State authorities keep close tabs on convicted sex offenders, particularly around Halloween, when kids are out and going from house to house. Here are some plans that cops and other officials have to keep kids safe and predators in check:

Once again this year, the Maryland Division of Parole and Probation (DPP) will be monitoring certain sexual offenders and reminding them to stay away from children’s Halloween activities. Selected offenders have been sent letters (below) and window signs indicating that they have no candy. In addition, Parole and Probation agents will be conducting hundreds of home visits and working with local law enforcement in some regions across the state to ensure that certain offenders are compliant.

“The Division of Parole and Probation takes very seriously the business of protecting our communities,” says DPP Director Patrick McGee. “Parole and Probation will establish a reinforcing presence across the state during Halloween.  We will concentrate our efforts on Sunday, and will visit the homes of those offenders for whom this intervention is determined to be most appropriate.”
                       
Offenders are asked to keep their porch lights out, place “NO CANDY” signs in their windows, and stay away from children’s activities. Those found to be non-compliant could face sanctions for violating the terms of their supervision.

For more details:

Statewide, the Maryland Division of Parole and Probation supervises approximately 71,000 men and women. These include more than 2,300 sexual offenders statewide. DPP is also responsible for the more than 1,000 sexual offenders who have been sentenced but not yet released to supervision. Sexual offenders present specific challenges.

Legislation passed during the 2006 Emergency Legislative Session mandated collaborative containment (“COMET”) teams for the management of sexual offenders, and authorized conditions allowing the use of polygraph examinations, computer monitoring, and electronic tracking for sexual offenders. Within months of this mandate, COMET teams with offender-to-agent reduced caseloads of 30-to-one had been intensively trained throughout Maryland; their training included sex offender laws and relevant agency policies, sexual abuse incidence and prevalence, victimology, treatment domains, relapse prevention, and many other subject areas.

Under the O’Malley Administration, DPP has been at the forefront in the development and implementation of effective strategies for the management and treatment of sexual offenders.

The O’Malley Administration secured the passage of lifetime registration legislation, and assisted DPP in greatly enhancing enforcement and supervision measures, including polygraph exams, electronic monitoring, and other tools critical to sex offender management. The Administration provided funding for DPP to intensively train agents to handle sex offender cases; these agents have a reduced caseload and specialize in this vital supervision specialty.

DPP uses a special risk instrument specifically designed to assess sexual offenders to examine every single sexual offender in its system, and initially places all offenders under the highest level of supervision, which includes daily telephone contacts, weekly face-to-face meetings, mandatory treatment referrals based upon risk assessment, and at least monthly verification of compliance with all terms of supervision and Registry requirements. Offenders are moved to lower supervision levels only on the basis of consistent successful compliance and satisfactory risk assessment scores.  

The management of sexual offenders in Maryland includes:

Clinical Polygraph Exams
These increase the accountability of sexual offenders for past behaviors, ensure compliance with current supervision, and serve as a deterrent.

Computer Monitoring
Software may be installed on an offender’s computer allowing an agent to monitor or restrict access to particular activities and locations.  This allows more accurate risk assessment and potentially prevents victimization. Agency policy requires computer monitoring for any sexual offender release from the Division of Correction who is a child sexual offender required to register with the Md. Sex Offender Registry.

Electronic Tracking
GPS tracking may be used around-the-clock by DPP as required. Curfews may be established and monitored; agents may set geographic exclusions and boundaries; alerts are generated when an offender violates the rules.

 Below are the letters sent by Parole and Probation to sexual offenders under supervision, and some Halloween safety tips and statistics put together by Parole and Probation Victim Services staff.


LETTER SENT TO CERTAIN SEXUAL OFFENDERS WHO ARE UNDER MARYLAND PAROLE AND PROBATION SUPERVISION

To All COMET Supervisees:

Halloween is a holiday focused almost exclusively on children and the enjoyment they experience wandering through their neighborhoods interacting with neighbors and strangers alike.  

The arrival of Halloween, however, can also lead to increased concern among other family members over the safety of their children due, in part, to their awareness of the presence in their neighborhoods of individuals who have been convicted of sexual offenses.

We, in turn, are aware that you probably have concerns of your own about the often negative reactions of your neighbors to the knowledge that you are living among them.  It is not as apparent to them, as it is to us, that most of you are genuinely engaged in the difficult task of rebuilding your lives – of finding a stable home, a steady job, and some small measure of peace and happiness.  

This holiday provides an opportunity for you to clearly convey that message to the community – to show that you are making a sincere effort to change the direction of your life and thus regain their acceptance.  For this reason (as well as for other more practical reasons, including protecting yourself from possible misunderstandings and allegations), we are requiring your commitment to the following approach, which we believe will allow children and their families to enjoy the holiday without undue anxiety:

Please remain at home on Halloween from 6:00 p.m. onward, with your porch lights out and a “No Candy” sign on the door; and do not answer your door to trick-or-treaters.

This commitment on your part represents a quiet but very meaningful contribution to an enjoyable, uneventful Halloween.  It will also hopefully convey to the community a more positive message about you than it is likely to get from any other source.
                                                
FROM THE VICTIM SERVICES UNIT OF THE MARYLAND DIVISION OF PAROLE AND PROBATION
 
Tips on How to Keep Your Kids Safe This Halloween:

•    Only visit those houses with porch lights on
•    It’s a good idea to stay in the neighborhood your family is familiar with
•    Make sure your child stays out of the streets, cross only at crosswalks
•    Children should carry a bag for candy, this way no one can grab their hand.
•    Children should never go inside a house they are visiting for trick or treating
•    Young trick-or-treaters should always be supervised by adults
•    Try to go out in groups of three or more
•    Have a safety plan in case of emergency
•    Take a cell phone and flashlight along
•    Trick or treating should be done no later than 8:00pm

The Maryland Division of Parole and Probation (DPP) is taking various steps to ensure the safety of our children.
Several restrictions have been placed on registered sex offenders.

Sex Offenders are instructed to:
•    Remain in their home on Halloween from 6:00pm until the next morning
•    Keep outside lights off and place a “no candy” sign on the door
•    Not answer the door for trick-or-treaters
•    Not participate in any Halloween events sponsored by shopping malls or other community organizations

DPP Agents and the local police departments will be working together, conducting home visits to sex offenders to ensure they are compliant with the registry and the restrictions placed on them during Halloween.

Teaching children about stranger danger is important but it is not always strangers who can be a danger:
•    About 93% of victims know their attackers
o    34.2% of attackers were family members.
o    58.7% were acquaintances.
o    Only 7% of the perpetrators were strangers to the victim (U.S. Department of Justice. 2004 National Crime Victimization Survey. 2004)
•    The typical child sex offender molests an average of 117 children, most of whom do not report the offense ( National Institute of Mental Health)
•    Over a 25-year period, child molesters had a higher rate of re-offense than rapists: 52% versus 39% (Prentky, Lee, Knight, and Cerce)
•    15% of sexual assault and rape victims are under age 12. (U.S. Department of Justice. 2004 National Crime Victimization Survey. 2004.)
•    7% of girls in grades 5-8 and 12% of girls in grades 9-12 said they had been sexually abused (1998 Commonwealth Fund Survey of the Health of Adolescent Girls. 1998)
•    3% of boys grades 5-8 and 5% of boys in grades 9-12 said they had been sexually abused (1998 Commonwealth Fund Survey of the Health of Adolescent Girls)
•    In 1995, local child protection service agencies identified 126,000 children who were victims of either substantiated or indicated sexual abuse (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. 1995 Child Maltreatment Survey. 1995.)
•    Nearly 30% of child victims were between the ages of 4 and 7 (1998 Commonwealth Fund Survey of the Health of Adolescent Girls. 1998.)

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

From Maryland State Police:

No costumes, but additional troopers will be wearing their usual uniforms as part of extra Maryland State Police drunk driving patrols that will be deployed this weekend in every county in Maryland.  

Maryland State Police Superintendent Colonel Terrence B. Sheridan has ordered each of the 22 barracks to conduct drunk driving saturation patrols in an effort to reduce injuries and fatalities caused by drunk driving crashes.  “Our goal this weekend is to locate and arrest drunk drivers before they are involved in a crash that results in injury or death,” Colonel Sheridan said.  “Troopers will accept no excuses for drunk driving this or any other weekend.  Anyone planning to mix alcohol and driving this weekend should also plan to meet a Maryland state trooper who will not have treats, but will have handcuffs and will provide a free ride to jail.”    

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2008, 58 percent of all highway fatalities on Halloween night involved a driver or a motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol content of .08 or higher, which is illegal in Maryland and every other state.  Maryland law states a driver with a blood alcohol content of .08 or higher is driving under the influence and a driver with a blood alcohol content of .07 is driving while impaired.  Either charge will lead to an arrest and could result in a significant fine, jail time, and points on a driver’s license.   

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Another killing Thursday evening in Southwest Baltimore brings the week's murder count to at least eight. They include the killing of a 63-year-old bus driver on his way to work, a 16-year-old juvenile and a domestic slaying.

Police have made an arrest in the domestic killing and more details are in Justin Fenton's story here. Also, more details on these killings and others can be found on the Baltimore Sun's homicide map.

Here is some more information on the latest killing from The Sun's Yagenah June Torbati:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news, West Baltimore
        

The Maryland Attorney General's Office just sent out this statement on a former top prison official who oversees Central Booking and other pre-trial detention centers with taking seized money from arrestees.

But he wasn't keeping the money -- or at least most of the money -- for his own personal use. Turns out the money was contaminated with bodily fluids, such as blood, and the official took the money and buried it in a junkyard. His attorney told me that Benjamin F. Brown, 60, took only about $800 for himself.

"He wasn't personally enriching himself," said the attorney, Creston P. Smith.

Here is the statement from the Attorney General: 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

UPDATE: Here's the updated story. The criminal charges and protective order involve two different boys, and police say both had mothers who were legally blind. Records also show that Citro told detectives that he was suppressing his homosexual urges and that it was the boy who visited pornographic web sites on Citro's computer.

Police have charged a 47-year-old Northeast Baltimore man with sexually abusing a 14-year-old old who he met through volunteer work mentored at a charter school, officials said.

Mark A. Citro (seen here on his profile picture on Facebook) met the boy and his mother through the Friendship Academy of Engineering and Technology, police said. (Clarification: Schools officials are saying that Citro already knew the family and worked at the school mentoring only that boy.) He told them he was a minister at a Harford Road church, as well as an investigator who worked with the city and state police as well as the FBI to "turn in child predators," said Anthony Guglielmi, the police department's chief spokesman. 

Citro is accused of befriending the boy and having him stay over at the house to assist his mother, who is legally blind. The boy told investigators that Citro made him watch pornography, and fondled him and masturbated in front of him.

Police executed a search and seizure warrant at his home in the 2800 block of Louise Avenue and found a registered .38 caliber handgun, handcuffs and mace, and several badges for security and special investigation companies.  Police also seized computers, which will be analyzed.

On Citro’s Facebook page, he frequently posted updates about missing children and “friended” accounts for parents looking for lost children. He lists his employer as “God” and describes his occupation as an evangelist and youth minister.

Court records show that Citro has no prior record of arrests, though a woman gained a peace order requiring him to stay from her in April. In that case, the woman said Citro was “someone who befriended my son. Now he has overstepped his boundaries.” There were no allegations at that time of sexual abuse.

It was not clear whether the protective order involved the same family alleging sex abuse. The Sun does not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse.

In appealing that protective order, Citro provided private emails sent between him and the boy’s parents in which they said he had grown too close to their son and was taking advantage of problems in the child’s life. He denied the claims – interspersing his remarks with scripture, he threatened to revoke their marriage license and claimed to know a judge who he could talk to if they sought intervention from the courts.

“The jig is up,” he wrote. “God has his hands on [the boy], and God would not have brought he, with the spiritual gifts that he has, with me, with the spiritual gifts that I have, that compliment each others [sic] gifts, if He didn’t want us together.

“You said my job was done with [the boy], but that is not your call, but God’s.”

He said he had been a mentor to the boy’s father and wrote on in the margins of the e-mail: “This is the thanks I get.”

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore
        

Police have arrested and charged the boyfriend of a woman who was found fatally stabbed on an East Baltimore sidewalk Monday evening.

Shakarian Frazier, 31, was being sought since Monday night, when police say four witnesses saw him stab 48-year-old Mary Williams during an argument in the 2000 block of E. Oliver. Police recovered the murder weapon at the scene - it was resting on the steps of a vacant home near a large pool of blood.

Police wrote in charging documents that Frazier and Williams had a long history of domestic violence, though court records show that they never sought intervention from police and the court system.

Williams' daughter told me on Tuesday that Frazier had just gotten out of jail, where he had been held on a gun charge, and that he had been abusive upon returning home. "He never put his hands on my mother until my grandfather passed away," the daughter said.

Court records show Frazier has a long history of convictions for drug dealing and drug possession, in 2007 receiving a 20-year sentence in which all but four months were suspended. He would have still been on that probation when he was convicted of possession of a firearm and drug charges in February of this year, and it's unclear why that did not trigger a violation of his probation on the 20-year suspended sentence. He received two years for the new charges, and appears to have served less than eight months - not necessarily uncommon for a charge considered "non-violent." We've got a few calls out to try to get some clarity on the situation. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Breaking news, East Baltimore
        

The week of Oct. 4, authorities say Randolph Wells Jr. cashed a work check at Harbor Bank at Fayette and Charles streets in downtown Baltimore.

On Oct. 13, the FBI says the same man returned to rob the branch at gunpoint.

He escaped with $3,549 but apparently left an indelible impression on a teller. She recognized him from the previous week and police and federal agents were able to track him down from the check he had cashed, which listed his employer's name and address.

Authorities arrested Wells Oct. 19 and a federal grand jury indicted him on Wednesday. In a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, the FBI says Wells was on supervised release at the time of the holdup and has been convicted twice in the past of robbing banks, once using a gun, another time with a knife.

For more details:

The FBI says in the complaint that a man walked into Harbor Bank on Oct 13 about 11:43 a.m. and pointed a handgun at a teller. He then placed the gun on the counter and "used his other hand to place a dark colored bag on the counter as well."

The complaint says the gunman ordered the teller to empty her drawer, to not alert anyone and not use dye packs, which explode to mark stolen money in ink. She emptied two drawer and the man ran out of the bank, heading east on West Fayette Street.

Police reviewed the video and a bank employee recognized the man who the previous week had cashed a check from the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge, a Masonic lodge located in the 1300 block of North Eutaw St. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Downtown
        

Tony Wilson was convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend in 1999 and in 2007. Each time, a Baltimore judge sentenced him to spend the rest of his life in prison. And twice, the Maryland Court of Appeals threw out the conviction because of mistakes at trial.

Wilson now awaits word from city prosecutors as to whether they plan to try him a third time. He's been in jail since 1998, when he was charged with shooting Dana Rochelle Drake twice with a .22 caliber handgun in the stairwell of her apartment complex.

The case is legally complex but boils down to a bizarre set of circumstances:

At his first trial in 1999, the state's attorney's office failed to disclose that a witness to whom the suspect confessed was a police informant, and the Court of Appeals ordered a new trial.

At the suspect's second trial in 2007, the appeals court has now ruled that the judge mistakenly allowed videotaped testimony from another witness who died before the second trial, after a detective disclosed that the woman was legally blind and might not have been able to see the shooting, as she had claimed in court.

You can read the entire Maryland Court of Appeals decision here. A shortened version is still fascinating and might make for a great Law & Order episode:

Prosecutors are required to turn over all evidence, even evidence contrary to their case, to defense attorneys, known as Brady material. The two sides battle all the time about what has to be disclosed. In this case, the appeals judge ruled that Williams did not get a fair first trial because prosecutors failed to tell the defense that a man to whom the suspect confessed to while in jail was a police informant.

At the second trial in 2007, prosecutors ran into another problem. Another key witness, a woman who had testified at the first trial to seeing Williams park his car, chase his girlfriend, shoot her and then flee, had died.

Prosecutors usually can play her taped testimony and the cross-examination to jurors at the new trial, but just before the second trial, a police detective startled everyone by saying the witness was legally blind. The trial judge allowed the tape to be played anyway and Williams was again convicted.

