Find Arrest Records in St. Mary's County

St. Mary's County arrest records are held by the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office in Leonardtown and are available through formal requests under the Maryland Public Information Act. This page covers how to contact the Sheriff's Office, how to use the Maryland Judiciary Case Search for court records, and what state-level resources are available for this southern Maryland peninsula county.

St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office Records

The St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office in Leonardtown is the primary law enforcement agency for the county and holds arrest records, incident reports, and other law enforcement documents. The Sheriff's Office covers the entire county, which occupies a peninsula between the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay in southern Maryland. Their website at stmarysmd.com/sheriff provides contact information, hours, and instructions for submitting public records requests.

To request arrest records from the Sheriff's Office, you submit a Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) request. Requests can be made in person at the Leonardtown office, by mail, or through any online option the agency makes available. In your request, include the full name of the person whose record you are looking for, the approximate date or timeframe of the incident, and any additional details you have, such as a case number or the nature of the charge. The more precise your request, the easier it is for staff to find the right file.

The Sheriff's Office has 10 working days to respond to your request. Their first response may not include the actual records. It can be an acknowledgment with a timeline, a fee estimate, a request for more information, or a denial. If any part of your request is denied, the agency must identify the specific legal provision that allows the withholding and explain how you can appeal. You have the right to challenge a denial through the agency head and then through the courts.

St. Mary's County has a population of around 115,000 and is one of the larger counties in southern Maryland. It borders Charles County to the north. Calvert County is to the northeast across the Patuxent River. The county has a significant military presence due to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, which is located in the county and employs many residents. The Sheriff's Office is the primary law enforcement agency, though some areas are covered by the Maryland State Police as well.

Maryland Judiciary Case Search: St. Mary's County Cases

The Maryland Judiciary Case Search is a free statewide tool that covers all Maryland courts, including the Circuit Court and District Court for St. Mary's County. You can search by name and find criminal case filings, charges, hearing dates, and case outcomes. The search is available to anyone without registration. It shows what is in the court record after an arrest leads to charges, but it does not show arrests that never led to charges, and it does not display expunged or shielded records.

Since December 7, 2021, the system requires exact name matches. Using the percent sign (%) at the end of a name activates a wildcard search. "Williams%" will return Williams, Williamson, Williamsburg, and similar entries. A CAPTCHA appears with each search. Filtering by St. Mary's County as the court location helps narrow results. For common names, adding a date of birth in the optional fields can reduce the number of unrelated results you have to sort through.

MPIA Rights and Fees for St. Mary's County Records

Maryland's Public Information Act gives everyone the right to request records from government agencies, including the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office. The first two hours of staff search time are provided at no cost. After that, fees apply under the COMAR 29.01.02.13 schedule. The agency must give you a written fee estimate before charging anything beyond the free period, and you can modify your request to reduce costs. You are not required to pay for records you didn't know would be expensive. Scaling back the scope of your request is always an option.

If you are the person the record is about, your rights are broader than those of a third-party requester. As a person in interest, you may be able to access records that would otherwise be withheld, particularly those that directly concern your own case or identity. This broader access does not override every exemption in the law, but it applies in many common situations. The Maryland Attorney General's MPIA manual at oag.state.md.us/Opengov/pia.htm is a thorough and free guide to these rights that is worth reading before you submit any formal request.

Arrest Records vs. Court Records: St. Mary's County

These are two different things that come from two different sources. An arrest record is created by the Sheriff's Office at booking. It documents the date and time of arrest, the charges at that moment, the identity of the person taken into custody, and the arresting deputy's information. A court record documents what happened after the arrest in the court system: whether charges were filed, what plea was entered, and how the case ended.

If you need a full picture of a case, you'll need both. The Sheriff's Office provides the law enforcement side. The Maryland Judiciary Case Search or the Circuit Court clerk's office in Leonardtown provides the court side. Certified copies of court documents from the clerk carry more official weight than an online printout. You can request them directly from the Circuit Court for St. Mary's County, which is located in Leonardtown alongside the other county government offices.

An arrest is not a conviction. A person can be arrested and never charged. They can be charged and later found not guilty. The arrest record and the court record will each tell a different part of the story, and you need to use both if you want the complete picture.

The screenshot below shows the Maryland Judiciary Case Search interface.

Use the court location filter to narrow results to St. Mary's County cases specifically when doing name-based searches.

DPSCS Inmate Locator for St. Mary's County Cases

If a person was convicted in St. Mary's County and sentenced to a Maryland state prison, the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) Inmate Locator is a free tool for checking their current status. You can search by name and see the facility they are held at, the committing county, sentence details, and projected release date. The tool covers state correctional facilities only. It does not include people held at the St. Mary's County Detention Center or anyone who is pretrial and awaiting their court date locally.

If the person has already been released from state custody, they may not appear in the current database. For older cases or those involving local jail time only, the Sheriff's Office or the Circuit Court clerk in Leonardtown is the better resource for tracking what happened.

Maryland State Police Records in St. Mary's County

The Maryland State Police has a barrack in St. Mary's County and maintains records independent of the Sheriff's Office. If an arrest was made by an MSP trooper, the record will be at MSP, not the county Sheriff. Those records must be requested separately from MSP Central Records at 1711 Belmont Ave, Baltimore, MD 21244. The phone number is (410) 653-4246. The office is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The MSP Public Information Request page is shown below.

Submit your request in writing and include as much detail about the case as you have. MSP records are only for incidents involving state troopers. For county deputy-involved incidents, go to the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office.

Expungement and Shielding in St. Mary's County

Maryland law allows people to petition for expungement of certain arrests and charges that did not result in conviction, and some convictions under specific conditions. Once a record is expunged, it is removed from public view. The Judiciary Case Search will not show it, and the Sheriff's Office must remove it from their files as well. A blank search result does not mean no arrest ever happened; the record may have been expunged.

Maryland also has a separate shielding process for certain non-violent convictions after a waiting period. Shielded records are hidden from the public but remain accessible to law enforcement. If you want to explore whether a specific record is eligible for expungement or shielding, a Maryland criminal defense attorney practicing in St. Mary's County can explain the eligibility rules and help you file the petition in the correct court.

Nearby Maryland Counties

St. Mary's County sits at the southern tip of Maryland's western shore and shares land borders with two other counties.