DWI HIT PARADE: Wild driver Robert Currie has a lead foot and likes hi-test beverages to celebrate holidays; numerous easy plea deals from St. Mary’s States Attorney Richard Fritz keeps him out of jail

DWI HIT PARADE: Wild driver Robert Currie has a lead foot and likes hi-test beverages to celebrate holidays; numerous easy plea deals from St. Mary’s States Attorney Richard Fritz keeps him out of jail

CALIFORNIA, MD. – A Hollywood man, with a record of DWI convictions, who just one week earlier was given a sweet plea deal on traffic charges involving failing to reduce his speed to avoid a crash, on March 16, 2021, sent one of his victims in one of the other vehicles to a trauma center after slamming into them as they were stopped in a left-turn lane for a traffic light.  

St. Mary’s Sheriff Tim Cameron reports that on Tuesday, March 16, 2021, at approximately 8:29 pm, St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Department Deputies were dispatched to a serious motor vehicle collision in the area of Three Notch Road (Md. Rt. 235) and Wildewood Blvd. in California, Md. Deputies arrived on the scene of a rear-end collision involving three vehicles, with one vehicle overturned.

The St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office Collision Reconstruction Unit responded to the scene to continue the investigation.

Cameron reports that the preliminary investigation determined that a 2011 Honda Ridgeline, operated by Robert Currie, 80, of Hollywood, traveled at a high rate of speed in the northbound left-turn lane of Three Notch Road. The Ridgeline struck an Audi A3, operated by Uchnenna Tyrone Ojigbo, 33 of California, who was stationary in the turn lane to travel onto Wildewood Boulevard.

The impact caused the Audi to strike a Honda Odyssey, operated by Elena Bivol Brewer, 41 of California, Md.,, who was also stationary in the turn lane in front of the Audi. The Odyssey was pushed into the northbound intersection while the Audi and Ridgeline continued into the southbound lanes. The Ridgeline then rolled over and came to rest on its roof. Both the Ridgeline and Audi operators were transported to an area shock trauma center by ground ambulance due to weather grounding the helicopters. Both were reported with incapacitating injuries. The operator and passengers of the Odyssey were evaluated by EMS on the scene and refused further treatment.

Cameron reports that speed is considered to be a contributing factor in the collision. Blood tests from the hospital, if subpoened by Fritz, could reveal any possible impairment for this latest event in the highway demo derby career of low-flying Bob Currie.

Anyone who may have witnessed the collision or any events leading up to the crash is asked to contact DFC Jason Smith at 301-475-4200, ext. 72328.

The week before Robert Stevens Curries’ dangerous crash, which caused severe injury to another, St. Mary’s States Attorney Richard Fritz dropped charges of failing to reduce his speed to avoid a collision. In a plea deal, Currie pled guilty to driving while suspended.  Currie was operating the same 2011 Ridgeline truck when he crashed on June 19, 2020, at 10:54 am, as when he wrecked into two vehicles on Rt. 235 at Wildwood Blvd. on March 16, 2021.  THE DEAL: no fine, and no time was arranged for Currie by his very talented attorneys as the ten-day jail term was suspended.  One year of unsupervised probation was also part of the deal.

In the plea deal on March 10, 2021, in St. Mary’s District Court, Currie was represented by Lexington Park attorneys Richard Steinmetz and Joshua Tarr. 

St. Mary’s Sheriff’s Department Deputy Sheena Tirpak issued four citations for traffic violations for the incident on Lucky Lane to Currie with all of the charges dropped by Fritz, including another citation for failing to attend Driver Improvement Program classes which are apparently never going to work for Currie anyway.

