The Baltimore police officer who dove into the harbor to rescue the dog Penny is no stranger to the water. Yes, he's a marine cop, but 12 years ago he helped rescue a man who jumped off a ship at the Inner Harbor.

Officer Americus J. Rambeau and a colleague pulled a 79-year-old man from the water near the Light Street pavilion in the summer of 1998. Two seaman aboard a Greek ship -- Christos Vlachos and Nick Anestis -- dove in to save the man. He had apparently jumped from the cruise ship the Bay Lady.

On Wednesday night, Rambeau found himself back in the water, this time in a wet suit swimming for a dog that had gotten free of its owner and went for a swim in the cold water. More details of that rescue can be found here.

At left, Rachel Naumann and Penny stand next to Rambeau to talk about the rescue at a news conference on the Canton waterfront. The photo was taken by The Sun's Kim Hairston.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Downtown
        

Baltimore will end the year with across-the-board declines in crime, continuing a three-year trend of plummeting gun violence in the city.

The declines come amid a strategy shift that has police making tens of thousands fewer arrests — and in spite of a bad economy that many believed would fuel higher crime rates. With Baltimore crime still high compared with other U.S. cities, officials see 2010 as another step forward.

Homicides have fallen about 7 percent to 222, giving the city its lowest number since the late 1980s, just before the crack cocaine epidemic sent crime soaring nationwide.

Nonfatal shootings have fallen nearly 40 percent since 2007, while reported robberies, which police said would be a focus this year, dropped 8 percent compared with a year ago. Crimes involving juvenile victims continued to decline, too.

Baltimore's drop in crime mirrors a nationwide trend. Other cities, including Philadelphia and Los Angeles, have seen larger drops in recent years and some are at four-decade lows. That has kept Baltimore, despite its strides, near the top of lists that rank the violent cities.

U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said many of those cities had begun their decline years earlier.

"Baltimore was lagging," Rosenstein said. "Crime was dropping across the country, but it stayed high in Baltimore. What you have seen the last few years is tremendous progress. And keep in mind, it takes a lot of effort just to keep it where it is. The second challenge is to drive it down even further. If we stick with this strategy, you'll see continued improvement."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Baltimore police tell us that a city officer put on a water suit and jumped into the Inner Harbor near Key Highway and rescued a large black lab retriever that was in the cold water and in distress. The officer is a member of the marine unit.

We're expecting more details (and a photo of the dog) shortly. The air temperature at the time (6:30 p.m.) was 38 degrees. The dog was taken to animal control and treated for hypothermia.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

UPDATE: Baltimore police told us a few minutes ago that the person shot has been declared brain dead. Additional details are below.

A man described as being in his late teens or early 20s brandished a handgun inside Judy's Island Grill & Bake Shop. The retired officer, who was eating inside, confronted and then shot the gunman.

Police released no other information Wednesday night, but we're expecting an update later this morning.

The Baltimore Sun reviewed the restaurant in 2007, which offered curried shrimp, oxtail stew and jerk fish. The reviewer seemed to like the offerings of Jamaican and Caribbean fare.

NEW INFORMATION:

Det. Kevin Brown, a city police spokesman, said the retired officer is 63 years old. He had been walking out of the carry-out when he encountered man about 25 years old who tried to rob the restaurant.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore, Police shootings
        

Two teens charged in the killing of a man during the holdup of a Glen Burnie take-out restaurant have now been charged in the slaying of a clerk at a 7-Eleven, according to Anne Arundel County police.

Youssef Kamal Erian Attia, 48, of Glen Burnie, was shot and killed during a predawn attempted robbery Aug. 9 at a 7-Eleven in the 7700 block of Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard. Police said he wa shot as he tried to run away.

Two of the suspects in that case also have been charged in the killing of Misael Abdias Flores, 20, who was in the Mr. Wings and Pizza in Glen Burnie when two armed men walked in and announced a robbery.

More details on this case can be found here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County
        

Turns out the Royal Caribbean cruise lines were bringing back more than vacationing passengers to Baltimore, according to federal authorities.

The Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office has charged crew members with trying to smuggle heroin and cocaine into Baltimore from the Dominican Republic. Court papers allege they were using a South Baltimore Wal-Mart to deliver the drugs that they had hidden in their waistbands and shoes.

The Baltimore Sun's Yeganeh June Torbati reports:

According to accounts by agents of the Department of Homeland Security filed in federal court, three employees of the cruise line — 35-year-old Gavin Excell and 27-year-olds John Swart Garth and Kishurn Neptune — obtained narcotics in the Dominican Republic during a stop of the Royal Caribbean's "Enchantment of the Seas" trip in mid-December.

When the ship arrived in Baltimore on Dec. 18, the documents state, the three men had planned to sell those drugs at the Port Covington Wal-Mart, near the cruise terminal, to Loxly Johnson and Shenika Nicole Graves, who appear to have driven to Baltimore from Virginia

 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Downtown
        

Convicting people for rape in Baltimore is proving difficult even when there is DNA evidence.

The Sun's crime reporter, Justin Fenton, analyzed 85 sexual assault cases involving DNA over a three year period and found that nearly 40 percent have been dropped. About 26 percent resulted in a conviction, and the rest are pending.

This study comes after Fenton revealed that Baltimore police had led the nation in the number of rape cases deemed "unfounded." The department did a review and said that more than half of the cases classified unfounded over an 18 month period should have been pursued. Many victims complained that police pressured them into dropping the investigation.

But Justin's review shows that even when cases are pursued, often with what is considered lock-solid DNA evidence, convictions are hard to come by. Police say prosecutors are reluctant to take on hard cases, a challenge incoming state's attorney Gregg Bernstein will have to confront.

Read Justin's story on rape convictions.

Read the story on rapes being deemed unfounded by police.

See a full package of stories on the rape issue.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

Nobody likes a parking ticket. Nobody thinks they deserves a parking ticket. And everyone thinks the parking agents should ticket somebody else.

I know I've pontificated lately here and in Crime Scenes. A man ticketed while double parking to throw a laptop computer in his house so he didn't have to walk home with it and risk getting robbed. Hundreds of parking tickets dismissed because agents weren't notified of court hearings.

People weighed in on both stories, particularly on the one on the man with the computer. He was either a solid citizen penalized for trying to stay out of harm's way or a scofflaw who felt the rules didn't apply to him.

Well, now comes Kashi Walker, seen in the picture. He's an associate minister for an East Baltimore church who, at the behest of police and fire officials, opened up his sanctuary for the relatives of the victims of Tuesday's carbon monoxide poisoning on Guilford Avenue. Two people died and three others were seriously injured.

He parked in a no-parking zone -- restricted on Tuesday's from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. to make way for street cleaners (the car is also shown in the picture). But the street just ahead was blocked by fire trucks, police cars and other emergency vehicles. He got a ticket anyway.

"It's a shame," he told me.

A spokeswoman for the city's Department of Transportation said that agents weren't out looking for parking violators at the scene of a tragedy. Rather, she said the agent had noticed that Walker had parked in that spot on Monday, and again Tuesday morning, and had returned there to see if the car was still there around 12:30 or so. She said the agent thought Walker was taking advantage of the emergency scene to park where he shouldn't.

Walker points out that even if his car was there all day Monday and Tuesday morning (he said it wasn't), it was perfectly legal during those hours. So why, he says, would the agents have marked his car for special attention?

Another good one for the judge. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, East Baltimore
        

A 13-year-old Northeast Baltimore boy, who police said was playing with a gun with a friend, was shot in the head and killed Monday, police said.

Charles Diesmesor suffered a gunshot wound to the head at about 3:10 p.m. and was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 3:45 p.m. Police said Charles and a 14-year-old friend were playing with a gun inside a home in the 2800 block of Westfield Ave. when it accidentally discharged.

It was not clear whether the gun was legally registered, police said.

Additional information – including whether the boy lived at the address of the shooting and whether parents were home – was not available.

Anthony Guglielmi, a police spokesman, said homicide detectives initially classified the death as a homicide, which he said was an attempt to "err on the side of caution" as they looked into whether there was evidence of intent or other indicators. But Guglielmi said he also didn't disseminate news of the shooting Thursday evening because investigators were working under the belief that the shooting was a suicide or accidental death.  

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore
        

When we last left this issue before Christmas, parking agents weren't coming to court and judges were dismissing parking tickets for the lucky people who had bothered to challenge the fines. I couldn't get a straight answer as to why the agents were no-shows.

I tried this week to get some clarification. Unfortunately, the issue appears to be still a mess.

A spokeswoman for the court system told me that the city's Parking Authority is being notified of court times and they are supposed to get the word out to agents who work for the Department of Transportation. The court system feels that there is some sort of mix up between the two city agencies.

The head of the union representing parking agents told me that the court system for parking fines shut down in early December and when it got going again the state failed to notify the city. That's why the agents stopped coming.

Back to the court system spokeswoman, who said they periodically suspend parking hearings when there are fewer than 75 defendants. They like to have a full courtroom for the three daily dockets. She said that might be the source of confusion.

I had intended to write about this for Crime Scenes so on Monday I headed off to District Court on Patapsco Avenue only to discover that all parking hearings had been halted for the week between Christmas and New Years. A court worker told me that right after my article appeared on Dec. 17, "the parking agents suddenly appeared."

But officials with the city and the court system couldn't verify that everything had returned to normal. The court spokeswoman told me that more meetings are scheduled to try and resolve the issue. 

Today, the administrative judge for the District Court, John R. Hargrove Jr., wrote a letter to the Baltimore Sun explaining the obvious -- that when one side of a case doesn't show, the other side usually prevails -- but didn't say anything about how the problem started in the first place or whether it has been fixed.

His letter does elude to a new "electronic pilot program" by which agents are notified of court hearings that seems to suggest that the problem lies with the city. But Hargrove has declined repeated requests to talk to me about the issue.

So I'll head off to court on Monday when parking hearings resume and see for myself whether this has been resolved.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A man police believe tried to rob a Dunkin’ Donuts on Laurel Fort Meade Road Tuesday morning died at a Maryland hospital this morning after the store’s owner shot him in the lower body, The Sun's Yeganeh June Torbati reports.

Police responded to the store location, on the 3400 block of Laurel Fort Meade Road, around 3:30 a.m. for a report of a robbery. Police believe a man entered the store, implied that he had a weapon, and announced a robbery. After a struggle between the owner of the store and the man, the owner shot the man, who was transported to a hospital in Prince George’s county where he later died from his injuries.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Anne Arundel County
        

Rowdy bars, copious amounts of alcohol and crime have been inexorably linked together on the pages of this blog and in the newspaper for years. Cops have been on a crusade to padlock clubs connected to shootings and drug dealing, and the club scenese downtown and in Mount Vernon have gotten much attention.

Now I see from my colleages over at Midnight Sun that some bars, starting New Year's Eve, can stay open beyond the 2 a.m. closing law. That's because of an exception granted state lawmakers at least seven decades ago. It applies only to bars in Baltimore:

"New Year's Eve is the only time of the year when extended hours are permitted, and the exemption only applies to bars that have six- or seven-day 2 a.m. liquor licenses. Thanks to the exemption, bars can open their doors on December 31 and not close until 2 a.m. January 2"

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Five Maryland police officers died in the line of duty this year, the seventh highest number in the nation, and four of those were killed in car crashes.

The Baltimore Sun's transportation reporter, Michael Dresser, found that police fatalities across the country jumped 37 percent after two years of declines.

At left is the accident scene in October in which Officer Thomas Portz Jr. was killed when his cruiser slammed into the back of the a fire truck on U.S. 40 in West Baltimore. The photo was taken by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor.

Dresser wrote:

Back in 1998, a police van and a cruiser speeding to a officer's cry for help collided at a city intersection, killing one of the officers. Even then, accidents had concerned city police, and the numbers dropped from more than 500 in 1995 to just over 250 in 1998.

