The family of Phylicia Barnes has posted an open letter to the Baltimore Police Department, accompanied by a petition, that expresses "deep concern" about "slow developments" in the investigation into the death of the North Carolina teenager. Barnes, an honors student and athlete set to graduate early from high school, went missing in Northwest Baltimore in December 2010 while visiting here, and turned up dead in the Susquehanna River months later.

The Maryland State Police, which took ownership of the case when Phylicia's body was found in the river that splits Harford and Cecil counties, are investigating with city police and issued this response:

"The concern of the Barnes family is understood within the Maryland State Police.  I want to assure them the investigation of Phylicia's murder remains a priority for our Homicide Unit.  I know the Baltimore Police Department shares that same commitment to this investigation.  There is important investigative work being done that takes time and cannot be detailed publicly at this time.  No one should think for a minute that this investigation has been suspended or is any less important to the Maryland State Police than it was the day Phylicia's body was recovered."

The Sun first reported in July that police had filed search warrants seeking access to email accounts and Facebook pages, citing child pornography statutes. Days before that report, the family had rallied outside City Hall.

Here's a snippet of the letter:

While we understand that police investigations take time, we do not purport to understand why nearly 3 months after her body was found, there have been no arrests in her case. How is it a “person of interest” whom, according to the media, has given conflicting statements to police, has yet to be taken into custody? While none of us are privy to the details in this investigation, we do understand from media accounts and prior police statements that Phylicia’s death was not a “random” encounter. In addition, we are saddened, as well as angered that a bright, beautiful, 16 year old straight A, honor rolls student, who had her whole life ahead of her with so much to live for, could so senselessly be murdered while on Christmas vacation visiting family in this city.

We are deeply concerned about the slow developments of this case and we are afraid that justice may not be carried out in Phylicia’s death. Baltimore State’s Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein, who campaigned on a slogan to, “Fight Crime First” and was publicly endorsed by the Baltimore Police Union as a, “Crusader for Justice” led this city to believe that he cared about putting victims before criminals and getting killers off the streets of Baltimore. That would included the murder of a 16 year old innocent child who no longer has a voice of her own. Baltimore police have stated on-air they believe they are the one of the best police departments in this country and have promised “closure” to the Barnes and Sallis family in Phylicia’s death. Her family cannot have “closure” without “justice”.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

A woman found fatally stabbed five blocks from the White House earlier this month has been identified as a 56-year-old homeless woman originally from Baltimore, and police there say they are close to making an arrest.

Barbara Lloyd, aka Eman Mohammed, was found Aug. 8 in the 1100 block of Pennsylvania Ave. NW, and police only recently positively identified her. But Detective Tony Patterson said he has a suspect and is close to filing charges.

The Metropolitan Police Department put out a flier seeking information about the killing - at that time, the victim was a "Jane Doe," yet police had a picture of her on the flier (seen at right, via Homicide Watch DC). Patterson said that's because Lloyd was carrying papers from an arrest in July made by park police, who had charged her as Jane Doe. Patterson took the case number on the documents and was able to pull up her booking photo, and though he still didn't have a positive ID, he said "that got the ball rolling."

Fingerprints helped police confirm her identity. Patterson reached out to Baltimore police and learned that Lloyd had two children in Baltimore, and was able to reach one of them via Facebook. That then led to the discovery of 15 siblings and two other adult children.

Asked if he needed any help from people in the Baltimore area who may have known Lloyd, Patterson shrugged off the offer. "I have a suspect - I know who killed her," he said. He expects charges to be filed shortly. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Crime elsewhere
        

Baltimore city homicide investigators say their cases are being "stalled and hindered" by prosecutors not giving the go-ahead to arrest murder suspects, according to a memo sent to top commanders.

The memo, compiled by the homicide unit's acting commander, Lt. Leonard Willis, points to five cases in which police are ready to make arrests and are waiting on prosecutors. Under a long-standing agreement in the city, prosecutors review evidence before police make an arrest in homicide cases. The memo, whose contents were shared with The Baltimore Sun, concludes that procedures at the state's attorney's office are "not marrying up cohesively with the police department's mission."

The department's storied homicide unit has been under mounting pressure in recent months — the rate at which detectives are solving cases this year is on track to be one of the lowest in the unit's history, and a longtime commander was recently ousted without explanation.

State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein, who won election last fall pledging a stronger working relationship with police and a greater willingness to take on challenging cases, declined through a spokesman to comment. When asked why the murder cases highlighted in the memo remain open, the spokesman, Mark Cheshire, said it would be "grossly inappropriate to comment on the status of pending investigations."

Meanwhile, the Police Department's top brass played down the internal memo. Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III's spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, characterized the complaints about prosecutors as the "personal opinion of some investigators" who he said have a "very narrow view" of the process. He said the unit had been asked by commanders to compile the memo in response to concerns about open cases and said that the issues were "being addressed."

In a rare rebuke of the department's own officers, Guglielmi criticized homicide detectives for making arrests in only 43 percent of cases this year. Bealefeld has "challenged" homicide detectives to improve that rate, which he considers "a concern," Guglielmi said.

"More than half the people are getting away with murder," Guglielmi said.

While on the campaign trail last year, Bernstein criticized the incumbent, Patricia C. Jessamy, saying that while some cases might not be strong enough, a prosecutor must "have the courage" to take a shot on a tough case in order to send a message to violent offenders.

He took issue in particular with her office declining to take on cases with only one witness, vowing last fall to "review all single-witness murder cases personally and take witnesses at their word when weighing the decision to prosecute those charged with murder."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

A quick response helped Baltimore police apprehend last week a city man suspected in three robberies and a rape, records show.

Police arrested Branch Sparrow, 30, on August 26 after receiving a call for a robbery in progress at a bar in the 3600 block of Fleet Street, in Brewers Hill. The victims said one man had been outside the Quest bar smoking a cigarette when two men approached and followed him inside the bar. Inside, one of them pulled out a handgun and demanded money, threatening to shoot another patron in the head. The men stole money from the register and fled. 

The Southeast District's robbery detail was working at the time and observed two men, Sparrow and Allen Benny, in the 900 block of S. Potomac Street in Canton that matched the suspects' description. A handgun was found in a trash can nearby. Police say they are seeking a third suspect, pictured above.

After being taken into custody, Sparrow was served with warrants in three other cases. In one, he was accused of attempting to rob a video store in the 5800 block of Pulaski Highway on Aug. 13, records show. Police say Sparrow pulled a handgun on the clerk, who pressed a panic button and fled into a backroom after he said he would shoot her, records show. A police officer had recognized Sparrow from surveillance footage and identified him as the assailant, records show.

Then, on Aug. 19, a 37-year-old woman told police that she, her son, and her boyfriend had given Sparrow a ride to a gun store on Aug. 10 so he could purchase a firing pin for a weapon, according to court records.  When her son said he wanted pizza, Sparrow said he had some at his house in the 1200 block of Frailey Way and her boyfriend dropped her and her child off there. She said Sparrow gave her a soft drink that made her "feel funny" and began to force himself on her and bashed her head against a wall, records show. She lost consciousness and later awoke to find him on top of her forcing intercourse, court records show.

Records were not available for the third case, though online court records show he is charged in another robbery that involved a handgun, this time occurring on Aug. 25.

Sparrow, who received 10 years in prison after being convicted of robbery in 2003, is being held without bail. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Southeast Baltimore
        

This post has been updated

A Baltimore criminal defense attorney has been charged in U.S. District Court with tax evasion and other financial crimes, according to a complaint unsealed Tuesday. more than four months after his home and office were raided.

Stanley Needleman, 69, is accused over a six year period of “hoarding” $1.3 million in cash payments from criminal defense clients in order to conceal his income from the IRS. The complaint was filed Aug. 16 and unsealed Tuesday.

Needleman’s attorney, Kenneth W. Ravenell, said he has been a “great lawyer for a long time, and helped countless individuals in their own serious matters.” He said Needleman will “answer the charges on Thursday, and we expect to have more to say about the charges at that time.”

Federal agents raided Needleman’s downtown law office and Pikesville home in April, and court records show more than $1.15 million was found inside two safes.

Authorities also accuse him of breaking down cash payments into smaller amounts to help prevent the IRS from detecting them. The complaint says Needleman failed to pay more than $660,000 in taxes, and the government is seeking to seize the balance of the cash found in the safes.

According to court filings, all of the judges in Baltimore District Court have recused themselves from the case and it will be heard in Greenbelt.

Separately, Needleman was charged in May in Baltimore County District Court with stealing a textbook belonging to a judge’s law clerk. The theft case is scheduled to go to trial in October.

Ravenell said the theft charge was “without merit” and he expects Needleman to be exonerated.

If convicted on the tax evasion charges, Needleman could face up to five years in prison and face a fine of up to $100,000, while the structuring payments count could result in up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Quote of the day from federal prosecutor Leo J. Wise, at Tuesday's sentencing of a man who duped law enforcement agencies into thinking they were hiring a retired special ops commander instead got a fraud (read full story here):

“They thought they were getting Black Hawk Down,” Wise said during the hearing in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. “Instead, they got Rambo. They got fiction.”

William G. Hillar, a 66-year-old Millersville man, was sentenced today to 21 months in prison for perpetuating the fraud, which includes lying about his educational background, lying about being in the Army Special Forces and lying about his daughter being kidnapped, enslaved in a sex ring and killed. He claimed his experience to be the basis for the 2008 movie “Taken” starring Liam Neeson.

Here are some more quotes from today's hearing in U.S. District Court in Baltimore:

“We find his conduct to be reprehensible,” said Jeffrey D. Hinton, a real retired army special operations sergeant with 20 years experience, who testified at Tuesday’s sentencing. “We have had men killed in training attempting to obtain the rank that Mr. Hillar assigned to himself. He dishonored and disrespected those who have died.”

"I take full responsibility for what I did,” Hillar told U.S. Judge William D. Quarles Jr. “I apologize to those I have hurt and demeaned. I never intended to hurt anybody. I am sorry.”

His attorney, federal public defender Gary W. Christopher, repeatedly admitted that what his client did was wrong. “He is a person who lied about who he was,” the lawyer told Quarles. “He said he did things he has not done, accomplished things he has not accomplished, suffered things he did not suffer.”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

Police said they have arrested and charged 33-year-old Lakeya Johnson in the death of her 4-year-old daughter, who officials said had suffered massive head trauma as a result of child abuse.

Dramiara Johnson had been taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital on Aug. 22 with significant head injuries, police said. Though family members told hospital staff that Dramiara had hit her head after falling during a "play fight" with her brother at a home in the 1700 block of Gorsuch Ave., the attending physician said that scenario did not match up with the child's injuries. She was taken off life support by the family on Aug. 27.

On Monday, police said every family member was a potential suspect and late Monday charged Johnson, of the 3000 block of Federal St., with child abuse resulting in death and related charges. She was being held on $1 million bond pending a bail review. 

Court records show Johnson has been sought since November 2009 on a warrant charging her with attempted drug distribution after she failed to show for a court hearing. That warrant has now been served and a trial on those charges is set for Sept. 29. In 2000, Johnson was charged with a handgun violation, a charge that was dropped by prosecutors.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore
        

Four years for pushing a man into the Inner Harbor, killing him, is not enough time for the victim's family. The Sun's Justin Fenton writes:

Dissatisfied with the punishment expected to be handed down Tuesday by a city judge, the family of a 22-year-old man who drowned after being pushed into the Inner Harbor in 2008 said it has filed a $5 million wrongful-death lawsuit against the man convicted for his death.

Wayne Black, a 21-year-old from Pasadena, is scheduled to be sentenced to a four-year prison term as part of his plea agreement. He pleaded guilty to shoving Ankush Gupta, a University of Maryland engineering student, into the harbor three years ago. The circumstances of Gupta's death had been a mystery until police received a tip that he had been pushed by Black, who later confessed.

Black was initially charged with first-degree murder, which prosecutors later downgraded to second-degree murder. He pleaded guilty on July 28 to involuntary manslaughter It carries a maximum penalty of 10 years.

Read full story here.

Read about the suspect's guilty plea.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Downtown
        

It seems forever since last week when a Ravens player broke up a fight at an Inner Harbor restaurant. But now that Irene has blown through, we can return to our other all-consuming interest, and catch up with some crime we may have missed while battling winds and rain.

It didn't take long for the hurricane to pass before the gunmen came out: A 25-year-old man was in critical condition after he was shot in the chest Sunday afternoon by a masked assailant in northwest Baltimore, police said.

Here are some other headlines from the weekend:

* With a tap on his smartphone, University of Maryland student Shiv Krishnamoorthy can instantly alert police as he walks through the dimly lit corners of the College Park campus — and share with them his precise location, plus live video and audio.

* While concern about the economy has grown since the last mayoral election, crime remains the top worry among likely voters in Baltimore's Democratic primary next month. Thirty-nine percent of respondents to The Sun Poll rated crime, criminal justice or drugs as the most important challenge facing the city. That is down from 68 percent four years ago. Twenty-eight percent of the respondents ranked the economy, jobs or high taxes as the biggest challenge.

* A 15-year-old high school honors student in Ellicott City was secretly arrested when federal prosecutors say he went online to solicit money for a woman who called herself "Jihad Jane" and "Fatima LaRose." Authorities say that in Web postings two years ago, the youth "appealed for urgent funds" for the woman suspected of being a terrorist, whose real name is Colleen R. LaRose, 47, of Philadelphia. "I know the sister and by Allah, all money will be transferred to her," he allegedly wrote in a posting.

(Note: The Philadelphia Inquirer broke this story. Here is their first report, and a follow-up that details more of what federal authorities allege the boy had been plotting.)

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Howard County, Northwest Baltimore
        

First, Tandon Doss says he broke up a fight at Five Guys at the Inner Harbor

Then, a few hours, he hit the field at M&T Bank Stadium and caught two passes for 28 yards. The picture at right, by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor, was taken this year at training camp.

The Ravens wide-out, a fourth-round pick from Indiana University, got a good taste of Baltimore Thursday night. After the fight, he posted on his Twitter account: "Jus had to break up a fight at five guys. Baltimore is too ratchet!!!"

When someone asked why he intervened on game-day, the 21-year-old responded: "wat day it is I'm not gonna sit there and let someone get jumped. idk where ur from but we don't do that in Indy."

It wasn't just a scuffle. Police said one of the men had a knife and cut the manager of the restaurant. Read here for full details. And here's a profile on Doss by The Sun's Chris Korman.

Before the fight, Doss said he had been at the National Aquarium, but left because it was too crowded.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Downtown
        

Former Orioles pitcher Mike Flanagan, a Cy Young Award winner who became a television announcer and top executive with the club, died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound Wednesday afternoon, according to police.

Though one media report that was widely circulated said the suicide was prompted by depression over his role with the team, police said Thursday that Flanagan had been upset about financial issues.

Flanagan's wife, Alex, who was out of town, had sent a neighbor to their house in the 15000 block of York Road in Sparks on Wednesday afternoon when she didn't hear from her husband. According to police, Alex had last spoken to an upset Flanagan around 1 a.m. and was concerned when he failed to call her the following day. The neighbor, unable to find Flanagan, called 911.

Baltimore County police found Flanagan's body on trail about 250 feet behind his home around 4:30 p.m.

Police confirmed Thursday that Flanagan, 59, appeared to have shot himself in the face, making identification difficult and causing official confirmation of his death to be delayed. Flanagan did not leave a note, police said.

The Flanagan family released a short statement Thursday through the Orioles.

"We thank you for your support and kind words at this difficult time. Thank you for respecting our privacy as we grieve," the statement said, adding that a private memorial would be held but did not provide details.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

A Baltimore police officer chased and confronted a man in Northeast Baltimore Wednesday night, and shot at him when he took out a gun, police said in a statement. Police later learned the man was wanted in a holdup at a grocery store in May.

