I guess you can view the latest ouster (or resignation) of a city attorney who apparently couldn't get a Baltimore police officer fired for assaulting a man in one of two ways: more tumult within the police disciplinary process or top brass wanting to crack down and frustrated they can't.

Maybe it's a little of both.

Disciplinary hearings are supposed to be fair and impartial. It's a chance for a cop to fight internal charges lodged against him at a hearing in front of fellow cops (including a top commander and an officer of equal rank as the accused). It's run like a trial and the board votes on the charges and recommends discipline. The police commissioner can up the discipline but cannot go below what the board decides.

In this latest case, Officer Michael D. Brassell was accused of assaulting a Morgan State University employee outside a pizza shop on Light Street in Federal Hill back in 2005. The victim complained two white plainclothes cops who didn't identify themselves interrupted his private conversation about race and a fist-fight broke out outside.

Both officers pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in court (after a tortuous legal process in which charges were filed, dropped on a technicality and refiled again) by taking Alford pleas, in which they didn't admit guilt but conceded the state had enough evidence to convict them. They each received suspended jail sentences.

One officer, James Odom, resigned from the force. Brassell decided to fight internal charges that would have led to his firing -- assault, lying to investigators and using racial slurs. But at the trial board on Thursday, he was found guilty only of assault and the board recommended a 60-day suspension without pay. The prosecutor, a 19-year lawyer with the City Law department, was promptly fired.

This comes shortly after the city attorney who oversaw trial boards was fired for backdating administrative charging docuements and the attorney who investigaged racial discrimination complaints resigned after it was learned she moonlighted as a defense attorney representing some of the same people city cops were arresting.

(Brassell, interestingly enough, has forged a new career as a sketch artist with the deparmtent and has work in the Walter's Art Museum. He reconstructed a mummy and got himself an interview with Archaeology Magazine).

Now we have a new dispute. Police union officials and Brassell's attorney are backing the prosecutor, Sandra Holmes, who they said got a raw deal by being forced to take a weak case that her superiors had botched by failing to do basic advance work. The bottom line for the citizens is whether the cop should be back on the street or got justice, and for the cops whether they can get a fair shake in their own department.

The cast of characters is beyond interesting. Brassell's lawyer, Malone, used to prosecute city cops as the department's chief legal advisor (he was later the city's labor commissioner) and he went up against the very police unions that he's agreeing with now. He was accused by a former police commissioner of misusing a city-owned computer (stolen from his house in a burglary and recovered with pornography on a hard-drive) and accused by black police officers of conducting racist disciplinary hearings. His supporters fired back that the former police commissioner was unfairly targeting him for revenge.

And the chairman of Brassell's trial board, Deputy Major Dan Lioli, had just gotten off being suspended himself after being cleared of being in text-message contact with an East Baltimore community leader wanted on a warrant charging him with assaulting his wife. The man attacked his wife on a city street and killed her; he was shot by a police officer and survived. Though Lioli was cleared, there still are unanswered questions as to how hard police tried to arrest the man before the attack and why the case was handled at the district level instead of turned over to the domestic violence unit.

On Thursday, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III told new recruits as their graduation ceremony to be above-board and he reminded them, "It's what you do that counts."

Indeed.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Top brass
        

Timothy "Comedy Cop" Hall jokes about everything from marijuana to what he calls "raggedy --- police cars" in Baltimore. He's a city police officer, a 19-year veteran who grew up in Baltimore and when he's not catching criminals as part of a warrant task force, he's on stage making fun of them.

And he makes fun of his own police department.

Hall has been on HBO's Def Comedy Jam and done hundreds of shows at the Baltimore Comedy Factory. I saw him Friday night at the Havana Club where he peformed for a benefit for ReWired For Change, a group of actors from The Wire who help at risk youth to prevent violence.

There's more about Hall in today's Crime Scenes, but suffice it to say I couldn't quote many of his jokes (especially the ones from Def Comedy Jam). He says he's trying to give people a glimpse into the hard work of city cops and not exploit the violence that has made Baltimore a household name around the country.

But he still took shots at city criminals, as did the comedian who performed first and the host of the show, "Alabama," who works at the Baltimore Comedy Factory and said he told me, for the first time, his real name: DeShawn Alabama Frazier. He took a few shots at his new home (yes,' he's from Alabama), noting that you shouldn't go anyplace that has the word "Heights" in it.

First up was Justin Schlagel from Washington. He noted that Baltimore has some of the scariest homeless people he's ever seen. He said he used to live in Baltimore, but had to move -- "Stab me once ..." he noted, playing off the old slogan.

Justin also said that this city is the easiest city to navigate -- you either end up in the harbor or end up dead.

The event raised money for a good cause, even if it meant poking fun at the city's ills for a few hours.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

A monitor overseeing how juveniles being held on crimes is sharply criticizing state authorities for isolating youths in their rooms, calling the policy illegal. In a report, they say violent juveniles were held in locked rooms or in rooms guarded by staff members.

State authorities take issue with the report and deny many of the allegations, but do say that separating disruptives youths from others is a necessary part of incarcertion. Here is the report and the response from the state:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

The Baltimore Sun's Tricia Bishop's story today offers a terrifying timeline of a suspected drunk driver who might be responsible for the hit-and-run death of Johns Hopkins University student Miriam Frankl on St. Paul Street.

The suspect, Thomas L. Meighan Jr., has not been charged directly in her death but prosecutors say their investigation continues. For now, he's charged with a series of motor vehicle violations pieced together from what police describe was a wild night in which his pickup truck sped through red lights, went the wrong way down streets and veered across roadways. The photo at left, from WJZ-TV, shows a truck believed to be the one involved in the fatal accident

We also learned that the suspect has 21 convictions for motor vehicle violations, including six for driving while intoxicated and two for drivng under the influence. At the time of the deadly crash on Oct. 16, taking the life of the promising 20-year-old junior and molecular and cell biology major from the Chicago area, he was free on bail on another hit-and-run and DWI charge.

We're still piecing together his long and complicated record to determine how he mananged to stay free and behind the wheel despite a record that should've barred him from the road.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Apparently, a Baltimore police sergeant tried to nap the killer in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but the cop is the one who ended up behind bars.

Baltimore County police tell me that the sergeant, Eric Michael Janik, 36, went through a haunted house at the Eastpoint Mall Sunday night and apparently didn't like or didn't understand that the massacre character chases after people at the end.

The man was dressed as "Leatherface" and was carrying a prop chainsaw, minus the blade, when police said the off-duty sergeant took out his gun and pointed it at the man. He immediately put his hands in the air to surrender, words were exchanged and the cop was later arrested.

Janik was charged with one count of first-degree assault and promptly suspended.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore fire officials are planning a live burn demonstration on Tuesday in downtown Baltimore to demonstrate how well sprinklers work. I hope it works better than a similar demonstration in Washington this month when the fire got out of control and burned at least two firefighters.

It was particularly embarassing because in DC, the fire chief was there and tried to put out the spreading flames only to find out that there was no backup hose. In fact, the Washington Post reported that the fire officials there violated a series of safety regulations.

Sound familiar?

Remember two years ago when we reported that a fire academy student died in a live burn that Baltimore fire officials had set up in a vacant rowhouse. They too violated dozens of safety violations that included not having a backup hose.

Hopefully this burn goes better. For more details about the event:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Neighborhoods
        

Giovanna Blatterman's daughter, Gia, took issue with my column last week on the Little Italy crime meeting. I'll run her entire e-mail below, but like others, she didn't like the tone of the story focusing on neighborhood drama, saying that it obscured a real and frightening issue over crime.

Gia says there are two factual errors. She says I used "Gia" -- insinutating the daugher -- instead of the mother. I looked back at blog postings and the printed article and I reference the mother as "Giovanna" and on subsequent times "Blatterman." Other posters to the blog used "Gia" for Giovanna." Also, Gia Blatterman is the sole name on the restaurant's liquor license. I had both mother and daughter running the establishment. In previous restaurant reviews, all of them positive, mother and daughter are listed as co-owners.

Here is Gia Blatterman's letter:

Dear Mr. Hermann,
 
I am extremely concerned that the 'spin' you put on Tuesday's crime meeting was to try to purposely divert people's attention  from the increase of crime in my neighborhood to attack the character of the lady who brought the meeting to order, my mother. Your intent was clear to me, to write a juicy, controversial article with many layers and diverse characters, an antagonist and a protagonist. You have dramatized a real problem at our expense.

You interviewed Mr. Jafari after the meeting because he did not have the courage to speak during the meeting. His only recourse was to imply racism and that we (Cafe Gia)were his competition. I'm sure you are an intelligent man who recognizes the absurdity in Mr. Jafari's theories, however, there are those who read your blogs/articles who may not be AS intelligent and perhaps have a personal vendetta against my mom. You were irresponsible in using my name(Gia Blattermann) in your article, and subsequently cause me much grief.

I take exception to the several postings that I am a racist. Never has race/religion/gender/ nationality been apart of my vernacular relating to the crimes in my neighborhood, where I was born and raised, by the way. Inflammatory and libelous comments have been made trying to blemish my character.

I am a working mom who wants a safe and clean environment for her  family. There are a select few who have personal agendas and are trying to ride this wave for selfish reasons. They are misconstruing the truth for reasons of their own, perhaps they own a flailing business in Little Italy or perhaps they are simply perturbed that my mother did what no one else has cared to do or capable of doing ie: successfully and tactfully conducting a meeting, as you stated in your article (one of the few facts you relayed) that the turn out was standing room only. Even so called people with 'clout' in Little Italy haven't been able to rally the troops.

Bravo to my mom, Giovanna. Shame on you sir. This is a formal request that a retraction be made on the misuse of my name. Please correct your mistake. As an aside, if you are pondering that my mom is also referred to as 'Gia', the flier you were e-mailed, by fellow restauranteur I might add, clearly is signed 'Giovanna Blattermann' Truly yours, Gia D. Blattermann, sole proprietor Cafe Gia Ristorante 410 S. High St.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Today's Crime Scenes is about a new Family Crimes Unit to handle the more than 25,000 domestic violence calls Baltimore police get each year. I spent some time with the members of the unit, led by Baltimore Police Lt. Vernell Shaheed, DeVera Gilden and Assistant State's Attorney Julie Drake. They work out a makeshift office and there are so many reports there's no room to file them (photo at left).