But because that issue wasn't disclosed to the defense at the first trial, and her death made it impossible for the defense to question her about her eyesight at the second trial, the appeals judges once again ruled that Williams' trial hadn't been fair. Prosecutors tried to say that the disclosure before the second trial was sufficient and that defense attorneys were able to mention the woman's questionable eyesight in their opening statements and closing arguments, but the appeals court said it wasn't enough.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

A man who tried to break into a store on York Road in North Baltimore was shot in the leg by the owner, city police said this morning. Few details were available, and it's unclear whether the store was open or closed.

The shooting occurred about 4:45 a.m. and the address of the incident is a beauty supply store, reports The Sun's Yeganeh June Torbati.

Police also are investigating a gun incident at a city school. The Sun's Jessica Anderson reports:

City school officials said a student hit another student with a handgun inside the locker room at the Institute for Business and Entrepreneurship high school in West Baltimore Monday. City Schools police received a report from a school coach that a student had a handgun in a locker room after school Monday. The incident remains under investigation and school officials said a warrant has been issued for the student's arrest. The unidentified student has not returned to school, officials said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, North Baltimore
        

The state's attorney's office has announced two notable convictions:

A 42-year-old man became the first person arrested and convicted in Baltimore under a law that went into effect in January 2009 in which DNA can be collected at the time of arrest, prosecutors said. Gregory L. Brown was arrested in Baltimore County on a sex offense count and had his DNA seized; in February 2009 authorities matched that DNA to evidence collected at the scene of a 2004 rape of a 13-year-old girl at a bus stop.

The case went to trial, and the jury convicted Brown of first-degree rape and first-degree sex offense. He faces a prison term of double life at Dec. 21 sentencing.

On Monday, in his last act as a judge before dying of a heart attack, Baltimore Circuit Court Chief Judge John N. Prevas sentenced Antoine Epps, 21, to 50 years in prison for the armed carjacking and severe beating of a 32-year-old man, who was forced into his own trunk, stripped naked and pistol whipped, according to court records.

Moments later, Prevas reported shortness of breath and was taken to Mercy Hospital. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Here are some pictures from today's funeral mass for Baltimore Police Officer Tommy Portz Jr., who was killed last week when his cruiser hit the back of a fire engine. The photos were taken by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor outside The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in North Baltimore.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, North Baltimore
        

An All-Academic track star for Coppin State University was critically wounded Tuesday night after being shot in the chest while going to a grocery store in Baltimore’s Mondawmin neighborhood, police said.

The 24-year-old was shot about 10:15 p.m. in the 2000 block of N. Bentalou St., according to police. Teammates told investigators that the man was making a trip to a nearby grocery store when three people accosted him; the friends drove him to St. Agnes Hospital, and he was later taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was listed in “critical and unstable” condition, police said.

A source identified the victim as Dale Dunn, a member of the Coppin track team who is from Kingston, Jamaica. Over the summer, Dunn was named to ESPN The Magazine’s track and field and cross country Academic All-America second team.

According to the school’s website, Dunn earned all-conference honors in cross country during the 2009 fall season, and he placed second in the 800-meter race at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Indoor Championships. He also anchored the Eagles’ 400-meter relay team.

UPDATE: University officials told WBAL-TV that Dunn was on a full scholarship and maintained a 4.0 grade point average. The team's roster shows he was one of seven members on the 14-member team from Jamaica.

Friends at his home, not far from where the shooting took place, declined to talk to a reporter. It should be noted that the shooting occurred not at the Mondawmin Mall (as many seem to be inferring), but the Mondawmin neighborhood. It happened on the south side of Frederick Douglass High School, as Dunn was either making his way to or coming back from the mall, where he went to get food.

[Photo from Coppin State University web site.]

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: West Baltimore
        

Obituaries appeared in today's papers for Baltimore Chief Circuit Judge John N. Prevas.

The Sun's Jacques Kelly:

Judge John Prevas loved the music of rockers Steely Dan and sang most Wednesdays at Southeast Baltimore karaoke bars. He was recalled Tuesday as an old-school, tough jurist who knew his law inside and out and could also argue baseball trivia with the best. Judge Prevas, the chief judge of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, died of a heart attack Monday night at Mercy Medical Center. He was 63.

Among the details of Prevas' private life: he wanted to be a disc jockey in college but was turned down because his Baltimore accent was too thick. He regularly sang Steely Dan's "Cousin Dupree" at a Canton karaoke night. After elections, he met with friends to break down the results in a session called "Armageddon."

The Daily Record notes that his health problems stemmed from a diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis in his early 40s, a debilitating condition caused him to assume a bent-over posture that put pressure on his chest and led to other medical problems. He suffered from sleep apnea, had passed out on the bench before and had had a pacemaker implanted. 

But friends said retirement was not an option. “He thrived on it,” Circuit Court commissioner Robert Ignatowski said of Prevas’ legal work. “In fact, I think that’s what kept him going.” 

Skip to the 1:20 mark of this video to see Prevas in action at Castaways karaoke night. (Hat tip to the Baltimore Crime blog for finding this)

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

A man shot in the Mondawmin area of Northwest Baltimore is in critical condition this morning -- the latest in a spate of violence that left five people dead in less than 24 hours Monday and Tuesday.

The Sun's Yeganeh June Torbati reports this morning that the 24-year-old was shot in the 2000 block of North Bentalou Street Tuesday night.

Justin Fenton, The Sun's police reporter, has a story today documenting the violence, which includes a 16-year-old boy and a 63-year-old school bus driver who was shot while heading off to work in West Baltimore.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Northwest Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

The Ashburton home was draped with caution tape. It's how the 50-year-old homeowner decorates each year for Halloween, along with cardboard tombstones and a speaker emanating spooky noises. But just a few doors down was real caution tape, as police investigated a double shooting that killed the second person in the neighborhood in less than 24 hours.

After hearing the gunshots, the woman, who would not give her name, saw the man's lifeless body in the street, dead from a gunshot wound to the face. The "Beware" sign in her front yard suddenly took on a different meaning.

If police - who are burying two of their own this week - hoped that their mourning might bring a respite from the city's violence, those hopes were quickly dashed. 

Two people, including a 48-year-old woman, were slain in the city's Broadway East neighborhood within an hour on Monday evening. A 16-year-old boy was fatally shot early Tuesday in Northwest Baltimore, followed by a 63-year-old school bus driver who was getting ready to go to work in West Baltimore.

Hours later, police were back in the leafy Ashburton neighborhood where the unidentified teen was killed, to investigate a drive-by double shooting that claimed the life of one 18-year-old and wounded another.

The city remains slightly off last year's pace for killings, with 180 killed so far in 2010 compared with 184 at this time last year. Three years ago, that number was 246. In 2006, it was 225.

But the city's most persistently violent neighborhoods — the Eastern, Western and Northwestern districts, where police deploy an extra complement of plainclothes detectives — are struggling. Thirty-six people have been murdered this year in the Eastern District, just two fewer than were killed all of last year there.

The Western District, meanwhile, already surpassed last year's total earlier this month.

Read more here.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

In the busy terminal of BWI airport, things stood still for a moment.

The passengers waiting for flights at gate C-7 looked up as police officers in white gloves lined up in two rows and a somber family huddled together, looking out the windows toward the tarmac.

As American Airlines Flight 1678 pulled up to the gate, it was showered by two blasts of water from airport fire trucks. The family then moved to the door, where Captain Jon Vise carried out a black suitcase.

Inside was an American flag that has traversed the country for the funerals of dozens of fallen military service members, police officers and firefighters. On Wednesday, it will be part of the services for Officer Tommy Portz Jr., a 10-year police department veteran who was killed when his patrol cruiser crashed into the back of a parked fire truck in West Baltimore.

[Photo by Sun photographer Kim Hairston]

Posted by Justin Fenton at 8:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Heroes
        

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is seeking mentors to help at risk children. Here is her statement:

Today, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced a new, targeted effort to match adult mentors with children in eight Baltimore neighborhoods with historically higher rates of juvenile crime. The Baltimore City Mentoring Initiative, a public/private partnership between the Mayor’s Office, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Maryland, and other partners, has identified a waiting list of 235 children living in the East Baltimore, McElderry Park, Belair-Edison, Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello, Central Park Heights, Cherry Hill, Harlem Park, and Poppleton communities.

“This is new data-driven approach to mentoring that will first focus on communities in Baltimore where there is an intersection between high of numbers of children on the mentoring waiting list and violent crime,” said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. “This initiative represents a call to action for those that work and live in Baltimore City because our children need adults to step up and volunteer to serve as role models, guides, and friends.”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime
        

Seen parked this morning in the reserved, gated portion in front of City Hall --a burgundy four-door Hyundai Sonata decorated in the back with an Orioles insignia and a yellow ribbon honoring fallen troops.

There was also something else:

An arm was dangling out of the trunk, blood trickling down a white shirt sleeve, the hand limp and nearly touching the pavement. The car belongs to Jim Scales, a 30-year City Hall employee who has runs errands and made coffee for mayors and staff dating back to the Schmoke administration. Mayoral officials told me he likes to get all decked out for Halloween.

"A Halloween enthusiast," a spokesman for the mayor told me.

But my question is whether this display is appropriate in a city that has experienced four murders in the past couple of days, is burying two city police officers, one lost to violence, and is parked near a news conference where the mayor is thanking a big business for donating money to police to combat crime.

I don't want to deprive Scales or anyone else of celebrating Halloween or any other holiday, nor do I want to strip the holiday spirit from City Hall. But for city leaders ever-sensitive about how Baltimore and icrime is portrayed, this display seems oddly inappropriate.

The police commissioner doesn't like it when his cops leave shards of crime scene tape when they leave murder spots because it gives TV cameras something to tape even hours after the body is gone. But it's OK for a City Hall worker to display a fake, bloodied body at the mayor's office?

A spokesman for the mayor noted that City Hall has been getting calls about the day's killings, which include a 16-year-old shot in the head. But Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake declined to address what kind of signal is sent with a body spilling from a trunk of one of her employees' cars parked at City Hall.

But shortly after the news conference on the bikes ended, the mayor's chief spokesman, Ryan O'Doherty sent me this statement: "When it was brought to his attention it was immediately removed and the employee apologized."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: City Hall
        

The debate over slots in Anne Arundel County is heating up. A man arrested over the weekend and charged with tearing down and stealing campaign signs targeted those supporting slots at Arundel Mills.

David Scott Corrigan of Glen Burnie told police that, "I am against it," referring to Question A on the ballot that would allow a zoning change to give slots a green light on the mall property. The Sun's Andrea Siegel reports today that Corrigan earns $160,000 a year as a manager with Northrup Grumman in Glen Burnie.

Now a video has surfaced on YouTube, shot by an employee of Jobs and Revnue Corps., a company on Ritchie Highway that had the signs on its property. And The Baltimore Sun has obtained a copy of the police report which can be found here:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Anne Arundel County
        

Late confirmation tonight that Baltimore Circuit Court Judge John N. Prevas, 63, has died from an apparent heart attack. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed that police were notified that Prevas had been taken to Mercy Hospital complaining of chest pains at about 2 p.m., and he was pronounced dead later in the evening. Homicide detectives were notified, though Guglielmi said that is routine and no foul play was suspected.

Prevas was the chief judge of the Circuit Court, a ceremonial title given to the judge with the most seniority. He spent 15 years as an assistant state's attorney, according to his official bio, and was appointed to the bench as an associate judge in 1986. He was a City College graduate who earned degrees from Syracuse and the University of Maryland School of Law. He also served as an executive assistant to U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes from 1975-76.

Prevas presided over untold trials, though he rarely made reference to the fact that he had himself been a city crime victim, shot in the arm with a blast from a shotgun in 1972. From a 1992 article by Sun columnist Dan Rodricks:

It happened in the Essex Cafe, which is a neighborhood place in East Baltimore, near Patterson Park Avenue. Back in 1972, Prevas, whose family owned a popular food stand in the Broadway Market, was 25 years old, a year or so out of law school. He was working for the city state's attorney during the day, helping at the family business at night. On the last Friday in October, he closed shop, cleaned out the register and, after a few stops in Fells Point, stepped into the Essex for a beer.

"Packed like sardines," Prevas recalls. "Every seat was occupied. There were some longshoremen at a table playing cards. The bar was L-shaped. I was standing near the corner of it. We were talking politics. I was cajoling some guys, trying to get them to vote for McGovern. They were kind of conservative. It was a hard sell."

Though Prevas did not see them at the time, four men entered the bar from two different doors -- one with a revolver, one with a sawed-off shotgun, one with a handgun some witnesses took for a starter pistol, and one who was unarmed. The one with the shotgun positioned himself by the ice machine at the end of the bar.

Prevas has never talked about it much. Nor did he campaign as a "crime victim's judge." In fact, he once testified against certain victim-rights legislation in Annapolis. Why pull back the sleeve to show an old wound now? Why go back to the Essex?

Because the shooting was a turning point in John Prevas' life.

"I'm sure I would have gone into private practice had it not been for that," he says. "I didn't go into the military, so this was sort of my own personal combat experience. It was an important moment in my life. It gave me greater empathy with crime victims. Before I was shot, I had viewed trials and court procedure as dry academic matters. I guess once I had my own brush with crime, I had a more realistic appreciation of what people were going through."

Prevas had colorful moments, to be sure. In 2002, he ordered a police detective to do 25 push-ups for missing court, and had another locked up. When it was revealed that it was not the police department's fault, but city prosecutors, he did not apologize, but said the punishments should serve a warning.  In 2006, he received a rare public reprimand for "angry and uncontrollable" shouting from the bench.

He was a regular at karaoke clubs, and last month, he enthusiastically cheered on the unveiling of a statue of rocker Frank Zappa in Highlandtown. 

Prevas smiled proudly and waved his arms emphatically when introduced from the stage as a Zappa fan of long-standing. The judge recalled first hearing Zappa's album "Freak Out" in a fraternity brother's dorm room in 1966. He's been hooked ever since.

"I fell in love with both the music and the social commentary," Prevas said. "I've been proselytizing about Zappa and Zappa music and Zappa's defense of freedom to people everywhere I go ever since.

"He's one of us, just like H.L. Mencken and Edgar Allan Poe and Babe Ruth and Billie Holliday," Prevas added. "He's one of us, he's our kind of guy.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Breaking news, Courts and the justice system
        

A 47-year-old woman was fatally stabbed Monday night in East Baltimore's Broadway East neighborhood, police said. Details were scant, but police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said it was possibly domestic related and homicide detectives were investigating. A source close to the family identified the victim as Mary Williams, who he said lived a few blocks away from where the stabbing took place. When I got there, the crime lab was finishing up with the scene - a pool of blood at the base of the steps of a vacant row home a few doors down from a corner chicken store. A fire department engine later pulled up to rinse the blood away, as a family popped their heads out of the front door to see what was going on.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Three men were hospitalized early Sunday morning after being robbed and assaulted outside an Inner Harbor hotel, police confirmed.

According to preliminary information, four men who had been drinking and were “very intoxicated” were standing outside the Intercontinental Hotel in the 500 block of Light St. before 2:40 a.m. when four males and two females walked past them.

One of the males asked, “Are you laughing at me?” and punched one of the men, a 28-year-old, in the nose, police said. The male produced a knife and chased the victim, while the other three males began assaulting the other men. One victim’s wallet was taken during the encounter, police said.

The suspects eventually fled north on Light Street, police said. The victims, ages 29, 25, and 27, were transported to a local hospital, where they were treated and released, police said. Police had not made any arrests, and additional details were not immediately available.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Downtown
        

City prosecutors today announced a third arrest in the killing of a man in Locust Point, whose body was later found in a shallow grave in Anne Arundel County.

A grand jury indicted Jeremy Michael Smith, 24, of the 1500 block of Covington St., on charges of accessory after the fact in the killing of Matthew Martin, 31, who went missing on April 9. Fishermen fishing at the Patapsco State Park discovered his body. Two men, Christopher Calvert and Kevin Skipper, were indicted on July 1 in the murder.

Prosecutors said that Smith picked up Calvert at a house on Fort Avenue and went to a Lowe's hardware store to purchase a large plastic storage container that they used to take Martin's body out of the house on Richardson St. in Locust Point. Smith allegedly helped Calvert dispose of the body, prosecutors said.

