Judge Dale Cathell had no problem telling the court exactly what he thought of the case against retired Worcester County Fire Marshal Rodney Sharpley as he rejected a nonbinding plea deal the parties had agreed to and imposed a much weaker sentence.
“Every man in the country has the right to have a gun in the house. Every man in the country has the right to answer the front door with the gun in his hand,” Cathell said during the trial on Wednesday. “We’re talking about five or 10 seconds when a man, after midnight, in darkness, had to get it within his mind whether or not there is danger outside of his house.”
Cathell said he had cause to answer his own front door many times while holding a firearm.
“The firearm charges should never have been placed,” Cathell said.
Sharpley faced 10 charges, including two felonies, for an incident that occurred between Tuesday and Wednesday, June 14-15, 2016. The plea deal was based around one of those charges, second-degree assault, for Sharpley against Cpl. Matthew Conner of the Pocomoke City Police Department.
According to the narrative the defense stipulated to as part of the plea deal, Conner, among other offices, conducted a welfare check close to midnight on June 14 at the home where Sharpley, his live-in girlfriend and her daughter lived. The stepdaughter had been previously contacted by police after being found outside in a state of undress.
The police interviewed the girl outside of the home when Sharpley appeared at the front door, with one arm visible and the other apparently holding the weapon.
Police reported they identified themselves several times in the well-lit area, with Conner going so far as to shine his flashlight on his badge.
After this, Sharpley produced the weapon, apparently directing it at both Conner and his stepdaughter. Conner drew his own weapon and moved the girl behind cover to protect her.
Sharpley surrendered the weapon after several orders to do so, and invited the officers inside to speak.
He told police he’d had family over for a visit and had been drinking and was asleep prior to the confrontation.
The charge Sharpley pleaded guilty to, a misdemeanor, still carried a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail and a $2,500 fine. The special prosecutor in the case, Jared Monteiro, agreed to not pursue the other charges, recommending a suspended sentence of eight years with three years’ of supervised probation along with drug screening.
Cathell cut the deal to less than half of what the parties agreed to by removing the jail time altogether, granting Sharpley probation before judgment and trimming the supervised probation period to 18 months.
The gun used by Sharpley during the incident was his service weapon, a .45 caliber Glock 30. It was loaded at the time of the incident, but no round had been chambered.
Sharpley retired as a Worcester County Fire Marshal effective Aug. 1, 2016.
Cathell cautioned Sharpley, however, by warning him that he “better have learned something” from the ordeal.
“If either of those police shot you, they wouldn’t be guilty of anything,” Cathell said.
Though Monteiro objected to the finding and wanted his protest on the record, Cathell was unsympathetic.
“You can put anything you want on the record,” Cathell said.
Following the trial, the defense attorney, Richard Parolski, said he’d known the defendant for 40 years, adding Sharpley had spent his life in law enforcement.
“He made a mistake, he didn’t commit a crime,” Parolski said.