What they've essentially done is model a domestic violence divison, with detectives and social workers, after the homicide unit. In serious cases, they respond and handle the investigation, rather than leaving it with patrol officers. As a result, they say domestic killings have dropped from 13 or 14 in years past to four thus far this year.

It turns old ideas on its head. In years past, police commanders would dismiss domestic killings as unpreventable crimes. It happened inside, was "just a domestic" and thus people don't need to worry. Julie Drake sees it another way -- intervene in troubled households early and prevent the situation from becoming a homicide.

Officers are supposed to call the unit when they're on the scene of a serious domestic dispute, but Shaheed told me they're still trying to get the word out to beat cops to make the proper notifications. It's a new program so it takes some time to work out the kinks. In some districts, she said, officers call her unit on every singe case.

They also review every domestic violence report, even ones involving no phyicial violence, to see if they need to intervene. Three calls to the same address gets their attention, Shaheed said, and will get them involved. That shows a pattern that could later erupt into violence.

One of this year's few killings involved an address in Southwest Baltimore in which police had responded repeatedly for calls for help, but somehow the new Family Crimes Unit wasn't notified in time. That case is under internal review.

And earlier this year, a deputy police commander in the Eastern District was suspended, then cleared and reinstated, after it was learned he had exchanged text messages with a man wanted on a domestic violence warrant. Before the warrant was served, the man shot and killed his wife on outside a courthouse on North Avenue and was then shot and wounded by a city police officer.

The incident raised concerns as to how diligently police worked to serve the warrant -- the suspect was a well-known community activist -- and why police in the Eastern District had bypassed the new domestic violence unit while handling the case.

This new program appears to be working but clearly the word needs to get out that these cases are being treated more seriously then ever before. I was pleasantly surprised to see Officer Kate Wood in the new office. I had covered the tragic case of her daughter back in 1997 who was shot and killed by her boyfriend.

Two days before the fatal shooting, the daughter had called 911 when the boyfriend showed up at her house with a gun. The daughter had a temporary protective order but at the time that order didn't allow police to seize the weapon. They ordered the boyfriend to leave but let him keep the gun. Two days later, he fatally shot her with that very gun, prompting Wood to work hard to tighten the law, which was finally done only this year. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Identifying top 10 crimes of any era is a daunting task and my list is far from complete. Readers gave me terrific suggestions but in the end 10 means 10. Except here I give you 15 (save the limit to the print editions).

The first difficulty was to figure out a category – top 10 most brutal? – for example. I decided to look back roughly 20 years, exclude white collar crime (thought that would be a good category for later) and pick crimes that have some lasting meaning beyond the lurid details.

That too proved difficult. Baltimore has experience a lot of witness intimidation crime but I went with the Dawson case because I think that still speaks for all of them – seven people dead, including five children, in a firebombing.

There’s of course the Lackl case and the poor community activist who survived a firebombing and bravely testified against her attackers (though even with them in prison, it was still too unsafe for her to return home). There also was the witness who walked away from a safe house to spend time with his family at Thanksgiving only to get executed as he sat on a bar stool near his home.

All these cases are outrageous in their own way. The murder of a nun in her convent didn’t make it (I thought this case important because it occurred during the city’s most murderous year, 1993, and seemed to speak for crime being out of control. Joe Metheny also got left off the top 10 list, though he was one of the scariest cold-blooded defendants I've ever seen. Many from the suburbs didn't make the list either, but are worthy of mention, including a 1990s murder over a pen in a Dunkin Donuts.

Zach Sowers also didn’t make it, though his attack in Canton and subsequent death spoke volumes about crime in up and coming neighborhoods, about our system that let the attackers plead guilty before Zach died, meaning no life sentences, and the case became political fodder during a campaign.

Difficult decisions all. I look forward to your input. Here's the expanded list:

1. Dontay Carter — Sentenced in 1993 to two consecutive life prison terms plus an additional 190 years for murder and kidnapping in a string of downtown crimes. He famously escaped custody by leaping out of a second-floor courthouse window sparking a manhunt rivaled only by the search in 1964 for the Veney brothers wanted in the killing of a police sergeant. He is the reason there are two images on your driver’s license; the state had to upgrade its design after Carter had easily obtained a replacement license in the name of a man he had murdered.

2. Harold Benjamin Dean — the only inmate to successfully escape from Maryland’s Supermax penitentiary. He had been serving a life plus 105 years in prison for killing a tow-truck driver and critically wounding an armored car guard in a 1981 robbery in Montgomery County. He escaped in 1991 by squeezing through an 8-inch by 22-inch window, getting around razor wire and climbing to the prison roof on a rope make of clothing. He was captured 10 months later.

3. Joseph C. Palczynksi — went on a two-week rampage in 2000 when he fatally shot a couple his ex-girlfriend was living with and a neighbor who had come to her aid. He then kidnapped his ex-girlfriend’s mother, her boyfriend and their 12-year-old son, and two others in a 97-hour hostage ordeal that ended when the woman spiked his ice tea with Xanax and jumped out of a window. Baltimore County police stormed the apartment and shot Palczynski dead with 27 bullets.

4. Anthony Ayeni Jones — a drug lord who ruled over one of the city’s most murderous narcotics organizations in the 1990s convicted of killing and conspiring to kill rival, federal witnesses and their mothers while running a $30,000-a-day cocaine and heroin organization. He had a corrupt cop on his payroll. From federal prison, he developed his own coded language to order hits that were carried out; it took prosecutors months to decipher the code. He calmly popped a Lifesaver into his mouth as the jury found him guilty in 1998.

5. The Dawsons — this case epitomizes a string of horrific witness intimidation cases that later included the murder of Carl Lackl who witnessed a slaying in Baltimore, the killing of another witness on a bar stool over Thanksgiving and the firebombing of a community leaders house. In 2002, a drug dealer firebombed an East Baltimore house whose residents had complained to police, killing five children and their parents. This put Baltimore’s crime problem and difficulties in arresting entrenched drug dealers on the national map.

6. The killing of Sister MaryAnn Glinka — the 50-year-old nun was found bound, gagged and murdered inside her Northeast Baltimore convent in 1993, a crime that shocked a city during its most murderous year on record. She was one of 353 murder victims, a staggering number that forced out the city’s police commissioner. The killing of Glinka scared the city and made it seem that criminals could strike anybody at any time and any where. "This is as bad as it gets," one city official said at the time.

7. John Frederick Thanos — Unrepentant to the end, this killer of three teenagers in a week-long 1990 Labor Day rampage was the first person put to death in Maryland after a 33-year moratorium had ended. Asked if had any last words, Thanos said, "Get on with it" and then uttered "adios" before the lethal injection was administered. He had repeatedly refused to appeal his convictions, fired his attorneys and thwarted others who opposed the death sentence. He told his victim’s families in court that he wished their dead children would rise from the dead so he could kill them again. He argued it was cruel and unusual punishment to keep him alive.

8. Solothal Deandre "Itchy Man" Thomas — Now put away in federal prison, he was the poster child in 2002 for everything that was wrong with Baltimore’s criminal justice system, having dodged two murder and a dozen attempted murder charges in the late 1990s and early 2000s. One Sun article noted that "his case shows how one man, repeatedly indicted for serious crimes, has been freed time after time by faulty and insufficient police investigations, prosecution missteps and frightened witnesses intimidated into silence by a culture of drugs and violence." He once astounded police by scaling a public housing high-rise to elude capture, climbing from balcony to balcony until he disappeared into a vacant seventh-floor apartment.

9. Zach Sowers — the June 2007 attack on the new homeowner outside his Canton Park rowhouse brought into sharp focus the city’s crime problem at a time when officials were trying lure residents back into neighborhoods they had abandon years ago. The housing boom was still in full swing and Sowers and his wife Anna were the target group — young professionals contributing to remaking Baltimore into a viable city. The robbery and attack put Sowers into a coma for 10 months; he died after the suspects had been tried and sentenced, so they could not again be charged in his murder. The suspects had used one of his credit cards to rent two movies, Deja Vu and Smokin’ Aces, and the case became fodder for city elections, a focal point for politicians debating crime and a launching pad for Anna Sowers to rail against what she contended was a too-lenient judicial system.

10. Mark Castillo — The 43-year-old father of three took his kids to the Maryland Science Center in March 2008, then to their 10th floor downtown hotel room, and then systematically drowned each one, ages 2, 4 and 6, in a bathtub, timing the submersion with a stop watch. He lay each body on a hotel bed, tried but failed to kill himself and then called the desk clerk to report what he had done. He said he wanted to get back at his ex-wife.

11. Children slayings, Policarpio Espinoza and his nephew Adan Canela, both immigrants from Mexico, were convicted with three counts of first-degree murder in the May 2004 deaths of a 9-year-old brother and sister and their 10-year-old male cousin at the family’s Fallstaff apartment. The pair beheaded one child and nearly decapitated the other two in a gruesome slaying for which neither police nor prosecutors have identified a clear motive. The two are appealing their conviction

12. Women slain — The December 1999 execution-style killings of five women in a Northwest Baltimore — killed by a drug dealer who wanted to send a message to his rivals by killing female relatives — shocked a city whose residents learned there were no boundaries to drug hits and violence. The dealers were fighting over turf in O’Donnell Heights that was left open after the feds busted a large drug gang there. The mayor at the time called the slayings a "mass murder" and the victims included relatives and friends of the drug dealers. A day later, another family member, a young man, was shot and killed on a school playground, and one of the suspects was found by police lying on a sidewalk with his throat slashed.

13. Joseph R. Metheny — He claimed to have killed 10 people but was charged and convicted of killing only two, including a city prostitute, and burying their remains under his trailer at a Southwest Baltimore pallet company. He was sentenced to die in 1998 but an appeals court overturned the sentenced and sent him to prison for life without parole. At his sentencing, he pleaded to be put to death and said, "The words, ‘I’m sorry’ will never come out, for they would be a lie. I am more than willing to give up my life for what I have done, to have God judge me and send me to hell for eternity." He said he killed because he "enjoyed it" and after being sentenced to death, he kissed his defense attorney on the cheek, who then put her head on the defense table and cried. He had been acquitted in 1998 for killing two homeless men with an ax at a makeshift camp in South Baltimore and admitted later he had lied and gotten away with it when he denied his involvement. He said he threw other bodies in the Patapsco River that were never found.