High-speed pursuits are generally forbidden in Baltimore City and cruisers responding to emergencies with lights and sirens activated are required to stop at every stop sign and red light to ensure the intersection is clear before proceeding.

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

[UPDATE: Police say they are trying to find out why they didn't charge Woodland after his hospital release. They arrested him in November on minor drug charges, but prosecutors say they were never contacted about pursuing gun charges.] 

A year ago this month, Raymond Woodland was partying in a downtown hotel when police say he pulled a TEC-9 semi-automatic firearm and shot a 19-year-old in the face. The victim’s friends responded by beating Woodland into critical condition.

Woodland, who in a few moments went from suspect to victim, was never charged for the shooting as he lay in a hospital bed with a grim prognosis.

But he apparently recovered: on Sunday, the 20-year-old was on the streets and walking through Southwest Baltimore when he was fatally shot.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Downtown
        

Police have responded to a one-block stretch of Pulaski Street in Southwest Baltimore twice today in a span of five hours. The first was reported at 8:40 a.m. at Pulaski and Boyd streets, the second around 1 p.m. at Pulaski and Hollins streets. The victim's ages and conditions were not immediatley available. 

The shootings took place in a troubled area of Southwest Baltimore near Bon Secours Hospital in the Booth-Boyd neighborhood near Carrollton Ridge. In May, two men were killed in separate incidents one block south of Sunday's shootings, and the area received increased attention from the city after a five-year-old girl was shot in the head with an errant bullet last year. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Southwest Baltimore
        

Issac Joyner's Christmas presents are tucked away in a closet in his aunt's house: shirts, sweaters, a new camera. His aunt had planned to buy the 14-year-old a pair of new shoes on Christmas Eve. Instead, she spent the day comforting relatives and planning for his funeral after his fatal shooting Thursday night, the Sun's Julie Scharper reports

"His Christmas gifts are all here," said the aunt, Michelle Joyner. "And he's not here to open them."

Meanwhile, the violence didn't stop for the holiday elsewhere in the city. Two people were reported stabbed in West Baltimore and a man was shot in the 1500 block of N. Caroline St. on Christmas Eve, police reported on their Twitter page. In the early morning, men were found shot in the 4400 block of Granada Ave and 1900 Greenmount Ave. Homicide detectives were investigating at least one of the incidents.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: East Baltimore, North Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

Baltimore officials hit back Thursday at claims that they pushed for secrecy in a six-figure settlement involving a man mistakenly arrested by city police, providing a document that they say shows the man's lawyer pushed for confidentiality.

But the lawyer responded by releasing other documents that he says prove the city initiated the discussion over privacy, and that his counterproposals were made to protect his client.

City attorneys produced a Feb. 18 letter from Kupferberg in response to their draft agreement in which he suggests replacing their "non-disparagement" clause with a section titled "confidentiality agreement." In e-mail responses, city attorneys said his changes were not possible because the agreement had to go before the Board of Estimates.

"When monies are paid on [the city's] behalf, that fact is subject to public inspection," an attorney for the Police Department, Neal M. Janey, wrote to Kupferberg. "There is nothing we can do about that."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall
        

"I've always wanted to hug Santa," the 50-year-old woman said as she hugged a man dressed in a Santa costume on Dec. 19 in Fells Point.

She held herself close, rubbed against him - and picked his pocket. 

As we continue to lament the retirement of Sun reporter Dick Irwin and the demise of the police blotter, we are also thankful that the Baltimore Guide continues to sift through those logs of lesser crimes. The above incident is from their blotter, which doesn't go into details about the crimes, sometimes with comic effect.

To wit:

"Boston Street, 4200 block, December 15, 1 p.m. Someone entered a business and stole a vibrating table."

I must know more.

UPDATE: Jacqueline Watts, editor of The Guide, reports that the vibrating table was used to sift spices. That was my guess too. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Southeast Baltimore
        

Baltimore bail bondsman Milton Tillman Jr. and his namesake son — who together ran Four Aces Bail Bonds — each pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal tax fraud cases that will likely send the elder man to prison for several years, while allowing the younger man to continue in the bail business, The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports.

His crimes carry a maximum combined sentence of 28 years and fines up to $600,000. But prosecutors plan to recommend a 51-month prison term at his July sentencing, along with requiring restitution of $120,000 to Ports of America.

The deal was contingent upon the plea of his son, Milton Tillman III, who pleaded guilty to one count of failure to file a tax return. The charge was contained in a criminal information filed in court Wednesday morning. Tillman III had earlier been charged alongside his father in a 28-count indictment, but all counts in that case against the younger man will be dropped at his sentencing, under the agreement.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

In March, Baltimore's five member spending board was poised to take a rare step: approving a settlement payout for an undisclosed amount to an undisclosed recipient.

Under questioning, they revealed the amount to be $200,000, but said the recipient could not be revealed because the plaintiff had demanded confidentiality. All city officials would say was that someone had sued the police department for a "rookie mistake" that had caused that person great shame. "I'm not going to participate in furthering that harm," City Solicitor George Nilson said at the time.

Now comes a story from the Daily Record, which reports that the plaintiff never demanded confidentiality - it was the city that included that clause. And the rookie mistake? A 17-year veteran and longtime member of the sex offense unit arrested the wrong man on child sex abuse charges. Yakov Shapiro, a violinist and teacher from Germantown, spent 40 hours in jail when police were actually looking for a Baltimore man named Yisrael Shapiro.

It took the Daily Record lawyering up to get the city to produce the name of the man's attorney, who spoke at length about the case with reporter Brendan Kearney and said the city's version of why the details were suppressed was all wrong.

Ryan O'Doherty, a spokesman for Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake, told The Sun at the time that the plaintiff "demanded confidentiality as part of the settlement agreement. Had we not provided that, the cost of the settlement may very well have been higher." [$200,000 is the maximum liability for a single claimant under the local government torts claim act. Lawyers on both sides say the cap did not apply in this case because Shapiro sued under a federal statute]

"We've attempted to provide as much transparency as possible within the confines" of the settlement, he said in March.

Shapiro's lawyer tells the Daily Record: “They wouldn’t settle it unless there was a gag order. I told them generally I was opposed to those types of things.”

Nilson called it a "he said, she said" situation, and Comptroller Joan Pratt and City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young told Kearney that they stand by their votes. It's worth noting that both Rawlings-Blake and Young have been touting government transparency efforts.

UPDATE: Asked about his March statements and whether the mayor was properly informed about the settlement, O'Doherty sent this statement on behalf of Rawlings-Blake:

"The undeniable truth is that the terms of the settlement, including confidentiality, were agreed to and signed by the plaintiff's attorney.  The settlement was reviewed and approved by the Settlement Committee of the Law department.  The entire Board of Estimates, including three independently elected officials, approved the agreement in the interest of protecting the claimant from further harm. The Solicitor believes that protecting the claimant was an entirely appropriate objective and has no second thoughts."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: City Hall
        

A city man, convicted in a killing he committed in York, Pa. while out on bail in a city rape case, was sentenced to death by a Pennsylvania jury on Friday, the York Daily Record reported last week.

Kevin Mattison, 34, who was already once convicted of murder in 1995 and got 10 years in prison, was charged in the summer of 2008 with rape based on a DNA hit. He was ordered held without bail in District Court. When the case was indicted, his attorney Margaret Mead successfully argued for bail and he was released on $50,000 bond on Sept. 26, 2008. Mead told The Sun in an interview Tuesday that there was no way to predict what would happen next.

York prosecutors say Mattison used a two-timed woman as an excuse to break into Agosto's apartment in the 600 block of West Philadelphia Street on Dec. 9, 2008. From the York Daily Record:

He and his wife were visiting relatives in York and were in the parking lot of Agosto's apartment building when a relative who knew Agosto's girlfriend saw him with another woman.

They went and picked up the girlfriend, returned to Agosto's apartment, jimmied the latch and went in.

Once inside, Mattison pulled out a gun and ordered everybody to the floor. Witnesses said he demanded to know, "What you got?" from Agosto. Agosto, from the floor, pointed to a kitchen cabinet. Mattison opened it and removed a gallon-baggie of marijuana.

Before leaving the apartment, Mattison shot Agosto once in the right side of the head. Agosto, 34, died a week later at York Hospital.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

[Here is an updated story that appeared in the Dec. 22 newspaper, including details on where the altercation may have occurred]

Police have identified the man killed in a suspected arson in Northeast Baltimore as a 30-year-old from New Jersey, and The Sun has learned he may have been followed home from a club and beaten before being set on fire.

Firefighters were called to the home in the 1400 block of Homestead St. Saturday at about 6:15 a.m. and located a man later identified as Ellison McCall in a front room. Police did not have a date of birth for McCall, but said they believed he was 30.

Court records for a 2006 traffic ticket show a man named Ellison McCall Jr. with an Eatontown, N.J. address and 1980 birth date. On Facebook, several friends were mourning McCall and said he was from Ocean County Township, N.J. He did not have a criminal record.

One friend who did not want to be identified said McCall lived in New Jersey his entire life and did modeling. He moved to Baltimore in the past year.

Another, who also did not want to be identified, said she was told that on the night he was killed, McCall had been at a club and "put out" some people that were causing problems. She said they followed him to the Homestead St. address, kicked in the door and beat him, then set the home on fire using gasoline.

Those details could not immediately be confirmed with police, but two sources with knowledge of the investigation confirmed those details were consistent with what investigators have gathered.

Police said the incident was being investigated as an arson, making McCall the first fatal victim of an arson since 2006. Anthony Guglielmi, a police spokesman, said information from witnesses led police to believe the fire was intentionally set but could not elaborate.

Fire Marshal Raymond O'Brocki said investigators did not believe the cause of the fire was a firebombing but could not provide additional details. Chief Kevin Cartwright, a fire spokesman, said he had not been updated on the investigation.

“He was liked by everyone - a kind good person – and he will be very missed by all the lives he has touched,” a friend said in an e-mail. “He was very loved by his family.”

[Photo at left by me, Ellison's photo from his Facebook page]

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore
        

Crime continues to decline across the country, according to preliminary data released by the FBI today.

In the first half of 2010, law enforcement agencies reported a 6.2 percent drop in violent crime compared with the same period last year, and a 2.8 percent drop in property crime. The biggest drop was robberies, which declined 10.7 percent. In Baltimore, we saw a slightly lower drop in violent crime - 5 percent - and a larger decline in property crime - 5.6 percent - than the national averages. The city's decline in robberies was almost 15 percent.

Across the country, murders were down 7.1 percent, though in the Northeast region killings rose by 5.7 percent. That means Baltimore, which is down 5.3 percent in murders as of this morning, bucked the regional trend but would be a little behind the curve nationally if the projections pace holds up.

A question was posed to me as to whether it's fair to project out whether the national 6 month data may end up being indicative of the year-long trend. While it was only intended as a hypothetical, a look at past data shows that largely, yes, the murder numbers have at least in recent years held relatively steady. 

-In 2009, the six-month figures showed murders were down 10 percent compared with the same period in the previous year. For the year, murders finished down 12.1 percent.

But in 2008, 2007, and 2006, the year-end numbers did not change much from where they had been at six months. In 2008, the six month figure was a dip of 4.4 percent; the year ended with a decline of 3.9 percent. In 2007, murders were down 1.1 percent at six months and ended down 0.6 percent. And in 2006, murders were up 1.4 percent at the halfway mark and ended up 1.8 percent. 

Click here to explore the data yourself.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Crime elsewhere
        

A 10-month-old child who died after being rushed to the hospital in September suffered a brain hemorrhage and is believed to have been shaken to death, police said. An autopsy on Dec. 17 confirmed homicide as a cause of death for Micha Crane, who lived in the 3500 block of Chesterfield Ave. and was found in the 1900 block of W. North Ave.

