Man jailed for throwing large parties during coronavirus pandemic

A Maryland man has been jailed for one year for throwing two large parties that violated the state’s coronavirus rules.

Police were called to the home of Shawn Marshall Myers in March and found a party with more than 50 guests in full swing, despite Governor Larry Hogan banning large gatherings.

When Myers was told the party violated the state of emergency ban he reportedly argued with officers before he “eventually agreed to disband his party.”

Authorities say that just five days later on 27 March police were again called to the property in Hughesville, Maryland, and found a party with more than 50 people attending.

“Officers told Myers to disband the party, but again he was argumentative claiming he and his guests had the right to congregate," said prosecutors.

Myers also allegedly told “his guests to stay in defiance of Governor Hogan’s orders” and the police request to shut it down.

"Officers tried to reason with Myers and obtain his cooperation to no avail," said prosecutors and Myers was arrested.

Myers, 42, was convicted of two counts of failure to comply with an emergency order at a bench trial this week, according to the Charles County state’s attorney’s office.

Following his prison sentence Myers will remain on unsupervised probation for three years.

Maryland has seen more than 122,000 residents diagnosed with Covid-19 and at least 3,772 deaths, state figures show.

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