Downs Rarely Paid in Full for Life of Crime

This article was originally published on June 26, 2006

By Ahmar Khan

ST. MARY’S TODAY

MECHANICSVILLE -- Something seems rotten in the St. Mary’s criminal prosecution system.

Bryan William Downs, busy as a bee in Charlotte Hall area, walks out a free man with a tap on his wrist, with six months in jail at the most, no matter what he does. Pleads guilty to selling drugs or continue to drive under influence or beats his pregnant girlfriend. Or allegedly rapes a physically helpless woman.

In that case, he was accused of second degree rape, sex offense second degree, sex offense third degree and was a co-defendant on sex offense third degree, but the case was dismissed as the prosecution failed to bring up the charges.

There is no record available of the rape case filed against him on 11/17/93.

“As the record is very old, it must have been shredded long time ago,” a clerk at St. Mary’s District Court said.

Downs last brush with the law was on May 8, 2006 after which he was released on a $5,000 bond.

“There’s something behind the scene. I want to know who are his patrons,” said an angry Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R, Golden Beach), regretting that Downs has been let out on bond once again. “He will break the law again,” he said.

Downs, born 02/03/74, is described as height 5 ft 7 inches, weight 150 pounds, hair brown, eyes blue and his address is listed as PO Box 455, Three Notch Road Mechanicsville. His driver’s license number is D-520-098-887-091.

Jarboe said Downs’s father Leonard Downs rents a trailer on his trailer park and that all his other children have done well in life, but Downs. “He’s the black sheep of the family,” he said, adding he had clearly told Leonard Downs he did not want him on the property.

Throughout all these years Downs’s bond has been faithfully furnished by Ben Burroughs of Charlotte Hall Motel fame.

In brushes with law spanning 13 years, Downs got his charges dropped at least 15 times, walking not guilty at other times, records at St. Mary’s District and St. Mary’s Circuit courts show.

Four of those charges pertain to assault, two battery, two CDS possession paraphernalia, three CDS possession marijuana, two violation of protective order and one malicious destruction of property.

In charges filed at St. Mary’s District Court last month, DFC Elizabeth Trossbach said she was on patrol in the drug peddling area around Charlotte Hall Motel on 5/08/06 when she observed a vehicle traveling on an access road towards Market Drive. The vehicle did not stop at the intersection. As she tried to get the license plate number, the driver sped of at a high rate behind the Farmer’s Market where a business had been burgled several times.

After a hot pursuit, in which Trossbach was assisted by Deputy Michael Harrison, the Brown Pontiac Bonneville with Maryland Registration 94M652 finally stopped “the driver jumped out and ran towards our vehicles.”

The driver was advised to return to his vehicle and identified as Bryan William Downs, who was emitting a strong odor of alcohol. “His eyes were glassy and bloodshot as well,” Trossbach said.

Asked how much he had drank, Downs replied, “One beer” but his PBT results were 0.11 BAC.

The tag on the car belonged to a Ford truck, it was later found.

A search of the car yielded a prescription bottle containing Fexoffenadine, 180 mg prescribed to his father. “Inside the bottle were four unidentified yellow and white capsules and a greenish brown vegetable matter residue and seeds. I recognized the residue and seeds as CDS,” Trossbach said.

“Also recovered from the front passenger seat was a gum wrapper which was folded up as though there was a piece of gum still inside. However, inside of the wrapper was a white powder substance. I recognized the powder to be suspected CDS cocaine,” she said,

Jarboe recalls the rape case against Downs and wonders why justice can not be done retrospectively. “People of St. Mary’s will be much safer once he is taken off the road, Jarboe said,” he said.

In one of the six cases he was found guilty, Downs was sentenced to six months jail on 10/19/00 for selling crack cocaine to an undercover agent.

Earlier on 9/04/96, he pleaded guilty to assault and battery and got one month jail. In that case Downs, who was drinking at a bar got angry and struck his pregnant girlfriend Dawnielle Marie Russell several times on her stomach.

“The defendant also grabbed the victim by the throat and threw her onto the floor.  The victim is five months pregnant,” the statement of probable cause by Dung Tan Ross said, Circuit Court records show.

The latest charges against him include failure to stop before entering a highway from a private road, driving under the influence of alcohol, driving while impaired by alcohol, violation of license restriction and displaying registration plates issued to another.

Details of some of the cases against Downs are:

11/09/92 case filed. A charge of battery dropped. Disposed 12/09/93.

10/04/93 case filed. Rape second degree, sex offense second degree, two counts of sex offense 3^rd degree and battery, case dismissed. Disposed 11/17/93.

07/16/93 case filed. Misrepresenting age charge dropped. Disposed 1/12/94.

10/22/94 case filed. Charges dropped in battery and malicious destruction of property valued over $300, but found guilty on a single count of malicious destruction of property valued over $300. 03/02/95.

05/06/95 case filed. Found not guilty of assault. Disposed 7/27/95.

05/06/95 case filed. Found not guilty of assault. Disposed 7/27/95.

02/27/96 case filed, Upper Marlboro. A charge on two counts of battery and one count of violating protective order dropped. Disposed 2/07/97.

02/29/96 case filed. Found guilty of one count of violating protective order, but charge dropped in second count. Disposed 8/29/96.

06/23/96 case filed. Found guilty of battery, but assault charge dropped. Case disposed 2/19/97.

09/29/96 case filed. Battery charge dropped, though he is found guilty of assault. Disposed 12/27/96.

06/15/97 case filed. Plea bargain on driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and alcohol or controlled dangerous substance.

01/29/98 case filed. Paternity case closed.

06/02/00 case filed. Found guilty of second degree assault. Case disposed 10/25/00.

03/12/00 case filed. A charge of CDS possession marijuana dropped. Case disposed 10/25/00.

07/18/01 case filed.A charge of CDS possession marijuana and a charge of CDS possession paraphernalia dropped. Case disposed 1/11/02.

07/25/02 case filed. Assault second degree, STET. 10/25/02.

06/11/02 case filed. Charge dropped for CDS possession of paraphernalia. Disposed 9/25/02.

02/18/03 case filed. Found not guilty of second degree assault. 4/10/03.

08/06/03 case filed. Charges dropped on two counts of second degree assault. Disposed 1/30/04.

11/26/03 case filed. A charge of second degree assault dropped. Disposed 1/30/04.

04/20/04 case filed. Domestic violence case still active.

06/29/04 case filed. A charge of violating exparte dropped. 4/10/03.

12/10/05 case filed. He is found guilty of false statement to an officer. Disposed 2/09/06.

5/08/06 case filed. Trial starts on 7/20/06.