14. Nicholas W. Browning — the 16-year-old shot and killed his parents and two brothers as they slept in their Cockeysville home in 2008. He cited years of physical abuse and insults he said he had suffered at the hands of his father, a Towson attorney whose 9mm pistol he used. Asked by a detective why he had shot them all in the head, Browning answered, "I just figured it would be quicker. It would just be instant." He pleaded guilty and is serving four consecutive life sentences. At a hearing, prosecutors played the videotape of Browning’s confession to a detective, Matthew Walsh, in which the boy described sleeping late at a friend’s house after the killings and then going shopping at Towson Town Center. On the screen, he was shown taking a break from the interview by ordering a double-bacon cheeseburger, fries and a Diet Coke.

15. Raymont Hopewell — He confessed to killing five people, four women and a man, all age 60 or older. He pleaded guilty in 2006 and apologized to the families and was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. He broke into people’s homes and in one case, he raped a woman who used a cane. During the attack, the woman asked him how he would feel if someone did that to his mother and he answered, "My mother’s dead." In another house, he broke in through a kitchen window, grabbed a woman from behind and pressed a knife to her neck. After the attack, he hung around long enough to drink three cans of soda and a loaf of bread.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (38)
        

Tuesday night's Little Italy crime meeting had it all -- drama, accusations, finger-pointing and language that can't be printed in a family newspaper. But in the middle of one nasty episode came an exchange that has become a mantra as we in this city discuss the balance between bars and homes:

How much responsibility does a bar owner have to ensure patrons behave both outside the establishment and in the larger neighborhood. Baltimore's police commissioner is pressing bar owners to take a more active role in keeping their surroundings safe and clean.

A manager of Mo's Fisherman's Wharf gave the typical complaint from his side: "We are not here to do anything to anyway. We are here to do business. Customers dowhat they do when they leave. It's not our fault."

Little Italy resident Giovanna Blatterman quickly responded with one of the best come-backs I've heard to this statement: "If I've got a potato chip bag on my sidewalk I get fined. Now you're telling me that if you have human garbage that you're not responsible for it?"

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Crime humor
        

My article today about the Little Italy crime meeting has brought several responses, and many conspiracy theories that I can't rehash here but certainly left my head spinning, and reminded me of some old-timer that we sorely miss for their antics.

Some people objected to the article's tone; my goal was to write about the issue as a neighborhood drama, which I believe it is, instead of another neighborhood crime story that is the same no matter the setting.

This reader felt my attempt failed:

ID YOU WRITE THIS NEWS ARTICLE? WERE YOU AT THIS MEETING? GIA HAD MANY MANY RESIDENTS THERE TO SHOW THIER FEAR OF CRIME IN LITTLE ITALY.MANY WOULD NOT COME FOR FEAR OF RETALIATION FROM MOES SUPPORTERS. I KNOW THAT GIA HAS CONCERN FOR BRINGING ATTENTION  ABOUT CRIME HERE AND WHAT EFFECT IT COULD HAVE ON ALL BUSINESSES HERE IN LITTLE ITALY. DID YOU INTERVIEW ONE INTERESTED RESIDENT ABOUT THIER CONCERNS? NOT IN THE ARTICLE PRINTED IN THE SUN OCT. 22. WHERE DO YOU LIVE? ARE YOU SAFE ? IS THERE FEAR? AGAIN I ASK YOU WHO WROTE THIS ARTICLE? HAS YOUR EDITOR READ IT? IF NOT PLEASE SHOW IT TO HIM/HER ALONG WITH MY RESPONSE. I am an 81 YEAR OLD RESIDENCE AND CONSIDER IT A COMPLIMENT TO BE A GADFLY

I did talk to resident and as I stated in the article, I believe the fears of crime are real. And I also believe residents have legitimate complaints against some of the restaurants and other establishments. But there's also a constant tussel between old and new, between tavern owners and residents about patrons and what they do when leave the bars, an issue that is repeated over and over across the city.

Behind the scenes of the legitimate Little Italy complains is a orchestra of animosity, factional in-fighting, disputes between bar and restaurant owners over perceived favoritism from city officials, whether the crime issue itself is overblown or a real problem. I think it's a real problem but in danger of becoming lost in neighborhood disputes.

Giovanna Blatterman has a long and tangled history in Little Italy. But she did stand up and openly confront an issue that many others hide from. She put her name out there and the fact she had been robbed inside her home. Baltimore police sent me a copy of the police report today and its below if anyone wants to read it:

SUSPECT
JAMES LEWIS
DOB 07-19-65

Central Complaint Number: 092J02408
STATEMENT OF PROBABLE CAUSE
On 05 Oct 09 at approx 2110 hrs., I responded to [deleted] S. Exeter for a B&E that had just occurred. Upon my arrival I spoke to Giovanna Blattermann who stated on 05 Oct 09 at approx 2110 hrs she entered her residence (the above location) and observed a black male wearing a gray/green jacket going through items in the dining room area.

The suspect, later identified as James Edward Lewis Jr. (B/M DOB 7/19/65), then turned toward her. At this time, Ms. Blattermann observed the suspect was holding a knife in his right hand and what appeared to be a dark colored unknown caliber handgun in his left hand. Ms. Blattermann immediately ran back outside to the front of the location and began yelling for help and called 911 via cell phone.

A neighbor, [deleted] (W/M DOB12/1/73), heard Ms. Blattermann calling for help and responded to the location. At this time, the suspect exited the dwelling via the side gate and fled on foot headed southbound in the 300 blk. S. Exeter. [The neighbor] pursued, also on foot. Another neighbor, (W/M DOB 5/11/63) arrived on scene and this time and observed [neighbor] pursuing suspect and heard Ms. Blattermann yelling, "that's him, that's him."

He also began pursuing on foot. At 700 E. Pratt St., the neighbors confronted the the suspect. The suspect then lunged at [neighbor], cutting him on the left side of his face with an unknown sharp object. The suspect once again fled headed westbound won foot.

Suspect was apprehended by Ofc. White-Graves along with Central District officers and placed under arrest in the 100 blk of N. Front St. Shortly after a gray/green wool material jacket was recovered at Albermarle and Duker by Ofc. Fasano (Unit 2135). Two watches, which were reported stolen by Ms.Blattermann, were recovered from the front right pocket and submitted to ECU. The suspect, Mr.Lewis Jr., was positively identified by Ms. Blattermann. Crime lab (Unit 5832) was notified/responded processed 310 S.Exeter and photographed injuries sustained during the incident to [neighbor]l.

All events occurred in Baltimore City, State of Maryland.

STATEMENT OF CHARGES
...did break and enter the dwelling house of GIOVANNA BLATTERMAN, located [deleted] with the intent to commit theft in violation of CR 6-202 of the Annotated Code of Maryland.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Baltimore police moved to restore some credibility to its disciplinary process by getting rid of its head of the equal employment opportunity commission. We learned earlier this year that Kim Y. Johnson had been moonlighting as a defense attorney for suspects arrested by cops in her own department, all while collecting a $94,000 city salary.

Now, she's either resigned or been forced out.

The move comes just weeks after the department clarified the kinds of cases she could work on during her own time. She was allowed to represent people in cases such as bankruptcy, but not those accused of crimes. Then a website InvestigativeVoice.com invoked her name in a dispute over a falsified discrimination complaint.

My question is when does Johnson find time to be a private attorney when she's got so much work to do in the Police Department? We've seen over and over investigations into misconduct gone awry -- many charges were thrown out because simple filing dealines were not met.

The city deserves a competent and open process to ensure its police force is above-board and working to resolve one of the most vexing problems Baltimore faces, and the cops deserve a system that treats them fairly.

While we're talking about credibility, a city police officer shot and critically wounded a 14-year-old boy Wednesday night on West Lexington St. Police say the boy had been armed with a BB pistol and had just robbed somebody. When the officer pulled up, the victim, a third-year medical student at the University of Maryland, yelled, "He's got a gun," police said.

A department spokesman said the youth ignored the officer's warnings to drop the weapon and turned toward him. The officer fired two shots, hitting the youth at least once in the stomach.

Police have routinely declined to release the names of officers who shoot people, and now are even finding ways to get around identifying them in initial court documents filed along with criminal charges. They haven't yet released the name of the wounded boy, and might not, and will most certainly regard the medical student as a witness to a crime and deem his name unreleasable as well.

All of this will eventually come out in court, if the youth survives, and if charges are filed, but it's impossible for the citizens to ascertain anything more about the incident other than what police have put forward without information that in years past was made public as a matter of routine. The policy of withholding names of officers in such circumstances has been under review for roughly 10 months now and the City Council hasn't followed up prior hearings on the issue.

Police who legitimately fire their weapons to protect themselves or others should have nothing to fear and open process. And the citizens deserve to have information to satisfy themselves that their police force is beyond reproach.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Police shootings, Top brass
        

After more than a year of debate, a failed effort by the liquor board and contant complaints by residents of Mid-Town Belvedere and Mount Vernon, Baltimore's police commissioner has issued a padlock order to Suite Ultralounge.

This bottle club has been a constant irritant for residents and defended by its owner and lawyer as a victim of misplaced community outrage. They say violence outside the club but attributed to patrons unfairly demonizes the nightspot that attracts teens.

The debate over crime outside Ultralounge grew into a citywide debate over crime downtown at aother nightclubs and led to talk about whether the city was safe at night. Police have been using the padlock law to hold bar and liquor store owners more accountable and have forced several to close or revise their security plans.

A double shooting and stabbing that police say began as disputes inside the club on East Chase Street, in the basement of the historic Belvedere hotel, are just the most public. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi gave some more examples:

-- 17-year-old patron held up at gunpoint at 12:58 a.m. on Jan. 18 outside the club, beaten and robbed of money and a cell phone.

-- A 15-year-old patron who robbed two 15-year-old male patrons at gunpoint as they left the club on Feb. 1

-- A male patron who was stabbed near the club and suffered life-threatening injuries on Oct. 11, which prompted a retaliatory shooting that left a female with a through and through gunshot wound to the thigh that same night. Police said the dispute started inside the club.