The officer missed his target but police were able to arrest the suspect after he dropped his weapon behind a trailer in a vacant lot off Moravia Road. The full statement from city police follows:

On August 24, 2011 at approximately 10:50 pm, Northeast District officers observed a suspicious group of individuals gathered in the 5900 blk of Moravia Rd. Upon approaching the group for questioning, Mr. Lamont Thomas (B/M 5/20/93) disengaged from the pack and engaged police on a brief foot pursuit into a vacant parking lot.

Mr. Thomas attempted to hide behind a silver/chrome colored trailer and as the officer approached, he withdrew a silver colored firearm from his front waistband.

Fearing for his immediate safety and that of his back up officers, the officer discharged one round from his service issued weapon but did not strike the suspect. Immediately after, Mr. Thomas discarded his silver colored handgun and surrendered to police.

He was then transported to the Northeast District Detective Unit where he was charged with assault on police and handgun violations. It was also learned that Mr. Thomas has an open warrant for a commercial armed robbery which occured on May 30, 2011 in the 200 block of Chesterfield Ave (Gomez Grocery). In that incident, Mr. Thomas is accused of robbing the store with a small black semi-auto handgun and getting away with cash and cigarettes.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore
        

In an odd twist, the state medical examiner has ruled the death of a man who was run over by a Bobcat to be a homicide, overturning the conclusions of several police agencies who believe the case to be an accident (read full story here).

Joseph A. Miranda, 19, died in July 2006 when he jumped off the small front-end loader and was run over. Police said the driver had been looking back and didn't see Miranda get off the earth-mover. The medical examiner's office initially ruled the death undermined.

But the victim's mother brought the chief medical examiner a deposition taken from the only witness in a civil suit against the landscaping company where her son worked. The medical examiner told me the statements contradict earlier accounts and the results of the autopsy.

Maryland's chief medical examiner, Dr. David R. Fowler, said that the victim had at one point been standing on the wheel and in the bucket of the Bobcat, making it difficult for him to believe the driver didn't see him. He also said the victim suffered only head injuries, inconsistent with fall through two wheels, as the original police account says.

Baltimore County police say they aren't pursuing criminal charges and the case has been closed. Still, because of the ruling, Miranda's death gets added to this year's homicide count, making him the county's 18th victim. How the ruling of homicide bears on the civil case remains to be seen.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

Two Bhutanese refugees were shot, one of them fatally, in an apparent robbery in Northeast Baltimore, one of two double-shootings investigated by Baltimore police Tuesday night.

Big Bahadur Gurung, 20, had immigrated here from Nepal two months ago, after being given sanctuary following years of persecution in his home country, said Holly Leon-Lierman, the outreach manager for the International Rescue Committee, which helps refugees assimilate.

“He came here seeking freedom and safety,” Leon-Lierman said. “These are people who were persecuted for a long time, and it really makes this attack all the more tragic.”

The incident is the latest in a series of crimes that have sparked concern for members of Baltimore’s Nepalese and Bhutanese community, which officials say is centered in Northeast Baltimore’s Frankford neighborhood and has been growing in recent years.

Officers were called to the Parkside Gardens apartments in the 5200 block of Bowleys Lane at 10:12 p.m. for a report of a double shooting, and found two men suffering from gunshot injuries. A 17-year-old male, also an immigrant who arrived here last year, was shot multiple times in the torso and taken to an area hospital in critical condition. Gurung, of the 4900 block of Gunther Ave., was shot in the chest and was pronounced dead.

Bhutan is a tiny kingdom in South Asia located at the eastern end of the Himalayas. For years, thousands of Bhutanese of Nepali descent have been fleeing the country, alleging ethnic and political repression, and were stranded in Nepalese refugee camps.

In 2007, the United States announced it would offer sanctuary to up to 60,000 refugees, with Ellen Sauerbrey, then the director of the State Department’s refugee division and a former Republican state legislator from Maryland, playing a key role. More than 30,000 refugees have settled in the United States since then, one of the largest refugee groups in recent years, according to news reports. More than 700 have settled in Baltimore.

But like other immigrant populations, they have encountered challenges in their new home. The IRC has been working with police and city officials over concerns about robberies and violence, with advocates and community leaders organizing meetings.

Frances Tinsley, the IRC’s director since April, said the crimes are isolated and there is no evidence that Bhutanese refugees have been targeted, and she said the group’s work is largely proactive.

“Baltimore has been an accepting community, but it is also an urban city and we have to do the best we can to make sure these newcomers feel safe,” Tinsley said.

Part of that effort includes educating them on how the system works. Distrust of government and police in their home countries also often prevents immigrants from reporting crime, officials say.

“It’s been an ongoing project to try to educate them … that it’s OK to report these incidents,” said Brandon Scott, a community liaison with the mayor’s office who is running for the Baltimore City Council.

Anna Yankova-White, a city employee who does outreach with immigrant communities, said bullying involving Nepalese students on school buses and bus stops has been a “crucial issue” within the community and spurred some of the meetings. She said a series of safety workshops are being planned for September, and that officials are pushing immigrants to get involved in community walks in their neighborhood.

In an email in May, advocates from the IRC said Northeast District police would be using the Parkside Gardens apartments as a substation for officers in that sector, and stage shift changes there in hopes of reducing response times. The district’s commander, Maj. Darryl DeSousa, did not respond Wednesday to questions about whether those deployments took place.

In the second shooting incident, Brown said police officers were called to the 3700 block of West Forest Park Ave. at 10:55 p.m. for a report of a double shooting. When they arrived, they found a 25-year-old man shot in the leg and he was transported to a local hospital.

The second victim was a 24-year-old man, who was found with multiple gunshot wounds to the torso, Brown said. He was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead at 11:26 p.m. Brown identified him as Lee Jones III of the 3400 block of Oakfield Ave. in Baltimore.

Brown said police did not know of a motive and did not have any suspects.

Police also disclosed that a man who was shot Monday morning in Southwest Baltimore died from his injuries. Jerome Golphin, 25, was found dead on his front lawn in the 200 block of Mount Holly St. at about 11:20 a.m.

Police say his vehicle had been struck by bullets, and it was believed that he was shot at as he was driving. Detectives were exploring a possible drug connection to the killing, police said.

Anyone with information about the shooting incidents was asked to call homicide detectives at 410-396-2012.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore
        

City police say a man who is charged with sexually assaulting a woman in East Baltimore had flashed a police badge and claimed to be an officer.

Antoine Jones, 33, is being sought on charges of fourth-degree sex offense after police say the victim picked him out of a lineup. She told officers that on Aug. 11, Jones gave her a ride from the area of Harford Ave. and Bonaparte St. to her East Baltimore home, and made several sexual advances toward her.

She said that she told him to stop touching her, and he pulled over the vehicle at the intersection of North Avenue and Rutland Avenue and locked the doors, forcibly touching her. He told her he was a police officer and that she could trust him, records show. He made subsequent attempts until she escaped from the vehicle when he stopped at an intersection.

According to police, the victim told detectives that her attacker had told her his name and given a day of birth, which they used to identify Jones and include his picture in a photo lineup. The woman picked Jones out from that lineup. 

Police say Jones is not a former or current officer. 

The crime is the latest to involve people claiming to be police officers, including a series of home invasions in which residents were bound and robbed. 

Police publicized this incident after receiving an inquiry from The Sun on Wednesday. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Police confirmed that they are investigating a stabbing by an intruder who broke into an apartment in Charles Village Tuesday night. 

According to a report, the 25-year-old victim and his girlfriend were awakened by his barking dog at 11 p.m. and the victim went downstairs, where he found an intruder in the living room of his home, in the 3100 3000 block of Guilford Ave.

The intruder punched the victim in the face, then brandished a knife and "continuously stabbed the victim in the face and his side until the struggle ended, allowing the suspect to flee the residence." As of last report, the victim was at Johns Hopkins Hospital in stable condition.

Police describe the suspect as a black male with a medium complexion, 6'0"-6'3", short hair and a slim build.He is believed to have entered through a rear kitchen window, which had been left open for ventilation.

Northern District detectives are investigating. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)
Categories: North Baltimore
        

Colts legend Art Donovan hoped that whomever stole his 1958 championship ring 34 years ago "had fun with it." He's happy to have it back, after police got it from a guy selling it on Craigslist, but the 86-year-old Hall of Famer insists "there are more important things than losing a ring."

The ring from the game called the "greatest ever played" somehow made its way back from a Hong Kong hotel room, where it went missing, to a bar in Curtis Bay, where a local man used lottery winnings to buy it for $15,000.

When that man died, the ring went to his ex-wife, and she and her new husband, Charles Ice II, tried to sell the ring on the Internet. Police said Ice's wife told them that her husband insisted he had contacted Donovan and that the player didn't want the ring back because he had collected insurance. 

Not true, says Donovan (picture by The Sun's Kevin Richardson), and police confirmed that an insurance policy was never taken out on the stolen ring. In fact, Donovan never even reported the ring stolen to authorities. Here is the complete police report:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Howard County
        

Two men were shot - at least one who was seriously wounded - in Baltimore in the aftermath of Tuesday's earthquake that hit the East Coast.

The first shooting was reported to police at 1:59 p.m., just moments after the quake hit. As stunned residents were trying to figure out whether the region had actually been hit by an earthquake, police were being dispatched to the 400 block of N. Gay St. at the east end of Oldtown Mall for a shooting.

Few details were immediately available, but crime scene technicians had marked evidence on the street in front of a barber shop. The victim's condition was not immediately known, but police said homicide detectives were notified due to the severity of his injuries.

The scene is across the street from an apartment complex for the elderly, and residents say by the time they got escorted out of the building for safety because of the earthquake, police were already on the scene. Col. Jesse Oden, the police department's criminal investigations chief, visited the scene but declined to speak to a reporter.

Then, at 4 p.m., police reported another shooting in the Sandtown Winchester community of West Baltimore. No details were available for that incident. 

Separately, a serious crash shut down traffic in both directions on Orleans Street just south of Johns Hopkins Hospital. A van had been flipped over, and it was not clear if anyone was injured or how severely. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: East Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

A 32-year-old Baltimore man has been arrested and charged in Sunday's fatal stabbing of a Washington DC man outside a Northeast Baltimore bar.

Willie Daniels, of the 3400 block of Northway Dr., was picked up today on a warrant charging him with first-degree murder in the killing of Alfred "Freddy" Garner Jr., a 35-year-old information technology professional who was leaving the Ibis Tavern in the 6000 block of Harford Rd. when police say Daniels jumped him.

It's not clear how police identified Daniels as a suspect, though a police spokesman said it didn't take long. He's being held without bail. He was first charged with attempted first-degree murder, then new charges were filed on Monday when Garner succumbed to his injuries.

Police and relatives say Garner was walking away from a confrontation when Daniels attacked him. The two men crashed through a glass window of an adjacent business and police say Daniels fled on a motorcycle.

Court records show Daniels has a previous record that includes domestic violence charges. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore
        

In 1977, during a trip to Japan, Baltimore Colts legend Art Donovan had his 1958 NFL championship ring stolen.

Howard County police have found it.

Police said that they received a tip that the ring was being sold on Craigslist for $20,000 by a seller in Elkridge. Detectives contacted Donovan, who told them about the theft. Detectives posed as buyers and met the seller. They said the ring was engraved with Donovan's name and No. 70 jersey number.

Police said they determined the seller did not know the ring had been stolen, and that he had purchased it from a sports shop many years ago. The seller gave the ring to police and is not facing charges.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)
Categories: Howard County
        

In the past week, the leader of the Black Guerrilla Family gang received 15 years in federal prison for racketeering and a city police officer convicted of fatally shooting a man outside of a bar while off duty got 15 years. Today brings an example of how wildly sentences can vary, as a man named Bradrick Green was handed 11 life terms plus another 118 years for shooting at police officers. From the city state's attorney's office:

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Edward R.K. Hargadon sentenced Bradrick Green today to 11 life terms in prison plus 118 years for shooting at 11 police officers following a traffic stop in November 2009.

At roughly 7 p.m. on November 21, 2009, Baltimore County Police contacted Baltimore City Police to request assistance with a traffic stop in the southwestern district of the city. When the officers were in position, they pulled the vehicle over in the 200 block of S. Athol Avenue. As soon as the car came to a stop, Green exited the passenger door and began shooting at police. He continued to fire as he fled on foot. Police pursued and ultimately shot Green, causing him to drop his .45 caliber handgun, which was recovered with no ammunition remaining in the magazine. Green was then arrested and taken to a hospital for treatment. No officers were injured by gunfire, but one officer suffered a shoulder injury that required medical treatment.

The car that Green was in at the time of the incident was driven by a hack. The driver was questioned and released.

After less than four hours of deliberation, a Baltimore jury convicted Green on April 28, 201l, of 11 counts of attempted first degree murder, 12 counts of using a handgun in a crime of violence, and other handgun violations. Describing the crime as one of the most brazen attacks that he has ever encountered, Judge Hargadon sentenced Green to five consecutive life terms and six concurrent life terms, plus 80 years consecutive and 38 years concurrent — the first 65 years without the possibility of parole.

Assistant State's Attorney David M. Grzechowiak prosecuted the case.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Baltimore County police say a man found dead in a vehicle that crashed in Parkville had first been stabbed in a domestic altercation. Here's the statement from police on the killing and the quick arrest:

Baltimore County Police have charged Vincent Garnett Forney, 44, of the 1700-block of Forrest Avenue, 21234, with first degree murder after a stabbing on August 20. 

On August 20 at 10:30 p.m., officers responded for a motor vehicle crash in the 1700-block of Forrest Avenue, 21234.  911 callers advised that a white vehicle crashed off the roadway and into the woods.  When officers located the white 2008 Honda Accord, the driver was not breathing and had injuries that did not appear to be from the crash.  Jamari Davon Mathis, 38, of the 4000-block of Ridgecroft Road, 21206, was pronounced deceased at the scene.

Detectives determined that Jamari Mathis attempted to visit a female friend in the 1700-block of Forrest Avenue, 21234.  Vincent Forney was visiting at the same house when the victim came to the location.  There was an argument at the home, and Vincent Forney stabbed the victim. Jamari Mathis tried to drive away from the home, but crashed a short time later. 

Vincent Forney was arrested on August 21, charged with first degree murder, and is currently being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center without bail.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

Police say a 19-year-old man has been charged with attempted first-degree murder after he was shot trying to rob an off-duty security guard in Northwest Baltimore.

At about 2:51 a.m. on Sunday, police were called to a report of shots fired in the 3600 block of Dolfield Ave. and found an off-duty security guard who said he had been robbed. He told police the suspect had pointed a gun at him, but he was able to pull his own service weapon and shoot the suspect.

A short time later, officers located Travis Vaughn, 19, in the 1900 block of Dukeland Street suffering from a gunshot wound to his shoulder. Police determined Vaughn was the person who had been shot by the security guard. 

Vaughn has been arrested five times this year, court records show, including a drug arrest just 11 days before the shooting. He is awaiting an October trial on third- and fourth-degree burglary charges.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore
        

Normally, they're partners in public safety. But next month, Baltimore police and firefighters will be pummeling each other inside a cage – for charity.

The Sept. 30 mixed martial arts event at the Du Burns Arena is being billed as a "night of live cage fights that include active law enforcement and firefighters," battling it out to raise money for injured officers. It's the first of its kind locally, though such "badges vs. hoses" matches have been growing in popularity across the country.

"Although there's a professional rivalry, police and firefighters have always felt themselves to be part of one family," said Robert Ross, a homicide detective and martial arts enthusiast who is organizing the event. "It's no different than officers playing softball or hockey, but now they are doing it for a great cause."

For years, police and firefighters have squared off in boxing matches and other sports, and organizers say mixed martial arts competitions – a full-contact sport that is a mix of karate, boxing and other disciplines -- are a natural progression as the sport gains popularity. One organization, called "911 Fight Club," features a league that includes fighters from agencies including the Los Angeles police and fire departments, the Palm Beach sheriff's office, the Orange County fire department, and the Las Vegas metro police department.

