Building off of Peter's post about New Year's Eve preparations, one of our photographers was in Southwest Baltimore when he saw what he described as about 10 police cars and a police van - a paddywagon - driving around slowly through the neighborhood, with lights flashing but no sirens. He decided to follow them to see what was up, and ended up driving around the area in circles until losing them at a red light that they pulled through.

He wanted to know what he had just seen, so I called a Southwest District officer, who informed me that this was an intimidation tactic called a "corner sweep." 

"We're warining the drug dealers to stay off the corners," the officer said.

There will be tons of extra officers on the streets tonight, but it looks like they're trying to set the tone early that police will be out in big numbers.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Neighborhoods
        

This just in from overnight:

A 20-year-old man was hospitalized late Wednesday night after he was shot several times in the head, according to Baltimore Police. Officers responded to a call for a shooting in the rear of the 1900 block of N. Wolfe Street, police said. They found the victim lying on the ground with several gunshot wounds to the head and a graze wound on his lower back. The man was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital for treatment, police said.

If this man dies, he could become Baltimore's 238th homicide victim of 2009. Number 237 fell Wednesday night:

A man was fatally shot Wednesday night in Northwest Baltimore, police said. No arrest had been made and the man's name was withheld pending notification of family. Responding to a report of a shooting in the 3800 block of Oakford Ave. about 9:10 p.m., a city Fire Department ambulance crew found the man lying outside a house and bleeding from gunshot wounds to the head, back and chest. He was taken to Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:55 p.m., police said.

Last year, the city recorded 234 murders, a 20-year low. We couldn't keep up with that pace, apparently, though New York and Washington, among other cities, recorded historic declines. A reader, Danielle Shapiro, takes us to task in today's letters section for writing about a decline in home assessments over the city's murder story.

We didn't choose one story over another, and yes the assessment story ran on the same day the New York Times put its murder story on the front page. The reader is correct that we need to connect the dots to seemingly disparate killings and we do so every year. My colleague Justin Fenton is writing a year-end murder story that I think will offer some new insight into city killings, examine some startling demographics of violence and look at some of the numbers between Baltimore and New York (such as gun seizures) that could help explain some of the differences.

In addition, reporters all year long have written in-depth stories about city crime, from the courtroom to the street corner. So stay-tuned!

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news
        

I want to thank my tireless colleague Justin Fenton who maintained this blog while I was away in New Hampshire for Christmas. I return to find we've exceeded last year's homicide count (while in New York they're boasting of historic lows again) and to read the tragic story of the Army soldier killed in the city, the abducted girl on the Eastern Shore and the controversial arrest of a West Baltimore barber.

Up in New Hampshire, the big news was protests over a new ban on carrying guns into the State House  in Concord. Until the ban, I had no idea that even in NH a citizen could walk into the capital with a gun, and when the prohibition was announced, several showed up with arms to speak out.

Over the holidays, I wrote about three friends who had gone drinking and then winded up missing on Christmas Eve 45 years ago. I had talked with the son of one of the men who now lives out of state. Sherri Irwin, a relative of another victim sent me an e-mail last week and I thought I'd share it with you here:

Thank you for writing an article on the memory of this group.  Lawrence Scott is my grandfather.  I am the daughter of Elizabeth Scott Weidner. Although, I never met my grandfather as I am only 38yrs old. The memory of him never has been forgotten.  My family and father always share stories to our family of the great man that he was.  Yes, he may have been a drinker………….on the weekends only…….he was a great man who always provided for his family and others.  My Mom always shares a story about all the hard work they would do. Whether it was picking food from the garden or building something. My grandfather would always think of those who did not have and he would help or give them what he could. One story that is funny…………my Mother and siblings would pick string beans from the fields and they would have bushels of beans when they were done………..my Grandfather would stop at several families homes that he know needed food. Very generous man for not having much.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The arrest of a 73-year-old West Baltimore community leader and barber for many of Baltimore's elite is raising questions on both sides of the debate. We first reported Monday afternoon that Lenny Clay's arm had been broken during an arrest, and tracked down charging documents and an accident report.  Clay's advocates and police critics claim excessive force, saying there's no justification for a 73-year-old man's arm being broken during an arrest. Others say that if the police account is true, Clay broke the law, leaving the scene of an accident, driving drunk and without a license, and resisting arrest - in otherwords, people who do those things can expect a negative result.

The situation is more of an issue of use of force, because Clay, who for decades has been a community leader and advocate for kids, outright denies virtually every claim in the police reports - from accusations that he was drunk to the notion that his car was involved in an accident. With the intention of showing readers the kind of things we consider when reporting a he-said, she-said story like this, here are some unanswered questions we've explored:

-Well, was Clay driving drunk? He says he had a drink with dinner at Duffy's restaurant; police say they smelled a strong odor of alcohol and he was uncooperative and sluggish. We'll never know: police said that after they realized his arm was broken, their priority became treating his injury and not taking a blood test. Their two hour window to test his blood came and went. Critics will point to that as police ignoring a test that would vindicate Clay, but police supporters would say they missed a crucial chance to back themselves up.

-No one is disputing that Clay's arm was broken during the arrest. For some, that's evidence enough that police were wrong, and they want to know why such force was needed for an elderly man, who as noted above was said to be clearly drunk and whose alleged crime was grazing a parked car. "What if it was your grandparent?" critics have asked.

-Why was Clay driving, and more specifically, why was he driving in that area? Police say they ran his information through the MVA, and determined that he did not have a license to drive - Del. Melvin Stukes told me that he drives Clay home most days from his barber shop, saying that Clay can't drive. He clarified today that the reason Clay can't drive is because of issues with his car. Clay, meanwhile, claims that he did not hit the parked car at all, though the vehicle's owner, Quanisha Lewis, told me that her front right bumper is scraped. Clay said that a friend took pictures of his wife's 1999 Camry, the car he was driving, that show that there is no damage to his vehicle. Those photos were unavailable for The Sun to inspect and are obviously important to determining whether an accident occurred.

Also, according to police, Clay was driving south on Palormo Road at the time of the accident. That one-way road is part of a horseshoe that funnels drivers back on to Old Frederick Road. If he was leaving Duffy's, a restaurant that is well know to him, how did he end up on side streets across the way from the restaurant? Clay told me today that time elapsed between when he left the restaurant and when he returned to the area; he said he was driving to a friend's house and got lost, turning on to Seigwart Lane to head the other way on Old Frederick Road.

-If Clay fought with officers and even drove at a lieutenant who stepped in front of Clay's car in an effort to pull him over, why aren't those offenses reflected in the charges? Wouldn't that be resisting arrest, fleeing and eluding, or even attempted murder, some wonder? Police don't typically forgive suspects who drive vehicles at them. Like the blood alcohol test, though, police supporters would argue that if appropriate charges were not filed, its more sloppiness than a conspiracy.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Neighborhoods, West Baltimore
        

Over the weekend, the family of Clifford Jamar Williams gathered to remember the solider on what would have been his 23rd birthday, a day spent at home before returning to Afghanistan to finish his tour of duty. The Sun's Dan Rodricks was there and provide this account. As of last update, detectives had few leads in the investigation.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime, West Baltimore
        

With a few days left in 2009, Baltimore has surpassed its two-decade low homicide count from 2008. The shooting deaths of three people on Saturday, along with the death of a man who was shot Tuesday and the addition of a woman whose remains were found in October 2008, has pushed this year's count to 235, up one from last year.

Remarkably - and skeptics would say, curiously - non-fatal shootings continue to be down by a clip of more than 20 percent. More than 125 less people have been shot in Baltimore this year compared to 2008, with total gun crimes - homicides, aggravated assault, and robberies - down 17 percent.  That's promising to city officials, who say that trend bodes well for the future, but the rise in homicides means Baltimore could retake the No. 1 spot among cities with more than 500,000 people - an ominous distinction. I'm currently charting trends for our year-end wrap up, but in the meantime you can check out the locations, ages, races, and manner of death on our homicide map.

Here's some recent totals:
Homicides:
2005:  269
2006:  276
2007:  282
2008:  234
2009:  235*
*As of Sunday.

Non-fatal shootings:
2007:  652
2008:  587
2009:  436*
*As of Dec. 19

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Breaking news
        

News this morning on the story of the 19-year-old Baltimore man accused of three rapes, in Canton and the small Va. town of Kilmarnock. Police there have been saying all week that probation agents for Donald Vaughan had notified their Maryland counterparts that Vaughan, who was under police surveillance as a suspect in two attacks there, would be returning to Baltimore for Christmas. That outraged many readers, who said authorities shouldn't have taken their eyes off Vaughan and allowed him to move around. They also wondered what, if anything, Maryland officials did upon receiving that news.

Today, The Sun reports that juvenile officials strongly deny that they were informed of Vaughan's travel plans. Tammy Brown, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services, said the notifications were not made and that caseworkers here only received an update on Vaughan after requesting it on Tuesday, a day after police say Vaughan confessed to all three attacks.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

If you saw Albert Mosley's $44 million award in a civil lawsuit against a police officer who he says paralyzed him in 2006, you probably thought that was a pretty big payday.

Collecting it is a whole other matter.

As The Sun's Annie Linskey reports today, it's commonplace for the city and the plaintiff to work out a settlement once the jury award is set. It's simply unrealistic, officials say, for the cash-strapped city to pay $44 million to an individual. Mosley's payment was first reduced to $19 million by a judge, and the city has agreed to pay $2 million after garnishing the detective's wages for a year.  Two million is still a large chunk of change, but this is a reality check for those who think they're going to walk out of court with whatever the jury awards.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Today we reported on the decision by officials at the Great Blacks in Wax museum to cut ties with a promoter who had pitched a series of teen parties as Christian fundraisers but which featured "'She's Got a Donk' sexy dancing" contests and fliers with men flashing gang signs and the middle finger. A 20-year-old was stabbed and killed there Friday after fights broke out in the overflow crowd. The museum's deputy director had previously stood by the event, saying that they were positive functions and that the organizers couldn't be responsible for what happened outside the museum. But after we sent him the fliers, he quickly formed a different opinion.

