Md. campaign office broken into by Mainer

BALTIMORE – A man has pleaded guilty to breaking into the gubernatorial campaign office of Mayor Martin O’Malley.

Tugboat operator Jason Yereance, 32, of Walpole, Maine, broke into the office last month in Baltimore’s Canton neighborhood. Police said it appeared he was drunk and looking for a bathroom, and police and campaign officials said nothing appeared to have been stolen.

Yereance entered a guilty plea Friday to fourth-degree breaking and entering, according to a news release from the office of the Baltimore state’s attorney. There was insufficient evidence to go forward with burglary charges he also faced, the prosecutor’s office said.

Visiting Judge Gordon Boone sentenced Yereance to probation before judgment. That means that if he stays out of trouble, he can later ask to have his criminal record cleared.

The case was originally scheduled to be heard Wednesday at North Avenue District Court. But O’Malley’s wife, Judge Catherine Curran O’Malley, was scheduled to hear cases that day at that court. The hearing was rescheduled for a different date in front of the visiting judge to avoid a conflict of interest, prosecutors said.

Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, is challenging Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich in this fall’s election.