Read more here.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

City police were working to identify a man who was fatally shot last night at the intersection of N. Milton Ave. and E. Chast St., the Sun's Liz F. Kay reports.

The fatal shooting is just the third in a stretch of 18 days, which, in a city that averages 23 homicides each August, is rather notable. Since Irene Logan was found fatally stabbed in her home on Aug. 3, there had been just two other homicides before - both on Aug. 14 - until last night's fatal shooting. The city has not been violence-free, however, with several other shootings and a triple stabbing reported over the weekend.

But the relatively quiet stretch has swung city crime statistics to put the city below last year's pace. Earlier in the month, homicides were up for the year. Now, they're down 6 percent compared with this time last year.

There's few details on Sunday's shooting, including the victim's identity or a possible motive.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Maryland State Police are investigating a domestic fight outside a home in Westminster.

Police said the estranged wife and her 13-year-old son had gone to the house Sunday afternoon to pick up some belongings. During an argument, police said the man, Douglas Harvey, 50, took out a knife and stabbed his wife, Lisa Harvey, 45.

Police said the Douglas Harvey then stabbed himself several times as his wife stumbled across the street to a neighbor's yard. Lisa Harvey was in critical condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Douglas Harvey died from his wounds.

Here are more details from state police:

Maryland State Police are investigating an early afternoon domestic incident which left a man dead and a woman seriously injured.

The deceased is identified as Douglas Harvey, 50, of the 1700 block of Strand Avenue in Westminster.  He was pronounced dead at the Carroll Hospital Center. Harvey’s wife, Lisa Harvey, 45, was transported to Shock Trauma.  She is in critical condition.

At about 12:45 p.m. today, the Carroll County Dispatch Center received a 9-1-1 call from Lisa Harvey.  Deputies from the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office were immediately dispatched to a single family home in the 1700 block of Strand Avenue in Westminster.  State Troopers from the Westminster Barrack responded to assist.

When troopers and deputies arrived, Lisa Harvey was found in a neighbor’s yard across the street from where the incident reportedly occurred.  She was being treated by EMS personnel for what appeared to be multiple stab wounds.  She was flown by medevac to R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma where she remains in critical condition. 

While emergency personnel rendered first aid to Lisa, Douglas Harvey exited the rear of a van parked in the driveway of the residence on Strand Avenue.  He appeared to have suffered multiple stab wounds. He was immediately transported to Carroll Hospital Center.  He was pronounced dead at approximately 1:30 p.m.

Information received by police indicates that Lisa had moved out of the residence about one month ago.  Allegedly, Lisa and her 13 year old son, arrived at the residence today, shortly before the 9-1-1 call was made, to retrieve some belongings.

While in the driveway of the residence, an altercation ensued outside of Lisa’s vehicle, between Douglas and Lisa.  Lisa’s son remained in the passenger side of their vehicle.  Douglas reportedly drew a knife, stabbed her and then himself several times.  Douglas then retreated into the van parked in the driveway.

Police are told that Lisa was able to stagger across the street, to the neighbors yard where she made the 9-1-1 call to police.  Lisa’s son was in the their vehicle, also parked in the driveway during the incident.

Troopers from the Westminster Barrack, Sheriff Deputies from the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, and the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit responded to the scene. Assistance is also being provided by the forensic analysts from the Maryland State Police Forensic Sciences Division. The Carroll County State’s Attorney is also assisting.

Due to a recent Memo of Understanding signed by the Maryland State Police and the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit will be the lead investigator in this case.  The investigation continues.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Carroll County
        

A Baltimore attorney has pleaded not criminally responsible and is awaiting a hearing on charges that he threatened to kill Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein, court records show.

Timothy Fitts, 47, of the 300 block of E. 25th St., was charged June 9 after police executed a search warrant on his home for violating a protective order, according to court records. When officers raided his home using a no-knock search warrant, they read Fitts his Miranda rights. He responded, "[Expletive] that Jew bastard Bernstein, I'll kill him and sue the city. If Officer Charles had came through my door, I would put a bullet between his head," officers wrote in charging documents.

As part of the protective order, Fitts was required to surrender all firearms. But police searching his home found two .22 caliber rifles, a .380 semi-automatic handgun, and a Crown Royal bag containing 181 rounds of ammunition, records show. They also recovered marijuana and a glass pipe. 

Fitts pleaded not criminally responsible, Maryland's equivalent of an insanity plea, and a hearing is scheduled for Sept. 1. He is being held without bail pending trial. A special prosecutor, from Howard County, has been brought in to handle the case.

Fitt's attorney, George Harper, declined to comment on the charges. 

Fitts has handled some high-profile criminal cases, including representation of a Prince George's County corrections officer who was being investigated in 2009 in the death of a detainee charged with killing a police officer. Court records show he has faced charges before - charged in 2006 with disorderly conduct and in 2001 with harassment and stalking. Both cases were dropped, however.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

The reputed leader of the Black Guerilla Family prison gang - who authorities say directed hits on enemies from behind bars while eating lobster and sipping Grey Goose vodka - was sentenced to 12 years in prison late Thursday, federal prosecutors announced.

Eric Brown, 42, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles Jr., and had faced a maximum of 20 years after pleading guilty on April 27. 

The case highlighted flaws in the state prison system, which the state's top corrections official said were unlike any he had faced in his career in other states. The seven-month investigation led to the indictment on drug and weapons charges of 24 people - including four state prison officers - who authorities believe are leaders or associates of the gang. Search warrants outlined how gang members were able to obtain heroin, direct hits on enemies through so-called "Death Angels" and conduct cell phone conference calls to arrange business with inmates around the state.

Gang associates established a publishing company and have been selling a handbook written by the gang's leader in Maryland, Brown, court documents allege. Titled "Empower Black Families," authorities say the handbook is designed to help new members learn about the gang. It costs $15 for inmates and $20 for non-inmates.

Here's some of our articles on the gang. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Gangs, Prisons
        

Last week's raid by Baltimore County police on the Black Hole Rock Club in Dundalk has triggered a wave of responses from readers. Many support the club and complain the police unfairly targeted the manager, who authorities suspect of at least condoning rampant drug distribution.

The bar has a troubled history in the neighborhood and with the liquor board. Read today's article on the contentious past and police efforts to padlock the two-story, barn-like building. Here, read a previous blog post that has a lengthy police statement detailing their side of the raid. It's worth reading before you get to the next part (pictures are by The Sun's Joe Soriero).

Thursday night, I got a series of emails from former patrons. Here are there stories:

Nneamaka Odum
I feel as if because it was a 15 month investigation they were trying to get as many people arrested as possible. After reading what Beth said about being wrongly accused; it makes me sad that some arrests were by word of mouth and reckless assumptions. I also find it disturbing that police officers are trying to use the padlock law despite the fact that no convictions were made. Police officers are servants to the community and it seems a rather selfish and unlawful pursuit to attempt to bend around a law to shut down a club that does not have any lawful reason to be permanently shut down with the exception of its physical condition.

Despite what has happened at the club I still think there is a possibility to re-open it later with better influence. There will always be a group who loved this establishment because of its connections over the years. Trying to break those connections apart does not help anyone and only furthers the county police's agenda to "keep the peace". They should look into assisting the rest of the people who attended the club AND the people who want a safer community instead of being one-sided. Note that you cannot get rid of “trouble”, or get rid of people that attend these venues just by closing them down. Shutting down clubs left and right will not solve the community's problem; So rather than dispersing of these areas we should come to an amicable solution.

Daniel McDonough
the black hole was full of wonderful people, with an everyone loves everyone attitude. I only went there to have a good time, what's so wrong about that? i met many great friends and have had plenty of awesome SOBER times there. i was in attendance the night the hole was raided and was appalled at the brutish methods the police used. i was there to have a good time instead i had guns drawn on me was put to the ground and made stay there for an hour (and i was one of the first allowed to leave!) before they even began the unnecessary searches. a lot of people i know were stepped on and one of my good friends even had his glasses and head stepped on by an officer. i know for a fact MY name wasn't on the warrant nor were my friends and the majority of the other people in attendance. despite what the media reports i have never once seen anyone in danger while in attendance at the black hole, it was a place of love that has sense been desecrated.
 
ravers are people too. P.L.U.R.

Jon Bova
My name is Jon Bova, I was a regular attender of concerts and raves at the black hole. I wanted to write you an email because of the request of regular attenders to give their input. First of all, I'd like to say that I was horrified when I heard the news that the black hole was getting raided. I was down the street at royal farms, on my way there to have a fun night out. The black hole has been a great place to hang out..I've never felt threatened, in fact, I always felt welcomed there. The people who regularly attend, were awesome! I became friends with many. Every time I went, sure there were people using drugs, but no where near the amount of drugs that you'll find at strip clubs or 21+ clubs. I've been approached and asked if I wanted to buy drugs 10 times as much on the streets of the inner harbor than inside the black hole. People who do drugs are going to do them with or without the black hole, so thank you baltimore county police for ruining the fun for everyone based on a few peoples mistakes. Let's not forget about the brutality that occurred that night. 100+ police officers, swat and whoever else came....pushing people to the ground, waving guns at innocent people etc. It's crazy, that was just way over done.  Besides, the police might have shut down the black hole, but they HAVE NOT and WILL NOT ever shut down the rave scene. We're a family and will never stop raving.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

In case you missed it:

John Wagner was found guilty of murder in last year's killing of Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Pitcairn, stabbed in Charles Village as he walked home from Penn Station. His killing jolted a campaign for state's attorney and once again cast focus on violent repeat offenders who so often escape justice. Read Tricia Bishop's story on the verdict.

The Sun's Justin Fenton writes about Maryland crime rate has hit a record low:

Maryland's crime rate decreased 6.3 percent last year, reaching a new low in the state's per-capita incidence of violent and property offenses and mirroring a national trend.

The figures released by state officials Wednesday and reported to the FBI are the lowest since modern crime tracking began in 1975. That continues a pattern of the state notching record lows for most of the past 14 years, though as crime rates dropped more sharply in other states, Maryland has remained one of the most violent.

The numbers run counter to the public's perception about crime and safety and even surprise some experts who expected the rates to rise amid a recession — a pattern that's been borne out in previous economic downturns, according to criminologists. Some experts said they are hard pressed to pinpoint an explanation for the declines.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere, North Baltimore
        

Baltimore County police are searching for two men who tried to rob and then assaulted a Giant Foods worker outside a store in Owings Mills, in the police department's Precinct 3/Franklin district. The worker was retrieving grocery carts when he was attacked.

Police said the worker was hit when he told the men he didn't have any money. Here is a video from police. A statement with more details on the incident is below:

Baltimore County Police are investigating an assault and robbery that occurred in the parking lot of the Giant Food, located in the 9700-block of Groffs Mill Road, 21117 on July 16.   

On July 16 at 11:40 p.m., officers responded to the Giant Food for a robbery call.  A 20-year-old employee told officers that he was retrieving carts from the parking lot when he was approached by two black males. The suspects asked the victim for his money. When the victim told them he did not have any, one of the suspects punched him in the face. The victim fell to the ground, and the suspects took his wallet and his cellular phone. They left the area in an unknown direction.  
 
The first suspect is described as a black male, approximately 20 years old, 6’1” tall, with a thin build and short, black hair.  The second suspect is described as a black male, approximately 20 years old, 5’10” tall, with a thin build and short, black hair. 

Detectives were able to recover surveillance photos and video showing the suspects inside the Giant Food. The images are being released in an attempt to identify the two suspects.

Anyone with information about the identity or whereabouts of the suspect 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 email a tip to MetroCrime Stoppers. 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 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

Jermaine Lewis, the former Ravens wide-receiver and kickoff returner, has been released on $50,000 bail pending his trial on charges that he resisted arrest at his Baltimore County home.

Police had gone to his house after several motorists on Monday reported his car swerving on county roads near Boring, and running over a sign in front of a volunteer fire company. Police said an officer used a Taser to subdue the retired player, who returned a kickoff to help the Ravens win the 2001 Super Bowl.

Read a story on the arrest here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

In this time of fiscal frugality, here comes a financial advisor who federal authorities say bilked "vulnerable clients" out of more than $838,000. An indictment says the suspect stole from a trust for a child with birth defects and from an 85-year-old with dementia.

Ralph Edward Thomas Jr., 52, was charged with mail fraud. The licensed insurer, between 2000 and 2004, was vice president of Harbor Financial, a subsidiary of Harbor Bank that did financial planning and sold insurance. He worked for Well Fargo Advisors from 2004 through 2010, authorities say.

The details are below from a statement from the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner went on the Marc Steiner show on Morgan State University's WEAA-Radio and confronted his critics. Listen to show here.

On police protecting their own: "One of things I've tried to do is avoid all these blanket indictments and over-generalizations. We should be constantly testing and challenging ourselves in the community. What kind of service do we provide or don't we provide? What kind of professionalism do we have?"

He noted the arrests of officers in a towing scandal and reminded people that the department lured them to the training academy under a ruse that their guns needed to be checked and then busted them. He said that despite rumors the arrest plan had been compromised, all but two officers showed, proving to him that the rumors were false. The other two had been out of town.

But he said he felt there were legitimate concerns about what sergeants and lieutenants were doing while officers were directing unsuspecting motorists to a towing company not approved by the city, but one that was paying off cops for the extra business. "If they were really paying attention to their people, why wouldn't they know?" he asked.

Asked whether the commander of internal police investigations compromised the office in charge of routing out bad cops because of his friendship with an officer charged with dealing heroin, Bealefeld said this:

"I wasn’t in the dark about what was going on there. Obviously knew what was going on there. At the end of the thing, we moved them out. People want to know every intimate detail, every single thing. But they have to at least acknowledge that we’re committed to doing something and taking action. One man is in federal custody facing substantial criminal charges and we moved the head of the IID unit out of there."

Bealefeld said he's "backing up what he said" and "holding people accountable."

On the shooting of Officer William H. Torbit Jr., who was killed by fellow officers who mistook him for a civilian shooting another civilian, Bealefeld said:

"What happened on that parking lot outside that club is a horrible, horrible tragedy. That’s what happened on that lot. That night was just an absolute tragedy for this whole city. What can I say, what more could I say, could the mayor say, could anyone else way about that case?"

Steiner asked about why 42 shots were fired (by all the officers including Torbit). "Forty-two shots in a crowd," Steiner said, quoting some pundits he had on the show recently. "There is no reason to fire that many."

Bealefeld answered: "It's just foolishness, absolute foolishness and frankly totally irresponsible for people who weren’t there, who weren’t in that situation, to come in and purport themselves as experts into the minds of those four unfortunate people ... to promote themselves through some kind of purported expertise about the difference between one shot and 10 shots. It's just flat out wrong.

"The bottom line is that these two men are dead and three women are injured. It was a horrible, horrible tragedy that those families are never going to get over and our family is going to be suffering for a long time. Do we want know how to do it better, how to move forward, how to better train our officer? The answers is yes, yes and yes."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Neighborhoods, Police shootings, Top brass
        

An update on the arrest of ex-Ravens Jermaine Lewis: 

Former Ravens player Jermaine Lewis, who returned a kickoff 84 yards for a touchdown in the team’s 2001 Super Bowl victory, has been charged with driving recklessly and resisting arrest after police said an officer had to fire a Taser to subdue him.

Police said witnesses followed Lewis’ vehicle Monday evening and reported it swerving and running over a volunteer fire company sign before it turned into the player’s home on Pleasant Grove Road in northern Baltimore County.

A police officer who went to the home said in a report that he found the 36-year-old Lewis lying on his living room couch, smelling of alcohol, and that the retired wide-receiver fought attempts to put him in handcuffs.