Not surprisingly, the Myspace page from where I pulled those fliers has been set to private as of today. Even though the URL remains myspace.com/biglesproductionsinc, they've changed the name to "Young Fly and Flashy Promotions" and have put a different person's name on the profile.

Credit to the CityPaper, which raised questions about this group in 2006. Even then, the Baltimore Christian Community Association had been technically defunct as a Maryland corporation for a decade, records show.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore, Neighborhoods
        

The suspect in Saturday's rape in Canton also confessed to two attacks that shook up a small Virginia town and will face charges there as well, according to police. Here's our story that ran today, touching on the impact of his alleged crimes there:

In 24 years as the police chief of tiny Kilmarnock, Va., Michael Bedell had never had to investigate a rape.

So when two were reported within a span of four days recently, it sent shock waves through the community. The town of about 1,200 raised $10,000 for a reward fund, and neighboring jurisdictions supplemented the town's patrol force of five officers to provide around-the-clock coverage.

"When the sun went down, our town lit up, from porch lights, streetlights, everything," said Bedell.

Meanwhlie, detectives investigating the shooting death of Clifford Jamar Williams, a 22-year-old solider on leave from Afghanistan are finding few leads. But they have clarified that his wife was not in the vehicle with him when an unknown gunman approached and opened fire.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Last night, there was a flurry of shootings on the city's east side. I drove to one shooting scene at N. Lakewood Ave. and Jefferson St., then turned the corner and went a few blocks to another on N. Linwood.

As I drove back home, traffic was stopped near Hopkins, and in the distance I could see police car after police car after police car - must've been 40 of them - making the turn towards the Hopkins emergency room with lights and sirens blaring. "Uh oh," I thought. With that kind of response, it had to be something awful. A police officer critically wounded? They were driving slow - probably the icy roads, I thought.

I wasn't the only one who saw this and got that sinking feeling. From Twitter:

@erintangerine: About 25 cop cars driving slowly, sirens blaring down Calvert near Chase in B-more. What's going on?!?!

And emails:

"I live Downtown at Pratt and Greene. Last night, my fiancee and I observed a line of maybe 30 to 40 police vehicles (City and State) with sirens blaring turning west onto Lombard from Greene. About 10 to 20 minutes later, we observed that very same police line heading east on Pratt. Most of the vehicles were marked cruisers but a few were unmarked SUVs and blue vans with shields on them. Do you have any idea what was going on? I see nothing on the Sun website."

As it turned out, what these most of folks were seeing was likely part of a multi-agency holiday toy drive sponsored by Channel 2. I can't say that for certain, since I'm not sure what the route for this motorcade was. And that may be the problem.

I was relieved when I pulled over, talked to some officers and learned that this was a positive, holiday event. But how many people who didnt tweet or send an email to me are thinking right now that their neighborhood was under siege last night?  They wouldn't be foolish in thinking that, since there were at least four shootings last night, including a 15 year old girl who was shot in the head. I remember as a kid hearing firetrucks blare through my neighborhood in Anne Arundel County, running outside, and seeing Santa on the firetruck, throwing candy canes on our front yards as the truck crawled at 10 miles an hour. It was fun because after our initial shock - every year, even though we should have known it was coming - we figured out that it was all in holiday fun. But there's quite a few who weren't able to figure out that this was an organized effort and not a response to the latest shooting. And before you call me a Scrooge, no, I'm not advocating for an end to this positive event. But my email inbox and Twitter indicates that perhaps they can find a way to better signal their purpose.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Neighborhoods
        

Earlier this year, Baltimore police said they would stop releasing the names of officers who shoot or kill citizens, breaking with a decades-long practice still in effect in surrounding jurisdictions. Among the reasons they cited were 23 threats against officers in 2008 (nevermind that none related to police shootings and some were even made against officers by other officers), while pointing to several big city police departments who do not release the names. Police later said they would rethink the policy, though not much has changed. The name is released if the police commissioner decides that the officer should be commended for their actions; when an officers' actions are in question, the name is suppressed. My records show police have identified officers in five of this year's 22 police shootings.

Take St. Louis off that list of other cities who hold the names back. As Jeremy Kohler of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported this weekend, the chief there ordered city lawyers to modify their policy to allow the release of officers' names.

From the article:

"For years, the department has refused to release names of officers involved in shootings. Claiborne and Henry both tried for weeks to learn the names but were spurned in phone calls and visits to headquarters.

"It's a police report," she said. "The public should have access to that. We're taxpayers."

After questions from the Post-Dispatch last week, the department said it was changing its mind: It will now release names of officers involved in shootings.  long-standing department rule had required police to withhold any information that the Missouri Sunshine Law said it could. Chief Dan Isom ordered lawyers to modify that policy, said department spokeswoman Erica Van Ross."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Police shootings
        

Here's the news release from Baltimore County Police:

Police Seek Cat Burglar In Precinct 11/Essex

Man Always Enters Homes Through Unlocked Doors
 
Baltimore County Police are searching for a cat burglar who has struck in the same neighborhood four times since September. He may be responsible for a total of eight such incidents in Precinct 11/Essex, starting in February 2008.Victims can describe the suspect only as a slim black male, 20-30 years old. Investigators do, however, have a sketch of the suspect based on information from one victim.

 In all of these cases, the homeowner left a sliding glass door unlocked, and the man simply walked into the home. In some of the cases he made his way to the bedroom of  women or teen-aged girls who woke to see him standing in their room.  On September 19, a woman awoke in the middle of the night to find the man touching her. At other times he has been confronted by residents and left the same way he came in – through the unlocked door - and could not be located by Police. He has taken no property, and there have been no violent confrontations. The addresses and dates where he struck are:

• December 17, 2009, 5:58 p.m. – the 1200-block of Punjab Drive
• December 12, 2009, 6:55 a.m. – the unit block of Nerbay Road
• November 4, 2009, 6:30 a.m. – the 1100-block of Punjab Drive
• September 19, 2009, 6:40 a.m. – the 11100-block of Punjab Drive
• April 29, 2009, 12:50 a.m. – the 100-block of Punjab Drive
• April 28, 2008, 2:13 a.m. – the 900 block of Sandalwood Road
• March 26, 2008, 6:15 a.m. – the 900 block of Punjab Drive.
• February 24, 2008, 6:23 a.m. – the 1100-block of Punjab Drive

All county residents should lock their doors at night. Those who see someone lurking with no apparent purpose in the middle of the night should call 911 immediately. Anyone with information about these crimes or the suspect is asked to call Baltimore County Police at 410-307-2020 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7-LOCKUP. To text a message to Metro Crime Stoppers, send to "CRIMES" – that’s 274637, then enter the message beginning with "MCS." Those contacting Metro Crime Stoppers can remain anonymous and might be eligible for a cash reward of up to $2,000.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Baltimore County, Neighborhoods
        

News out of Virginia's Northern Neck tonight: The man arrested in a brutal rape in Canton, in which he shoveled a woman's front walk and then forced his way in to her home, is the "prime suspect" in two recent Virginia rapes and has been under police monitoring while they await DNA lab tests. His probation agent allowed him to come to Baltimore to visit family for Christmas. Separately, one Canton community leader wonders why the community wasn't notified about the incident via Nixle. It's a text message program the police has adopted to blast out crime notifications, but it's been used twice in the past month, and one of those notifications was for a ceremony for an officer killed 25 years ago. A tool for breaking crime news it is not, at least at this point.

Links go to the coverage from the Rappahannock Record, and our updated story.

MORNING UPDATE: I'm trying to verify the information in the Rapphannock piece. As of right now, the Virginia probation agency is saying that they do not have a record of Vaughan being in their system, and the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office will only refer me to the local news article, which their captain said was accurate.  I know that aspect of the story is causing a lot of outrage, so we're working diligently to try to verify it.

AFTERNOON UPDATE:  Vaughan was ordered held without bail this morning, and the probation/parole issue is starting to come into focus. As it turns out, Vaughan appears to have been under juvenile supervision in Maryland, not parole in Virginia. (Juvenile probation can be extended until age 21) So it was his juvenile case worker a judge here who allowed him to go to Va., and not the other way around.  Still waiting for confirmation from the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services spokeswoman, Tammy Brown, who when I called was not aware of the situation. So we'll see.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 8:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Breaking news
        

When we called the Great Blacks in Wax Museum for comment about the stabbing during a party there, the director told me that the place had been rented out by the Baltimore Christian Warriors, which holds wholesome events and raises money for activities such as youth marching bands. He said there had never been any past violence. But I wanted to find out more about this group, and it led me on an interesting path.

Follow me on this one:

-If you Google "Baltimore Christian Warrior," one of the first results is actually a post from Midnight Sun in which our nightlife reporter Sam Sessa saw an ad for "free party bookings" and called the number to find out what that was about. The voicemail said it was the hotline for the "Baltimore Christian Warriors."

-So I revisited that poster Sam first saw on Calvert St., and it took me to a Myspace page for Big Les Productions. The page advertises "Follow the Swag" parties for young adults and "mature high schoolers," featuring events such as "'She's got a Donk' sexy ladies dance contests." Most of the fliers are for parties at the Great Blacks in Wax Museum (such as the one at right), and many feature young men throwing up what appear to be gang signs and flipping the bird to the camera. It's apparently a weekly party, with a cover charge, and the fliers indicate that the party on the night of stabbing was part of this series - not, at least from the outside, a fundraiser for the Baltimore Christian Warriors.

(In a clever marketing move, one single party has about 20 different fliers advertising it as a birthday party for someone else. So it gets packed and all your friends think they're there for you)

I tried calling "Big Les" to see what the deal is; someone answered the phone and said he takes Les' calls for him and would pass the message along. In the meantime, I've reached out again to the museum's deputy director again to find out whether the wool was pulled over their eyes in regards to nature of these parties, or whether there's something else going on. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Neighborhoods
        

If you thought the blizzard-like storm and the record-breaking snow accumulation, which made it pretty terrible to get around in even by foot, might curb crime and give police a brief respite as 2009 comes to a close, you were wrong.  A man was fatally stabbed to death late Friday as the snow began to fall, and at least four people were shot Sunday evening and night as icy conditions set in. We're chasing leads on a few incidents and will update ASAP.

UPDATE: What an understatement when I posted this morning. Here's the roundup:

-Clifford Williams, a 22-year-old Army solider on Christmas leave from Afghanistan , was fatally shot in Southwest Baltimore as he and his wife returned from buying groceries late Sunday. He would have turned 23 Dec. 26.

-Shock in Canton as a 26-year-old woman is raped and her throat slashed by a man who she had just paid to shovel her sidewalk.

-And you may have noticed that the location where a man was stabbed Friday is the same block as the Great Blacks in Wax Museum. Turns out the victim was attending a youth party held by the Baltimore Christian Warriors when he was stabbed during a fight.  

Homicides are at 228 and counting as 2009 comes to a close.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news
        

With snow fever taking over the region, I thought I'd post a story from earlier this year in which footprints in the snow were used to solve a homicide. The charge has since been dropped after prosecutors determined that wasn't enough ("Evidence just melts away sometimes," the suspect's attorney quipped), but two separate drug cases remain pending against the suspect. Even though the murder charges are off the books for now, this was an interesting tale of a patrol officer thinking quickly and making a surprise discovery.

Here's the first few paragraphs:

"Sgt. Steve Olson only had to follow the footprints.

With snow falling and few people out Tuesday night, whoever shot 23-year-old Jasmine Harris in the doorway of her family's West Baltimore home had left a clear trail.

It twisted from the home, through an alley behind several houses, and up onto a porch on Gwynns Falls Parkway. It led to an area where a vehicle appeared to have pulled up, and then, right back to the crime scene in the 3000 block of Windsor Ave.

There, standing on the corner, at the end of the footprints, was Kenneth R. Warren Jr."

(There are two pages of text within the link; the link to the second page is at the very bottom and you might miss it)

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The two West Baltimore teens charged with animal cruelty in the burning of a pit bull puppy pleaded not guilty at an arraignment today. The puppy, nicknamed Phoenix, had to be euthanized due to its injuries. In a separate case, the teens face handgun and drug charges.

And two men have been charged by the BPD homicide unit's cold case squad in the death of a man found duct-taped and shot to death in Leakin Park in October 2007. One of the defendants has a prior handgun conviction and was acquitted of an earlier attempted murder charge. I've been unable to track anyone down who can explain what this kidnapping and killing was motivated by. The victim was from Ghana and appears to have been in the country for quite a few years without running into any trouble other than traffic tickets.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news
        

Milton Tillman Jr., the troubled bail bondsman who CityPaper named sarcastically dubbed "Citizen of the Year" in 2008, is running into more problems. More than a year after FBI and IRS agents raided his businesses, 28 of his properties were auctioned off yesterday. Court records show he's facing various other foreclosure proceedings and lawsuits, and sources in the bail bonds industry say his 4 Aces Bail Bonds isn't the powerhouse it once was.

This link from the CityPaper is a portal to various stories they wrote on Tillman, mostly exploring his financial ties. It also has a link to the search warrant affidavit, which unfortunately doesn't spell out what exactly federal agents were looking for. Tillman has not been charged in connection with the searches.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

On Thursday, I posted a picture that showed crime scene tape draped over the city seal, and noted that we're running about even with homicides this year compared to last. A reader wrote in: "Numbers might be similar, but population is less. Thus, murder rate is up. Wanna bet?"

The reader is partially correct though I was comparing 2009 to 2008 and the population hasn't changed that much in the course of one year. So I'm betting that our murder rate -- 36.9 per 100,000 population -- will remain just about the same this year.

That number, if you remember, put us second per-capita in the United States, behind Detroit (with a rate of 37.4), for cities with a population over a half million. But our rate is substantially better than it was in the 1990s, when we suffered a solid decade of 300 or more killing each year. Since 2001, killings have been under 300 earch year the city has gained some residents. In 1999, for example, Baltimore's murder rate was 48.2

As of this morning, we've had 225 murders in Baltimore this year, compared to 226 at this time last year, which ended with 234.

Here are some murder rates from other cities last year: Washington (31), Philadelphia (22), Chicago (18), Boston (10) and New York (six).

New York City has seen some remarkable drops in killings (they've had 440 as of Dec. 13, the latest posting on their Internet site). Here's more comprehensive look at New York and Baltimore homicide maps.

Here's a few stats from Baltimore and New York:

New York murders: 1990 (2,262); 1995 (1,181); 1998 (629); 2001 (649); 2008 (523)

Baltimore murders: 1990 (305); 1995 (325); 1998 (313); 2001 (261); 2008 (234)

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Maryland State Police on the Eastern Shore are going to be detailing a large drug bust made during a car stop. They found, of all things, marijuana but also LSD-laced ice cubes. I hope they didn't melt before they got pictures!

Here is some early details from troopers:

Maryland State Police and the Queen Anne’s County Drug Task Force will brief media on a multi-county, large scale drug investigation that started two days ago after a traffic stop.  A motorist stopped for speeding on Route 301 led to the seizure of a large amount of cash, weapons, and drugs. 

Some of the recovered materials on display will include: over $187,000 in cash, 11.5 pounds of marijuana, several marijuana plants, guns, LSD laced sugar cubes, hashish and a variety of drug manufacturing and distribution equipment.  The seized vehicle will also be available for photographs at the barrack.

UPDATE:  Here's the press release from the Queen Anne's County State's Attorney's Office. The suspect is from Annapolis, and officers found most of the seized materials in his home.  

     On December 16, 2009, a traffic stop by Maryland State Trooper Forte, from the Centreville Barrack, led to the seizure of a large scale marihuana operation.  Trooper Forte stopped an individual for speeding on Northbound Rt. 301 near Rt. 302 in Queen Anne's County, MD. The driver was identified as Jeffrey L. Windsor of 581 Broadneck Rd in Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, Maryland. After Trooper Forte smelled the odor of marihuana coming from the vehicle, searched the vehicle and found three bags of marijuana in the passenger compartment immediately next to $20,000.00 United State’s Currency that was in a heat/vacuum sealed bag.  Windsor’s explanation of the currency was suspicious.    Trooper Forte arrested Windsor and transported him to the Centreville Barrack and had Windsor’s vehicle taken to the barrack.  At that point, the Queen Anne’s County Drug Task Force was contacted to respond to the barrack for possible follow up investigation. 
     The Task Force responded to the Centreville Barrack of the Maryland State Police.  Numerous receipts for marihuana grow equipment were located in Windsor’s vehicle The Task Force also recovered text messages indicating that Windsor was distributing marihuana as well as photographs of marihuana plants were found on his cellular phone.   Based on the information gathered by Sergeant McDonald of the Task Force to this point, a search and seizure warrant was obtained for Windsor’s residence at 581 Broadneck Road in Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, Maryland. 
     At approximately 9:40 PM, The Queen Anne’s County Drug Task Force executed a knock and announce search warrant at Windsor’s residence.  A search of the residence and property revealed the following items:
$187,419.15 United State’s Current
11.5 pounds of processed Marihuana
Indoor Marijuana Grow of 17 plants located on the 2^nd floor of residence
Marijuana Grow of 54 plants located in a Greenhouse on the property
Outdoor Marijuana Grow of 5 plants in a rose garden located on the property
Three long guns  
Two suspected LSD laced sugar cubes
            Suspected Hashish
Marijuana Manufacturing/Distribution Equipment and Packaging material

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Breaking news
        

I stumbled upon this scene during a recent visit to the Baltimore Police Department's Northern District station on Cold Spring Lane. Just seemed appropriate given the city's crime predicament and the mayor's conviction.

It's been a busy week in Baltimore, with several police-involved shootings, twice of men with seriously felony backgrounds and both armed with guns, and today my colleague Justin Fenton has a story about a failure to build a credible case against an officer accused of wrongdoing.

The officer had been caught in an integrity sting and charged with stealing money from an undercover cop posing as a drug dealer. But as we've seen before, prosecutors said they were forced to drop the case because of a shoddy investigation.

Justin's story details problems with the case and provide documents you can look at to see where, in part, it went awry.

Meanwhile, the city is struggling to end the year with fewer homicides than last year 20-year low of 234. We're two off last year's pace, so at this point it looks like we'll break even numbers-wise. Still, police say other violent crime, including shootings, are down, and the police commissioner has been on a crusade this week complaining about bad guys with guns being out on the streets.

Check out our homicide map to track cases.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

For a second consecutive year, I spent an hour or so with Baltimore firefighters and watched them hand out toys to needy children. Their holiday giving has now expanded beyond homes and hospitals to the House of Ruth.

That's where firefighters with Truck 29 were on Wednesday. Excited kids climbed over the truck, heard a safey lesson and then grabbed toys. They're at the shelter with their mom who are escaping abusive relationships.

The firefighters were told not to ask the kids why they were there and names and pictures of the children and their moms were not allow. This picture shows Firefighter Michael Hineline, who heads the department's special events section, helping members of Truck 29 put toys on the table.

Hineline said all the new gifts are donated by firefighters, and that the department even "adopted" a 7-year-old boy and son of a Las Vegas firefighter. The boy was at Johns Hopkins Hospital this week getting extention in his leg; he has Dwarfism.

On Saturday, Hineline took the child to the National Aquarium and the Hard Rock Cafe at the Inner Harbor. On Monday, the boy successfully underwent surgery and is expected to be home this week.

Said Deputy Fire Chief Raymand Devilbiss, who has spent 39 years with the department, "I find myself wondering if I appreciate my own blessings."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Heroes
        

A career criminal convicted of armed robbery shows up for a meeting with his probation agent with a .50 caliber handgun -- a small cannon -- in his car. A convicted murderer with a long criminal record but few years in prison shoots two people outside a city courthouse.

In both cases, on successive days, police officers shot and killed the suspected gunmen. And the circumstances has drawn outrage from Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, who has raced to both scenes and publicly slammed the judicial system.

His harsh, blunt rhetoric is sharply increasing as the year draws to a close with the city on pace to meet or exceed last year's murder count of 234, which was a 20-year low. In both cases, Bealefeld could not understand why the suspects were not in prison. Above, in a picture by the Baltimore Sun's Gene Sweeney Jr. police investigate Tuesday's shooting on Mount Hope Drive that involved the .50 caliber handgun

Here's what he told the Associated Press:

"These last 24 hours, (with) these maniacs running around our streets, one in the shadow of a courthouse and this guy comes to his probation office, what does it say about our criminal justice system? I think it says a lot. ... We need people to step up and stop being so creative about suspended sentences ... and put people in jail."

