Paris George, the Timonium man repeatedly accused of taking advantage of elderly and disabled people, vowed his innocence Tuesday in Howard County Circuit Court.
“I will win this case ? I just need the opportunity to do it,” George told Howard County Circuit Court Judge Richard Bernhardt.
George faces charges of lying under oath and presenting fake documents that won him an acquittal during a May 2005 trial.
During that trial, he was accused of defrauding a Clarksville couple of a $6,300 wheelchair lift, which George said he would install but never delivered, court documents state.
George?s attorney, Joseph Murtha, dropped George as a client earlier this month after, Murtha said, George wrote him a bad check ? a charge George disputed in court Tuesday as “totally incorrect.”
Bernhardt granted George a postponement because George needed more time to find another attorney, the judge said.
Assistant State?s Attorney Stacy Mayer argued that George should not receive a postponement, because he failed to appear at a Feb. 9 court date and has had more than seven months to secure an attorney.
Bernhardt said he granted George?s motion for postponement “without great enthusiasm.”
In an interview with The Examiner after Tuesday?s hearing, George said the current charges of perjury against him are baseless.
“I?m not guilty,” he said. “We will win this case.”
His new trial date is Oct. 3.
In 2004, The Baltimore County Circuit Court ordered George to pay a $75,000 fine for violations of the Consumer Protection Act, according to the office of Maryland Attorney General Joseph Curran.
The court ruled that George cheated residents out of medical equipment, including wheelchairs and stair lifts, by selling the items and then failing to provide them, the attorney general?s office said.
