Common Criminal Charges in Wicomico County, Maryland

The most common charges that Wicomico County criminal lawyers typically see charged in Wicomico County are traffic offenses including driving under the influence, driving while suspended, driving without a license. Those are pretty typical traffic charges that are on the court’s docket every week. There are also quite a few charges for assault, misdemeanor assault.

Furthermore it is not uncommon to see people also charged with possession of a controlled dangerous substance. Recently there has been a significant increase in the number of cases of possession of heroin and also possession of precription pills that were not prescribed. Related to the drug possession cases are cases of theft.  In order to obtain drugs, people will often steal in order to support their drug habit.

Charges Specific to Wicomico County

Wicomico County has a great deal of farmland and a significant portion of this economy is related to agriculture. Equipment that is used for agriculture is very expensive, it can cost a great deal of money to purchase the different pieces of equipment that are necessary to farm and oftentimes those pieces of equipment require copper wiring.

There has been a huge amount of copper theft occurring in Wicomico County, typically what occurs is the person will steal the equipment or will remove the copper wiring from the equipment while it’s still located on the owner’s land and they will then take that copper wiring and they will attempt to sell it at a scrapyard because it has a pretty high value on it and the person can make a pretty decent amount of money selling that copper wiring.

So, unfortunately there has been an increase in the amount of theft that essentially that would be destroying the person’s – destroying the victim’s property stealing part of the victim’s property and then subsequently selling it for scrap and taking that money to support a substance abuse problem.

If Charged, Where is a Person’s Case Most Likely to Be Heard in Wicomico County?

If a person is charged with a misdemeanor, their case is going to be heard in the Wicomico County District Court. That court is located in Salisbury which is the county seat for Wicomico County. If the person  is charged with most typical traffic violations, those will also be heard in the district court for Wicomico County.

If the person has  been charged with an offense that carries a maximum penalty of ninety days or more, they have the right to pray a jury trial. If they do that, their case will be heard in the circuit court for Wicomico County which is also located in Salisbury. If the person has been charged with felony, then their case will be heard in the circuit court for Wicomico County in Salisbury.

Do Local Laws or Ordinances Ever Come Into Play During Criminal Cases?

Local Wicomico County ordinances could come into play in criminal cases, but it does not happen very frequently. The best example is if an officer’s attention is drawn to a vehicle because there is a great deal of noise coming from the vehicle, there are noise ordinances within Wicomico County and if the officer was not observing any other type of traffic violation, but did hear noise of such a volume that the officer felt it was a violation of the noise ordinance, that could potentially come into play and affect whether or not that person ends up being charged with a criminal offense.

There are local city and county ordinances that prohibit the firing or the discharge of a firearm within county limits and so, if an officer makes contact with someone for discharging a firearm and they are doing it in violation of the local ordinances, then that could lead subsequently to some sort of criminal charge. For example if the firearm is owned illegally, if the person is prohibited from possessing a firearm, then that could lead to a criminal charge.