$100K bail set for univ. lecturer

LEONARDTOWN – An English lecturer charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of her husband was granted $100,000 bail in St. Mary's County District Court Wednesday afternoon.

Joanna Findlay — who teaches four sections of junior English — was accused of shooting her husband, Gary Trogdon, in their Hollywood, Md., home Oct. 30. She had not posted bail and remained incarcerated as of last night, according to court records. No trial date has yet been set.

Lea Chartok, who directs the English Department's Professional Writing Program, could not be reached Wednesday afternoon or over Thanksgiving break to comment if Findlay would resume teaching her ENGL393: Technical Writing and ENGL398C: Writing Case Studies and Narratives classes if she posts bail. Findlay, 40, has taught at the university since 2002, and her classes are currently under the care of substitute instructors.

Findlay told police that Trogdon, 55, shot himself after she found his stash of child pornography, according to a police report. Her attorney, John Ray, said in an interview she is "doing well" and has been visited by her Scottish parents.

Ray argued in court she should be released on bond until her trial because she has no previous criminal record and the alleged shooting is considered a domestic dispute.

"We don't believe even the allegations most favorable to the state indicate that Ms. Findlay is a danger to anyone in St. Mary's County," Ray said at Wednesday's hearing.

Prosecutors worried she might flee to her native Scotland and argued the "seriousness and violence" of the alleged crime should keep her in jail. But Judge Christy Holt Chesser said she was ultimately swayed by Ray's offer to allow the state to monitor Findlay if and when she is released.

"I think that some of my concerns can be allayed by having her on pretrial supervision," Chesser said as she granted the $100,000 bond, also noting that police had seized Findlay's passport.

Ray said he did not know whether Findlay would be posting the bail, saying it was a decision for her family. During the hearing, he did not object to the $100,000 sum; in an interview afterward, he described it as "reasonable for the judge to do in a case like this."

Findlay's parents were in court Wednesday but declined to speak to reporters after meeting with Ray. Findlay, who was wearing handcuffs and gray-and-white striped clothing, did not speak during the hearing but regularly looked over at her parents and a neighbor who sat near the front of the courtroom.

At the hearing, St. Mary's County Sheriff's Detective Cpl. Robert Merritt testified police received a 911 call from Findlay and Trogdon's house in the 43400 block of Little Cliffs Road, a privately maintained dirt-and-gravel street near the Patuxent River, at about 10:50 p.m. Oct. 30.

Findlay made the first call to report a domestic assault, Merritt said, and the call was disconnected. When 911 dispatchers called the house, Trogdon answered and said his wife had shot him and shot at him, Merritt said.

When officers arrived at the couple's home, they found Findlay in the driveway with blood on her clothes and Trogdon dead with a gunshot wound to his chest in a living-room chair, Merritt said. An autopsy identified a contact wound, meaning the gun would have been touching his chest when it went off.

Detectives are not yet certain whether Trogdon was shot with a .22-caliber or a .357-caliber weapon, Merritt said, as both guns were found at the scene. It is also unclear whether there is child pornography on a computer detectives took from the home, he added.

"That's still under investigation," Merritt said in response to several questions from Ray in court on the topic. At other points, he paged through the reports before answering questions.

"The contact wound is consistent with what Findlay told the officer right away," Ray said in an interview. "That's why [Merritt] didn't want to talk about it."

Merritt — the only witness called at the hearing — declined to comment afterward.

Findlay's neighbor, who would not provide her name, said in an interview that various friends were taking care of Findlay's cats and dog and that she was helping Findlay's parents keep up her house while Findlay remains in jail.

"She needs to be allowed to go outside and to take care of her pets," the neighbor said. "She's got a good soul."

holt at umdbk dot com