Records show Smith was first charged and detained in early October, and the indictment kicks the case up to Circuit Court. Smith is being held on $500,000 bond. An arraignment is scheduled for Nov. 17.

Court records show that Smith is on probation stemming from a guilty plea to a third-degree sex offense charge last May. He received five years in prison with all but a few days of that sentence suspended.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: South Baltimore
        

The funeral for Baltimore Police Detective Brian Stevenson took place at 10 this morning at New Antioch Baptist Church in Randallstown. Here are some pictures from the procession by The Sun's Jed Kirschbaum.

Stevenon was off-duty and killed last weekend during a dispute over a parking space in Canton. Police have charged a suspect with hitting the detective with a chunk of concrete. Here are additional details.

On Wednesday at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, 5200 North Charles St., services for Baltimore Police Officer Thomas Portz will begin at 11 a.m. Portz was killed last week when his cruiser hit the back of a fire engine that had stopped on Route 40.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Top brass
        

Among the shootings over the weekend was a robbery at a West Baltimore furniture store that wounded a 53-year-old man, police said.

Two masked men entered the Enes Outlet discount furniture store at 330 N. Warwick Ave at about 5 p.m. and demanded money from the victim, said Jeremy Silbert, a police spokesman. At some point, the man was shot in the arm and chest, and the suspects fled with an unknown amount of cash.

Silbert said he was not sure whether the victim was an employee or customer, and a man who answered the phone at the store wasn't sure either.

"There's no one here," said the man. "I'm just covering the phones."

Silbert said the injuries to the man were non-life threatening. The store robbery was relatively rare, with commercial robberies down 35 percent this year as of Oct. 9.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

There are changes afoot in the Baltimore Police Department's command structure, including new commanders for the Southern and Southwestern districts. These commanders are the point person for community leaders, who have their cell phone numbers on speed dial and aren't afraid to use them (The numbers are actually passed down from commander to commander so that residents don't have to get the new major's number). The changes were to be announced at a promotions ceremony last week that was postponed due to the tragic fatal car accident involving Officer Tommy Portz. Here are the moves, expected to be formally announced this week:

-Margaret Barillaro will take over the Southern District, a position she has been holding in an interim capacity since Maj. Scott Bloodsworth retired in the summer. Barillaro is the only female district commander (Dep. Maj. Sabrina Tapp-Harper is second-in-command in the Northwest District).

-Dorsey McVicker will slide into the deputy major slot in Southern.

-Maj. Anthony Brown moves from leading the Southwestern District to a position in the Special Operations Section, while Dep. Maj. Eric Russell will move from the No. 2 spot in the Central District to Brown's position overseeing Southwest.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top brass
        

I love a good puzzle, and I found a strange one while out for a walk this weekend. I usually bypass graffiti memorializing murder victims -- there's simply too much of it in the city. But one tag on the underside of a bridge caught my attention simply because of its remote location.

I found it on a bridge abutment next to a path in Wyman Park, between Hampden and the west side of the Johns Hopkins University campus. It marked the death of a "Homeboy," which doesn't exactly narrow it down, on Aug. 31 of this year.

I didn't recall any killings in this little scene urban area. The "RIP Homeboy" was written in black in a cloud next to a tag written in large red and yellow letters that spelled "puzzler." I'm guess that's the nickname for the person who wrote the graffiti. What I don't know is whether someone added the "RIP to the tag after it had been completed or if it's part of the complete piece. Does the victim have a connection to the person who did the work?

I checked our homicide map and found one killing on this date -- Nathanial Santiago, 31, who was shot and killed Aug. 31 in the 4100 block of Harris Ave. in Northeast Baltimore.

According to the brief description on the map, Santiago was entering an apartment building when he was approached by two men and got into a fight and then was shot.

I'd love to hear more details on this tag and it's connection to an Aug. 31 death.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods, North Baltimore
        

Weekend violence in Baltimore claimed at least two lives on Saturday and shootings on Sunday left another four injured.

Saturday night, a 20-year-old was shot about 9:30 p.m. in back of a house in the 2100 block of E. Monument St. And earlier that afternoon, a man was fatally shot on Fayette Street in West Baltimore.

That shooting claimed the life of a 25-year-old man who was wounded in the head about 3:30 p.m. in the 2100 block of West Fayette St., less than a block from Bon Secours Hospital. The Sun's Jessica Anderson was at the scene:

Residents within the taped-off block sat with their heads in their hands as an officer snapped photos of the crime scene that appeared to be on the north sidewalk between two trees.

As diverted cars rolled past Wilbur Keeton's front door, he said, "I'm used to it. I shouldn't say that, but "I'm used to it."

The 59-year-old city native said he grew up several blocks away in the 1950s, but he spent much of his adult life in Catonsville. He returned to the Penrose neighborhood after losing his suburban home several years ago.

"The neighborhood has changed so much," he said, saying that neighbors are less involved, less social. He said he normally does not stay outside, saying drug dealers had regularly perched on the neighboring homes' front steps.

"Things have changed," he said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, East Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

In today's paper, Sun reporter Julie Bykowicz explores the issue of crime and the race for governor between incumbent, Democrat Martin O'Malley, and his challenger for former governor, Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

As expected, it revolves around O'Malley zero-tolerance program in Baltimore when he was mayor, and more than 108,000 people were arrested in a single year. It sparked lawsuits that led a recent settlement with the city, but O'Malley says it also made the city safer and set the foundation for the historic lows in murder we're experiencing today.

The article also explores other issues, such as the death penalty and issues over juvenile justice.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Peter Hermann's Sunday column about a scene I witnessed at a bail review last week isn't about whether William Campbell is guilty or innocent of the charges he faces, or whether he deserved a high or low bail. It's about the issue of representation during such bail review hearings.

I was in the Central Booking courtroom for Sian James, the 25-year-old accused of killing Detective Brian Stevenson. While awaiting James, Campbell, who was sitting behind me, asked the private attorney to my right whether he would represent him at the hearing because the public defender hadn't reached out to him during his weekend stay at the city jail. "Ask for a postponement," the attorney told him. Campbell nodded.

When his name was called, a pretrial services official and the prosecutor got to talk about what bail should be set for Campbell, and District Court Judge Charles Chiapparelli upped the amount he was being held on. Campbell didn't get a chance to say a word, and when he objected (and refused to return to his seat), Chiapparelli became irritated. He allowed Campbell to say a few words - then tripled his bail.

As Peter explains in a column in Sunday's paper, another city judge ruled earlier this month that "Maryland's anachronistic system that emphasizes speed over fairness needs reform." He ruled that a defendant should have the right to a lawyer at the very first bail review with a district court commissioner. Chiapparelli says "the law is appropriate where it stands" and sees no reason for such changes.

What do you think? Does the system work or would you want a guarantee of representation if it were you that got locked up?

Posted by Justin Fenton at 8:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Federal authorities are seeking to seize nearly $280,000 that they found during a screening of the luggage of a Baltimore man who was about to travel from Baltimore-Washington International to Long Beach, Calif.

According to court documents filed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs agent, on Oct. 7 at about 6 a.m., Baltimore resident Brian Shreeves' bag was flagged because it contained a laptop computer. They found sealed bags containing large amounts of currency - later determined to be $279,785 - but while they were searching, Shreeves took off. He was later located in a bathroom and detained for questioning, where he denied knowledge of the bag's contents and was released.

Authorities believe the money was being laundered for drug transactions. Shreeves, a Jamaican national, was convicted of drug possession with intent to distribute in 2008 in Prince George's County, officials noted.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: Anne Arundel County
        

UPDATE: Here's my story on the jury verdict. The attorney representing Stamp's widow said she was disappointed with the outcome but was pleased that the apparently differing versions of what happened are now public record. Torres' attorney did not return calls for comment.

It took jurors only a few hours to decide that Officer John Torres acted reasonably when he fired his service weapon, killing a fellow member of the force who was off duty and dressed in biker garb, The Daily Record's Brendan Kearney is reporting.

A Baltimore City Circuit Court jury of three men and three women returned a defense verdict Thursday morning after two weeks of trial, the paper reported on its website.

Norman Stamp, a well-liked 44-year veteran cop and cofounder of the “Chosen Sons” motorcycle club, was shot and killed in the early morning hours of April 24, 2008, at the scene of an East Baltimore strip club brawl.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Police shootings
        

A year and a half after Baltimore police uncovered a murder-for-hire scheme in which they say two men conspired to kill a blind and mentally disabled man for insurance money, detectives believe they have found the man who pulled the trigger.

On Thursday, police arrested Kareem Clea, the 27-year-old brother of one of the men already charged in the plot to obtain life insurance money. Police allege that Kareem Clea was introduced to Kevin Pushia by brother James Clea, and was paid $50,000 to murder Wallace.

Wallace was found Feb. 4 in a bathroom stall at Leakin Park, dead from a gunshot wound to the head.

Read more here.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

A new service in Maryland is promising parents peace of mind by allowing them to essentially rent a drug-sniffing dog, a highly trained canine that will come to their house and within seconds, detect even the tiniest whiff of narcotics, reports The Sun's Jill Rosen. The program allows ordinary moms and dads access to a search tool typically reserved for law enforcement — and typically aimed at suspected criminals.

Dogs Finding Drugs will, indeed, uncover teens' stashes. Whether those kids talk to their parents again remains to be seen.

Anne Wills, who runs the just-launched, Catonsville-based nonprofit, says parents are clamoring for the service and she expects business to "explode."

"I know that when my kids were growing up, every once in a while I'd have liked to know what they were doing," says Wills, who's having her own Labrador-mix, Heidi, trained to become a drug-detection dog. "The need is there. The desire is there."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Two Baltimore police officers killed since Saturday, and in each case word of their deaths spread on social media sites before city officials released the information to the public, or even to all the relatives of the deceased.

The Sun's Justin Fenton explores this tricky issue in today's newspaper:

When off-duty Baltimore Police Detective Brian Stevenson was killed Saturday night after being struck in the head by a piece of concrete, word spread quickly through police circles and spilled onto Facebook, where the officer's young daughter learned of his death before relatives could break it to her in person.

On Monday, Officer Tommy Portz was killed instantly when his vehicle struck a fire engine on U.S. 40. For more than two hours, officials said Portz was in "extremely serious condition" as they worked to locate his family — even as memorials popped up online from those who already knew the accident was fatal.

We in the traditional media have always tried to balance getting the word out with being sensitive to relatives. Reporters at scene often learn the identities of the victims well before detectives can find relatives. It comes from checking the address of a house, or from a neighbor, or from a police source.

This newspaper knew Portz's name before the police department had even officially notified the public of the crash. But we withheld because the sources were not official, and we wanted on-the-record confirmation from police and hospital officials that he had died before publishing.

But social network sites don't abide by those rules. As Justin points out today, with everyone being a self-publisher, they are free to report anything. But more and more, posting even sensitive information among trivial status updates seems to be growing way to alert people to news about surgery, disease and even death.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime, Top brass, West Baltimore
        

UPDATE: The Baltimore police officer injured in the car crash has died.

Baltimore police will updating the public shortly on this mornings crash involving a city fire truck and a police cruiser in West Baltimore. The Western District officer was rushed to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, but there have been few updates on his condition. We're told it's grave. The photo at left was taken by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor.

Here is a brief report from The Sun's police reporter Justin Fenton:

A city police officer was badly injured and at least one firefighter was taken to a local hospital after the officer rear-ended a fire engine on U.S. 40. A police spokesman said emergency vehicles were responding to a medical call at Calhoun and Franklin streets when the police cruiser struck Engine 68 on eastbound U.S. 40 at the Stricker Street overpass.

Police shut down traffic to clear a route to Maryland Shock Trauma Center. An update on the officer's condition was not immediately provided. The front end and windshield of the police car, observed at the scene, were crushed in the incident, with the front fender completely off the vehicle.

Police are still busy preparing for a funeral for Detective Brian Stevenson, who was killed over the weekend while off-duty in a dispute over a parking space in Canton. You can read a full account of that story and the arrest here. Another city officer was killed in a traffic accident in Pennsylvania earlier this month. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, West Baltimore
        

The clergymen stood inside the Lansdowne gun shop on Hollins Ferry Road, over a glass counter containing what they called the “instruments of death” responsible for turning the streets of Baltimore into a killing field.

“The city is devastated by violence — gun violence,” pressed Rev. Eugene Sutton, a bishop with the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, whose group protested this store on Wednesday. “We’re trying to get the illegal guns off the street. Too many people are dying. It’s destroying Baltimore.”

Bill and Clyde Blamberg, owners of Clyde’s Sport Shop for more than a half century, listened politely but firmly told the group to seek help elsewhere — Annapolis in particular. They refused to sign a code of conduct and agree to voluntary inspections and other restrictions beyond that of what state and federal law requires.

“They’re do-gooders who are trying their best to make a difference,” said 69-year-old Clyde Blamberg, out of earshot of the protest group called Heeding God's Call. Added his brother Bill, “We’re close to Baltimore City and we do make a lot of sales, all of them legal. What this group is doing isn’t going to do a lot good.”

(In the picture: Bill Blamberg, left, looks down his store's wall of guns as his brother Clyde Blamberg (second from left) shakes hands with the Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, the bishop of Maryland for the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. By The Sun's Jed Kirschbaum)

The clergy, about 14 of them, are part of a national group called “Heeding God’s Call, a Movement to End Gun Violence.” Catholic priests, ministers along with Jewish and Muslim leaders came to Clyde’s because it has been listed by authorities as being a top gun distributor to city criminals.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said in 2007 that they traced 64 firearms seized by Baltimore police at crime scenes to Clyde’s, behind only Valley Guns in Parkville that was shuttered but authorities several years ago because of inventory problems. Two other gun shops that topped that list, Northeast Gun & Pawn and Baltimore Gunsmith in the city, also have been closed for violations.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Baltimore County, Breaking news, Confronting crime
        

Two men convicted of participating in a holdup of a Northeast Baltimore jazz club in which a former Baltimore city councilman was killed were sentenced Tuesday to life plus 30 years. A third defendant received a 65-year sentence.

Jerome Williams, 17, and Charles Y. McGaney, 22, were sentenced to the life terms after a jury convicted them Oct. 8 of first-degree felony murder, assault and other counts in connection with a holdup of the New Haven Lounge, in which Kenneth N. Harris was killed as he tried to flee. The third man, Gary A. Collins, 22, was convicted of assault and other counts connected to the robbery, but he was acquitted by a jury of murder.

The defendants were sentenced in Baltimore Circuit Court by retired Judge David Ross, who presided over their trial.

Sun reporter Nick Madigan will update the story throughout the day.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Kenneth Harris trial
        

Baltimore County police just announced an arrest in a stabbing in White Marsh that occurred Monday afternoon near a Panera Bread. Here is there statement:

Yesterday Baltimore County Police responded to the parking lot area in the 6400-block of Petrie Way near a Panera Bread in Precinct 9/White Marsh for the report of a stabbing at approximately 1:15 p.m. When they arrived they found the victim, Michael Rector, 44, of Baltimore, suffering from a serious laceration to his neck. He was transported to Bayview Hospital where he underwent surgery on arrival, and is currently listed in serious but stable condition.

Officers at the scene discovered that Timothy Criner, 15, of the 3900-block of Fleetwood Ave., 21206, stabbed Rector and fled the scene. Other officers responding to the scene found Criner in another area of the shopping center parking lot and took him into custody. Michael Rector is currently dating Criner's mother. Detectives believe that a possible motive may have been that Timothy Criner was not happy about his mother dating Rector.

Timothy Criner has been charged as an adult with attempted first-degree murder and first-degree assault. He is currently being detained at the Baltimore County Detention Center on bail denied. He is scheduled to have a bail review sometime today.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Breaking news, Confronting crime
        

The head of a scheme to launder $20 million of stolen goods through Baltimore pawn shops pleaded guilty in federal court on Monday. This case involved a series of raids and 14 defendants at pawns shops in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.

The case shed light on how stolen property moves from house break-in to sale item and just how lucrative a business it is. Here are some details from the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office:

Jerome Ira Stal, age 41, of Baltimore, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
                
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Postal Inspector in Charge Daniel S. Cortez of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service - Washington Division; Chief James W. Johnson of the Baltimore County Police Department; Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III; and Special Agent in Charge Rebecca Sparkman of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation.

