So we still don't know why they did it, other than a prank. It turned out to be an expensive one -- they all had to chip and write a check to the Orioles for $7,618. That's for the theft of a single digit!

That prompted the quote of the day from defense attorney John Grason Turnbull III, who told me he told his client, "You're lucky you didn't take the Number 33. It would've been twice as expensive."

Remember, this is the case in which Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld commented, "Don't come to Baltimore to be a moron." Three of the four defendants are from Essex.

The person in this drawing may be connected to the following incidents:

The first occurred Friday just after 6 a.m. at a bus stop in the 1300 block of Harford Ave. A 19-year-old woman was dragged to North Central Avenue, where a man punched her in the face repeatedly, stripped her naked and sexually assaulted her. The woman, suffering from a head injury, flagged down patrol officers.

On Saturday, at 2:45 a.m. in the 400 block of Colvin St., a 55-year-old woman told police she was leaving a late-night church event and was making her way to a bus stop when she was approached by a man who grabbed her by the throat. He brandished a shard of glass and dragged her to an abandoned parking lot, where she was raped.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Baltimore Police Department's Sexual Assault unit at 410-396-2076. Here's a map of recent attacks.

Mark Hughes, the reporter from The Independent who is here trying to see if Baltimore is indeed like The Wire, is unfortunately finding it easy to find our dysnfunction.

Already, the top prosecutor has told him her office's relationship with police is "schizophrenic," which must get him wondering why the two primary law enforcement agencies can't get along, which in turn must be one reason crime is so high.

The top cops won't talk to him, but he's met a few on Citizen On Patrol walks and Tuesday night he hit the streets with the police union president, who took him to a fatal shooting and other intense calls. Here's a bit from his blog, "Crime: A Tale of Two Cities":

The scene was one which must be familiar to officers, but was new to me. A car riddled with bullet-holes was crashed into another vehicle. Through the open passenger door I could see blood soaking the seat. And on the ground were multiple bullet casings, circled with red chalk and each marked with a yellow number. After listening to detectives exchange theories on what might have happened we left and headed to a project block nearby. There we met two patrolmen who suspected some men in the projects of holding a drug stash. The four police officers split up, two went one side, two the other. Justin and I followed the union guys. Two minutes later, amid the shouts of “five-0”, we heard a scream. The union cops ran in the direction of the shout. Justin and I, for some reason, ran too. When we reached the other side of the projects we learned that the scream was that of a man who was now in handcuffs. After some questioning and a search (no drugs were found) he was released and told to go home.

Later, Mark wrote about how most victims of homicide and most of those suspected of killing them have criminal records, which helps explain that while Baltimore has the country's second-highest murder rate, it's still not terribly dangerous for people engaged in legitimate activities.

It does hearten me that Mark is surprised that so many people seem to be following his work on line and in the newspaper. He always seems surprised when someobody recognizes him, such as when he went out on a walk in South Baltimore's Riverside neighborhhood. And even with the top cops not talking to him, he's met plenty of officers and citizens who have gone out of their way to help him.

Last night, we went on a Citizen On Patrol walk in Southeast Baltimore, in the Patterson Park area. He met a new group of residents striving to keep their neighborhood safe, though it was much quieter than one he did earlier this week in Riverside.

None of the residents or the cop, Officer Eddy Arias (above, chatting with Mark, in a picture taken by The Sun's Gene Sweeney), made any arrests (unlike in Riverside) but he did overhear a call on is radio for a report of shots fired two blocks from where we were at the time, Ellwood and Fairmount.

One of the four young men charged with stealing Cal Ripken Jr.'s statue from in front of Camden Yards back in September pleaded guilty this morning to theft. Jason Stoneburner, left, got a two year suspended jail sentence, probation, community service and will have to pay the Orioles $1904.50.

I guess that's how much the statues outside the ballpark are worth. Three others charged in the crime that left the city marveling at its brazenness and audacity have requested a jury trial that is scheduled to begin on Friday.

As you might remember, the statue was torn off its base, put in a pickup truck and driven around the city until the suspects got into an argument that prompted a resident near Patterson Park to dial 911. Cops came, found the statue and arrested them.

It prompted Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III to proclaim on television: "Don't come to Baltimore to act like a moron."

Relations between prosecutors and cops seemed to have improved since the 1990s when they went at it tooth and nail (who can forget O'Malley's profanity-laced tirade against Jessamy) but it appears that there's still some mending to do. I know prosecutors are upset over cop no-shows at trials and over a list Jessamy keeps of officers she deems unfit to testify, rendering them practically useless as cops. And her office has always complained over the quality of policing and what they feel are "abatement" arrests that clog the system but don't go anywhere.

Police routinely complain that Jessamy's office doesn't win as many convictions as they would like and dumps cases by the truckload.

It's an old argument and one that Mark saw first hand while touring the Riverside neighborhood on Monday. He watched cops arrest two strung-out addicts for being disorderly -- they refused to leave the area after an officer told them too. The community love the cops for taking swifty action, but the charges will never hold up.

A perfect example of bad charges, prosecutors say

A perfect example of good community policing, the residents say

The only way to solve a problem and prevent something more serious later on, the cops say

And around and around we go.

