A Baltimore judge accused of dumping hundreds of tons of building materials along his waterfront property in Anne Arundel County was sentenced yesterday to one year of unsupervised probation and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and remove the debris in a deal that will likely spare him a criminal record.
District Judge Askew W. Gatewood Jr. pleaded not guilty to one count of unlawfully filling state wetlands without a license but avoided a trial by agreeing to the prosecutor's statement of facts. By completing a state and federally approved site remediation plan along his Pasadena property, Gatewood will also likely receive probation before judgment.
In addition, Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Eugene M. Lerner ordered Gatewood to pay the county $6,500 in damages. The remaining charges in the criminal 12-count indictment were dropped.
Gatewood, 57, did not make a statement before Lerner, but spoke only to acknowledge that he understood the proceedings. He and his attorneys declined to comment after the hearing.
Darrell S. Pressley, a spokesman for the Maryland judiciary, declined to comment on the proceedings or whether the court will initiate an investigation with the Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities, which investigates allegations of judge misconduct. He called an investigation "a potential next step."
"At this point, no definitive decision has been made, in terms of what the next step would be in this matter," Pressley said. "That's the question right now. Those decisions will be made sometime in the future."
One environmental group questioned the sentence's toughness.
"We're disappointed that such a flagrant violation of environmental laws brought little more than a rap on the knuckles," said David Prosten, chairman of the Anne Arundel County chapter of the Sierra Club. "Land on the waterfront is under intense pressure from development and stormwater runoff, and ultimately it's up to the judicial system to protect the environment. And judges after all are law enforcement officers, and as such they have a special responsibility to be that much more mindful."
Prosecutor Bernard Penner, of the state attorney general's office's environmental crimes division, said he was "very satisfied" with the case's conclusion.
"The cleanup of the site can begin now, without a protracted appeal and legal process," Penner said after the hearing. "We get the problem resolved promptly."
