O'Brien's attorney at the murder trial, Frank C. Gray Jr., is not representing him in this matter. O'Brien was advised yesterday in court that he must retain an attorney by his August court date.O'Brien had been serving his house arrest at a home in the 200 block of Winchester Beach Drive in Annapolis, his address before his arrest.
Earlier this year, Gray petitioned the court to modify O'Brien's sentence, eliminating the remaining house arrest and allowing him to live at a halfway house. In March, he wrote a letter to Harris, the judge, saying that O'Brien had been accepted at Oxford House in Annapolis but that his home detention "has proven incompatible with his admission into other halfway houses."
"This is my last chance to move into a sober, structured and supportive environment," O'Brien wrote in an e-mail to his attorney March 7.
In response to the motion, Poma filed a tersely worded brief saying she was "adamantly opposed" to the sentence modification and that Oxford House "does not provide sufficient structure ... has no counselors" and "is simply a boarding house for addicts."
She also noted that O'Brien, who had worked as a waiter in the past, recently applied for a job at the Rams Head Tavern, and "in light of the defendant's lengthy history of alcoholism, prior DUI, and desire to presently live in a halfway house the state questions the wisdom of the defendant seeking employment at a bar."
According to court documents, O'Brien violated the terms of his house arrest several times beginning in April.
"Despite multiple warnings, the defendant again began to be non-compliant in late May and has continued these actions since that time," Poma wrote to the judge, requesting the court issue a bench warrant for O'Brien.
The prosecutor added that O'Brien returned at least an hour late with no explanation on several occasions.
Records show that on April 29, O'Brien did not return to the home at the approved time. Records say that it was his second warning to be more mindful of his conditions. Less than a month later, on May 23 and May 24, he was late retuning home. He claimed, according to records, that the "residence is filled with smokers and he steps out to get fresh air."
Again, on June 6, he was late. On June 7, an official with the county department of detention facilities called O'Brien at 7 p.m. and got no answer. An hour later, there was no answer again. "I called his mother who claimed he came by her house to pick up clothes at approximately [5 p.m.] used her credit card to get gas came back w/the card visited till approx. [7:40] then left for home," according to his house arrest report.
O'Brien was arrested June 13.
nicole.fuller@baltsun.com