Here's the broader picture this argument presents to our visitor: that police and prosecutors, who should be on the same side fighting crime, don't have the same priorities. And that makes the system appear dysfunctional at best.

It was just last near that the body of Nicole Desiree Sesker was found in Northwest Baltimore, the day after her 39th birthday. In 2005, the New York Times talked at length about her for a story on Baltimore, and how a big-city police chief handled a relative strung on drugs and surviving by prostitution. Above, in a picture by The Sun's Andre Chung, police officers question Sesker after arresting a drug suspect in Northwest Baltimore a day after The Times story was published.

Hamm, a product of Baltimore, was one of the first police commanders I had ever met, and he called me angry about one of the first stories I had ever written. He was commander of the Central District at the time, 1994, and I had written about a man wounded in a hatchet attack. It was a short story, but the then-Evening Sun gave it big play above the fold for its early afternoon edition. He thought we had hyped the story, and he was right.

The New York Times wrote about Hamm and his daughter because it showed how, in a city already known for its addiction to drugs and violence, even the police chief's daughter is not immune. Hamm talked about how difficult it was given she refused all help, and when we had reporters go out the next day, we found police, the very ones who worked for Hamm, arresting a man and giving a lecture to Sesker. In the profile, the New York Times ran a picture of Sesker standing on a corner prostituting herself.

A difficult time for the city. A telling story about how drugs has ravaged some neighborhoods and some lives. And proof that arrests won't get us out of this problem.

He chatted with residents about crime (they're most concerned with car break-ins, loitering and grime) and learned that these walks are an opportunity for people to point out everything from dangling power lines to trash that needs to be picked up to blighted houses. At left, Mark is talking with the Southern District commander, Maj. Scott Bloodsworth, in an alley near Heath and Light streets.

One of the sergeants on the walk ended up arresting a man and a woman on a disorderly charge (the woman was high and both refused to leave), at least temporarily abating a problem for the night.  Mark is here in part because The Wire is so successful in Great Britain (The Sun's Justin Fenton is headed there on Wednesday), but walking through Riverside was a chance for him to see a neighborhood with other, more pedestrian problems.

Mark has a blog up to recount his experiences, and he and The Sun's crime reporter Justin Fenton are on the Ed Norris show, (105.7-FM) this morning at 8:10 a.m. At left, Bloodsworth chats with a woman one of his officers had just arrested on a disorderly charge at Light and Heath streets.

Just before the walk, the spokesman for the mayor's office, suggesting a better column than one was planning to write, sent me a suggestion of his own (NFS stands for non-fatal shooting):

"The Mayor was sworn in on January 17, 2007.  She has been Mayor for 1,022 days. In that 1,022 days, there have been 2,276 combined homicides and NFS. In the 1,022 days before she took office (April 1, 2004 to January 16, 2007) there were 2,558 combined homicides and NFS.  This represents 282 less combined homicides and shootings – a decrease of 11%"

If those numbers are accurate, in the 1,000 days before Sheila Dixon became mayor, the city averaged 2.50 shootings and homicides a day. Under her tenure, the average has dropped to 2.23 a day. There's a disconnect between fear of crime and stats that city leaders just don't seem to get.

Does a crime drop of a few tenths of a percentage point make you feel any safer? Do you even know what that means?

They did a bit better this time than in the Mount Vernon area last year, when they didn't even tell the residents in the neighborhood, even as detectives were putting up posters with sketches of possible suspects. This time, as Justin Fenton reports, police say commenders were informing residents. But the department failed to update the general public with postings on Twitter and Facebook, or through the news media.

They do a good job of notifying the public about shootings and slayings -- often with posts just moments after the first reports come into 911. But a serial rapist (or possibly two) that triggers a large-scale police operation (and rightfully so) in which women are targeted at bus stops and in one case walking home from church, requires a citywide alert.

Reading Justin Fenton's story in today's Baltimore Sun, the attacks are vicious, in some cases women were threatened with shards of glass and dragged into abandoned parking lots. Many occurred over the Halloween weekend.

They need $150,000 to survive the year. A fund-raising effort has netted $70,698.34. Sheryl Goldstein from the mayor's crime office is emphatic that the mounted unit is not going away. "The Unit is intact and the plan is to keep it that way," she told me.

It turns out that Baltimore's is not the only horse unit in trouble. In Boston, supporters of that department's mounted unit started a Facebook page, called Save the Boston Police Mounted Unit, where it was noted the Boston Red Sox donated $400,000 to the department.

But it seems to have gone for naught -- the 140-year-old Boston Police mounted unit disbanded this summer and the Boston Globe reported the horses were bought by a local sheriff and are now resting comfortably on a farm. Five other horses went to the New York Police Department.

To donate money to help the Baltimore Police Department's mounted unit:

What an introduction for a reporter who wants to see if Baltimore measures up to The Wire.

His first view of the city: heading south on St. Paul, east on Orleans to Milton Avenue where a man had been shot in the stomach. I pull up to the crime scene tape, his suitcases still rattling in the back, to find cops looking for a 9mm handgun. The victim survived. It was the first shooting in this neighborhood in a number of months, which for here is a good sign.

Crime scene tape blocked the street; overhead a neighborhood sign showed an image of a body outline and the words "Enough is enough." Up the street, blue light surveillance cameras blinked nonstop.

I want Mark to come away from Baltimore feeling the way I do: yes, there's violence, and more of it than in London and other American cities, but this is a vibrant, exciting and fun place to live, safe in most neighborhoods. We left Milton Avenue and had dinner in Federal Hill, where bars were packed with Ravens fans celebrating the victory, a world away from Milton Avenue and blue light police cameras.

In addition to updates here, we have a blog set up for Mark and Justin to talk about their experiences. Justin heads off to London on Wednesday and will be reporting back on what he sees there. Both reporters will be on the Ed Norris show on Tuesday. As soon as I get a time confirmed, I'll post here.

Meanwhile, welcome Mark to Baltimore.

Many questions remain, and much has been written about this grieving family. I did a two-part series last year and many blogs. The family wrote an op-ed piece last month for this newspaper, and today the Washington Post did an anniversary story). Baltimore police concluded she took her own life by drinking a bottle of Bactine. The Medical Examiner's Office has ruled the death undetermined. Her family says there are too many mysteries to let this case go. (Part I and Part II of a a two-part series last year)

Among the questions:

-- notes left behind indicating suicide but with substantial parts crossed out and one, which left on her bed, indicating she had changed her mind and decided to run away instead

-- how did she get to Baltimore, a city she had only come to a few times in the past, and given she had a terrible time following the simplest of driving directions

-- Could she have killed herself by injesting a 5-ounce bottle of Bactine, which contains the poison lidocaine? Baltimore authorities say yes; a private pathologist hired by the family says no.

-- Police and private investigators have located some if not all the Baltimore teens who say they found her abandoned car, moved her body out of the back seat and took it for a joy ride. The car was found several blocks away. Police have not charged any of the youths with crimes and the family their efforts to file charges to press them to talk have been thwarted by police.

-- The family  has talked with several people who saw Annie in Baltimore before she died but none of their leads, and sketches, have panned out. Was Annie with anyone in the city or did she come alone? Was she lured here by a predator in Virginia (there's still some mysterious calls on her cell phone)?

Here is an updated letter the McCanns have put out on the anniversary of their daughter's death:

Today marks a cruel anniversary for us.  Family and friends join our son Sam and us in mourning the loss one year ago of our beautiful daughter, Annie.

Since March 20th, we have known that the Baltimore Police Department has concluded, wrongly, that Annie’s death was due to suicide.  They continue to acknowledge that many, many circumstances surrounding her disappearance and death are unanswered. They are convinced, though, that Annie killed herself by drinking from a partially empty container of Bactine, containing a tiny amount, perhaps a thimbleful, of lidocaine.

We can confirm reporting today in The Washington Post that Dr. Michael Baden, one of the world’s pre-eminent forensic pathologists, has effectively ruled out suicide as the cause of Annie’s death.  Dr, Baden adds further, and with inescapable conviction, that it would require several full containers of Bactine to produce the levels of lidocaine found in Annie’s system.  He concludes that Annie almost certainly died as a result of murder, manslaughter, or accident.  “I would have to know more about the circumstances of the lidocaine ingestion,” said Dr. Baden, “but in no way can this be classified a suicide.”

Who should we believe?  Dr, Baden, a world-class expert who has been consulted on autopsies from President Kennedy to Michael Jackson?  Or the State Medical Examiner, who has lost Annie’s internal organs?

We are stunned to learn from the Post that the Baltimore Police Department believed from the onset of its investigation that Annie death’s was a suicide. This completely undermines the fundamental integrity of the entire investigation into Annie’s death, by the only agency to look into it. What leading questions were asked? What clues were missed, ignored, or discarded? 

Has any witness or any evidence been examined with any rigor? Apparently, the Baltimore Police Department has been completely wrong, and completely close-minded, from the very start.
Told loud enough, the story of what happened to Annie in Baltimore, and what has happened to us since, could blow a fair-sized hole in Baltimore’s three billion dollar a year tourism industry.

The story involves still-misplaced organs…a homicide unit being slowly crushed under the weight of accumulating bodies…an autopsy leaked to the press in February, but withheld from the family until June…senior police officials, armed with handguns but no facts, pounding a table and shouting at grieving parents…the Mayor and other city officials taking as long as four months to answer explicit requests for a beautiful girl’s baby blankets and rosary…police officials fabricating non-existent fingerprint evidence, and concocting preposterous alibis for thugs who have already admitted to dumping a body and stealing a car – but maybe, say the police, the dead girl gave them her permission…

We hope soon to be able to tell tourists that a visit to Baltimore does not place them in mortal peril…that if harm does befall them during a visit, the City will respond with professionalism and compassion…that the Police Department and City Hall will not systematically brutalize victims’ families… that if the Baltimore police somehow leap to, and cling to, demonstrably wrong-headed, unfounded, and close-minded conclusions, and are exposed as having done so, that they are capable of admitting grave error, and newly pursuing the truth.

Maybe it's a little of both.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Indeed.