“I ain’t hurt no one,” Lewis shouted, according to a charging document filed in court. “I’m in my house.” After being stunned by the Tased and arrested, Lewis shouted three times, “I did it!” the report says.

He was ordered held on $50,000 bail, but a representative of Big Boyz Bail Bonds said the company was in the process of getting him freed Tuesday evening. Lewis could not be reached for comment. A woman at his home, Imara Lewis, declined to comment when reached by phone.

Lewis played for the University of Maryland and spent nine seasons in the National Football League, playing for three teams. His longest stint with the Ravens from 1996 to 2001. He was named to the Pro Bowl in 1998 and 2001 and as all-pro first team returner in 1998.

He played 111 NFL games, had 143 receptions and averaged 14.9 yards a catch. He averaged 11.1 yards on punt returns and 21.8 yards on kick returns, and he scored 23 touchdowns. He signed a 5-year, $16 million contract with the Ravens in 1998 and a 3-year, $3 million contract with Jacksonville in 2003.

Baltimore County police said they got their first complain shortly after 6 p.m. on Monday when a driver called 911 to report a man driving a 2006 white Dodge Charger “was all over the roadway” near Reisterstown Road and Glyndon Drive.

Police said the car was registered to Lewis and that he had his driving privileges revoked or suspended.

A second caller to 911 reported the same car being driven erratically on Old Hanover Road, near Piney Grove Road, and that it “almost hit a couple of cars head-on,” according to police. A driver followed the car, police said, and reported that it “hit something” before turning into a driveway of a house in the 4900 block of Pleasant Grove Road. Police later said the car hit a sign for the Boring Volunteer Fire Department.

Police said an officer spotted the Dodge in Lewis’ driveway and knocked on the front door. The report says Imara Lewis, along with a small child, answered the door and confirmed that Lewis was home. Imara Lewis went back to the living room and police said they heard an argument.

Officer Andrew J. O’Neil said in the charging document that he went into the living room and saw Lewis “lying on the couch with his shorts half-way down to his knees.” The officer said he “noticed a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from the defendant Jermaine Lewis’ person and notices that his eyes were glass and bloodshot.”

When O’Neil asked Lewis what happened, he reported that Lewis answered, “I hit a sign.”
O’Neil wrote that Lewis resisted when he tried to place him under arrest and refused to get off the couch. O’Neil said he grabbed Lewis’ arm and that Lewis refused and continued to resist. O’Neil said he warned Lewis several time he would use his Taser if he did not comply. O’Neil wrote that he fired his Taser at Lewis once, hitting him in the upper body, and placed him in custody.

Police took Lewis to Carroll County Hospital Center, which is standard after using the Taser, which send an electric jolt into the body, and then to the county detention center. Police said Lewis’ car was missing  a white grill and turn signal, which was found near where the sign had been hit.

Lewis was charged with resisting arrest and numerous traffic infractions, including driving on a revoked or suspended license, failure to control speed to avoid a collision and failure to report an accident.

Baltimore County police spokeswoman Cathy Batton said Lewis was not charged with alcohol-related offenses because “officers could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he had not consumed alcohol after arriving home.“

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

A 27-year-old man whose blood alcohol level measured twice the legal limit and who was speeding at 82 mph when his car struck two pedestrians on the shoulder of Interstate 70 was sentenced on Tuesday to 20 years in prison.

Donneil Raeburn had been found guilty in April of two counts of manslaughter. Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Patrick Cavanaugh handed the suspect the maximum sentence, 10 years for each victim, and made the terms consecutive.

The families of the victims, Jonathan Henderson, 29, and his girlfriend, Mary-Kathryn Abernathy, 21, issued a statement after the hearing.

“This has been a long and difficult ordeal and while we are certainly mindful that no amount of time served will bring Mary-Kathryn and Jon to back to us, this sentence does help to bring about resolution in this tragic incident,” the statement says.

“We are very pleased that Judge Cavanaugh and the Maryland court system has sent out a strong message to its citizens, that drinking and driving will not be tolerated.”

The crash occurred in the early hours of June 21, 2009, when Raeburn’s Chevrolet Impala hit the two pedestrians and another car as it raced west on I-70. Prosecutors said the Impala left the roadway as it approached the Baltimore Beltway.

Cavanaugh, who presided over a bench trial, meaning he, not a jury, found Raeburn guilty, said at the time that the suspect’s blood-alcohol content measured .16 percent four hours after the crash. He said the impact was so severe he could not tell which car was which — Raeburn’s Impala or the victim’s Chevrolet Cavalier.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

Former Baltimore Ravens wide-receiver Jermaine Lewis, who returned a kickoff in the team’s 2001 Super Bowl victory, was arrested Tuesday and charged with resisting arrest after a hit-and-run accident in Baltimore County, according to police. At far left, he's pictured after his Super Bowl return, in a photo by The Sun's Karl Merton Ferron. His mug shot is at right.

Few details were immediately available. Baltimore County Police Chief James W. Johnson confirmed the arrest in an interview with The Baltimore Sun. “I was told he became combative and resisted,” the chief said.

It was not immediately clear where in Baltimore County the incident occurred, or what time. Johnson said a police report would be provided later today.

According to court documents, Lewis, whose address is listed in Reisterstown, was charged with one count of resisting arrest and interfering with a police officer. He was being held on $50,000 bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center pending a formal bail hearing.

Lewis, 36, played for the University of Maryland and nine seasons in the National Football League — with the Ravens from 1996 to 2001, the Houston Texans in 2002, the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2003 to 2004. He was named to the Pro Bowl in 1998 and 2001 and as all-pro first team returner in 1998.

He played 111 NFL games, had 143 receptions and averaged 14.9 yards a catch. He averaged 11.1 yards on punt returns and 21.8 yards on kick returns, and he scored 23 touchdowns. His 84-yard kickoff return in the 2001 Super Bowl helped the Ravens seal a 34-7 victory over the New York Giants.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

The calls, comments and emails are pouring in about the Baltimore County police raid of the Black Hole Rock Club in Dundalk. As we reported Monday, cops swarmed the bar and shut it down, alleging rampant drug dealing.

(I'd love to talk to longtime patrons of the bar, and those who oppose it. Please email me at peter.hermann@baltsun.com. You must be willing to be quoted by name).

Seven people, including the manager and four patrons, were charged with drug offenses, the county police chief wants to padlock the joint as a public nuisance and other officials said the building was in such bad shape it had to be condemned. Read statement from Baltimore County police.

One of the patrons charged with drug possession, Elizabeth Kim Lee Walger, 25, called me this morning to complain about her name being published, and then she offered an explanation for her being there.

She told me she had stopped going because of problems but returned when a friend asked her to come see him spin records. She picked the wrong evening. Cops came in and she got caught up in the case.

“I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he told me, complaining about being identified. “My family is going to  see that. That’s what I’m mainly worried about. It’s damning. There’s no way I’m going to be able to flip that and make it look okay.”

Walger said that the bar used to be a place to go for good music and to meet new people. “People went there to hang out and make new friends,” she said. “It used to be about a lifestyle. It wasn’t about drugs and selling drugs. It was about the music and the people. Then a lot of people stopped going because of what it turned into. That night was the first night I had been back in three months.”

Walger said she got caught up in the arrests because a group of underage girls told police they had seen her in the bathroom smoking marijuana. She denies this. “There is no proof that I had it whatsoever,” she told me.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (32)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

The police officer who fatally shot the unarmed Marine outside a nightclub last year was sentenced today to 17 years in prison, with two years suspended. Officer Gahiji Tshamba was convicted last month of manslaughter.

There's still a potential lawsuit and unanswered questions about how Tshamba, who had a history of getting into trouble while drinking, had been allowed to continue on the force. The shooting outside the club was the culmination of an argument that started when the victim grabbed or patted the buttocks of a woman outside the Mount Vernon club.

A federal judge recently ruled that the victim's family can proceed with a lawsuit against the police department. The family is accusing the city of failing to control the officer, seen here being led out of the downtown courthouse during his trial. The photo was taken by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor.

More stories on Tshamba:

Judge will review Tshamba's troubled past in deciding sentencing.

A look at the victim, Tyrone Brown, and his own past as an Iraqi war veteran.

Witness accounts of the shooting.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Downtown, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

For those of you who like to dissect opinions from judges, here's one for you. A federal judge in Maryland, Susan K. Gauvey, refused to issue a warrant to allow the feds to use GPS to locate a suspect charged with a crime.

Her reason: warrants are usually given out to help authorities find evidence of a crime. In this case, all the feds wanted was to find a man they had charged with a crime. There was, Gauvey wrote, no proven crime. The judge said the suspect has a right to privacy not only "in his location," but also "in his movement." But she did add that had prosecutors shown that the suspect might flee attempts to arrest him, the issuance of a warrant would have been "routine."

You can read the full story here on the balancing act between cops and courts are playing on how to best use new technology that allows people to be tracked in real time. Part of the issue is that traditionally, warrants let police find evidence that already exists. With tracking devices, it allows police to ask for permission to snoop in places unforeseen.

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to take up the debate on whether police can place a tracking device under a vehicle without a warrant. Lower courts throughout the country are split. Gauvey found a whole new issue to explore.

Here is the full story. What follows are some selected quotes from people involved in the issue:

Former Maryland State Police commander Douglas Ward, now with the police leadership program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education:

"For investigators, the cellphone has become one of the greatest tools available. The ability to track the location of cellphones has become almost routine. To have that threatened in any way is going to make policing much less efficient. But certainly we want to do this the right way and protect people's rights. This technology is going to cause more and more of these arguments, and the courts are going to have to settle how it all turns out. Like anything else, there can be abuses. Justice demands that we weigh that."

U.S. Judge Susan K. Gauvey:

"To some, this use would appear reasonable, even commendable and efficient." But, the judge wrote, "To others, this use of location data by law enforcement would appear chillingly invasive and unnecessary in the apprehension of defendants."

Gauvey wrote that turning down the government's request "does not frustrate or impede law enforcement's important efforts, but rather places them within the Constitutional and statutory framework which balances citizens' rights of privacy against government's protection of society."

The judge wrote, however, that her ruling "does place the precise location information out of the government's casual reach."

Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein:

"We have never needed such an order in any case before or since, as far as I know, so there is little reason to appeal the moot opinion. The Justice Department is not proposing to use GPS to track random citizens. The person sought in this case was a felony criminal defendant for whom authorities had an arrest warrant. … Because of the circumstances of the case … they were concerned that he would flee if they called to ask him to turn himself in."

Nathan S. Judish, a senior counsel in the computer crimes and intellectual property division within the U.S. Department of Justice, during a hearing with Gauvey:

"I think we are entitled to take reasonable steps to effectuate an arrest warrant and determine the location of the person subject to the arrest warrant. It seems to me extremely reasonable. We need to go where the person is and arrest them."

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

The federal government is looking to seize $90,000 in cash found in a dead Baltimore County man's rental car after he was killed in an apparent "hit" by a New York drug organization, according to recently filed court papers.

On Jan. 10, Baltimore County police responded to gunshots at 9809 Lands Road and found Nathan Bowles, 41, dead in the stairway of his apartment. Authorities searched his apartment and found one ounce of marijuana, digital scales, and packaging materials. 

Gwendolyn Price, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, wrote in court papers that detectives learned that Bowles and another man were planning to travel to New York and had rented a 2010 Honda Accord. Detectives gathered information that Bowles was a "multi-pound marijuana dealer who traveled to New York regularly to conduct illicit drug business" and that "individuals interviewed believed that Bowles' murder was a hit from the New York organization."

In March, county police charged a Brooklyn, N.Y. man in Bowles' death, who has pleaded not guilty.

Detectives search the rental car and found a bag containing $90,000 in cash, wrapped in $1,000 bundles. Price wrote that Bowles and the other man he rented the vehicle with do not have a record of reporting income, and say the cash should be seized as drug proceeds.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

More than 100 Baltimore County police officers raided a Dundalk night club last week, alleging that "drugs were used openly throughout the club and undercover officers purchased narcotics inside the club at several times during the investigation."

Several people were arrested and Baltimore County's police chief said in a statement issued Monday that he might try to use the padlock law to shut the bar down. The manager of the club was among those arrested on drug charges, according to authorities. Police said the building was condemned after the raid.

Here is the complete statement from Baltimore County police: 

Baltimore County Police have arrested seven individuals after an extensive narcotics investigation into the Black Hole Rock Club, in the 200-block of German Hill Road, 21222. 

On August 11 at 10:30 p.m., over 100 Baltimore County police officers responded to the Black Hole Rock Club to serve a search warrant related to a nearly 15 month investigation into narcotics distribution at the club. Police received complaints that drugs were used openly throughout the club and undercover officers purchased narcotics inside the club at several times during the investigation. Marijuana, methamphetamine, ecstasy, ketamine, and Psilocybin mushrooms were recovered inside the club during the search warrant.    
 
Baltimore County Police Chief Jim Johnson and Michael Mohler, Chief Administrator of the Baltimore County Board of Liquor License Commissioners, are working closely to determine what immediate actions can be taken against the club. Chief Johnson has referred the case to the Liquor Board for action, and he is researching whether the business can be closed permanently under the Baltimore County “Padlock Law.” Chief Johnson and Mr. Mohler remain committed to ensuring community complaints about disorderly and illegal actions at liquor establishments are promptly addressed and corrected. 

The manager of the Black Hole Rock Club, Christopher Trikeriotis, 47, of the 14900-block of Dunstan Lane, 21111, was arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute controlled dangerous substances (CDS) and other related narcotics charges. Detectives also served a search warrant on his home, and recovered 175 marijuana plants growing in the basement.  Christopher Trikeriotis was released on $100,000 bail. Additional charges are pending for the marijuana plants found in his home.    
 
Jean Paul Steinberg, 36, of the 2100-block of West County Line in Jackson, New Jersey, was arrested and charged with distribution of CDS and other related narcotics offenses. On the night of the warrant, undercover detectives purchased Psilocybin mushrooms from him, and he possessed what detectives believe to be ecstasy, marijuana, and methamphetamines. Mr. Steinberg is currently being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center without bail.

Zane Aiden Langworthy, 21, of the 200-block of Sheridan Avenue in Fort Myer, Virginia, was arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute narcotics and possession of a CDS.  He was released on $20,000 bail. 

Four club patrons arrested and charged with possession of CDS and paraphernalia are:

  Elizabeth Kim Lee Walger, 25, of the 1100-block of Sleepy Dell Court, 21286
  Kathryn Diane Sasko, 20, of the 9100-block of Winding Way, 21043
  Evan Thomas Tritt, 22, of the 200-block of Sheridan Avenue in Fort Myer, Virginia
  Devin Anthony Boyle, 23, of the 9200-block of Canterbury Riding, 20723

Police found suspected CDS on six additional patrons, and charges will be placed after the results of chemical analysis are received. 

The liquor license for the Black Hole Rock Club is held by Joyce Trikeriotis, Christopher Trikeriotis’ wife.

A representative from the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office accompanied police during the search warrant. Inspectors from the Baltimore County Office of Code Enforcement and the Baltimore County Fire Department Fire Marshal’s Office also responded to the club on the night of the warrant. The business was declared condemned after an assessment.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

Back in late June and early July, men dressed as Baltimore police officers broke into three homes, tied up occupants and robbed them of money. In one case, a man was shot in the neck.

Police today said they arrested a suspect, but only in the first attack, in Northeast Baltimore.

Police are now saying that the break-ins do not appear to be related -- though close in proximity, they occurred miles apart in different parts of the city. Police were worried about armed men pretending to be cops.

Police are saying that in at least the first case, it's connected to drugs. The mugshot is of the suspect, 24-year-old Lamel Pierce of Halethorpe. Full story here:

A 24-year-old man has been charged with in connection with one of three recent home invasion robberies in which armed men dressed as Baltimore police officers broke into homes in three different parts of the city, bound the occupants and stole money.

