He is, the deputy police chief of Chestertown says, the "town nuisance."

He's also Frosty the Snowman, and he's under arrest, charged with kicking a police dog in a parade while dressed up as the famous character. The story went around the world, and The Sun's Tricia Bishop contributes with a gem of a story detailing the snowman's turbulent history with cops and his past arrests.

He's been banned from public meetings (he stood outside banging pots and pans in protest one day) and called police in April pretending to be part of a CNN crew seeking an interview. Here are some unforgettable holiday lines from Tricia's story:

"Within minutes, two police officers had the so-called jolly, happy soul face down on the sidewalk in front of the Compleat Bookseller, raising a ruckus as his hands were cuffed behind his back. The round, white head lay forlornly at his feet, top hat and carrot nose still in place."

"While the Frosty of holiday lore has only a brief run-in with a traffic cop (who famously hollers "stop"), the Frosty of Chestertown, 52-year-old Kevin Michael Walsh, has a history of tangling with police."

He said he spent three hours in the suit, handcuffed to a wall, before someone made him take it off so it could be returned to the costume shop. He was released on his own recognizance that afternoon. And by Monday, he'd come to a realization: "I've got to get a lawyer, before I melt," he said.

Check out other coverage -- The Cecil Whig: Frosty Iced by Police and The Star Democrat in Easton has Man playing Frosty says he did nothing wrong.

Read The Baltimore Sun's complete story here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Crime elsewhere, Crime humor
        

The Sun's Tricia Bishop writes about a man cleared of murder by DNA, and who is now suing the city:

James L. Owens Jr., who spent 20 years behind bars on burglary and murder charges only to be freed in 2008 by a DNA discovery, has filed a $15 million lawsuit claiming Baltimore police and prosecutors intentionally suppressed exculpatory information in his case.

Owens, 46, says investigators pressured a key witness, who was later convicted as an accomplice in the case, into changing stories mid-trial in 1988 and that a jailhouse informant, who claimed Owens confessed, testified in exchange for special favors. The defense team wasn't told of either circumstance, according to the civil suit, which was moved into federal court recently from the city, where it was originally filed.

It's a disturbing case in which the only certainty is that a 24-year-old woman — a phone company employee and community college student — was brutally murdered a quarter century ago, stabbed, strangled and sexually assaulted in her Southeast Baltimore row house.

Read full story here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Southeast Baltimore
        

Anne Arundel County police had been looking for Cornelius Keith Johnson for nearly week in the killing of a man outside a seafood restaurant and Glen Burnie.

Authorities said Johnson unwittingly came to them.

On Nov. 13, the 24-year-old reported to the Baltimore County Detention Center to serve a weekend sentence -- total four days -- for driving on a suspended license. Jail officials discovered there was a warrant out for his arrest.

He was detained and on Monday was taken to Anne Arundel County and charged with first-degree murder in the Nov. 13 killing of Andrew Michael Johnson, 25, outside MO's Seafood on Ritchie Highway.

Police have not released a motive or said what led them to the suspect, who is not related to the victim. The shooting occurred about 10:30 p.m. The suspect lives in the 4200 block of Shamrock Ave. in Northeast Baltimore.

Correction: Police said on Tuesday that the suspect and victim are believed to be half-brothers. Read the full story here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

Maryland State Police have arrested a 25-year-old man in a series of armed robberies of gas stations and convenience stores in Baltimore, Cecil and Harford counties. The attacks include a robbery of a gas station at an I-95 rest stop and several along Pulaski Highway.

The suspect is identified as Michael R. Malpass, 25, of Cecil County. Police said they got tips from photos of the suspect distributed to the news media. Police stopped him Thursday night driving a 2008 Chevrolet Impala on Pulaski Highway in Perryville. 

Police said they found evidence linking him to the robberies, and that the car he was driving when arrested was the getaway vehicle. Here is more from a statement from Maryland State Police:

Continue reading "Man arrested in string of armed robberies" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Baltimore County, Confronting crime, Crime elsewhere, Harford County
        

A 31-year-old man has been sentenced to four life prison terms for executing a federal witness who fingered a dozen suspected drug dealers in South Baltimore's Westport neighborhood. The victim, Kareem Guest, pleaded for mercy before being shot a dozen times on the street in 2009.

Guest was outed as an informant after an FBI report detailing his cooperation was leaked and posted throughout the neighborhood, where Guest and his killer lived. The shooter, Antonio "Mack" Hall, 30, was found guilty by a jury in U.S. District Court in Baltimore in August.

The Sun's court reporter, Tricia Bishop, recounts the chilling details of the case in her coverage of the trial. Testimony revealed that Hall had a history of retaliating against witnesses and so-called "snitches," and was linked to the killing of a teen-aged drug dealer, shot as he played video games, and to the shooting of a junkie who had helped police arrest one of his friends.

Guest, arrested on heroin distribution charges in 2008, had agreed to cooperate with the FBI to bring down a gang selling heroin branded "Dynasty." His help led to the convictions of eight defendants, including the ring-leader who went away for 22 years.

A defense attorney for one of those suspects was given a copy of Guest's FBI statement so he could prepare his defense. Defense attorneys are allowed to share the information with their clients, but not hand over hard copies. The attorney admitted to giving a copy to his client and to his client's mother.

Once on the street, the document became a virtual wanted poster, prosecutors said, leading to the killing of Guest. The attorney, a former federal prosecutor from Detroit, was not prosecuted, but he was later disbarred for taking on clients and pocketing fees without telling his own law firm.

Lawyers for Hall argued that Guest had many enemies and that their client was the killer, but the jury rejected the arguments. The case highlighted the troubling issue of witness intimidation and showed how dangerous it is to be an informant.

Guest's statement to the FBI was tacked to telephone poles and to a basketball hoop in Westport and a copy was even found in a jail cell in New Jersey. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, South Baltimore, Witness intimidation
        

The Sun's Luke Broadwater and Scott Calvert report today:

"The city's budget office revealed at an investigative hearing Tuesday that it has spent $10.4 million over the past three years — an average of about $3.5 million annually — defending the Baltimore Police Department against lawsuits.

Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke called for the hearing over what she called an "especially troubling" trend of the Police Department paying out millions over brutality claims while other parts of the budget, such as recreation centers, suffer cuts.

"Not only do they siphon off scarce funds that could have been used to address other pressing problems in Baltimore, but each judgment also can represent an instance where citizens were avoidably harmed by the actions of officers whose job it is to protect them," Clarke stated in a resolution that called for the hearing.

Police officials testified Tuesday that they have instituted better training for officers, which has reduced brutality complaints, and City Solicitor George Nilson argued that sometimes the city needs to spend more on legal fees to ensure lower settlements or judgments. About 65 percent of the cases against police allege excessive force, officials said."

Read the complete story here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

The Sun's city school reporter Erica L. Green, reports today that weapons are a problem in Baltimore Schools:

After at least three weapons-related incidents in as many months, including one in which a student was stabbed in the abdomen, city school officials acknowledge that they are struggling with a problem that has led to dozens of students being expelled and more than 100 weapons being confiscated last year.

According to discipline data requested by The Baltimore Sun, the system has seen a steady stream of weapons filtering into schools since 2008, ranking among the highest numbers of disciplinary sanctions. Since the school year began in September, school officials have publicly acknowledged that police have retrieved three deadly weapons from students, including two handguns and the knife that was used in the Nov. 3 stabbing.

In the 2010-2011 school year, the district noted slight increases in the number of weapons incidents referred to school police and weapons-related expulsions. Last school year, there were 122 incidents of weapons possession reported to city school police, compared with 109 the year before, and 82 students were expelled for possessing weapons.

Read Erica's full story here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Either we at the paper write too much about crime or not enough. Either we're complicit in covering up the violence to help the mayor or we're out to scare everyone away from the city and leave it to ruin.

Two readers shared their opinions on crime coverage. One was upset that we referenced Morgan State University in a short story on a fatal shooting. Another was unhappy with crime coverage in Charles Village, which he thought excessive for one neighborhood.

The Morgan man writes:

Every other day people are murdered or assaulted near a John Hopkins building, dorm, or establishment and never are these issues linked together as such. Either it is ineptitude, racism, or bad judgement? Either way, I just don't get how or why this is a story about Morgan State?

I grew up in an impoverished neighborhood near one of the wealthiest universities in the world and although a ton of crime occurred, the local news never connected it with this ivy league institution. Morgan State is a safe place that girds that entire community and Baltimore. Without it, it things in some of those neighborhoods would be tragically worse.

First, it's just wrong that a person a day is murdered or assaulted near any university in the city. There isn't even a person murdered a day in the entire city. The killing occurred Wednesday night in front of a dorm located off campus. The story mentioned location, and said that the university was trying to determine if a student was the victim. We later learned the shooting wasn't connected to the school and the story was update accordingly. But the institution as a locator for the shooting remains valid.

The gentleman complaining about Charles Village owns property there, and I've learned, and I understand, that property owners get upset when we cover crime in their neighborhoods. Many people also get upset when they see a police car speeding by their home and wonder why it wasn't reported in the morning paper.

Charles Village is an important neighborhood in the city, home to a major university, and crime is a problem. It's where Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Pitcairn was killed, and where another man was shot in a robbery just a few weeks ago. A Hopkins student was sexually assaulted in an alley last month, and break-ins are routine fodder for the university's crime log.

The story to which the writer objects was how a Hopkins student pointed out a suspicious man crouching on a rowhouse rooftop. Police arrested the man, who it turned out was wanted by police on charges that he broke into a house full of Hopkins lacrosse players. It was both a story on a suspect sought in a series of burglaries, and an alert citizen (and student) who helped police do exactly what they ask of us each day -- be alert and report suspicious activity.

It's true that Charles Village is one of the more active neighborhoods, and they report crime and other goings-on with great frequency to us and to each other. That in turns gets them more attention than other communities. But I also received several emails from Charles Village residents thanking me for the coverage.

Here are the emails from the resident, Shaun Carrick. I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks: 

Continue reading "Too much crime? Or not enough? Readers weigh in" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

In 2009, Michael Voorhis used a baseball bat to beat a man attacking his girlfriend as he held up the Fells Point store where she worked.

"I don't regret it at all," Voorhis told me today, after the suspect was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. His girlfriend, Brittany Byers, called the ordeal "absolutely terrifying" but still works at the store, Killer Trash, on Broadway.

Federal prosecutors said the suspect Mark Lomax, 41, was sentenced to prison on Tuesday. He was convicted by a federal jury in June at a trial during which both Byers and Voorhis testified. Lomax committed 14 other holdups in a month during the summer of 2009 at shops in Mount Vernon, Fells Point and downtown.

Lomax held up Killer Trash three times in eight days. On the final time, Voorhis, worried about his girlfriend, was waiting. When Lomax came in, he hit him over the head with a baseball bat, bragging later that he had gotten "three or four clean shots at his head."

The suspect got away, but dropped the $4 he managed to get from the register and his baseball cap. Both items had DNA that matched Lomax, prosecutors said. Police said he used a collapsible wooden yard-stick covered in tape and wrapped in a plastic bag to resemble a firearm.

Byers, who joined her boyfriend in going after Lomax, hitting him with a jewelry bag, said: 

“It was absolutely terrifying. It was intimidating to see him again in the courtroom. But there’s a part of you that says, you have to stick up for yourself. I couldn’t back down out of fear. This store is my livelihood. I’m not going to let somebody bully me out of my life.”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Downtown, North Baltimore, Southeast Baltimore
        

A report released today blames Baltimore police commanders for poorly supervising a chaotic response to the shooting outside Select Lounge in which four officers fatally shot a plainclothes officer they mistook for a gunman.

The long awaited report by an independent commission into the shooting of Officer William H. Torbit Jr., and of a man who was fighting him, recommends police better train officers and supervisors in how to handle crowds. The report says Torbit inflamed tensions that led up to the shooting.

The Baltimore State's Attorney's Office cleared the officers of criminal wrongdoing. At left, The Sun's Kim Hairston captures Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III holding the report.

Read a summary of the report.

Read the full report.

Watch video of the shooting.

Look at crime scene pictures.

Read account of the shooting by officers involved.    

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Downtown, Police shootings, Top brass
        

It was a busy day on Tuesday's crime front. The picture by The Sun's Kenneth K. Lam is from Occupy Baltimore, which is embroiled in security issues (see blurb below).

Catch up on the latest headlines:

Today: Attorneys are scheduled to make closing arguments in the bribery trial of state Sen. Ulysses Currie in federal court. Currie, a Prince George's Democrat, is accused of selling his influence as chairman of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee to do political favors for Shoppers Food Warehouse. Read how the state's power brokers are rallying around Currie, and other stories.

* The man convicted of killing a Towson gas station owner for money apologized Tuesday in Harford County Circuit Court to the victim's family and friends, saying "I'm sorry to the last fiber of my being." The apology came shortly before a jury was to begin deliberating whether Walter P. Bishop Jr. will be sentenced to death or life in prison.

* The Occupy Baltimore protest is now entrenched at the Inner Harbor, but its members are questioning whether they can sustain the movement amid a dwindling number of core leaders and allegations of crime and drug use. Reports that a woman was sexually assaulted in a tent, deemed unfounded by city police, have nevertheless put public safety at the forefront.

* A 52-year-old man died after being shot during a robbery at a carryout restaurant in Better Waverly on Monday night, renewing concerns in the community about the crime connected to the beleaguered business. The Yau Brothers carryout, in the 2900 block of Greenmount Ave., was closed Tuesday, as it was after similar shooting incidents in the past two years: In 2010, 72-year-old security guard Charles Bowman was fatally shot in a robbery there, a year after three men were shot following a fight that broke out inside.

* A former professional basketball player pleaded guilty Tuesday in the pistol whipping of his girlfriend's brother after a dispute at a cookout in Arnold.

* Towson University students and employees were briefly alerted to stay inside Tuesday afternoon, because police were looking for a man with a gun on campus. But the man turned out to be carrying a prop gun for an acting class, said Towson spokeswoman Gay Pinder.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere, Downtown, North Baltimore
        

The shooting of Maryland State Trooper Michael S. Nickerson a decade ago still resonates on the Eastern Shore. Michael, killed along with a sheriff's deputy trying to get Frank Zito to turn down his stereo, was a member of the small Centreville police force.

He had wanted to become a state trooper, and five years after his death, his brother Phillip became a trooper to fulfill the dream. Last month, Phillip's son, Tanner, also became a trooper, bringing the family together on the force. Read the full story here.

I followed Tanner for a day. The young trooper, in his first few days of field training, had just started driving and pulling over cars. His family talked about the tragedy, and their commitment to law enforcement.

The story was big news at the time. Zito, known as "Crazy Frank," was an oddity in the small town and a frequently had issues with police and neighbors. A jury rejected his insanity defense and he was sentenced to death, but died of lung cancer a year after the incident.

Nickerson's death raised questions about how to best treat the mentally ill and told of a tragedy involving two police officers and their families. It's a story that continues to this day, with father and son now colleagues, in adjacent barracks, serving to honor a brother and an uncle.

The photo by The Sun's Kenneth K. Lam shows young Tanner Nickerson on just his sixth car stop of his career. With him is Cpl. Frank J. Stanco. The video is of Phillip Nickerson talking about his brother's death at a fallen hero ceremony in May.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Crime elsewhere
        

The Baltimore Police Department's Mounted Unit needs two horses. Jason Curtis, head of the Mount Vernon-Belvedere Association, is helping to raise the $5,000 needed to buy Vernon, which is already training for his new job, and is in the picture.

Curtis says the police had to retire two horses and needs to replace them. The Mount Vernon board is offering to match any contribution made by an association member and will match a contribution from $100 up to $2,500 from a non-member.

Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed that one horse, on loan, was elderly and had to be put down, and that another horse retired.

You can donate by visiting the Mount Vernon-Belvedere Association.

Says Jason: "I'm working on getting the Mounted Patrols to tour Mt. Vernon one day next week so everyone in the neighborhood can come out and meet all the horses!"

You might remember that two years ago, the Mounted Unit, one of the oldest in the country, was on the chopping block, threatened by budget cuts. Donations poured in to save the cops on horses.

And private sponsorship is not unusual in the world of Mounted Police. Last year, city cops changed the name of Blackie to Slurpie when 7-Eleven donated $5,000 to the unit. Here's that story from January, 2010:

Continue reading "City police need horses" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

We no longer have yokings in Baltimore, and this newspaper has never liked perpetrators, and the New York term "perp" even less. I recall an editor once told me never to use the word "heist." Maybe too high-brow for a town like Baltimore.

Terms change over time, and by the whims of reporters and editors. When New Yorker Ed Norris took over the top police job, the joke around town was that he'd add pin-stripes to police uniforms. Not quite, but the word "perp" seeped into the language of Baltimore police.

The word "cop" had for a long time been banned from print, though that has eased in recent years. In Baltimore, you are "A PO-lice" -- the word cop, unlike in New York, is considered a derogatory term here in Charm City (another term that should probably be retired. We still have Espantoons, and some police still carry them.

My colleague over in the Paragraph Factory (a term he coined and I love), wrote today that maybe Molotov cocktail should be retired from print. I wrote it several times (to avoid repeatedly writing firebombing) in today's story on a series of attacks in the city.

Here is what John McIntyre had to say in his blog, You Don't Say: 

It may be all right to use the term without any historical resonance. We don’t need to know who Captain Boycott and Dr. Alzheimer were to understand the words derived from their names. But Molotov cocktail seems different somehow in its sardonic allusion to the deservedly defunct Soviet imperium. Musty.

Continue reading "Language of police reporting -- retire Molotov cocktail?" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Baltimore police say that eight Molotov cocktails have been thrown at residences in the past month. Authorities plan to discuss the incidents in more detail at a 1 p.m. news conference.

For now, police will only say that there's been no major property damage and no one has been injured. The areas targeted are "throughout the city" and appear to be randomly chosen. Police said they are concerned because of the number of attacks.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The Sun's Justin Fenton reports today:

The Baltimore Police Department is taking part in a program to develop and test new technology that could significantly cut DNA analysis time.

The National Institute of Justice is putting $1 million toward the project. Police will partner with researchers from Yale University and a North Carolina-based company to develop technology that would enable crime lab workers to identify and test smaller samples in a much shorter time.

The technology is at least a year away from being usable and won't be implemented for cases during the pilot phase, but officials hope it will be cleared for use if successful.

Above is the Baltimore Police Department's crime lab director, Francis Chiafari, in a picture taken by The Sun's Amy Davis.

Details about the company.

Read the full story here.

Read the statement from Baltimore Police:

Continue reading "It's not quite CSI, but city police trying faster DNA testing" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

UPDATE/CORRECTION: Officials say the mayor misspoke while giving her remarks. Gun seizures are actually slightly down from this point last year.

City police have seized nearly as many guns so far this year than they did last year, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said at a news conference Monday where she reiterated a desire to strengthen criminal penalties for people caught with illegal guns.

Officials laid out about a dozen handguns (right) that they said were similar to those seized over the weekend by police officers conducting car stops, drug surveillance and search warrants. Among those charged was 20-year-old Haymond Burton Jr., who in 2009 was charged with conspiracy to commit murder and got five years in prison for conspiracy to commit second-degree assault.

Burton was found Friday afternoon in a house in the 700 block of Richwood Ave. with a 12-gauge shotgun and 43 baggies of cocaine, said Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III.

"We know there's a culture that exists in our city - drugs and guns," said Rawlings-Blake. "We're doing everything we can to break up that culture."

"We know who's committing these crimes - the same people committing the shootings last year and the year before," she continued. "It's repeat violent offenders, and we're determined to make sure we're making it very difficult for them to continue to pursue those dangerous activities in Baltimore." 

Officials said city police have made 850 gun arrests so far this year, and have taken 1,500 guns off the street.  Rawlings-Blake said she will return to Annapolis for next year's legislative session pushing tougher penalties for illegal gun possession.

"It's not a cause for celebration, it's a call to action. We know more needs to be done," Rawlings-Blake said. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime
        

Crime is the best reason to leave Baltimore, the topic we're most sick of reading about and the most overlooked story in the city. Huh?

The alternative weekly City Paper, with its annual Best Of awards, dings the city twice over for crime and grime. Lexington Market, the paper concludes, is the city's best place to be offered drugs. And crime, the authors say, is the best reason to leave Baltimore.

The Sun's Justin Fenton wrote about last years crime stats and how the city fared -- crime dropped, but per capita, we're still among the top murder destinations. Full disclosure -- the City Paper named Fenton's must read  Twitter feed Best in Baltimore: "Care about crime in Baltimore? You’re missing out by not following this guy."

But readers, while deciding in their own poll that Fenton is the city's best journalist, put crime in the top three topics they're sick of reading about. And to confuse matters more, the readers chose crime as one of best overlooked stories in the city.

Go figure.

The City Paper's own words:

Continue reading "Crime and grime make City Paper's Best Of ... " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Baltimore police are saying that in recent weeks several people trying to sell dirt bikes and other items on Craigslist have been robbed and assaulted. From a statement:

Many of the victims are from out of state and were unfamiliar with the area. On September 6, 2011, an unknown suspect fired several shots at a man from New Jersey, in the 1500 block of Ellamont Street. The victim was not injured during this incident.

Police are offering these safety tips:

• Meet in a public spot preferably where there are surveillance cameras or a larger number of witnesses around
• Do not bring cash with you
• Do not allow the seller into your vehicle
• Tell a friend or family member where you are going and consider having them accompany you

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

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:

Continue reading "Man who faked Black Ops credentials sentenced to 21 months" »

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

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
        

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 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.

Continue reading "Bealefeld defends department on Steiner" »

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
        

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:

Continue reading "Man guilty in killing police informant in Westport" »

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

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
        

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
        

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
        

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
        

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
        

Baltimore City Councilman Robert W. Curran stood by his controversial remarks advising residents in need of police to tell 911 operators that a gun is involved, even if it isn't, to get quicker police response.

His comments to a community meeting, and repeated in an article published today, sparked a furor and a debate over how quickly cops respond to calls. He said he didn't mean to imply that people lie to police when they call. Here is Curran at a news conference today at City Hall.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The number of drug overdose deaths in Baltimore rose from 2008 to 2009, but dropped when compared to 2007, according to a new study released this morning by the Baltimore City Health Department.

Since 2000, the number of deaths from alcohol and other drugs has dropped about 10 per year, according the study. The reasons are not fully understood, health officials say. Among the conclusions:

• Deaths associated with heroin decreased in 2009 compared to 2008 by 3 percent. Heroin
remains the most common substance associated with intoxication deaths, though
compared to 2008, the proportion of deaths associated with heroin in 2009 decreased by
about 19 percent among city residents.

• The number of methadone-associated deaths for both city residents (46) and overall (51)
remained unchanged from 2008.

• Alcohol-associated deaths among city residents climbed by 26%, the largest increase of
any substance (44 deaths in 2009 vs. 35 deaths in 2008).

• No buprenorphine-associated death were reported in 2009; the last noted death was in
2007.

Read the full report:

Continue reading "Death from drugs in Baltimore drops since 2000" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

A note to readers: I messed up.

I was deleting a bunch of spam and accidentally deleted a bunch of reader messages instead. Many were about the city councilman advising residents to tell police 911 operators a gun is involved to get a quicker response. The messages were perfectly OK. They should've been posted.

Please post again if you can, and I'll go easy on the delete key!

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

In an earlier post here I lashed out at readers who complain that we fail when we choose not to report every detail from court records that are readily available on the Internet. I tried to explain how we choose what we report carefully, and try to check and verify all information before repeating it in print.

We are reporters, not stenographers, as my colleague over at the Paragraph Factory nicely points out in his own posting on the subject. John McIntyre, on his You Don't Say blog, gives me far too much credit for being eloquent. Mr. McIntyre writes:

A proper reporter does not merely record and publish uncritically the contents of police charging documents or court proceedings or other files, because they may contain irrelevant information or factual accuracies. A reporter judges what is germane and reliable, insofar as his abilities and access to information and officials permit.

Take a look at his post and take the test he provides. It might help you understand how and why we differ from armchair journalists who think they're practicing the trade.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

A frequent poster to the crime blog and comments section on stories, Chamgreen102, takes exception to our disabling comments section on some stories -- the latest the boy who was abducted:

"You guys make great journalists, and you play right by the book. But when all citizens have access to the Judiciary Case Search it becomes apparent that the average citizen is sometimes able to see the rest of the story that you don't report."

She is talking about people who commented on a criminal history of a person who appeared in a story, and wondered why we didn't. "This is the kind of history that I want to know about, it makes a bit of sense out of the crime. The commenter's are the ones that often tell the rest of the story, the story that the Sun won't tell, yet is perfectly legal to report."

We turned off the comments on this story, as we do sometimes on others, because they had turned nasty and spiteful, with unsubstantiated personal attacks and filled with racist, demeaning statements. Some newspapers ban comments on crime stories altogether, realizing that it is seemingly impossible to have civil discourse on such a passionate subject. It's too bad that people cannot have a rational discussion on such an important topic.

For more:

Continue reading "Disabling comments, and journalistic responsibility" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Baltimore police have issued this warning:

Baltimore Police detectives are investigating three incidents where suspects go on Craigslist searching for individuals who are selling dirt bikes. Once a perspective seller has been located, the suspect makes arrangements for the seller to bring the dirt bike here to Baltimore where the sale can take place. Once here, the suspect then robs the seller of the dirt bike. In one case, the suspect implied that he was armed and assaulted the victim.
 
We want to make the public aware that this is going on and to take every necessary precaution before agreeing to such a transaction. Such precautions may include meeting in a well-traveled public place and/or with additional companions. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The resounding question after the July 4 violence at the harbor is whether it's safe. Various city officials, politicians, residents and pundits contributed to our coverage today.

At left, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake holds a picture of a potential suspect police are searching for in the fatal stabbing. A 4-year-old boy was also hit by a stray bullet. She's flanked by Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III on the left and Fire Chief James S. Clack. The picture was taken by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor.

Here is a sampling of what they said. We'd love to he hear from you:

"What goes on in these neighborhoods, it's basically hell on earth," said Ed Burns, the former city police officer who, with David Simon, wrote and produced such Baltimore-defining works as "The Corner" and "The Wire."

"We're very happy if it's confined to these neighborhoods because these people aren't us. But we can't expect it to stay in the neigbhorhoods," He said. "I'm all for people going to the harbor and having a good time. But I think people should pay more attention to their society. Consider the harbor [like] a gated community, like where the rich go to hide behind gates. When you put 600 police there, these people are relatively safe. That's a good thing. But to think that we don't pay attention to those people who aren't safe, that's another thing. It's us living in two separate worlds."

More observations:

Continue reading "Is the Inner Harbor safe?" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime, Downtown, Top brass
        

The technology has been around for a while but now just about every police jurisdiction uses it -- license plate readers that scan numbers and can quickly tell a cop whether the car is stolen, or has backed up tickets.

Police can simply drive along a street and check every car almost instantaneously. Privacy groups worry about police collecting and saving information from people not implicated in crimes -- such as keeping a record of where your car is -- but for law enforcement it's a critical tool.

The Sun's Don Markus provides a behind-the-scenes look at the technology and how it's being used in Maryland, and how state police tried to use it to find a motorcyclist a trooper was chasing moment before he was killed on I-95 when his cruiser collided with a truck. 

From Don's story:

Continue reading "How cops read your plates " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The second of 17 Baltimore police officers charged with extortion in an alleged kickback scheme involving a towing company pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Officer Jermaine Rice, 28, of Woodstock, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced Sept. 23. His colleague, Officer David Reeping, 41, pleaded guilty to the same charge on June 8.

Continue reading "Second Baltimore officer pleads guilty in towing scandal" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Northeast Baltimore
        

An officer at a prison in Jessup suffered a broken jaw and cheekbone during an attack by an inmate, and another officer at the Baltimore City jail was sexually assaulted by a detainee, according to state prison officials.

The first assault occurred Monday at the Maryland Correctional Institution at Jessup. Authorities said the officer was trying to move an inmate from one housing unit to another about 2:20 p.m. when he was hit. It took six to eight other officers using Mace to subdue the inmate, officials said.

On Saturday, prison officials said a correctional officer at the Baltimore City Detention Center reported being sexually assaulted by a detainee. Authorities said an investigation is underway and a person of interest is being questioned. No further details were released.

The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services reports that serious assaults by inmates on officer has fallen over the past few years, with down 50 percent since 2007. Attacks involving sexual offenses are down 35 percent during that same period.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Confronting crime, Downtown, Prisons
        

Federal prosecutors are cracking down on people who sell drugs that lead to overdose deaths. For the third time in Maryland, the U.S. Attorney's Office has gone after the sellers and secured prison time.

In the latest case that wrapped up Monday, a federal judge sentenced April Lynn Baker, 30, to three years in prison. A nursing home worker in Western Maryland sold Methadone and morphine and gave it to Baker who then traded it to another man in exchange for marijuana.

On March 1, 2008, that man sold a $40 wafer of Methadone and $20 worth of morphine to Brandon Sgaggero, who was found dead in his apartment five days later. An autopsy concluded that he died of an overdose of the two drugs. Prosecutors said they found two text messages from the seller to Sgaggero asking whether he wanted more "shampoo," described as a code word for morphine.

More details here:

Continue reading "Woman sentenced for supplying drugs that led to overdose" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

From Sun reporter Julie Baughman:

Baltimore police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man suspected of holding up several convenience stores in the city.

At least four robberies have occurred over the past two weeks in the north, northwest and northeast parts of Baltimore — all targeting 7-Eleven and Royal Farms stores.

According to police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, the gunman is considered “armed and dangerous.” Guglielmi said that the man typically enters the store during off-peak hours and approaches the cash register under the guise of buying an item.

Once he reaches the register, he draws a semi-automatic gun from his waistband or pocket and then points it at customers and store clerks until he is able to empty the register of cash and checks, Guglielmi said.

Police described the man as a black male between 25 and 30 years old, standing between 5 feet 11 and 6 feet tall and weighing 160 to 200 pounds. He was last seen wearing a tan or black baseball cap with a green or blue polo shirt, dark jeans, black tennis shoes, sunglasses and a watch on his left wrist.

Police would not disclose the exact locations of the targeted stores to avoid interfering with the police tactics during their investigation. Anyone with information is urged to call the police robbery unit at 410-366-6341.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, North Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore
        

He's trading his gun for a Havard Law book.

Adam Braskich wants to become a lawyer. And this three-year veteran of the Baltimore Police force has gotten into one of the nation's most prestigious universities, Harvard Law School. And when he's done, he promises to return to the city's crime fight -- as a prosecutor.

"I realized fairly early on that I'd probably make a better prosecutor than a police officer," he told The Sun's Justin Fenton, who caught up with the 26-year-old guarding a body in a sweltering South Baltmore rowhouse. "I'm better at spotting logical faillacies than guns concealed in waistbands."

Well, he's pretty good spotting guns too.

While on a study break for his law school entrance exam, Braskich took a stroll around Hampden and stumbled on an armed robbery. He shot one of the suspects and chased down the other. He's one of 466 officers, out of 2,947, who hold four-year degrees. He's pictured here in photo by The Sun's Amy Davis.

Read more about Braskich here. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, South Baltimore
        

It seems an odd deal — plead guilty to gun possession, agree to be imprisoned in a federal penitentiary for up to 25 years, and then admit to killing a man on East Pratt Street in Upper Fells Point back in 2009.

But that’s what Antonio “Dollar” Edwards did last week in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. As part of his agreement with federal prosecutors, the 28-year-old will have to plead guilty to first-degree murder in state court. Once he does that, he will get to serve his time for both crimes in the federal system.

The Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office described this unusual plea deal in a statement and in court documents filed Friday. Federal authorities get a conviction on a gun case for a three-time felon, and state officials can avoid a trial in the slaying case.

The benefit for Edwards?

Continue reading "Unusual plea puts killer in prison" »

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

A corrections officer who was associated with the Black Guerrilla Family gang has been sentenced to 37 months in prison. Alicia Simmons was accused of helping to smuggle heroin and cell phones into the downtown Baltimore prison through the laundry.

Prosecutors also said she allowed gang members to fight and tried to identify police informants. The Sun's Justin Fenton wrote in July that evidence seized from a raid on her Pikesville apartment linked her to a who's who of Baltimore criminals.

That included a letter from a Bloods member with a signature tinted red contact lenses, another man linked to several killings and the producer of the infamouse Stop Snitching videos. She got caught up in a sweeping take-down of the BGF gang.

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

Continue reading "Corrections officer who doubled as gang member sentenced to prison " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Gangs
        

In case you missed it over the weekend, Friday was community policing day for the Baltimore Police Department. Residents got a chance to ride with cops throughout the city, as well as meet the commanders at an open house.

The Sun's Nick Madigan and photographer Gene Sweeney Jr. went along for the ride (read full story here):

Two years ago, John T. Bullock was walking his dog near his home on Baltimore's West Lafayette Avenue when three pit bulls escaped from a nearby yard, charged over to Bullock and his dog and attacked them both.

"The police showed up right away and took care of it," Bullock recalled. "One officer even came to the emergency room — I was having my hands stitched up — to ask me how I was doing. He followed up."

Carrollton Bullock, 32, an assistant professor in political science at Towson University, was impressed — and he wanted to know more about how the police do their jobs and how to establish a working relationship with the officers in his neighborhood.

Bullock was one of hundreds of people who took advantage Friday of the Baltimore Police Department's Community Partnership program, which gave citizens the opportunity to ride along with officers on their rounds, sit in on roll calls and briefings, and challenge commanders with questions in face-to-face meetings.

"That's something people in the community say they want — more interaction with the police," Bullock said from the passenger seat of a Ford Explorer patrol vehicle as a 30-year veteran of the force.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Top brass, West Baltimore
        

Former Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson pleaded guilty today to federal charges related to a widespread corruption case. The most sensational allegation was the executive caught on FBI tape telling his wife to flush a $100,000 check down the toilet.

The plea came this morning in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, and included several others connected to the scheme that roiled Prince George's County and exposed corruption at the highest levels, even reaching into the county's police force.

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

Continue reading "Ex Prince George's County Executive pleads guilty" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The Sun's Frank Roylance reports:

A reporting system set up to provide Maryland lawmakers with data on crime scene DNA testing by state and local law enforcement agencies has major flaws, a state auditor’s review has found (read full report here).

The report by the state Office of Legislative Audits said that a “lack of clear guidance” in the legislation, in implementing regulations and in the report forms provided to police, led to “inconsistencies” in the reporting that have rendered any conclusions drawn from the numbers “unreliable.”

The numbers for 2009 found, for example, that police collected 11,359 samples of crime scene DNA (as distinct from personal DNA) from 4,836 crimes. More than 1,800 of those crimes were committed in Baltimore City.

The average “turnaround” time for test results varied from 28 days in Howard County to 240 days for the National Capital Park Police.

But the review revealed that police agencies differed in how they defined and counted crimes and samples for the reports. Some provided estimates rather than counts. They also had different ideas on when to start counting the days it took to get DNA test results back. Three local police departments didn’t report at all on samples they sent to private labs — between 14 percent and 17 percent of their crime scene DNA evidence.

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

A former Montgomery County police officer pleaded guilty today to using a law enforcement database to conducted wanted checks on her boyfriend and others involved in personal disputes, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Delores Culmer, 37, of Silver Spring, faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when she is sentenced June 13. She admitted to using her police powers to access databases at least 20 times between August 2008 and April 2010. Those databases included information about unserved arrest warrants and and motor vehicle information.

Prosecutors said she did unauthorized checks on her boyfriend, a person with whom her sister was having a dispute, a friend of her boyfriend and her boyfriend's brother.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

A man who saw kids beating a young puppy last year on the Carroll Park golf course has been given a $3,000 reward for helping police. Robert Widerman's tips help prosecute three juvenile offenders.

Two 10-year-old boys and a 13-year-old boy were arrested in the May attack in which they tied up a young pit bull, beat it with a belt and pelted it with rocks. The attack came as a City Hall Anti-Animal Abuse Task Force concluded its yearlong look at animal cruelty in Baltimore.

Widerman got his reward from the task force, the Snyder Foundation for Animals and the city's animal control office. He was among several golfers who witnessed the attack and tried to save the dog, which later died.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, South Baltimore
        

Support crime vicitms and run at the same time.

The Baltimore State's Attorney's Office is raising money for crime victims with it's 11th annual Victim's Fund Run & Walk, being held this Saturday at Patterson Park. The run starts at 9 a.m. It is timed to commemorate National Crime Victims' Rights Week.

State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein called it a "great way to spend a Saturday morning. We're going to have people from throughout the Baltimore area coming together to show our support for crime victims and to enjoy some exercise and coversation in Patterson Park."

The first 400 people to register will get a T-shirt. There will be cash awards for the top three male and female finishers in a 5K race. There also will be raffle drawings with gifts that include airline tickets and gift cards to area hotels and restaurants.

You can register at here at Charm City Run or call 410-396-1897. It costs $20 to register ahead of the race, and $25 to register the same day. Same-day registeration can be done between 7:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. at the Virginia S. Baker Recreation Center in Patterson Park.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Southeast Baltimore
        

Baltimore's mayor and police commissioner announced this morning the Hometown Heroes Project, an effort to recruit community members to find people who want to be police officers. It's a renewed attempt to attract more city residents to the 3,000-member force.

"It's a way for someone to give back to their community while making Baltimore a safer place," Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told reporters at a news conference this morning. Residents who sign up will be trained in the recruiting process and procedures.

Last year, despite budget shortfalls exceeding $120 million, the mayor promised to hire up to 400 new police officers. The department had been losing officers to attrition at a faster pace than hiring.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said that he began his career as a cadet when he was 19 years old. He said part of the program is also to attract cadets who could become future police officers.

Bealefeld started as a cadet in May 1981 on the midnight shift -- he attended community college during the day -- on what was called the "hot desk." His job was handle warrants. He also compared fingerprints of newly arrested suspects to prints on file. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said he used a magnifying glass "It's now what could be considered CSI-like, minus the technology," the spokesman said.

At the news conference, Bealefeld said: "We need to fill 300 positions over the next several months," Bealefeld said. "I've worked my way through the ranks. None of that I think would have been possible without the grounding, experience and start I got here when I was 19 years old." He said that being an officer "is not about car chases. ... What you do every day is help people to be safe, and help people across the city make their lives better. You can't get that experience through a recruitment poster. You really have to live that. ... What we really need are people who are dedicated to service."

Anyone interested in the program is urged to call the Baltimore Police Department recruitment section at 410-396-2340 or visit the department's web site.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Baltimore police on Saturday closed part of Patapsco Valley State Park as they launched a new, intensive search for a teenage girl who went missing in December and whose disappearance has baffled detectives who have worked for months without finding any clues.

Authorities cautioned that they do not have any specific tips as to the whereabouts of Phylicia Barnes that led them to this sprawling, 16,000-acre park located in both Howard and Baltimore counties north of Ellicott City.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said only that their “investigation led them to the park,” a woodland and nature preserve that includes 32 miles of river and 170 miles of trails, attracting hikers, fishermen, nature enthusiasts and picnickers.

While a task force of six homicide detectives continues to work the case exclusively, Saturday’s search is the biggest public show of force since January, when police searched a well in a shed behind a Southwest Baltimore apartment building.

Continue reading "Police begin search for missing teen in Patapsco State Park " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime, Howard County, Northwest Baltimore
        

Three people were shot in Baltimore Thursday night and early today. All the victims survived their wounds.

The shooting occurred between 6:25 p.m. and 2:25 a.m. and were in three different parts of the city -- south, east and northeast. In two cases, the victims got themselves to a hospital before police arrived at the scenes.

Thus far, 48 people have been killed in Baltimore, five more than the 43 slain at this time last year. Here are details on the latest violence from Detective Kevin Brown, a police spokesman:

Continue reading "Baltimore police investigate overnight shootings" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, East Baltimore, North Baltimore, South Baltimore
        

From The Sun's Andrea Siegel:

Maryland's highest court is scheduled to take its first look at the state's new death penalty law today, when lawyers for a prisoner accused of murdering a correctional officer argue that prosecutors should have to convince a judge that they have the evidence now required for a capital case.

The controversial 2009 changes to the death penalty law restrict prosecutors' authority to seek execution for first-degree murder convictions only in crimes in which there is DNA or other biological evidence, a videotaped confession or a video recording of the crime.

Lawyers for Lee Edward Stephens, 31, said Anne Arundel County prosecutors indicated that biological or DNA evidence ties Stephens to the July 2006 fatal stabbing of David McGuinn.

McGuinn was a 42-year-old correctional officer at the Maryland House of Correction, where Stephens and co-defendant Lamar Cornelius Harris, 41, were then serving life sentences. The prison has since been closed.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

Baltimore police are urging city residents to be wary of a series of confidence schemes that have bilked several people out of thousands of dollars and are leading some to be “duped” into participating in illegal enterprises.

Detectives Robert Elkner and Sarah Connelly of the fraud unit described several variations of the scheme and urged people to not divulge personal information such as bank account and social security numbers and dates of birth on the Internet.

One scheme is called “re-mailing,” in which unsuspecting victims become “middlemen” in a shipping enterprise. They answer ads on the Internet and agree to receive packages at home, and then repackage them and send them overseas.

For more details:

Continue reading "Police warn about confidence schemes" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Baltimore police are planning what they describe as a “mass search” on Saturday for Phylicia Barnes, the North Carolina teenager and track star who vanished while visiting Baltimore in December. The new search will involve more than 200 law enforcement officials.

In addition, city police are seeking volunteers to help distribute fliers in the Northwest Baltimore neighborhood where Barnes had been staying with her half-sister. Anyone interested in helping out should call the Public Affairs unit at 410-396-2012.

Anthony Guglielmi, the chief spokesman for the city Police Department, would not identify the precise area to be searched or what is prompting detectives to concentrate there.

He said only that they linked a person associated with Barnes to the area.

More details will be released Saturday morning when police begin the dawn-to-dusk search. “It will be an extensive effort,” Guglielmi said.

Continue reading "Police to search for missing teen" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Three Baltimore police officers and a Baltimore County firefighter will be honored next month at the annual Fallen Heroes Day ceremony at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. The event is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Friday, May 6.

A procession of 25 honor guards will open the ceremony at the Timonium cemetery, which is to include an address by Gov. Martin O'Malley.

At left is a photo from Fallen Heroes day in 2009, taken by The Sun's Lloyd Fox.

Here is a list of police and firefighters being honored, from a statement issued by organizers:

Continue reading "Dulaney Valley honors fallen police, firefighters" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Confronting crime, Crime elsewhere, Police shootings
        

When three men attacked and punched and robbed a man of his cell phone near downtown this weekend, the muggers apparently forgot about the hundreds of surveillance cameras watching over many of Baltimore’s street corners. At left, The Sun's Lloyd Fox captures officers monitoring surveillance cameras

One of the cameras captured the mugging, and police quickly arrested two men and recovered the stolen cell phone from one of the suspect’s pants pocket. Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III told this story at a budget presentation on Monday, in part to showcase the necessity of the program.

The attack occurred shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday on Park Avenue, near Liberty Street, about two blocks west of Charles Street and near a major city hotel. The victim and friends had just left an apartment on West Fayette Street when a man approached and said, “Give me everything in your pockets.”

For more details:

Continue reading "Mugging captured on camera" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Crime humor, Downtown, Top brass
        

Many city transportation workers arrested on Friday and charged with gambling and drinking while on the clock have extensive criminal records. Just how they got hired or whether background checks were done will have to be determined after the weekend is over.

A review of electronic court records shows that six of the employees have been convicted of serious criminal offenses, and one person is on probation in a gun possession case. Six workers have clean records, and a seventh has been arrested twice on assault charges but not convicted.

Three workers have extensive records, including one who has been convicted seven times between 1995 and 2009 on drug possession or drug distribution charges. He has served prison or jail time ranging from one day to four years, the records show.

Another worker has been convicted six times of drug offenses and twice of possessing a handgun, all between 2002 and 2009, according to the records. That worker served between two years and four years in prison. Yet another employee has been convicted five times of drug offenses between 1997 and 2004, serving between one year and five years in prison.

One employee has one conviction and was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2001 for drug distribution.

Continue reading "City workers arrested in gambling probe have extensive records" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime, East Baltimore, Top brass
        

A 53-year-old woman will spend 30 years in prison for participating in a home invasion robbery in December 2009 that left a Northeast Baltimore homeowner dead, the city State’s Attorney’s Office announced on Friday.

Bonnie Lee Lizor had pleaded guilty to a first-degree murder charge and was sentenced this week. Her accomplice, Austin Lassiter, 28, has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit robbery and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Police said the two suspects broke into a house in the 4700 block of Glenarm Ave., the same block on which Lizor lived at the time.

A friend of the victim’s who was walking by heard “unusual noises” from the house and went inside, prosecutors said. Police said that the friend took out a 9mm handgun he had been carrying and detained Lizor until officers arrived. The other suspect escaped but was arrested a short time later.

Authorities said they found 64-year-old David Monath tied up and unresponsive. Prosecutors said the victim had been beaten and then suffered a heart attack during the break-in. Lizor told police that she and her friend knew that Monath was “known to possess valuable items.”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Northeast Baltimore
        

Lured in by attractive ads in neighborhood newspapers and on the Internet, as many as 1,500 people may have been tricked into paying money to a man who told them they could rent-to-own a car despite having poor or no credit.

Federal authorities called the opportunity a scam and arrested the man and an alleged accomplice, and now they're looking for more victims. "It's a devastating scheme," said U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Daniel Bongino, one of the lead investigators in the case. He said one victim lost his life savings to rent a 2010 Ford Focus.

Read the full criminal complaint.

One of the suspects had tried this before. In 2005, he was convicted of running a similar scheme, only this time with apartments instead of cars. Anyone who thinks they're a victim is urged to call 443-263-1000. Here's how the scheme worked:

Continue reading "Car rental scheme lures hundreds" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

The Baltimore City Paper's Van Smith made a unique disclosure in a Mobtown Beat story on Wednesday titled "Sweet Deal." Ten years ago, the author had bought small quantities of marijuana from the subject of the story.

The "subject" was a record company owner who had pleaded guilty to drug charges.

Is this a conflict that needed to be disclosed? Smith told Jim Romenesko, who runs a popular media blog, that he had no choice. As most reporters know, the cover-up is often worse than the crime, and it would be embarrassing for it to come out from someone else that you had once bought drugs from the drug dealer you're writing about.

Here is what Van Smith told Romenesko: 

Continue reading "City Paper reporter admits buying pot from story subject" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

In addition to the shooting of a Baltimore police officer Friday night, and the wounding of the gunman [read complete coverage and watch video from Jessica Anderson, Justin Fenton and Jerry Jackson], city police reported a spate of other shootings, injuring 11 people total from Friday afternoon to early Saturday. Here is a list from Baltimore police spokesman Jeremy Silbert:

On 3/18 at 8:35pm, two men were shot in the 2300 block of E Hoffman Street. A 20 year old man was shot in the foot and another man was shot in the wrist. I don't have any additional info at this time on suspect/motive.

On 3/18 at 10:50pm, two 18 year old men walked into a downtown hospital after being shot.  The victims told Detectives that they were walking in the 2200 block of Orem Avenue and heard gunshots. They began to run and were shot. 1st victim shot in the arm and shoulder. 2nd victim shot in the leg. The victims obtained a ride to the hospital to be treated.

On 3/19 at 1:55am, officers responded to a call for a shooting in the 300 block of McMechen Street. Officers found a 21 year old man suffering from multiple gun shot wounds. He was transported to Shock Trauma where he died from his injuries at 2:30am.

Officers also found two other men suffering from gun shot wounds in the block. The 2nd victim was shot in the torso and the 3rd victim was shot in the leg. They were both transported to local hospitals for treatment. Preliminary info is that all three victims were in the block when 2 unknown suspects began to shoot at them. No suspect/motive at this time.

Earlier Friday, between 2:05 p.m. and 2:15 p.m., two men were shot in incidents believed to be related along Mosher Street, at the intersections of Pennsylvania Ave and North Mount Street.

(photo of the police shooting is by The Sun's Jerry Jackson)

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

A 44-year-old man convicted two months of raping one woman and trying to rape another was sentenced today to life in prison -- with all but 50 years suspended -- after pleading guilty to killing two other women in 2003.

“The defendant targeted defenseless, vulnerable young women facing challenges such as
mental issues, addiction, and poverty," State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein said in a statement. "He believed that these women were expendable and that we wouldn’t pursue their killer with vigor because of their backgrounds. He was wrong on both counts. Nobody in our city is invisible, second class, or beneath our concern."

The killer, William Vincent Brown, from Gwnn Oak, dumped the bodies, and a third victim he tried to kill, in Leakin Park. The closure of this case helps shed light on a series of attacks that occurred several years ago. The Sun's Tricia Bishop documented the case in January, and her report can be found here.

More details from a statement issued by Bernstein's office:

Continue reading "Convicted rapist pleads guilty to two murders, sentenced" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Southwest Baltimore
        

Fresh off the battlefield and fresh out of the police academy, Thaddeus Allen survived two tours in Iraq only to narrowly miss getting seriously injured or worse when a suspected drunk driver slammed into his cruiser on I-95.

It was just his third time out in a cruiser. He and his training officer had stopped behind a woman who ran out of gas just north of the Washington Beltway. The driver of a Ford Taurus hit the back of Allen's police car, forcing him and his partner to leap over Jersey wall. The woman wasn't hurt, and the driver of the Taurus was charged with drunk driving.

"We were taught that one of our biggest enemies are the other cars on the road," Allen said this week as he recounted his harrowing tale. "Most people don't move over or pay any attention, especially the drunks."

Read more for on the crash and Allens' reaction, and on how car accidents typically claim more lives of police officers than do gunfire.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Crime elsewhere, Howard County
        

He rented a Mount Vernon carriage house under the name "Clark Rockefeller" but was quickly arrested and sent back to Boston on charges he kidnapped his daughter in 2008. Now, the man of assumed identities has been charged with murder in Southern California.

He is accused of killing a man he had rented a guesthouse from in the early 1980s. He's been under suspicion in the man's death for the past three years. In 2009, he was sentenced to five years in prison in Boston for kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter, who he had brought with him to Baltimore and who was found safe.

His real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. Here is a story from The Sun published in 2008, when he was arrested in Baltimore, but before authorities had learned his real name:

Continue reading ""Rockefeller" charged in California murder" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Crime elsewhere, North Baltimore
        

A 26-year-old convicted by a  jury on Friday of killing two 17-year-olds in a Baltimore park in 2008 is to be sentenced in May and faces two consecutive life terms in prison, according to the city State’s Attorney’s Office.

Timothy Crockett had been released from a federal penitentiary in Illinois, where he was serving time for a gun charge, two weeks before he gunned down Darrius Harrison and Djuan Anderson in Easterwood Park in June three years ago.

Witnesses told police at the time that they heard Crockett and an accomplice “plan and arrange” the shootings and then retrieve a gun. Prosecutors said that both victims had been shot in the head in the 3 a.m. attack.

More cases:

Continue reading "Man convicted in double murder" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore
        

Martin O'Malley, the tough on crime mayor who became governor, has not used his parole authority to release a convict serving a life sentence. The Sun's Julie Bykowicz there are 50 cases pending and that some lawmakers are considering stripping the state's chief executive of his power.

Julie wrote:

Lawmakers say their review of the parole process was prompted by O'Malley's inaction on commission recommendations through his first four-plus years in office.

Under state law, a lifer recommended for release by the parole commission may not be freed without the approval of the governor. The changes lawmakers are considering would not affect convicts sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Seven of the 50 cases the parole commission has asked O'Malley to review concern the release of a lifer, according to the commission chairman. The remaining 43 involve the commutation of a life sentence to a term of years, which would enable the convict to gain release through good-time credits or parole.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

She made it out of despair, poverty, drugs and crime. But if the feds are right, Felicia "Snoop" Pearson's fame was fleeting -- just a bit longer than her role on The Wire as a ruthless killer. The actress who captivated many on the hit show that portrays Baltimore's underworld was arrested Thursday in a sweeping drug sting by city police and the DEA.

The Sun's Justin Fenton, who accompanied the cops on the raids and 63 busts (picture of Pearson at left is by The Sun's Kim Hairston), and Mary Carole McCauley, give eye-opening accounts of yesterday's police actions and a portrait of an actress whose life seems to mirror they very show that gave her a break.

"I thought she was going to have a happy ending," said Pat Moran, a casting director. Pearson had been in trouble before -- she committed murder at the age of 14, and then refused to testify in a stabbing case, and now this.

She had written a book about her troubled life called "Grace Under Pressure," and she had participated in the Stoop Storytelling series in which locals recounted tales from Baltimore before a theater audience. Thursday's drug operation was dubbed "Usual Suspects."

Those who knew Pearson had hoped she would not be one.

Read an account of the drug bust and Felica Pearson's sad trajectory from the streets to the screen and back to the streets. Below is a statement from David Simon, the former Sun reporter who produced The Wire for HBO:

Continue reading "Snoop's comeback from the streets leads back " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

The near decapitations of three young children in a Northwest Baltimore rowhouse six years ago stunned the city, and it took two long, painful trials to bring the men responsible to justice. Policarpio Espinosa Perez and Adan Canela are each serving life sentences for killing their three young relatives.

At issue is whether the convicted killers should get a third trial because the judge who presided over their second trial in Baltimore Circuit Court failed to disclose questions from the jury, asked during the trial, to the defense attorneys.

Those defense lawyers argued before the Maryland Court of Appeals on Tuesday that they would've changed trial strategy had they seen the notes. An assistant attorney general argued that  defense lawyers have not shown what new strategies they would've employed.

More details:

Continue reading "Judges hear challenge to convictions in triple murder " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Northwest Baltimore
        

Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein is considering overhauling how his office deals with police misconduct. He pledged to make changes during his campaign; now, he's starting to implement his ideas just as police are dealing with a corruption problem in which 17 officers were charged by federal authorities with taking kickbacks in a towing scheme.

He has already abolished the controversial "do-not-call" list that his predecessor used to keep track of officers she deemed untrustworthy to take the witness stand. Putting a cop on the list was considered a career body-blow in that a cop who can't testify can't be the primary on an arrest. It effectively rendered many on the list to desk jobs.

And Bernstein is considering eliminating a division devoted to police misconduct. The former head of the unit told The Sun's Tricia Bishop that it was important to have a separate group of prosecutors handle cases against police because the office as a whole has to work closely with the department.

Read full details of the changes here.

The troubled history of the police misconduct unit:

Continue reading "City prosecutor considering changes in targeting police misconduct" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

A Parkville bar where four people were stabbed during a melee in the parking lot last month will remain open, the Baltimore County liquor board has ruled. But members warned the owners to shape up:

"It seems to us we have a problem at this location," said liquor board Chairman Charles E. Klein. But rather than suspend or revoke the Parkville bar's license, the three board members added a requirement for more security guards outside the bar when crowds leave at night. Klein also warned that if violent incidents continue, the board could revoke the license.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Baltimore County, Confronting crime
        

When the U.S. Marshal's Safe Surrender program rolled through Baltimore last summer, the city's law enforcement community jumped at the opportunity to clear their books of old cases. Tens of thousands of people were wanted on old arrest warrants; the amnesty program of seemed a sure way of helping out.

About a 1,000 people took advantage -- coming to a city church (at left, in a photo by The Sun's Kim Hairston) and meeting with prosecutors, who either dropped the cases or got the suspects together with lawyers and in front of a judge for an immediate hearing. It was designed for nonviolent offenders, many with cases so old that witnesses and case files had all but disappeared.

Now, there's a report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the feds are pulling the plug on the program, which police departments all over the country had joined, resulting in 34,000 fugitive surrenders in 20 cities. Officials told the newspaper that Safe Surrender didn't fit the agency's mission of targeting violent offenders.

For more details:

Continue reading "Safe Surrender program ends" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

Baltimore police this morning announced several gun arrests, part of a campaign against violence just as state lawmakers continue to debate harsher penalties for gun offenders in Annapolis. Bill are winding through various committees but it's tough going for city officials.

A debate last month before a friendly house committee ran into harsh questions from some lawmakers who feared legal gun owners who make innocent mistakes -- like Ed Hale forgetting about his gun at BWI Airport -- could be sent to prison for long periods of time.

City leaders, including prosecutors and cops, say their proposals target violent illegal gun offenders on city streets, and won't touch a legally permitted gun owner who might forget to store his weapon properly while driving to a firing range.

Continue reading "Police make flurry of gun arrests" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

A man shot and made a paraplegic at an East Baltimore carryout in 1992 died in January, and the state Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide this week, making the two-decade old case the city’s 26th slaying of 2011.

There are several so-called time-delayed deaths in Baltimore each year and they’re added to the city’s homicide count when ruled homicides. In this case, a suspect had been arrested at the scene but found not criminally responsible of attempted first-degree murder. If he’s still alive, he cannot be charged in the death.

Detective Donny Moses, a police spokesman, said James Fields, Jr., 47, of Gwynn Oak, died Jan. 5 at Northwest Medical Center. He said a medical examiner ruled Tuesday that he died of pneumonia brought by a prolonged stay in bed — a direct result of the shooting 19 years ago.

For more details:

Continue reading "Man shot in 92 becomes latest city homicide" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore
        

Today's Crime Scenes takes a look at Ed Hale, the banking executive who got caught bringing a loaded gun to BWI, and was allowed to keep his permit after accepting probation before judgment, and Anthony McLean, who lost a bid before the state's second highest court to keep his permit despite having been convicted of a misdemeanor crime in 1983.

The column details the legal back and forth. Bottom line is that you have to be convicted of a crime for which the penalty is greater than two years in order for you to lose your permit. Hale's crime carried a maximum 90 days in jail.

When McLean was convicted in 1983 of breaking and entering, the maximum penalty was six months. But state lawmakers upped the maximum to three years in the 1990s. McLean argued the new penalties should only apply to new permit holders; he had a permit for years before the state police took away his permit because of the old conviction.

This morning, a reader posed this question:

I was wondering how Anthony McLean received his permit in the first place. As you know, Maryland is very strict issuing permits. My Father is a retired FBI Agent and received a permit. His friend who also was a retired FBI agent, was denied. I can understand how Mr. Hale was issued a permit, but you didn’t address if  Mr. Mclean had a legitimate need for one. I assume when you say permit, you mean a carry permit.

Continue reading "Man who lost court case explains his gun permit" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

Note: this post has been updated. 

A 22-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of his 61-year-old grandfather, Baltimore police said.

Edgar Waylan Wilson was found Sunday afternoon by a relative inside his home in the 2800 block of Clifton Ave. in West Baltimore, according to police. A warrant was issued for his grandson, Jerrell Dixon, that day and was served on Monday, court records show.

Police say Dixon confessed to stabbing Wilson during a fight. He was ordered held without bond Monday, records show.

Relatives declined to comment when contacted by The Sun on Monday, but court records show Dixon’s relatives had sought intervention from the courts. In June, his 94-year-old grandmother wrote that Dixon “does not work, takes my credit card numbers and purchased $8,000 worth of … things” and said that he smoked drugs with his friends and “brings strange women in to spend the night without my permission.”

“He has refused to leave when I ask him, and I am afraid for my safety. I am 94 years old,” she wrote in court papers.

District Court Judge Catherine Curran O’Malley issued a temporary protective order, but his grandmother failed to show at a followup hearing.

The photo at left is a mugshot of Dixon provided by the Baltimore Police Department.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Confronting crime, Northeast Baltimore
        

A man who said a Baltimore police officer strip searched him on a public street and twice tased him while he was in handcuffs has agreed to settle a civil suit he filed against the city and is being offered $95,000.

The settlement is pending approval by the Board of Estimates, the city’s spending panel, which scheduled the item for Wednesday. Baltimore police and the city solicitor declined to comment. The amount is contained in court records and on the Board of Estimates’ agenda.

Donte T. Harris sued Officer Babatunda Orlsadelle after his arrest in April 2007 while walking to a store on Woodbine Avenue in West Baltimore. He said officers stopped him to look for drugs, but none were found. He was charged with disorderly conduct and disobeying a police officer; prosecutors did not pursue either charge.

Orlsadelle joined the city force in February 2001. A police spokesman, Det. Donny Moses, said Orlsadelle is currently assigned to the Northern District, but has been suspended from duty pending the outcome of an internal investigation since August 2010.

Details of the suit:

Continue reading "Cops actions could cost city $95,000 " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, West Baltimore
        

Baltimore County police have put an alert about a white pit bull that attacked an officer in the Towson area today. Police warn people that if they see the dog, do not approach it, and call 911 immedately.

Here is a statement:

On February 28, 2011 at approximately 12:30 p.m., a Baltimore County Police Officer assigned to Precinct 06/Towson responded for an animal complaint on Deanwood Road. When the officer exited his vehicle he was attacked by two dogs and bit multiple times. The officer used his pepper spray to repel the dogs and was also affected by the spray.
 
The officer who has been employed by the Baltimore County Police Department for 6 years was taken to an area hospital for treatment. One of the dogs has been captured.
 
Police are asking anyone that sees a white pit bull with an orange spot on its backside to not approach the dog and call 911 immediately. The dog was last seen in the area of California Avenue and Harford Road.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Baltimore County, Confronting crime
        

A Circut Court judge this morning upheld the firing of a Baltimore police officer who berated and pushed a 14-year-old skateboarder during a confrontation in the Inner Harbor in 2007. The ruling came after about an hour of arguments presented by an attorney for the police union and for the city.

The officer's lawyer argued that the police commissioner went beyond what was reasonable when he rejected an internal trial board recommendation that Rivieri be suspended for six days and lose leave time.

The trial board had found the officer not guilty of the most serious charges that included using excessive force and language. Rivieri was found guilty only of failing to write a police report, which his attorney described as a minor infraction. The attorney argued that the commissioner based his decision on parts issues that his client had been found not guilty of doing -- in essence conduct seen on the video.

But the city's lawyer argued that the failing to write a police report is not a minor infraction, and that Rivieri's failure to properly document his encounter with the youth was tantamount to covering up his use of force against a teenager.

There'll be more details later on the web and in The Sun's print edition.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (37)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Top brass
        

Baltimore police are complaining about cuts to their pay and to their pension, and are loudly protesting City Hall. Baltimore leaders are cheering that they closed a $121 million budget deficit without laying cops off.

They point to New Jersey, where cops by the hundreds have lost their jobs to dire economic times, and police unions there say crime is soaring as a result. Today's Crime Scenes gets into the debate in more detail, and notes the release of the Maryland State Police annual law enforcement salary survey.

In the 1990, Baltimore police officers were among the lowest paid cops in the state, earning starting salaries of about $28,000. An academy graduate in the city now gets $42,290 a year, still in a low tier. They’re ahead of state troopers and cops in Anne Arundel and Charles counties but below police in Baltimore, Howard and Harford counties.

Above, the president of the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police union, Robert F. Cherry, leads a protest outside City Hall. For more details: 

Continue reading "Fighting over police pay" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Crime elsewhere, Top brass
        

The Baltimore cops called themselves the "untouchables group" and talked in thinly-veiled code, referring to alleged payoffs as "coffee," according to a criminal complaint filed by the FBI. They complained about being broke and demanded expedited payments. They made disparaging remarks about the people they were supposed to protect.

Phone conversations and streams of text messages intercepted during a corruption investigation caught police officers in unguarded moments — raw chats laced with profanities and describing meetings in convenience store parking lots to collect money, sometimes with officers pulling up in marked squad cars.

Parts of the wiretaps are quoted in a 41-page indictment unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court. They are an integral part of an investigation that became public with the arrests of 17 Baltimore police officers charged with getting kickbacks for steering accident victims to a single car repair shop on Rosedale.

Here's one conversation (see full story for more):

Continue reading "Busted cops called themselves the "untouchables" " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Joel Kurz is a pastor who arrived in Baltimore a couple of years ago promoting a church called Garden Community, part of a push into urban areas by the southern Baptists. His blog posting last week accusing city cops of harassing him caught our eye.

Lots of people file lots of complaints against police, and it's never easy to decide which ones to write about. Kurz (at left, in a 2009 picture by The Sun's Gene Sweeney Jr.) got some attention because he's a pastor, had been profiled in a front page Baltimore Sun article in 2009 and has no criminal record.

He's out in bad neighborhoods nearly every day, and he encounters police. He says that he knows he'll be questioned but typically he's not bothered. On Feb. 15, he said cops twice harassed and threatened him with arrest after he got pulled over for not wearing his seat belt on Park Heights Avenue.

A ticket, maybe. A full-scale search of the car coupled with what he said were threats and a full-scale, profanity laced tirade. Police aren't talking, as is customary, but did confirm the matter is being investigated.

He describes the encounter after the stop:

By this time another cop has arrived and is instructed to “watch me.”  A minute later I’m asked to step out and walk to the back of the vehicle where the officer asks if I have anything illegal, “drugs, weapons, guns, AK47s.” Of course I say no, at which point he demands that I do not lie to him and just tell him “now” what I have in my possession. I’m instructed to put my hands on my head as he spreads my feet and frisks me, hands in my pockets and everything. When I tell them what I do for a living, another cop barks, “I’ve personally arrested a ton of pastors.”

Continue reading "Pastor alleges police misconduct" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Confronting crime, Northwest Baltimore
        

Here's the video of Baltimore's police commissioner and the Maryland U.S. Attorney discussing the arrests of 17 city police officers charged with steering traffic accident victims to a specific auto repair shop in exchange for kickbacks.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Baltimore’s police commissioner personally helped arrest more than a dozen city officers this morning who allegedly got thousands of dollars in kickbacks for steering accident victims to a towing company that was not authorized to do business with the city.

Federal authorities outlined a broad scheme in a 41-page criminal complaint and at a news conference in which 17 police officers conspired for two years with two brothers who own Magestic Auto Repair Shop in Rosedale.

The brothers, identified as Hernan Alexis Moreno Mejia and Edwin Javier Mejia, were also arrested, along with 15 officers who were lured to the city’s police academy under the ruse of and equipment inspection, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said. Two officers had not been arrested as of this afternoon.

Bealefeld, in a calm voice, told reporters at a news conference at the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office (photo above by The Sun's Kenneth K. Lam shows Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein at the podium, flanked by Baltimore's FBI director, Richard A. McFeely, and Bealefeld).

that he thought for months about how he would explain the arrests to the citizens of Baltimore. He said he wanted the arrests done in a “very deliberate way” that was “meaningful and respectful,” but also sent a stern message to the 3,000-member force.

Continue reading "Bealefeld helps arrest fellow cops" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

When the news broke last month that a Baltimore police officer had been disciplined for failing to shave -- during the visit of the soon-to-be-president, no less -- it apparently wasn't the first time this issue has come.

The officer, who has since retired, has an ailment known as pseudofolliculitis barbae, a skin condition nicknamed "razor bumps" that can cause infection and scarring "as a consequence of shaving." It's a condition that is most common in black males.

The 18-year veteran officer, Anthony L. Brown, alleges in his $17 million lawsuit that his supervisor handed him a razor and cream and ordered him to shave in front of his squad of officers. Maybe the city cops, or the city attorney's, should be aware of a similar case decided 20 years ago by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.

The Daily Record reports in a story provided by the Capital News Service (full story here):

It has been nearly 20 years since the Court of Special Appeals took up [Donald] Boyd’s case and ruled that the University of Maryland at Baltimore Police Force’s no-beards policy discriminated against blacks. Still, beard bans persist across the nation and cops continue to clash with their agencies in increasingly expensive legal battles.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Baltimore County police  is unveiling the latest local law enforcement entry into high-tech distribution of crime. The iWatch program will allow residents to receive information through e-mail subscriptions and in turn they can provide the cops with crime tips and non-emergency complaints.

It goes beyond police, in that users will be able to file complaints about quality-of-life issues on everything from animals to abandoned cars. This service is in addition to the department's monthly newsletter and news releases on major crimes.

Police across the region are using social media, e-mails and text alerts more and more. Baltimore police have an interactive Facebook page, along with a Twitter alert system that provides breaking news alerts. The agency's spokespeople are visiting other departments to learn more, and are exploring a crime-tip-by-text or e-mail service. But there's a concern that the tips won't be read quickly enough for immediate action. One used in Philadelphia is only read once every 24 hours.

The police departments in Anne Arundel County and Howard County also have Facebook pages.

For more details on the Baltimore County iWatch initiative: