Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Woman charged with harassing councilmen

OCEAN CITY -- Three Ocean City Town councilmen allegedly received multiple early morning calls of a harrassing nature from an Ocean City woman.

Amy Lee Durham, 39, of Ocean City, was charged by the Worcester County State's Attorney's office with three counts of telephone misuse. The charges stemmed from calls Durham allegedly placed on Oct. 4 and 5 to Councilmen Jim Hall, Joe Hall and Brent Ashley, according to charging documents viewed Friday.

Ashley confirmed he received a number of early-morning phone calls in October from a private number, but declined to answer further questions. The three councilmen said they had been instructed to direct inquiries to the State's Attorney's office, and they wished to follow those instructions. Ocean City Mayor and interim city manager Rick Meehan also declined to comment.

Durham misused telephone facilities and equipment for repeated calls with intent to "annoy, abuse, torment or harass" the three councilmen, according to the charging files. The files do not state the specifics regarding the exact time or nature of the calls.

Assistant State's Attorney Paul Haskell is handling the case, and would not comment further on the allegations except to confirm that he had filed charges.

The calls came at a time when the three councilmen and Margaret Pillas were facing scrutiny from some town residents over a 4-3 vote they made to ask longtime city manager Dennis Dare for his resignation.

A preliminary hearing in Durham's case is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Dec. 12 in Ocean City District Court.

smuska@dmg.gannett.com
410-213-9442, ext. 14

No comments:

Post a Comment