Here's what he told the Baltimore Sun, just moments before the latest shooting on Tuesday:

"It raises a lot of questions in my mind about the value of life, and the sentences that people in this city serve compared to what people in Baltimore County and surrounding jurisdictions get. We can't ignore that, and the citizens of Baltimore shouldn't ignore that. This is not some new revelation that Fred Bealefeld is drawing attention to - it's something that every cop and every citizen in this city knows. I don't expect citizens to be marching in the streets or the judges to run out of the Patapsco courthouse and say, 'Damn you for firing these shots.' If we're really gonna get serious about it, we need many, many more people to get really serious about this one issue. You don't hear me crusading about drugs in America, or about a lot of other stuff. But damn it, if we're gonna make this city safe, every single person with a love or passion for this place has to be serious about bad guys with guns. If there's zero tolerance for anything, it's got to be around guns."

The commissioner has clearly been frustrated over the past few days and he's not afraid to show it. He's going to crime scenes, returning phone calls from reporters and sounding off. The issues certainly aren't new, as he himself told us, but it could be an attempt to blunt disappointment and criticism when the year concludes without a dent in the homicide numbers. The reason: the judicial system failed by returning bad guys with guns to the streets.

But that doesn't make his statements wrong. Bealefeld is right -- rarely do we see a suspect or a victim who is not well versed in the criminal justice system. And by that I don't mean they're lawyers. It's like a bad, recurring dream. In Bealefeld's mind, his cops should never have had to confront the people they've shot in the past two days. They should've been in jail.

In the latest case on Tuesday, police tell us that Baltimore County detectives followed a man to the probation office in Northwest Baltimore because he was wanted in armed robberies in the county. When he emerged, they confronted him and he grabbed his gun from his car and opened fire. County officers shot him dead.

On Monday afternoon, outside the Hargrove District Court building on East Patapsco Avenue, police said Michael Sidney Guest Jr., 32, shot two people in the legs and then shot by a city officer. Guest, when was 15, he shot another youth in the head and pleaded guilty, but spent just under five years in prison. Guest died later at a hospital.

Guest had a convoluted series of prison stints. In 1994, a judge delayed imposing a 13 year sentence for the murder and instead put him away for three years for a handgun violation to give him a break. He served one year for the gun but in 1999 he got arrested on a drug distribution charge. Another judge then reimposed the 13 year sentence for the killing and folded an 8 year term for the drugs into that. The judge suspended four years, meaning Guest's total sentence was nine years. He got out after serving 4 and a half years because of credits earned while incarcerated. Later, he got sentenced to another three years on a drug conviction but was out in one.

Earlier this month, a police officer shot and wounded a man as he held up a liquor store in Hampden. The man had a previous record for armed robbery but had gotten out after getting a suspended three year sentence.

Police officers in Baltimore have shot four people in the past 11 days, killing three of them. Two of those killed and the one who was wounded had long criminal records.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The headline reads "two in two days," but there's now been four within the city limits within the past 12 days. This one involved Baltimore County police, who tracked a robbery suspect to his probation agent's office and ended up staring down a .50 caliber firearm. Since the shooting took place in the city, BPD detectives will investigate.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Beaefeld III visited the scene, as he did yesterday when a man was shot by city police in Brooklyn outside a District Courthouse. With the year winding down, the commissioner is getting louder about his frustration with those who carry guns and what he sees as consistent slaps on the wrist by the judicial system. Perhaps he's recalling last New Year's Eve, when the commissioner himself arrested two people who fired guns into the air, only to see them enter plea deals in August that did not require them to serve jail time after Judge Martin P. Welch intervened.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, Police shootings
        

Both the Baltimore Sun and Daily Record had stories today about a federal judge's apparent skepticism over the city's lawsuit against Wells Fargo. The latter quoted outgoing U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz riffing on the state of some parts of the city, apparently in part based on his experiences at a recent event honoring fallen DEA agent Marty Ward. He said the area around there looked like "bombed-out Beirut" and questioned whether the city can pin that at the feet of Wells Fargo, according to Daily Record reporter Brendan Kearney:

"What’s happening in the inner city is despicable,” Motz said, referring to the wayward street kids who come before him accused of violent crimes. Alluding to a 25th anniversary memorial service for a slain city police detective he attended in West Baltimore earlier this month, Motz said “the place was vacant all over the place. It looked like bombed-out Beirut.”

To say that the “bad conduct” of bank executives and Wall Street schemers caused his hometown’s pervasive social ills “doesn’t follow as the day does the night,” Motz said."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The parents of Annie McCann, who have been pleading with the city to reopen their daughter's case and have retained high-powered consultants to help them make their case, got a terse response from city officials last week. It was forwarded to the media on Friday but I've been too swamped to get it up until now. The response from Deputy Mayor Christopher Thomaskutty, which is below, indicates that city officials are either exasperated with dealing with the family or realize this could be headed to court at some point and want to choose their words carefully:

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Annie McCann
        

Just learned that the man shot by police in Brooklyn Monday afternoon died overnight at Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Police identified him as Michael S. Guest, 32, of West Baltimore, and a quick check of court records reveals that he's a convicted murderer.

We're still trying to find detailed court records; the dates we have at the moment are confusing, but it appears the slaying occurred in 1993 and he was convicted in 2000 of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison, with four years suspended, and he later violated his probation. He also has a drug convction in from 2000 for which he was senteced to eight years in prison.

And looking back to this past Friday, a man who police shot while holding up a Hampden liquor store also had a previous convction, for attempted armed robbery, and got a suspended three-year sentence.

All this adds up to more frustration for Baltimore's police commissioner, Frederick H. Bealefeld III, who is complaining now more than ever about bad guys with guns and how they remain free on city streets.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Police shootings
        

Yet another police-involved shooting brings out the anger in Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III. His cops had just shot a man who had shot two people near the District Court building in Brooklyn on Monday afternoon:

"People aren't getting shot with lightning bolts. These guys have guns in their houses, they load their magazines, they play with their guns, and people know it. In this city, where people getting shot in broad daylight, bad guys with guns have to go to jail. ... I don't know how much more action you could expect or demand from the law enforcement officers of this city."

The top cop has been trying for months to engage fellow citizens in his fight against crime and bad guys with guns. He doesn't just want witnesses to step forward; he wants people who know people who are about to rob or shoot someone to turn them in.

What he is saying is that if someone has a gun, someone else knows it -- a friend, a mother, an aunt, a girlfriend -- and they should step up. It's a daunting task, maybe even a quixotic quest, but one he needs to turn this city around.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

On Friday, I spent a few hours with a community representative and a police officer in North Baltimore. More than 200 residents joined city cops for a night on the streets to learn the city from law enforcement's perspective.

You can read the complete story here but I also have a video of the exciting evening out:  

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Neighborhoods
        

I got up Saturday in my South Baltimore rowhouse to find my front planter had been tipped over and cracked. Not that I'm that great a gardener (in fact, I'm pretty bad, as my neighbors will attest) but at least what I had looked better than what is there now.

Then, I went out back and discovered I had accidentally left two boxes of cat litter outside, and of course, they had been stolen! That one is my fault -- I know better than to leave valuable stuff outside.

Readers might recall that about two years ago I left my car doors unlocked and awoked to find a homeless woman sleeping inside. Both of these incidents could've been easily avoided had I only practiced the advice preached in this column and by police.

As for the planter, well, I still can imagine what thrill someone gets by damaging it.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The Baltimore police union agreed to a new contract with the city on Thursday that calls for alterations in shifts that could help ease staffing shortages in districts.

The Sun's Julie Scharper details those provisions in her story today. The agreement has to be voted on by the rank and file on Tuesday. Aside from scheduling and avoidng forced days off to help the city's budget crunch, the officers won two other key provisions:

The police commissioner will have to meet with union officials and revisit a policy that prohibits cops from working overtime in establishments that sell alcohol. Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III implemented this rule to avoid conflicts of officers working for bars and his feeling they were more accountable to the owners then do the department.

In some areas of the city, such as Federal Hill, bar owners pay into a pool and the city assigns extra-duty officers to patrol neighborhoods that are popular night spots. That way, the bars get the protection and the officers still answer to the city. But some police say this has cut into their livelihood and some bar owners don't like loing control over their hires.

Also, police officers put on the so-called do-not-call list kept by prosecutors cannot be fired simply for being on the list. Prosecutors prohibit such officers from testifying in court and officers end up on the list at the discretion of the State's Attorney's Office, sometimes even if they haven't been disciplined by the department. But it means that cops on the list can't make arrests because they can't follow through in court.

City and union officials tell me that no officer has ever been fired simply for being on the list, so this contract provision is a pre-emptive strike in case a commander decides a cop should be fired because he can't perform all his duties.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top brass
        

A 20-year-old shot to death in an East Baltimore grocery store last week was a leader of an offshoot of the Bloods gang targeted in a federal indictment last year, and police are bracing for possible reprisals, multiple law enforcement sources tell The Baltimore Sun.

Corey Jones, who court records show lived in the 400 block of N. Glover St., was found on the floor of the A&A grocery store in the 2700 block of Orleans St. on Saturday evening, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Jones had a long criminal record, with drug and handgun convictions.

Sources said Jones was a five-star general in the Tree Top Piru gang. Federal prosecutors charged 28 people in February 2008 with participating in the gang, describing it as not necessarily among the city’s largest or most profitable drug organizations, but one of its most vicious. Members gained entry only by committing a violent crime first.

Among them was Kevin Gary, who was known for his red-tinted contact lenses and appeared on the front page of The Baltimore Sun. He was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison in March.

Jones was most recently convicted in May 2009 on two counts of drug distribution charges, receiving nine months in prison. In April 2007, he pleaded guilty to a firearm charge and received a five-year prison sentence, with four years and nine months suspended, and five years supervised probation. He was three times charged with violating his probation.

In February 2006, at age 17, he was charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the shooting death of a 16-year-old in a drug dispute; the charges were dropped one month later.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking news, East Baltimore, Gangs
        

A shooting by a Baltimore police officer early Wednesday brings the total this year to 21, the same as in 2008. Seven of the people shot, including the latest man, died, which is six fewer than last year.