Robert Stevens Currie, (DOB 7/24/1940) of 24740 Marva Point Road, Hollywood, Md., was charged with DWI by Maryland State Trooper Eric Evans on November 12, 2019, at 6:59 pm as he operated a 1996 Chevy Silverado on Marva Point Road at Joy Chapel Road. Currie hired Richard Steinmetz Jr. of Lexington Park to be his attorney in this case. In a plea deal with St. Mary’s States Attorney Richard Fritz on February 14, 2020, Currie was given a Valentine’s Day Love Letter by Fritz when he entered a guilty plea to DWI. THE DEAL: Currie was sentenced to sixty days in the Hotel St. Mary’s with all sixty days suspended and two years of supervised probation.   A charge of failing to attend driver improvement school was dropped as part of the deal, as was a charge of driving while suspended, often dumped by St. Mary’s County’s fearless prosecutors.

Court records show that Currie filed to have the sentence reconsidered, despite the lack of severity for the guilty plea to DWI, on March 13, 2020.  The motion noted that Currie had completed drug and alcohol treatment. On December 7, 2020, court records reveal that Currie celebrated Pearl Harbor Day with a new arrest.

At the same time that Currie’s wife, Betty Currie, was a member of the St. Mary’s County Alcoholic Beverage Board, Robert Currie proved that he knew quite about alcoholic beverages when he entered a guilty plea to DWI on March 14, 2012.  Maryland State Trooper S. Ditoto arrested Currie on January 1, 2012, showing once again a nexus between Currie’s drinking habits and important holidays such as New Year’s Eve and, most recently, St. Patrick’s Day week.   On the New Years’ 2012 arrest, Currie was driving a 1996 Chevy on Mervell Dean Road south of Tom Hodges Drive in Hollywood, Md., not far from his home at Marva Point. 

Court records on this arrest show that Fritz gave Currie a verdict of Probation Before Judgement with no fine and no time. Attorney Steinmetz was once again the dealmaker for Currie with Fritz. Steinmetz began his legal career working as a law clerk for the Republican National Committee.

Excerpts of Betty Currie Grand Jury Testimony

Currie supported his wife during the time that she was called by the federal Grand Jury investigating President Bill Clinton’s actions and his affair with Monica Lewinsky in 1998. According to an interview in the Washington Post in 1968, Currie often flew his wife off to weekend getaways.

Betty Currie was the executive secretary to Clinton and arranged many of the clandestine meetings between Clinton and Lewinsky in the Oval Office, retrieved gifts that Clinton had given to his mistress, and took possession of the infamous ‘dress with the mess’ from Lewinsky that had presidential DNA embedded.

Robert Currie is a pilot and retired as a planning director for the Environmental Protection Agency. The Curries bought the home once owned by Lexington Park furniture salesman Tom Ostertag on the Patuxent River in 1998.

Betty Currie was appointed to the Alcohol Beverage Board by then-Senator Roy Dyson (D. St. Mary’s, Calvert) in 2008 and served three terms. She is active in Democratic Party activities in St. Mary’s County and participates in national politics.

2018

Robert Currie owned an aircraft through 2018. It is unknown if he still is an active pilot, other than flying his Ridgeline truck upside down on Md. Rt. 235.

Tail Number: N677BBAircraft Type:
2006 – CURRIE ROBERT S KOLB FIRESTAR II, Serial #: FS00300029
Registered to:
CURRIE ROBERT STEVENS
24740 MARVA POINT WAY

HOLLYWOOD MD 206364844
Ownership History for N677BBFAA
Registration Search for N677BBNTSB
Safety Record Search for N677BB

How Betty Currie got Socks, the cat, who lived to be 19 years old

Riley

And then you ended up with the cat. How did that happen?

Currie

I’d like to say I was very lucky. President Clinton and Mrs. Clinton and Chelsea were going to be moving to New York because she was going to be the U.S. Senator. They had gotten her a residence in Washington because they never had a house. They had, as they said, always had federal housing, from Governor to President. Both houses were being renovated. Buddy the dog would go and they had a problem about what to do with Socks. I was more than happy. He said, Could you, please?

The day I was getting Socks, someone said Chelsea called. No one had advised her of what was happening. I said, Oh, let Chelsea decide what happens with the cat. She said she had no problem with me having the cat.