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December 21, 2016: Former Pocomoke City Police Lieutenant Found Guilty Of Conspiracy To Commit Misconduct

For Immediate Release

 

FORMER POCOMOKE CITY POLICE LIEUTENANT FOUND GUILTY OF CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MISCONDUCT

Verdict follows former Police Chief’s misconduct conviction earlier this month

 

State Prosecutor Emmet C. Davitt announced today that former Pocomoke City Police Lieutenant was found guilty by the Honorable W. Newton Jackson, III in the Worcester County Circuit Court of conspiring to commit misconduct with former Police Chief Kelvin Sewell by protecting a fellow Mason, former correctional officer Douglas Matthews, from hit and run charges after he hit two parked vehicles and fled the accident scene in November of 2014. Judge Jackson sentenced Green to probation before judgment and placed him on one year of probation.

The evidence at trial established that officers responding to the scene of the accident discovered that two separate vehicles had been severely damaged and that the striking vehicle had left its right front tire and part of its axle at the sight of the accident before fleeing the scene on three wheels. The responding officers located the striking vehicle parked in front of Mr. Matthew’s home by following damage to the roadway caused by the vehicle as it fled the accident scene. Total damage to the victims’ vehicles exceeded $20,000.

At trial, the court learned that earlier this year Lieutenant Green admitted to State agents that he received a call on his cell phone that evening  from fellow Mason Douglass Matthews indicating that he had been in an accident and he had left the scene. Lieutenant Green indicated that he immediately called Chief Sewell and the two subsequently arrived at Mr. Matthews’s residence. Green further admitted that after arriving on the scene and speaking to Matthews that he informed Chief Sewell that Matthews had been drinking and that they discussed not charging Matthews because he was a Mason. Further testimony from Pocomoke City police officers revealed that Chief Sewell then prevented a subordinate officer from questioning Matthews about alcohol use and  ordered the officer to write up the report as an accident, not a hit and run. Several officers testified that, under the circumstances, they would have performed field sobriety tests.

State Prosecutor Emmet C. Davitt stated “Former Police Chief Kelvin Sewell and former Lieutenant Lynell Green took an oath, as do all police officers, to uphold the laws without prejudice or partiality. Their actions that evening were in violation of that oath and, as nobody is above the law, their actions cannot be tolerated.”


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