Annapolis woman charged with abandoning boat in Spa Creek, latest in string of ditched vessels

An Annapolis woman being prosecuted for leaving a trail of boats abandoned in Maryland waters again finds herself in trouble with the law, this time for allegedly ditching a sailboat in Spa Creek.

Angelina Scarton was charged May 1 with one count of abandoning a vessel in the waters of the City of Annapolis. Reached by telephone Friday, the 31-year-old denied her boat was abandoned and blamed Maryland Natural Resources Police for the handful of other active boat abandonment charges against her.

Scarton’s 25-foot, weathered sailboat first caught the attention of Annapolis Harbormaster Beth Bellis’ team on April 9 when they found it illegally anchored in upper Spa Creek. The boat dragged anchor repeatedly over the next several weeks, crashing into the pier of a condominium complex and blocking access to city moorings, and was found to be taking on water in the cockpit, Bellis wrote in charging documents.

When one of the harbormaster’s watch commanders tried to serve Scarton with citations on April 14, she allegedly fled and cursed at the city officials.

Scarton admitted making a rude gesture at the city harbormaster, but said called the latest charge fraudulent. She denied that the boat was taking on water, saying it was just rainwater, or that the boat had dragged anchor.

“My boat is anchored right by the harbormaster’s boat,” she said. “They see me on it all the time and they know I didn’t abandon it.”

The criminal summons filed by the harbormaster is just the latest in a stretch of criminal charges and lawsuits connected to Scarton. The trouble began July 31 when seven of Scarton’s boats were evicted from a South River marina and broke loose as she towed them toward the Chesapeake Bay. With a storm looming, police and Samaritans struggled to corral the vessels.

All of Scarton’s boats in the runaway fleet were older, made between 1970 and 1980. Scarton has collected a number of vessels to operate a bed and breakfast business on the water, she said.

“People loved it too.”

Residents warned the police that two of Scarton’s boats were weathering away in precarious positions. But the agency was hamstrung by the state’s abandoned boat law, which says law enforcement can’t remove a vessel from a waterway until it falls into disrepair and becomes a navigational and environmental hazard. Crazy Girl, a 32-foot Trojan cruiser, sunk off Tolly Point and Party of Five washed onto the rocks of Greenbury Point. The former was leaking fuel.

After the two boats became hazardous, Scarton was charged with two counts of abandoning a vessel. The trial in District Court is slated for June 19.

The saga of Scarton’s abandoned boats and outrage from Bay Ridge residents who tried to get Crazy Girl towed before it sank caught the attention of Sen. Sarah Elfreth, D-Annapolis. She introduced legislation to make it easier for the DNR to confiscate a vessel.

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan let Elfreth’s bill become law without his signature.

The Department of Natural Resources raised Crazy Girl from the water and retrieved Party of Five from the rocks. Elfreth estimated it cost taxpayers thousands of dollars more to dredge the 32-foot boat after it sank rather than tow it while afloat. The two boats joined five others of Scarton’s at the agency’s facility on Kent Island. Police gave Scarton a deadline to retrieve five of her vessels, according to court documents. The two boats considered abandoned were held as evidence in a criminal investigation.

Scarton repeatedly failed to recover her boats, police said in court records, coming up with excuses for why she couldn’t collect them in time. Police gave her extensions. Scarton eventually got three of her vessels from the DNR’s Matapeake facility. But two remained and Scarton was charged in Queen Anne’s County with two counts of abandoning a vessel, a misdemeanor which carries a maximum penalty of a fine not to exceed $1,000 or up to six months in jail.

Scarton sued the DNR, seeking to reclaim possession of her boats. She argued that they were taken illegally and that she hadn’t been given adequate time or access to retrieve them. She is seeking $30,000 in damages, apparently for losing a boat-towing contract.

“My property was taken to the DNR facility without notice or reasoning…” Scarton wrote in the lawsuit. “I was told I had 30 days to remove them but was given approximately 11 days… If they had not moved them without notice, they would have been towed by my hired service.”

In response, the state Attorney General’s Office, which represents the DNR, laid out a very different account of what happened with Scarton’s boats, buoyed by sworn statements from police officers as to what transpired. Their account shows that the interaction with Scarton dragged on for the better part of four months last year, with Scarton balking at deadline after deadline. State lawyers argued her lawsuit should be dismissed.

No ruling has been issued.

Since being charged for abandoning two boats at the DNR facility, Scarton has transferred the registration of one of the boats — a 35-foot De Visser cabin motorboat — to another person, court records show. The boats remain at the facility in Stevensville.

The sailboat remains in Spa Creek. The vessel has not been lighted at night as required by law and obstructs access to the public mooring field, the harbormaster wrote. “It has been found adrift or unattended so as to constitute a hazard to the use of the waters of the state.”

“The vessel is abandoned.”