“The reality is there is no question you can tie a number of violent offenses to this club,” said City Councilman William H. Cole IV. “Whether or not the liquor board does what it needs to do, the city has its own tools it can use in the most egregious cases. The entire community has been begging for this for well over a year now.”

The attorney for the club, Peter A. Prevas, didn't return a call I made to his office this afternoon.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

The anniversary of Anne McCann's death nears and her parents are still fighting for some resolution. As many recall, the 16-year-old Virginia girl mysteriously disappeared from her home and was found dead two days later in Baltimore, near a trash bin in the Perkins Homes public housing complex near Fells Point.

See an earlier two part column series on the case: Part 1 and Part 2.

Baltimore police have suspended the investigation. They believe she overdosed after ingesting Bactine (an empty bottle was found at the scene and the active ingredient, Lidocaine, was found in her system, but the Medical Examiner's Office has ruled her death "undetermined"). Her car was found a few blocks away and Daniel McCann and his wife simply don't believe their daughter took her own life and are angry with police for not pursing leads and trying to answer vexing questions.

Police found what they term suicide notes in Annie's bedroom indicating she wanted to run away; The McCanns say that portions of those notes suggesting suicide were crossed out, and to them that means she changed her mind. Why did she go to Baltimore, a city she had only visited a few times with her parents? Private investigators hired by the McCanns have identified several teens that they said took Annie's car and moved her body; police interviewed at least one of those teens but never pressed charges, saying they had nothing to do with Annie's death.

That brings us to the latest battle. The McCanns say they tried to file charges on their own but were thwarted when a court commissioner called police and they say police talked her out of filing the paperwork. My understanding is that police, worried that charges for taking Annie's car might hurt any chances at legal remedies farther down the road, pressed them not to follow through. The McCanns want to know why police care if they've suspended the investigation.

The family firmly believes someone lured Annie to Baltimore and that she fell victim to a crime. There are simply too many unanswered questions for them to put this to rest. They sent a scathing letter to Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, and police tell me the commander of homicide has given the mayor's office information and that they will be drafting a response.

Dixon's spokesman, Scott Peterson, sent me this: "The Mayor continues to have empathy towards the McCann family for their horrible loss. The Mayor also has faith in the Baltimore Police Department that they are doing their jobs properly and handling this incident correctly. “ 

Here is a timeline of events provided by the McCann's, followed by their letter:

Our daughter, Annie McCann, was found dead early in the morning of November 2, 2008, behind a dumpster on South Spring Court in Baltimore.  After a vigorous early effort, the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) investigation waned.  In early March 2009, following a family press conference, the BPD promised to re-invigorate the investigation.  After more than two weeks with virtually no additional effort, we pressed for a meeting with police officials.  On March 20, senior BPD officials clearly and angrily informed us that, "This investigation is over!" Later in the meeting they corrected that position - the investigation was suspended.

We proceeded with the private investigation, collecting additional information.  We expect soon to present to police officials a significant new finding.

On Saturday, October 10, Annie's father traveled to Baltimore to file charges against the now five individuals known to have been at the scene, with our car and Annie's body.  A document we prepared to support those complaints accompanies this statement.  (Names and addresses of the prospective defendants have been deleted.)

While the complaints were being processed by the Court, but not yet sworn to, a clerk asked Annie's father to accept a phone call.  It was Major Terry McLarney, chief of BPD's homicide unit.  Major McLarney explained to Annie's father to this effect:  "You're not doing any good here, Mr. McCann...I want to be clear, nothing has changed.  If anything, we've spent too much time on this case, to the point of borderline malfeasance.  But based on your letter to the mayor, threatening litigation, we have examined all of our actions, with a view to protecting the city from a possible suit...We believe that you may be right, and that perhaps we should have arrested the boys.  We are watching the calendar, and November 2 is coming up soon...No, dumping a body is not a crime...There have been frequent meetings with the Commissioner and the Mayor's Office and the State's Attorney; I was going to contact you earlier this week.  We'll be meeting further with the State's Attorney, and will probably press charges.  I will keep you informed, and call you this week."

Six days later, this past Friday evening, Major McLarney sent us an e-mail update.  He informed us that "We consulted with the State's Attorney's office and have been advised that there is no statute-of-limitations ref this matter...At no point in our telephone conversation on October 10 did I intend to communicate that any actions on my part were, or would be, fashioned to "insulate" my police department from possible civil litigation. If you wish to sue the Baltimore Police Department that is your business. Any action I take is consistent with my sworn duty to enforce the law, and to that end alone..."

We don't wish to sue the BPD.  We don't know yet if the reference to statute of limitations is for homicide or for grand theft auto.  We don't know what in the world the BPD would be waiting for, with respect to law enforcement; nearly a year ago, their detectives collected physical evidence and individual admissions as to auto theft, a felony.  (If body dumping is not a crime, is it somehow viewed as a mitigating factor?)

We are also providing a copy of our letter of August 24 to Mayor Dixon, to which Major McLarney referred on October 10.  Please note that we asked for the investigation to be re-opened, for the five males to be prosecuted, and for the return of personal belongings, including Annie's rosary and baby blankets.  To date, we have not received a response - except for Major McLarney's reference to it, over the phone on October 10.

 - Mary Jane and Dan McCann

Here is their letter to the mayor:

August 24, 2009

The Honorable Sheila Dixon, Mayor of Baltimore
City Hall, Room 250
100 N. Holliday Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21202

Dear Mayor Dixon:

Our 16-year old daughter, Annie McCann, was found dead in Baltimore on November 2, 2008.  Since then, we have been systematically victimized by gross incompetence and callous disregard by your police department.

In December, recognizing the Baltimore Police Department’s lack of progress, or even effort, in investigating our daughter’s death, we engaged private investigators to assist in the investigation.  Significant new leads thus developed were completely ignored by the police.  In at least two instances, police actions directly undermined our private investigation.

Following a family press conference on March 2, Police Commissioner Bealefeld’s personal spokesman assured us that “all available resources” would be dedicated to a renewed investigation.  In fact, next to nothing was done.  The only detective assigned to the case spent the next two weeks in training.  Incredibly, police even reneged on their high-level commitment to develop reward flyers and “flood” neighborhoods with them.

On March 20, pounding a table and wagging fingers, senior police officials informed us that, “This investigation is over!”  They later corrected that position, explaining that the case was “suspended.”  They said they didn’t care about the circumstances under which Annie had crossed state lines, nor in whose company she was.  To the press, police spokesmen said they were certain that Annie had killed herself, adding plaintively, and falsely, that, “We gave it everything we had.”  In point of clear fact, they had given it next to nothing.

Officially, Annie’s death has been ruled “undetermined.”  While it is possible that she killed herself, that is very, very far from settled.  If a suicide, Annie’s would be the first recorded instance of suicide by Bactine, an over the counter medication.

What is certain is that there remain simple and sinister circumstances, unexplored, surrounding Annie’s disappearance and death.  Just as certain is the fact that Baltimore police have made a mockery of the investigation into the death of our daughter.  From November 2, when they somehow failed to take Annie’s fingerprints, to March 20, when they grossly misinterpreted simple DNA test results, their actions have been consistently ineffective – sloppy, misguided, or insensitive.
We can recite numerous failings; here are two:

• Five juveniles have been placed at the scene where Annie’s body was found.  By their own account, probably understated and self-serving, they dumped Annie’s dead or dying body and stole her car.  Baltimore police have interviewed one of these five juveniles once, and another twice…and no others!  Zero arrests.  Three juveniles never interviewed.  And no follow-up when private investigators, including retired Baltimore city detectives, elicited materially different versions of what happened.
• Police have failed to investigate Annie’s documented exchange of text messages in late October 2008 with a telephone registered to a man in Gainesville, VA with reported ties to Baltimore and a record of narcotics production and distribution.

Our attorney, currently indisposed, has been trying for several weeks to have the police return to us Annie’s personal belongings, including her rosary and baby blankets.  Shockingly, he has been stonewalled.  Except for an initial acknowledgement, zero response.  The lack of professionalism shown in this simple matter, and the unfounded arrogance, speak volumes as to the quality of the investigation itself.

We could go on.  Indeed, we may have occasion to do so in the future, in another forum.  First, though, we would like to appeal to you, Madam Mayor.  Please take this matter under advisement; examine it objectively.  Discuss it with Commissioner Bealefeld.  If he tells you that the department devoted more than 1,200 hours to the investigation, ask him what there is to show for that effort.  Ask him how, with that effort, the lead detective did not have a photograph of Annie four months after her death, and did not know there was alcohol in her system.  Ask him how the City of Baltimore can defend itself in a multimillion dollar suit, for taking stout actions against a 7-year old boy for sitting on a dirt bike, when city police blithely ignore far more serious offenses by older juveniles with lengthy criminal records.

Please help us here, Mayor Dixon.  More than nine months ago, we suffered life’s cruelest blow.  Since then, our anguish, and our financial expenses, have been compounded needlessly and meanly by the Baltimore Police Department.  Please right this wrong.  We are asking, not for extraordinary measures, but basic police work.  Please re-open, and invigorate, the department’s investigation into the death of Annie McCann.

Sincerely,

Daniel J. McCann  Mary Jane Malinchak-McCann

Copy: Chief of Staff Demaune Millard
US Attorney for Maryland Rod Rosenstein
John Q. Kelly, Esq; The Kelly Group PC

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Annie McCann, Confronting crime
        

I've written about too many deaths of too many police officers in the course of my career -- car accidents, shootings, a helicopter crash. All of them are painful, but the loss of in 2000 of Sgt. John D. Platt (left) and Officer Kevin McCarthy will be one I never forget.

They were patrolling a quiet neighborhood in Hamilton in Northeast Baltimore when a pickup truck speeding at 63 mph went through a stop sign and broadsided their cruiser. The impact knocked the bolts from the frame and both officers were killed. The driver was later convicted of two counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Early on the case that many twists and turns. McCarthy's family fought an ugly fight over custody of his 9-year-old daughter that ended with a Baltimore police lieutenent defying a court order to make sure the young girl could attend her father's funeral.

Then we learned that Platt had been an unnamed officer captured in a Baltimore Sun photo three years ealier crying on the hood of a cruiser after his friend, Lt. Owen Sweeney, was shot in the back at a domestic dispute call. Sweeney had fallen into Platt's arms after telling the gunman, "We're here to help you." The photo taken by Andre Chung is at left.

