Snowden

A judge turned down a request Thursday by the head of the Maryland attorney general's civil rights office to keep a lenient sentence for drunken driving that the prosecutor and judge belatedly realized was illegal. Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Ronald A. Silkworth gave Carl O. Snowden a week to decide whether he wants to withdraw his November plea and start over the case with a different judge or have a conviction on his record and possibly a harsher sentence. In what has turned out to be a high-profile mistake, the original outcome was probation before judgment.

Maryland lawmakers patted themselves on the back last year after adopting a package of anti-drunken- driving laws, with a flood of news releases on the effort to get tough on repeat offenders. But not everyone got the message. In a high-profile gaffe, a judge in Anne Arundel County gave a repeat drunken driver a free pass last month, granting him probation before judgment — a finding that spares him a conviction if he satisfactorily completes probation. The lenient sentence violates a 2009 law that is supposed to prohibit judges from issuing more than one probation before judgment within a 10-year period.

Saying the recent granting of probation before judgment for a drunken-driving charge was an illegal sentence, a special prosecutor is asking an Anne Arundel County judge for a new sentence for the director of the civil rights office of the Maryland Attorney General's Office. In mid-November, Carl O. Snowden was given probation before judgment on a drunken-driving charge for the second time in eight years. The advantage to probation before judgment, or PBJ, is that it allows a person to avoid a conviction if the terms of probation are successfully completed.

For the second time in eight years, Carl O. Snowden, current director of the civil rights office in the state attorney general's office, received probation before judgment for drunken driving, and questions have been raised illegalities. "I'm going to have to figure it out myself," said prosecutor Henry Dove. The Talbot County assistant state's attorney was assigned to the Anne Arundel County case because Snowden, a former Annapolis alderman and aide to the previous county executive, has long been involved in civil rights and politics in the county and had worked with the Anne Arundel prosecutor's office.

Carl O. Snowden, a longtime Annapolis activist and director of the Office of Civil Rights for the attorney general's office, was arrested early Tuesday and charged with alcohol-related driving offenses, according to Anne Arundel police. Snowden, 55, was arrested after a county police officer saw his Acura Integra drifting in and out of his southbound lane on Route 97 near Farm Road in Crownsville, police said. It was Snowden's third DUI arrest since 2002. Shortly before 1:30 a.m., the arresting officer reported that Snowden veered across the center line and straddled the shoulder several times before the officer pulled him over.

On October 24, 2009, JOHN DANIEL SNOWDEN. Friends may visit the FAMILY OWNED MARCH FUNERAL HOME WEST INC., 4300 Wabash Avenue, on Sunday after 10 AM, where the family will receive friends 3 to 5 PM. The family will also receive friends on Monday at 10:30 AM at New Psalmist Baptist Church, 4501 1/2

ON July 22, 2009, JAMES E. SNOWDEN. On Wednesday, friends may call Vaughn C. Green Funeral Services (East), 4905 York Road where the family will receive friends from 4:00 to 8:00 P.M. On Thursday, Mr. Snowden will lie in state at Metropolitan Baptist Church, 1501 McCulloh Street, where the family will receive friends from 10:00 to 10:30 A.M. with services to follow. Inquiries to 410-433-7500.

On March 22, 2009; loving father of one daughter, Yvonne D. Snowden; six grandchildren, Yazmin, Raquel, Cameron, Jordan, Mareno and Natalia; three sisters, Arleen Williams, Marion Williams and Gloria Snowden; one brother, James Snowden and a host of other loving relatives and friends. On Friday, friends may call Vaughn C. Greene Funeral Services (EAST), 4905 York Road, where the family will receive friends from 5 to 8 P.M. On Saturday, services will be held at Vaughn C. Greene Funeral Chapel (EAST)