Police say they have not made any arrests in the death. Micha is the 11th child to die in Baltimore this year, and the fourth age 2 or younger. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: West Baltimore
        

A fire in East Baltimore that killed a man Saturday morning is being investigated as an arson, city police said. That makes it a homicide, and the first arson murder since 2006, according to police records.

Police spokesman Kevin Brown did not provide additional information and city fire spokesman Kevin Cartwright said he did not have any updates on the investigation. The victim has not been identified, though a neighbor said he believed the victim was a friend of the home’s owner.

The fire was reported at about 6:15 a.m. Saturday in the 1400 block of Homestead Ave., not far from where six members of a family died in a blaze days earlier. Earlier this week, investigators also said that the fire that ravaged The Block, the city's red light district, had been set by "human hands" but stopped sort of calling it an arson.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

A woman whose body was found wrapped in plastic has been identified as a 42-year-old who had been reported missing Wednesday. She was found in her own home, police said.

Police responded to the 1800 block of 29th St. Saturday afternoon for a report of a body wrapped in a tarp. Detective Kevin Brown, a city police spokesman, said a relative found the body in the basement and called police.

Brown said the victim, Karen Ferrell, had been reported missing Dec. 15. A cause of death had not been confirmed pending an autopsy, and no suspects or motives were available.

Ferrell lived in the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello neighborhood of Northeast Baltimore. According to her Facebook page, she was a graduate of Baltimore City College and Morgan State University.

In the "about me" section, she writes simply, "Im a great person to be around."

[Picture at right from Facebook]

Posted by Justin Fenton at 8:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore
        

After a relatively peaceful week, three people were fatally shot in Baltimore on Saturday, while five others were injured in shootings.

One of the killings, the shooting of a woman in the 3100 block of Monument St., was believed to be part of a murder suicide also involving the death of a man in the 3700 block of Ravenwood Ave. Only one victim of the weekend violence had been identified by late Sunday, 23-year-old Brian Anthony Taylor, who was shot in the chest in the 6000 block of Majorie Lane near the county line Saturday night.

Then there was the discovery of a 42-year-old woman wrapped in plastic in the basement of her Northeast Baltimore home, which is now considered a homicide.

Anne Arundel County also saw two killings in less than an hour, in Severn and Glen Burnie. A food delivery driver was robbed and stabbed, and a 43-year-old man was also fatally stabbed during a fight at a Glen Burnie shopping center.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, East Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore, Southeast Baltimore
        

Baltimore’s top cop is adding another obligation to his busy schedule next month: part-time student.

Speaking at a ceremony for a group of officers enrolled in a leadership certificate program at the University of Maryland, University College, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III disclosed he would soon be going back to school as well.

Bealefeld’s highest level of education is a high school diploma, having dropped out of Anne Arundel Community College to join the police academy after suffering a sports injury that dashed his hopes of earning an athletic scholarship.

“It’s something he’s always wanted to do,” said Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

Guglielmi said Bealefeld will enroll at UMUC and pursue a degree in criminal justice. Bealefeld did not immediately return an e-mail message seeking clarification on his plans.

A survey by Police Chief Magazine in 2004 showed 89 percent of police chiefs across the country held at least a four-year degree, and more than half had a master’s or law degree. Despite his lack of college education, Bealefeld has overseen steep drops in crime – homicides are at a 25-year low – and led the department though one of its most stable periods.

The department's leadership certificate program for up-and-coming officers, meanwhile, graduated its third class Friday. Twenty officers completed the program, including class representative Lt. Melissa R. Hyatt, who is assigned to the Northeast District and gave remarks at the graduation ceremony.

In a bit of irony, one of the leadership program's professors was former Baltimore Fire Chief William Goodwin Jr., who resigned in 2007. The fire unions have had a lot to say about Goodwin's leadership, having several times given him a no-confidence vote and threatening to picket if the city moved forward with plans to name a fire house after him.

Here is the full list of the leadership program's graduates, at least some of whom are likely to be in command positions soon if past graduates' experience are any indication:

-Torrence Barbour

-Jeffrey G. Boettcher

-David M. Breault

-LaTanya P. Brown

-Lavern P. Ellis

-Marlena Fonseca

-Robert Gibson

-Melissa R. Hyatt

-Robert L. Jackson

-William R. Knoerlein

-Stephanie C. Lansey

-Ebony M. Lee

-Ronda L. McCoy

-Daryl D. Murphy

-Timothy L. Palmer

-Kurt F. Roepcke

-L. Richard Rutherford (recently named deputy major of the Western District)

-Gordon M. Schluderberg

-Robert S. Snead

-Lloyd Wells Sr.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Top brass
        

The former manager of a Northeast Baltimore club that had once been padlocked by police was sentenced on Friday to four years in federal prison for conspiring with a dangerous street gang to distribute heroin and participating in a stolen credit card ring.

Tomeka V. Harris, 34, had defended the Belair Road nightspot, Club 410, in interviews and before a padlock hearing chaired by a Baltimore police commander. But federal authorities put her in the center of a criminal enterprise and she pleaded guilty along with five other defendants who are serving up to 12 years in prison.

Prosecutors say Harris conspired with the leader of the Maryland Black Guerilla Family, a national gang that operates in the Maryland prison system and which authorities say still runs crews on city streets (these are also the guys who feasted on lobster and champagne while in prison).

In a statement, prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Baltimore say secretly recorded conversations with gang members implicated Harris "in the smuggling of contraband into Maryland prisons" that turned out to be drugs.

But the prosecutors also say that she stole more than a half million dollars using stolen credit cards and credit information. Authorities estimate that she and her conspirators used more than 1,000 stolen cards from 10 different financial institutions.

For more background on Harris and Club 410: 

Back in March 2009, Harris, who identified herself as a law student who represented the club, showed up at city police headquarters to argue against an initiative by top police commanders to padlock Club 410.

Police said its owners and managers harbored crime and violence and cited instances of finding a gun in a car near the club that belonged to a patron. A police commander said the clubs eats up department resources.

Police ended up padlocking the club.

In May this year, police said the club opened illegally for a party drawing 350 people and that two men pretending to be police officers and armed with loaded handguns were providing security. Police arrested the men. The man who owned the building claimed that the nightclub had opened legally, which was countered by the chairman of the city liquor board.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Gangs, Northeast Baltimore
        

A year ago this week, Army Pvt. Clifford Jamar Williams returned from Afghanistan for the holidays. His stay was to be short, as he was scheduled to be deployed for another nine months. But during a trip to the grocery store, he was fatally shot while driving in his SUV near his Southwest Baltimore home.

Williams always had a sense of responsibility, working throughout high school to help support his family. He joined the military, where he became a specialist in helicopter mechanics. His family worried for him every day, but he would be killed not 7,000 miles away, but in his own neighborhood.

Williams' sister Katrice Lambirth called me today to give an update on the case and make sure the public knows they still need help solving his murder. She said detectives have a suspect, but say they need more evidence before proceeding.

"I don't want people to think we forgot about him or that we're not out to get the people that did this to him," Lambirth said. "It's been a year. I want somebody to come forward and say something."

The circumstances of his death were somewhat puzzling - he was shot while in his car, but it was not likely an errant bullet, as he was hit twice. And it wasn't a robbery, because his valuables were still in his possession.

"It was no accident, for him to get killed a block from his house and still have ID, wallet, everything," Lambirth said. "For him to be going out of the country for nine months, and be killed on his third day back - what possibly can he have done?"

Lambirth said her mother has moved out of the family home, too overcome with sadness of memories of happier times. Williams has a son who just turned three, and Lambirth said they often show him pictures of his father.

"Every time I see him, I show him a picture. He says, 'That's my daddy!'" she said. "We want to keep his memories live."

Anyone with information about the case is urged to call the homicide unit at 410-396-2100, or Metro Crime Stoppers. Lambirth said a reward is being offered for information leading to a conviction. 

[Sun photo by Lloyd Fox]

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Southwest Baltimore
        

Last week, we reported that the city jail had been on lockdown since late last month, a move in response to a series of violent incidents and which officials said could last through the end of the year. It's one of the longest lockdowns in memory, and something the new pretrial services commissioner is doing more frequently to handle disturbances.

This week, a 28-year-old Annapolis man awaiting charges filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court that sheds some additional light on the current conditions. Hatch's complaint is broad, addressing a wide range of conditions that he describes as inhumane and in violation of basic rights, such as a lack of access to the law library and a restriction on attending religious services.

On the third page of his complaint, he references the lockdown:

"On or about the 27th of November 2010, inmates were stabbed as a result ... the jail was locked down. However, the administration and its staff failed to allow inmates to shower for several days. Before this incident, one hot tray and two cold trays were being served. After this incident no hot trays were being served. For several days, the inmate population had to eat stale peanut butter and jelly thus violating the policy of DPDS."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Friends and family gathered last night to remember Cherrie Gammon, the 25-year-old woman found fatally shot near Leakin Park over the weekend. 

A mother of two young children, Gammon had gone through her share of struggles, including the loss of her father at an early age, a divorce and battles with drugs. But the lasting image of her, friends say, was her caring nature.

"She went out of her way to help anybody that she could," said friend Brandi Bianconi-Guthrie. "If you were in a tight spot, she was always there." She was also outgoing: they recalled a birthday party for one of Gammon's children, where she ended up chasing people around the house - and eventually the neighborhood - with a slice of cake.

Her struggles with crack and heroin started about two years ago, and she took a job dancing at a club on The Block.  Bianconi-Guthrie said Gammon enjoyed the work at first, but was fearful how her children would perceive it and sought to get out of the business. Interview after interview for "straight" jobs were unsuccessful, Bianconi-Guthrie said.

Friends fear that her drug problem and her debts may have ultimately led to her death. She was shot multiple times before 5 a.m. in the 1400 block of N. Franklintown Rd. and flagged down a passing motorist, who called 911. She died in surgery at Maryland Shock Trauma Center. 

Police have not disclosed a motive or given any updates on the case, but Maj. Terrence McLarney said invetigators have ruled out speculation that the killing was somehow connected to the fire set on The Block.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)
Categories: West Baltimore
        

Here's a disturbing holiday story: a man was arrested this week after police said he tried to steal money raised for rescued animals at a Hampden bake sale for the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter.

Officials said a man grabbed the donation box and ran but was chased down.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: North Baltimore
        

The father-and-son team behind one of Baltimore’s largest bail bond services will plead guilty next week to federal charges filed against them, the Daily Record reports.

Milton Tillman Jr. and Milton Tillman III of 4 Aces Bail Bonds Inc. are scheduled to be in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Wednesday afternoon, according to a notice of a hearing filed Thursday. The Tillmans were indicted in February on multiple counts of tax, insurance and wire fraud.

The elder Tillman is a well-known businessman with two federal convictions, vast property interests  and a major chunk of the city's bail bonds market, including holding insurance policies for a slew of others in the industry. The CityPaper in August 2008 described Tillman this way:

"To white-collar prosecutors he's a target. According to Drug Enforcement Agency documents and a deceased narcotics prosecutor, he's a violent drug trafficker. But to people he's done business with and public officials who know him, he's a plain, soft-spoken, and successful minority businessman."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Breaking news, Courts and the justice system
        

When we last left Whit MacCuaig of Gough Street, he was fighting a $252 ticket for double parking outside his house. He said he briefly double parked to secure his laptop computer so he wouldn't have to carry it on what usually is a long walk in the dark after finding a hard-to-find parking space.

MacCuaig didn't have to fight hard. The parking agent, identified on the ticket as N. Scott, failed to show for the hearing and District Judge Charles A. Chiapparelli quickly found him not guilty. MacCuaig was happy to avoid a $252 fine but was angry at having taken a day off from work and spending time preparing his case. "What a waste," he said after the hearing.

The parking issue sparked a wide debate. Some felt MacCuaig deserved his fine and shouldn't expect to get a pass on the law. Others felt the parking agent should have used common sense and skipped over his car.

