ELKTON â In December 2004, Pennsylvania State Police Det. John J. Comerford swore out an arrest warrant charging former Port Deposit-area resident Joseph Dwayne Griest with first-degree rape and related sexual assault offenses in that state.
Comerford did so even though Griest, who was 33 at that time, already was serving a 65-year prison sentence in Maryland in a related 1999 kidnapping case that had been handled in Cecil County.
His decision to secure that Pennsylvania arrest warrant more than 16 years ago loomed large on March 16.
Thatâs when Griest, now 49, received a 35-year prison term after pleading guilty to kidnapping and carjacking in his latest successful appeal of that dual-jurisdiction case relating to a 1999 abduction that started in Elkton and ended several hours later in Pennsylvania.