According to his plea agreement, from 2007 to March 2010, Stal conspired with others to conduct monetary transactions involving the sale of mass quantities of stolen over-the-counter medications, health and beauty aid products, gift cards, DVDs, tools and other merchandise.  Shoplifters, also known as “boosters,” stole products from Target, Safeway, Wal-Mart, Kohl’s and other retailers in Maryland and other states.

Pawn shops bought large amounts of stolen items from the boosters. Stal received stolen products at his warehouse, TS Liquidators in Baltimore. The stolen items were “cleaned,” meaning that the security labels and retail tags from the stolen products were removed. Sometimes a heat gun and lighter fluid would be used to peel away the plastic security labels. Stal worked with co-defendants to purchase and transport stolen material. Stal paid a co-defendant approximately $1.8 million for his stolen materials and obtained additional stolen materials from others.

Stal and others also had on-line auctions sites, such as eBay and Amazon.com, where they would sell the stolen products far below normal retail value.  The stolen products were then delivered to unsuspecting customers via the U.S. mail. The defendants received payment back by interstate wire transfers using PayPal accounts and through various financial institutions in Maryland.

On March 25, 2010, agents from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Baltimore County Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed search warrants at TS Liquidators and the pawn and buy/sell shops in this case.  Agents recovered well over $1 million in stolen merchandise, approximately $1 million in bank accounts and over $140,000 in cash.  During the conspiracy, approximately $20 million in stolen merchandise was reasonably foreseeable to Stal.
                                
Stal faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.  U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg has scheduled sentencing for March 18, 2011 at 2:00 p.m.

Eleven defendants have pleaded guilty to the money laundering conspiracy to date.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; Baltimore County Police Department; Federal Bureau of Investigation; Baltimore Police Department; and Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation for their work in this investigation and commended Assistant United States Attorneys Kwame J. Manley and Richard Kay, who are prosecuting the case.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, South Baltimore
        

On Sept. 8, two simultaneous 4-alarm fires raced through a single block on Calhoun Street, wrecking rowhouses on both sides of and adding more blight and abandoned buildings to Baltimore's wasteland.

There are 16,000 empty buildings in Baltimore, 10,000 of them owned by the city (photos by The Sun's Jed Kirschbaum). It's complicated and time-consuming for city officials to get their hands on abandon properties and then turn them into viable living spaces, though officials are poised to announce a new plan to speed up the process.

The Sun's Jessica Anderson reports today from Calhoun Street, a block devastated by the arson fires but also still inhabited by people like Eva Brown, who watched firefighters struggle for hours to put out the flames and save the rowhouse in which she raised her children.

Meanwhile, firefighters in a department already taxed by budget cuts and rotating company closures, face a daunting task battling fires in vacant buildings, which account for about 15 percent of burning structures.

On the Sept. 8 fire, the Fire Department had to call for help from several surrounding counties and the chief in Washington sent trucks racing up I-95 as well to help Baltimore in what became the largest call-up of outside firefighters since the Great Fire of 1904.

"We exhausted the resources of Baltimore City that night," Capt. Stephan G. Fugate, the officers union president, told Anderson. He said blocks of homes were "exposed" that night because the department did not have adequate resources.

The story combines several city ills -- ugly blight and how the city struggles to erase it from its landscape; a fire department strapped for cash and unable to cope with two large fires; and the residents and homeowners who have to live next to these unsafe fire-traps.  

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, West Baltimore
        

Ruth Shillinglaw Johnson collapsed on her bathroom floor. Her neighbor, worried she had not seen Ruth, called Anne Arundel County police. At least one officer responded, detected a "decomposition smell," declared her dead and called the anatomy board to remove the body.

But when that worker showed up, he found that Ruth was alive.

Now police are reviewing the case and their procedures. The Sun's Andrea F. Siegel reports today that Ruth died, for real, on Saturday, at the Hospice of the Chesapeake. It's still a bit unclear what the officers did when they found Ruth 15 days ago, but it is clear they did not call for medical help.

Anne Arundel County police released this statement:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Confronting crime
        

As the city prepares for another police funeral, a District Court judge ordered the 25-year-old man charged with killing an off-duty Baltimore police detective held without bail. Sian James is charged with hurling a fist-sized chunk of concrete at Det. Brian Stevenson during an argument over a parking space in Canton.

James, the suspect, is at far left in his mug shot. Officer Stevenson is at the right.

The Sun's Justin Fenton was in the courtroom Monday when James had his first bail review, and about all the public defender could do was ask for a lower bail and say his client worked at a Jiffy Lube before the judge made it clear he wasn't going to entertain such thought.

Justin's article details the suspect's criminal record: 

James, who was born in Jamaica, has no prior convictions, though he was out on bond after being indicted in July on charges that he attempted to rape his ex-girlfriend after storming into her apartment. The woman had alleged months of abuse and filed for two protective orders.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Southeast Baltimore
        

The Baltimore office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking for a man they say used a black, semi-automatic gun to rob the Harbor Bank of Maryland at 22 West Fayette St. in Baltimore at 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 13.

The suspect is Randolph Burke Wells Jr., a 45-year-old  man who goes by the nickname “Buddah,” according to the FBI. Wells stands 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs about 215 pounds.

Anyone with information should call the Baltimore FBI offices at 410-265-8080.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Downtown
        

It's easy to mourn the innocents.

We cry for the church caretaker killed for his scooter, for the young man fatally stabbed as he walks home from a bus stop chatting on his cell phone with his mother, for the young girl caught it the cross-fire of a someone else's dispute.

We cry for the off-duty police officer killed during an argument over a parking space.

Senseless killings over trivial matters.

It's harder when the victim has a troubled past or was engaged in less-than noble endeavors. Louis Scott was one such young man. His mother contacted me last week to report on a vigil for her son, who was shot outside her house near Druid Hill Park. The victim had been convicted of drug possession and not convicted of twice trying to kill to people and sell drugs (photo is from a vigil held Saturday in the 2700 block of Parkwood Ave. It was taken by Monica Lopossay).

He was shot while talking to a woman near his car; his mother believes the girl knows the shooter and won't tell thepolice. She's angry that the detectives keep delving into her son's past -- he's innocent, she says, and they're being diverted from hunting the real killer and from pursing the real motive.

With so many killings, is this a victim we want to write about? It's not an easy subject, and I tried to explore that in Sunday's Crime Beat column. In retrospect, I'm not sure I succeeded (I urge you to read it before commenting; I can't get into all of the nuances and details here). The point is Scott's life -- the good parts and the bad -- are too complicated to be boiled down into an easy-to-understand cliche:

I struggled with this column. I'm not sure if Scott is young man killed while struggling to overcome the thuggish street life or if he's simply a victim of immature choices. As I said earlier, sympathy is hard to come by in a city where murder overwhelms.

But his is yet another life snuffed out by a bullet. Scott's story, like so many others, is complex and nuanced and thus tough to categorize. I could've easily glanced at his record, passed on the story and spared my readers from what I know seems to many like wasted words over a wasted life.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Northwest Baltimore
        

In addition to the Baltimore police officer who was killed Saturday night in an argument over a parking space in Canton, three other people were fatally wounded in the city this weekend. More details on the violence can be found here.

The Baltimore Police Department released some information on two of those shootings. Det. Kevin Brown sent this update: 

Non-Fatal Shooting
10/17/10 - 15:08 Hrs
2300 Blk of Orem Ave
 
Officers respond to an area hospital for a walk-in shooting victim.  Victim, a male black, born in Jan, 1966, was shot multiple times and advised it occurred as he left a corner store.  At present no suspects or motives.  Victim was in serious but stable condition at last check.  
 
Non-Fatal Shooting
10/17/10 - 16:58 Hrs
5400 Blk of Nelson Ave
 
Officers responded to the an area hospital for a walk-in shooting victim.  The victim, a male black born in August, 1983, sustained a gunshot wound to the torso and advised it occurred at Nelson and Rogers Ave.  At present, no suspects or motives.  Victim was critical but stable at last condition check.

Police also sent out some update stats on shootings and homicides:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Northeast Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore, Southeast Baltimore
        

A 25-year-old Southeast Baltimore man was charged Sunday with killing an off-duty Baltimore police detective, who died after being struck in the head with a piece of concrete during an argument over a parking spot in Canton.

Detective Brian Stevenson, an 18-year veteran and married father of three, had gone out to have dinner on the eve of his birthday when he and Sian James got into an altercation in a private parking lot in the 2800 block of Hudson St. at about 10 p.m. Saturday.

Police say James (seen at right in his booking photo) picked up a piece of concrete and hurled at Stevenson, striking him in the right temple and causing him to fall to the ground.

James was arrested after police located him later that night at Mosaic, a club in the Power Plant Live area of downtown. 

Details of that case were not immediately available, and his attorney, John Denholm, could not be reached for comment.

Records also show that in late July James was ordered to stay away from a woman who had filed her second protective order against him in a span of four months. Reached for comment, a man who answered the woman's phone said that they could not discuss James because of an "ongoing situation."

According to James' Facebook page, he attended Brownstone College in Jamaica and often posted comments about his faith. Here's how he describes himself on the page:

"i am 6 feet 180lbs athletic,fun , real,adventurous.have scense of humour and out going.people always get the wrong impression of me .then it turns arround that am a realy nice guy"

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Southeast Baltimore
        

An off-duty Baltimore police detective, taking part in the Canton nightlife on the eve of his birthday Saturday, was killed after being struck in the head after an argument, police said. He would have turned 38 today.

Brian Stevenson, an 18-year veteran, was pronounced dead at Johns Hopkins Bayview not long after he was attacked in the 2800 block of Hudson St. at about 10 p.m. Acting on witness descriptions, police located several suspects and expected to charge them.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III told reporters outside the hospital that the argument was "incredibly petty."

"It's an incredible tragedy for the family, for all of us," said Bealefeld, who spoke with Stevenson's family members along with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. "The city's losing.. we're losing a fantastic detective who works to make people safe in this city. It's just senseless."

Bealefeld said Stevenson was having dinner with a longtime friend at a Canton club when they got into an argument in a parking lot, reportedly over a parking space. Crime scene technicians were processing evidence in the parking lot of a Mercy Medical Center eye care clinic at 2801 Hudson Street.

Police said the suspect picked up an object - a rock or piece of concrete - and hurled it at Stevenson, striking him in the right temple and causing him to fall to the ground.

Stevenson lost consciousness and was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The suspect and other "persons of interest" were located at a downtown club, police said. 

"We're confident that the culprit in this case will be charged before the day is over," Bealefeld said.

Stevenson is the first city officer to be killed in an attack since January 9, 2007, when Officer Troy Chesley was fatally shot during a robbery while he was off-duty.

Last month, Officer James Fowler died after losing control of his vehicle while driving to a training program in Pennsylvania.

"This is the second funeral we've had to go through in a month or so," Bealefeld said. 

Stevenson was featured in a 1994 Afro article about the first class of officers to graduate under the then-new police commissioner, Thomas Frazier. His mother beamed with pride when discussing her son.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: Breaking news, Southeast Baltimore
        

City police have charged a 20-year-old Baltimore man in the death of a six-month-old, police said tonight. On Oct. 13, officers responded to the 3800 block of Glengyle Ave. in the Falstaff neighborhood after the child's father, Timothy Darnell Lewis, called for a non-breathing child. The child was transported to Sinai and was pronounce dead just before midnight. Lewis initially said he had simply found the child, but later admitted that he had choked the child after becoming frustrated with incessant crying.

Lewis, of the 3800 block of Glengyle Ave., was charged today and ordered held without bond. Court records show that he did not have a prior record.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, Northwest Baltimore
        

In today's paper, we updated a previous item noting the arrest of Trebor Woodard, 34, who was being sought in the killing of 22-year-old Kirk Carter.

Charging documents don't offer any additional insight into the crime, but describe a grisly scene. Medics who were called to the home had to force their way inside and found a large amount of blood on the living room walls and ceiling, and throughout the dining room and kitchen. Carter was lying on the floor by the backdoor, dead from gunshot and stab wounds to his head and upper body. Detectives wrote in charging documents that witnesses led them to Woodard, who they identified as the person responsible for Carter's death. No motive is given.

On Facebook, a friend of Carter wrote "kirk was a GREAT person to know... and he was getting himself together, which is what makes this soo hard for me to understand. He had a new job for a few weeks/months and has been going to church and make'n god a big part of his life." .

Here's a tribute video posted on YouTube, offering a human side to the stories that often get only a brief mention in the media. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: South Baltimore
        

Following up on an item from earlier this week, Baltimore police say they have arrested a man who was being sought in connection with a series of armed convenience store robberies in the Hampden area. Devin Young, 19, of the 4000 block of Evans Chapel Rd, was taken into custody Friday and charged with one count of armed robbery from July 24. He is being held on $175,000 bond as the investigation continues.

Police said they were led to Young thanks to tips from the public after the surveillance photos were disseminated to the media.

Young has past arrests in Baltimore County, court records show. In 2007, he was convicted of being a minor in possession of a handgun and received a two-year suspended sentence. The next year, he was charged with car theft - those charges were dropped. He was convicted of assault later that year, with records showing that his sentence was that he continue on probation on the condition that he "resume medication."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: North Baltimore
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III took first place Thursday night in a celebrity standup competition for charity at Martin's East. Bealefeld kicked off his set by joking that he had been smoking crack to stay awake during the event and that veteran newscaster Richard Sher was on sex offender watch lists. But he settled in for some fairly tame police humor, including a yarn about a competition between city cops and Baltimore County police and state troopers. The event benefited the R Baby Foundation and University of Maryland Hospital for Children.

Check it our for yourself:

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Crime humor, Top brass
        

The Baltimore State's Attorney's Office has secured two life sentences and a conviction in three separate murder cases in recent days. Here are the details:

Judge M. Brooke Murdock sentenced Marquise Evans, 24, of the 1100 block of Gorsuch Avenue today to life plus 20 years in prison. A Baltimore jury convicted Evans August 5, 2010 of first-degree murder and use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence after a four day trial and 1 ½ hours of deliberation.  

On December 19, 2008, in the 1400 block of Homestead Street, Thaddeus McCauley Jr. was found suffering from two gunshot wounds and died shortly thereafter. Found in the immediate vicinity of the victim’s body was his cell phone and a small bag of marijuana. Detectives learned that the victim was a marijuana dealer and just prior to his death the victim received multiple calls from a number affiliated with a home in Columbia, MD.  

Further investigation revealed that friends of Evans placed those calls to McCauley.  Testimony revealed that Evans wanted to visit his friends in Columbia, MD but did not have enough money to pay for a ride.  Evans suggested to his friends, testimony revealed, that they purchase marijuana and arranged a three-way conference call between Evans, his friends and McCauley’s cell phone number.

A short time after this call, testimony revealed that Evans called his friends telling them he had money and marijuana and the friends drove to Baltimore, picked him up, and went back to Columbia.  While at the house in Columbia, Evans passed out and his friends discovered he was suffering from a gunshot wound to his leg.  They took him to Howard County Hospital where medical personnel treated the wound and also notified Howard County Police.

Evans initially told Howard County Police that he was the victim of a shooting in Howard County. That claim was found to be false and Evans then claimed he was the victim of a shooting in Baltimore City.

Working cooperatively, detectives from both Howard County and Baltimore City Police Departments determined that the gunshot wound was consistent with a self-inflicted injury; Evans suffered a through and through injury in his right leg with the bullet located in his left leg. Evidence showed that the trajectory of the bullet was downward from the bottom of where a pocket would be located on the right leg, through the side of the right leg and into the left leg which is consistent with a self-inflicted gun shot wound.

Baltimore Police then cross-referenced shootings in the Homestead neighborhood and it was discovered Evans’ injury appeared to be related to the same incident in which Thaddeus McCauley was fatally shot.  
            
Assistant State’s Attorney Richard Gibson of the Homicide Division prosecuted this case.

++++++

Judge M. Brooke Murdock sentenced James Wesley Spriggs, 29, of the 2800 block of Edgecomb Circle to life in prison today. Judge Murdock convicted Spriggs August 16, 2010 following a court trial of first-degree murder and use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence.  

On June 19, 2008, at 10:54pm detectives with the Violent Crimes Impact Division were traveling in the 2200 block of Pennsylvania Avenue when they observed a large crowd gathered in the 500 block of Bloom Street. The detectives approached to investigate and observed the victim, Brian Goodwin, lying on his side suffering from a gunshot wound to the head.  Medics responded to the location and transported the victim to Shock Trauma, where he succumbed to his injuries.  The victim’s remains were transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office, where an autopsy was performed by Dr. Ling Li. The victim’s cause of death was ruled a homicide.  

Investigation by the Homicide Unit revealed that the victim was involved in a dispute over drug “turf” with Spriggs in the area where he was murdered. On June 19, 2008, the victim was in the 500 block of Bloom Street when Spriggs approached him and shot once in the hip, once in the back, and then in the back of the head. A witness to the events was located and through a photo array positively identified the Defendant as the individual he observed shoot Brian Goodwin.

Assistant State’s Attorney James S. Francomano of the Homicide Division prosecuted this case.

+++++++++

A Baltimore jury convicted Craig Bobian, 19, of the 2800 block of Fleetwood Avenue of first-degree murder and robbery October 7, 2010. Jurors heard three days of testimony and deliberated approximately five hours before reaching its verdict.  

Judge Paul Alpert scheduled sentencing for December 1, 2010 at which time Bobian faces a maximum prison term of life plus 15 years.

On June 3, 2009 Aikeam Friend, Tavon Dale, and Craig Bobian discussed setting up a drug purchase from the victim Anthony Benitez, 21, but instead of purchasing drugs from Benitez they decided to rob him. Friend drove Dale and Bobian to Benitez’s residence at 1408 Anglesea Street. Dale and Bobian exited the vehicle armed with concealed handguns, approaching Benitez, who was sitting on the apartment steps. Dale and Bobian began speaking to Benitez and eventually all three went into his apartment to purchase the drugs while Friend remained in the car waiting outside.  

Dale and Bobian pulled their handguns once inside of Benitez’s apartment, robbing him of his drugs. During the course of the robbery either Dale or Bobian shot Benitez then fled the apartment with a black bag filled with drugs. Dale and Bobian got into Friend’s vehicle and the vehicle sped off.  

Benitez collapsed in front of the apartment building and later died at Johns Hopkins Bayview at 3:01 PM from a gunshot wound to his upper torso. An autopsy was performed on the victim by the OCME and was determined that the cause of death was gunshot wound and the manner of death was ruled to be homicide.  

Police arrested Friend and Dale and they admitted to their participation in the crime. Witnesses also identified Dale and Bobian in photo arrays. Friend pled guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery and Dale pled guilty to first-degree murder. They are scheduled for sentencing October 25, 2010.

Assistant State’s Attorney Josh J. Felsen of the Homicide Division prosecuted this case.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Howard County
        

In this week's CityPaper, former Division of Correction employee Hal Riedl examines the criminal justice system's handling of Willie Featherstone, a sexual predator who "can't stay out of jail, but the system keeps letting him out," as the CityPaper described the piece in a Twitter message. Riedl has a personal connection to this case - he was a law clerk for the judge who tried Featherstone for murder in 1986.

When Featherstone went to trial - again - for rape this summer, Riedl was there as he received a 30 year sentence with all but 10 years suspended. Riedl summarizes: 

What follows isn’t a matter of 20-20 hindsight. Willie Featherstone’s case is simply an example of the institutional amnesia, laziness, and indifference that hound Baltimore’s way of delivering criminal justice. Criminal behavior isn’t rocket science. There is no better predictor of what a man will do than what he has already done.

Riedl's pays particular attention to how Featherstone used "diminution credits," a largely little-known aspect of the prison system that allows convicts to shave time off their sentence - and future sentences - for good conduct. 

Since a conviction for a new crime committed while on parole violates the rules of release, Featherstone went back to prison to await a revocation hearing. His parole was formally revoked in October 2007. Thanks to the 3,261 credits he had earned, he was released three days after the hearing.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The exchange over crime during Monday's debate between Gov. Martin O'Malley and Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. rekindled another kind of debate -- that over race, and police and a lock-em-up strategy that resulted in more than 100,000 people in Baltimore in jail.

O'Malley's zero-tolerance program in the 2000s may have, as the then mayor and now governor insists, reduced homicides for the first time in years in Baltimore. But it came at a price we're still paying for -- distrust by citizens of cops, a lawsuit the city was just forced to settle for $870,000 and the installation of a monitor to oversee police practices (see Laura Vozzella's column today for more on the back-and-forth).

My Crime Beat article today explores how this old strategy -- reputed by the current police commissioner, who has lowered homicides even more sharply while arresting far fewer people  -- has resurfaced as a debate topic. It notes the Ehrlich actually understated it when he said the practice resulted in the arrests of one of nine people. The number is one out of six -- more than 108,000 arrests in 2005 -- thousands of which were thrown out by prosecutors who declined to file formal charges because the cases were too weak.

Said Ehrlich:

"You had a lot of folks arrested in Baltimore City, a lot of African-Americans were arrested, one of eight or nine folks in Baltimore City were arrested in your tenure. … I didn't order that, that's for sure. And a lot of people were upset. And it was wrong and a lot of innocent people were arrested and thrown behind bars, and they were let out for no apparent reason, so that's your record, so let's live with it."

O'Malley didn't dispute this other than to say it saved lives. The current mayor's spokesman, Ryan O'Doherty, sent me an e-mail Wednesday night noting, rightly, that murders under O'Malley dropped to under 300 for the first time in a decade:

"Mayor O'Malley presided over massive reductions in violent crime and significant reductions in murder during a time when nobody thought it was possible for Baltimore to begin to turn the corner."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

A state wrestling champion and high school quarterback who Anne Arundel County school officials allowed to continue playing football faces even more assault charges as a result of an altercation in Baltimore.

The Sun's Don Marcus reports:

According to police, James Patrick Downey III of Linthicum  Heights assaulted Connor M. Little in a parking lot near M&T Bank Stadium in November 2009 while they were attending the annual "Turkey Bowl" football game between Calvert Hall and Loyola. Downey and former North County teammate Louis Patrick Carey were also charged with assaulting two Navy football players at a Baltimore nightclub last June.

Court records show that Downey's attorney is trying to get the two Baltimore cases moved from Circuit Court back to juvenile court since Downey was 17 at the time of each incident. Motions for a reverse waiver are scheduled Nov. 3, two days after Downey has a preliminary hearing on 17 charges, including first-degree assault, robbery, conspiracy and theft, in Anne Arundel County District Court in a Se[t. 20 incident.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

Baltimore officials announced this morning a grant to fight "bad guys with guns," the city police commissioner's central crime fighting strategy. The Sun's Justin Fenton Julie Scharper covered the event and will have an update.

Meanwhile, here is the statement from the mayor:

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld, III, and Congressman C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger joined representatives from Johns Hopkins University to announce a highly competitive grant award to aid in Baltimore’s fight against gun violence. The $300,000 Smart Policing Grant, one of only six awarded in the nation, will fund Baltimore Police Department’s (BPD) gun suppression efforts and establish the agency’s enforcement program as a national model of best policing practices.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance Smart Policing Grant will assist BPD’s Violent Crime Impact Section in arresting and convicting violent gun offenders through partnerships with state and federal prosecutors and the U.S. Attorney’s EXILE program.

“Reducing gun violence is our number-one public safety priority,” said Mayor Rawlings-Blake. “This year, the BPD has arrested more than 700 individuals on illegal gun possession charges and seized nearly 1,800 illegal guns from city streets. With this additional support from our federal partners, we will continue to enhance our gun suppression strategies.”

“The men and women of the Baltimore Police Department have done a tremendous job putting intense, sustained pressure on criminals using illegal guns,” said Commissioner Bealefeld. “Year-to-date, non-fatal shootings are down 10% and overall gun crime is down 15%.”

For more details:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

The Sun's Tricia Bishop has a tale today about Thomas Perrin, who fought for years to erase a conviction that had never happened.

A clerical error had him being found guilty of selling drugs in 2000 -- which would have been his third felony, adding substantial time, 14 years, to his prison sentences in other cases. He fought hard against court records and finally prevailed when a federal judge reduced a 235 month sentence to a 77 month sentence.

Tricia wrote:

"First off, I apologized to him" for the rare blunder, U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles said. He then congratulated Perrin for his persistence, which, he said, "pointed out that you cannot always accept the records at face value, and we need to be reminded of that sometimes."

The initial sentence was based on a mistaken belief that Perrin had the three convictions necessary to make him an "armed career criminal" eligible for a significant sentence enhancement. "I guess the big takeaway is the necessity for a sort of enlightened skepticism" when it comes to records, Quarles said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

In the 20 minutes it took Evelyn Palmer to step out to buy lunch, someone entered her Northeast Baltimore home and fatally stabbed her 78-year-old husband, Sterling. Peter Hermann writes:

"I flipped on the light and there he was at the bottom of the stairs," she recalled Tuesday. She rushed down and pressed her lips to his, trying to breathe some life into her husband of 10 years, her sweetheart for the past half-century.

"I tried," the 70-year-old said. "But I felt in my heart he was gone the moment I saw him."

Family and friends have theories about what happened during his wife's 20-minute absence — that he let in someone he knew, someone who knew he usually kept up to $300 in his pants pocket, and who knew that he freely lent money to friends and associates.

Police confirmed that they are investigating whether Palmer knew his killer and that it is somehow linked to cash that he doled out to acquaintances. But his wife didn't know how much money he had on him, and police said it appears nothing was taken. Authorities won't comment on whether they found a weapon, but a department spokesman said detectives have few leads.

Seven people over age 65 have been killed this year in Baltimore, including 84-year-old Jean Davis, who was killed by her son in a murder-suicide at Johns Hopkins Hospital; Milton Hill, the 70-year-old church caretaker who was killed for his scooter; and John Sandy, a 73-year-old cab driver who was fatally beaten in Hampden.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore
        

Here's what we know about Carter's death: Police received a call for assistance at 11:42 a.m. and found a man inside a home suffering from gunshot and stab wounds. Police spokesman Donny Moses said there was a large amount of blood leading from the upstairs of the home to the kitchen; it was unclear whether someone discovered the man or whether he dialed 911 himself. A motive for the killing has not been made public.

Anyone with information about Woodard's whereabouts is asked to call the Warrant Apprehension Task Force at 410-637-8970, or 911. Police say he should be considered armed and dangerous. 

Woodard pleaded guilty in February to one count of assault, receiving four years in prison with all but time served suspended. The case appeared to stem from a 2007 child abuse charge, but the warrant was not served until late 2009 despite multiple arrests in between. On at least three occasions, most recently May, women have sought protective orders against him but failed to appear in court.

He was also convicted on drug conspiracy charges in 1998, receiving three years in prison.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: South Baltimore
        

City police are asking the public's help in identifying a suspect wanted for several armed robberies at convenience stores in the Hampden area since the end of July. Police say the robberies occur after midnight and the suspect has displayed a gun or knife during the robberies. Three stores have been hit, some more than once, police said.

"We're very concerned because it appears he is beginning to get more violent," said police spokesman Jeremy Silbert. "In one recent robbery, he attempted to stab the store clerk."

Here's a link to surveillance camera pictures of the suspect.

Anyone with information on the identity or whereabouts of this suspect should contact the Citywide Robbery Unit at 410-366-6341. Callers may remain anonymous.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: North Baltimore
        

For those of you trying to keep track, here's a list of violence in Baltimore that started Friday afternoon and went through Monday morning. A full account of the mayhem can be found here. There have now been 171 slayings in the city this year, compared with 176 at this time last year:

Friday, 2:30 p.m.: Sterling Palmer, 78, found fatally stabbed inside his house in the 2600 block of Edison Highway.

Saturday, 12:01 a.m.: Man, 51, found fatally shot in the stomach in the 3100 block of Grantley Ave.

Saturday, 2:19 a.m.: A 42-year-old man reported being shot in the ankle while being robbed in the 300 block of N. High St. at Old Town Mall. He walked into the Central District police station on East Baltimore Street to report his wounds.

Saturday, 8:15 p.m.: Daryll Hood, 22, fatally shot in the head one block from his home in the 4700 block of Shamrock Ave. in Belair-Edison.

Saturday, 8:53 p.m.: Travis Lane, 19, found with bullet wounds to the side and chest in an alley off the 3500 block of N. Calvert St. in Oakenshawe. Police say this shooting is related to the shooting 20 minutes earlier in Belair-Edison. Lane was pronounced dead at Union Memorial Hospital.

Sunday, 1:42 a.m.: Dennis Waddell, 33, fatally shot in the 1600 block of Warwick Ave. in Coppin Heights. A 28-year-old was shot and wounded in same incident.

Sunday, 4:47 p.m.: Police find a man in his early 50s dead inside a vacant rowhouse in the 800 block N. Fremont Ave. in Harlem Park. A cause of death has not yet been determined.

Sunday, 6 p.m.: A 35-year-old man was stabbed in the 3800 block of Rogers Ave. in Pimlico. Police said he had been mowing his lawn at his house when a man got out of a car and stabbed him in the chest, arm and back. He was being treated at an area hospital.

Sunday, 9 p.m.: A man shot in the ankle in the 3300 block of Ingleside Ave.

Monday, 9:25 a.m.: An adult male is shot in the head and killed in back of rowhouses in the 2600 block of Shirley Ave. in Park Heights.

Source: Baltimore Police Department

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore, Neighborhoods, North Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore, South Baltimore, Southeast Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

The driver of a stolen SUV from Washington went on what police describe as a "path of destruction" while trying to elude capture in West Baltimore on Monday. Police said members of the Regional Auto Theft Task Force about 3 p.m. tried to stop the vehicle when its driver sped away on West North Avenue.

It collided with a car at Hilton Parkway, causing minor damage and injuries, and then went up an alley into a townhouse complex about a block away. There, police said it ran over a mailbox and rammed three parked cars, causing them to burst into flames. The fire charred the vehicles and rendered the stolen SUV unrecognizable. Fire also melted the sidings on several townhouses.

Police said the man ran from the burning SUV and boarded an MTA bus. The driver pulled away and then stopped, and police arrested the man.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, West Baltimore
        

Five people were killed in Baltimore over the weekend and the gunmen didn't stop today. About 9:25 a.m., police responded to 911 calls for gunshots and found the body of an adult male behind some rowhouses on Shirley Avenue, just off Park Heights. Police said he had been shot in the head.

We don't know much about this latest killing and detectives are still at the scene at this hour. But the department has been taxed with a spate of shootings and now six deaths since just before midnight Saturday.

They are scattered over the city from this latest one in a blighted neighborhood in Northwest Baltimore to the shaded streets of Oakenshawe juts north of Union Memorial Hospital. Police are planning a command staff meeting for this afternoon and we should have some more details then.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

A University of Maryland, College Park professor who has studied policing practices in Baltimore in the past is launching a new review -- of arrests during the department's much-maligned strategy of zero-tolerance in the mid-2000s.

Charles Wellford will look at the program that became part of a lawsuit that was settled with the ACLU and requires a monitor to work with police. The strategy resulted in more than 100,000 arrests a year, thousands of which were tossed out by prosecutors who viewed them as illegal. But many people spent 24 or more hours in jail before being released without being charged.

The Sun's police reporter Justin Fenton, writes about Wellford and his history with police in today's paper. It's a relationship that dates back to the 1960s and early 1970s when Wellford studied the 911 system.

Writes Justin:

Wellford, along with former state appellate court judge and longtime Montgomery County State's Attorney Andrew L. Sonner, are awaiting final approval to begin a three-year review of the department's compliance with the terms of the settlement.

What he finds will likely be subjected to intense scrutiny. Though the Police Department claims it has disavowed zero tolerance and reduced arrests by 30 percent — down from a whopping 100,000 in 2005 — citizens in troubled neighborhoods still report being harassed and wrongly arrested or searched.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

On Sunday, Oct. 3, two cars collided at Patapsco Avenue and Potee Street in South Baltimore. One man was thrown from the vehicle and died.

