Berlin vandals’ probation altered, not violated

While dubious of the defendants’ claim of inability to find anywhere within Berlin to conduct their court-mandated community service, Judge Gerald Purnell nonetheless approved an alteration to that condition as well as imposing a few others on the Berlin vandals during a hearing last Friday.

Jordan Denton, 19, of Ocean City and Nick Bonser, 18, of Ocean Pines were sentenced to 150 hours each of community service in Berlin, were to write letters of apology to the town, serve two years’ worth of probation and make restitution of about $3,000 each last June.

Both were called before the judge for suspected violation of the probation agreement reached as part of a plea deal. Denton was legally an adult at the time of the January 2015 incident, Bonser was almost 18 and was charged as an adult, and an unidentified minor admitted involvement with the crimes.

Purnell said he’d never heard of a town that didn’t need any sort of help, but wasn’t going to challenge the claims of the pair as long as the state, represented by Paul Haskell, didn’t have a problem.

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