LEONARDTOWN, Md. - The St. Mary's County Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI) this week released the following incident and arrest reports. BCI is an investigative team comprised of Detectives from the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office and the Maryland State Police, Leonardtown Barrack. The unit was established on July 1, 2003 and is based in Leonardtown, Maryland.
On Thursday, May 10, 2007, detectives from BCI charged Christopher P. Espina, 40, from Leonardtown, with 5 counts of Obscene Matter Possession with the Intent to Distribute and 1 count of Contributing to the Condition of a Child.
Their investigation determined that between January 1 and May 4, Espina, while operating a school bus in St. Mary's County, sent sexually explicit text messages to a 16 year-old female and 17 year-old female bus passenger. On one occasion he convinced the 17 year-old victim to not attend school. In addition, on a separate occasion, Espina utilized a portable DVD player to show a sexually explicit movie to three 17 year-old male bus passengers while operating the school bus.
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On Friday, May 11, 2007, members of the BCI Narcotics Unit, and the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office K-9 Unit, executed a search and seizure warrant in Charlotte Hall, Md.
The warrant stemmed from a three month investigation involving the suspect John Edward Burch Jr., of Gunston Rd., Welcome, Md. The search warrant resulted in the following items being seized:
* 58.3 grams of marijuana (street Value $300.00);
* $209.00 in U.S. Currency;
* 2003 Harley Davidson motorcycle;
* One cellular telephone.
Burch was arrested and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center pending a hearing with the District Court Commissioner.