We're still dealing with a policy in which city police withhold names of officers who fire their weapons, but there are exceptions. Officials released the name of one officer involved in a recent shooting of a robbery suspect in Hampden, calling him a hero, while withholding the name of two officers who shot a man who they said pointed a gun at them.

Apparently they're not heroes. Seems very odd.

I wonder how that makes the officers feel who shot and killed 20-year-old Byron Ranard Matthews in the 2300 block of West Baltimore St. early Wednesday. A sergeant and an officer shot the man after police said he ran during a drug investigation. Police said Ranard circled a block and pulled a .38 caliber revolver and pointed it at the officers.

Their names were withheld. But a police spokesman said Officer Adam Braskich was the off-duty cop who shot and critically wouunded a man who police said was holding up a liquor store on Falls Road in Hampden on Friday night.

For stopping the robbery, he was named a "hero."

This policy is supposedly still being reviewed. Below is a copy of a news release sent out recently by the Maryland State Police on a police involved shooting by a trooper. The shooting occurred about 6:15 p.m. and this detailed account, which includes the name of the trooper who fired, came out the same night:

TROOPER SHOOTS MAN CLAIMING TO BE ARMED AND THROWING ROCKS AT MOTORISTS AND TROOPERS

(North East, MD) – A man claiming to be armed with a gun and throwing large rocks at passing cars and ultimately troopers who confronted him on Rt. 40 in Cecil County tonight is hospitalized in stable condition after he was shot by a state trooper during the confrontation.

The suspect is identified as Clyde S. Patterson III, 50, who is currently a voluntary resident at the Perry Point Medical Center, a Veteran’s Administration facility in Perry Point, Md.  Patterson is listed in serious, but stable condition at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where he is under guard by state troopers.  

At 6:14 p.m. today, the Maryland State Police North East Barracks received simultaneous 9-1-1 calls from three motorists on Rt. 40 west of Red Toad Road, who all said their cars had been hit by large rocks thrown by a man on the roadside.  One of the motorists stopped to confront the man and said the suspect told him he had a gun and then pulled the gun from his waistband. 

Trooper First Class James L. Parker, 28, was the first to arrive on the scene where the motorists were parked.  After receiving a description of the suspect, TFC Parker told his backup trooper that the suspect may be armed and directed him to check the eastbound lanes of Rt. 40.

The backup trooper, TFC Brad Pennington, stopped his patrol car near the suspect, whom he saw walking on eastbound Rt. 40, with one hand in his pocket and carrying an American flag in the other.  As soon as the suspect saw the trooper, he ran to the roadside, picked up a large rock, and threw it at the trooper, but missed him and put his hand back in his pocket.  The rock rolled under the patrol car.  

TFC Pennington drew his weapon and ordered the suspect to show his hand and surrender.  The suspect repeatedly refused, saying that was not going to happen and that he was going to meet “J.C.”  

TFC Parker pulled his patrol car up on the scene with the suspect.  The suspect picked up another rock and threw it at the trooper as he was getting out of his car.  The rock broke the driver’s side window, but did not injure the trooper. 

The suspect continued to return his free hand to his pocket.  As the troopers continued to order the suspect to surrender, he continued to refuse, saying he was going to see “J.C.” and began walking up Rt. 40.  By this time, responding police units had stopped traffic on both east and westbound Rt. 40. 

The suspect eventually crossed the grass median.  He walked toward several Cecil County Sheriff’s Office deputies and troopers who were positioned in the westbound lanes of Rt. 40. 

In the interim, personnel at the North East Barracks requested a North East Police Department officer who is equipped with a less lethal weapon, a Taser, to respond to the scene.  The officer did so and joined the group of backup officers on westbound Rt. 40 as the suspect walked toward them, followed by the two troopers.

The North East officer gave multiple commands to the suspect to surrender and warned him he would use his Taser.  The suspect continued to refuse and kept his hand in his pocket. 
Without warning, the suspect lunged toward TFC Parker.  In fear for his life, TFC Parker fired one shot from his Beretta .40 caliber pistol.  Simultaneously, the North East officer fired his Taser at the suspect.  

Emergency care was immediately provided to the suspect, who had been struck by the gunshot in the upper torso.  A Maryland State Police helicopter flew the suspect to the Shock Trauma Center. 
No police officers were injured during the incident.  None of the motorists whose vehicles were struck by the large rocks were injured.

Maryland State Police crime scene technicians responded and processed the scene, requiring westbound Rt. 40 to be closed for several hours.  As of late tonight, the suspect’s handgun had not been found, but the search is continuing.  

Investigators from the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit responded and are conducting the investigation, assisted by criminal investigators from the North East Barracks.  The Maryland State Police Internal Affairs Unit is also conducting an administrative investigation into the police involved shooting, which is required by department regulations.

TFC Parker has been a member of the Maryland State Police for three and one-half years.  He has been placed on routine administrative leave, which is customary when a trooper is involved in a shooting.  

Upon the suspect’s release from the hospital, he will continue to be in the custody of the Maryland State Police.  He will be served with pending criminal charges at that time.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Police shootings
        

I spent some time earlier this week with the members of Survivors Against Violence Everywhere, a group of loved-ones of homicide victims that come together with the help of the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office.

Each Christmas, they have a party and hang angels on a tree to remember their lost sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, and grandchildren. This year, so many came that they all couldn't fit into one one. There were 61 from killings, some who went through this a decade ago, and still the number was tiny compared to the 220 killings just this year alone.

In today's paper, The Sun's police reporter Justin Fenton details the latest killings -- the beatings of a disabled mother and her daughter.

Here are some pictures from the event taken by The Sun's Kenneth K. Lam. In the first, Jessie Snead shows a picture of her great grand-children whose grandfather and her son Terrance Thompson never met. Thompson was killed in 1993.

Below, D'erra Burton, 7, niece of Terrance Thompson, hangs an ornament on the Angel Tree of Remembrance:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Wednesday's tragic fire in Rosemont killed Sam Davis, the 76-yar-old father of one our top editors at the Baltimore Sun. It also has raised serious questions about the Fire Department's longstanding practice of closing fire companies to save money.

Engine 20 responded to the 3 a.m. fire on Presstman Street but Truck 18 sat in that same station, shut down as part of rotating closures. Another truck company came from two miles away, a delay that has critics charging that buget cuts contributed to a death. Fire officials also say that the initial 911 call came in on a cell phone and was garbled, and fire crews were first sent to Presbury Street four blocks away.

Baltimore Sun reporter Julie Scharper and Liz Kay provide more details in today's paper and on-line story. Earlier this week, Mayor Sheila Dixon nixed plans by Fire Chief James S. Clack to permantenly close three stations, which would cut back on rotating closures. But the mayor did agree on one closure (Truck 16, which ironically was sent to the fatal fire in place of Truck 18)prompting a fire lieutenant to openly speak out on a Bolton Hill blog:

I appreciate your allowing me to voice my concerns on your forum. I am a Lieutenent at Truck 16, which is the fire truck located at 406 McMechen Street. We have just been informed that we will be closed permanently on January 1st. this puts all of you in extreme jeapordy. The engine will remain, however, the engine does not carrie ladders to assist you from windows in the event of a fire. We have served this community for years with much pride and feel this is very much a disservice to you hard working tax paying individuals. The department is permanenttly closing 3 companies on January 1st. If you are as upset about this as we, your local servants are, perhaps you could contact your local councilperson and voice your concerns. Thanks

Lieutenant Robert G. Folderauer
Truck Company # 16

The lieutenant noted a meeting has been scheduled with the fire chief, his command staff and City Council members at the McMechen Street firehouse for tonight at 7 p.m.

It's a volatile issue that is sure cause an uproar and debate. The president of the Rosemont Community Association, Robert Hunt, told The Sun's Liz Kay: "This is a good example of money versus lives. What is more important to you? " It's a crap shoot and it was the wrong decision as far as I'm concerned."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Neighborhoods
        

A 52-year-old woman, who was critically injured last week in a beating that left her 17-year-old daughter dead, died Tuesday night at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore police confirmed.

William Jones, 32, was arrested and charged last week in connection with the attack, which police say came after Jones went into a drunken rage following an argument with his girlfriend. The girlfriend lived in an apartment in the 5500 block of Midwood Ave. above Deborah Beard, a double amputee who used a wheelchair, and Beard's daughter, Qurra Iqbal.

Police said Jones, described as weighing 400 pounds, began drinking heavily after the argument and went downstairs, where he got into an argument with Iqbal, whom police identified as his cousin. He is accused of beating her several times in the head with a hammer, then turning to Beard, who was yelling at him to stop.

Correction: Relatives say Beard was 52 years old, not 59, as police had said.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news
        

The family of Fairfax, Va. teen Annie McCann, who was found dead in an East Baltimore housing project last year, is stepping up pressure on police and City Hall. Police say McCann committed suicide, but her death remains shrouded in mystery - no one is quite sure why she was in Baltimore, and her death has been attributed to ingesting Lidocaine, a liquid used to treat pierced ears. Those are just two of the main questions being raised, but there are many more.

 While police say the situation clearly represents a suicide, Annie's parents are committed to getting answers. A letter sent this morning to Deputy Mayor Christopher Thomaskutty shows that the family has retained high-powered attorney John Q. Kelly - of Natalee Hollaway fame - and forensic pathologist Michael Baden, who has been a consultant/lead pathologist or expert court witness in the the OJ Simpson and Phil Spector murder trials, among many other high-profile cases.

 Their letter is reprinted below:

Dear Deputy Mayor Thomaskutty:

We are writing in follow-up to the month-old request from our attorney, John Q. Kelly, that your police department re-open the investigation into the death of our daughter, Annie McCann, in November 2008.

Since at least March 2009, and probably as early as November 2008, the Baltimore Police Department concluded that Annie killed herself by drinking from a partial container of Bactine, an over the counter medication containing a tiny amount of lidocaine.

Mr. Kelly provided you the opinion of renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden.  To produce the levels of lidocaine reported at autopsy, Dr. Baden concludes, Annie would have to have ingested several containers of Bactine.  Consulted on autopsies from JFK to Michael Jackson, Dr. Baden finds no reliable basis to label Annie's death as a suicide.