MacCuaig had parked on Gough Street, where it is wide enough to fit three cars. He argued he wasn't blocking traffic, as his citation read, and had left plenty of room for other cars to get by. And, he pointed out, he was trying to stay safe in a neighborhood hit hard by muggers in recent months.

He didn't want to walk back to his house carrying a computer he thought made him a target for attack. We'll now never know what a judge through of his case. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

I saw Carlos Woods two years ago inside his rowhouse on Chapel Street in East Baltimore. He was sitting in a wheelchair a few days before Christmas opening a a gift -- a Superman sketchbook.

The time I saw him before that he was on a stretcher being rushed to an ambulance amid a frenzied and angry crowd. A cop screamed for people to get out of the way, "so we can get this baby out of here!"

Carlos was hit in the head by a stray bullet in April 2001, when he was just 2 years old, while retrieving a juice bottle from his doorway. Somehow he survived, though he suffers from symptoms similar to cerebral palsy. His smile will break your heart.

I went back to see Carlos today as she joined classmates at the Mondawmin Mall. I'll have more details on the visit in Thursday's Crime Scenes. It was a touching moment for Carlos and everyone else. Teachers and staff at the William S. Baer School took 188 students to the mall, a tremendous undertaking given that most are in wheelchairs and about have require feeding tubes to eat.

Above are pictures of Carlos with volunteer Rob Paymer and meeting Santa (Luke Durant) at Mondawmin.

Here is perhaps the saddest thing I learned when visiting Carlos at his home in December 2008:\

The man who shot Carlos, Kenneth A. Kelley, pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder and was sentenced to 11 years in prison, with time starting when he was first incarcerated April 27, 2001. State prison officials said he was released Aug. 27, having served a little more than seven years, and is on probation. He now lives two blocks from Woods.

Carlos Woods turns 10 today.

Ordinarily, that would not be a remarkable event. But the last time I saw Carlos was in April 2001, his tiny body on an adult-sized stretcher, surrounded by paramedics pushing him through a crowd of crying neighbors on a narrow East Baltimore street, a police officer screaming for people to get out of the way "so we can get this baby out of here."

Carlos had been shot in the head while retrieving his juice bottle from the doorway of his Chapel Street rowhouse, hit by a bullet fired by one man shooting at another man who tried to escape through Carlos' living room. Doctors gave the 2-year-old less than a 50 percent chance of surviving.

A prosecutor at the suspect's first court hearing told a judge, "This is as bad as it gets."

I visited Carlos last week. After writing about a string of children who had been shot and killed in the city over the years - a toddler in a barber's chair, a girl getting a cup of ice, a child throwing a football - I had to see someone who had survived.

Carlos lives with his great aunt, 37-year-old Nicole Coombs, who took custody of him when his mother, who was 14 when she gave birth, couldn't handle the complicated care. He is in a wheelchair - suffering from symptoms similar to those of cerebral palsy - unable to form consonant sounds, and with braces on his legs and arms to help his coordination.

"We just hope for the best," Coombs told me. "Whatever Carlos is able to do, we'll encourage him. Just him being able to eat is a step forward. Just to put his food to his mouth is a challenge. Right now, he doesn't put his spoon to his mouth; he puts his head down to his spoon."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: East Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore
        

Baltimore County police are seeking help identifying two people (pictured at far left) who they believe have information in the whereabouts of a 48-year-old man who has been missing since Oct. 24. The missing man is identified as Kent Lafon Ridley (pictured on right), who lived in the 100 block of Wesley Ave. in the Wilkens area. He is described as a black male standing 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing about 130 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes, a light mustache and usually wears glasses.

Police said he was last seen by a relatives at his house.

Today, police said two people have been captured on surveillance camera at a food store in western Baltimore County. Police said they had used an Independence Food Card that belonged to the missing man.Anyone with information is asked to call Baltimore County Police at 410-307-2020 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7-LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587). To text a message to Metro Crime Stoppers, send to "CRIMES" (274637), then enter the message starting with "MCS," or e-mail a tip to www.metrocrimestoppers.org. Those contacting Metro Crime Stoppers can remain anonymous and might be eligible for a cash reward of up to $2,000.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Baltimore County, Confronting crime
        

The 5-alarm fire that ravaged Baltimore's red light district on Dec.6 was intentionally set, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has scheduled a news conference for later today with more details on the tip, which came from The Sun's City Hall reporter Julie Scharper. A spokesperson for that agency declined to confirm the reports and other officials would not comment.

The evening fire all but destroyed at least two buildings in the 400 block of East Baltimore St., including the Gayety World adult book store and a vacant corner building. Two strip clubs, Blue Mirrors and Club Lust, also were damaged.

Federal authorities have been working for days at the fire scene and East Baltimore Street has been shut down to traffic since the fire. The clubs were allowed to reopen on Friday.

At  left, in a photo provided by the Baltimore's ATF office, investigators survey the inside of one of the burned buildings.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Downtown
        

Cops don't always like to give out information, often for good reason.

But people like to know what's going on in their neighborhoods, particularly when it's in a small town like Taneytown, and heavily armed SWAT officers are swarming, and an armor-plated vehicles is on the street.

Maryland State Police had just this scenario last week when a man armed with a shotgun shot at a Taneytown officer, hitting him with the casing that holds the pellets, and then barricaded himself inside his home.

State police put out an alert using reverse-911, dialing 188 houses to tell residents to stay inside because of an "emergency situation." Trouble was the call went out att 11 p.m. and the first shots were fired at 7:30. And no call went out to tell people it wa all over by 1 a.m.

At least one resident was upset and her story is told in today's Crme Scenes, along with the barrack commander in Westminster who didn't think the calls were handled too well. Not only that, but telling people it's an "emergency stuation" instead of using plain English -- a man is inside a house iwth a gun -- only prompted more fear and calls to the state police barrack.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Carroll County
        

The woman found shot multiple times in West Baltimore early Sunday has been identified as 25-year-old Cherrie Gammon, a mother of two who danced on The Block. Though police said they did not have her name, a family friend directed a reporter to her Facebook and MySpace pages, where friends are grieving. 

Wrote one friend: "cherrie i love you so much! it's like a horrible dream i can't believe you are gone. i don't understand. i just want to wake up and see you again and have someone tell me it was all a dream. but i know it's not. i love yu and will never forget all the times we shared. i love you!"

Gammon last updated her page last week, posting a message from her phone about the fire that ravaged several clubs and stores on The Block. According to her pages, she was engaged and worked at Club Pussycat.

Police say Gammon's body was found just before 5 a.m. in the 1400 block of N. Franklintown Road, near the east entrance to Leakin Park. She had been shot multiple times in the chest and was pronounced dead at about 8:30 a.m. at Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Gammon did not have a criminal record, though she had a pending drug charge in city district court.

Police have not provided additional details about the case, but anyone with information was asked to call homicide detectives at 410-396-2100.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Southwest Baltimore
        

As part of a continuing series focused on tracing guns, the Washington Post today updates the status of a Harford County gun shop that was closed in 2005 amid a series of violations. The the owner unsuccessfully fought to have his license reinstated, the Post found that the shop has been open since 2007 after the owner's wife was able to obtain a new license. The paper writes that the scenario is legal, documenting 60 such cases:

At Bel Air Gun & Pawn in Fallston, Md., inspectors said in 2005 that they found a litany of problems - including more than 120 missing firearms and eight sales without background checks. Nationally, unaccounted-for firearms are a huge problem for ATF. Inspectors have found 113,642 guns missing during their visits to 3,847 inspections since 2005.

Charles David Scheuerman, who held the license for Bel Air, asked an inspector "if the findings of the inspection were unfavorable, could he put the business in his wife's name to avoid any problems," officials wrote. The inspectors told him that "changing ownership to avoid consequences with no real change in ownership is considered hidden ownership, is not allowable."

That October, ATF moved to revoke his license. For nearly two years, Scheuerman fought ATF internally and in court, challenging ATF's findings as "inadvertent, technical record-keeping errors." In 2007, a judge upheld the revocation.

Soon, Scheuerman's wife incorporated her own company, Bel Air Gun Supply & Pawn, and applied for her own license.

Inspectors met with her at the shop to go over her application. She told ATF that she had not officially worked at her husband's shop but "at times helped out with gun shows." They asked if "she actually had acquired" the business assets. She gave them a draft contract. Guns "would be sold on consignment and she would pay her husband as the firearms are sold," they wrote. ATF gave her a license.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Harford County
        

A 31-year-old felon who was convicted in federal court of shooting at a Baltimore police officer in 2008 was sentenced this morning to nearly 24 years in prison. The U.S. District Court judge enhanced the sentence for Antonio Holton because he has three previous convictions for drug offenses and robbery, making him a career criminal.

It appears that federal authorities yanked the case out of Baltimore Circuit Court in mid-trial, after testimony had already begun in February 2009. It's not immediately clear why at this point, but the feds do take many of the city's gun cases because penalties in the federal system are harsher and conviction rates are better.

The case was first tried in Circuit Court, ending with a hung jury that was in favor of acquittal by a 10-2 margin, according to defense attorney Ivan Bates. Federal authorities then agreed to take the case. Court records show the case is pending in state court, but that appears to be a formality as they await the outcome of the federal proceedings.

At the onset of his trial in state court, Holton's attorney grilled Police Officer Jared Fried, a narcotics detective, on why he shot at his client 10 times, striking him once. The attorney also questioned why his client's DNA wasn't found on the .45 caliber Hi-Point pistol.

For more details:

Prosecutors said in court documents that the incident began when Fried and Officer Angela Choi were patrolling the 2900 block of Presbury Street in West Baltimore in an unmarked vehicle. The detectives heard a gunshot near Poplar Grove Street and drove over. The documents say they saw a man later identified as Holton running south.

Fried jumped out of the car and ran after Holton. Choi drove to try and intercept the suspect by blocking off an alley. "The defendant turned around and ran back toward Detective Fried," prosecutors said in the documents.

Choi got on the radio and alerted her partner that the suspect was not running toward him in the dark. "The defendant, upon encountering Detective Fried, fired his weapon at the detective. The first shot missed Detective Fried; the defendant's gun then jammed."

Fried returned fire, hitting Holton twice.

The two men were about six feet apart.

Fried testified in state court that he could see the muzzle flash in the dark and then fired his gun 10 times. "I have a family to go home to," Fried testified, according to a news report by The Sun's police reporter, Justin Fenton. "I was scared I'd never see them. It was a nervous and excited feeling."

Fenton reported that Holton's lawyer, Ivan Bates, "emphasized the number of shots Fried fired by yelling bang! and pounding on the desk 10 times." Prosecutors said that Holton's gun jammed when he fired at Fried.

At some point, federal prosecutors took over and Holton was indicted by a federal grand jury. In documents filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, prosecutors said that no usable fingerprints were found on the gun, but that the suspect's hands contained gunshot residue.

The trial in federal court lasted four days.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Police shootings, West Baltimore
        

The man charged by the FBI with trying to blow up a military recruiting center in Woodlawn got the idea from undercover agents and couldn't have carried it out without their help, the suspect's lawyer argued in federal court.

Joseph A. Balter, with the federal public defender's office, said his client didn't even know how to drive a car but was taught by the FBI. "All of this activity was purely the creation of the government," Balter said of Antonio Martinez.

But prosecutors, arguing that Martinez needed to be held until trial, said he was "grinning from ear to ear" on the day the bombing was to be carried out. They described him with obsessed with dying for God.

The issue of entrapment has come up in several recent and similar cases in which FBI agents latch onto a potential terror suspect and ease him along into trying to blow up a building. In this case, an informant concerned about Martinez's Facebook postings alerted an undercover FBI agent who became Martinez's friend and confidant.

