SNOW HILL — A New York man facing trial for a disorderly conduct arrest in Ocean City last August apparently upheld the notion “he who represents himself has a fool for a client” this week in Worcester County Circuit Court with a day-long trial on Tuesday that ultimately resulted in his conviction by a jury.
Abraham Lincoln authored the famous quote, which was clearly on display during a marathon trial for what should have been a fairly routine disorderly conduct case in Worcester County Circuit Court on Tuesday.
Patrick Fleming, 39, was arrested on disorderly conduct charges last August following an incident at the Bayside Princess Hotel in Ocean City. Fleming allegedly became combative and disorderly with others with whom he was sharing the room and the other guests, who had officially registered for the room, called security to ask him to leave.
When Fleming refused to leave and continued to be combative and disorderly, the OCPD was called. OCPD officers arrived and asked Fleming repeatedly to leave quietly and make other arrangements or face arrest for disorderly conduct.
However, Fleming reportedly refused to cooperate and continued berating the other guests. Fleming continued to fight with the other guests and with the OCPD officers attempting to get him to leave the hotel room. Fleming would not budge, however, and asked for a judge to be brought to the scene, suggesting the OCPD’s presence in the hotel room where he was an invited guest represented an illegal search and seizure and a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights.
As the incident escalated, with other hotel guests now being disturbed, the OCPD officers ultimately arrested Fleming and charged him with disorderly conduct. Fleming’s case was originally set for District Court in Ocean City, but he requested a jury trial and the case was forwarded to Circuit Court. The trial lasted all day during a proceeding in which Fleming fired his public defender and decided to represent himself.
A jury was selected and the trial began around mid-morning. During the trial, Fleming questioned witnesses and even put himself on the stand at one point. Fleming introduced countless pieces of evidence from his inches-thick file, asserting his Fourth Amendment rights and even questioning his counterpart in the case, Deputy State’s Attorney William McDermott.
According to a juror on the case, there were no fewer than 30 sidebar discussions at the bench. At different times during the trial, the jury was cleared from the courtroom while motions and other evidence was discussed, some of the delays as long as 45 minutes.
As the word spread around the courthouse about the rather unusual trial, other attorneys, judges, police officers, clerks and other employees filled the benches in the courtroom to see how it would turn out. Finally, after about seven hours of bizarre motions, witness testimony and other evidence, the jury got the case around 7:45 p.m. The jury returned about eight minutes later with a guilty verdict.
“It was very interesting to say the least,” said McDermott. “It should have been a run-of-the-mill disorderly conduct case, and we typically would have probably pleaded it out, but this went on and on for hours. Since he was locked up, Fleming blanketed our office with thousands of pages of self-styled motions and other correspondence. The whole thing was rather strange.”
Fleming was sentenced 60 days, all of which suspended. A psychological evaluation was ordered for Fleming and he was also ordered to complete an anger management program. He was also placed on probation for two years and fined $500.