Man charged with assaulting law officers in Leonardtown
Roadside dispute followed call to hospital
A call for police this week to a St. Mary’s hospital was followed by a Charles County man’s scuffle with law officers along an adjacent highway, court papers state, and his arrest on charges of assaulting three state troopers.
Joseph Marvin Swann, a 36-year-old Waldorf resident, remained in St. Mary’s jail after a hearing Wednesday, online court records state, on the charging papers alleging that early on Tuesday morning, he shoved one officer trying to put him in a police cruiser, kicked another officer, and spat on a third lawman’s arm before they intervened to stop Swann’s destruction to the vehicle.
“He stated he would put a gun in my mouth and shoot me,” Trooper Evan Krenik of the Maryland State Police wrote in a statement of probable cause. “He continued to make verbal threats, stating he was going to kill us all.”
Swann was “clearly intoxicated,” according to the court papers charging him with committing a second-degree assault on Krenik, and troopers Christopher Ditoto and Ryan Keane. Charging papers also allege that Swann destroyed the passenger door to the police car.
Swann began yelling at Keane in front of the lobby doors to MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital in Leonardtown, when the law officer arrived there on a disorderly-subject complaint, court papers state, and “patrons of the hospital and hospital security [were] observing Mr. Swann’s actions” as he refused to leave, sat on the ground and said he wanted a ride home.
Swann eventually walked from the hospital to the side of Route 5, where charging papers allege he began yelling profanities, until Keane and Ditoto took him into custody.
Swann “pushed off [Trooper] Keane, and attempted to kiss [Trooper] Ditoto on the forehead,” the charging papers allege. “He kicked [Trooper] Ditoto in the right shin and ... struck [Trooper] Ditoto with his knee while he was in the [cruiser’s] seat. From inside the vehicle, he started kicking the door and head-butted the laptop.”
Krenik wrote in the charging papers that amid Swann’s death threats, he spat “on my left arm, and began to kick the passenger door multiple times.” A sheriff’s deputy arrived in a car equipped with a rear cage to take Swann to jail.
Swann also was charged with disorderly conduct.