The FBI said last week the agent got the "bomb" built, trained Martinez in how to use it, got him a car and helped him learn to drive it, and convinced him that a bomb would be more deadly than shooting. The FBI says Martinez picked the target and when it came time to blow up what was a fake bomb, he made the calls on the cell phone to detonate it in front of the building.

"We are one of those who wage war," he told the undercover FBI agent, according to a story in today's Sun by Tricia Bishop. "We are not criminals. There will be no peace for oppressors, you will feel our bullets."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

This morning's tragic fire on Homewood Street in East Baltimore brings the number of fire deaths in the city this year to 18, one short of all of last year's totals. It's also another in a string of major the fires the department has faced in the past eight days.

A five-alarm fire burned businesses on Baltimore's downtown adult entertainment district on Dec. 6, followed by another five-alarm blaze in Mount Vernon the next day. This week, there was a three-alarm fire in a storage company on Russell Street in South Baltimore.

And now six people are dead on Homewood Street (photo by The Sun's Kim Hairston). It's the deadliest fire in the city since Jan. 20, when four people were killed in a fire on East Oliver Street. The fire on Homewood was first reported about 4:45 a.m. and spread in the cold wind. Firefighters found the bodies about 6 a.m.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

[This is a breaking news update. The original post is after the jump]

A pharmaceutical delivery driver was abducted while making his rounds in West Baltimore on Monday morning by thieves who made off with a truckload of drug products, police said.

Police called the morning heist “incredibly thought-out,” and were looking for three suspects. The robbery occurred at about 9 a.m. in the 2000 block of W. Pratt St., outside the tiny Westside Pharmacy and Wellness Center.

The 55-year-old driver was forced at gunpoint into the back of his delivery truck and transported to an unknown location where the suspects unloaded about 80 crates of drug products. He called police from the 2000 block of Annapolis Rd. in Westport at about 10:10 a.m.

“The value of the drugs is significant,” said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, who said he could not place a dollar figure. “We believe the individuals responsible might have had knowledge about where and when the truck was going to be.”

Guglielmi said police were in contact with the local FBI and DEA.

At the pharmacy, located along a struggling commercial corridor in West Baltimore, a handwritten, neon yellow sign tells customers when the store will be closed, and a flier for a lost dog is in the door. The inside resembles a hardware store, and the service counter is located in the back.

A manager who declined to give his name said he didn’t know what had happened until detectives visited the store later in the day. He said the driver drops off supplies every weekday morning but that he did not know his name.

“This is the first time we’ve had something like this happen in eight years,” he said. “We’re just happy he was not harmed.”

Police did not give out a description of the suspects.

----

City police are investigating the abduction and robbery of a pharmaceutical delivery driver this morning in West Baltimore.

Police say the man was put in the back of his delivery truck and transported to a “secondary location” as 80 crates of narcotics were loaded into another vehicle. City police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi called the robbery “incredibly thought out.”

Guglielmi said the pharmacy was located in the 2000 block of W. Pratt Street and said it happened at about 9 a.m. The crime was reported to police at 10:10 a.m. by the driver, who located unharmed in South Baltimore at Patapsco Street and East Fort Avenue.

Guglielmi said the investigation was continuing and additional details were not available.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Breaking news, South Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

From the weekend paper, in case you missed it:

A series of violent incidents at the Baltimore City jail has prompted a lockdown that could remain in effect through the end of the year or longer, according to state officials and inmate advocates.

Program providers said they were recently notified that they would not be able to visit the Baltimore City Detention Center at least through the end of December. Advocates are concerned that key services and even holiday visits, such as an annual program in which children are able to visit their mothers on Christmas, could be blocked.

Tracy Velazquez, executive director of the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute, said it was "difficult to imagine a security issue so severe that it is necessary to isolate the entire facility" for such a long period of time.

Rick Binetti, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, confirmed that the jail has been on lockdown since Nov. 28 as part of a facility-wide search for contraband after nearly a dozen violent incidents last month. Visitors are prohibited, and recreation time has been limited.

Binetti would not disclose how long the lockdown could be in effect, but he acknowledged that such security measures have been more frequent and more severe under the new commissioner for pretrial detention, Wendell M. "Pete" France, a former city police commander. In April, his decision to forbid detainees from wearing street clothes drew protests and led to a lockdown that lasted for a few weeks.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

A drug raid on a house in Northwest Baltimore uncovered something more -- a suspected dog fighting operation. In addition to arrests, police said they seized six pit bulls from the dwelling near Druid Hill Park and are investigating further.

The dogs ranged in age from a three-month-old puppy to an elderly dog. The raid was done on a house in the 2300 block of Edgemont Ave. in the Parkview/Woodbrook neighborhood Friday evening.

A police spokesman said that all dogs had bite wounds and several had severe scarring. The dogs appeared emaciated, and their bones could be seen clearly through their coats, police said.

On Sunday, police released a report on the drug operation. The raid occurred about 5 p.m. When officers yelled "Police, search warrant," the report says that no one responded. A tactical officer used a battering ram to knock down the front door.

At least one man was arrested running out the back and police went into the front, and the report says that one man thew an air fresh canister out of a second floor bathroom window. The canister contained three bags of suspected cocaine, police said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore
        

What seemed like a long-shot scenario being at least considered by officials investigating the death of a North Carolina teen with ties to Baltimore is now the likely explanation.

Delvonte Tisdale "more likely than not" fell out of an airplane as it prepared to land at Boston's Logan Airport last month, Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating said today, ending the criminal investigation into the mysterious and horrific death of the North Carolina teenager, the Boston Globe is reporting. 

The body of the 16-year-old Charlotte, NC, high school student was found Nov. 15 on Brierbrook Street, a quiet upscale subdivision in Milton -- which also lies underneath the flight path aircraft sometimes use to arrive at Logan Airport.

“It appears more likely than not that Mr. Tisdale was able to breach airport security and hide in the wheel well of a commercial jet airliner without being detected by airport security,’’ Keating said, calling it a major breach of airport security.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Crime elsewhere
        

A city housing official caught taking a bribe to clear a housing code violation in June was sentenced last month to a five-year suspended sentence and 500 hours of community service, according to the Office of the Inspector General.

A report on the Investigative Voice web site last night said that the first public acknowledgment of the arrest was buried in the inspector general's annual report, and cited sources saying the housing official had taken a $5,000 bribe. The article said authorities had not released the employee's name.

They may not be willing to talk about it. But information on the conviction has been posted since last month in the "press releases" section of the inspector general's web site. The employee's name is James Rytina III, and the release says he worked as a mechanical inspector and was arrested after accepting $1,300 - not $5,000 - to clear a violation in the 1800 block of W. North Ave. The investigation had been launched after investigators learned that over a period of months, Rytina had been offering to clear violations for cash to other homeowners.

Inspector General David McClintock confirmed that the case was the same one referenced in his annual report. McClintock says his office disseminated the news of the conviction via Twitter. Investigative Voice first reported the investigation in June. 

He was sentenced Nov. 1 by Circuit Court Judge Lynn K. Stewart and will have to also serve five years probation.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Howard County police are searching for two men who robbed Columbia Bank Thursday afternoon at gunpoint.

Authorities said the holdup occurred about 2:45 p.m. at the bank in in the 10400 block of Little Patuxent Parkway. "A teller gave the suspects an undetermined amount of cash and both suspects fled the bank," police said.

There is a reward of up to $500 being offered for information.

The suspects are described as:

#1 - black male, approximately 5’10” tall, under 200 lbs., dark complexion, wearing a tan jacket with fur around the hood and sunglasses

#2 - black male, approximately 5’10” tall, under 200 lbs, medium to dark complexion, wearing a navy blue jacket and dark colored ski mask

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Howard County
        

The tactics the FBI used to uncover a plot to bomb a military recruiting center in Catonsville are being increasingly used across the country, but are also raising some questions about whether federal agents are entrapping suspects.

The issue is explored in a lengthy article in today's Sun. It appears from talking with legal experts and attorneys that barring any unforeseen revelations, the FBI is on solid ground in this case. It seems from court documents that the agents went out of their way to give the suspect a way to back out.

Concerns about tactics: the informant alerted the FBI after seeing postings on Facebook in which the suspect discussed his hatred for the west but fell short of advocating violence. The informant talked with the man over the course of several days and told the FBI that the man wanted to attack Americans, soldiers in particular.

The undercover agent then met with the man, became his "Afghani brother," suggested he bomb the center on Route 40 instead of shoot it up, gave the man an SUV, built and installed the bomb and showed the man how to detonate it. When the man said he hadn't driven in a while, the FBI helped him practice by driving around a parking lot.

In the FBI's favor: It was the suspect who suggested the target and repeatedly said he wanted to commit and act of violence, even after his mother and three friends and an in-law expressed concerns. The agent several times told him he didn't have to do anything and the informant asked him directly if he felt pressured. The man said no. And it was the suspect who pressed the button to detonate what turned out to be a fake bomb.

The question raised is whether this is entrapment. Most experts interviewed, including some defense attorneys, said no. It's entrapment when the agent convinces a person to commit a crime he or she wouldn't ordinarily have done. It appears at least from initial court documents that the man had wanted to attack the military for some time and the FBI merely gave him a way to think he was about to achieve his goal. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

Tonight at the Baltimore City Council's final meeting of the year, Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young will introduce a resolution calling on state lawmakers to support efforts by Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake to tighten sentencing guidelines for illegal gun possession.

In a press release, Young said he had Thanksgiving dinner with more than a dozen mothers who lost sons to gun violence. "I don't want another mother to have to suffer because their child was gunned down in the streets of this city," he said.

All of the city council's members have signed on to the resolution with the exception of Bill Cole and Rikki Spector, though a spokesman for Young said they still have an opportunity to do so at the council meeting. 

For more on the legislation Rawlings-Blake plans to push in the upcoming legislative session, click here. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall
        

Press releases from the Customs and Border Protection never cease to amaze with the strange items seized from people coming into the country.

[Right click and select 'view image' to enlarge the picture]

Today, the agency said that a passenger arriving at Dulles from Ghana - and destined for Maryland - on Dec. 3 tried to pass through with a suitcase containing a hedgehog, elephant tails, chameleons, skins from genets (a cat-like species indigenous to Africa), seed pods, sheets soaked with the blood of sacrificed chickens, and "a lot of soil." He said the items were for "spiritual purposes."

The 59-year-old passenger had initially told agents that his suitcase contained dried herbs and clothing.

“This is by far one of the strangest suitcases we’re ever opened. The passenger told us that the items were to be used for spiritual purposes. From what we were able to learn, the items seem consistent with that explanation,” said Christopher Hess, CBP Port Director for the Port of Washington. “Regardless of its intended purpose, each item posed potentially severe animal and plant disease threats to American agriculture. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists were required to destroy them.”

[Image courtesy Customs and Border Protection]

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

With a foiled bomb plot in the county garnering national attention Wednesday, shootings in the city continued, taking two lives. A suspected drug dealer was killed in what police believe was a robbery in Northeast Baltimore near Good Samaritan hospital. Here's the account of that shooting.

Then Wednesday night, over a span of about 10 minutes, police received reports of at least three shootings in the neighborhoods around Leakin Park. The addresses are a mess - we've been given 3 addresses for one of the shootings, and two for another - but we know that one person, 20-year-old David Carter, was killed in the shooting that occurred in the 2800 block of Westwood Ave.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Southwest Baltimore
        

The suspect arrested by the FBI in the alleged bombing plot at a military recruiting center in Catonsville talked of waging war on the U.S. and only recently became radicalized. Today's Baltimore Sun has several articles on the plot and on Antonio Martinez's (photo at left from his Facebook page) transformation to radicalism:

* A 21-year-old Baltimore County man, whose Facebook postings about jihad gave way to discussions with an FBI informant about how to kill American soldiers, was arrested Wednesday after authorities say he tried to blow up a Catonsville military recruiting center using a car bomb supplied by undercover agents.

* Not so long ago, the young man accused of plotting to blow up a military recruiting station in Catonsville had a mundane job: selling children's clothes at Columbia Mall.

* Car Quest Auto Parts manager Will Eckenrode was beginning the day at his Catonsville store Wednesday, when he and other workers heard a loud bang and rushed outside to find FBI agents swarming behind his building.

* The suspect in the attempted bombing of the Army recruiting center in Catonsville apparently drew inspiration from an array of websites and radical Islamic leaders, including a U.S.-born cleric who has been targeted for assassination by the Obama administration, according to an FBI affidavit.

For more detail, read the criminal complaint filed by the FBI. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Confronting crime, Crime elsewhere
        

Anne Arundel County police concluded a six month investigation into crime in and around more than a dozen motels and hotels targeting prostitution, human trafficking and drugs worth more than a half-million dollars.

Dubbed "Operation Safe Stay," police said they made several arrests and confiscated the following:

More than 2,600 grams of marijuana with an estimated street value of $53,000

More than 210 grams of heroin with an estimated street value of $53,700

About $430,000 worth of methanampetamine

More than 31 grams of crack cocaine worth about $3,100

Police said they went after hotel patrons "who are utilizing these establishments to conduct illegal activity. ... Hotels and motels can be places of opportunity for a variety of illicit activities because those involved in criminal activity find a sense of security in the anonymity provided by staying at these establishments."

A total 35 adults were arrested. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County
        

A 65-year-old New Jersey man has pleaded guilty to committing two home invasion robberies and to holding up a business. Daniel Chase of Browns Mill, N.J., faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced in U.S. District Court in Baltimore in March.

One person, Constantine Frank, died in one of the attacks on South Lakewood Avenue in Baltimore. The Sun's Justin Fenton reported last year that Frank, 54, owned pool halls and shopping centers in Baltimore County.

Frank had owned Precision Vending and knew one of the robbers in the scheme and had visited Frank and knew the security and layout of the building. On July 29, 2009, prosecutors said Chase and another man got inside disguised as package delivery men.

The plea agreement filed in federal court says Chase took out a gun from a false package and held Frank captive. The two men then used zip-ties and duct tape to restrain Frank and stole more than $10,000.

They left Frank "bound and restrained," prosecutors with the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said, "knowing that he was sweating profusely and in obvious discomfort." Prosecutors said the suspect called one of Frank's other business and told a person on the phone, "Your boss is in his office and he is not doing too good." Police Founf Frank conscious, restrained and unable t speak.

He died on Aug. 11 of a brain hemorrhage.

For more on other crimes: 

Prosecutors said that on Sept. 2, Chase and other drove to a residential complex in Havre de Grace to the home of the former owner of Citizens Pharmacy Services that had been located on Market Street in the Harford County community.

Chase called the owner from a security phone and pretended to be a police investigator, prosecutors said. Once inside, the court papers say Chase took out a gun from a briefcase, pointed it at the man and his wife and ordered them to lie on the floor. Three cleaning women who showed up during the robbery were also ordered to lie on the floor and were restrained, prosecutors said.

The men took cash and jewelry from a safe, according to the plea agreement.

On Sept. 29, prosecutors said Chase and another man robbed the owner Sparrows Point Restaurant on North Point Boulevard in Baltimore County. One of the men knew one of the owners from eating there and from selling him some equipment.

Prosecutors said they went to the owner's house in Chase, again took a gun from a briefcase and stole about $10,000 from a drawer. Prosecutors said the man found a safe and forced the owner to open it -- by threatening to cut off his finger, prosecutors said -- and took $140,000 that was inside. They left the owner bound.

Authorities said Chase and another man, Antowan Bell, 25, were arrested as they left a cafe in Atlantic City, N.J., after a brief car chase. Authorities had identified them from victims and were listening to their phone conversations on a wiretap, according to court documents.

Police said they found a briefcase, mace, rope, rubber gloves, three sets of handcuffs, three empty money bags, a knife, tape and a false badge purporting to be that of an investigator for the New Jersey Attorney General's office.

Bell, of Rosedale, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit armed commercial robberies and using a firearm in a crime of violence. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 13.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Baltimore County, East Baltimore, Harford County
        

Hat tip to Alexander Koblansky, who was recording when the roof of the Gayety Show World building collapsed, sending fire shooting into the air:



From the audio in the background it sounds like he and his friends got busted for watching the fire instead of working.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Downtown
        

Fire Chief James S. Clack fired back this afternoon on claims from the fire union that rotating budget closures of companies impacted fighting the two five-alarm fires in Mount Vernon and on The Block.

"We've got 54 suppression companies in the city and three are closed each day. It's certainly better than years ago when we had six, and even up until the start of this year when we had four. Would we like those up in service? Absolutely."

But Clack said he didn't think the closures made a difference. "Both of these were five alarm fires. Another truck in service probably wouldn't have made a difference in this case. Certainly as the fire chief I'd like to have every company in service.

"But these are very tough budget times and I think we're doing well with what we have. I would say that some of the stuff the union sent out is a little overblown. They're trying to use this opportunity to advocate for reducing the rotating closures. I certainly understand that. But I would say the rhetoric is over the top."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Downtown, North Baltimore, Top brass
        

Firefighters are still putting out embers at this morning's fire in Mount Vernon (just hours after clubs on The Block burned) and already the city fire union (Firefighters Local 734) is blasting away at company closures. Two or three fire companies are shuttered each night throughout the city due to budget cuts.

Photo is of the Mount Vernon blaze and was taken by The Sun's Jerry Jackson.

Union officials routinely complain that the closures slow response time to fires and endanger lives of citizens and firefighters. Last year, a man was killed in a fire just a block from a firehouse that was closed, though a variety of factors, including a wrong address, contributed to a delayed response (read a tribute to the victim here).

The Baltimore Fire Department shoots back that closures have little to no impact on fighting fires (though Fire Chief James S. Clack warned during the last budget process that the department couldn't absorb anymore cuts).

This morning, the Firefighters Union 734 issued a blistering statement saying that once again the the Fire Department's shortcomings are endangering citizens, and noting that the city needed help from Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Howard counties (twin four-alarm fires in a strip of vacant houses in West Baltimore this summer required an assist from as far away as Washington).

Chief Kevin Cartwright, a spokesman for the Fire Department, shot back this morning, calling the union complaints overblown and old. "Response time had nothing to do with anything that happened last night," he said.

Both five-alarm fires brought nearly 150 firefighters to the scenes. Union officials are saying that a 5-alarm assignment today is roughly equivalent to a 3-alarm assignment in years past, due to cutbacks in personnel and apparatus. Fire officials counter that different chiefs have different protocols, and that better equipment and improved safety guidelines mean that fewer trucks and engines are required on each alarm).

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has reduced rotating closures from four to three in this year’s budget, which ran a $121 million deficit. For more from the union and Cartwright:

Statement from Firefighters Union #734:

Around 3:40, the beginnings of a five alarm inferno were taking over downtown Baltimore.  The closest truck company, Truck 1 housed at the Oldtown Station, 1100 HIllen Street, was unavailable because it was at the repair shop.  (Correction to our initial report)  The next closest truck company would have been Truck 2, housed Downtown, 15 S Eutaw Street.  Unfortunately that unit was permanently closed in 2009 by the Dixon Administration.  The closest truck, and first to respond to the five alarm fire, was Truck 6 from Locust Point, 1001 E Fort Avenue.  The next closest truck, Truck 23 from Pigtown, 1229 Bush Street, was the second to respond.  Luckily, the mechanics were able to quickly repair Truck 1, and it was eventually able to respond on the fire.   
 
While the firefighters were fighting the fire downtown, a second fire was alerted in the 900 block of Poplar Grove Street, west Baltimore. The closest truck company would have been Truck 18 from Walbrook, housed at 3130 W North Avenue, but it was CLOSED by the Administration to save money. Instead, Truck 21 from Brooklyn, 430 Maude Avenue, had to respond.  
 
A five alarm fire brings 21 engine companies, 10 truck companies, numerous support vehicles and over 150 firefighters and command staff officers.  Add in the extra working fire, will bring the total of out of service engines to 27 engines and 13 trucks.  There are only 36 engines and 18 trucks in Baltimore City.  Two engines and one truck were closed today for staffing.

Response from Fire Department spokesman Kevin Cartwright:

"They have been on an assault of the Fire Department and the city government for a year and a half. It's literally foolishness and a waste of time to chase every one of these little statements that they put out there. What their goal and mission has been made more than clear.

When are they going to come out and say they are working with the Fire Department? Response time had nothing to do with anything that was done last night. We all know that the budget cuts hit every city agency. Nobody can get around that. The fire chief and the administration has been continually working with city government to highlights and over-emphasize our need for fire suppression resources.


This is continuous attack on city government to try and show how ineffectual the city Fire Department is operating, and it's just not the case. Both of these fires were very intense, and with fire blowing from two, three floors, we just can't go in and knock the fire just like that.

When is the union going to come forward with something constructive? It gets old. I understand if they come forward with something valid, and I know they have to represent the firefighters. But they're going about it the wrong way. It doesn't help the situation to attack the mayor and the fire chief."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)
Categories: Breaking news, Downtown, North Baltimore
        

Fire, not crime, is the main news of the day.

Baltimore residents navigated their way home through gridlock caused by a 5-alarm fire on The Block and then awoke to discover Mount Vernon shuttered because of another 5-alarm fire on North Charles Street.

That latest fire, which broke out about 1:30 this morning, heavily damaged buildings that contain Donna's Coffee Bar and restaurants Indigma and My Thai.

Further south but a world away, Monday's fire on The Block (photo at left by The Sun's Jerry Jackson) forced several strip clubs to close, possibly through Wednesday, and others may never reopen. A full one-third of the storied adult entertainment district is in danger.

But The Block has survived other catastrophes, including small fires, the smoking ban and numerous attempts to close what many feel has gone from a Vaudeville attraction (clubs with pit orchestras and later Blaze Starr) to a seedy, drug and prostitution-infested strip.

The last major attempt to shut The Block (and last time a significant number of clubs had to close for more than a day) came in January 1994 when then Gov. William Donald Schaefer ordered 500 state troopers to raid two dozen clubs after a lengthy investigation into drugs, prostitution and alleged corruption.

"The Bock as I knew it years ago was an attraction," the governor told reporters after touring the closed clubs. "But tonight, it is not an attraction. It is a detriment. ... We saw drugs, we saw prostitution, we saw liquor. It's just not right."

The raid led to the arrests of 87 people and prompted an investigation into the city's liquor board on allegations inspectors took bribes from club owners and that one board member was a secret owner of a strip joint.

But what started out with fanfare ended in disgrace for state police when it was discovered that troopers had spent some of the $318,604 the investigation cost taxpayers to buy dancers furs and engage in other questionable activities. The undercover troopers had succumbed to the very corruption they had been told to fight. A top commander in the state police drug unit was removed from his position.

As a result, the investigation into the liquor board fizzled without getting out of a grand jury. and prosecutors were able to send just five of 87 defendants to jail. Prosecutors had to dismiss every one of the misdemeanor drug cases and a third of the felony cases.

The Block won.

Can it bounce back again?

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Downtown, North Baltimore
        

The interim president of the local NAACP chapter says he sees no reason for a Jewish citizens' patrol group from Northwest Baltimore to be disbanded in the wake of allegations that a member was arrested for assaulting a black teenager.

Ellis Staten, the civil rights organization's first vice president and interim president, told The Sun's Erica L. Green that he has "seen no evidence that this group has been out seeking young, black men."

"Our position is that we would like for all of us to work with the Jewish community to come to a peaceful resolution, rather than this community against the community," Staten said.

His comments are notably more tempered than those from others who are speaking out about the issue, including the NAACP's past president Marvin "Doc" Cheatham. The Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance called the patrol group a "violent, fringe" organization and called for it to be suspended. One of the first to speak out was the Rev. Cortly "C.D." Witherspoon, who was disqualified from the NAACP presidency over membership requirements. Witherspoon has said that similar situations have caused riots in other areas and that leaders need to sit down and talk. Brown, (Edit: Brown says he did not attend) Witherspoon and others met privately on Saturday, which media were alerted to but prohibited from attending.

A community meeting involving black and Jewish leaders is planned for Wednesday, and Staten said he is not sure if the NAACP will participate.

For a feature story about Shomrim written last year, click here. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore
        

UPDATE: Here's an updated story from Sun reporter Scott Calvert. 

We'll have a full report a bit later, but incoming State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein announced today two new hires for his front office, news that comes a few weeks after word spread that he had informed key members of Patricia Jessamy's staff that they will not be part of his administration.

The new hires are George Hazel, an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Baltimore office, and Elizabeth Embry, a former city prosecutor who has been wearing a number of hats in city government recently, including chairing the city's Sexual Assault Response Team while Bernstein's wife, Sheryl Goldstein, was on leave during the campaign.

"George and Elizabeth share my vision to restructure the State's Attorney's Office to focus on the prosecution and conviction of violent offenders and improve training, technology and cooperation with law enforcement," Bernstein said in a statement. "I look forward to beginning our work together to make Baltimore a safer city and get violent criminals off our streets. Both George and Elizabeth have the background and experience necessary to achieve these goals."

Bernstein takes office Jan. 3. Among those not returning are Jessamy's deputies Haven Kodeck and Cynthia Jones, as well as spokespeople Joseph Sviatko and Margaret Burns, who was also a top aide and had been a lightning rod for criticism over the years. Sources say other key members of the state's attorney's office will be retiring in the coming weeks, leaving more holes for Bernstein to plug.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, State's Attorney Campaign
        

All in all, the weekend in Baltimore appeared relatively quiet, with a few shootings and at least one homicide:

* On Sunday, a 25-year-old man was in critical condition after being shot in the head outside the 4400 block of Belvieu Avenue in Northwest Baltimore. The Sun's Justin Fenton notes on his Twitter page that this is the same block in which a man was fatally stabbed on Thanksgiving.

* Also on Sunday, city police were investigating a shooting that left a 31-year-old man wounded at Linwood and Orleans streets in East Baltimore.

* A 26-year-old man shot in the chest late Friday night in the 1900 block of E. 30th St. in East Baltimore died a few minutes later at good Samaritan Hospital.

In Glen Burnie in Anne Arundel County, police were investigating a shooting outside a bar. The Sun's Larry Carson wrote:

Anne Arundel County police are searching for a man who used a rifle to shoot 30-year-old Kelly Terrell Fisher early Saturday outside Dietrich's Tavern in Glen Burnie. Police said the suspect got out of a vehicle and began shooting at Fisher, of Gatewood Court in Glen Burnie, at about 12:13 a.m. Hit multiple times in the torso, he was rushed to Baltimore-Washington Medical Center, where he later died. Police believe the two may have been acquainted.

On Sunday, police announced an arrest:

During their investigation, Homicide Unit detectives were able to identify the shooter in this incident as 33 year-old Clayton Avila Battle of 8005 Nolpark Court in Glen Burnie.  On December 4, 2010 detectives obtained a warrant for his arrest and at approximately 11:30 p.m. officers observed and stopped a vehicle on I-97 at I-695 in Glen Burnie in which Battle was traveling.  He was found to be a passenger in the car and was arrested without incident. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, East Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore
        

When Oscar Cobbs began putting together a plan for a community-wide citizens patrol in his Park Heights community, the 64-year-old retiree looked to his neighbors north of Northern Parkway. 

Cobbs has been working with members of the Northwest Citizens Patrol, picking their brains in hopes of duplicating their efforts in his mostly black neighborhood as part of his work on the public safety committee of the Park Heights Renaissance effort.

"It's not that the Jewish community does not have incidents, but they are so on top of it that they really are far and few between, and that's the way we want to have it down here," he said.

The Northwest Citizens Patrol has been around for nearly 30 years and though similar, it is separate from a citizens patrol group called Shomrim that has come under fire this week after one of its members was arrested and charged by police with assaulting a teenager. Black leaders have spoken out, calling Shomrim a "fringe" group and demanding that they suspend operations.

From Cobbs' perspective, both groups are working to make their communities safer, have a good track record and have strong support from entrenched institutions and neighborhood organizations - which he would like to recreate in his area.

"One of the things that impressed me most was the fact that their dedication and their leadership was all members of the community," Cobbs said. "They have really excited their membership to be involved in this and to make sure it works. We can show you small victories [in Park Heights], but its not communitywide, and that's what we need to do."

He said calls to break up Shomrim were misguided. "We would never want the final call to be, 'We don't want you in our community,' when you're trying to do something positive. That's not the way to handle something," Cobbs said. "You sit down at the table and reason out those things that might be a problem or center of contention and resolve them."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore
        

We didn't write a lot about Patrick Dolan's death.

Sometimes, death on city streets seems overwhelming, and one slips by. I spoke to Patrick's family and friends over the past few days and found yet another sorrowful tale of a life snuffed out too soon on a Baltimore street.

Patrick lived in Pennsylvania but he grew up in Hampden and spent 17 of his 19 years in the Baltimore area. He attended Archbishop Curley High School and his grandmother lives on 34th Street. His extended family is one big Ravens booster club.

And that's how I discovered we needed to write more about Patrick. (See story in Crime Scenes) His cousin is co-founder of a Ravens booster club called West Wing, which put up a tribute page to the victim on their Purple Chaos website. A friend who knew the Ravens Lardarius Webb got him to sign a game ball and dedicate the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game to Patrick.

The family buried Patrick in his No. 21 Lardarius Webb jersey and mourners attended a viewing in Hampden wearing Ravens clothes. Patrick was stabbed the morning of Nov. 30 after he got off a bus in Belair Edison and was approached by a man who asked for change. As Patrick took out his wallet, police said the man grabbed it. Patrick fought back and was stabbed.

He was the city's 200th homicide victim this year.

I spoke to Patrick's mother and cousins, who shared countless stories about a young man shouted  to anyone he saw wearing a Ravens jersey, once declined to attend a Ray Lewis autograph session because what he really wanted was for Lewis to tackle him, and how he cared for his sick little sister who still wonders why her big brother doesn't meet her at the school bus.

Webb's mother told me the football signed by Webb means everything to her family, and they have it on display in their Dover, Pa. home. I spoke with Webb on Thursday after practice and he told me he couldn't believe a fan was buried in his jersey:

“It got to me. I didn’t know whether to be scared, sad, happy, that he was being buried in my jersey. It was something new to me. … For the family, I hope this can lift them up in any way possible, to help them move on.”

Webb grew up in a small town in Alabama and he said violence there is nothing compared to what he's seen in this city since arriving two years ago. Here is some more from his interview: 

“All I knew was the Baltimore Ravens and it’s a bad town. It’s a bad city. … At least where I stay, it’s not as bad as I think, but it’s real. Life is real up there. In real life, things happen. I’m from Alabama, country, you know, we have thefts, we have murders, things happen, but not as much as happened here. It was surprising when they said 200 murder. That’s a lot of murders in one year.”

(Picture of Webb at right is by The Sun's Gene Sweeney Jr.)

 “It’s TV. It’s what I’ve always seen on TV. Unreal. I went out Thanksgiving and passed out some stuff, and did autograph signings. I’ve went to schools and talked. I’ve been to the areas where it don’t look like nothing is, where it looks like The Wire. And it’s just unreal. But looking at how kids make it from these cities, you know, at least when I ride through, I don’t see where they can play at. I’m from the country where we have a big back yard. We have a big front yard. A lot of areas you can play in, it’s the country. Up here, it seems all they have is sidewalk and the road. And you have junkies on the corner. I’m like, man, how do they make it? How do they get over this. But they do.”

“We had this, we had drugs, but it wasn’t as big as here, where they have big drugs. We had normal — they smoked weed. Up here they have so much and so many and so different stuff. There’s so many ways for kids to get into trouble here.”

“Police are on every corner. When you go downtown, there’s not just one police on the corner, they got their friends chilling on the corner, on every corner. But it’s good. People can go and have a great time and not worry about getting robbed.”

“You know, some places in Baltimore are not that bad. You know, the Owings Mills area, the Towson area. There are certain areas when you can go have a great time and you don’t have to worry.”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Northeast Baltimore
        

Today's Crime Scenes is about guns.

I detailed one gun arrest that appeared significant -- the arrest of a man with a Ruger pistol and 50 rounds of ammunition -- to highlight the police commissioner's fight against "bad guys with guns." As of last week, city police have seized 2,043 guns this year.

The dangers of this campaign became evident this past weekend when a young city patrol officer was shot confronting an armed man on Baltimore and Calvert streets. Three other officers shot and wounded the suspect during a running gun battle shortly after 1 a.m. last Saturday.

This morning, the gun count went up as police Twittered a bunch of new arrests:

* A man arrested in the 3700 block of Gelston Drive in Southwest with a .45 caliber handgun.

* A man arrested during a search of a house in the 5300 block of Nelson Ave. in Northwest. Police seized a stolen handgun.

* A man with a 9mm handgun arrested in the 600 block of Cumberland St. in the Western.

* A drug investigation led police to an arrest of a man with a rifle in the 1800 block of Westwood Ave. in the Western. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Maryland State Police are asking for help in solving the slaying of a woman whose body was found by hikers on Nov. 30 in Calvert Cliffs State Park in Lusby. Sandra Renee Long, 41, was inside on the front seat of a silver Ford Focus.

Police have released photographs of the car and are asking anyone who saw it before 2:45 p.m. on Nov. 30 to call the Prince Frederick Barracks at 410-535-1400. Police have not said how Long may have died.

More details can be found here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Crime elsewhere
        

If you get pulled over by police for a traffic infraction starting Jan. 1, you no longer will get an automatic court date. It's now up to you to request one.

Police say that will help streamline what they called an cumbersome system. More information is here.

Under the old way, you were automatically assigned a court date when you got your ticket. This locked both you and the officer into a date assigned at random. Too often, police said people paid the fine a day or two before going to court, which meant the officer couldn't be notified in time that he or she wasn't needed to testify. So the officer went to court for nothing. That ate up overtime and kept the officer off the street.

Starting Jan. 1, it's up to you to request a court date if you want to fight the ticket. Shifting the burden, it is believed, will mean people who request a court date really mean to show up. Here is some more information from Maryland court officials: 

When a new state law goes into effect on January 1, drivers who get a payable traffic ticket in Maryland will no longer be given an automatic trial date to appear in court. Instead, any driver wanting to go to trial to dispute a ticket will have to request a trial date from the District Court of Maryland.

Currently, Maryland law requires that a driver who gets a payable traffic ticket for an offense that does not require incarceration/jail time automatically receives a court trial date. When the new law takes effect Jan. 1, drivers who get a payable traffic ticket will have three options:

1) Pay the full amount of the fine;
2) Ask the District Court for a waiver hearing for sentencing instead of a trial; or
3) Ask for a trial date at the District Court.

Payable traffic violations include speeding, failure to obey traffic signs or signals, or failure to stop for a school bus. The new law includes all payable traffic violations for which no incarceration/jail time is required.

The other type of traffic violation in Maryland is “Must Appear.” Examples of these violations are driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs or driving on a suspended license. “Must Appear” violations are not affected by the new law.

Drivers who get a payable traffic ticket must comply with the new law within 30 days by paying the fine, asking for a waiver hearing or asking for a trial. If drivers do not choose one of these options within 30 days, they risk having their license suspended by the Motor Vehicle Administration.

Waiver hearings are for drivers who don’t dispute the traffic ticket, and want to plead guilty, but want to have a judge hear an explanation before being sentenced. A waiver hearing is held before a judge in District Court, but it is not a trial and the law enforcement officer and witnesses will not be summoned to appear. At the hearing, the judge will hear from the ticketed driver only for the purpose of imposing a sentence.

Drivers who want to dispute their traffic ticket must ask for a trial date. Drivers must come to court for the trial, and all witnesses are summoned to appear to testify. The officer who wrote the traffic ticket also attends the trial.

Traffic tickets issued after Jan. 1 will have instructions about how to pay the fine, ask for a waiver hearing, or ask for a trial date. Drivers can ask for a waiver hearing or a trial date by marking that option on the ticket and mailing it to the District Court traffic processing center. The address is on the ticket and the envelope that comes with the ticket.
                                                                                
If drivers opt to pay the traffic ticket fine, they may do so by mail, online by credit card at www.mdcourts.gov, by phone with a credit card at 1-800-492-2656, or in person at any District Court of Maryland location. The Judiciary’s website also has more information about how the new law works, including a list of frequently asked questions and a link to District Court locations by county.

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Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A copy of the initial police incident report in the assault of a teenager in Northwest Baltimore is providing some new details, including that another Shomrim member arrived at the scene before police and administered medical aid to the injured boy and helped police identify the suspects' vehicle.

The new information comes as black leaders are calling for the group to be disbanded.

The boy, a student at nearby Northwestern High School, was walking about 12:45 p.m. when a car pulled up alongside him. When he asked why he was being followed, the driver of the vehicle, who police say was Eliyahu Werdesheim, reportedly said, "You're the guy from yesterday on Park Heights, you want some problems?"

The report says the boy picked up a stick to defend himself when two men got out of the car.

He then dropped the stick when they approached. He said he was knocked to the ground and held down as the men patted him down and went through his pockets.

Charging documents say Werdesheim told the teen, "You don't belong around here," (a comment not mentioned in the police incident report) and struck him in the head with a radio, causing cuts to his head. Court records say the boy also suffered a broken wrist.

The police report states that the men fled but that another Shomrim member arrived and administered aid to the boy. He also confirmed for police the description of the vehicle that he saw speeding away.

Werdesheim is out on $50,000 bond and faces charges of assault, reckless endangerment and false imprisonment. His attorney says he was defending himself and will be exonerated.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 8:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore
        

UPDATE: The Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance just sent out a message condemning the alleged assault: "Wanton violence is unacceptable and we welcome the opportunity to meet with youth and all concerned community groups.  We will not stand by and allow our children to be victimized by over zealous violent fringe groups such as Shomrim."

The Baltimore Jewish Council and representatives from the black community are planning to meet next week to discuss the arrest of a member of an Orthodox Jewish citizens patrol group, who police say assaulted a teenager and told him, "You don't belong here." 

Some are calling for Shomrim, the patrol group, to suspend its operations while they investigate claims against the member, Eliyahu Werdesheim, seen in the middle at right in a picture used in promotional materials for his security company. Arthur Abramson, executive director of the Jewish Council, has questioned why only Werdesheim has been charged by police and suspended by Shomrim given the allegations that two other patrol members were allegedly involved in the assault. 

"I am strongly urging you to intervene and urge this private, unregulated, non-governmental organization to cease, and assist its activities [sic] pending a full and thorough investigation into the matter, and a dialogue between leaders of the African American and Jewish communities," wrote Rev. Cortly "C.D." Witherspoon Sr., an organizer with the Southern Christian Leadership Council of Baltimore, in a letter to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

Werdesheim's attorney told The Sun that his client was observing the 15-year-old, who was in a residential neighborhood near Northwestern  High School at 12:45 p.m. on Oct. 19, when the boy became angry and attacked him with a stick (He told ABC that the weapon was a two-by-four with nails in it). It was the boy who called police, and detectives investigated for days before bringing charges. Werdesheim was given an opportunity to turn himself in, but did not and was picked up by the warrant apprehension task force.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore
        

The family of Baltimore cyclist John R. "Jack" Yates who was hit by a truck and killed last year has settled its lawsuit against the driver and his employer. The settlement with Potts & Callahan Inc. was reached days before trial.

The case prompted concern and outrage from Baltimore bicycling community (picture of memorial by The Sun's Amy Davis). The Yates family alleged negligence because it appeared the driver of the truck made a right turn onto Lafayette Avenue and Yates got caught in the rear wheels. Police didn't file charges, saying the driver, who did not stop, did not see the cyclist.

I wrote about Yates back in August for a different reason. He had worked as a counselor for the Baraka School in Kenya, an alternative school for at-risk city teens. He had known another young man, Charles G. "Boots" Pratt, who was shot and killed in a South Baltimore housing project.

Pratt had been involved with drugs and was a gang member, police said. The two died just five days apart in August 2009, under very different circumstances, but their bond demonstrated some of the uncommon links found in this city. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Downtown
        

UPDATE: City police just identified the teen victim as Raquan Campbell. 15, of the the 2800 block of Bookert Drive in South Baltimore's Cherry Hill neighborhood.

Some disturbing news out of Southwest Baltimore -- a 15-year-old was shot and killed in Carrollton Ridge. This area has historically been a violent hot spot for drug dealing and violent crime. It's near where a little girl was shot and wounded last years.

Few details are available of this latest shooting. Police told Sun reporter Jessica Anderson that the youth was shot in the head about 5:15 p.m. near South Payson and West Pratt streets and died about an hour later at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

The youth is the 10th juvenile to be killed in Baltimore this year. There were 16 youths killed in all of 2009.

Later Wednesday night, police say a 26-year-old man was shot and critically wounded in West Baltimore. And city police announced that they have charged twin brothers with a double shooting early Tuesday on Baltimore's Block:

Eric Daniel and Derrick Jeffory Crawford of the 900 block of Stoddard Court are charged with attempted first-degree murder and related charges in the double shooting that occurred at about 2 a.m. The shooting was the third violent incident in the heart of the city since Saturday.

Officers were trying to control a crowd leaving clubs near City Hall and police headquarters downtown when the brothers approached a female dancer leaving one of the clubs with a man and opened fire, police said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

There are some potentially explosive charges coming out of Northwest Baltimore: a member of an Orthodox Jewish civilian patrol group called Shomrim has been charged with hitting a 15-year-old and telling him: "You don't belong here."

Eliyahu Eliezer Werdesheim, a former Israeli special forces soldier, has been charged with first and second degree assault. His lawyer said Werdesheim was defending himself from an attack; police say the youth's wrist was broken.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told The Sun's Justin Fenton that police continue to work with the neighborhood group but "will not tolerate vigilantism from any organization." (A video of Shomrim can be found here)

The teenager is black, and the incident -- particularly the comments police attribute to the suspect -- could heighten tensions in the Park Heights area. African-American residents have felt for years that some of the Jewish police groups patrol their own neighborhoods but don't look out for the community overall.

Arthur C. Abramson, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, said he would demand that the incident be fully investigated to satisfy concerns. "It's vital for the sake of the community that both groups get along well, and for the most part they do," Abramson said. "Obviously, this incident, no matter who is right or wrong, exacerbates tensions, and we're not going to tolerate any cover-up."

Back in the 1990s, another Jewish patrol group, Northwest Citizen's Patrol, got into trouble for being partnered with a city police officer while forbidding women to join their group. The organization relented and also expanded their reach deeper into the Park Heights community.

The citizen's patrol group was instrumental in fighting to retain a Jewish police major to run the Northwestern District and protested when the commissioner at the time replaced him with a black commander. Those tensions have eased in recent years.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Confronting crime, Northwest Baltimore
        

An investigation by The Sun's police reporter, Justin Fenton, has led to this revelation from city auditors: More than half of about 100 rape reports that Baltimore police had originally discarded as false have been reclassified as crimes.

A complete package of stories on the rape issue can be found here.

This is the result of a review by police following Justin's articles that found a sharp drop in rapes in Baltimore -- disproportionate to that of other cities -- was a result of police too quickly dismissing complaints from women.

After the stories, city officials launched their own investigation and the results were revealed Wednesday at a City Council hearing:

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the audit, along with other comprehensive changes in recent months, "has forever changed and improved the way sexual assault cases are investigated in Baltimore, ensuring that all victims of sexual assault have their complaints investigated fully and are treated with dignity and respect."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

The called him "Father."

Federal prosecutors with the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said today that a 48-year-old member of the Pasadena Denver Lanes Bloods gang was sentenced to 15 years in prison for distributing heroin. Eric Richardson, known as "Father," pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Baltimore and admitted to selling heroin, collecting money and possessing firearms.

Prosecutors said that Richardson is classified as a "career offender" because he's been convicted of four previous crimes in state courts on charges that include burglary, breaking and entering and battery.

In a separate case, prosecutors in federal court in Greenbelt said that a Latin Kings leader was sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison for racketeering. Prosecutors said Francisco Ortiz, known as "King Pone," participated in two killings and an armed robbery in the Washington suburbs.

Prosecutors said that Ortiz became a member of the Royal Lion Tribe and was known as an enforcer. He led the tribe from 2007 to 2009, when he was removed from power, and then formed a rival group.

Prosecutors said he worked the area around Langley Park in Prince George's County and in documents they detail violence that includes holding up other drug dealers and threatening witnesses in other criminal cases.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The entrance to the Northeastern District station on Argonne Drive is now called "Det. B. Stevenson Way."

Baltimore officers who turn in and out the parking lot will forever remember the officer who lost his life in September in a parking dispute in Canton. The 18-year veteran was off-duty and out celebrating his 38th birthday when a man hit him in the head with a chunk of concrete.

This afternoon, the officer's friends, family, colleagues joined Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III to dedicate the new entrance. The officer's widow, Ksisha Stevenson, got the first ride on the newly named street -- in a police car. Kshisa simply told the crowd that gathered, "We thank you for loving Brian."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Northeast Baltimore
        

Carl O. Snowden might not get a break after all.

A special prosecutor has asked that the director of the civil rights office for the Maryland Attorney General be sentenced again on a drunken-driving charge, saying the first sentence of probation before judgment was illegal.

It was Snowden's third drunken driving arrest; he received probation in 2003 and a 2005 case was dismissed. Changes to state law in 2009 mandate that a person can only get probation before judgment once every day years for drunken driving.

But that change slipped by both the prosecutor and the defense attorney, as well as the judge. Now, The Sun's Andrea Siegel is reporting that the prosecutors is seeking a harsher sentence. We haven't heard yet how Snowden's attorneys will counter.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

It started with a call for a routine burglary.

It was anything but routine.

Someone cut a fence, backed a truck onto a lot of a nondescript warehouse on East Biddle Street and made off with shipping containers filled with nickel briquettes and ferrochrome, metals used to keep steel from corroding.

The total haul: 321,872 pounds. The total value: $2.6 million.

What started as an investigation by the Baltimore Police Department's Pawn Shop Unit grew into a federal probe that reached companies in Switzerland and Australia and led to charges filed this week by the U.S. Secret Service.

The owner of a West Baltimore scrap yard, Alan A. Verschleisser, 65, has been charged with federal crimes and is awaiting trial. He is pictured at left in a city police mug shot. According to court documents, the suspect just couldn't unload the goods. He tried a company in Switzerland, but officials there quickly forwarded the e-mail he sent -- boasting he had 20 tons of nickel in pillows -- to its original owner, a mining company in Australia, who got the e-mail to the police.

More details on the case in today's Crime Scenes. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: East Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

Three hunters on Tuesday found the body of a woman inside a car parked at a state park in Lusby, Calvert County. Maryland State Police say a cause of death is unknown, but they are treating the case as a homicide.

Authorities identified the victim as Sandra Renee Long,41, of Lusby. Her body was found about 2:45 p.m. in the front seat of her silver 2009 Ford Focus in a lot in Calvert Cliffs State Park, near Camp Canoy Road and H.G. Trueman Road.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Crime elsewhere