Later, police protested the 10 year sentence (with all but six years suspended) for the suspect, Shane Daniel Weiss of Middle River, the cops protested again when he was sent home on probation after serving a little more than half his sentence.

Last week, near the 9th anniversary of Platt's death, I learned that Weiss had violated the terms of his probation by failing to complete 1,000 hours of community service and was sent back to prison for two more years. I talked with Laurie Platt just hours before she visited the crash site to lay a wreath (at left, in a photo by the Baltimore Sun's Ken Lam). I've written a more complete story on Laurie and her struggles with the courts in today's newspaper.

It's a tough story that never seems to go away. Laurie's children, Rachel and John Jr., were 3 and 4 when their father died and are now young teens. Laurie has gone back to work as a elemenary school teacher and she's trying to move on. But the judicial system keeps pulling her back in. I remember covering the single funeral for both officers; I never thought I'd have to write about them again.

Here's the funeral story I wrote in October 1997 (the photo of the procession was taken by Kim Hairston):

Two Baltimore police officers buried yesterday in a sorrowful pageant were remembered as protectors of a city and mourned as everyday folks who led simple lives devoted to family and community.

Sgt. John D. Platt and Officer Kevin J. McCarthy - killed Saturday when a driver accused of being drunk slammed into their patrol car in Hamilton - became fixtures in Northeast Baltimore and adjacent county neighborhoods."If people didn't know them by name, they knew them by sight," said Deacon Joseph Shultz, who baptized Platt at St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church in Gardenville.

At his home in Hamilton, Platt took on additional household and child-raising responsibilities so his wife could resume her teaching career. Nearby, his partner, McCarthy, raised his 9-year-old daughter as a single father.

"John and Kevin were everything we should be," said Police Commissioner Edward T. Norris, barely able to hold back tears as he addressed the packed funeral service at Lassahn Funeral Home on Belair Road in Overlea.

"When one of us dies, a little of all of us dies," Norris said.

But comforting words from ministers and politicians could not ease the pain. Platt's wife, Laurie, held the couple's 4-year-old son, John Jr., and stood between the two flag-draped caskets to read a letter she wrote to her husband after he died.

"Dear John," it began, "This cannot be real. Our lives have been destroyed. ... Please give me the courage to face the rest of my life ... and raise our children without you."

Her grief was compounded by the way she learned of her husband's death. She was to meet him at a Dunkin' Donuts shop Saturday night, but he didn't show up. When he didn't answer her cell phone call, she drove toward home - and by Platt's crumpled cruiser.

More than 2,000 police officers packed Belair Road outside the funeral home to pay their last respects to the third and fourth city officers to die this year in the line of duty.

Only 300 could fit inside, and even most of them had to watch the service on closed-circuit television in an adjacent room. Outside, a double line of police cars stretched from Taylor Avenue south to Moravia Road, 2 1/2 miles long.

Police officers from up and down the East Coast joined the procession of more than 500 vehicles, the first of which pulled into the Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens cemetery in Timonium before the two hearses pulled out of the funeral home in Overlea, 12 miles away.

At the Charles Street overpass on the Beltway, some people brought cameras to record the grim procession.

Jameson Feelemyer, 23, a Towson University student who wants to become a police officer, said he still wants to pursue a career in law enforcement. "It's something you take into account," he said.

At the funeral, Mayor Martin O'Malley pondered the irony that police work is made up of "people who love life, but who are willing to give their own lives for strangers."

"It is not God's will," the mayor said of the deaths, noting that the suspect in the crash is accused of drunken driving. "It is reckless choices by frail human beings."

The city's chief executive then lowered his voice to a whisper, and spoke to John Jr., his sister, Rachel, 3, and McCarthy's daughter, Jessica, all sitting in the front row.

"John and Kevin, thank you for being friends of the people of this city," O'Malley said to the children. "We will honor your lives by completing their mission."

Platt, 35, a 17-year veteran, grew up in Baltimore and graduated from Patterson High. Though three years from retirement, he was counting the days and planned to go into a T-shirt printing business with a neighbor.

He played with Rachel and her Barbie dolls, and John Jr. and his trains. When his boss, Maj. Michael P. Tomczak, wandered into the same restaurant one day, the ever-smiling sergeant took pride in introducing his children and wife, his high school sweetheart.

Both officers were described as diligent and aggressive workers.

Gregarious and outgoing, Platt couldn't stop his broad smile from stretching across his face, even when on the witness stand. McCarthy was known for never having a hair out of place and for being a stickler for neatness.

Tomczak recalled a woman praying this week at a makeshift memorial to the officers at Glenmore and Alta avenues. McCarthy had mediated a family dispute involving her.

"She didn't know his name, but she knew what he did," Tomczak said.

As the lengthy funeral procession started to move up Belair Road toward the cemetery, a police dispatcher used the radio to pay a final tribute that reached officers across the city, signing Platt and McCarthy permanently off the air at 1:14 p.m.

"Unit 41-30," she said, using the number that would alert Platt he should call in. She repeated the message and, after a moment, concluded: "Unit 41-30 is 10-7" - the police code for "out of service," or deceased.

The ritual was repeated for McCarthy: "Unit 41-35 is 10-7. We're clear."

A second later, the haunting radio silence was broken by an all too familiar refrain in Baltimore: A shooting on East Chase Street left a man dead, and a police officer was calling for help.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

So we once again revist the paradox -- crime is going down, according to the stats, but people still think crime is a top issue for the city. The mayor got a bit of help in selling the crime is down mantra with her citywide survey that found 92 percent of people questioned feel safe in their neighborhoods during the day.

The mayor blamed the media (see Baltimore Sun story today) for making too much of the crime issue and scaring everybody. "Of course, the great media helps us to keep reminding people that we have a serious problem, when overall we've reduced crime in all areas."

How can 92 percent of the people feel safe in their own neighborhoods and at the same time 86 percent cite violent crime and illegal drug use as a serious or very serious problem for the city? It's not the media (in fact, we report on just a fraction of the crime that happens, and more often then not, we're bashed for failing to report crime that does occur.

What I agree with is that numbers and perception are too different things. Earlier this year, when a near riot, a shooting and other attacks occurred downtown, the police commissioner went to the Inner Harbor and recited stats to prove the city was safe, even as residents repeated they felt unsafe downtown and elsewhere.

If you're out at the harbor and get mugged, you return home saying the city is unsafe, even if muggings are actually down. No stat in the world will convince you otherwise, and that is the problem city officials face. They can repeat stats such as crime is down 7 percent but its meaningless to people who were attacked,  or who had a friend attacked, or who heard about a co-worker getting attacked.

The media does play a role in fostering this perception but I argue people misread or come away misinformed. The other night on TV, a reporter asked a man about a killing inside a house in an upscale neighborhood in Baltimore County. The man's first reaction: all that city crime was creeping into the suburbs. He had no reason to believe that the shooters came from the city; in fact, the cops were calling it a targeted hit or robbery. The city gets unfairly painted by a crime that occurred far away. It's a reputation that is difficult to overcome.

It's one thing to bring the numbers down. It's quite another to make people feel safe. And it's great people feel safe where they live, but they should feel that way about the entire city. Nearly 50 percent of the people surveyed by the city called downtown Baltimore unsafe at night. That's a perception that needs to be changed.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Lee Corrigan, who runs the Baltimore Running Festival, which includes the marathon, posted a blistering letter on The Sun's website that once again takes me to task for writing about the marathon route going through some troubled, crime-ridden neighborhoods. He writes in part:  

I had no idea that he and the folks at The Baltimore Sun would present it in such a negative way. I found it interesting that Mr. Hermann buried the fact in the article that no crime had ever been perpetrated on any of our participants over the first eight years of the event. If the author's intent was to truly cover crime and how it relates to the marathon, why wasn't this fact in the lead paragraph? Clearly the article was a blatant, calculated attempt to scare away our visitors and give one of the city's crown jewels a black eye just one day before the event.

What The Sun did was big slap in the face to all the runners, sponsors, citizens of Baltimore, benefiting charities and city agencies that have made this event a city tradition. The word "Baltimore" is in the name of your paper. Whose side are you on, anyway?

I've answered many of these questions in past posts, but I think it's important to reiterate that in no way was the article saying that runners were at risk along the route. It merely pointed out that sections of the 26.2 mile marathon passed through some dangerous and depressed areas of the city. It quoted residents saying they loved the fact that runners would get to see different parts of the city, both the good and the bad, and subsequent posters noted they came to Baltimore, not despite the route, but because of the route.

This was one of many articles this newspaper did on the race and crime was a consideration in how the route was designed. My intent was to inform readers of what some of the areas they were to run through were like; you can't hide the blight and the fact that at least 13 people were killed this year along just two sections of the route.

Mr. Corrigan asks what side we are on. That's the point -- we aren't on any "side." Our job is to inform -- sometimes that involves invoking our watchdog role, other times it is to entertain, still other times it is to report back on what our government and citizens are doing. The story on crime along the marathon was but one in a package that included, over the course of several weeks, front page stories on the "greening" of the event, on the race itself, on a couple who got engaged on the route and on the tragic death of a participant. What our job is not is to cheerlead.

In fact, many readers felt we fell down on the job by not playing up more a shooting that occurred a block away from the route in East Baltimore, just about an hour and after runners had gone by the location. The victim died. Here is another side to our reporting:

I thought you did good job articulating the fact we should not all walk around with blinders on and pretend the town is the beacon of hope for all. It is nice to have a paper that reports both sides of life in the city. As an outsider however, I was blown away at how very little was reported about the shooting on Kenwood. Had it been an hour earlier, and with  the city known for stray bullets hitting innnocent bystanders (the woman outside Kennedy Krieger hit in the purse for example), it could have been a lot worse. So thank you for reporting facts  that every day city citizens live with every day, and that those who live in suburbs never see don't seem to care about and don't want the rest of the country to see.

Here is Mr. Corrigan's letter in full:

I was pretty busy last week tending to the thousands of details that it takes to put on a major running event in a big city for 20,000 people, but even I was shocked to see Peter Hermann's October 9 article about crime along the Baltimore Marathon course ("Marathoners see city's good, bad").

