SNOW HILL — A West Ocean City man awaiting a new trial on manslaughter and other lesser charges in a 2013 fatality will have to wait another two weeks after his trial this week was postponed again when a key witness could not be contacted.
George Doran Nottingham, 49, of West Ocean City, was charged in January 2013 with manslaughter and assault for his role in the death of longtime friend Michael Post, 39, outside the Harbor Inn in the early morning hours during a friendly altercation that went terribly wrong.
Nottingham’s trial last August ended in a mistrial when a Worcester County jury could not reach a clear verdict after deliberating for several hours and a new trial was scheduled.
A second trial scheduled for last October was postponed and rescheduled for December. Just days before that scheduled court date, the Worcester County State’s Attorney’s Office announced the original case against Nottingham was being dropped and new charges were pending, including the original manslaughter count along with other lesser counts including second-degree assault, affray, reckless endangerment and alcohol endangerment.
The trial on the new indictment was postponed in March and again in April before being laid in for Tuesday, June 3. However, the long-awaited trial was postponed again on Tuesday when a glitch occurred between prosecuting attorney Mike Farlow and the defense’s key witness, the Harbor Inn bartender who testified at the original trial last August. Farlow on Tuesday told the court repeated efforts to arrange for the witness, Herbert “Buddy” Groff, to appear had met with negative results.
Judge Thomas Groton III agreed to postpone the case again on Tuesday, but not before securing Nottingham’s waiver of a right to a speedy trial. Groton said the 180-day limit on the right to a speedy trial was going to run out on July 1, and with a crowded court docket for June, there was no guarantee a new court date could be agreed upon prior to the deadline.
With Groff being a key witness for the defense, Nottingham agreed to waive his rights to a speedy trial and the case was postponed again on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, however, a new trial date had been laid in for Monday, June 16.
Around 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 26, 2013, Nottingham and Post were among friends at the Harbor Inn when Nottingham dropped his cell phone on the bar floor. Post and others scooped up the dropped phone and kept it from Nottingham as he became more and more agitated. At one point, bar surveillance video shows Nottingham throwing bar stools, a move the prosecution characterized during the trial last August as rage, while the defense characterized the stool-throwing as Nottingham simply looking on the floor for his phone.
Groff intervened when a pushing and shouting match ensued between Nottingham and Post, an altercation he characterized at trial last August as horseplay between two longtime friends, and instructed Post to go out the front door and Nottingham to remain behind for a few minutes in an attempt to diffuse the situation. Post did go out the front door and lingered around, while Nottingham remained inside. About five minutes later, when it appeared the tensions had cooled, Nottingham went out the front door and ultimately swatted Post in the head with his left hand, causing Post to fall to the sidewalk and strike his head. The force of the fall caused a fracture of Post’s skull and he suffered a subdural hematoma that ultimately claimed his life on the icy, snow-covered sidewalk in front of the bar. The Harbor Inn’s 16 high-tech video cameras inside and outside of the establishment captured the entire episode and there was little doubt after viewing the sequence pieced together chronologically by the OCPD forensic team of the events that led to Post’s death.