Judge denies peace order against grieving Fallston father accused of trespassing

Five months to the day after his 20-year-old son died in a motorcycle crash, Brad Hopkins told a Harford County District Court judge he has the right to honor his son with a roadside memorial along Route 152 in Fallston.

A family living near the memorial alleged that Hopkins trespassed on their property, which butts up against the highway. The Zou family filed four peace orders, one per family member.

Judge Donald Walter said the Zou family had the burden of proving the two private property signs Hopkins admitted to removing from the memorial site were on the Zous’ property, and there wasn’t enough evidence.

“It’s just not clear,” he said Friday before denying all four petitions.

Gavin Hopkins was heading north “at a high rate of speed” on Fallston Road in Harford County just after 3:30 p.m. March 21, according to Maryland State Police. He lost control of his motorcycle and veered off the roadway. He struck a mailbox, then a guardrail. As his motorcycle skidded across one property, he hit a tree and came to a stop on the property next door. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Court records show the family, Zong Ming Zou, Xiu Zhen Zhu and their two children, felt intimidated by the memorial cross Gavin Hopkins’ family and friends put up, as well as the many people who came to pay their respects at the site of his crash.

Gavin Hopkins’ youngest sister, Laela Hopkins, said the site will always hold a special place for her family, especially because her brother was cremated and there isn’t a burial site to visit.

“That’s where he took his last breath,” she said previously.

On July 31 — the same day the Zou family filed their petitions — the Maryland State Highway Administration removed the cross.

Roadside memorials aren’t allowed on state highways for safety reasons, a highway administration spokesperson previously told The Banner.

Hopkins said a highway maintenance engineer initially gave him permission to put up the cross and, now that the court case is over, he will be renewing his fight to place a permanent memorial at the site.

“[The Zou family] never could understand why we put a cross there. I don’t know how somebody could not understand that,” Hopkins said. “You know, to me, it was heartless what they did.”

The grieving father added that several nonprofit organizations, along with parents and family members, have contacted him about petitioning legislators in Annapolis to amend state law to allow roadside memorials.

The Zous’ attorney, T. Wray McCurdy, said his clients were being bullied by the elder Hopkins and that the language barrier — the parents speak only Mandarin — has forced their 13-year-old to act as a translator for them during interactions with Hopkins.

McCurdy repeatedly argued that Hopkins terrified the 13-year-old by screaming obscenities at her parents in front of her during an earlier confrontation.

“I’m very sorry for this man’s loss, but nowhere in grief does a 13-year-old get assaulted,” he said after the hearing ended.

The eighth grader testified that, a day after her family filed the peace order, she saw Hopkins and her parents get into an argument on the border of the highway guardrail and their property.

“I was really scared because I don’t know why he said that towards me because I’m still like a kid; I’m a teenager,” she said.

The argument she referred to didn’t happen within 30 days before the family filed the peace order, so under Maryland law Walter could not consider that evidence when deciding whether to grant the order.

The Zou family can appeal the judge’s decision, but McCurdy did not indicate whether it will.

“I still don’t think, even with me being found not guilty, I still don’t think they’re going to accept this,” Hopkins said. “My son didn’t have a choice where to die.”