Mr. Kelly also provided you with the written report of Bayer, the maker of Bactine.  Demonstrating remarkable corporate candor, Bayer reports that "the amount of lidocaine in a single 5 ounce bottle (of Bactine) would not be expected to produce death."

Shortly after Mr. Kelly's letter, we separately reported an apparent anomaly to you.  You had relayed to us the police report  that "No fingerprints were recovered from the Bactine bottle."  As we wrote you on November 10, Annie's unknown prints and our known prints should have been all over the bottle, and easily recoverable.  Where would they have gone?  Who would have a motive for wiping prints off that bottle?

We believe there are exactly two reasons, and no more, for the police conclusion. First, "Annie’s and only Annie’s DNA" was found on the bottle of Bactine -- as if such evidence could not have been forced from Annie, or easily planted after her death. Second, a few rambling and confused notes from Annie. Similar notes would be found in a book bag search at any American high school. The fact that teenagers write such notes does not authorize warrants for their death.

Police investigations should stand on facts and sound analysis, not conjecture.  The hard facts and analysis in this case point to murder or manslaughter.  Fundamentally:  How in the world did so much lidocaine, a lethal amount, get into our daughter's body?  A sheltered suburban teenager, Annie -- like us -- never heard of lidocaine in October 2008.

Against the opinion of a world class specialist, and against the uniquely informed opinion of the makers of Bactine, your police hierarchy is clinging to a theory that has completely disintegrated.  Annie did not kill herself with Bactine.  That is the police theory, and it is inescapably wrong.

We know that your office and the Mayor's office have been pre-occupied of late.  Still, it has been a month since Mr. Kelly's letter to you, and our reported anomaly.  We fear that, more than 13 months since our daughter's death, there has been no open-minded investigation into Annie's death by the only agency to investigate her death.

Will your police department re-open the investigation into Annie's death, Mr. Thomaskutty?  Much basic police work remains to be done.  Given the right leadership, even a year late, your strong and smart police officers and detectives are still capable of solving this mystery.

Please provide your response by reply e-mail, or to our attorney or to JusticeForAnnie@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Mary Jane and Dan McCann

Alexandria, VA

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Annie McCann
        

Many years ago, when the Baltimore Fire Department first began a rotating closure of fire companies to save money (the practice long predates this administration), a union official told me it was like playing Russian Roulette with people's lives.

This morning, one man died and a woman was injured in a rowhouse fire in the 3100 block of Presstman St. in West Baltimore (pictures at left by The Sun's Jed Kirschbaum). The truck company, Truck 18, located just six block away on North Avenue, had shut for the day. Engine 20 out of the same station, along with a medic, responded.

Trucks have the ladders and equipment needed for firefighters to make entry, perform rescues and break down doors and windows. Engines have water or are used to hook up to fire hydrants. Both are needed to properly respond to a fire.

A department spokesman is saying they are investigating response times to see whether a truck dispatched from another fire station made it in a reasonable amount of time and whether it would've made any difference. That will be the big question today; with Truck 18 down (station seen below), from where and from what distance did the other truck have to come and was that good enough?

Capt. Stephan G. Fugate, president of the Baltimore Fire Officer's union and a long critic of the rotating closures, told the Baltimore Sun's Liz Kay that the next nearest Truck company was two miles from Presstman Street when it was dispatched. "Those extra 90 seconds in the early stages of a fire .... that's is the difference between life and death." Noting a truck company's role in leading rescue efforts, he said: "You're placing civilians and our own members in jeopardy."

This morning's fire comes just two days after Fire Chief James S. Clack proposed shuttering three fire stations permanently. He said that would mean rotating closures would be limited to three each day; they now close fire companies every day. Mayor Sheila Dixon scaled back that plan, however, agreeing to close only one station. That means four companies will be closed each night.

Clack, speaking on WBAL-Radio this morning, did not directly answer whether Truck 18 would've made any difference in fighting the fire on Presstman Street. Here is what he had to say:

“Unfortunately what happened last night, the station has an engine and a truck. Just before we got the call to the fire, there was a  false alarm further to the west received. Engine 20 that was in the station with truck 18 and the engine was sent to the false alarm. They had to turn around and come back to their district. Tthat delayed getting the first engine to the fire."

"That's going to happen. We’re going to have fires near stations … It’s inevitable that  we’re going to have fires close to a station or a company that was rotated closed."

"I think we're to the point where we can't do much more of this."

The city has 36 engines and 18 truck companies and he said if five are closed each day, "That’s 10 percent of our surpression force. That’s a lot. I don't think it's prudent for us to keep increasing the rotating closures ... We need to have a serious discussion about where we go from here."

A few weeks, ago a bar owned by firefighters burned in Locust Point and one of the fire companies based on East Fort Avenue was shut. An engine had to come from Brooklyn, delaying the response time to a fire that involved the firefighters' own.

Firefighters have responded with vitriolic comments on the closures over the years. Some samples from the Maryland listing (made before this morning's fire) in The Watchdesk, a public comment forum for firefighters across the nation:

As if these BS closures aren't bad enough, now 1 of OUR OWN is directly impacted. Brother Hoffman's bar, Banners in Locust Point burned yesterday. E-26 was on a run with the bariatric medic & T-6 was transferred to T-21. Chief really what do we need to happen to make YOU & city hall to wake up? Judging from what I saw, Rick put a lot of time, effort, & pride iinto his establishment, only to be dealt with like a DOG when it comes to fire protection. I'm sure he pays hefty taxes on his place (Which by the way he lives above), & now is left with [deleted]. I'm afraid now, knowing what he knows the city may be liable for his damages if he sues them. I for 1 can only hope he takes YOU & the city hall [deleted] to the HOOP! Someone better WAKE UP!

I see that E-26 is closed again tomorrow..That should comfort everyone in the point. I wonder if Insurance rates might be affected by lock of fire protection. Also, maybe it's time some one get a "retired engine and keep it on stand-by because the City is not going to protect you 24/7 maybe 24/4.....hang in there...

Saw as of 12/6 were going to 24 hour closures. I guess this will effect all things , home visits, bldg. inspections, hydrants, & related office duties. I wonder who the NITWIT was that thought up this crap? Initially when this was thought up, it was to only affect double houses. As much as I hate to say it, now with the 24 hour closings, looks to me like the city is now playing double RUSSIAN ROULETTE. Get ready to hand out plenty of PITY PAMPHLETS this winter boys & girls. Downtown has eventually got to get caught with their pants down. It will probably take a few tragedies before they WAKE [deleted] UP!

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Neighborhoods
        

Baltimore County police are asking for help finding a missing woman (left), and there is a twist -- they also say a missing sofa sectional might be important to their investigation. Here is a story from last week's Baltimore Sun:

Baltimore County police are asking for the public's help in finding a 23-year-old woman who has been missing since last week. Jerryell Myesha Foster has not been seen since she left her home on Hazy Morn Court in Timonium at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Relatives told police that Foster did not attend a family Thanksgiving dinner and they are concerned about her. They said it was out of character for Foster to miss a holiday with family members and to not be in touch with them. Foster was described as black, 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighing about 125 pounds. Anyone with information about her is asked to call the Baltimore County Police Department at 410-307-2020 or the Missing Persons Unit at 410-887-3943.

Here's a copy of the news release from Baltimore County Police:

Search for Jerryell Foster Continues

Police Are Also Searching for a Missing Loveseat

Baltimore County Police continue asking the public’s help in locating Jerryell Myesha Foster. The 23-year-old woman has been missing for almost two weeks.  Detectives are also trying to find another element in this investigation: a loveseat that was part of a sectional sofa in Foster’s home.

Detectives discovered the piece was missing on Monday, November 30, when they conducted a search warrant of Foster’s home in the unit-block of Hazy Morn Court, 21093 in Precinct 7/Cockeysville. Police would like to establish if there is any link between the missing loveseat, and Foster’s disappearance.

Investigators speculate that someone may have taken the sofa from the apartment, and left it at a nearby Dumpster. A passerby may have then retrieved it, and taken it home. If that did happen, the person who took it is not in any trouble and faces no charges. But detectives would like to hear from that person, to determine if the loveseat has any value in the investigation.

Missing persons detectives are again asking if anyone has information on the whereabouts of Jerryell Foster. She did not show up for Thanksgiving dinner as expected and that has her family concerned. Ms. Foster is the mother of a two-year old daughter, and relatives say it is out of character for her to miss a holiday and not be in contact with her family.

The missing woman is described as a black female, 5’3” tall, 150 pounds, with black hair.
Anyone with information on the disappearance of Ms. Foster or the loveseat is asked to call Baltimore County Police at 410-307-2020.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Baltimore County, Breaking news
        

The Crime Beat is back!

I took one day off to catch up at home and it seems the city explodes -- a shooting at a downtown hotel with a TEC-9 semiautomatic pistol and an off-duty city police officer who thwarted an armed robbery in Hampden on Friday by shooting the attacker.

The city's top cop once again used his favorite names to describe the shooters:

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III held a news conference to stress that it was an "isolated incident" for the Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel, where the shooting occurred, and unusual for downtown hotels, in general.

He railed in frustration against "idiots and morons" with guns they're ready to use in a fight. He declared that the police are doing what they can but said authorities need everyone in the city to "help us remove this scourge."

Also, another installment of Justin Fenton's Tale of Two Cities series from London ran. This one centers on some officials in Great Britain comparing their cities to that of Baltimore based on The Wire and their own crime problems. Such statements created a great stir there:

Officials have pushed back, noting that this year's bump in crime still represents the second-lowest figure in the past five years. Though "respect" shootings doubled, that was from an original total of just 33. Total homicides are down for the year, following a 20-year low last year.

"We have a very, very low murder rate for a reason," said London Deputy Mayor Kit Malthouse, who along with his boss, Mayor Boris Johnson, has angled to seize unprecedented control over the Metropolitan Police Department. "And the reason is that we take it very, very seriously."

