Tag: kevin walsh

Frosty reception: The dirt on the snowman

Leave it to the Sun to melt the Snowman.

The Baltimore Sun reports that Frosty the Snowman — so rudely removed from the Chestertown Christmas parade — has a history of tangling with police, and that Saturday’s arrest, after he allegedly kicked at a police dog and butted his snowman head against an officer, was his fifth this year

The man beneath the Frosty costume, Kevin Michael Walsh, 52, of Chestertown, has performed off an on at the Christmas parade for 10 years.

But this year alone, according to the Sun, he has been convicted of “telephone misuse” for calling police in April and pretending to be a CNN reporter, and found guilty of disorderly conduct for standing outside the Town Hall in May banging pots and pans because he couldn’t get inside. Both incidents led to suspended jail sentences and probation.

The parade-related charges, though — three counts of second-degree assault and one count of resisting arrest — could, upon conviction, carry a sentence of as much as 33 years in prison.

“He likes to agitate police,” Deputy Police Chief William H. Dwyer Jr. told the Sun. “He’s just a town nuisance.”

Walsh, who once ran a watch business, describes himself as a political activist “exercising his right to free speech in a small town where officials don’t like being challenged,” according to the Sun.

Walsh said that upon noticing a police dog at the parade, he approached patrolman James H. Walker, who was standing on the corner with his K9, Henzo.

“I said, ‘Well, that’s not right to have a dog at the parade,’” Walsh told the Sun. “I don’t think a children’s parade should have police dogs.”

Police reports say Walsh made a “kicking motion” toward the dog; Walsh says he merely lost his balance in the costume.

After putting Henzo in his police car, the patrolman returned and removed Walsh from the parade — ostensibly to counsel him on the wisdom of antagonizing police dogs.

Deputy Chief Dwyer said Walsh then started “cussing” and became “verbally abusive” toward Walker, at which time he was arrested. He was released on his own recognizance later that day.