A Carroll County judge is weighing the future of charges against four men in the August death of a Rocky Ridge man outside a bar in Keymar.

Lawyers for the men asked Carroll County Circuit Court Judge Michael M. Galloway on Wednesday to dismiss the charges against them, arguing that a grand jury indictment issued in the case is fatally flawed.

John D. Robey, 53, and his sons, Jonathan Robey, 20, and Thomas Robey, 22, are charged with second-degree murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault and manslaughter in the Aug. 28 death of Craig E. Myers, 26, of Rocky Ridge. Police were called to the bar in the 6600 block of Middleburg Road in Keymar around 9:15 p.m. on Aug. 28 and found Myers unresponsive. Witnesses said he’d been involved in an altercation that turned into a physical assault, according to police.

The three defendants had lived on Main Street in Woodsboro but moved to Hagerstown before their arrests.

A fourth defendant, Michael J. “Hank” Grimes, 48, of Woodsboro, is charged with manslaughter and second-degree assault. The discrepancy between the charges against the Robeys and the ones against Grimes was at issue in the motions hearing in front of Galloway.

Grimes isn’t charged with murder or first-degree assault in his case, but is listed as being charged with them in court documents presented in the Robey cases, Judson K. Larrimore, an attorney for John Robey, told Galloway.

The grand jury didn’t indict Grimes on either of the charges, opening the question of whether it intended to indict any of the men, Larrimore said.

The discrepancy can’t be investigated because grand jury deliberations are secret, he said.

“We only know what we’re told, but we know enough to know, unequivocably, that these charges are tainted,” Larrimore told the judge.

Peter Korzenewski, who represents Jonathan Robey, went a step further and asked Galloway to unseal the entire grand jury record and transcript so the attorneys could see how the jurors voted.

Prosecutors either purposely didn’t include two charges signed by the grand jury, or the jury didn’t sign them, he said, calling the grand jury process in the case “fundamentally flawed.”

Matthew Williamson, an attorney for Grimes, said the charges have to be dismissed if there’s any doubt at all about what happened in the grand jury room.

Clarke Ahlers, who represents Thomas Robey, asked Galloway how he can prepare a defense concerning whether his client is responsible for Grimes’ conduct for charges Grimes doesn’t even face.

“”Am I defending Mr. Robey for his conduct alone ... or am I defending joint conduct?” Ahlers asked.

Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Kelley Galvin argued that the case involved four defendants allegedly involved in the same incident, “acting like a wolf pack.”

The Maryland Rules of Evidence allow the state to indict multiple defendants in the same case, and the state proceeded in a way the rules allow it to, she said.

Galloway said he would issue a decision in the case at a later date.

rmarshall@gazette.net