A former Howard County high school teacher has been sentenced to more than six years in prison for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine worth about $50,000.
U.S. District Court Judge Andre Davis also required Timothy Hartlove, who taught at River Hill High School for four years, to complete 500 hours in the residential drug abuse treatment program.
Hartlove?s federal prison term will begin Aug. 1. He was terminated from Howard County public schools on Nov. 11, 2005.
At River Hill, Hartlove taught advanced placement courses, coached the debate and “It?s Academic” teams, and served as a faculty adviser to the Gay-Straight Alliance.
“He was a fabulous teacher,” said his attorney, Gary Bernstein. “He?s not going to be teaching in the state of Maryland because they took away his certification. It?s very dramatic. His whole life was about the teaching.”
Hartlove was arrested in September 2005 in Baltimore County after a joint investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Maryland State Police, according to the federal agency.
Hartlove, 37, of Baltimore City, was charged after he accepted a package with more than 50 grams of methamphetamine from a middleman working with DEA agents and state police.
According to court documents submitted by the attorney for the middleman, Hartlove?s co-defendant Robin Southall, authorities initially caught Southall with the drugs, which he intended to deliver to Hartlove.
“Mr. Southall developed a very close personal relationship with his drug dealer, co-defendant Timothy Hartlove, who he depended upon for emotional support,” wrote Lynda Dee, Southall?s attorney.
“He saw Hartlove almost daily socially and also as his gardener. It was in this context of this close relationship … that he agreed to allow Hartlove to have methamphetamine delivered to him.”
Bernstein said Hartlove was an addict and used the proceeds from his drug dealing to finance his habit.
“He had a horrible childhood,” Bernstein said. “He was out on the street at age 15. He had to fend for himself for years.”