In Britain, obtaining guns remains a challenge for criminals, and just 20 percent of firearms seized by police are working guns. Instead, criminals reconfigure starter pistols and replica guns, or smuggle weapons from Eastern European and Asian countries. If guns are hard to come by, officers say, ammunition is even more rare. Many shootings avoid a fatal result because the bullets are of such poor quality - spent shell casings repacked and recycled.

"At the end of the day, it's not the gun that's going to kill you - it's the ammunition. But they struggle knowing where to get the ammunition from," said Police Constable Matthew Broome. "So they have to get creative, and refilling a shell of a bullet means a bullet isn't as potent when it's fired from the gun."

Meanwhile, the city has recorded 218 slayings, compared with 234 in all of 2008, a two-decade low. It doesn't appear we'll improve on last year's numbers, but it's far better from back when I covered the day-to-day crime and Baltimore recorded more than 300 each year for a decade. 

Unfortunately, the Hampden shooting only made the final print edition, so here the story written by Jacques Kelly:

Off-duty officer shoots suspect in Hampden holdup
By Jacques Kelly

Baltimore Sun reporter

10:24 PM EST, December 4, 2009

An off-duty city police officer critically wounded a man who was holding up a Hampden liquor store Friday night.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said a customer at Hampden Liquors left the store as it was being robbed by two men about 8:20 p.m.

The customer encountered an off-duty Northwestern District officer walking along the 3700 block of Falls Road.

The officer went to the store and saw a 20-year-old man pointing a handgun at a clerk. Guglielmi said the officer, while on the street, "took a defensive position" and fired shots at the robber, wounding him in the upper torso.

His accomplice fled the scene but was later caught on nearby Elm Avenue. Police recovered a second handgun in the 3600 block of Hickory Ave.

Guglielmi, who said that no store employee was hurt, called the thwarted robbery an "act of heroism." The suspect was taken to Sinai Hospital, where he underwent surgery and was listed in critical condition.

Guglielmi said evidence and videotapes linked both men to two earlier retail store robberies. He said the first holdup, at 7:50 p.m., was in a shop the 1900 block of E. 31st St. The second was at a mini-mart in the 2000 block of Maryland Ave. about 8 p.m.

Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Thursday's ceremony for slain Baltimore Police Det. Marty Ward, who was killed making an undercover drug buy 25 years ago, got me thinking a lot about drugs and the way we fight the drug war.

Marty was a seasoned cop when, as part of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration task force, he negotiated a heroin buy from a man and then got shot as his raid team ran up the stairs. Ward's dying gasps were caught on tape that was played at his trial.

At the ceremony outside the house in which Marty had been shot, 1829 Frederick Avenue, cops gathered and talked about continuing the drug war and "standing the line" but it was clear that 25 years of seemingly futile work has made little headway. Above, in a picture by The Sun's Lloyd Fox, Officer Efren Edwards salutes). 

The best that could be said came from Gary Childs, who was the lead cop on the raid team when Marty was shot. Standing back at the house a quarter-century later, Childs told me: "Imagine what it would be like if we didn't do what we did. We try to put a lid on it and make it OK for the people who have to live here."

In other words, we're barely keeping pace. We're struggling to maintain the status-quo. As as several police officers told me on Thursday, the amount of heroin Marty was negotiating for in such an elaboarate and dangerous sting is roughly the same amount cops today get in standard street rips.

"Baltimore will never change," one city police lieutenant told me.

It's not that all this for nothing. But it's got to be disheartening for police officers to return to a street where one of their own had been killed so long ago and find it no better or even worse than it was back then. Those who knew him described Marty Ward (left) as a cop with unquestioned integrity, who truely gave up his life for others.

After completing the drug deal and getting the incriminating words on tape, he could've walked down the stairs from the apartment above the Kandy Kitchen and let the raid team go up. But he knew the suspect, Lascell Simmons, had a .357 Magnum, and so Marty decided to stay to try and distract him as his fellow cops ran up two flights of stairs in the cramped rowhouse. Simmons heard them coming and shot Marty four times before they could arrive.

It was Childs, listening to the live audio feed, who heard Simmons' gun cocking, then a shot, then the gun cocking again, then another shot. Childs could be heard screaming "Marty, Marty Marty!" before he cut the feed. It was Childs, who would later become a city homicide detective and now works for Baltimore County police, who ran up the narrow stairs and shouted to Simmons to throw down his gun. Simmons refused, saying he didn't believe Childs was a cop.

"I ain't throwing no gun down till the police come," Simmons said, according to a 1985 Baltimore Sun story. "Don't come up here, man. I'm telling you wait unitl the police come, man. I can't let y'all up here because I don't know who y'all is, man."

Childs screamed up: I am the ---- police, here's my badge. Now throw the gun down and walk down and if that man dies, I'll kill you."

Simmons died in prison in April while serving a 160 year sentence for Marty's death.

Haunting words from so long ago. My colleague Dan Rodricks -- he has a blog called Random Rodricks --  wrote a moving column in 1985 that, without the names and date, could be written today. He wrote that on Dec. 3, 1984, about 5 p.m., most people were sitting down to dinner or watching TV, and "with no one paying much attention, a police officer named Marty Ward was trying as best one man could to save the city. He was trying to stop the seepage of heroin into the blood of Baltimore."

The seepage continues, not because Marty failed, but for many other reasons that could be and are debated in books, in university classrooms and in squad rooms across the country. A few months ago, Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III addressed officers in a training seminar and criticized past administrations for failing to effectively combat drugs.

He said that after Marty Ward was killed, cops reserved undercover drug buys for the most serious of cases and the most wanted of men. That way, when a detective brought a suspect to a judge, even for a small amount of drugs, the judge knew that this man was a high-level target because otherwise police wouldn't have risked their lives to bring him in. In short, the bust meant something.

But Bealefeld said that past Baltimore police commissioners decided they could buy drugs from everyone and put everyone in jail. Judges came to work with addicts lined up around the corners and concluded, rightly, that the cops had no real plan other than mass arrests. Their dockets were overloaded with petty criminals while the big-time suppliers roamed free. Prosecutors set an arbitrary limit to stem the tide, requiring 30 pieces of crack or small bags of heroin to bring a felony charge. The dealers started carrying 29.

Bealefeld said he's trying to turn that around. Here is some of what he told the cops in training, according to Sun reporter Justin Fenton who was allowed to attend:

"We reserved undercover buys, hand to hand buys, after that, after that death, we reserved undercover buys for the biggest targets we could think of. Guys’ we couldn’t get any other way. So we didn’t do it a lot. Not cause we were afraid, not just because of Marty Ward. But we said to each other, 'If we’re going to do this, it’s a big deal. It’s a really big deal. And the people we get, are a really big deal.'

"Who else knew that? The judges knew that. And all this crap about 30 pieces, all that other junk we’ve lived with, it still meant something to sell dope to a cop. It meant something. We put you in plainclothes, we send you out. It wasn’t TV stuff. ... If we gave you twenty bucks of marked money and bought two pills and we went and locked that guy up, it meant something. It was a very clear signal that we were serious about that guy. Cause most of the judges knew about Marty Ward too. They knew about our history and about our policing tactics, of this agency. It meant something."

Bealefed then referenced (and sharply criticized) former Police Commmissioner Kevin P. Clark:
 
"Anyone know what Clarks’ stategy to solve drug dealing in Baltimore was? His core strategy was, that he believed we could buy dope from all the drug dealers and put them out of business. It's preposterious, right? Why do we know that? Cause you wear this uniform and patrol these streets. It would be like you tomorrow, you’re the police chief of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and on the plane ride out, you’re writing down all this stuff about how to solve crime in Alburquerque, New Mexico. Could she do it? no. hell no.

"He had this idea, he’d train all these teams, he’s gonna train all these undercover teams, New York style. He brought in New York guys to train Baltimore guys about how to police in Baltimoe, and we’re going to buy dope from everybody and fill the jails up with drug dealers. And then there’s no one to sell dope.

"I may be a lot of things, I’m a damn good drug cop. And I’ve locked kids up 8 to 88. It's impossible to do. Forget the impracticality of it. But in an instance, by way of an ill-advised police strategy, what happened to our tactic? It's gone. Cause guess who knew we weren’t serious anymore? The judges. Now, instead of taking a handful a year and saying, 'I don’t know what you did son, but they used buy-bust on you, you’re going to jail.' Selling to a cop is an instant felony. Whether you sold one pill or 5,000 pills, it’s a felony in an instant. A bag of weed? Felony. You go to jail. And now you and hundreds of cops all over the city, buying from everybody indiscriminately, the juges figured that out too. There’s no priorities here. how are you telling me this guy is a bigger priority than the 386 guys I have on my docket today. So guess who went to jail. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody went to jail behind a tactic that worked for us for years, and its gone. Gone. In one move. In one stroke, gone."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)
        

Private donations have saved the Baltimore Police Department's horse unit for at least another year. Nearly $90,000, including a big one for $50,000, poured into the Baltimore Community Foundation.

At left, Baltimore Mounted Police Sgt. John Ambrose, right, with his partner Barney talks with Carol Laucht, left, of Baltimore. The photo wa taken by The Sun's Kenneth K. Lam.

The money falls short of what police had originally said would be needed -- $150,000 -- and the unit's future beyond 2010 remains in question. But Wednesday afternoon, the police commissioner and mayor announced that a $5,000 check from the Curtis Bay-Brooklyn Environmental Oversight Committee and Curtis Bay Energy Co. put the fund raising driver over the top.

Ambrose brought his horse Barney, though he had to stay outside in the rain while officials moved the announcement inside the Southern District police station's roll call room. Barney posed for the media when it was all done, and after the mayor had disappeared.

So efforts by citizens who sent in checks for $100, and a little girl in Baltimore County who raised $2,000 selling lemonade, and a Jewish community crime fighting group who raised $15,000 playing the cops in football, paid off.

But with the city's budget still in need of fixing, it's going to be tough to secure funding for another year. If the unit is going to remain active, it needs a corporate sponsor.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

My good friends down at the Washington Post's new crime blog have a contest going, inspired after a couple of corrections officers got charged with smuggling iPods into a DC jail. The contest is to guess what songs the officers might have downloaded for the inmates.

