Frederick, MD - Female Prisoner Assaults Police Officer - Tries to Steal Police Car - Sentenced 10 Years

Maley to serve 10 years
Repeat offender jailed for assaulting officer

News-Post Staff
 

A woman convicted of attacking a police officer while trying to steal her cruiser was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in the Maryland Division of Correction.
"Officer Samantha Crane didn't think she would go home that night," Assistant State's Attorney Colleen K. Swanson told Judge Julie Stevenson Solt in Frederick County Circuit Court.

Swanson called Lisa L. Maley's criminal and motor vehicle record dating to 1993 "atrocious," including eight convictions for drunken driving and five for driving on suspended or revoked licenses.

Because Maley, 35, has failed to learn from several relatively brief stints behind bars, the prosecutor said the time had come to send her to the state prison system for a long time.

"She has had many, many opportunities to be amenable to treatment to get on the right path," Swanson said. "She is an absolute clear danger to law enforcement."

Crane was driving Maley to Frederick Police Department headquarters on drug charges , when Maley, in the back seat, slipped out of a handcuff and attacked the officer from behind, scratching her face and pulling her hair.

Seconds before the assault, Crane, a four-year veteran, looked in the rearview mirror.

"She was smiling at me," Crane said. "She was holding the headrest. She swung her arm around and latched onto my face. The handcuff clumped me in the head É I felt her groping for my gun."

Fire and rescue crews that witnessed the assault at South Court Street and Citizen's Way came to Crane's aid before police backup arrived.

Defending her client was difficult because Maley, a longtime drug and alcohol abuser, couldn't remember what happened, defense attorney Mary Drawbaugh said.

"She has no recollection of the events after the handcuff became loose," Drawbaugh said, urging Solt to place Maley where she could receive mental health treatment.

Maley apologized to the court and to Crane.

"I'm really sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to hurt her É I'm not going to drink when I leave jail."

The judge gave Maley credit for 473 days of time served in the Frederick County Adult Detention Center while awaiting trial. She said prison time was appropriate.

"What you did could have killed Officer Crane or other people," Solt said. "That you are capable of committing these kinds of acts is the primary reason there has to be protections for the public."

After her release from prison, Maley will be on three years of supervised probation and is prohibited from using alcohol or nonprescribed drugs.

Should Maley violate conditions of her probation, Solt may impose nine more years of prison time.

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