Second in command at Maryland Natural Resources Police resigns over DUI charge

Crisfield-Somerset County Times
Posted 4/22/21

SNOW HILL — A long-time law enforcer on the Lower Eastern Shore who for five years has been deputy superintendent of the Maryland Natural Resources Police resigned his number two position after …

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Second in command at Maryland Natural Resources Police resigns over DUI charge

Posted

SNOW HILL — A long-time law enforcer on the Lower Eastern Shore who for five years has been deputy superintendent of the Maryland Natural Resources Police resigned his number two position after being charged with impaired driving and failing to stop after an accident involving damage to an attended vehicle.

Ernest J. Leatherbury Jr., 55, was in his departmental 2017 Chevrolet Tahoe when stopped at a traffic signal on eastbound U.S. 50 and Rt. 707 in Berlin. That was around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 17.

According to the State Police, he backed into another vehicle, and that driver, who was uninjured, called the Berlin Barrack as the SUV pulled away.

The motorist remained on the phone and followed the SUV and police responded to where it was stopped in a parking lot off U.S. 113. During that interaction troopers detected an odor of an alcoholic beverage, arrested Leatherbury, and took him to the barrack for processing.

The Ocean City resident was later released to a sober driver.

The incident was reported to NRP around 10 p.m. and per departmental policy suspended Leatherbury to conduct an internal investigation.

Attorney John Phoebus has been retained to represent Leatherbury. As long as this case is pending in Worcester County District Court, he said by email that he nor his client would have any comment. He would expect, however, that a special prosecutor would be assigned. It is currently scheduled for trial in October.

Two of the citations, negligent driving and unsafe backing, carry fines of $240 and $90, respectively, but DUI and failing to stop require a mandatory court appearance.

The Somerset County native retired from the State Police as a barrack commander in 2012 after more than 28 years in Salisbury, Princess Anne and Westminster.

The next year he was hired to be chief of police at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore where he worked for three years before joining the NRP.

Leatherbury, while with the state police, was assigned to the Crisfield PD for some six months between 2006-07 to work as an interim chief. His father, Ernest Leatherbury Sr., was chief in Crisfield for six years before being felled by a heart attack at work in February 2003. The 55-year-old had also been with the state police and a lieutenant colonel at retirement in 1997, the highest-ranking Black officer at that time.

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