The arrest of Lamel Pierce, of Halethorpe, is linked to the first in the series of break-ins, which occurred June 27 in the 1500 block of Medford Road in Northeast Baltimore. Police are still seeking two other suspects in that case.

Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the Medford Road robbery is linked to drugs and is not connected to the other two attacks — on Elkins Lane in South Baltimore on July 1 and on West Garrison Avenue on July 5. No arrests have been made in those cases.

Pierce, of the 4300 block of Windy Hill Road, was being held Monday without bail in the Baltimore City Detention Center on charges that include attempted first-degree murder burglary, using a handgun in a the commission of a violent crime and assault.

Police charging documents filed in District Court say that the victim, Christopher Smith, reported that shortly before 6 a.m. three men dressed as police officers kicked in the front door to his house, also occupied by his girlfriend and their four-month-old son.

They raced upstairs and used zip-ties to bind three people, police said, and forced Smith to the floor with his hands behind his back. “Give the money,” one of the gunmen repeatedly shouted, according to the charging documents.

Smith realized his attackers were not police officers, according to the charging documents, and got up to confront them. “One of the suspects discharged the firearm with one round striking Mr. Smith in the back of the neck,” according to police.

On May 9, Pierce pleaded guilty in Baltimore Circuit Court to drug distribution charges and was sentenced to three years in prison, with all but one day suspended. He was put on probation for three years. In July, he was convicted of misdemeanor drug possession and sentenced to a day in jail, according to court records.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore
        

Aruban authorities said Sunday that they intend to pursue criminal charges against Gary Giordano, the Gaithersburg man whose female companion disappeared on the island this month (this story was written by Dan Morse of The Washington Post and appeared in our paper).

Aruban Solicitor General Taco Stein called Giordano a "suspect in a suspicious death." Giordano told officials that Robyn Gardner, 35, failed to return to the beach after the pair went snorkeling Aug. 2, but officials have questioned his account. Her body has not been found.

In Maryland, federal agents began sifting through documents seized during their raid of Giordano's $1.1 million home Friday night.

Full version of story from the Washinton Post.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Crime elsewhere
        

Today's papers gives you a story on the final police report into the January shooting in which four Baltimore police officers mistook their colleague for a civilian and fatally shot him outside the Select Lounge.

The shooting, which killed Officer William H. Torbit Jr. and one his attackers, stunned a city and left the police department reeling. The report -- more than 1,100 pages -- describes the chaotic moments that night in which 42 bullets were fired.

One officer standing off to the side recognized Torbit and screamed, "Stop shooting, he's one of us," as did a deputy police major. An officer who fired, realizing after what she had done, cradled the dying Torbit in her arms, and could then be seen crying over him on the street.

Many questions remain -- among them, did Torbit, while lying on his back, fire up into a crowd of attackers after or while they were dispersing due to another officer's pepper spray? A commission is still looking into the event and could recommend changes in the department's rules and regulations.

Here is the story.

Watch video of the shooting.

Read the summary of the police report.

Look at photos from the crime scene.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Police shootings
        

At this moment, nothing is burning in Baltimore. The smoke you're smelling is from down south, in Virginia, where brush fires have been buring since Aug. 4. Watch video here. Here is a statement from the Baltimore Fire Department:

Due to major swampland fires burning in Suffolk, Virginia consuming as much as 6,000 acres and producing heavy clouds of smoke that can be seen for miles has finally reached Baltimore City limits.

Northeasterly jet streams and continuous winds have blown remnants of smoke from these major fires to our region and have permeated many Baltimore communities. These active fires are currently isolated to the state of Virginia and do not presently pose a threat to the City of Baltimore.

Be advised that for those with respiratory illnesses affected by smoke fumes are encouraged to seek medical attention. For the safety of all others, please keep windows and doors closed, and use hvac systems accordingly.

Currently, there are no actively working fires in the City of Baltimore. We will continue to monitor the conditions and progress of these fires and will provide updates as they develop.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Crime elsewhere
        

New details on suspect in credit card theft from Baltimore County police:

Baltimore County Police are looking for a woman they say is responsible for the theft of wallets and credit cards from the St. Joseph’s Hospital Breast Cancer Center in Towson.

On July 21, between 11:20 a.m. and 12:40 p.m, an unidentified woman committed the theft at the medical facility. She also attempted to enter other medical facilities in the Towson area, but was diverted by employees before she could commit the same crime.

After the theft, the suspect entered an area mall at around 1 p.m and used the stolen cards to purchase merchandise. After leaving the mall, she used the credit cards at area Target stores where she bought infant products and electronic devices. In a matter of hours, the suspect used the stolen cards to purchase $14,000 worth of merchandise.

The suspect is a black female, in her late 20s early 30s, 5’5” – 5’7”, with a medium build. Police believe the suspect maybe driving a silver 2010 Nissan Altima with unknown tags.

 If you have seen or know this woman and her whereabouts, you are asked to contact Detective M. Coyne at 410-887-2190.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports:

A federal court judge on Thursday ruled that Baltimore Police Officer Daniel Redd, who was indicted last month on drug conspiracy and firearms charges, can be released from detention pending trial despite having confessed to investigators.

He will be released as soon as Friday to his mother's custody under electronic home monitoring and can't leave the house except for doctor's appointments and court-related meetings.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Wallner asked that the order be stayed so he can seek an appeal, calling the evidence against Redd "overwhelming" and saying that his alleged crimes — which include conducting and overseeing heroin transactions while he was in uniform and carrying his service weapon — "brazen and bold."

Read more details of the indictment here. This case also raised questions about the Baltimore Police Department's Internal Affairs Office, after its commander was removed when his close ties to Redd were revealed

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports breaking news from the federal courthouse:

After five hours of deliberation, a federal jury on Thursday convicted Antonio "Mack" Hall in the retaliation killing of an FBI informant, who told investigators that Hall liked to "bang the gun" and was connected to several drug-related murders in the city.

He was also found guilty of weapons violations and participating in a seven-year conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine in the tiny South Baltimore community of Westport, where both he and his victim lived. Hall, 30, shot Kareem Kelly Guest a half dozen times in September 2009 as the man pleaded for mercy.

This is the case in which the victim's written statement to the FBI, which helped put numerous South Baltimore drug dealers in federal prison, was leaked by a defense attorney and posted around the neighborhood.

Read full story here.

Read background story.

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

A federal jury convicted Antonio Hall, a/k/a “Mack,” age 31, of Baltimore, of murdering federal witness Kareem Kelly Guest on September 20, 2009.  Hall was also convicted of conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine; using a gun during the murder of Mr. Guest; and being a felon in possession of ammunition. 
 
The conviction was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III.
        
“This case tragically demonstrates what can happen when information about witnesses in criminal cases is not protected,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “We will continue to use every available resource to pursue criminals who attack or intimidate witnesses.”
 
“Law enforcement agencies rely on information from private citizens to help protect the public at large,” stated Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  “The conviction today reinforces the need to bring justice to those that attempt to, in this case, silence individuals who have stepped forward to provide information about criminal wrongdoing.”  
 
According to testimony at the two week trial, from at least 2004 to 2010, Hall sold  crack cocaine on the streets of Westport. Witnesses testified that Hall used a 9mm pistol on February 10, 2004, in the 2400 block of Huron Avenue in the Westport area of Baltimore to shoot one of his drug customers in retaliation for the customer having provided information to the police about an individual who was under investigation for a shooting.  rial evidence showed that on March 21, 2009, at 2635 Maisel Street in Westport, Hall and another individual shot a crack dealer, Martie Williams, eight times with a .40 caliber handgun and a .32 caliber handgun, resulting in the death of Williams.

Trial testimony further showed that Hall killed Guest in retaliation for Guest providing information to the Baltimore City Police Department and the FBI about drug trafficking and firearms violations in Westport. The substance of the FBI’s January 9, 2008, interview of Kareem Guest was detailed in a nine page FBI report that was disclosed to a defense attorney with the attorney’s promise that it would not be further distributed.

According to the evidence presented at trial, during the summer of 2009, individuals in Westport obtained copies of the FBI interview reports of Kareem Guest and several other individuals, which were then distributed and displayed throughout the Westport community, including on telephone poles and on a common area known as “the blacktop.”

On September 20, 2009, at approximately 10:00 p.m., Hall used a 9mm handgun to shoot and kill Kareem Guest on a walkway near the 2400 block of Maisel Court in Westport. Mr. Guest suffered numerous gunshot wounds to the head and body.  
 
Hall faces a maximum sentence of life in prison on each count that he is convicted. U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett scheduled sentencing for November 16, 2011, at 3:00 p.m.
 
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the FBI and Baltimore Police Department for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorneys John F. Purcell and Clinton J. Fuchs, who are prosecuting the case.
 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, South Baltimore
        

Baltimore County Police are looking for a woman they say is responsible for the theft of wallets and credit cards from a medical center in Towson.

On July 21, between 11:20 a.m. and 12:40 p.m, an unidentified woman committed the theft at the medical facility. She also attempted to enter other medical facilities in the Towson area, but was diverted by employees before she could commit the same crime.

After the theft, the suspect entered an area mall at around 1 p.m and used the stolen cards to purchase merchandise. After leaving the mall, she used the credit cards at area Target stores where she bought infant products and electronic devices. In a matter of hours, the suspect used the stolen cards to purchase $14,000 worth of merchandise.

 The suspect is a black female, in her late 20s early 30s, 5’5” – 5’7”, with a medium build. Police believe the suspect may be driving a silver 2010 Nissan Altima with unknown tags. If you have seen or know this woman and her whereabouts, you are asked to contact Detective M. Coyne at 410-887-2190.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

The girlfriend of the main suspect in the killing of Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Pitcairn testified this morning at the murder trial.

The Sun's Andrea F. Siegel reports:

The girlfriend of the man accused of fatally stabbing a Johns Hopkins researcher told a jury this morning that she initially lied and blamed her cousin for the killing to protect the defendant.

"I didn't want Ya to go to jail for the rest of his life," Levelva Merritt testified, using the nickname of defendant John A. Wagner.

On the witness stand for more than an hour, she described a robbery that she said she and Wagner, 38, committed that had gone bad.

Merritt testified that Wagner had a knife with him when the couple attacked Stephen Pitcairn on St. Paul Street in July 2010. Pitcairn, a cancer researcher at Johns Hopkins, was walking home from Penn Station while talking on a cellphone with his mother, who was in Florida.

Read full story here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

First, the youths assaulted and robbed a man of $150 at the Inlet Lounge in Ocean City.

First mistake: One of the teens sported a tattoo on his forearm -- "Truly Blessed."

Second mistake: They later stood in a group on a public street drinking alcohol. A police officer noticed the tattoo and arrested the 17-year-old.

Third mistake: Police searched the area and found a second young suspect sitting on a curb. When asked for identification, police say he handed the officer the victim's ID.

Fourth mistake: Right after the robbery, the young men rented a room at lodge. They used $100 bill. That's one of the bill's they had stolen from the victim.

Now both are in jail. Here are more details from a statement from the Ocean City Police: 

On August 4, 2011, at approximately 7:50 p.m., Ocean City Police responded to the scene of an assault at the Inlet Lodge located at 806 South Atlantic Avenue. Once at the scene, officers determined that this was in fact a robbery. The victim reported being robbed by two male suspects who stole the victim’s backpack, which contained a wallet and $150.  During the robbery the victim was also assaulted by the two suspects. 

The victim told police that one of suspects had distinctive tattoos on his forearms with the wording Truly Blessed.” The victim also was able to provide a good clothing description. Approximately five hours later OCPD officers stopped several subjects who were drinking alcoholic beverages in public in the 10 block of 6th Street. 

One subject from the group fled from the officers. The officers were able to stop the rest of the group and immediately recognized that one of the males had the tattoo “Truly Blessed” on his forearms. The 17-year-old male from Dover, DE was arrested.

A search of the juvenile’s cell phone revealed that he recently acquired a room in the 8th Street area. Police went to search the 8th Street area and noticed a male matching the description of the second robbery suspect sitting on the property of the Ocean Lodge at 8th Street and Philadelphia Avenue.

This was the male subject who ran from police during the initial encounter on 6th Street.   The suspect had a bottle of alcohol next to him and when officers went to identify him to verify his age, he handed the officers the ID of the robbery victim.

He also had the victim’s wallet in his possession. This suspect is also a juvenile male from Dover. The two suspects rented a room at the Ocean Lodge sometime after the robbery and paid for the room in cash with a $100 bill. The victim was robbed of a $100 bill.

Both juveniles were arrested and transported to the Ocean City Public Safety Building and held pending parental and Juvenile Justice notification.

*Because both suspects are juveniles, their names and pictures are not being released.

Juvenile #1 was charged with:
• FELONY **ROBBERY**
• MISDEMEANOR  **ASSAULT-SEC DEGREE**
• MISDEMEANOR **THEFT: LESS $1,000 VALUE**

Juvenile #2 was charged with:
• FELONY **ROBBERY**
• MISDEMEANOR **ASSAULT-SEC DEGREE**
• MISDEMEANOR **THEFT: LESS $1,000 VALUE**
• MISDEMEANOR **FRAUD-PER. IDENT. AVOID PROS**

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Crime elsewhere
        

A criminal complaint filed by federal authorities reveals a substantial haul from a suspected drug dealer's house and car in Woodlawn. Police said they found a backpack in a silver Infiniti with $238,131 in cash inside.

Here is the complaint that provides some interesting insight into the drug culture:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

In case you missed out on today's paper, here are some police stories to ponder:

Video of Select Lounge shooting released. This is the January shooting where police officers mistook a colleague for a suspect and fatally shot him outside a nightclub. Watch the shooting.

Roommate testifies that the suspect in the killing of Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Pitcairn confessed to robbing him in Charles Village.

Annapolis teenager pleads guilty to killing toddler.

Nathan Krasnopoler, the Johns Hopkins University student who was struck and critically injured by a car while riding his bicycle along University Parkway in February, died Wednesday morning. A lawyer for the family said the 83-year-old driver who struck Krasnopoler has agreed to forfeit her license. Read Michael Dresser's Getting There blog.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberating this morning in the case of a man charged with killing an informant in a federal drug case. The victim's statement to the FBI was leaked and posted around his Westport neighborhood.

A series of mall robberies in the city, Anne Arundel and Howard Counties are linked, and also connected to a murder in Baltimore.

A Baltimore drug dealer is sentenced to 15 years in prison for his involvement in a fatal hit and run crash.

A Glen Burnie man was fatally stabbed and his female companion is being held in her death.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Howard County, North Baltimore, Police shootings
        

Baltimore police Wednesday night released video of January's shooting at Select Lounge, in which four police officers accidentally shot and killed a plainclothes officer who was shooting at another person during a fight. The officers mistook the plainclothes officer, William H. Torbit Jr., for a suspect.

You have to watch the video several times to make out what's happening. The attorney for the man Torbit was shooting at, and killed in the gunfire, says it shows his client being shot while trying to run away from the melee.

State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein declined to prosecute anyone in the case, including the four officers who fired on Torbit, or any of the people involved in the fight. Read a complete version of Justin Fenton's story on the issue.

A separate commission is still reviewing the case to determine if city police need to change their practices.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Police shootings
        

Highlights from today's trial in the killing of Stephen Pitcairn:

A roommate of a man charged with killing a Johns Hopkins researcher in Charles Village last summer testified Wednesday that moments after the attack the suspect said he “had robbed someone and that he had hurt him real bad.”

Tyrine Williams told jurors that she and her boyfriend, Kevin Cosby, then tried to use the victim’s stolen credit card at a nearby gas station on Howard Street, and that they planned to use the proceeds to buy drugs to continue their 15-hour cocaine and heroin binge.

Her testimony came on the second day of John Wagner’s murder trial in the death of Stephen Pitcairn, who was stabbed on St. Paul Street in July last year as he walked home from Penn Station while talking on a cellphone with his mother, who was in Florida.

The killing enraged a neighborhood and became part of Gregg Bernstein’s run for the office of state’s attorney, which he won over incumbent Patricia C. Jessamy. He criticized his opponent’s failure to put away convicted felons and said Pitcairn would’ve been alive had Jessamy done her job.

After the stabbing, police say Wagner ran back to his rowhouse in the 2600 block of Maryland Avenue, raced inside, leaving blood on the door handle and frame, and stuffed a fold-up knife and the victim’s iPhone inside a white tennis shoe.

Williams’ testimony directly implicates Wagner in the killing. The suspect’s lover, Lavelva Merritt, was also charged with murder but prosecutors dropped those charges in exchange for her testimony against Wagner. She pleaded guilty to her role in the robbery of Pitcairn, and she could take the stand Thursday.

Wagner’s defense attorney hammered back at Williams during cross examination, pointing out discrepancies between her testimony on the witness stand and in statements she made to homicide detectives the day of the killing and later to prosecutors.

Assistant Public Defender Gregory Fischer told jurors during his opening statement on Tuesday that Cosby is the killer, and that Merritt was with him at the time. On Wednesday, he accused Williams of lying to cover for her boyfriend of 15 years.

“Isn’t it true that it was Cosby who said he had robbed a lady?” Fischer demanded of Williams.
“No,” Williams answered.

Pressed again, Williams responded, “He didn’t do that. There are other ways of getting money.”
Under direct testimony from Assistant State’s Attorney Josh Felsen, Williams described her troubled life in an out of jail and addicted to heroin and cocaine. She lived with at least a half dozen others in the Maryland Avenue rowhouse, along with Wagner.

Williams said that on the day of the killing, she and Cosby left the house about 9 a.m. and started buying and using drugs. At one point, they were at a bus stop on North Charles and 25th streets with Wagner, whom she knows as “Ya-Ya,” and Merritt. She testified that Wagner told them “he was looking for someone to rob.”

She testified that she and Cosby returned to the house later that night even as police swarmed the neighborhood. Two people were asleep, but she saw Wagner and another person in the kitchen. She said Wagner asked how to use a credit card. She testified she saw the card and a Florida driver’s license with Pitcairn’s name on it.

“He volunteered, he told us, that he had hit somebody at a gas station and that he had hurt him real bad,” Williams testified. The prosecutor, Felsen, asked his witness whether Wagner had mentioned the victim’s race. She answered, “No.”

Shortly after Pitcairn was stabbed, police had said in charging documents that the suspects had been “hunting to rob” a “white boy.” The racial angle and allegations that the attack had been premeditated added to the community’s rage and set the case apart from other killings.

Fischer, the defense attorney, seized on Williams’ statement when he questioned her later, saying it was Cosby, not his client, who had told her he had robbed a white victim. Williams denied that as well.

Williams said that she and Cosby failed in their attempt to use Pitcairn’s credit card at the gas station because they needed his zip code. They returned to the house and got it from Pitcairn’s driver’s license. She said Wagner was reluctant to leave the house because by that time police were all over the neighborhood.

Williams testified that she had second-thoughts and pleaded with Cosby to put Pitcairn’s credit card and driver’s license in the mailbox, hoping they would be sent back to the victim. She did not know at that time he had died.

“It’s not right to keep it,” she said she told her boyfriend. “People need those.”

But Cosby went out alone and returned later with more drugs and money. The two argued on the street and Williams said she flagged down a passing police officer and pointed to Cosby, saying, “There he goes.” Later, she said she told the officer he had a stolen credit card from the earlier robbery.

Cosby ran and got away. Williams testified that she feared something bad had happened to the victim and wanted to help her boyfriend, hoping he would only get caught with the stolen card and would not be implicated in something more serious.

But Fischer said Williams was angry at not getting her cut of the money from the stolen card, and had  fingered her boyfriend to the police as retribution. Williams said Cosby could not have been involved in the killing because he was with her all night doing drugs.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

Update: Police released the footage Wednesday night. Read the story here. 

A week after prosecutors closed the criminal investigation into the police shooting that killed two outside the Select Lounge in January, police and prosecutors have no timetable for the release of the video of the incident.

When a case is closed, the contents of the investigative file become open to public inspection under state law. The police department and the state's attorney's office, which are two separate agencies, each have copies of the files in their custody, and both were notified long ago that media outlets would be seeking the release of the materials when the case was officially closed, as was widely expected. Despite the advance notification, the state's attorney's office noted that it had 30 days from the closing of the case to release the documents.

The Police Department, meanwhile, expressed a desire to allow the families of Sean Gamble and Officer William H. Torbit Jr. first view the video, which runs less than 60 seconds according to State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein. But they have been unable to set up a "screening." Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said earlier this week that copies have been delivered to the families through their attorneys and are in hand, but police say they will continue to withhold the video until they receive notification that family members have actually viewed it. Officials consider the step a courtesy to the families.

Appearing on WBAL's C4 Show today, Bernstein said the video would be released "soon" but did not elaborate.

Police investigated the case for five months, and it was turned over to the state's attorney's office in May.

Sources who have viewed the tape show it supports Bernstein's finding that the shooting was a "highly chaotic" situation, and shows that Torbit was severely outnumbered when he pulled his service weapon and fatally shot Gamble, a move that led to his own death when fellow officers, unaware that he was with the BPD, returned fire. Critics, including at least some relatives of the victims, have openly accused the investigating agencies of a coverup, but officials say the video will bolster their findings.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

A Glen Burnie man has died from his wounds after a stabbing Tuesday inside his home, and Anne Arundel County police have identified a woman who lived with him as the suspect.

James Gray Pfaff Jr., 47, of the unit block of Fifth Ave. in Glen Burnie, died Wednesday from stab wounds to the upper torso, county police said in a news release. Investigators have identified Phyllis Marie Amonica, 38, of the same address, as the suspect. The case is being investigated as a domestic incident, police said. Charges have not been filed.

According to police, officers from the Northern District responded to a call about a domestic dispute at the residence about 8:27 p.m. Tuesday. They found a man suffering from a stab wound to the torso and a woman suffering from minor cuts. Both were taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where Pfaff died Wednesday morning.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County
        

The Orioles may be sinking fast, but their brand is still a valuable commodity, right along with North Face, Puma and Red Bull. Or maybe it was just a local federal agent having fun with his home team.

Court documents show that an undercover Homeland Security agent investigating fraudulent name-brand merchandise being sold on the Internet made some purchases to help prove his case. He bought a North Face fleece and designer Dolce & Gabbana glasses. Then he purchased a pair of UGG boots.

The items were counterfeit, he alleges in a search warrant application filed in Baltimore's federal court, seeking to "seize" the Internet domain names of the companies he was buying from. You'd expect knock-offs of those items.

But when the agent needed more stuff for his investigation, he bought a "large Red Bull hat," and two baseball caps -- The Washington Senators and the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles cap cost $34.80, from a company in China.

The baseball caps, the agent wrote, "were of poor quality, material, and craftsmanship. The identification labels and packaging material were also of poor quality and uncharacteristic of genuine products."

I'm not sure what other baseball caps were available, or if the agent, Michael T. McFarland II, was having a bit of fun with his home teams (he's assigned to the cyber crimes division in Baltimore). Either way, it was nice to see the Orioles in such prestigious company.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A word of warning -- give up your beer!

Annapolis police reported this morning:

Robbery – 700 block of Annapolis Neck Rd – 8/10 at 12:28am:  A victim was attacked for refusing to give up his beer.  After he refused, Gerald Jones, a 46 year old male from Annapolis repeatedly struck the victim in the head with a rock and stick and then fled the scene.  Jones was quickly located by police.  Gerald Jones is charged with Armed Robbery, 1st and 2nd Degree Assault, and Reckless Endangerment.  He is currently being held at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center on $500,000.

Police, unfortunately, don't say what kind of beer was involved.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County
        

Sun courts reporter Tricia Bishop describes a powerful scene in a Baltimore city courtroom as the mother of slain Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Pitcairn described hearing his last moments over the phone:

Stephen Pitcairn got off the Bolt bus in Baltimore around 11 p.m. on July 25 last year, two days shy of his 24th birthday, and called his mother in Florida as he walked home from Penn Station, traveling north on St. Paul Street.

"I always feel so safe when you're on the phone with me," she remembers him saying that Sunday night.

They talked about the weekend, which he spent in New York City with his two sisters, and his plans to add a Saturday shift to his busy schedule as a Johns Hopkins cancer researcher. Then, "all of a sudden," his mother told a Baltimore jury Tuesday, "I heard him gasp."

The attorney for defendant John Wagner says police have the wrong man. Read more of the trial's first day here. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

Del. Richard K. Impallaria has filed a lawsuit against the Harford County sheriff, claiming towing companies are committing "theft" and "extortion" and the county's chief law enforcement officer should do something about it.

The suit is the latest turn in the legislator's running dispute with Harford County towing companies and Sheriff L. Jesse Bane that began early in 2010 when Impallaria's Ford Ranger was wrecked in a two-car accident and towed. Impallaria has been steamed up since then about what he claims was the tow company's attempt to hold onto his personal property and his license plates until he paid his tow bill. His account of the incident has been disputed.

Since that experience, Impallaria has written letters, held meetings, filed legislation and gotten an opinion from the Maryland attorney general.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Harford County
        

The 14-year-old boy accused of beating his grandmother with a hammer in April will be tried as a juvenile, court records show.

Hassanhii Garrett was charged as an adult with attempted first-degree murder after police said he confessed to beating his 66-year-old grandmother with a hammer in their Waverly home as he was getting ready for school. The woman suffered serious injuries but survived.

Court records show a city judge on Aug. 1 remanded the case to juvenile court for further proceedings, granting a defense petition for a waiver to the juvenile system.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

In case you missed it, Snoop pleads guilty. The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports:

Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, who overcame a troubled childhood and a murder conviction to launch an acting career as a drug-gang assassin on HBO's "The Wire," pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to sell heroin.

She was sentenced to seven years in prison, with all of the time suspended except for the five months she has already served while awaiting trial, most of it spent at home, under electronic monitoring. She could be sent back to finish the term if she violates probation over the next three years.

"While I'm delighted to have you here, I don't want to see you again," Baltimore Circuit Judge Lawrence P. Fletcher-Hill told the actress, expressing a sentiment shared by her fans, many of whom were crushed by the news of her March arrest in an early-morning sting operation.

(In the photo, by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor, Pearson stands outside the courthouse with her attorney, Benjamin Sutley).

After the hearing, Sutley, acknowledged that his client was "picking at the edges of a conspiracy," which carries a maximum 20-year prison term, but he stopped short of saying she was directly involved.

"I have things to do, I have to move on with my life," said Pearson, 31, explaining her decision to take a deal. She repeatedly said she would have been found "not guilty" at trial, but that she couldn't wait for the proceeding, which could have been years in coming.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A former Annapolis and Baltimore police officer is facing manslaughter and drunk-driving charges in a car crash that left one man dead.

James Salyers, 52, of Gambrills, was indicted last week by a Baltimore grand jury in the October death of Andrew Arnold-McCoy 19, of Glen Burnie, according to court records. He is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 9 in Baltimore City Circuit Court.

Charges against Salyers in the 10-count indictment include running a red light and speeding, according to court records. Reached by telephone, Salyers referred calls to his lawyer, Andrew I. Alperstein.

"The fault of the accident remains very much in dispute," Alperstein said. "There is evidence that refutes the state's theory of the case." He declined to discuss details.

Alperstein said his client retired from Baltimore city police as a detective before going to work with Annapolis Police Department and had a "long career of helping other people." Salyers had spent the last eight of his 28 ½ years with the Baltimore department in the executive protection detail for Mayors Martin O'Malley, Sheila Dixon and Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, according to Alperstein.

Salyers, who had joined the Annapolis Police Department in late August 2010, resigned Aug. 1, 2011, said Sgt. Beth Nelson, a spokeswoman for the Annapolis department. He had been on administrative duty since the crash.

In 2008, according to a report at the time, Salyers traveled to Egypt on a city-funded "economic development" trip with Dixon. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, South Baltimore
        

The Baltimore Police Department's citywide robbery unit continues to post "Wanted" fliers for business robberies in the city, including the crime detailed below. A slew of other wanted posters can be found at their website here.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

City police say they are stepping up efforts to find a robbery suspect after two more incidents in Southeast Baltimore over the weekend, including the robbery of a family visiting from Connecticut.

Last week, the Baltimore Guide reported that police were searching for a suspect named Jerry Harcum (right) in connection with a series of robberies in the Canton and Fells Point area, targeting people walking late at night. Police said they have a warrant charging Harcum in two attacks, both targeting groups of four young women in Canton

Police are also looking into whether he may be tied to two more robberies that occurred over the weekend. Police confirmed that a family of four from West Haven, Conn. was robbed in Butcher's Hill, and three women were robbed in Canton.

On Saturday at about 10 p.m., the family were walking in the 100 block of S. Patterson Park Ave. were approached by a suspect wearing a ski mask and brandishing a silver handgun, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. The man ordered them to the ground and told them to throw everything in their pockets onto the street, he said. He ran off with a purse, money, cell phones, keys and documents.

In the other incident, three women in the early 20s were walking in the 900 block of S. Potomac St. at about 11:35 p.m. when two suspects ordered them into an alley and pointed a handgun at them, Guglielmi said. One victim was struck in the head as a suspect took her keys, and the suspects demanded money from another. The suspects fled in a blue or black Lexus with no license plates, Guglielmi said.

On July 4, four women were also robbed by a man brandishing a silver handgun in the 800 block of S. Montford Ave. near the Canton Market. 

Guglielmi said police will be stepping up efforts to find Harcum, who they say could be tied to the weekend incidents. Plainclothes officers and patrol officers will also step up patrol efforts in the neighborhoods, he said. Anyone with information about the robberies or Harcum's whereabouts was asked to call detectives at 410-396-2429, or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7-LOCKUP.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Southeast Baltimore
        

From the Associated Press via The Daily Record: 

A woman who played a Baltimore drug gang assassin in HBO’s “The Wire” is expected to enter a guilty plea in a drug conspiracy case.

Felicia “Snoop” Pearson’s attorney says the 31-year-old actress is scheduled to plead guilty Monday to conspiracy to distribute heroin, a misdemeanor. Her trial was set to begin Tuesday.

Pearson is one of 64 people charged in March in “Operation Usual Suspects,” a joint state-federal prosecution of an alleged east Baltimore drug gang.

Attorney Benjamin Sutley says Pearson wanted closure in the matter. Sutley expects Pearson to receive probation and says he will ask the judge to allow her to travel out of the state to pursue her acting career.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Accused document thief Barry Landau was released from jail today, two days after a federal judge rejected prosecutors' last ditch effort to keep him behind bars as they continue to unravel what they say is the largest theft scheme of its kind.

Landau strode out of the federal courthouse at about noon, wearing a blue dress shirt, khakis and white tennis shoes. and with his attorneys Steven D. Silverman and Andrew C. White at his side. Landau did not react to questions from a Sun reporter; Silverman repeatedly said "no comment."

will be barred from accessing the Internet, cannot keep his passport, can have no contact with museums, can't sell assets without approval and can't have any communication with his co-defendant, Jason Savedoff. Also, travel outside his home will be limited.

"It's basically a lockdown situation," a pretrial services official told the court.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

A dispute between two groups at a Crofton house party probably led to the shooting early Sunday of a 22-year-old man, police told The Sun's Andrea F. Siegel.

Anne Arundel County police said officers responded to calls of shots fired outdoors about 2:22 a.m. in the area of Judicial Way and Lower Court — near Route 424 and Reidel Road. Witnesses told police that a man was helped into a vehicle, which drove away.

Police said the 22-year-old was at a party on Lower Court before the shooting. He was involved with one of the two groups of people with a dispute, but spokesman Justin Mulcahy said Monday the nature of the argument was not immediately known.