While I knew something about crime was going to be written because I was interviewed for the piece, I had no idea that he and the folks at The Baltimore Sun would present it in such a negative way. I found it interesting that Mr. Hermann buried the fact in the article that no crime had ever been perpetrated on any of our participants over the first eight years of the event. If the author's intent was to truly cover crime and how it relates to the marathon, why wasn't this fact in the lead paragraph? Clearly the article was a blatant, calculated attempt to scare away our visitors and give one of the city's crown jewels a black eye just one day before the event.

The overall good of the event for the city is especially evident when you consider the economic impact (more than $20 million a year), the charitable proceeds (more than $4 million has been generated over the first eight years) and most importantly the very real and impactful long-term public relations and grassroots marketing that the event does for the city. About 40 percent of the participants are from out of the state, including 44 countries. Those people, more often than not, travel back home to other cities to run and tell positive tales about Charm City and its fine people and convey what a great time they had in our city during their trip here.

And that scenario has apparently been occurring because we have managed to grow 15 percent to 20 percent every year. In fact, in the running community the Under Armour Baltimore Marathon is held in high esteem and has helped show people around the country that Baltimore is a great place with supportive, friendly people just like former mayors Kurt Schmoke and Martin O'Malley and former city councilwoman Catherine Pugh dreamed nine years ago when we started.

As one of the founders of the marathon, I am absolutely disgusted and infuriated by what Mr. Herman did and what the editors and publisher allowed to appear in our home town paper. Who is steering that ship, and are they just trying to create pandemonium to sell papers?

Every city agency from the police to the Department of Sanitation are involved with the event and are proud to be a part of it. And the event is sponsored and supported by some of the finest Baltimore-based companies such as Under Armour, Legg Mason, CareFirst, MedStar and M&T Bank, that have a real pride in this first-class event that we have developed.

What The Sun did was big slap in the face to all the runners, sponsors, citizens of Baltimore, benefiting charities and city agencies that have made this event a city tradition.

The word "Baltimore" is in the name of your paper. Whose side are you on, anyway?

Lee Corrigan, Baltimore

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The shuttered Rosemont Police Athletic League Center may get a second chance after all. Residents in West Baltimore have been trying to reopen this rec center since the city closed it several months ago and turned over the police youth centers to the rec department.

But the man leading the charge, Richard Mosely, whose son Sean plays for the University of Maryland basketball team, has met nothing but obstacles. Today, at a scheduled meeting of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, Gary D. Maynard, secretary of Public Safety & Correctional Services, offered to help.

Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton reports:

Maynard said one of his agency’s initiatives is to get inmates working and involved in community service. To that end, he said he saw news reports in The Sun about the Rosemont PAL center closing and has proposed a partnership to renovate or assist in renovations that could help the center stay open.

“We want to look at the possibility of making it functional and available for kids in the community,” Maynard told an assembled crowd of criminal justice leaders.

Under the proposal, Maynard said inmate labor crews would use the skills they’ve learned to renovate the center. He envisions creating apprenticeship programs to prepare others to assist with key work, and said the agency would work with the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation to make sure it is up to code.

“We would be the gopher in trying to pull this together,” Maynard said.

In addition to providing inmates with community service projects, Maynard said there’s the added benefit of keeping kids off the street. “It makes my job easier,” Maynard said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The city's top cop can't sing (see earlier post) but he does have a marvelous way with words.

Last month, columnist Jean Marbella put some of Fred Bealefeld's favorite sayings to poetry -- such as "Don't come to Baltimore to act like a moron." He coined "bad guys with guns" and "staying in your lanes," and he keep other catchy phrases on hand to sum up the city's crime scenes: maniacs, jerks, skunks, cretins, idiots, cowards, fools and knuckleheads.

It's plain, simple and welcome talk out of a government bureaucrat to describe things the way he, and a lot of other people, see it. That's Bealefeld above talking to the media in a photo by the Baltimore's Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor.

Today, Baltimore Sun reporter Julie Bykowicz heard the commish add another phrase to his repertoire of Bealefeldisms. At a hearing in Annapolis talking about juvenile violence, he noted "Baltimore's pyramid scheme of youth violence."

Julie tells me he went on to explain that one kid gets shot, and that kid gets his friends involved to do shootings, and then those guys get more people involved, and so on.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top brass
        

Baltimore's police commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III just finished singing Whitney Houston's I'm Every Woman on 98 Rock, paying off a bet to the mayor's office after his all male police team lost a marathon relay to an all-women's team headed by an official from City Hall.

I posted this under the "Breaking Crime" category because that's what it was -- a crime. Even the 98 Rock announcer couldn't contain himself: "I have a lot of respect for you but not for the singing, that was horrific." Another chimbed in that complaints are flooding 911 for dogs howling because of the song and another added, "Every drug dealer in town is thinking, the police commissioner is really nuts."

For those of you who listened but couldn't for the life of you figure out what the commissioner was singing, here's what he was trying to sing:

"Whatever you want; Whatever you need; Anything you want done baby; I´ll do it naturally; Cause I´m every woman; It´s all in me; It´s all in me; I´m every woman; It´s all in me; Anything you want done baby; I do it naturally"

The commish lost to a team called Criminal Justice Chicks led by Sheryl Goldstein, who heads the mayor's criminal justice office. Reporter Justin Fenton and a photographer were in the studio. Bealefeld keeps talking about people "staying in their lanes." He should take that advice before launching his next career. Here's the video from WBAL and posted on YouTube:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III will make good on his bet for losing in the marathon relay on Saturday (pics on the police department's Facebook page). He lost to a team led by Sheryl Goldstein, the mayor's criminal justice director, and he'll sing karioke on 98 Rock on Tuesday at 8:40 a.m.

The commish's Baltimore Police Department Command Staff II team completed the relay in 4 hours, 15 minutes and 51 seconds. Goldstein's team, the Criminal Justice Chicks, easily won with 3 hours, 52 minutes and 31 seconds. Her team included Deputy Police Commissaioner Deborah Owens and two members of the criminal justice office, Jean Lewis and Erin Cunningham.

Sheryl has selected five songs and listeners will be able to vote on which one Bealefeld, who ran the last leg of the relay, has to sing. The list seems purposely chosen to rub in the fact an all-women's team beat out male cops.

The song list is: It;s Raining Men; YMCA; I'm Too Sexy; I am Woman; and Girl's Just Want to Have Fun.

Here are the official results posted on the BPD's Facebook page:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top brass
        

So, by pointing out crime along the marathon route I'm bringing down the city and a good event with sensationalism. By not reporting in full a shooting that occurred about block from the route an hour after runners had gone by, I'm helping the city cover up its crime problem.

Can't win. Here's a couple of notes from readers this afternoon:

Good job on the article. While Baltimore is a beautiful city, it has serious challenges it must confront publicly and not try to hide. Case in point: my mother in law lives on East Monument, just down the street from where marathoners passed. Why did the media not cover the fact snipers were on rooftops, helicopters were flying over, and a general warzone ensued during a shootout and hold up on Kenwood to the point she could not go to work? It's sad, this whole thing got covered up. Justin Fenton reported it via Twitter, but didn't see much after that - probably because it would bring negative publicity to those trying so hard to cover up the violence behind the inner harbor post card. Watch a marathoner get shot, then let the administration start asking questions.

From another reader"

So, the notion of writing about crime and the city and various events, and tourist, etc. is not a far-fetched one. Look at the publicity the Sun gave to the fights/attacks at the harbor area. Now, the marathon is a somewhat different event, and as Peter points out, hundreds of police officers are present along the route. And though the mayor is doing her job in praising residents who welcome
runners, Peter is doing his job in reminding us about the day-to-day challenges of crime.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Some days, well, actually, most days, you just can't win.

Mayor Sheila Dixon sent me an e-mail Saturday night calling my article on Friday on crime along the marathon route "unacceptable." Within the hour, a reader from Little Italy sent me a note accusing me of covering up a murder near her home in order to placate the city and advertisers.

The mayor said she wasn't sure what the Baltimore Sun was trying to prove with the article and she mentioned that residents who live along the route in some of the depressed areas of the city worked hard to make the runners feel welcome and contribute to the day's festivities. I have no doubt that is true.

The purpose of the article was not to scare people away but to simply note that the 26.2 running route cuts across several different types of neighborhoods in Baltimore, from the upscale waterfront to places hit hard by drugs and crime. It wasn't meant to scare runners away but to show something that everyone, including event planners, took into account when designing the course -- crime. I thought it was an important reminder to people that we shouldn't sweep our problems away by not talking about them. Thousands of runners ran by delapidated rowhouses, corners that on other days are open air drug markets, and within a block of where 12 people got shot at a cookout in July.

I would agree with my critics if this was the only article on the marathon this newspaper did, but mine was a bit part in a sweeping landscape of coverage, that included front page stories on the "greening" of the event, on a local serving in Iraq duplicating the race in the war-torn country and several other stories about the runners and the day. On the front page of today's newspaper are photos of the race and of a man proposing to his girlfriend. The unfortunate death of a runner is on the inside of the paper (for two television stations, the death was their lead story of the night).

I have to mention that about 1 p.m., a man was shot and wounded in the 700 block of Kenwood Ave. That's one block off the marathon course, near Linwood and Madison streets. It happened shortly after the last runners had rounded that very corner.

Crime is a hard thing to write about. If I write too much or on topics like crime and the marathon, to many I'm a spoilsport for ruining a "great day for Baltimore" even though it's a topic that many people talk about. How many runners come back from the marathon commenting on what East Baltimore looks like? (though many runners said they get their best support from residents lining those streets). At the same time, if I don't write about crime, I get angry e-mails accusing me and the newspaper of helping in a cover-up.

The reader in Little Italy says she has pictures of a blood trail on a street proving what the cops are telling me is wrong. I'll look into it more on Monday. Cops tell me someone was shot coming out of a bar with friends and took a taxi to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries. Police told a reporter that it occurred in the 900 block of Eastern Avenue; it may be the victim walked a few blocks leaving a blood trail.

I won't convince the mayor that I wasn't trying to ruin a great day for the city by plotting crime along the marathon route and I won't convince the Little Italy resident that I'm not complicit in a cover-up of crime.

