Wicomico County Man Found Guilty of Threats Against Eastern Shore Undercover and Family; Banned From Using the Internet and Social Media

Wicomico County, MD - Today was the court date for the incident involving threats towards me and my family. As promised, I wanted to go over the incident and outcome so we can move forward.

Beginning in the summer of 2024, and continuing until February 2025, we began receiving threats towards myself and my family.

These threats were sent from an anonymous email, as well as letters sent to our home.

These threats started with an individual or individuals sending just worded email and then went on to us being sent photos of my family members, to include a photo of my innocent 4-year-old grandson who was playing in his backyard at his birthday party, and they put a crosshairs bullseye over his head and sent us the email!

These threats continued for six months and got worse and worse as time went by.

This caused me to go to the Maryland State Police, to keep my family safe, among other things. The Maryland State Police initiated an investigation into the matter in August 2024.

A lengthy investigation took place and the suspect was determined to be Ryan Peek, the owner of the social media page, Wicomico First Alert. Peek was formally charged with Stalking, Harassment; A Course of Conduct and Electronic Communications Harassment. All three charges are misdemeanor.

In August 2025, we went to court and had a trial against Peek. This case was held in front of the honorable Judge Abigail Marsh. Judge Marsh heard the case and found Peek guilty on ALL counts. She postponed the sentencing to have a Pre-Sentence Investigation completed and due to the fact that Peek had other pending charges in the Wicomico County Circuit Court at that time.

The sentencing was postponed several times for various reasons and today, we finally had the conclusion. Peek was sentenced to 3-years in prison, with all 3-years suspended. Peek was placed on 2-years of supervised probation.

Additionally, Peek was ordered to have NO connection to the internet with the exception of for doctors appointments and medical reasons. This will prevent Peek from ever doing this to another person and providing this community with a sense of security knowing he can't cause the stress to anyone else by the means of using the internet or social media.

Last thing, we have a lot of people to be thankful for.

We want to thank Judge Marsh for her thoughtful sentence. Being honest, we didn't think Peek would get any sort of punishment because of his health condition, but she was stern and fair, and we appreciate what she did to come up with a constructive sentence to impose some sort of punishment.

Second, we want to thank Sgt Ryan Watkins and Cpl Matthew Honsinger of the Maryland State Police, for their amazing work and investigations. These types of investigations are never easy.

There is a lot of leg work that has to be done to find out IP addresses, computer and iPad ID's, subpoena's for internet connections and much more! These two troopers are amazing and will forever have my family's appreciation and respect.

Next, we want to thank Wicomico County State's Attorney Jamie Dykes and her staff. Everyone that we dealt with was truly compassionate and caring towards my family, and we truly appreciate it.

We want to also thank everyone who reached out over the past 18 months and offered their homes as shelter, those who wanted to come to court to testify of past interactions and even those citizens who reached out wanting to stand guard outside our homes to make sure we were safe! Those actions and offers will never be forgotten.

Finally, in our society, violence towards anyone on social media for having a voice is unacceptable and must stop. Not just in this case but in general, we are better than this, as a society. It's uncalled for and threats to attempt to control someone's voice will not be tolerated.

Choose peace over violence!!!