"There is a lot of follow-up investigation to conduct here," Mulcahy said. "The investigation is ongoing."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County
        

[Photo by Sun photographer Barbara Haddock Taylor]

Update: Read complete story with victims' names here.

Anne Arundel County police say a male fatally shot himself and three others, including two juveniles, in a house in Brooklyn Park this morning. Police, called by the man's mother who said her son sent a troubling email, were outside when the final gunshot was heard.

Police have just released the following statement:

MULTIPLE HOMICIDE/SUICIDE                                                BROOKLYN PARK

 On August 7, 2011 at approximately 8:58 a.m., officers from the Northern District responded to the 600 block of Wood Street in Brooklyn Park. Upon arrival, officers met with the caller, an adult female, in reference to her adult son. The mother indicated her son sent her a text message, and the message’s despondent tone made her concerned for her son’s well being and the safety of his family. The mother and another relative came to the home on Wood Street and subsequently called for police assistance to check on her son.  Shortly after officers arrived, and while they were speaking to the mother outside the home, officers heard a single gunshot from inside the residence.

Officers immediately entered the home upon hearing the gunshot.  Once inside, they found a deceased adult male suffering from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Officers additionally found a deceased adult female and two deceased teenaged juveniles inside the home. Each of the victims suffered gunshot wounds, and it appears this incident was murder/suicide where the male shot the other members of his family before shooting himself.

Preliminary information indicates all four persons resided in the home together. As of this writing, the names, ages and exact relationship between the deceased male shooter and the three victims remains under investigation and is not being released. This does not appear to be a random act and there is currently no indication any other person was involved. The Anne Arundel County Police Department’s Homicide Unit is actively investigating, and no further information is available at this time.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County
        

Residents in Remington are concerned about recent crime in their neighborhood, and one resident e-mailed new Maj. Sabrina Tapp-Harper with his frustrations. Here's the first e-mail, from Wyman Park resident Jon Ayscue, followed by Tapp-Harper's response sent a few hours later, both of which were CC'd to The Sun:

Dear Major Tapp-Harper,

I am forwarding you a just compiled list (attached) of all the recent incidents that have occurred in north Remingtion over the past few months. I think you will be struck, as I was, by two facts. First, the number of crimes in a roughly two-square block area of Remington is staggering. Nine home break-ins, two car break-ins, nine yard or property intrusions, one act of vandalism and, to top it off, an armed robbery.

The second discouraging fact is that Northern District has not, to our knowledge, executed an arrest in any of the incidents. In fact, our recent experience with Northern District leads me personally to believe that Northern District may not be up to the task. I offer the following examples.

    -  In the July 22 incident, 911 operators were clearly told that the break-in was still in progress and that the break-in was from the rear of the house. Police respond, instead, to the front of the home and the burglars successfully flee.

    - Again, in the July 22 incident, 911 is given a description of  the burglars specifically noting that one was wearing a cast on one arm.  During our July 29 meeting with you however, you and your officers had no knowledge that any descriptions had been provided.

    - During our July 29 meeting with you, when we offered to review the relevant police incident reports in order to identify any errors or omissions, you informed us that we would need to pay $10 for each report and wait two weeks to receive them.

    - As recently as August 4, less than a week after our meeting with you, an officer who responded to the West 31st Street break-in stated that he has no knowledge of the other recent break-ins. This alone is astounding.
I won't claim to speak for the other sixty residents of North Remington whom I've copied on this email. I will say for myself though, that I am rapidly losing faith in the the ability of the Baltimore City Police Department and Northern District in particular,  to solve these crimes.

Jon Ayscue
Wyman Parkway

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: North Baltimore
        

City police are searching for a man believed responsible for robbing women in Canton.

The suspect, Jerry Jule Harcum, is being sought by police, who say he waits for bars to close and follows groups of women who are leaving bars or restaurants and then robs them. According to the Baltimore Guide, which first reported the incidents, there have been a "string" of such incidents, though police have not widely publicized them.

We've reached out to police to try to learn more about the cases. Court records show Harcum has since August 2010 been wanted on a violation of probation warrant stemming from a firearms conviction.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Southeastern District Detective Unit at 410-396-2429, or anonymously at 1-866-7-LOCKUP.

Read more from the Baltimore Guide's South and Southeast Baltimore crime blotter here.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Southeast Baltimore
        

Full post originally appears on the Maryland Politics blog:

Mayoral challenger Otis Rolley said at a Friday news conference held across the street from where a 91-year-old woman was fatally stabbed to death this week that Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake lacks a “real plan” to address crime.

“Instead of providing leadership or proposing a real plan to make every neighborhood safer, she's running campaign commercials touting a drop in crime that began under another mayor,” Rolley said. “She knows crime is too high and she has no plan to make us safer.”

Rolley, the former city planning director, said Rawlings-Blake's strategy focuses only on “catching criminals” and not reducing crime. His plan, which he claims is the only one being offered by any of the candidates, goes beyond law enforcement and includes proposals to increase spending on youth programs and reduce recidivism by “eliminating barriers for ex-offenders.”

Rawlings-Blake this week released radio and TV ads focused on crime, saying she has worked to strengthen gun laws and avoided laying off police officers in tough budget times. Since taking office in January 2010, she has largely continued the policies that were already in place that dropped the city's murder rate to its lowest mark in 22 years, with an added emphasis on pursuing additional surveillance camera technology.

Despite the declines, Baltimore also remains one of the most deadly in the country as crime has dropped across the country. Rolley’s remarks coming on the heels of a week that saw two 15-year-olds gunned down in Southwest Baltimore and 91-year-old Irene Logan - the mother of a family friend of Rawlings-Blake - fatally stabbed inside her Northeast Baltimore home. For the year, murders are up slightly compared with a year ago.

Rawlings-Blake's campaign hit back by mocking Rolley’s crime plan, which includes among its proposals the institution of a bullet tax. The idea got nationwide attention, though much of it negative.

“His crime plan is literally a joke from Chris Rock,” said spokeswoman Keiana Page, referring to a routine from the comedian's 1999 special Bigger and Blacker (link contains explicit material) in which the he jokes that shootings would drop if bullets were more expensive. “But crime in Baltimore is a serious challenge that needs serious solutions. ... Her crime strategy is not only real, but it is working.”

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Baltimore police are searching for a suspect in Monday night's fatal shooting of Sean Eames, who was killed on Darley Avenue. 

The suspect, Ottus Maximum Savoy, pleaded guilty to assault in August 2008 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with all but five years suspended. He is currently on probation, according to electronic court records.

Here is a statement from police:

"The Baltimore Police Department is seeking the whereabouts of 18 year-old Ottus Maximum Savoy for the fatal-shooting that occurred within the 1600 Blk of Darley Avenue.

On August 1, 2011, officers responded just after 11 pm to the 1600 Blk of Darley Avenue for report of a shooting.  Once they arrived they discovered the victim, 24 year-old Sean Eames, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the torso.  He was transported to the Johns Hopkins Medical Facility and succumbed to his injuries just before 1:30 am.

Investigation has lead detectives to identify 18 year-old Ottus Savoy as the individual responsible for the homicide and we are now seeking the public's help in locating him.

To give police a tip:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Baltimore County prosecutors have released the plea agreement they made with Teonna Monae Brown, the 19-year-old charged with beating a transgendered woman in a McDonald's, a case that caused a sensation when the video went viral.

Watch two videos the case: an interview with Polis and a surveillance video of the fight.

Brown pleaded guilty to assault and committing a hate crime in the attack on Chrissy Polis. Prosecutors said they will seek a prison term of five years when Brown is sentenced in September. Here is the plea agreement:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

Irene Logan’s murder leaves nearly thirty people without their matriarch. For three children, eight grandchildren and more than a dozen great-grandchildren, Logan was the family’s bedrock.

“She loved taking care of people,” Irene Ushry, Logan’s daughter, told The Sun's Steve Kilar on Thursday. Ushry found her 91-year-old mother, stabbed to death, on the floor of their small kitchen upon returning from work about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon.

Family members gathered outside the house as police investigated into the evening. Thursday afternoon, buckets of chicken and donuts waited on the table for family and friends who stopped by the home to grieve and share condolences.

Ushry said that she did not notice any signs of forced entry at the home in the 4700 block of Moravia Road. The first floor bedroom, though, had been rummaged through, she said.
The kitchen, where the woman’s body was found, is at the back of the house. An exterior door, off the driveway, opens into the white-tiled room.

A police spokesman said on Thursday that only “costume jewelry” had been taken from the home, and he confirmed there were no signs of forced entry.

Logan was born in Virginia but moved to Baltimore while she was a child, Ushry said. She was married for more than 50 years, until 1999 when her husband died.

Almost all of Logan’s family lives in Baltimore, Ushry said. Before moving to Baltimore’s eastside, Ushry said, her mother lived in West Baltimore and continued to regularly attend St. Ambrose Catholic Church Park Heights until her death.

“She was a very active, active woman,” Ushry said. “She loved to go to church, she loved dancing. She was very friendly.”

Steve's full story can be found here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore
        

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake had some strong words about an elderly woman who was stabbed to death in her Northeast Baltimore home on Wednesday. She talked to The Sun's Justin Fenton at an event to tout more surveillance cameras.

The mayor knows the victim's son, a community activist. Read the story on the slaying here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Northeast Baltimore
        

Breaking news from Justin Fenton:

The four officers involved in the fatal shooting of a police officer and an unarmed 22-year-old man outside a downtown Baltimore club in January will not face criminal charges, the city state's attorney's office announced this afternoon.

Also cleared of wrongdoing is at least one civilian who got into an altercation with Officer William H. Torbit Jr., which is believed to have prompted the series of shootings that killed Torbit and bar patron Sean Gamble.

Investigators believed that Torbit shot and killed bar patron Sean Gamble in a struggle, and that the four uniformed officers returned fire unaware that Torbit was a fellow officer. Forty-one rounds were fired by the five officers, including Torbit.

Read full story here.

Mayor's statement:

Today, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake released a statement on the charging decision made by the Baltimore City State’s Attorney in the police-involved shooting that occurred on January 9, 2011. The incident resulted in the death of police officer William Torbit, Jr., and Mr. Sean Gamble.

In February 2011, Mayor Rawlings-Blake appointed an independent panel of national law enforcement experts to review the incident and recommend changes to policies and procedures to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.

 “This incident was a terrible and painful tragedy that we should never forget,” said Mayor Rawlings-Blake. “The independent review board that I established to review policies and procedures related to this incident has been working hard over the past several months, and I expect it to complete its work in the coming weeks and recommend changes to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.”

 “Now that the State’s Attorney has made final charging decisions, Commissioner Bealefeld and I have asked the City Law Department to promptly review the investigative file and publicly release its contents as soon as possible.” said Mayor Rawlings-Blake.

The Independent Review Board will issue a written report in the coming weeks to Mayor Rawlings-Blake and Commissioner Bealefeld at the conclusion of its review that summarizes the steps it undertook to conduct the review, its findings and recommendations. The board was tasked to:

• Review the Baltimore Police Department’s investigation of the incident and its findings.
• Conduct a comprehensive review of the circumstances surrounding the events of January 9, 2011.
• Review the use of lethal force by officers of the Baltimore Police Department and determine whether or not the use of force was consistent with existing law and departmental policy.
• Review existing departmental policies and procedures and identify any policy violations that occurred.
• Identify best practices to improve BPD’s policies related to incident response and incident management. This assessment shall include, but not be limited to, the following issues:

o Identification of plain clothes officer
o Crowd control techniques in an urban setting
o Deployment and incident command in emergencies
o Judgmental shooting training

• Review Baltimore Police Department training practices related to use of force, crowd control and firearms training and make recommendations for improvement.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Police shootings
        

Breaking news from Andrea Siegel:

A teenager whose beating of a transgender woman at a Rosedale McDonald's was captured on a video (one above is from a McDonald's surveillance camera, provided by the Baltimore County State's Attorney's Office) that went viral online pleaded guilty Thursday to the attack.

Teonna Monae Brown, 19, pleaded guilty in a Baltimore County courtroom to one court of first-degree assault and one count of a hate crime in the attack on Chrissy Polis, 22, said Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger.

The April attack brought attention nationwide to the plight of transgender people, with thousands signing online petitions and holding rallies. Prosecutors expect to seek a prison term of five years when Brown is sentenced next month.

The girl who was charged as a juvenile in the same attack admitted her role in juvenile court on July 1 and was committed to a locked facility, Shellenberger said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake today climbed into a lift and rose above Pennsylvania Avenue to install the 60th surveillance camera added to the city's network of surveillance cameras since she took office.

The new camera, placed at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Presstman Street on a block undergoing a renaissance of sorts, brings to 538 the number of cameras keeping watch across Baltimore.

"I'm a big proponent of using technology to create efficiencies and also create more effectiveness," Rawlings-Blake said. "That's what these cameras do - they're a force multiplier. The areas where we have them, we have seen crime reductions of 25 percent."

Maj. Dennis Smith, the commander of the Central District, said he has long desired a camera on the block. Sheryl Goldstein, director of the Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice, noted that the block used to be bounded by vacant buildings - now, on one side of the street are two rehabbed homes, across the street is a spiffy "holistic ministry" center, and catercorner from there is a garden park where children were playing.

The mayor's office said 30 more cameras will be put up soon in Northeast Baltimore in the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello, South Clifton Park and Darley Park neighborhoods.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

The American Civil Liberties Union has informed the Baltimore Police Department of its intention to sue on behalf of a man who they say was wrongfully detained and had videos deleted from his camera after he was observed filming officers "roughing up" a female friend of his at the 2010 Preakness.

The Sun last year posted a video of the same incident but which was filmed by another person and made it onto YouTube, showing an officer telling the person recording that it was "illegal to record anybody's voice or anything else in the state of Maryland." You can see that clip above.

The ACLU says that it officers detained Christopher Sharp and deleted his videos, including many of his young son, after he declined to surrender his cell phone as "evidence." The civil liberties group has requested that the BPD "immediately cease officers' interference with citizens' rights to record encounters with police."

"Police officers doing their jobs in a public place are accountable to the public they serve, and camera phones have become an important accountability tool," said the Maryland ACLU's legal director Deborah Jean. "It is antithetical to a democracy for the government to tell its citizens that they do not have the right to record what government officials say or do or how they behave in public."

The ACLU provided a statement from Sharp, who said he was "heartbroken over the videos I lost of my son and I doing things together," such as soccer and basketball games, time at the beach, and the Howard County fair. "It kills me that the police acted as if it was okay for them to ... just wipe out some of my fondest memories. I used to trust police, but now I don't anymore."

Asked to respond to the letter, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said: "As you know, our longstanding policy is not to comment on pending litigation or threats of litigation."

The ACLU last year successfully defended a motorcyclist named Anthony Graber who faced criminal charges in Harford County for recording a state trooper after he was pulled over for speeding. 

Here's a link to a blog post on the Preakness arrest, with police offering their side of why the woman was being detained. Before the video surfaced, police said no one had been arrested at the event. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein is to announce this afternoon a decision on whether to prosecute anyone in January's Select Lounge shooting, in which city police officers mistakenly shot and killed a colleague during a fight outside a bar.

A separate review by a panel of law enforcement experts are still conducting a separate review into the case to determine whether proper police procedure was followed and whether any changes need to be made. The department has already curtailed the deployment of plainclothes officers.

Officer William H. Torbit Jr., along with 22-year-old Sean Gamble, were killed in the shooting.

Torbit, 33, was on duty and in plainclothes when he was overcome by a crowd leaving Select Lounge on North Paca Street. Police said he fired during the altercation, killing Gamble. Other officers then opened fire on Torbit, unaware that he was a fellow officer.

Bernstein could announce indictments against the officers, or say that the investigation proved the incident to be a tragic mistake. His news conference is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Police shootings
        

Maryland State Police have charged a man with assaulting a woman on I-83 after authorities say he rear-ended her vehicle and then tried to get her to not report the incident.

Michael Henshaw, 30, of York, Pa., was charged with second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and robbery. Police also said he is being charged with driving on a suspended license, reckless driving and failure to remain at the scene of an accident.

The incident occurred Friday, July 29, about 10 p.m. in Parkton. The woman and man were each driving northbound when police said a man in Jeep hit the woman's car. Both stopped and got out, and police said the man offered the woman money to not call police and settle on the side.

When the woman tried to dial 911 from her cell phone, police said the suspect "knocked her to the ground," grabbed her phone and punched her in the face. She managed to run away but police said the man grabbed her again and dragged toward some woods. She got away again, got back to her car and drove away.

Police said they arrested Henshaw at his house after releasing a composite sketch of the suspect and putting out a description of the Jeep, which had front-end damage. Police said numerous people called with tips. He was being held in a jail in York, Pa., pending extradition to Maryland.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

Baltimore police just announced this arrest in a gun case:

"Working on intelligence that an armed individual was selling guns in west Baltimore, detectives with the Baltimore Police Violent Crime Impact Section conducted an investigation in the area of 2300 Eutaw Place and arrested a man with a loaded assault riffle equipped with a suppressor and pistol grip.

Suspect Evan Jackson (B/M - 5/4/87, photo attached) was arrested last night around 6pm and charged with firearm violations. He was taken into custody after leading detectives on a brief foot pursuit. Jackson is known to police and has prior gun arrests from 2005 and 2008."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: West Baltimore
        

A 34-year-old man from northern Baltimore County is among 72 people charged this week with participating in an international child pornography ring that federal authorities say traded in tens of thousands of illicit images.

The Associated Press, citing immigration officials, named the suspect as Desmond Meredith, of the 21000 block of York Road in Freeland. He faces several charges including sexual exploitation of children and engaging in child pornography. He was indicted by a grand jury in Shreveport, La.

Court documents show the indictment was returned in October and unsealed on Wednesday, when law enforcement authorities in Washington announced the investigation, called Operation Delego, and made arrests in more than a half-dozen states.

Prosecutors said the suspects were part of a members-only Internet club called Dreamboard which they said had 600 members around the world. Court documents show numerous participants are accused of sexually abusing children, producing images and videos and sharing them with other club members.

Meredith was originally indicted in October as John Doe #7, with a Internet name of “Beast.” Subsequent court documents, made public on Wednesday, identify him by name.

The indictment alleges that June 2009, and February and November 2010, he posted advertisements on Dreamboard offering to distribute computer files containing child pornography. One file, according to the indictment, was called, “Set of pictures labeled BD Young Strawberry,” and another was titled, “Angelica & Friends.”

Baltimore County police in 2004 charged Meredith with several counts of burglary and theft, and he was found not criminally responsible for the crimes. Court records show that he was committed to psychiatric care at Spring Grove Hospital and released in 2005.

Meredith’s attorney, Stephen A. Glassell, based in Shreveport, La., did not return calls seeking comment this morning.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

In addition to the 91-year-old woman who stabbed to death in her Northeast Baltimore house Wednesday evening, city police are investigating several shootings.

The latest shooting occurred this morning at Monastery and Frederick avenues in Southwest Baltimore. Police said an adult male was shot in the side. Shorlty after midnight, an adult male was shot multiple times in the 2300 block Allendale Road in Northwest Baltimore.

About 10 p.m., police reported a man shot in the back in the 1700 block of Presstman St., in West Baltimore. in Sandtown-Winchester.

Details were slim on these cases this morning. We'll have more as information develops.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods, Northeast Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore, Southwest Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

Sun reporter Steve Kilar is in Northeast Baltimore with this breaking news:

An elderly woman was fatally stabbed in her home in the 4700 block of Moravia Road in Northeast Baltimore, police said Wednesday evening.

Irene Logan, 91, was found on the floor by her daughter, Irene Ushry, around 4:30 p.m. when she came home from work, said Logan's son-in-law, Frank Ushry, who owns the house.

"Every time I think about it, it hurts me," he said.

Frank Ushry said his wife told him that the house was ransacked but there did not appear to be signs of forced entry. Irene Logan had been home alone during the day, he said.

Frank Ushry said home had been broken into a year ago but no one was home at that time.

We'll update this story as more information becomes available. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 8:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Northeast Baltimore
        

Animal abuse cases have gotten a lot of attention in Baltimore lately, starting with the pit bull named Phoenix who was doused with gasoline and badly burned. Reporter Jill Rosen (author of the unleashed pet blog) writes about another horrific case (full story here): 

Ethan Phillip Weibman (mug shot at left from Baltimore Police Department) went to the Maryland SPCA and from the dozens of cats, police say he chose a short-haired one named Lucy to adopt.  He returned to the shelter two days later with the cat — dead, according to authorities. And, they said, he wanted another one.

Shelter officials refused and later, when they determined the cat died from a traumatic blast wound to the chest that left her unable to breathe, and suffered bruising on her head, Weibman was charged in the animal’s death.

The 20-year-old, a short-time Baltimore resident originally from an affluent hamlet in Westchester, N.Y., is  scheduled to go on trial this fall on charges of animal cruelty resulting in death, mutilating an animal and animal cruelty.

Baltimore police also charged him with additional criminal counts related to beating another cat — two weeks after authorities say he had brought Lucy’s body back to the SPCA. Court documents say Weibman is a suspect in the deaths of five more cats and kittens.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

It was a transcript of his interview with the FBI. In it, Kareem Kelly Guest had named named, outed a drug organization in Westport and helped put away a slew of dangerous felons. But one of their defense attorneys, who got the document as part of the discovery process, gave it to his client.

The document ended up posted all over Westport, which federal prosecutors say was akin to a death sentence. Guest was executed, shot twice in the back and four times in the head. And now his suspected killers are on trial in federal court.

The Sun's Tricia Bishop walks us through the openings of this trial, which included an admission by the now disbarred defense attorney about how he gave up the document, a violation of rules set down by prosecutors.

Here is the story.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, South Baltimore, Witness intimidation
        

Neighborhoods throughout Maryland participated in National Night Out against crime on Tuesday. The Sun's Steve Kilar visited a block party on Edmondson Avenue, in a tiny enclave called Evergreen. It was one of 40 events in the city alone.

At left, Ricky Falcon, holding son Ryan Falcon, 12 months old, makes a bet with flight officer Arnie Russo about whether Falcon can fly the police helicopter during at Helen Mackall Park. The photo was taken by The Sun's Karl Merton Ferron.

Here is part of what Steve found:

Police officers shook hands and answered questions from citizens concerned about the safety of their neighborhood. Three blocks away from the festivities, less than a month ago, a woman and her baby were carjacked and she was forced to jump onto the highway, clutching her child, to escape her abductor. In June, two blocks west, a man was shot dead.

Maj. Robert Booker, who has been in charge of the city's Western District police force for about two years, wants to make a positive impression on children before gang members and drug dealers can turn them against police.

"They put this cloud over the Police Department," said Booker. "Once they start seeing stuff like this, they realize that it's not true, what the drug dealers and the gangs are saying about police."

Booker admits that some kids see drug dealers more often than they see police. He's increased the number of officers on foot patrol in the district, he said, to increase young people's positive associations with the department.

"My son is scared of them," said Keyana Jones, who lives in Park Heights, of her 4-year-old boy. "He's seen a couple of his relatives locked up."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Crime elsewhere, Southwest Baltimore
        

Maryland State Police looking for a man in a case of road-rage.

They say he assaulted a woman on northbound I-83 after rear-ending her vehicle near Parkton, and then pleading with her to not report the accident.

Police said the man offered her money to settle.

The woman refused, police said, and the man knocked her to the ground and held her here, refusing to let her go until she promised nto to call the police.

When she tried to run, police said he chased her down, dragger her toward trees and threatened to kill her.

More detail and a description of the attacker:

Statement from police:

Maryland State Police are searching for a man who reportedly assaulted a woman on Interstate I-83 after rear-ending her vehicle.

Police have issued a composite sketch of a male suspect.  He is described as a clean shaven, Caucasian man in his mid twenties, approximately 5’5” to 5’9”, with a tan complexion, thin muscular build, dark hair and dark eyes.  He is described as wearing his hair in a “buzz cut".

The man, who police are searching for, was driving a dark colored Jeep Wrangler with a soft top and possibly Pennsylvania tags. Police believe the Jeep to have front end damage, as a result of the incident.

On Friday evening, July 29, 2011, at approximately 10:00 p.m., a woman was driving a blue 2005 Toyota Corolla, northbound on I-83 near Exit #33, York Road, when her vehicle was struck from behind. Immediately, both vehicles pulled over on to the shoulder of I-83.

Both drivers, believed to be alone in their respective vehicles, exited their vehicles.  The man, driving the Jeep, approached the woman and pleaded with her, offering her money to settle the incident.   

The woman dialed 9-1-1 from her cell phone.  The man then knocked her to the ground.  He forcibly grabbed her phone, threw it and assaulted her, punching her multiple times. 

Police were told that at one point he agreed to let her go if she promised to leave the scene without calling police.  She agreed, released herself from his grip and ran into the travel lanes in attempt to wave down a passing vehicle. 

The man reportedly chased her, grabbed her and then dragged her toward the wood line as he continued to threaten her life.   Prior to reaching the wood line, she was able to free herself once again from his grip.  She was able to break away after punching him in the face.  Once free, she ran back to her vehicle and fled the scene. 

Police are asking for anyone who may have witnessed the incident or who recognize the composite sketch, to call Trooper First Class Taylor at the Golden Ring Barrack at 410-780-2700.   All calls will remain confidential.  

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

Baltimore police say an officer shot an armed man in Northwest Baltimore early Tuesday. Here, Baltimore Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi explains the shooting. The man was criticially wounded, and police said they recovered his gun.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore, Police shootings
        

On Monday, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake released her campaign's first paid advertisement, a radio commercial focused on crime that begins airing today. In the 60 second ad, she talks about the stabbing of her brother in 2002, and highlights her crime-fighting initiatives, such as her plan to hire officers and efforts to tighten gun laws in Annapolis. The ad appears to overstate the city's current crime picture, however, saying the murder rate is at its lowest point in 26 years though statistics show its at the lowest rate in 23 years.

(UPDATE: A campaign spokeswoman says the 26-year low is a reference to the total number of murders, which is indeed at its lowest point since 1985. She said the word "rate" was used as a colloquial term that voters would identify with. I argued that it's still misleading, though this is also not a gross distortion).

You can listen to the ad here, and here's the text:

“Crime is down in Baltimore. Murder is at its lowest rate in 26 years, but if you or a loved one has been a victim of violence, statistics do not matter. This is Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Like many of you, a family member of mine was a victim of violent crime. It is something you live with everyday of your life. My public safety plan will help make every neighborhood safer. We are locking up criminals with a history of violence. We are fighting for stronger state laws on illegal guns and this year we will hire more new police officers. Every step of the way, we are working with neighborhoods, community activists and religious leaders to make sure those policies protect all our citizens. It won't be easy, but we will never rest until all our neighborhoods are safe. This is Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. I need your help and your vote on September 13 so that every neighborhood in Baltimore is safer.”

Sworn into office 18 months ago, Rawlings-Blake has made public safety a top priority as Mayor. Despite having two years of budget deficits, the Rawlings-Blake Administration has fully funded the police department budget and implemented an aggressive plan to hire hundreds of new police officers.  She’s also worked with elected officials and community leaders to push for stronger state laws for illegal guns and this year."

For more on the candidates' views on crime, click here for The Sun's story from Monday.

City murder rates over the years posted after the jump:

Year - Murders - Population - Murder rate

1985 - 213 - 761,601 - 27.967 - Lowest raw total prior to 2011
1986 - 240 - 761,416 - 31.52
1987 - 226 - 751,327 - 30.08
1988 - 234 - 748,284 - 31.272 - Lowest rate prior to 2011
1989 - 262 - 740,697 - 35.372
1990 - 305 - 735,632 - 41.461
1991 - 304 - 735,835 - 41.314
1992 - 335 - 731,227 - 45.813
1993 - 353 - 723,802 - 48.77
1994 - 321 - 713,248 - 45.005
1995 - 325 - 701,685 - 46.317
1996 - 331 - 688,542 - 48.073
1997 - 312 - 677,342 - 46.062
1998 - 313 - 667,479 - 46.893
1999 - 305 - 657,441 - 46.392
2000 - 261 - 648,615 - 40.24
2001 - 256 - 645,253 - 39.674
2002 - 253 - 645,253 - 39.21
2003 - 270 - 642,324 - 42.035
2004 - 276 - 641,004 - 43.057
2005 - 269 - 640,064 - 42.027
2006 - 276 - 640,961 - 43.06
2007 - 282 - 640,150 - 44.052
2008 - 234 - 638,091 - 36.672
2009 - 238 - 637,418 - 37.338
2010 - 223 - 639,929 - 34.848

Note: Population figures come from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting program and are estimates. Census figures may differ. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: City Hall
        

A city police officer shot and wounded a man who authorities say was armed with a handgun early today in the 3900 block of Carlisle AVe., in Northwest Baltimore's Windsor Hills neighborhood. It's located west of Lake Ashburton.

Details are still coming in, but police said in a statement that the officer approached "an individual armed with a handgun. The officer fired at least one round and the suspect is struck at least once."

Police described the wounded man an adult who was taken to an area hospital where he was in critical and stable condition. Police said the officer was not hurt and the handgun was found at the scene. A news conference has tentatively been scheduled for later this morning. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore, Police shootings, West Baltimore
        

National Night Out has become a big community event, getting residents and cops together to take back the streets. Below is a list of events in the city and the counties, scheduled for today, Aug. 2

National Night outs:

Baltimore City

Baltimore County

Harford County

Anne Arundel County

Howard County

I could only find one in Carroll County, in Eldersburg. Here is a link to details. If anyone knows of more here, please let me know and I'll post.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Carroll County, City Hall, Confronting crime, East Baltimore, Howard County, Neighborhoods, North Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore, South Baltimore, Southeast Baltimore, Southwest Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

With 43 days left to the mayoral campaign, one usually hot topic appears to be strangely in the background -- crime.

Reporters Julie Scharper and Justin Fenton visited the Erdman Shopping Center, where a delivery man was killed in a robbery earlier this year, to hear people's thoughts. One man showed off his knife wound and complained that his prison record kept him from finding a job. Another woman said, "All you hear, all day is ambulances and police cars, ambulances and police cars. Somebody got hurt. Somebody got killed."

Northeast Baltimore has become one of the violent police districts, and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake visited this very shopping center just before assuming office. The area hasn't improved much.

Plans to curtail vary among the candidates -- one wants to tax bullets and reduce penalties for marijuhana; another doesn't believe the stats from the the cops and wants an audit; a third wants more drug treatment beds; a fourth wants says more jobs are the key; the mayor wants to hire another 350 officers.

Read Julie's and Justin's full story here.

Read Justin's report on crime in Northeast Baltimore

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Northeast Baltimore
        

Breaking news from reporter Liz Kay:

Baltimore Police are investigating the fatal shootings of two 15-year-old boys in West Baltimore that investigators believe are related.

Officers responded to the 1100 block of Wedgewood Road in the West Hills neighborhood at 9:12 p.m. for a call of a serious shooting, police said. When they arrived, they found the victim, Dominic Perry.

A medical crew took the boy to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later, according to police. Police said an unknown person approached Dominic and fired several shots that struck him, then fled the scene. Investigators have no suspects or motives in the incident.

Then, at 4:30 a.m. another 15-year-old was shot one block away from where Dominic was shot, in the 1100 block of Cooks Lane, according to police. The second teen's name has not been released, and police gave no other details.

NOTE: The 1100 block of Cooks Lane is where police said a man armed with a rifle shot and wounded a city police officer just three weeks ago.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Southwest Baltimore