Here are their letters:

Mayor Sheila Dixon (confirmed through spokesman):

This article is unacceptable. I am not sure what the Sun is trying to prove but this article was not necessary. This is a green event and all those communities you named had young people get involve in planting trees etc. This involvement showed people coming together.

Little Italy reader:

Someone was murdered near my house last night in Little Italy at Albemarle and Trinity Sts. There is blood all over the sidewalk with  a trail leading to the parking lot nearby where the man died. This happened around 1:30 A.M. When I checked the Sun web site for information there is none 17 hours later. The police said that it  was a group of three men coming from Mo's (again, again, again), that they shot one guy and fled. Do you only report on weekdays now or are you covering it up to protect advertisers at the expense of citizens? Nice to see the Sun participating in a cover-up for the sake of promoting tourism at the expense of their waning reputation.   Shameful.
There were fifty people at the crime scene and numerous  police officers. What good is the Sun if it selectively reports the  news or waits until the tourists have gone home for the weekend?
The Baltimore Sun, now worse than useless, dishonest. Hundreds of people know about this.  Why don't you?

After telling her what the police told us, I got this:

Cover-up. I have daytime photos of the blood trail on Albemarle St, not Eastern Ave. Oh well. Still, it is odd that a shooting was not reported by the Sun. Advertising. Moving the crime falsely to Eastern Avenue is a lie, but one that Little Italy advertisers can live with.  I've seen the blood
trail. It's not a rumor. Never mind.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

I thought that after writing about crime along the marathon route I'd get a ton of hate mail, but the first two messages, printed in an earlier blog, were supportave. It took until this afternoon for people to get angry

Here are two notes I just received:

I have run the Baltimore Half Marathon many times, and it goes without saying that I, nor any of the thousands of runners who have done the same have ever been crime victims. It's such an absolutely preposterous idea; I wonder if you've ever attended or participated in a road race before?
 
What would you like to see? Would you feel safer if the course ran only through Guilford, Homeland and Roland Park? What would it say to the people in low-income areas if the course were carefully planned to avoid their "crime-ridden streets"? It would send a nice, clear message: we don't trust any of "you people".
 
Of course, that might be just the message some folks want to send. And it's the message I got when I read your article.
 
Richard R. Espey
Towson

How is this story in the public interest? Is the goal of the Sun to
become the New York Post? -jk3

My response:

I had a feeling this would be a tricky subject. No, I was not trying to suggest that you might be come a victim of crime while running the marathon, nor did I want to send a subtle message to run faster through some parts of the city. And no, I'm not trying to get the route moved to Roland Park or just write negative stories.

My job is to write about crime. And I try to find some unique angles that link thing we all do to that horrible subject. It is a fact that the route runs through some economically depressed and crime-ridden areas of city. It is also a fact that people, including the event planners, take that into consideration when designing the route.

I merely wanted to take what's talked about privately and discuss it openly. The column was meant to be informational, not to frighten people away. It is what we call a talker, nothing more, nothing less. I think it's great it goes through tough neighborhoods -- it gives those residents a chance to participate in events that often avoid the places where they live and gives others a chance to see the side of Baltimore they wouldn't ordinarily visit.

If the route had purposely avoided these areas I would've written about how organizers went out of their way to exclude a portion of the city. Maybe people running along East Madison Street and up McCulloh Street will get a different impression of the people and the neighborhood than they have. Perhaps it will get people to want to make things better.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

My article on crime along the marathon route has brought two nice e-mails from readers who made a valid point that I missed -- many people run not despite the route going through some depressed neighborhoods, but because they go through some depressed neighborhoods.

I found these comments refreshing. I know the marathon planners try to avoid the most dangerous pockets of the city but that's next to impossible while planning a 26.2 mile trail. I think people in these neighborhoods need to be include in more such events.

Here are the nice e-mails:

Tomorrow marks the 8th time I will run the full Baltimore Marathon and I feel you missed an important part of why Baltimoreans run this race. It is BECAUSE it runs through the challenged neighborhoods of this city, not despite it. There is nothing more inspirational than receiving a high five from a youngster who feels privileged to have us running through his or her block. They thank us for running – we thank them for sticking it out and helping to return Baltimore to greatness.  Your article made it sound like running through these neighborhoods was a necessary evil. To me it is what makes it so special. I was born in New York, lived in Chicago for 12 years, and moved to Baltimore in 1996. It was not until I ran the inaugural Baltimore Marathon in 2001 that I felt I could call myself a Baltimorean. And as long as we run through ALL of the neighborhoods of Baltimore, not just the Inner Harbor, I will continue to run the Baltimore Marathon.

David Koch

Nice article-I’m running on Saturday, and I’m glad that visitors (and locals) will have to see all of our city, not just the “destinations”. It’s easy for people out of town and out of the city to forget that families make their lives in these neighborhoods, and I hope they get that when they travel through during the race.

I also have to say that over the last six weeks I’ve been training, I’ve made the run up and down McCulloh, Washington, and Madison (and 33rd and Eutaw and St. Paul) numerous times by myself at various times of day, and that no one has ever given me the least bit of guff. In fact, I’ve gotten more encouragement and “good mornings” on McCulloh St than I ever do downtown or in Charles Village.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

I've been asked to compile a list of the top-10 most notorious crimes in and around Baltimore.

This is not an easy task given the volume. I'm asking for help from readers who may remember crimes that I don't. I've covered cops here since 1994 and I remember many crimes that go back before then, but I could use some assistance.

I've thought of some of the more obvious ones -- the Palczynski hostage drama, the firebombing of the Dawson house, the beheading of a gypsy, the killing of a nun in her convent, the killings of John Thanos, the politician Bromwell and the savings and loan swindler Jeffrey Levitt.

I'm not sure what criteria to use but maybe after some more tips I'll narrow the list a bit. There's violent crime and corruption, criminals who are more known for their antics then for the crimes they committed, and vice versa. There's all sorts of ways to define this.

Some I picked out just for the details -- a convicted drug lord who calmly popped a life-savor as the jury found him guilty and Thanos, who not only wanted to be executed told the family of his victims he wished their children would come back to life so he could kill them again.

So I throw it open to you. I look forward to your responses.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the shooting death of Baltimore Police Officer William J. Martin (at left, in picture from Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 3), who at the age of 37 was shot in the head in an ambush while investigating drug dealing in an apartment building on Pennsylvania Avenue. Other officers returned fire and wounded the suspect, who is serving a life sentence.

On Saturday afternoon, 20 years to the day of Martin's death, a flag will be flown over the White House in Washington in his honor. It will then be escorted up the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and will be presented to Martin's eldest son, William J. Martin Jr., at Hogan's Alley bar at 1501 Covington St., at East Fort Avenue.

The public is welcome to attend and should be at the tavern no later than 1:30 p.m. to meet the police escort.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Police shootings
        

Ex-Baltimore Ravens linebacker Tony Fein's (left, in a picture by the Baltimore Sun's Amy Davis) trial had been scheduled for this morning on charges that he assaulted a Baltimore police officer over the summer at the Inner Harbor in a case that sparked a debate over racial profiling.

Fein, 27, died Tuesday morning in Port Orchard, Wash., his agent told The Baltimore Sun's Jamison Hensley. We still don't know details of how Fein, who was cut by the team before the start of the season, died. Fein was an Iraqi war veteran had been a linebacker.

He was with other players at a food stand when a security guard thought she saw someone in his group hand him a gun. The guard notified city police and Sgt. Joseph Donato, who is white, twice asked the black player to stand up and said in a report (read the report here) that the player refused. In the report, the officer said the player turned around and reached for silverware, and that's when the sergeant grabbed Fein by the sweat shirt, forced him to the ground and handcuffed the 6 foot 2, 245 pound linebacker.

Fein's agent said the player did not know at first the man behind him was a police officer and denied disobeying his orders. The arrest came shortly after a gang-related shooting in the same Light Street pavilion and other violence at the Harbor that scared tourists and visitors and prompted extra police and warnings from the mayor that cops would crack down on suspicious people.

Fein never publicly commented on his arrest, so we were awaiting his trial to hear his side of the story. His agent claimed Fein was a victim of racial profiling. We'll check later today with Fein's attorney to see if he got statements from other players who were there at the time.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

The 14-month-old baby reportedly abducted from his Northeast Baltimore home early this morning was found in a car by a neighbor, according to city police. A neighbor who saw news reports on the incident heard the baby crying in a car and called authorities.

At this moment, we have no idea how the baby got in the car.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Police are investigating the apparent abduction of a 14-month old boy from a Northeast Baltimore home. The toddler has been identified as Cory Dwight Green Jr., seen here in a picture given to us by city police.

Parents told authorities they heard a door closing about 2 a.m. and then discovered the boy missing. Cory was last seen wearing dark blue pajamas. Four other children in the home were not harmed. Anyone with any information is urged to call Baltimore police at 410-396-2100.

In another bit of breaking news, the suspect charged with killing his ex-girlfriend and hiding her body in a underground cable vault in North Baltimore was found dead in his jail cell Monday night at the Central Booking and Intake Center.

Police tell me hanged himself; we're awaiting official word from the Medical Examiner.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

A reader asked me over the weekend why a county police helicopter was flying low over his neighborhood. I gave a partial answer in an earlier post. Here's the official answer from Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey:

On Saturday night a crowd of 50-100 young people had gathered around the intersection of York Rd. and Pennsylvania Av., and police received calls that some members of the crowd were fighting one another.

The police cars were dispatched to help manage and disperse the crowd. In a situation like this the helicopter would not land. Its purpose in a situation such as this would be to serve as eyes from above for the officers on the street. Officers in the air could watch the crowd, and get an assessment of its size. By radio, they could also alert officers on the ground if members of the crowd were moving off in different directions, allowing officers on the ground to respond to those movements. This overview - literally an OVERview - would provide vital information for officers below.

The helicopter also has technology that might be useful in a situation such as this to back up officers on the ground . Its spotlight that can illuminate the streets and alleys below. If, for example, members of the crowd moved down an alley, the helicopter could light up the area, denying the group a place to hide, and also exposing the group's presence to officers on the ground.

