanese Americans who attended his alma mater during World War II. Maslowski described Trogdon as "hard-working," and said the victim had overcome a "limited educational background."

Ms. Findlawy is currently being held at St. Mary's County jail, and has not been granted bond.

This article is presented by Price Benowitz, LLP, serving Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. For more information, please visit our Maryland DUI Lawyers and DC Criminal Lawyer websites.

A Hagerstown woman faces up to 23 years in prison for a "bizarre" break-in at a stranger's home last February. According to her Maryland criminal attorney, thirty-three-year-old Melissa Wagaman was convicted on November 4th of second-degree assault, fourth-degree burglary and two counts of reckless endangerment in Washington County Circuit Court.

Wagaman admits to consuming both an unspecified cold medicine as well as a "puff" of marijuana on the night of the incident, before she broke into the home of Erin and Aaron Parrott wearing a bridal garment that covered only her lower half and a veil. The defendant, who also testified that she suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), bipolar disorder and was sleep deprived, told the court that she approached the Stone Valley Circle home believing that her mother was inside.

Just before 9:30 p.m., Wagaman knocked on the Parrott's door. Covering her bare upper half, she told Parrott that her mother was in the basement and she needed to get in. Parrott woke her husband, who came downstairs and told Wagaman to leave. Aaron Parrott testified that he then obtained a snow shovel from the rear of the house and locked the door. Wagaman is said to have continued banging on the door before smashing her head through the dining room window in an attempt to gain entry to the Parrott's home. To prevent her from entering, Parrott says, he hit her "as hard as (he) could" with the shovel, sustaining four inch long arterial wounds that required a three-night long hospital stay.

When police arrived, Wagaman was found laying unconscious in the snow outside the home. Law enforcement officials testified that blood was found throughout the house, indicating that Wagaman had entered the home after the Parrotts fled to a neighbor's house to wait for an ambulance. Hospital staff that later examined the defendant concluded that she was exhibiting symptoms of drug induced psychosis.

Wagaman's Washington County criminal lawyer argued that his client did not intend to harm the couple and truly believed her mother was inside the home when she attempted to force her way in. The jury deliberated for 10 minutes before convicting Wagaman on the assortment of charges. Washington County Circuit Court Judge Donald Beachley deferred sentencing in the case for a month.

This article is presented by Price Benowitz, LLP, serving Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. For more information, please visit our DC Criminal Laywer and Virginia Criminal Lawyers websites.

A volunteer at a charter school has been arrested and charged with sexually molesting a young teenage boy, the second time in the past year the man has been implicated in harassing a minor. In addition to charges related to abusing the fourteen-year-old alleged victim, forty-seven-year-old Mark Citro also stands accused of impersonating a police officer.

According to court documents, Citro, who claims to be a minister and served as a mentor at the Friendship Academy of Engineering and Technology, became close to the victim and arranged sleepovers with the boy under the auspices of enabling the teen to walk to school. Police say Citro forced the boy to watch pornography, touched him inappropriately and performed lewd acts while the boy watched. The boy's mother, who has not been named by press due to the nature of the charges, confronted Citro about the alleged ongoing molestation. When questioned, Citro told the woman that he was an investigator working with both city, state and federal agencies to apprehend child molesters and that the boy had seen him doing research. To support these claims, he showed her badges and firearms.

A subsequent search of Citro's home is said to have turned up a registered handgun, Mace, handcuffs, and "several badges for security and special investigation companies." Police also seized technical equipment to be analyzed. Baltimore City Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi commented to press on the alleged deception:

"He'd dress as a police officer, he had badges, said that he worked with the Baltimore City Police and State Police and the FBI to put child predators behind bars, and it turns out this individual was a child predator himself."

Citro is currently being held on charges of sex abuse of a minor, assault, solicitation of a minor and impersonating a police officer. It is not clear whether he has been assigned or has retained a Maryland solicitation lawyer to face the bevy of charges, and he has not been granted bond. Citro does not have a criminal record, but in April, a Maryland court issued a protective order against him to a different woman and her son amid accusations of inappropriate behavior and breached boundaries. Police say that both that woman and the mother of the victim in the criminal case are blind.

This article is presented by Price Benowitz, LLP, serving Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. For more information, please visit our Maryland DUI Lawyers and DC Criminal Lawyer websites.