City police, busy preparing for a funeral for an officer who died in a car crash in Pennsylvania, asked the Maryland Transportation Authority police to handle the investigation. As a result, neither agency said anything about the crash to either the media or to the public.

But this is not just a media-feels wrong story. The family of the 19-year-old victim, Andrew Arnold-McCoy of Glen Burnie, didn't get much information either. In fact, officers who notified him of the death did not tell that the driver of the other was an off-duty police officer from Annapolis.

The investigation into the cause of the accident continues -- one of drivers blew a red light -- but the refusal of the authorities, particularly those in the Maryland Transportation Authority, to release even the most basic details is perplexing and has angered the victim's family.

"We are just frustrated," Michael Schearer, McCoy's father, told Sun reporter Jessica Anderson. "It's hard to have closure if you don't know what happened."

We at the Sun learned about the accident from the Annapolis Police Department when they sent out a news release Thursday afternoon saying that one of their officers, James Salyers, had been placed on desk duty because of his involvement in the crash.

Calls to city police were referred to the transportation authority, where a spokesman confirmed the crash but refused to release more details, including the name of the victim which is usually made public after relatives are notified. Sgt. Jonathan Green told Anderson that the name couldn't be released until the investigation was complete.

The victim's father contacted The Sun after seeing a brief story of the accident and saying that he hadn't been told a police officer was involved. He had already buried his son and a death notice had been published. On Saturday, after Green still refused to confirm the identity of the victim, city police released the name.

This delay not only turned what otherwise would've been a small story on the accident into a larger story noting the anger and frustration of the victims' relatives, who were needlessly kept in the dark over a pertinent detail of their son's death, a detail they had to learn from reading the paper instead of being told by police. And the public was needlessly kept in the dark about a fatal car accident involving a police officer.  

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, South Baltimore, Top brass
        

Six shooting this weekend left five people dead and three more injured.

Friday, just before midnight: 46-year-old man fatally shot inside a house in the 3000 block of Pressbury St.

Saturday, 12:01 a.m. A 51-year-old man fatally shot in the stomach in the 3100 block of Grantley Ave.

Saturday, early morning: A 33-year-old man was shot and killed on Warwick Avenue in Coppin Heights. A 28-year-old man was shot and injured in the same incident.

Saturday morning: A 42-year-old man said he had been robbed and shot at Old Town Mall. He walked into the Central District police station and was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Saturday, 8:15 p.m.: 22-year-old man fatally shot in the head in the 4700 block of Shamrock Ave. in Belair-Edison.

Saturday,  8:53 p.m.: man fatally shot in an alley in the 3500 block of N. Calvert St. in Oakenshawe. Police say this shooting might be related to the one on Shamrock.

Sunday, 9:30 p.m.: man shot in the ankle in the 3300 block of Ingleside Ave. 

On Sunday evening, Baltimore police said a man was stabbed on Rogers Avenue and that he was being treated at a hospital. And Sunday morning in Anne Arundel County, a man was reported shot and wounded in Severn.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Neighborhoods, North Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore, South Baltimore, Southeast Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

I spent a few hours on Wednesday with Officer William Kinsey with the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. I wanted to see how he enforced the state's new ban on talking on a hand-held cell phone while driving.

It's a secondary offense, so police have pull you over for another infraction, such as speeding, before they can write you a ticket for cell phone abuse. Of course, a cop who sees you chatting away can easily find something else you're doing wrong.

You can read more about the afternoon in Sunday's Crime Beat column.

But Kinsey told me that even if he sees someone talking -- and we saw plenty on Wednesday on I-95 north and south of Baltimore -- that wouldn't hunt for an infraction just to initiate a stop. So the driver of a brown pickup truck who was talking on his phone escaped a ticket because he was only going six miles over the limit -- short of what normally attracts Kinsey's attention.

Who did get a ticket? The driver of a sedan who had a phone in one hand and was using his knees to steer as he sped up I-95 in rush hour at 82 mph. His right hand had been injured and was in a bandage.

Kinsey gave him a ticket for the cell phone -- $40 -- and warning for speeding.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Jurors have found two of the three defendants accused in the killing of Former City Councilman Ken Harris guilty on all counts.

Jerome Williams, 17, Charles McGaney, 22, and Gary Collins, 22, had been charged with more than two dozen crimes connected to the Sept. 20, 2008, robbery of the New Haven Lounge. Harris was shot as he tried to flee.

Williams and McGaney were found guilty by a jury in Harris' death. Collins was found not guilty on the murder charges.

"We are pleased with the verdict," Harris' wife, Annette, said after the proceedings. "Although two of the defendants were considered to be guilty in Kenneth's murder, we still feel that justice was served.

"This will not bring him back," Harris said. "This is a message to the criminals of Baltimore City that they cannot just get away with murder."

Follow the developing story here. 

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake issued this statement:

Posted by Anica Butler at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Kenneth Harris trial
        

The news release described it as the "largest drug bust in Baltimore County history." Police seized a warehouse full of marijuana -- 478 plants and 640 pounds of of the drug, along with grow systems, venting and a truck and a trailer in a warehouse on Canton Center Drive.

I don't mind the county cops, or any cops, hyping a good bust. But to call this the largest drug bust in county history is quite a stretch. They apparently forgot about the 2001 seizure by the U.S. Customs Service of 2 tons of reefer hidden in air-tight compartments built into 86 pieces of furniture that had been shipped to the Maryland Port in Dundalk in 2001.

Maybe this week's arrest of the couple was the biggest drug bust in Baltimore County police history, but the cops quickly toned down their release between the time they send it out Thursday morning and held a news conference later that afternoon. Then authorities described the bust as "one of the largest seizures of illicit drugs."

One half of couple arrested in this case -- Joseph Jesus Guadagnoli, 39, and Megan Bailey Veitch, 28 -- had been in trouble before. Gaudagnoli had been arrested in 2007 after a 9-month investigation involving federal and local authorities. At that time, police said they seized $230,000 worth of marijuana that was growing there. He ended up receiving five years in prison, but all but 9 months of the sentence was suspended, which he served at home with an ankle bracelet.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Baltimore County, Top brass
        

Reported by Jessica Anderson:

Baltimore City Police seized more than 16 ounces of crack cocaine, a 357 magnum handgun and $15,000 in cash from a south Baltimore man’s home Thursday — just days after he had nearly an entire 10-year sentence suspended.

Police said they seized most of the drugs the from Russell Smith’s home in the 2800 block of Hollins Ferry Road. Last month, Smith pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute last drugs and a judge sentenced him to 10 years with all but one day suspended, and three years supervised probation.

Maj. Margaret Barillaro, acting commander of the Southern Police District, said officers under Sgt. Larry Williams had stopped a car when they observed Smith with a small amount of drugs.

"These officers do a great job. It’s about getting the bad guy with guns who disrupt the quality of life for others in Baltimore City,” Barillaro said. “This is a big deal in an area where we’ve had a lot of problems,” she said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Baltimore County, Confronting crime, South Baltimore, Top brass
        

Breaking news statement from Baltimore police:

The Baltimore Police Department’s Warrant Apprehension Task Force detectives are looking for Gary Latham (M/W/27) for the murder of a 73 year-old John Sandy. Mr. Sandy was beaten on April 18, 2010 in the 3500 block of Elm Ave. On July 13, 2010 Mr. Sandy died as a result of the injuries sustained in the assault.

On September 13th, an arrest warrant was obtained for Gary Latham charging him with 1st degree murder. Latham is currently on the run. He lives with his wife in the 800 block of Wellington Avenue and has been seen in the area within the last 2 weeks, mostly at night. He has relatives living throughout the city, in the Dundalk and Essex areas of Baltimore County and in Harford County.

Anyone knowing of Gary Latham’s whereabouts is asked to call the Warrant Apprehension Task Force at 410-637-8970.

One man, 29-year-old Bobby Wisner, was charged in August in connection with the death of Sandy, a cab driver. Sandy identified his attacker as "Bobby," who he said was the brother of a man who lived with him. He slipped into a coma, but eventually woke up and identified Wisner from a photo lineup. It was not immediately clear how police believe Latham is tied to the crime.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)
Categories: Breaking news, North Baltimore
        

Two reports released in the past 24 hours blast the state Department of Juvenile Services for lapses in everything from facility security to medical documentation. The criticism comes less than a month before Election Day, when Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley faces his Republican predecessor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

In an interview this morning with The Sun's Julie Bykowicz, O'Malley said Juvenile Services was "the most underperforming department in the state" when he took office in January 2007. "We're still not perfect. We still have a lot of work to do."

Read more at The Sun's Maryland Politics blog. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Baltimore County police announced today what they hail as the largest drug bust in their department's history -- 478 marijuana plants and 640 pounds of processed marijuana.

Police said they also seized from a warehouse about $12,000, grow system lights, electrical systems, venting systems, and a truck and trailer. "The suspects were renting a warehouse at the location and built a two story marijuana grow operation inside," police said in a statement.

The suspects who were arrested, Joseph Jesus Guadagnoli, 39, and Megan Bailey Veitch, 28, are pictured here in mug shots.

Gaudagnoli was previously arrested in 2007 after a 9-month investigation involving federal and local authorities. At that time, police said they seized $230,000 worth of marijuana that was growing there. He ended up receiving five years in prison, but all but 9 months of the sentence was suspended, which he served at home with an ankle bracelet.  (Hat tip to Baltimore Crime blog)

The cops are planning a news conference this afternoon to talk about the case and display the drugs. Last year, I wrote about police agencies bragging about large busts, after a former city police commissioner complained that the current city commissioner had misled the public into thinking his seizure was bigger.

Here are some other police drug busts over the years:

In 2009, city police seized 90 pounds of cocaine. In 2004, city police and federal authorities seized 338 pounds of cocaine. Maryland State Police got 14.2 pound of cocaine in a car stop on I-95 in 1996, and found 176 pounds of cocaine in another car stop in Cecil County in 2006. The DEA got 2,000 pounds of cocaine from a city warehouse in 1997, and U.S. Customs found two tons of marijuana at the port in 2001.

Here is a release from today's announcement by Baltimore County police:

Police Make Largest Drug Bust in Baltimore County History

Police Discover Warehouse Full of Marijuana in Precinct 12/North Point

The Baltimore County Police Department will be holding a press conference on Thursday, October 7, at 1:00 p.m. at the Public Safety Building, 700 East Joppa Road in Towson, to announce one of the largest seizures of illicit drugs in Baltimore County police history. Chief Jim Johnson will discuss the investigation and evidence will be displayed for the media.

On October 4 at approximately 8:00 p.m., Baltimore County Police Narcotics Detectives executed a search and seizure warrant in the 7600-block of Canton Center Drive, 21224. Police found a large marijuana grow operation at the location. Police recovered 478 marijuana plants, 640 pounds of processed marijuana, approximately $12,000 in cash, grow system lights, electrical systems, venting systems, and a truck and trailer. The suspects were renting a warehouse at the location and built a two story marijuana grow operation inside.

Police have charged two adults and a juvenile in this case.  The two adults are:

•    Joseph Jesus Guadagnoli, 39, of the 7600-block of Canton Center Drive, 21224
•    Megan Bailey Veitch, 28, of the 7600-block of Canton Center Drive, 21224

Both suspects are being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center. Joseph Guadagnoli is being held on a $2 million bail and Megan Veitch is being held on a $750,000 bail.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (66)
Categories: Baltimore County, Breaking news, Confronting crime
        

State juvenile authorities failed to implement new treatment plans and did not properly document the supervision of teens, according to an audit reported on today by The Sun's Julie Bykowicz. The problems cost the state $3 million in Medicare funding.

"This has got to be one of the more depressing audits I've ever read," Matthew Joseph, director of Baltimore's Advocates for Children and Youth, a watchdog of Juvenile Services, told Julie. "It goes to the heart of the agency's functions. It questions how the agency is even able to operate."

The complete audit from the Maryland Department of Legislative Services can be read here.

This comes after some criticism from youth advocates who oppose building another jail to house juveniles charged as adults. And it comes just before today's expected release of a report by a monitor who works for the Attorney General's Office on February's killing of a teacher at the Cheltenham Youth Facility in Prince George's County. A 14-year-old who had been held there has been charged in the killing.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

As police probed a possible robbery in Cherry Hill last night that led to the shooting of two people, one who died, another man was found dead not far away in Westport this morning. Police received a call for assistance at 11:42 a.m. in the 2300 block of Sidney Ave. and found a man inside a home suffering from gunshot and stab wounds. Police spokesman Donny Moses said there was a large amount of blood leading from upstairs of the home to the kitchen; it was unclear whether someone discovered the man or whether he dialed 911 himself. But Moses said he was pronounced dead before noon, and detectives had obtained a search and seizure warrant for the home.

That wasn't the end of the violence today; police sent a Twitter message just before 5:30 saying that a man had been shot in the back on North Morley Street. Details weren't immediately available.

Across the river in Brooklyn, police executed a search and seizure warrant in the 700 block of Pontiac Ave. and seized a shotgun, a rifle, a handgun, and marijuana in an arrest of four people.

Police also identified a woman found stabbed to death in West Baltimore last week. Yassmin Lindo, 36, was found Sept. 28 lying in the street in the 1900 block of McKean Ave in the Mondawmin neighborhood.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: South Baltimore
        

After a short article appeared on a crackdown by Howard County police of people illegally parking in handicap spaces, a reader sent in a picture of a cop allegedly violating the very law her agency was targeting.

The reader noted that the officer had parked her marked cruiser in a handicapped space at a Barnes & Noble and was seen drinking coffee.

The Columbia Flier and the Howard County Times published the picture and sought comment from a Howard County police spokeswoman, who said the officer had responded to the Ellicott City store after workers there chased out a suspected thief. The officer was writing a report.

But the spokeswoman noted that officers are allowed to park in such spaces only in an emergency. While the officer was on official business -- she can drink coffee and write a report -- this wasn't exactly an emergency and she did have other alternatives.

It would've been better had she parked anywhere else in the lot other than using a handicapped space.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Confronting crime, Howard County
        

In January, Baltimore police reversed a short-lived policy in which they stopped naming officers who fire their weapons. The police commissioner decided to be upfront and accountable with citizens, and he instead modified the policy to make the names public 48 hours after an incident.

But on Sunday, a school police officer shot and wounded a masked robbery suspect. The officer had confronted him after witnesses said a Family Dollar Store on Harford Road was being held up by armed men. In the end, no weapon was found.

There has always been confusion when giving out information that crosses police jurisdictions. No one wants to step on another agency's toes, so in the end the public gets less information than it deserves.

Baltimore homicide detectives are investigating the shooting to determine whether it's legal and within department policy. But school police are investigating the break-in, even though it wasn't on school grounds, and are responsible for charging the suspect once he gets out of the hospital.

But city police refuse to name the school police officer, even on Tuesday, 48 hours after the shooting, saying that's up to school police because he's their employee. And school police refuse to release the name on the advice of their lawyers.

The Baltimore Sun fought hard -- even making the issue part of a lawsuit aimed at forcing more information out of the department -- to convince city police to not change their policy so we could not just report the names but determine whether the officers had a past history of shootings, among other things.

Now we have city schools saying their attorneys won't allow the release of the name until the investigation is complete, and city police saying they're free to release the names of their cops when they want.

This double-standard is not good for anyone.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Confronting crime, East Baltimore, Police shootings, Top brass
        

Today opens with news of an accident involving a police car in Baltimore County that shut Security Boulevard and Rolling Road. Authorities say the road could be open by now; no fatalities were reported.

In Baltimore,  a woman was killed and a man injured when a gunman opened fire in the Cherry Hill neighborhood. The double-shooting occurred about 11:45 p.m. on Claflin Court. No arrests have been made.

For a complete look at city homicides, visit the Baltimore Sun's murder map.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Breaking news, South Baltimore
        

Continuing a 14-year trend, Baltimore County saw lower crime rates in the first half of this year than in 2009, county police officials announced Tuesday at an event with Gov Martin O'Malley, reports The Sun's Yeganeh June Torbati.

The most significant drop came in the number of homicides, which saw a 44 percent decline this year — 10 homicides occurred in the county between January and June of this year, compared with 18 in the same time period last year.

The drops were particularly notable, O'Malley said, in light of a difficult economic climate.

"We are doing important and good things as a people," he said, "and we are doing it in tough times."

Meanwhile, the Baltimore County council voted to ban synthetic marijuana known as "spice," reports The Sun's Raven L. Hill. The move was spurred after news reports about a Catonsville store that had been making up to $5,000 in weekly sales. The product sells for about $20 a gram — nearly six times the price of marijuana, according to the Baltimore Police Department.

The Drug Enforcement Administration estimates the effect of smoking spice as 10 to 15 times stronger than marijuana. Side effects include nausea, vomiting, fast heartbeat, hallucinations and muscle spasms. A person who violates the law will be charged with a misdemeanor.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

An update from The Sun's Nick Madigan:

Jurors considering the fate of three defendants in the Ken Harris murder trial today asked the judge a second set of questions.

In the first query, the 12 jurors asked to see the bullet recovered from Harris’ body and a bullet casing found elsewhere. Judge David Ross said they could, even though the bullet had been shown to them by a prosecutor during the trial. Circuit Court rules normally forbid juries from handling ammunition, weapons, drugs or drug paraphernalia while they deliberate, although they can examine anything else. If a judge makes an exception, as he did today, a sheriff will take the ammunition into the deliberation room and wait while the jury looks at it.

The jurors also wanted to know whether they could have a printed transcript of trial proceedings, but were told by the judge that no such transcript exists. If they had asked for a video recording of the trial they would have been in luck, since the entire proceeding was taped. But no specific request for the video was made, and the judge is not permitted to offer anything to jurors that they have not solicited.

Jurors must almost invariably rely on evidence presented during trial — and submitted to them after closing arguments — as well as on their memories of testimony and any notes they might have taken.

It was the third day of deliberations in the case against defendants Gary Collins, Charles McGaney and Jerome Williams, who face life in prison if convicted of the most serious charges against them.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Kenneth Harris trial
        

[UPDATE: Police said at 6:45 p.m. that Reisinger had been located. Spokesman Donny Moses said he was found "somewhere in the community" but would not release details to protect his privacy. He did note, however, that Reisinger was "providing entertainment to all in his presence."]

Police are asking for help locating the 89-year-old father of City Council Vice President Edward L. Reisinger III. Edward Reisinger Jr. was last seen Oct. 1 at 3 p.m., in the 1600 block of S. Ellamont St. in the Morrell Park area of Southwest Baltimore.

Edward Reisinger III said his father left the house Friday afternoon to take two checks to a neighborhood check-cashing shop.

The elder Reisinger, a retired Sparrows Point steelworker, does not have dementia or Alzheimer’s and often goes on walks, his son said.

“He walks around a lot,” said Reisinger. “He goes and plays pinochle. He sees his girlfriend.”

He did not bring extra clothes, his cell phone or his blood pressure medicine or asthma inhaler with him when he left Friday, his son said.

Reisinger said that the check cashing place confirmed that his father had cashed two checks Friday afternoon.  His father’s girlfriend said she has not seen or heard from him either, he said.

“The worst case scenario is that someone was watching him get the cash,” Reisinger said.  “We’re just praying that he’s ok.”

He is 5’- 8” tall and 190 lbs. He was last seen wearing a blue jacket, blue pants, and black boots.

Anyone with information in reference to the above missing person is asked to call the Missing Persons Unit at 443-984-7385 or 911.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: South Baltimore
        

The Sun's Nick Madigan is covering the trial of the men charged with killing a former city councilman. Here's his latest update:

The jury considering the fate of three men accused of the murder of Kenneth N. Harris had two questions today — neither of which the judge answered.

In the first, jurors wondered how many guns had been used in the hold-up of the New Haven Lounge where Harris was shot two years ago, to which retired Baltimore Circuit Judge David Ross responded that the jury had to refer to the evidence at their disposal.

(Complete trial coverage can be found here.)

The second question was whether Jerome Williams, who was 15 at the time of the robbery, was holding a gun during the crime. The answer from the judge was the same. It is rare in criminal trials for a judge to answer a jury’s factual questions about evidence or testimony once deliberations have begun, since the phrasing of any answer could be interpreted as prejudicial to one side or another.

Juries are provided with every shred of evidence presented during trials by prosecution and defense, including, in the Harris case, bandanas, a mask and surgical gloves from which incriminating DNA evidence was obtained. The Harris jurors also have copies of surveillance videos — and still images lifted from them — captured of the shopping plaza that houses the Haven as well as the interior of the club before and during the hold-up in the early hours of Sept. 20, 2008.

There were no images of the shooting of Harris, but two of the robbers can be seen holding guns.
Prosecutors said during the trial that Williams, the man DNA evidence pinned as the wearer of the mask, was the likely shooter of the former councilman. In the video, the masked assailant joins his two accomplices inside the bar some moments after the pair have already burst in, suggesting that the masked man was busy with the shooting outside and that only when he was finished did he enter the club.

The jury’s questions came shortly before they wrapped up their second day of deliberations, which they began on Friday afternoon.

The defendants — Gary Collins and Charles McGaney, both 22, and Williams, 17 — face life in prison if convicted of the crimes. More than two dozen charges were filed against each.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Kenneth Harris trial
        

A 35-year-old man was sentenced to serve 50 years in prison for shooting and seriously wounded two Baltimore police officers. The incident occurred as a result of a domestic dispute in the summer of 2009. Here are the details from a statement issued by the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office:

Judge Charles Peters sentenced Shawn Sinclair, 35, of the 2400 block of Harlem Avenue to life in prison suspend all but 50 years with the first 10 years without parole.  Sinclair pled guilty June 10, 2010 to two counts of attempted first-degree murder and two counts of use of handgun in the commission of a crime of violence for crimes committed during an early morning domestic dispute that turned violent, with two police officers shot and seriously wounded.  Both officers offered victim impact statements at the sentencing hearing on September 23.

During the early morning hours of July 18, 2009 Shawn Sinclair, the defendant, became involved in a verbal dispute with his wife Angela Green, at 2412 Harlem Ave. The dispute escalated and the defendant assaulted his wife by punching her multiple times in her face.  He left the house and drove off in a red Ford Explorer – Maryland Tag # 14518M1 - that he and his wife owned.  After the defendant left the house, Ms. Green called the police to report the domestic assault.

For more details:

After leaving his wife’s house at 2412 Harlem Ave, the defendant drove to 3209 Lake Avenue where his girlfriend Chianta Harris lived. The defendant kicked in the front door and entered the dwelling armed with a handgun. Once inside the house, the defendant began yelling “where is your boyfriend!” The defendant then ran upstairs past Ms. Harris and her children and began searching for this boyfriend. After finding no boyfriend in the house, the defendant exited the house, walked to his red Ford Explorer. Ms. Harris, standing at the front door, yelled “[expletive] you!” The defendant then turned and faced Ms. Harris, pointed his 9mm Ruger and fired one shot in her direction.  

The defendant then got into his red Ford Explorer, left the 3209 Lake Ave location and began to drive back to 2412 Harlem Ave. The police were contacted and responded to 3209 Lake Ave where they spoke with Ms. Harris regarding the incident. Ms. Harris subsequently told Officer Dolcine that she had an active ex parte order against the Defendant.  

Officer Curtis McMillion, who was working patrol that day, responded to the domestic assault at 2412 Harlem Ave.  Upon his arrival at the location, he met with and spoke with Ms. Green, who stated that she had been assaulted by her husband. Ms. Green explained that earlier in the morning, when the defendant arrived at their home, they argued about her whereabouts the night before.  She stated that he was yelling for her to get his gun.

Ms. Green stated that the argument escalated and the defendant assaulted her by punching her in the face multiple times. During the incident, the defendant ripped the phone from the wall downstairs so that Ms. Green would not be able to call the police. The defendant then retrieved a knife from the kitchen and with the knife threatened to kill Ms. Green if she did not produce the handgun.

The defendant ordered Ms. Green to go to the master bedroom with him to look for the gun.  Ms. Green, out of fear for her life, complied.  While searching the bedroom, the defendant told Ms. Green that he had found the gun.  The defendant then left the 2412 Harlem location in the 2005 red Ford Explorer.

Officer McMillion observed injuries to Ms. Green’s face consistent with her story and told her to find someone to watch her children and to change her clothes because he was going to take her to the Court Commissioner to obtain an ex parte order against the Defendant.

During their conversation, Officer McMillion asked for a phone number to contact the defendant.  Ms. Green provided the number to the defendant’s cellular telephone and Officer McMillion called the defendant.  During the conversation, the defendant told Officer McMillion that he would not be responding back to the house and that they would have to come and get him.  Officer McMillion then secured the backdoor of 2412 Harlem and proceeded out of the front door of the house and into the 2400 block of Harlem.  

At that point, Officer McMillion observed a red Ford Explorer that matched the defendant’s vehicle turn into the 2400 block of Harlem Ave. The defendant, from his vehicle up the street in the 2400 block of Harlem, discharged a firearm multiple times at Officer McMillion and struck Officer McMillion in the buttocks. The Defendant then fled south on Wheeler Ave.  Officer McMillion, after recovering from being shot, broadcast a description of the vehicle over his KGA radio, got back into his own patrol car and tried to follow the vehicle.

Officer McMillion followed the vehicle onto Arunah Avenue and then lost the vehicle.  Officer McMillion, after losing the vehicle, continued to canvas the vehicle, however, once he heard a call for shots fired at Edmondson and Whitmore Avenues responded to that location.
 
That morning, Officer Jerome Shaurette was working uniform patrol in a marked patrol car and heard the initial domestic assault call over his KGA radio.  Officer Shaurette heard Officer McMillion over the radio indicate that he was going to respond to the domestic assault.  When no other officer responded as a back up to Officer McMillion, Officer Shaurette responded to the 2400 block of Harlem to assist Officer McMillion as his backup.

Officer Shaurette arrived at 2412 Harlem and saw that the situation was under control.  He then left the area and went back to his patrol post. Later, when he heard on the radio, Officer McMillion calling for shots fired and that an officer has been hit as well as a description of the vehicle, Officer Shaurette began to canvas the area for the red Ford Explorer.  He initially responded to the area of Baltimore and Calvert Streets but left once he did not see the car. Officer Shaurette then traveled north and west to the area around the Winchester Apartments and again did not see the vehicle. It was at this time that Officer Shaurette then traveled southbound on Whitmore Avenue until he got to the intersection of Whitmore and Edmondson Avenues.

At this time, Officer Shaurette observed a red Ford Explorer parked at the intersection of Whitmore and Edmondson. As Officer Shaurette was slowing down to get a look at the tag number of the Ford Explorer, gunfire began erupting through his driver’s side window into his car.  

Officer Shaurette did not realize that the defendant had gotten out of his car and was standing on the opposite corner and was firing directly into his marked patrol vehicle with his 9mm Ruger.  While he was firing at Officer Shaurette, the defendant was saying “die you motherfucking pig!”  Officer Shaurette, at that point, scrambled to get out of his vehicle through the passenger side door and was hit several times during this process.

Officer Shaurette was able to get out of his car and return fire from his service weapon; a .40 Glock, at the Defendant, striking him several times. At that point, the defendant fell to the ground and dropped the 9mm Ruger that was in his hand. The 9mm Ruger was then in a locked-back position as there were no bullets left in the gun. Officer Shaurette then holstered his weapon and fell on his hands and knees toward the suspect and stopped at the curb.  

Moments later additional Baltimore City Police Officers arrived and observed the scene.  The 9mm Ruger was kicked away from the defendant’s hand and immediately moved to a secure location inside of an officer’s trunk. Ambulances responded and Officer McMillion, Officer Shaurette and the Defendant were taken to Maryland Shock Trauma where they were treated for their injuries.  The Defendant’s hands were bagged for gunshot residue testing. Detective Vernon Parker and other homicide detectives responded and assumed control of the investigation. The corner of Edmondson and Whitmore Avenues was secured and processed by Baltimore City Crime Lab Technicians.

Evidence was collected including 9mm casings, projectiles, .40 cal casings and blood.  Search and Seizure warrants were obtained for 2412 Harlem Ave, 3209 Lake Avenue and the red Ford Explorer. From 2412 Harlem Avenue, a live round and 9mm cartridge casings were recovered.  From 3209 Lake Avenue a 9mm casing was recovered. From the red Ford Explorer, 9mm casings, paperwork in the defendant’s name, the phone from 2412 Harlem Avenue and other personal effects were recovered.   

Witnesses were interviewed at the Baltimore City Police Homicide Unit and identified the defendant as being the individual responsible for the earlier events. Evidence was submitted to evidence control to be analyzed.

The cartridge casings from 2412 Harlem Ave, 3209 Lake Ave and the corner of Edmondson and Whitmore were analyzed by Christopher Faber from the Baltimore City Police Firearms Unit and were determined to have been fired from the 9mm Ruger handgun which had been in the defendant’s hand.  The .40 cal casings recovered from Edmondson and Whitmore were analyzed by Mr. Faber and were determined to have been fired by Officer Shaurette’s service revolver, the .40 Glock.  

DNA swabs were taken from the 9mm Ruger and were analyzed by Thomas Hebert from the Baltimore City Police Department DNA Department.  Mr. Hebert determined that the DNA on the 9mm Ruger trigger, slide, magazine and other parts of the handgun was the Defendant’s DNA.

The gunshot residue bags from the Defendant were analyzed by Joseph Harant in the Baltimore City Police Department’s Serology Unit.  Mr. Harant concluded that the defendant had particles on both of his hands that were consistent with having fired a weapon.  

Officer McMillion was treated at Maryland Shock Trauma for the gunshot wound that he sustained to his buttocks.  He was released that same day.  

Officer Shaurette was treated at Maryland Shock Trauma for gunshot wounds to his left forearm, left back, and one that entered his buttocks and traversed throughout his midsection causing severe damage to his intestine.  Officer Shaurette was in Maryland Shock Trauma for approximately two months and to date has not been cleared to go back to work at the Baltimore City Police Department.  

If called to testify, all witnesses would identify the defendant, Shawn Sinclair, as the individual who assaulted his wife, kicked in his girlfriend’s door and shot at her, shot at and injured Officer McMillion and Officer Shaurette.   All events occurred in the City of Baltimore, State of Maryland.  

Firearm Investigation Violence Enforcement (FIVE) Division Chief Matthew B. Fraling, III and FIVE Assistant State’s Attorney Kelly Madigan prosecuted this case.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Police shootings
        

Baltimore City Councilwoman Helen Holton pleaded no contest to violating campaign finance laws, charges that grew out of the prosecution of former Mayor Sheila Dixon.

The Sun's Julie Scharper reports that Holton had been accused of "exceeding campaign finance limits by asking bakery magnate John Paterakis Sr. and developer Ronald Lipscomb to pay $12,500 to fund a poll during her election campaign."

Julie reports that Holton received probation before judgment, was fined $2,500 and must serve one year of unsupervised probation. The offense is classified as a misdemeanor.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

After the weekend of September 10-13, we reported that the city had achieved - for the first time since April - a weekend without a homicide.

This weekend we can report an even better feat: no shootings.

That makes two weekends in the past four weeks without a killing. Chalk it up to whatever you like, but that's a good thing no matter how you slice it.

Technically, there was one shooting, but police say the victim was a masked man in the process of robbing a dollar store Sunday night, who was shot by a city schools police officer. He was shot once in the upper body and taken to an area hospital, and police are searching for two alleged accomplices who got away. If it is ruled justified, as most are, it will not count toward the city's annual total.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: East Baltimore, Police shootings
        

Trying children as adults doesn't work, a report by the Just Kids Partnership concludes, which studied 135 cases in Baltimore. The authors say the system turns teens into more hardened criminals and subjects them to abuse. You can read the report here.

The debate comes as the state starts to build a new $100 million facility to house children charged with adult crimes.

What the report questions is the practice of automatically charging children as adults in some serious crimes. As The Sun's Tricia Bishop writes today:

The Just Kids Partnership wants a return to the pre-1990s system, where all juveniles were charged as such unless a judge decided their crimes could be dealt with only in adult court. Under the current law, teens 14 and older who are accused of certain violent crimes must be charged as adults from the outset and sent to juvenile court only after a judge considers the case.

Supporters of that tough-on-crime approach say it treats teens with the same degree of seriousness as their actions and serves as a deterrent for future delinquency.

"Automatically charging them as adults is the right thing to do. Then let the courts figure it out," said Gary McLhinney, a former city police union president who's now a labor negotiator for police officers across the state. "They need to understand right from the get-go that a crime of violence puts you in the adult system, and that means you're housed with adults.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

As you've seen in previous posts, Baltimore Police Commissioner Frderick H. Bealefeld III joined hundreds of scouts from the Baltimore region as they camped out at Fort McHenry Friday night. They're celebrating 100 years of scouting.

Bealefeld pitched a tent and slept outdoors with Trooper 193 from Baltimore's Thurgood Marshall unit. I posted some pictures in an earlier blog but here are some better shots from the police department's chief spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi. Bealefeld is with Shane McCormick, 16, from Pasadena Troop 870, and Marquise Dunlap, 10, with the Thurgood Marshall troop.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: South Baltimore, Top brass
        

Baltimore’s police commissioner hasn’t camped out in years, but there he was Friday night at Fort McHenry, fitting poles together and setting up a tent with the help of two young boy scouts.

Shane McCormick, 16, from Troop 870 in Pasadena, and Marquise Dunlap, 10, from Thurgood Marshall Troop 193 in Baltimore, helped the city’s top cop set up his new digs in the federal park at the end of East Fort Avenue.

At left, Bealefeld is shaking hands with Marquise.

“Under the night sky and stars,” Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said of spending the night with hundreds of boy scouts who are camping out this weekend as part of a celebration of 100 years of scouting.

“I asked how could I demonstrate my support,” Bealefeld said. “They said, ‘Camp out.’”

For more on the outing:

The commissioner arrived shortly after 8 p.m. in a white Sport Utility Vehicle dressed in his uniform and sidearm, but wearing a baseball cap and lugging a bag and a knapsack. His police flashlight stuck out of a back pocket.

He got right to work with Shane and Marquise; he was spending the night with the Thurgood Marshall group, a small troop of about 20 scouts, mostly from Baltimore’s inner city.

Shane, an Eagle Scout, walked Bealefeld through bending the poles and stretching out the tarp, lighted only by a single flash light, a pen-light provided by the commissioner’s chief spokesman and the light from a single television camera.

The trio got the tent up in about 10 minutes. A satisfied Bealefeld, being watched by several police officers and members of his spokespersons office, who admittedly were not the camping type, noted that the allure of the scouts is a “generational thing.”

“It’s hard to get kids outside anymore,” he said.

The commissioner’s green tent joined hundreds of others near the entrance to the fort, which turned the green lawns into a mini tent-city. About 500 scouts camped at the fort and another 200 at a part about a mile east. Up to 6,000 scouts are expected to participate in programs on Saturday.

Bealefeld had been a scout for about two years when he was a youngster and his son Frederick IV participated as well. The commissioner said his son, who is now 19, had once planned a camping trip to Pennsylvania but at the last minute all his friends backed out.

“He went anyway and we were worried that he was all alone,” Bealefeld recounted Friday night. “But you know, he was with other scouts, and a scout is a scout is a scout.”

That is the camaraderie that Bealefeld said is important. He serves on the board of directors for the Baltimore area scouting program, but he also is active in soccer and Lacrosse leagues to help kids who might not be interested in scouting but still need a structured environment.

Barry F. Williams, the chairman of the board of directors for the Baltimore region Boy Scouts of America, which includes Baltimore City and five surrounding counties, said recruiting in the city is difficult.

He said the Thurgood Marshall troop is filled with scouts with troubled backgrounds – a father in jail, a missing mother – and they live in neighborhoods struggling against crime and drugs.

Williams, a former principal of what was then Southern High School in South Baltimore, said he likes to think of the city scouting program as “the good gang. … I want kids to join our gang.”

Said Bealefeld: “These kids are dedicated to building moral character,”

Just then, Marquise walked up to the chief, shook his hand and said, “Thank you sir, for being here.”

It’s not exactly the reception the top cop is used to when he patrols some streets in Baltimore. But Bealefeld didn’t blink an eye. The politeness, the handshake, the respect, is expected with this crowd.

“He’s a scout,” the commissioner said.

That’s all the explanation needed.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

An update from The Sun's Nick Madigan, covering the closing arguments in the trial of three men accused of killing former City Councilman Kenneth Harris:

Amid a swirl of conspiracy theories, lawyers for the defense and the prosecution wrapped up their closing arguments today in the trial of three men accused of killing Kenneth N. Harris, and the case went to the jury.

Janice Bledsoe, who represents defendant Gary Collins, tried in the last of the defense’s three closing statements to leave the impression that the robbery of the New Haven Lounge two years ago and the killing of Harris were committed by different people.

She said that, given the trajectory of the bullet as it passed through Harris’ body, it was impossible for the shooter to have stood at the driver’s window of the ex-councilman’s car, as a witness had testified earlier in the trial, and fired downward toward the victim as he sat behind the steering wheel.

The only explanation, therefore, was that Harris had been shot by someone other than one of the three robbers, she said, most likely a person positioned near the McDonald’s restaurant across the parking lot of the Northwood Shopping Center.

In his rebuttal, Assistant State’s Attorney Donald J. Giblin ridiculed Bledsoe’s theory, not least because a shell casing for the fatal bullet was found next to where the car had been parked.
“It would be the greatest pistol shot of all time,” Giblin said, referring to the possibility of a 9-millimeter bullet traveling at least 100 yards and hitting its target dead-on, in the dark, behind the closed window of a car.

Giblin said it was likely that Harris had been leaning forward to switch on the car’s ignition when he was shot, making it possible for the bullet to travel through his body as it did, entering his back under his left shoulder, piercing his left lung and windpipe and severing a major artery under his right shoulder.

The prosecutor said the defense lawyers had come up with “some outrageous things” to “divert the attention” of the jury from the facts of the case. “They’re just trying to muddy the waters,” he said.

Snickering with contempt, Giblin took issue with a claim by Jerome Bivens, who represents Jerome Williams, that the New Haven Lounge’s owner, Keith Covington, might have staged the hold-up — and hired three men to pull it off — as part of some insurance fraud.

“So what does he claim he lost? $1,375,” Giblin said, referring to the amount taken from Covington’s safe. An insurance fraud “mastermind,” he went on, would have claimed a much bigger loss.

The prosecutor was also dismissive of Bivens’ suggestion that the jazz club owner’s word could not be trusted because he sometimes acted as master of ceremonies and even sang on occasion — a “consummate actor.” Giblin said that if anyone is an actor it is Bivens himself, who “in the course of 15 seconds” at the beginning of his opening argument “was wiping tears from eyes” as he recounted the tale of a woman who had undergone a radical mastectomy only to discover that she did not, after all, suffer from cancer — an effort by the defense lawyer to subvert the conclusions of science in general and DNA in particular.

“You’ve got their DNA all over this purse,” Giblin said in a reference to a pocketbook stolen from the Haven that night and found hours later with surgical gloves and bandanas inside it, items later tested and found to contain genetic traces of the defendants.

The prosecutor also took aim at the defense attorneys’ repeated assertions that the case against the three men is tainted by procedural mistakes on the part of police and crime-lab analysts. One instance, they said, was the lack of tests performed on a white T-shirt found in the purse to see whether it might contain the defendants’ DNA. A police detective, Donald Diehl, had testified that the purse’s owner, Alizabeth Showers, said it was hers, so there was no need to test it.

“What they’re trying to tell you is, one item in the purse wasn’t tested, so you’ve got reasonable doubt” about the whole case against the defendants, Giblin said to the jury.

“I’m not saying they conspired to kill Ken Harris,” he went on. “I’m saying Ken Harris was killed during a robbery they conspired to commit.”

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Kenneth Harris trial
        

Baltimore County police have arrested two suspects in a stabbing earlier this month at Security Square Mall. The victim and the suspects are all students at North American Trade School. Police said the motive was robbery.

Here is the police statement:

Police detectives initiated an investigation which revealed that Roland Clayton and Brandon Goforth had attempted to rob the victim earlier in the morning.

When the victim later encountered the suspects inside the mall, a fight ensued and the victim was stabbed by one of the suspects. Police were able to identify the suspects, Brandon Goforth and Roland Clayton, from mall camera video footage. Both suspects are also students at the North American Trade School. Police obtained warrants and arrested the suspects, Roland Clayton on September 29 and Brandon Goforth on October 1.

The suspects have been charged with attempt murder, first and second-degree assault, possession of a dangerous weapon, and robbery. Both suspects are being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center with bail denied.

The victim, Andre Alexander Wright, was released from the hospital on September 30.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system
        

An attorney for singer Mario, who was arrested this morning and charged with assaulting his mother, released a statement:

"This is an unfortunate incident between a loving son and a mother who continues to struggle with a devastating addiction," said William "Hassan" Murphy III. "Anyone who has waged the battle to save loved ones from the forces of drugs knows the irrational behavior that almost always accompanies their actions. Mario remains committed to supporting his mother."

Murphy would not answer questions about the specific allegations. Mario's mother, Shawnita Hardaway, called police to their shared Fells Point apartment early Friday and said he had hit her and destroyed their apartment. Police saw a broken china cabinet and a hole in a closet door. Hardaway said he had shoved her into a wall days earlier.

Mario, who has appeared on Dancing with the Stars and the films Freedom Writers and Step Up, was raised by his grandmother in Gwynn Oak due to his mother’s drug problems. But in recent years she has become a greater presence in his life – their relationship was chronicled on an MTV special, I Won't Love You To Death: The Story of Mario and His Mom.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Southeast Baltimore
        

{New information added below] This is not the picture I want you to see of Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III.

But we'll have to wait to get a pic of the top cop sleeping under the stars tonight at Fort McHenry. He's joining 6,000 boy scouts who are camping out there. And yes, Bealefeld's chief spokesman assures me the chief will be sleeping out all night. In a sleeping bag. On the grass. Which l presume will still be wet.

Why?

Some scouts in one local group expressed interest in police. And Bealefeld's spokesman told me that the commissioner wants to assure the boys that the city is safe and crime is down.

Photo at left is by The Sun's Lloyd Fox

The Police Department just put out a statement with some additional facts. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense (and Eagle Scout) Donald Rumsfeld will be among the guests, along with scout leaders and a service by Cardinal William H. Keeler (also, it turns out, an Eagle Scout). That is scheduled for the event's formal opening ceremonies on Saturday afternoon.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Confronting crime, South Baltimore, Top brass
        

As of today, it's illegal to hold your cell phone while driving in Maryland.

It's a secondary offense, meaning you can only get cited if caught speeding or committing some other infraction. That either means it will be next to impossible to enforce -- if you see flashing lights in your mirror, you're probably putting down your phone -- or cops will see you talking and find a reason to stop you (like going 3 mph over the speed limit).

I've spent some time out with Maryland State Police troopers and driving while talking is definitely a distraction. Virtually everyone the trooper stopped for speeding or doing something wrong had been on the phone.

That said, we here at Crime Beat would love to hear from you today. If you're among the first to get a ticket or warned, please send a note. Some might be included in a story we're working on for Saturday's paper.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

CLICK HERE FOR A RESPONSE FROM MARIO'S ATTORNEY.

[UPDATED INFORMATION, including that police were dispatched to the home for a "mental case," as well as the mother's account of her injuries, after the jump]

Baltimore-born R&B singer Mario was arrested and charged early this morning after police responded to an altercation that involved his mother, according to court records and two law enforcement sources.

There are few details at the moment, but court records show Mario - whose full name is Mario Dewar Barrett - is charged with one count of second-degree assault. Sources said they were called to the 900 block of Fell St. after the singer's mother called police. 

The 24-year-old was held on $50,000 bond by a District Court commissioner, which he posted and was released. Photo at left is from Central Booking.

A few years ago, the singer started a charity to mentor and support children of drug addicts. The Sun reported that the charity was a personal cause, as his mother has struggled for years with heroin addiction. Shawntia Hardaway's story was chronicled on an emotional MTV special, I Won't Love You To Death: The Story of Mario and His Mom. At the time of the article, she had been sober for a year, and was helping Mario with the foundation.

He's appeared in several movies and Dancing with the Stars, released four studio albums, and in 2008 then-City Council President and now Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake gave Mario the keys to the city. 

We just received the statement of probable cause from the police:

At 12:53 a.m., an officer was dispatched to the 900 block of Fells St for a call for a "mental case breaking up property" inside an apartment. Officers met Hardaway in the front lobby - she was crying and appeared very upset, officers wrote. She said Mario was "throwing and damaging property" in the apartment they share, and had pushed her using his hands and forearms, causing minor pain. When police went up to the apartment, they found a damaged china cabinet and the floor littered with broken glass. A mirror was broken, and there was a large hole in a closet door.

She said it was the second such time he had put his hands on her in recent days - on Sept. 27, she said, they got into an argument in which he pushed her "eight feet into a living room wall, where Ms. Hardaway hit her head on the wall," police wrote in charging documents.

"When this officer asked the victim if she fears for her life in reference to her son's actions, the victim replied 'yes'," the officer wrote.

No word on what sparked either incident. 

Here's a clip from the MTV special:

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (35)
Categories: Southeast Baltimore
        

An employee at Johns Hopkins Hospital stole names, social security numbers and address from patients and provided them to friends who obtained credit from stores to buy more than $600,000 in merchandise, federal authorities allege in an indictment.

The Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office charged the employee, Jasmine Amber Smith, and four others with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and identity theft. The indictment alleges that she stole the information from August 2007 through March 2009. The court papers do not say precisely where Smith worked at the hospital, but it says she add access to personal information from patients and their guardians.

Authorities said at least 50 stores and people were victimized. That includes banks, stores such as Sears, ManoSwartz, Best Buy, Boscov and Toys R Us.

Here is a full statement from the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office:

A federal grand jury has indicted the following five Maryland defendants on fraud and aggravated identity theft charges in connection with a scheme to use stolen hospital patient identity information to open fraudulent credit accounts and make purchases on “instant credit” at retail stores in Maryland:

        Michael Allen, age 34, of Baltimore,
        Jasmine Amber Smith, age 25, of Nottingham,
        Tyrell Douglas McCormick, age 22, of Baltimore,
        Ayanna Devon Johnson, age 38, of Baltimore, and
        Gloria Canada, age 54, of Baltimore.

The superseding indictment was returned on September 15, 2010 and unsealed today upon the arrest of the final defendant, Gloria Canada.

The indictment was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland  Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Barbara Golden of the United States Secret Service – Baltimore Field Office; Postal Inspector in Charge Daniel S. Cortez of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service - Washington Division; and Chief James W. Johnson of the Baltimore County Police Department.

According to the 39 count superseding indictment, while employed by Johns Hopkins Hospital from August 2007 to March 2009, Smith is alleged to have improperly accessed the records of the hospital’s patients to obtain the personal identity information of patients and the parents and guardians of minor patients, including names, social security numbers, dates of birth and addresses. Smith allegedly provided the stolen identity information to Johnson and Canada.  From May 2008 to June 2009, Allen and McCormick allegedly used the stolen information to apply for instant credit at stores located in Maryland and make purchases on “instant credit” before the fraudulently-obtained credit cards were received by the victims.

The indictment alleges that during the course of the scheme, the defendants fraudulently obtained over $600,000 in credit from over 50 institutional and individual victims.

The defendants face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for conspiracy to commit bank fraud and two years in prison consecutive to any other sentence for aggravated identity theft.  In addition, McCormick and Allen face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for bank fraud and 15 years in prison for access device fraud. Canada is scheduled to have her initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Baltimore today at 2:00 p.m.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the U.S. Secret Service – Baltimore Field Office, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service - Washington Division and the Baltimore County Police Department for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Tamera Fine and James Warwick, who are prosecuting the case.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

Even a tropical storm dumping water on the city couldn't dissuade a gunman. Someone shot a 34-year-old man in the head Thursday night in the 800 block of West Lexington St. The shooting occurred shortly before 8 p.m.

The Sun's Liz Kay reports that the victim was found lying on the street and taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he died at 8:24 p.m.

There's been 162 homicides this year, compared with 169 at this time last year, according to police and a database maintained by The Sun. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: West Baltimore