Or, if individual members of the crowd should try to hide, for example, behind a dumpster or between parked cars in a parking lot, out of view of officers on the street, the helicopter has a thermal imaging device to find them. With this device, officers in the helicopter can use a video monitor in the aircraft to "see" the body heat of individuals who think they are hidden by the shadows. They stand out clearly, and the aviation unit can direct officers to their location.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Baltimore police have made an arrest in the body in the manhole caper.

Two things come to mind while reading the police charging documents: people (at least homicide detectives) still read the paper and we are relevant; and suspected bad guys in Baltimore are the laziest in the country. At left, Baltimore Sun photographer Jed Kirschbaum inadvertently captures the suspect's house in a photo, which helps police make an arrest and shows that the suspect allegedly didn't travel very far to dispose of the body.

First, some background. On Friday, two Verizon workers checking wires in an underground vault open a manhole cover and see a body floating in about six feet of water on Benninghaus Road, just off York in mid-Govans. They call police who call the fire department who get the body out. It as of a white female floating face down wearing a black fleece hooded jacket and black pants. The hands were missing; the left foot had fallen off and was floating neaby with a shoe still on. Cops also found one small hoop earing. She was wearing her work uniform.

The body was taken to the Medical Examiner's Office for an autospy and to determine an ID. The vault is a confined space 12 feet deep and 21 feet wide, and if whoever threw the body down there thought it might float through the city sewer system, they were mistaken.

On Saturday morning, Howard County Police Detective Tom Lau was reading the Baltimore Sun and noticed the article. But more than that, city police charging documents state that he "observed what he believed to be a photo of the house where the missing girl's boyfriend was living at the time of her disappearance." He drove up to the city with his folder and met with the city homicide detective leading the investigation, Daniel T. Nicholoson IV.

As a result, the body (police now say she was strangled) has now been identified as that of Elda Vasquez (also spelled Vazquez), 30 who had been reported missing on Jan. 29, 2008. Her family lives in Mexico. A month earlier, the victim had sought a protective order against her boyfriend charging that he hit her, struck her in the head and tried to drag her into the woods. She also he had been stalking her and told authorities that he had threatened to kill her.

Colleagues at the Red Robin restaurant in Columbia, where Vasquez had worked, reported her missing when she didn't show up for work for two weeks. She also hadn't shown up at another job at Eggspectation in Ellicott City.

The boyfriend, in the country illegally since January 2001, was identified as a suspect in her disappearance but not charged. Police at the time seached his house at 543 Benninghaus Road, near the manhole cover, anf found the victim's property and a "Dear John" letter written to the victim "indicating displeasure with her and saying goodbye," according to the police charging documents.

Over the weekend, police showed photographs of the victim to her co-workers, along with a gold necklace with an eagle charm that was found on her body, and they positively identified her. Police also said that the suspect's house on Benninghaus Road is 15 yards from the manhole.

That brings me to the lazy side of criminals. Though the manhole cover weights more than 100 pounds, police allege the killer didn't go too far from his own living room to dump the body.

Victor Hernandez Cruz, 40, who now lives in Columbia, was arrested and charged over the weekend with first-degree murder.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

I got this question from Paul Marx of Towson:

Dear Peter:
Can you help with this? Saturday night in Towson between approximately 10 and 10:30 four Baltimore County police cars with lights flashing were parked on W. Pennsylvania Ave. near York Road and the entrance to the Towson Commons. I observed this from my apartment on the 23rd floor of the nearby Ridgely Condominium. For most of this time a helicopter circled the site and came close enough to the Ridgely building to cause concern. If a helicopter could have been of use to the police, there was no close spot where it could set down. I concluded that the helicopter served no useful purpose but burned a lot of fuel.

Could you possibly find out whether this helicopter was indeed a police helicopter. Are you familiar with the protocol for the use of helicoptors by the police? What are their main purposes both in the City and the County? Are there recent instances in which police helicopters have been genuinely useful?

I have a question out to Baltimore County police to see if they can tell us why the helicopter was flying over at this location at this time. Above is a picture of the Baltimore police helicopter flying over where two city officers got shot in 2007 at Orleans and Port streets. The photo was taken By the Baltimore Sun's Glen Fawcett).

I'm not sure about patrol hours in the county, but in the city, Foxtrot, as the helicopter is called, is up almost 24 hours a day. And just like patrol cars, the chopper "patrols" the city. So just because it's pilot is hovering over a street doesn't mean something horrific is happening -- the pilot could be checking a routine car stop to make sure everyone is OK, or looking for suspects in a robbery or tracking a stolen car. Or something just caught the obverser's eye and he wants to check it out more.

At night, they use their spotlights to help cops light up the streets. In this particular case, it's hard to know if the copter was trying to set down or get closer to whatever was happening on the ground.

Hopefully Baltimore County police get back to me with a specific answer.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

I spent the morning, and early part of the afternoon, off York Road in mid-Govans watching police and firefighters pull the decomposed body of a woman out of an underground Verizon cable vault. A Verizon worker discovered the body when he took off the manhole cover and looked inside (he was about to climb down to do some maintenance work).

Police got there about 10:15 a.m. but firefighters didn't pull out the body until about 1:35 p.m. Fire Lt. Scott Merbach told me that the steps leading 10 feet to the bottom of the hole were rusted and firefighters had to be lowered down into the hole using a pulley attached to a tripod. Pictures from the scene are by the Baltimore Sun's Jed Kirschbaum.

Merbach, who heads the Fire Department's Special Rescue Operations unit, said it took hours to get the body out because his team had to follow federal safety guidelines for confined rescues. That meant four fighters had to put on wet suits and air masks. They had to be attached to safety harnesses and two went down and the other two stood guard and were dressed to descend in an emergency.

Verizon workers, instead of splicing cables, pumped water out of the hole; police told me there was five feet of water in the 8 by 8-foot vault, and they all but a foot out before the firefighters went down. The body was that of a white female, fully dressed, but missing her feet and hands. One foot was found near the body, which was floating face down in the water, and still in a shoe.

Cops are awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine how she died and whether the death is classified a homicide. She was too decomposed to make an immediate determination. The body parts could've become severed through decomposition, an animal or being cut off.

It was a scene just off York Road.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Today's story that a youth woker at a Baltimore County detention facility helped a 17-year-old sex offender escape, then had sex with him before they got arrested, reminded me of a similar case a decade ago.

Only worse.

In 1999, a convicted armed robber named Bryon Lester Smoot and convicted murderer Gegory Lee Lawrence escaped from the Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup (cops had no idea somoene had scaled a fence until a young boy spotted the men running through the woods).

Police at the time said Elizabeth L. Feil picked the inmates up in her car. Feil just happened to be a counselor at the Patuxent Institution who met Smoot during her rounds. She had gotten fired in 1998 for inappropriate contact with inmates, but for some reason wasn't barred from visiting prisoners. She helped both inmates develop an elaborate escape plan, provided transportation and had clothes and food waiting for them on the outside.

They picked a day when visitors were not allowed and a guard tower was thus unstaffed. All were quickly caught; Lawrence was serving a life sentence for shooting and robbing a man in 1978 in North Baltimore; Smoot was serving 29 years for 11 armed robberies in Anne Arundel County.

In 1999, Feil pleaded guilty to a single count of being an accessory after the fact and served six months of jail time.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

I just returned from two back-to-back police incidents in Baltimore involving cops and guns. At first, they appeared related but it turns out they were separate acts of violence just 45 minutes apart.

In the first case, a man meeting with officers in the Western District ran out when releazed cops realized he was wanted in an arrest warrant. Police tell me he jumped into his car and drove five blocks, dragging an officer who had tried to grab his keys. The officer is at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in fair condition; cops tell me his bullet-resistant vest shredded as he was dragged. Another officer fired at the car and shattered the rear window; police are looking for either a red Acura or a Honda.

The suspect being sought, identified by police as Rickey Hughes, 27, is at left in a police photo.

That was noon. About 45 minutes later, police said a city officer on an FBI task force was making an undercover deal in Westport when the man took out a gun. Police said the officer fired several shot and hit him; he's also at Shock Trauma in serious condition. Police said they recovered the man's handgun.

Another busy afternoon in Baltimore. Almost forgot, as I was driving from the dragging incident on Edmondson Avenue south to Westport I drove by a building on fire with heavy smoke pouring out the roof. Ah, Baltimore.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Today's paper is full of depressing crime news -- a portrait of a post-doctoral fellow as a drug addict, more news about the mayor's pending trial on corruption charges, a report that the teen suspects in the dog burning case may have gang ties, another city cop suspended, two charged with killing their landlord in Baltimore County, a community leader's battle to get a rec center reopened in a crime-infested neighborhood, a shooting in a strip club and a roundup of other mayhem.

I spent most of my day on Wednesday researching the University of Maryland School of Medicine researcher who died after apparently injecting herself with buprenorphine. The 29-year-old and her boyfriend, also doing post-doctoral work at the downtown school, used drugs including morphine and marijuana for years, according to police.

I think we all know that drug abusers come in alls shapes and sizes, but we prefer not to think about it. It's much easier to envision, and dismiss, the addict when we think of the junkie on the corner, and the violence that consumes this city over drugs. Carrie John (left, in the middle of the photo) and Clinton McCracken did not sand on street corners or carry guns, as far as we know. They bought drugs over the Internet, from the comfort of their rowhouse, according to police, without their relatives or neighbors knowing about their secret life.

Carrie's mother, who I reached by cell phone, talked openly about her daughter's apparent addiction, which she only found out about with a call from a Baltimore police officer telling her Carrie was dead. "These are two brilliant poeple who made a stupid error in judgment," she told me.

In court papers, McCracken told police he thought the couple could handle the drugs. Dr. Donald Janisky at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, summed it up best: "Anybody who handles drugs think they know how to control it." We wonder how two gifted people who studied drug addiction could wind up addicts themselves; it appears they thought that because they were smart enough to understand how drugs effect people's brains that they could get high responsibly.

It appears to have backfired on this couple; Carrie is dead and her boyfriend's career might be over. He faces several criminal charges in Baltimore and the feds are looking into the drug purchases overseas.

The rest of the news needs no further commentary -- click on the above links to read stories on the rest of the crime. The biggest mystery is why Baltimore's police commissioner suspended Maj. Roger Bergeron, the commander of the Southeastern District. Officials with the police union and on the City Council say they have no idea what might have happened.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime