Man Gets 7-Year Sentence For Cocaine

SNOW HILL - A Berlin man, one of 10 people arrested during a major brawl at the parking lot of a mid-town nightclub involving hundreds of people, pleaded guilty this week to possession with intent to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to seven years in jail.

All in all, 10 people were arrested, four Ocean City Police officers were injured and three suspects were transported to an area hospital during a fight involving several hundred people in the early morning hours of May 4. One of those arrested, Bruce Jeremie Planter, 26, was in court this week.

Planter, who was also charged with assault, resisting arrest, failure to obey a lawful order and other drug-related offenses, had the other charges against him dropped in exchange for the plea bargain. Among the 10 suspects arrested during the donnybrook, Planter was charged with the most serious offenses.

Shortly after 2 a.m. on May 4, Ocean City police were called en masse to the parking lot of Seacrets on 49^th Street for a large fight in progress. When they arrived on the scene, local law enforcement officers observed several hundred people involved in the large altercation.

More than 23 officers from the OCPD, including three K-9 teams, the Worcester County Sheriff's Office and the Maryland State Police were called in to help disburse the crowd. During the large incident, an OCPD K-9 handler was assaulted by one of the suspects and a K-9 dog bit one of the combative, resistant suspects.

Four officers received minor injuries during the incident and three suspects were transported by Ocean City EMS to AGH where they were treated for minor injuries and released. When the dust settled, 10 arrests were made for a wide variety of offenses from assault to failure to obey a lawful order and from obstructing and hindering to resisting arrest.

Among those arrested on the most serious charges Planter, who was charged with two counts of second-degree assault on a police officer, malicious destruction of property, possession of cocaine and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and failure to obey a lawful police order.

Each of the other nine suspects arrested during the riot have gone to trial with a wide variety of results, but none received a sentence close to the seven years given to Planter this week. Planter had an extensive history with local police before the incident including a three-year suspended sentence for cocaine possession and a one-year sentence for possession with intent to distribute cocaine, both in 2007.