I should've have though of that this past summer after the feds charged a gang and some corrections officers with smuggling food into prisoners in Baltimore. It was't just ordinary food, a step above normal prison slop, but lobster, champagne and vodka. At one point, the feds caught an inmate on a wiretap complaining that lobster wasn't available and he had to settle for salmon with shrimp and crab imperial. At least he got a "good cigar" to finish off his meal.

Maryland authorities say the same inmates eganged in fine prison dining also orchestrated at least seven killings and ran their drug business from inside their cells. They even had links to one of the troublesome bars Baltimore's police commissioner padlocked earlier this year.

I still think we have more entertaining crime here in Baltimore. I mean, city cops say they busted a gunman who tried to escape in a limo on Tuesday night. And I think lobster beats out a fully loaded iPod. What would you rather have in prison -- fine food or music?

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

My column on Sunday on a jury acquittal on a man charged with drug possession brought some sharp criticism from a reader. As you may recall, a Baltimore police officer testified that he saw a man drop drugs. The man's lawyer argued that the officer planted the drugs.

It's a case known as a "dropsie" and pits the word of the officer against the word of the suspect. In Baltimore, we know how that turns out -- the suspect's attorney called the cop a liar and the prosecutor had to remind jurors that even though they read a lot about bad cops, not all of them that way.

I had been chosen for a jury pool for this case but not put on the jury. I would've loved to been part of the discussion; I watched the video of the trial and noted that cops didn't fingerprint the drugs, which would've proven one side of the story over the other.

Here is what a reader wrote:

Dear sir,

Re: your article about that drug trial and your saying that all drugs be fingerprinted in the city. Did you do any research at all!? I used to work with the the crime lab and a phone call would have told you there are only a handful of examiners in the department. Those FEW people have to test hundreds and hundreds of prints a year and have work backed up for months on cases where the police didn't see the person commit a crime. And you want them to have to test thousands and thousands of drug cases too? It would be a delay of years to get results. Did you even find out how many fingerprints can even come off drugs? It's funny that you want to multiply the lab worker's work by a factor of ten when you are too lazy to get all the facts before you write an story. Also, personally, I think it is so irresponsible to tell everyone in Baltimore not to convict without fingerprints because you don't like the war on drugs. Well, guess what, Mr. "Journalist"? I live in a neighborhood where I can look out my window and see drugs sold. The violence on my street is mostly done by the sellers of drugs. It is so irresponsible for you to write an ill-informed article telling everyone to set drug dealers free. Elderly in my neighborhood are afraid to go buy milk after dark and now you tell everyone not to convict drug dealers. I can just hope that since no one hardly reads your paper any more that they will not read your uneducated article. Its sad what counts for "journalism" in this city.

Sincerely, someone who cares about the truth

My response:

The reader is absolutely correct in that the city doesn't have enough money or resources to fingerprint every bad of drugs that are seized. The prosecutor even told the jury that given the city's hard economic times, that sort of investigation is all but impossible.

I certainly didn't mean to cast doubt on the hard working men and women in the crime lab. They are truely overloaded with work. But my point is that if we want to continue to fight the drug war this way, and we know juries don't trust cops and will acquit when it's their word against someone elses, with no other evidence to back them up, then we might need to rethink how we proceed.

My critic is correct. But being correct and continuing business as usual won't convince juries to start convicting, and we'll continue to see people arrested for drugs only to walk back into society at the end of their trials. This was such a small, routine drug case it should never have gotten all the way to Circuit Court (where dockets are crowded enough with murder cases) but defense lawyers have no incentive to take pleas when they know they can push their cases to juries and have a good chance of getting them off.

And it doesn't help when the city doesn't even try to back up the cops by collecting evidence that jurors want to see.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The holidays bring a flood of reminders from police that they're out in force to catch speeders and remove drunken drivers from our roads. I spent Tuesday evening and night with Cpl. Jeff Kirschner (left) of the Maryland State Police Golden Ring barracks.

He and his fellow troopers cover 200-plus miles of highway, including a good chunk of the Baltimore Beltway, I-83 from the city line to the Pennsylvania border, I-795 to Route 140,  and a portion of I-70 and I-95.

I began to appreciate the distances involved when he had stopped a car for speeding on the Beltway near York Road and had to turn around and speed to an accident at Cove Road, near Essex. It took 20 him minutes weaving through rush-hour traffic and by the time he arrived, Baltimore County police had nearly completed the investigation.

I'll be writing more on this in Thursday's column. Many of the people pulled over for speeding or tailgating had been distracted by using their cell phones. One man was so close to the bumper of the car in front of him he had to repeatedly slam on the brakes while going 60 on the Beltway. He told Kirschner that the driver in front was talking on his phone and "he just couldn't take it anymore." So he tailgated.

At another point, the trooper noted, "She's going 84 and talking on her phone." Then, at an accident on a ramp leading off northbound I-95 to the Beltway (the new interchange that was just built) a motorist who slammed into the back of another car, causing a mess that shut down two lanes and backed up traffic for miles, said he was trying to find the "ignore" button on his cell phone because he knew answering an incoming call would be too dangerous while driving.

The rush-hour brought calls for accidents; the post-rush hour period appeared to be easy pickings for speeders. It's amazing what these troopers see. Kirschner noticed a dirty license plate on one car and suspected it was due to bad emissions. He was right; the driver's license had been revoked for that very reason, and the man got a ticket and was ordered off the road.

The trooper noted that northbound 83 leaving the city is one of the best spots to catch drunk drivers and that southbound 83 leaving Pennsylvania is the best spot to catch speeders. He once clocked someone doing 138 mph. Most of the people he pulled over were exceeding 80 mph (under 85, it's 2 points and $160 fine; 85 and above it climbes to 5 points and a $290 fine). At left, Kirschner inputs data into his in-car computer, which allows him to scan licenses and registrations and print tickets on the spot).

Kirschner, who is 33 and has been a trooper for eight years, did note that people tend to be worse drivers over the holidays. "Everyone is trying to get home or get shopping," he said, which leads to crowded roads and more aggravation. For him, traffic jams are "just part of every day," and I have to admit that sitting in backups is easier when you're not trying to get anyplace specific.

The last stop was a good gone -- a Mazarati speeding at 80 mph and over and stopped on the southbound JFX near Ruxton Road. The driver, in his 40s, and his passenger, a young woman in her 20s, were dressed for a night on the town. The driver of the $100,000 car told the trooper he didn't care how many tickets he wrote, he could pay, and while he spent his time waiting for Kirschner to finish the paperwork by making out with his girlfriend.

But then Kirschner's in-car computer started to beep -- an alert calling attention to an open arrest warrant for the driver, charging him out of Howard County with two counts of prostitution and two counts of attempted prostitution. Kirschner called for back-up and put the driver in handcuffs, putting the woman in tears (and on the phone to her mother) and putting an end to their night out. Instead of a concert, the driver ended up at the Golden Ring barracks in cuffs.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

Mayor Sheila Dixon was convicted of one count of embezzlement after days of deliberations by a jury examining whether she misused gift cards intended for the poor.

This brings an end to the first of two trials for the mayor, but certainly doesn't end the speculation about Dixon's future in office and whether a conviction on this charge will be enough to remove her from office.

Check back to the Baltimore Sun's web site and Wednesday's paper for continuous updates.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Breaking news
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III has scheduled a news conference for Wednesday afternoon at the Southern District police station on Cherry Hill Road to announce additional funding for the foundering police equesterian unit.

I'm told the department has raised enough money -- roughly $100,000 -- to keep cops on horses for at least one more year. Budget cuts nearly ended one of the oldest police mounted units in the country and the department sought donations.

Groups and individuals sent in money to a private police foundation, though officials made it clear they were looking for something akin to a corporate sponsor. It's unclear whether that came through. One little girl in Baltimore County -- 9-year-old Sophia Litrenta, pictured here -- even held a bake sale and donated the proceeds; another community crime group raised money by plaing police in football.

It's still not too late to donate:

For anyone who wants to donate, here's how:

Laurie Crosley is the main point of contact at the Baltimore Community Foundation for the Police Foundation. Donations can be mailed to her at:

Baltimore Community Foundation
2 E Read St # 9
Baltimore, MD 21202-6903

Checks should be made out to: Baltimore Community Foundation, Police Foundation Fund. The cover letter or check should specify that the funds are to used to support the Mounted Unit. The phone number there is: (410) 332-4171.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Police throughout Maryland are warning that people let their guard down over the busy holiday season. The Harford County Sheriff's Office has offered some tips to keep you and your purchases safe.

Tonight, I'll be out with Maryland State Police as they ramp up their efforts to ticket bad drivers and get drunks off the road. Here is message from Harford:

Stay Safe this Holiday Season December 1, 2009 Dear Peter, Often during this busy time of the year, people are feeling especially festive or pulled in too many directions at one time.  It is easy to stop paying attention to your surroundings and/or personal safety. Since many crimes occur simply because the opportunity exists, now more than ever we want remind you to practice personal and auto safety awareness at all times. Holiday Foot Patrols in Major Shopping Areas     The holiday season is upon us and Harford County Sheriff's Office will be intensifying our regularly scheduled patrols with our Annual Holiday Foot Patrol Initiative. For the seventh consecutive year, beginning December 1, 2009, Sheriff's deputies will be conducting both foot and vehicular patrols of shopping centers and retail plazas in our jurisdiction. The intent is to deter crime and make the holidays much safer for the citizens of Harford County.  In addition to deputies on patrol, Harford County Sheriff's Office Command Staff will be taking to the streets as well. This provides commanders an excellent opportunity to meet with the business community and citizens that we serve.    Keep your holiday gifts safe Remember, many crimes occur simply because the opportunity exists. Therefore during holiday patrols, deputies will be utilizing an awareness tool  that identifies if a vehicle was a potential target for crime. These provide a way to help you remember to be more alert and aware with your vehicles.   The awareness reminder entitled "Attention- Don't be a victim" will indicate whether the deputies discover a car was that unlocked and unattended.  It will also point out if personal property (such as a laptop, holiday gifts or portable GPS system) was left in plain view.   The main goal of the Harford County Sheriff's Office annual holiday patrols is to ensure that during these special holiday times you do not end up a victim of crime.   Warmest regards, L. Jesse Bane Sheriff Harford County Sheriff's Office

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime