Baltimore County police investigating a man who shot a child in the leg with a pellet gun in February got a surprise when they searched his apartment in Owings Mills -- a pile of guns, ammunition, bombs, fuses and metal pipes.

In addition to bomb making materials, police said they found books with titles such as "The Anarchist Cookbook," "Blaster's Handbook," "The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives," "Improvised Radio Detonation Techniques," "The Do-It-Yourself Gunpowder Cookbook," "Home-Built Claymore Mines," and "Ragnar's Homemade Detonators -- How to Make 'Em, How to Salvage 'Em, How to Detonate 'Em."

Timothy Ray Berry, 28, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Thursday to possession of firearms and explosives and faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on March 1. Here's what police said they found in his apartment:

The BB gun used in the assault, a loaded 9mm handgun, a 12-gauge shotgun, 3 boxes of ammunition, handcuffs, brass knuckles, other BB guns and airsoft pistols and a stun gun.  Police also observed "several improvised explosive devices, including: C-4 explosive material; and a clear plastic container with gray powder and a M-800 pyrotechnic device inside, secured with a white lid with a burnt hole in the center."

Authorities searched the apartment a second time and said they found "items commonly used in the production of illegal improvised explosives, including, among other things: containers of potassium nitrate and potassium chlorate, smokeless shotgun powder, model rocket igniters and motors, pool chemicals, various fuse materials, PVC and metal pipe of varying lengths and pipe fittings."

Police also said they found "numerous books related to firearm and the manufacture of illegal improvised explosives. Berry had underlined and starred book titles including, “Clear Your Record & Own a Gun,” and “How to Lose Your X-Wife Forever.”  Berry’s computer was also seized and a subsequent forensic analysis revealed that less than a month before, Berry had searched online for how to make homemade C-4, and how to fabricate tags for Maryland license plates."

The Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement that on March 1, "following Berry’s arrest and detention on state charges related to child abuse, reckless endangerment, and gun possession, and with knowledge of the imminent federal investigation, Berry called another individual from jail and instructed that person to “burn” the “other books” and to get rid of “anything that looks like it could be suspect...”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system
        

The jury had just been seated, pared down from 55 citizens to 12, and judge, Lawrence P. Fletcher-Hill, was admonishing the jury about not talking about the case. No Twitter notes. No Facebook. Don't spill the days testimony at the family dinner table. Don't read the papers.

Seconds later, a female juror raised her hand. She sheepishly told the judge that, before she was selected to the panel, she had called her husband and said, "You won't believe the case I'm on."

The judge told her not to do it again, and then told the jurors the case they were on would generate publicity. The back two rows were filled with reporters watching jury selection, a tedious process usually skipped by the media.

The case involves Paul Schurick, an aide to former Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., accused of orchestrating a robocall campaign to suppress the the black vote during last year's governor's election won by Democrat Martin O'Malley. Read story here.

Ehrlich is expected to take the witness stand, as is Congressman Elijah E. Cummings, along with a cast of political characters who might open up the world of dirty tricks and political intrigue in Maryland politics.

The judge, appointed by O'Malley but having won an independent election that keeps him on the bench through 2025, admitted to receiving one of the robocalls, telling voters the election was over, O'Malley had won and there was no need to vote even though polls were still open.

Schurick, charged with conspiracy to commit election fraud, is represented by a prominent black defense attorney, who plans on calling the black congressman Cummings to talk about his counter robocalls and whether there was some giant political conspiracy afoot.

Let the political games begin.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A man who authorities say robbed banks from Glen Burnie to Brookings, South Dakota, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Monday. Gary Allen Densmore, 56, who used to live in Anne Arundel County, faces up to 20 years on each of three counts of bank robbery.

Prosecutors say that on Feb. 2, he tried to rob the Carrollton Bank on Crain Highway in Glen Burnie by handing a teller a bag and a demand note. He ran out of the bank when the teller hesitated. The next day, prosecutors said he walked into the Severn Savings Bank on Crain Highway, handed the teller a note and a bag, and fled with $2,300.

The Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said Densmore stole a car and left Maryland. They said he hit banks in February and March in Wisconsin, South Dakota and Iowa before being arresrted in Minnesota.

More details from a statement by the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office:

Continue reading "Serial bank robber pleads guilty; hit several states" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

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
        

Here is the moving opening of a story by Justin Fenton, The Sun's crime reporter, in January of last year:

"In Lennice Hudson's home, a refuge for foster children, Darius Ray found stability.

He became a track star at his Gaithersburg high school, graduated, flirted with college and ultimately joined the Marines. Between his foster brothers and sisters and Hudson's two biological children, he had a family, one he would join every week for dinner. On Sunday, the family was planning to celebrate his 20th birthday.

"I love you and I want a red velvet cake," he texted Hudson in anticipation.

But Ray would not make it to his own celebration. He was fatally stabbed in Northeast Baltimore the day before at a party thrown by friends."

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge on Thursday sentenced Michael Wiggins to life in prison for killing Ray for asking him to leave the party. He was one of three active or current members of the armed services killed in Baltimore in two months.

Read Justin's story on Darius Ray.

More details from a statement issued by the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office:

Continue reading "Man gets life for killing Marine" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Northeast Baltimore
        

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
        

A man and a woman were each convicted in federal court of wire and mail fraud on Monday for running a complex rental car scheme that defrauded as many as 1,500 people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Erica Brown, 29, of Laurel, and Lamondes Williams, 52, of Baltimore, each face up to 20 years in prison when they scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 16. A jury in U.S. District Court sat through a nine-day trial before convicting the suspects on a combined 23 counts of wire fraud and 16 counts of mail fraud.

Authorities said the suspects advertised on the Internet that people could rent cars for as little as $15.95 a day, drive up to 3,000 miles for free and receive a break on gas. But customers lured by the ads found themselves being sold something else instead.

For more details:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

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
        

Barry Murel, even by Baltimore standards, has had his share of trouble. Federal authorities say he's been convicted 11 previous crimes. On Thursday, a judge sent him away again, this time for 16 years for selling drugs and possessing a gun.

His record spans two pages of the Maryland judiciary court website -- convictions mostly for drugs and assault. He's never made his way into the newspapers.

Here is what the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office has to say about the now 12-time convicted criminal:

Continue reading "Convicted 11 times, suspect goes to prison again" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Northwest Baltimore
        

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
        

A man charged with adopting cats and then killing one and mutilating another pleaded guilty in Baltimore court today.

Prosecutors said Ethan Phillip Weibman faces up to three years in prison when he is sentenced in February and was ordered to not have any contact with animals. Police and prosecutors said he brought the injured and dead cats back to a store and a vet and asked to adopt more.

The suspect is a well-to-do young man who grew up in a million-dollar home in affluent Westchester County, N.Y., and attended Hampshire College. He listed David Foster Wallace and Hunter S. Thompson among his favorite writers on his Facebook page.

His mother, Carol Weibman, professed his innocence when Sun reporter Jill Rosen reached her this summer, even while expressing frustration in her son's lawyer's warning for her not to talk. "It's hard, especially when you want to shout out your innocence to the world," she said. "I wish I could say more, but my lips, unfortunately, are sealed."

Here is a statement from the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office:

Continue reading "Man pleads guilty to mutilating cats" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Baltimore City Police Detective Antonio Green is in hot water this week after being charged with filing false insurance disability claims. But three years ago he had been previously under investigation after testifying in federal court on behalf of a convicted drug dealer who he said he had known since he was 11.

Antonio Green, a member of the Violent Crimes Impact Section, contradicted the testimony of a fellow officer when he appeared at an evidentiary hearing for defendant Richard Morris, who had been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison and was appealing the conviction.

Green had arrived at the scene on April 12, 2007 as backup, and testified that the two bags of cocaine found in the silver BMW were hidden under a seat, and not in plain view as the arresting officers had reported. He also contradicted the officers' assertion that Morris had claimed ownership of the drugs recovered from the car.

Experts said it was extraordinarily rare that an officer would contradict another officer in court, or testify for the defense at a suppression hearing. Police said at the time that they were opening an internal investigation file on the incident. 

It was not immediately clear what came of that case, but Green continued to do drug investigations, making some 30 arrests this year and as recently as Oct. 18; Morris, meanwhile, lost his appeal in 2009. The Court of Appeals didn't appear to take Green's testimony into account in affirming his conviction, instead finding that the officers who pulled over Morris had a reasonable suspicion that he was involved in a drug transaction.

Now, Green is charged with a felony count of filing false claims worth more than $300, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. There's also a misdemeanor charge, stemming from the same claim. 

Green was charged through criminal information, and is first court hearing is scheduled for late next month.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A 19-year-old man convicted of shooting a neighborhood acquaintance, leaving him paralyzed, was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The shooting occurred Halloween night two years ago as the two men passed each other on Ramblewood Road in Loch Raven in Northeast Baltimore.

A jury found the suspect, Antwane Brown, guilty of attempted second-degree murder and handgun violations in July. The Baltimore State's Attorney's Office said that as Brown and the victim, Craig Pearson, passed each other, Brown called out and Pearson turned and was shot in the back.

"There is no known motive for the shooting," prosecutors said in a statement. "Brown and Pearson knew each other from the neighborhood but they had no history of animosity or conflict." 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Northeast Baltimore
        

This just in from The Sun's Arthur Hirsch:

A jury has found a Baltimore County man guilty of first-degree murder in the murder-for-hire slaying of a Towson gas station owner in March 2010.

The case will next go to the penalty phase, which is scheduled to begin Thursday morning. Walter P. Bishop Jr., 29, now faces the possibility of being sentenced to death. He could be the first person to receive the death penalty since a new law took effect that requires DNA or video evidence or a video taped confession in such cases.

Bishop was accused of shooting William "Ray" Porter in a Hess station on East Joppa Road on the morning of March 1, 2010. Five others have also been implicated in the crime, including Porter's wife, Karla, her sister, brother and nephew.

Watch video of police interview with Bishop.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Breaking news, Courts and the justice system, Harford County
        

City prosecutors have for the second time won the first conviction under the state's gang statute.

Dajuan Marshall, 29, was convicted in August 2010 of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and participation in a criminal gang - a statute enacted in Maryland in 2007 - in the 2008 killing of Kenneth "Cash" Jones, a leader in the Pasadena Denver Lanes Blood set abducted near The Block and later found dead in the trunk of a car. But that conviction was overturned due to juror misconduct, after a juror did an Internet search for Marshall's prior criminal record. Circuit Court Judge L. George Russell said the evidence was overwhelming against Marshall, but said he had no option but to declare a mistrial.

Prosecutors gave it another try this month, and once again convicted Marshall, this time of conspiracy to commit murder and participation in a gang.

Witnesses identified Marshall, a leader in the Spyda Bloods set, as the person who ordered Jones' murder and one of two men who forced Jones into the trunk. 

Marshall will be sentenced on Dec. 20 and faces a maximum sentence of life plus 20 years in prison.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Gangs
        

Erick Lee Spencer walked into a Baltimore County Jiffy Lube on the day after Christmas 2006, confronted a clerk and said, "Don't say nothing."

Tyrone Stinnette promptly handed the man money from the till. He testified in court that no weapon was revealed, and nothing else was said. But he concluded, "We got robbed."

The prosecutor asked if he believed the man had a weapon.

"I wasn't taking no chances," Stinnette replied.

Spencer was convicted of robbery, theft and assault and sentenced to 25 years in prison, without the possibility of parole, because he had two prior felony robbery convictions.

The suspect appealed, arguing that evidence was insufficient to support a robbery conviction. Today, the Maryland Court of Appeals agreed, and sent the case back to Baltimore County Circuit Court.

Read the Court of Appeals decision.

For more details:

Continue reading "When a robbery is not a robbery" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system
        

The teenager from Ellicott City who is charged with using the Internet to solicit money for a convicted terrorist who called herself "Jihad Jane" pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. The hearing was brief; a trial date was set for December.

Attorneys for the Mount Hebron High School graduate, in interviews outside the courtroom, portrayed their client, Mohammad Massan Khalid as a stellar student with a family described as the "true American immigrant story."

They said federal prosecutors misconstrued the emails they intercepted on Internet chat boards but noted their client's life has been destroyed. He withdrew from Johns Hopkins University, where he had a full scholarship this fall. He was arrested in secret when he was 17 years old; the charges were unsealed last week, after he had turned 18.

Federal prosecutors have outlined an indictment that alleges Khalid tried to raise money to help fund a holy war in Europe. More on the prosecution's case in today's story. He is being detained in federal custody until his trial, one of the country's youngest terror suspects.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere, Howard County
        

A 37-year-old man was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday for helping rob a bank in Harbor East and stealing $157,000. Federal authorities said that the man's accomplice has already been sent to prison for 15 years.

Bank robberies in Baltimore typically net only a few thousand dollars -- the so-called "bait money" that tellers set aside. The typical bank robber is armed with a note more often than a gun. But this case was far more brazen.

Prosecutors with the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said the gunmen hit the Harbor Bank branch in the 1000 block of Lancaster St. on March 11, 2010. The man sentenced Thursday, Jenerette Dixon, 35, jumped over the counter and forced tellers at gunpoint to open the vault.

Police said the Dixon and his accomplice used a fake bomb to slow police response.

More details from the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office below:

Continue reading "Bank robber sent away for 20 years for stealing $157,000" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Downtown
        

City prosecutors secured a guilty verdict from a jury in the torture and drug-related killing of a college student, while a former pastor who pleaded guilty to taking out life insurance policies and arranging the death of a blind, disabled man in his care was sentenced to life in prison.

Neither was publicized by the State's Attorney's Office, which hasn't publicized a case on its website or Facebook since Sept. 28.

Kevin Pushia, 35, pleaded guilty last year to orchestrating the 2009 murder of Lemuel Wallace, who was found shot in the head in Leakin Park, and on Monday Pushia was sentenced by Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams to life plus 45 years for the murder and related fraud charges, Reuters reported.

Pushia worked with the group home where Wallace lived, and said he obtained life insurance policies in Wallace's name and then conspired with brothers James and Kareem Clea to murder him. The Clea brothers were acquitted by a jury at trial, despite Pushia's testimony against them.

In another high profile case, prosecutors secured a conviction last week against Johnny Butler in the killing of Sintia Mesa, a college student who police said was killed over debts owed by her drug dealing boyfriend. Here's an account from opening statements and the first day of trial.

Prosecutors showed the jury that DNA was found on Mesa's body; she had been raped and tortured before being found in the trunk of her vehicle. 

After the verdict, Khalilah Harris, a friend of Mesa who attended the testimony, tweeted this thanks to the detectives: "Det. Boris was honorable and professional the entire time. We thank him and his unit 4 their work."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The South Side Brims, the Bloods gang taken down by the feds on Thursday, worked from one end of the state to the other. Authorities allege a broad scheme that stretched from the Eastern Shore to Western Maryland.

As The Sun's Justin Fenton wrote today, court documents describe a virtual modern-day tutorial in gangs. Along with the allegations of murder, revenge killings, drug running and gun use, federal prosecutors say members used YouTube, Facebook and text messaging to communicate and to boast.

It's a colorful rendition.

They kept meticulous notes and lists of members, including phone numbers, broken down by geographic region. Those who were locked up were called "G-Wall Homies." Those on the street were "G-World Homies."

Alleged gang members threw dues into a kitty to pay expenses, such as bail, firearms and legal bills. They had the Brim Association Blood Application, a list of signs and signals, and the Brim's Concept of War. Many had multiple nicknames -- Squeaky, Redrum, Platinum, Diamond,
Trigger, Ransom, Blaze, Breezy Brim.

Targets were "on the menu." Members went on Facebook, openly talking about their affiliation and posting pictures of meetings.

Leaders, called "hats," had "round table" discussions, once the feds say, to plan on how to gently recruit two members from a rival gang without inciting a war.

They had First Lady's," one of whom kept the books in Salisbury.

The feds said one text message from a First Lady: "Bang Bang Brim Gang Hat Til I Die."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere, Howard County
        

Coming off revelations by The Sun's Justin Fenton on the lavish lifestyle of a reputed drug dealer, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office gives us another example today.

A federal judge sentenced Eric Hellams, 40, to more than 10 years in prison for drug dealing and money laundering. Prosecutors said he distributed heroin in the Baltimore area from 2003 through 2009.

Prosecutors said he hid his drug proceeds by laundering up to $1 million, some of it by refinancing a home in Upper Marlboro, listing an annual income of $178,764. Authorities said that when they searched his home, they found $98,875 hidden in an attic crawl space, a bullet-proof vest, jewelry -- including Rolex, Gucci and Cartier watches -- necklaces and Tiffany bracelets.

The feds also said he had a 2008 Mercedes-Benz coupe -- monthly payments $2,200 -- and a Toyota Truck. Prosecutors said they found $1,220 in an apron pocket. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

The Sun's Luke Broadwater writes:

The bleach and Pine-Sol fight that temporarily shut down a Baltimore County Walmart over the weekend was the latest dispute in a heated love triangle, according to court documents, witnesses and attorneys involved in the case.

A Baltimore County judge on Tuesday ordered Theresa Monique Jefferson, 33, of Lansdowne held on $350,000 bond on charges that she attacked another woman with bleach at a Lansdowne Walmart on Saturday. The fumes from chemicals caused 19 people to be taken to area hospitals, police said.

Baltimore County Assistant State's Attorney John P. Cox argued that Jefferson is a danger to her former boyfriend, Calvin Pannell, and his current fiance, Ebony Odoms, whom she's accused of attacking.

"We have grave concerns for the safety of the two victims if she should be let out on the streets," Cox said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system
        

What do millions of dollars in heroin proceeds buy? According to federal prosecutors, for Joy Edison, the wife of a reputed drug kingpin, it brought lavish island trips, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of luxury accessories, and a spacious house in the suburbs. And she was still receiving public assistance.

Edison was sentenced last month to 70 months in federal prison for her role in laundering anywhere from $400,000 to $1 million in drug proceeds for Steven Blackwell, who is pending trial on heroin conspiracy charges. Federal prosecutors say Blackwell made millions, an operation that came crashing down after his drug organization was linked by police to a spate of retaliatory shootings that left several people dead.

"Her involvement was not just as a money launderer," Assistant U.S. Attorney James Warwick wrote in court papers. "Edison profited handsomely from her relationship with Blackwell," spending "hundreds of thousands of dollars generated from heroin sales on luxury items for her personal benefit."

To drive home the point, prosecutors included images, some posted at right, of some of Edison's $130,000 in Louis Vuitton and Gucci accessories, as well as vacation photos from trips to the Dominican Republic, the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, the Bahamas, and Las Vegas, where they rode around in a stretch limo.

And yet, Edison had also applied for government assistance, stating that she earned $13 an hour working at a communications business and was enrolled in school. "Representing that she resided on West Lexington Street and misrepresenting her financial condition, Edison was granted the requested public assistance," authorities wrote in court papers. In fact, the couple lived in a $760,000 home in Elkton, Md.

Edison's attorney, Gary Ticknor, said Edison was not motivated by greed. "She was in love with her husband, and that was a motivating factor. I'm not sure the money was all that important - obviously, some people disagree," Ticknor said.

Ticknor said he presented to the judge 50 letters of support for Edison from family, friends and neighbors, who said she was a "good and generous person" who helped people in her old neighborhood. "The question that the court had of them, and I think this was a major problem, was whether they knew all of the details of the crimes for which she had pled guilty, which most of them did not," Ticknor said.

In order to conceal Blackwell's earnings, Edison admitted in her guilty plea that she helped launder the money by purchasing "winning Maryland Lottery tickets" in the amount of $138,000, and that they gambled the money and reported their "cash-outs," exceeding $184,000.

Edison and another co-conspirator, Tahirah Carter, have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced (though Carter has filed an intent to appeal her sentence). Blackwell is tentatively scheduled to go to trial in early December.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

It was 2 in the morning, and Craig Bouie and his wife were feeding their month-old son in an upstairs room of their Milford Mill home. Their 11-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son were sleeping. That's when police say Kelly Shird, 28, broke into the home on Western Woods Circle, on Aug. 5, 2010.

Authorities say Bouie confronted Shird, who had gotten in through a rear basement window, and was shot three times. Prosecutors say Shird accidentally shot himself as well. Bouie died at a hospital.

Police captured Shird, of the 800 block of McHenry St. in Baltimore, a week later in Virginia. On Thursday, Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger said a jury convicted Shird of first-degree murder, burglary and using a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence.

Shird is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 20.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system
        

After 30 years of drug dealing, Walter Horton realized in early 2010 that he was in over his head. A friend was dead, and he believed he could be next.

He wrote a letter to his family, placed it underneath a television, and told them to read it if anything ever happened to him. "Please forgive me God," it began.

In it, Horton explained how a drug associate, Calvin "Turkey" Wright, had visited him and asked for help moving a vehicle. Days later, the nude body of 25-year-old Sintia Mesa would be found in the trunk.

Horton testified about that letter in Baltimore Circuit Court Thursday as a witness in the murder trial of Johnny Butler. Wright, 39, has already pleaded guilty in the case, and state prosecutors are trying to convince a jury that Butler, who turns 36 next week, should be convicted too.

The case is the last step in an investigation that has spanned several years and already resulted in a life prison term for Butler, who was convicted in federal court last year for running a major heroin and cocaine trafficking organization. Detectives Gregory Boris and Arthur Brummer worked the Mesa case for years, resulting in a wiretap investigation that took down Butler's organization.

Among those convicted in the drug case was Horton, whose testimony defense attorneys say should not be believed. Horton's letter to his family doesn't mention Butler as having any involvement in Mesa's killing, though he now testifies that Butler was there. And defense attorney Natalie Finegar said in opening statements Thursday that they will bring forward a DNA expert to discredit forensic evidence that links Butler to the killing.

Finegar said the prosecution took Horton's testimony "and laid out their foundation, and then took the evidence and tried to fit a square peg into a round hole."

At the center of the case is Mesa, a graduate of Morgan State University who homicide detectives have said was an innocent victim. She was dating a drug dealer and aspiring music mogul named Jemarl Jones, who had ties to Wright and Butler. When Butler fell out of favor with his Dominican drug suppliers, he had to find a way to come up with cash and turned to Mesa to get to Jones' money, the detectives said.

Continue reading "Trial begins in torture, killing of 25-year-old woman" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Remember Gerard Mungo Jr.?

He's the 7-year-old who was arrested four years ago while sitting on an idling dirt bike in front of his East Baltimore rowhouse. Police cuffed the child, took him to a station and shackled him to a bench before taking him to juvenile detention.

The case attracted national attention, was debated in the media, earned a rebuke and an apology to the family from the mayor and a hefty lawsuit by the boy's family. A jury last year awarded the parents nothing, even though the judge found two officers had illegally arrested the boy because they didn't witness the incident.

Gerard is at left with his mother in this picture taken by The Sun's Kenneth K. Lam.

The family appealed arguing a Baltimore judge improperly moved the trial out of the city, citing negative publicity against the police officers, and that they couldn't get a fair trial in Howard County because the racial mix is far lower than in the city.

Maryland's second-highest court, the Court of Special Appeals, rejected both arguments in an opinion issued Friday. The court ruled that moving the proceedings to Howard was proper, and that the family got a fair trial.

Read the court's full opinion here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore, Howard County
        

He got $13 in the robbery. Now he could go to prison for life for shooting a bystander.

The Sun's Luke Broadwater reports today: The second of two men charged in the shooting and killing of a 72-year-οld security guard who worked fοr the Afro-American newspaper was convicted of first-degree murder Wednesday evening.

After deliberating for two days, a Baltimore City Circuit Court jury found Michael Hunter, 20, guilty of murder, armed robbery and handgun violations in connection with the murder of Charles Bowman during the April 8, 2010, robbery οf a Chinese food carryout in Waverly.

This killing, and one that followed two days later on Greenmount Avenue, shook the corridor last year. The area near Greenmount in 33rd is sort of transitional, with businesses and restaurants trying to overcome crime and grime. Police flooded the area with officers in the aftermath, and parked a police car at a corner gas station.

The photo above, by The Sun's Karl Merton Ferron, shows the crime scene after the second killing in April last year.

Here's more about the security guard and victim, Charles Bowman.

Read about the second killing in Waverly.  

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

A former Prince George's County police officer, who lives in Odenton, has pleaded guilty in federal court in connection with an extortion scheme involving untaxed cigarettes. The Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office says he faces up to life in prison because one of the charges involves illegal firearms.

This is the latest in a series of corruption cases in Prince George's County that has embroiled the former county executive and his wife, who had been on the county council. The Washington Post has linked the corruption cases through an association of one central figure.

Prosecutors said the officer, while in uniform, armed and driving a marked cruiser, helped transport the cigarettes to a storage facility. Authorities said the scheme cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Federal prosecutors in Baltimore outline the details of the case in a statement:

Continue reading "Ex-Prince George's officer pleads guilty in extortion" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A city jury has convicted a man in a September 2009 daylight killing in Northwest Baltimore, and in another case, a judge sentenced a man to 90 years in prison in a double shooting in East Baltimore in 2008 that left one victim dead.

In the first case, prosecutors said Charles Thomas was found guilty of first-degree murder for approaching Alvin Terry Alston, 45, from behind and shooting him in the head. The attack occurred about noon on a Sunday at the busy intersection of Cold Spring Lane and Reisterstown Road. Thomas, 47, faces life in prison when he is sentenced Nov. 8.

In the second case, Baltimore Circuit Judge Edward R.K. Hargadon sentenced James Fortune to nearly a century behind bars for shooting Sidney Millner and Natavien Henry at the D&N Liquor Store on North Stricker St. in January 2008. Millner died from his injuries; prosecutors said Henry was paralyzed from the neck down. Fortune, 36, was convicted of second degree murder. 

The Sun's Justin Fenton wrote more about Fortune and of his previous murder conviction:

Continue reading "Man convicted of murder; another sentenced to 90 years in killing" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore
        

The attorney for a man charged with driving a car that hit and killed two Baltimore teenagers in June says his client denies being behind the wheel. James Rhodes, the lawyer, said Reuben Dunn's companion has told police a lie.

Dunn (seen in police mugshot) surrendered to police earlier today, indicted on charges that include two counts of auto manslaughter, two counts of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and driving under the influence. Police say he drove through a red light on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, at Pratt Street, and hit Emerald Smith, 17, and her friend, Courtney Angeles, 16, who were in a crosswalk.

Police found the car about 30 minutes later near BWI, but said a woman was driving and told the officer she had been in an accident in the city. Dunn told the officer he had been sleeping. Prosecutors said they believe Dunn switched places with the woman after the accident and before he had been stopped.

But Rhodes said the  case relies only on the woman's changed story. "The police are going to have a big problem" at trial, the attorney told me. The woman, Dunn's former girlfriend and mother of their two children, was charged with being an accessory after the fact. Her attorney would not comment on details of the case. Prosecutors would not comment on Rhodes' allegations.

Read the full story here.

To read the police report:

Continue reading "Attorney says driver charged in fatal hit and run wasn't at wheel" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Southwest Baltimore
        

The suspect arrested in the killing of a 91-year-old woman during a burglary in Northeast Baltimore had been out on $25,000 bail at the time of the slaying, according to court records.

The records show that a judge upped the bail from $10,000 to $25,000, but that Anthony Robinson, 45, posted it anyway, on July 7. Irene Logan was stabbed, strangled and beaten in her home on Moravia Road less than a month later.

In the July burglary, a police report shows that officers responded to a house on Frankford Avenue for an alarm. They saw a man inside, who ran and hid in an attic. Police said the attic ceiling collapsed and the suspect fell into a bedroom, where he was Tased and arrested.

His trial on that case is scheduled for Oct. 25.  A police report says a gold bracelet, a gold pin and a gold watch were taken. Robinson now faces first-degree murder charges and is being held without bail.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Northeast Baltimore
        

On Sept. 14 of last year, a federal judge received a one-page letter that read, in part, “BOOM see how easy this was, next time you wont be so lucky ERM Family ANTHRAX!!"

According to the indictment, the letter also said: "I just hope Allah grants me the opportunity to be the one who chops off your head," and the words "die die die!!!" followed by the sentence "If I ever ever get out I promise you I'm coming after you."

The letter wasn't signed but the FBI quickly found Willie Ray Bryant's prints on it. The 41-year-old was in prison in Cumberland; the judge had presided over one of his previous trials in state court. According to on-line records, the judge had overseen a case in which Bryant pleaded guilty to a handgun charge in 2001 and sentenced him to five years in prison.

The FBI also said they found "the letter also bore imprints of letters and numbers appearing to partially match Bryant's mother’s name and phone number," according to federal prosecutors.

The Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement:

"After the FBI determined the sender’s identity from Bryant’s fingerprints, a message was sent to Maryland Corrections officials to monitor Bryant's use of the mail.  Shortly thereafter, corrections officials intercepted a letter Bryant had addressed to President Obama excoriating the President for turning his back on Islam and threatening to kill the President. Bryant signed the letter and included his state prisoner number."

He faces 10 years in prison when he is sentenced Dec. 9.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

One of my favorite appellate judges -- based solely on his prose -- has opined on a  burglary case out of Harford County.

The suspect, convicted of breaking into a friend's home in 2009 as they vacationed in New York, wanted the Court of Special Appeals to throw out the case based on several factors, such a whether the judge erred in allowing the jury to hear certain evidence, and whether the facts presented were legally sufficient for a guilty finding.

The defendant didn't dispute his conviction of theft, but said first-degree burglary conviction, which landed him 20 years in prison, was out of line. The judge, Charles E. Moylan Jr., ruled in the state's favor, upholding the conviction of Brett  Russell Molter.

The key was whether a logical inference could be made that because Molter was found in possession of the stolen goods, that he had been the one who stole them. He was a friend of the victims, had been inside their home in the past and knew they would be out of town.

Moylan, who has a penchant for flowery writing, opened his 31-page opinion this way:

"Suppose that Scotland Yard, in late 1888, could have established that an otherwise innocuous denizen of London's Whitechapel neighborhood had been in the unexplained possession of a locket worn no more than two or three days earlier by one of the  victims of Jack the Ripper. How far might the Crown have gone with the resulting inference? It is just such an inference, and the reach of its inferential potency,  that is the primary focus of this appeal."

For a full dose of Moylan, read his opinion in this case here. Here a section that sums up some of the case:

Continue reading ""Jack the Ripper" and a Harford County burglary" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Harford County
        

He called police to report a burglary, and ended up convicted of armed drug trafficking. Maybe he should've moved the drugs from his toilet before dialing 911.

The Howard County State's Attorney Office says a jury convicted a Laurel man on Thursday. He had called the cops to his apartment in January and told them he returned from a week away to find his place burglarized.

Police, while conducting their investigation, found a bag of marijuana residue in his the bathroom toilet. Police said the man gave consent for officers to search further, and they found a scale. That led them to a search warrant and the seizure of a loaded Ruger handgun, ammunition and bottles of ecstasy.

For more details, here is a statement from prosecutors:

Continue reading "Lesson: lose the drugs before you call the cops" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Howard County
        

Howard Scott Kalin, the Baltimore County magician who was arrested in Florida on a charge of seeking sex from a child, has signed a plea agreement with prosecutors.

The Orlando Sentinel reports:

A Baltimore balloon entertainer faces up to 10 years in prison after signing a plea agreement in which he admitted traveling to Lake County for sex with a 14-year-old boy he found through an Internet personal ad.

Here is some background from our story in May:

Continue reading "Local Magician signs plea agreement in child sex case" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

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
        

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

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

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

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

Read full story here.

Read about the suspect's guilty plea.

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

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

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

Here are some other headlines from the weekend:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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
        

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

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

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

Continue reading "Financial advisor accused of bilking clients, including trust for child and elderly man" »

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

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

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

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

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

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
        

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

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

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

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

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

Continue reading "Federal judge won't allow police to track wanted suspect using GPS" »

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

The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read full story here.

Read background story.

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

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
        

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

The Sun's Andrea F. Siegel reports:

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

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

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

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

Read full story here.

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

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
        

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

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

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

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

Continue reading "Roommate implicates supect in killing Pitcairn" »

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From the Associated Press via The Daily Record: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is the story.

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

Barry H. Landau, the well-known collector of presidential memorabilia, was indicted by a federal grand jury today. He had been charged by the state with stealing documents from the Maryland Historical Society. Now, charges include thefts of important documents from several other archives:

* Writings of President Roosevelt and his treasury secretary from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, N.Y.

* A letter dated April 1, 1780, from Benjamin Franklin and John Paul Jones, from the New York Historical Society.

* Sixty docuemtns from the F. Furlong Baldwin Libary at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore, including a land grant dated June 1, 1861 to a soldier from the Maryland Militia, War of 1812, signed by Abraham Lincoln. 

“The federal government will provide a firm and swift response to those that steal parts of our nation’s history for their own private benefit," said Special Agent Richard McFeely of Baltimore's FBI office. "Alleged crimes like this rob all Americans of the rich heritage that these museums preserve for present and future generations.” 

Read the indictment:

Continue reading "Suspect in document theft indicted by feds" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

This just in from courts reporter Tricia Bishop:

A 21-year-old Pasadena man pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter Thursday for shoving a stranger who couldn't swim into the Inner Harbor in 2008 — an act previously characterized by one Baltimore judge as complete stupidity.

Wayne Black, who was 18 when he pushed 22-year-old Ankush Gupta into the water and ran, will be sentenced to four years in prison at his sentencing, scheduled for Aug. 30, per an agreement cut with Baltimore Circuit Court Judge M. Brooke Murdock.

His mother dabbed tears as the deal was done, while Gupta's friends and family sat stone-faced on the other side of the courtroom. "That is not justice," Saneel John Masih said after the hearing. He and Rohit Gupta were longtime friends of Ankush, more like brothers than buddies.

Read complete story here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Downtown
        

Remember this story from September 2009?:

Sitting in her car Tuesday night outside the Kennedy Krieger Institute as police investigated a shooting, Ana Matheus held up what may have spared her from serious injury: her Vera Bradley handbag.

She reached in and pulled out her pocketbook. Inside was a checkbook, a credit card and a $20 bill - all pierced by a bullet that narrowly missed striking her as she left work at Kennedy Krieger.

Matheus was not harmed, but a female co-worker was wounded when one of the stray bullets struck her in the hand about 6:30 p.m. Matheus said the woman was walking just a foot in front of her when the shots rang out. With the errant bullet piercing the bag that was slung over her shoulder, Matheus was inches away from being wounded herself.

 "I've always felt pretty safe with the security guards on the corners, but I don't know, it definitely feels less safe now," said Matheus, a 27-year-old social worker in the pediatric hospital at Kennedy Krieger. "It's pretty surreal."

The State's Attorney's Office announced today that the suspect charged in the case, 44-year-old Timothy Gaskins, was sentenced today to 54 years in prison for the shooting after being convicted during a six-day trial in May on two counts of attempted second-degree murder and 18 other charges. Prosecutors say Gaskins fired five shots - in addition to the bullet that traveled through Matheus' bag, one bullet pierced the intended victim's pants but missed his leg, and another struck the hand of Matheus' co-worker.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore
        

Sian James was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday for hurling a chunk of concrete that killed an off-duty Baltimore police officer last year during a heated argument over a parking space, The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports.

James, 26, was charged with murder in the death of Det. Brian Stevenson, but a jury in April convicted him of involuntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum 10-year prison term.

His attorney said James — who was out on bail during the incident in a separate case charging him with the attempted rape of an ex-girlfriend — acted in self defense, believing the officer was intoxicated and going to shoot him and his friends.

Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Barry G. Williams said the court was "beside itself" over the "senselessness of it all."

"We have a life that is lost," Williams said. "This did not have to happen."

Stevenson's wife was left to ask the court Wednesday: "What man now is responsible for our family? Who do we belong to?"

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Southeast Baltimore
        

The intriguing story of the presidential memorabilia collector Barry H. Landau and his alleged accomplice gets more interesting by the day.

Not only are they charged with trying to steal documents, including one signed by Abraham Lincoln, from the Maryland Historical Society, but one might have been caught flushing a document down a toilet as police closed in at downtown archives.

Assistant State's Attorney said that Savedoff may have flushed the document down the historical society's toilet. The prosecutor said he was in the bathroom when police arrived, and they knocked on the door repeatedly. When the door opened, two officers and a historical society employee went in. The employee noticed what looked like remnants of an old document in the toilet, Varda said, but was not able to get to it immediately. But before the scraps could be retrieved, someone used and flushed the toilet, Varda said.

And, a prosecutor said at a bail hearing on Tuesday, they're suspected in stealing other documents from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Archives in Hyde Park, N.Y., and from the New York Historical Society.

Read Liz Kay's full account of the hearings.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The Baltimore police officer charged with running his own drug ring was so brazen, federal prosecutors say in court papers backing up an indictment filed Tuesday, that they say he dealt drugs from the parking lot of the Northwestern District station.

It's just one of the details contained in 50-page affidavit that details part of the FBI investigation that included wiretaps on phones and surveillance. Read Justin Fenton's full story here. And here is one part about the stationhouse:

Authorities charge Baltimore Police Officer Daniel Redd with running a suspected heroin organization with Tamim Mamah, also known as Abdul Zakaria. On March 31, at 9:55 a.m., the FBI says it intercepted this telephone conversation:

Mamah: Where you say you want me to meet you at?
Redd: At my building. Not down where, where I work, at but at the building. You know how you meet me on the lot?
Mamah: Yeah
Redd: No, not down, not down at Park Heights. Up at the building.
Mamah: Oh, okay, okay, okay, alright, okay
Redd: Up near the five mile, you know up there at my station.

FBI: "Subsequent law enforcement video surveillance observed Redd leaving the Northwest District Police Station, located at 5271 Reisterstown Road, while in full police uniform, retrieving something fromhis car, the 2004 Acura TL, and placing it in his jacket pokcet. Redd was then observed walking to another part of the parking lot. ... I believe that Redd and Mamah met in the Baltimore City Northwest District Police Station parking lot so that Redd could give Mamah a quantity of heroin."

Here are some of the latest scandals to hit city police:

Continue reading "Officer charged with drug dealing dealt heroin in police parking lot, according to feds" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A Baltimore County doctor disappeared 13 years without a word or a trace. Then, a sudden courtroom confession in Tennessee finally brought closure, though not one the family would've wanted.

Dr. Henry Peter Ackerman was killed, according to the confession, and his body disposed of and never found. The Sun's Tricia Bishop recounts the tale of the missing man, whose story has never been told in full detail.

You can read the full story here. Tricia's opening:

Henry Ackerman had plans — big, cross country, into-the-wild plans.

It was 1998, and he was 48 years old, alone, sad and somewhat peculiar. He lived with three cats and a big, sandy-colored dog in an unkempt Baltimore County apartment and worked as a child psychologist in the city school system.

His beloved wife had died of leukemia four years earlier in Memphis after a long illness, and he had moved immediately afterward, first to Oregon and then to Maryland to be closer to his sister's family, acquaintances said.

But he yearned for Alaska. He reached out to a tiny school system there in the eastern part of the state, in a town called Circle, and was in the process of quietly securing a new job. He planned to live in a camper out there, in the Last Frontier, a former neighbor told police.

He made all the arrangements, and on June 18, 1998, he set out to purchase a used GMC. He never came back.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The 13-year-old case of a missing Baltimore County doctor was solved Tuesday, with a surprise murder confession announced in a federal courtroom nearly a thousand miles away, The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports.

Dr. Henry Peter Ackerman was a 48-year-old widower and recent transplant to the Baltimore area when he went missing in the summer of 1998 during a trip to Memphis, Tenn. He and his wife, Velma, had lived in a suburb there before her death from leukemia in 1994, and Ackerman went back to the area planning to buy a vehicle and drive it to his new home in Maryland, federal prosecutors said.

But he never returned, and more than a decade would pass before anyone looked to Dale Mardis, a gun dealer, for answers.

Mardis, 57, was convicted earlier this year in federal court in Tennessee in the racially motivated killing of an African-American code enforcement officer named Mickey Wright in 2001. Mardis shot Wright, dismembered the body with a Becker BK-1 Brute survival knife, burned it and spread the remains in junk cars that were later crushed, according to court documents and news accounts

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

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
        

                                                                               There are college classes devoted to The Wire, using the fictional HBO series to explore the impact of drugs, crime, schools and urban renewal crumbling cities. David Simon, a former Sun cop reporter, has won accolades for the vivid, raw series and for his books. Recently, he got a mention from the U.S. Attorney General.

Now, the Maryland Court of Appeals has weighed in (read decision here), quoting from his book recounting a year with the Baltimore Police Department's homicide unit, in an opinion on a Miranda case. They use cite a passage from "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets" to explore "street-cred."

At issue was whether it was legitimate for the prosecutor in a murder trial to question the defendant on his desire to remain silent, a fundamental right of anyone under arrest. Typically, prosecutors are not allowed to explore such issues in front of the jury, because his silence cannot be used to impune guilt.

But in this case, the trial judge in Cecil County allowed the prosecutor to raise the question because the defendant at first told police he would cooperate, and then later recanted. The appellate judges overturned the conviction.

At the opening of the decision, the judges quote from Simon's book, citing a passage that recounts how Miranda is viewed on the Baltimore's mean streets:

Continue reading "Court of Appeals quotes David Simon in opinion" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

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
        

Readers had some questions after Friday morning's post on the Court of Appeals overturning the convictions of two men in the gruesome slayings of three children in 2004. My apologies for not updating the blog before I left.

The Baltimore State's Attorney's Office will have to decide whether to retry the two men, who will remain behind bars. As of Friday, no decision has been made. As the article states, it could be difficult becuase one witness is dead and most others left or were deported to Mexico.

If prosecutors do not retry the case, the suspects will likely be deported to Mexico; they are illegal immigrants. In case you missed it, the appeals court overturned the convictions saying the judge had erred by not sharing notes from the jury with the defense team, who argued they would've changed their strategy given what jurors were thinking.

The case involved the 2004 near beheadings of three elementary school children in Northwest Baltimore. An uncle and cousin were charged and convicted after a second trial; it was one of the most gruesome and complex cases in Baltimore in years.

Here is complete coverage of the decision and the case.

Read the Court of Appeals ruling.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Northwest Baltimore
        

It was one of the most horrific slayings in Baltimore -- the May 2004 throat-slashing murders of siblings Lucero Espinoza, 8, Ricardo Espinoza, 9, and their cousin Alexis Espejo Quezada, 10.

The dead children's uncle, Policarpio Espinoza, and the victim's cousin, Adan Canela, were convicted of murder after two lengthy and complex trials. Today, the Maryland Court of Appeals overturned the convictions, ruling the jude's failure to turn over juror notes to defense lawyers prevented them from adequately presenting their case. The lawyers argued that they would've changed trial strategies based on the nature of the questions.

The city's new top prosecutor, Gregg Bernstein, now faces a tough decision. Can he retry this case a third time? It's made more difficult given that most of the witnesses were deported to Mexico after the convictions and one witnesses was killed in Mexico in a domestic dispute.

So far, Bernstein's office isn't saying much beyond he'll review the case. Here is complete coverage of this case, along with pictures, timelines and detailed trial coverage. \

Read the Maryland Court of Appeals decision.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Northwest Baltimore
        

A 30-year-old woman was sentenced today in Baltimore Circuit Court to 23 years in prison for attacking three women during altercations at West Baltimore clubs. The attacks left the victims with severe injuries.

The sentence came after Tiffany Williams had pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree assault. Judge Lynn K. Stewart ruled that the defendant’s pleas meant she had violated the probation she was serving for an earlier narcotics conviction.

More details on the case from The Sun's Nick Madigan:

Continue reading "Woman gets 23 years in prison for attacks at clubs" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, West 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
        

Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Edward R.K. Hargadon issued a detailed, written ruling explaining his decision to find city Officer Gahiji Tshamba guilty of manslaughter for shooting an unarmed Marine outside a Mount Vernon night club.

It's long, but well worth the read:

This case involves the death of Tyrone Brown on the morning of June 5, 2010. There is no dispute that the Defendant shot Mr. Brown 12 times and that the shooting was the cause of Mr. Brown’s death.

There is also no dispute that the Defendant and three female friends were at the rear door of the Red Maple at Eager & Morton Streets at around 1 AM. Mr. Brown, his sister, Ms. Kangalee and Ms. Dodge were walking south on Morton Street. Ms. Ramsay, one of the Defendant’s friends, was on the ramp outside the Red Maple, when Mr. Brown touched her inappropriately on the buttocks.

From this point forward, the versions of the various witnesses differ. The court has had to grapple with what are seemingly very divergent accounts of what happened. From this standpoint, it is important to determine which witnesses were credible. Credibility is determined not just by whether someone is literally lying, but also by whether the witness had a bias or motive not to be completely straightforward, whether intentionally or subconsciously, whether the witness was able to see or hear things about which they testified, does the witness have an interest in the outcome of the case, did the witness appear to be telling the truth, and what was the witness’ behavior on the stand and manner of testifying.

The rest of the ruling:

Continue reading "Judge explains decision in Tshamba manslaughter decision" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Gahiji Tshamba
        

Those are the words of Gahiji Tshamba, the Baltimore police officer who shot an unarmed Marine a dozen times during a confrontation outside a Mount Vernon nightclub. The officer spoke for the first time during his murder trial.

He said he was being chased, backed into a corner and shot the man as he advaanced on him. An expert witness, a retired city cop who wrote the department's rules of force, testified on behalf of Tshamba, while the judge who is hearing the case without a jury questioned the officer's account.

Read the full story here. The incident started after the Marine, Tyrone Brown, grabbed the buttocks of a woman who was with Tshamba, who'se pictured at left coming out of the courthouse on Wednesday, in a photo by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor.

The officer testified:

Continue reading ""I was scared, I was in fear" " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

The Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office just advised that a Baltimore police officer pleaded guilty today in the scandal involving a kickback scheme in towing vehicles. More than a dozen officers have been charged in the case; he is the first to plead guilty.

Here is a statement from federal prosecutors:

Baltimore Police officer David Reeping, age 41, of Arbutus, Maryland pleaded guilty today to extortion under color of official right in connection with a scheme in which a repair shop owner paid Reeping to arrange for the repair shop, rather than a city-authorized company, to tow vehicles from accident scenes and make repairs.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland  Rod J. Rosenstein, Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III.

The Baltimore Police Department requires that when police request vehicle towing services, they only use towing companies that are under contract with the City of Baltimore to provide towing services for the BPD.

According to Reeping’s plea agreement, Reeping was a Baltimore Police Department officer assigned to the Central District. Sometime in 2009, Reeping was introduced to the owner of an auto repair and towing shop in Rosedale, Maryland (the Repair Shop) and told that he could make extra money by having vehicles towed to the Repair Shop.

The Repair Shop is not an authorized tow company with the City of Baltimore. The Repair Shop owner instructed Reeping to tell accident victims that the Repair Shop would pay for the deductible to induce them to have the car towed to the shop.

Continue reading "City police officer pleads guilty in towing scandal" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The trial of the Baltimore police officer charged with fatally shooting an unarmed Marine continues today. Here is some new information from The Sun's court reporter, Tricia Bishop:

Chantay Kangalee complicated three days of work by prosecutors Tuesday morning when she took the stand as a reluctant witness for her brother’s killer, Baltimore police Officer Gahiji Tshamba, and testified to a scenario that contradicted the state’s carefully built murder case.

Kangalee, the first defense witness called, said Tshamba pulled a gun on her brother, Tyrone Brown, outside a back entrance to Mount Vernon’s Red Maple lounge in the early morning of June 5, 2010, confirming what’s been said in court so far. But she added that Brown pushed the off-duty officer and steadily advanced — hands out — toward Tshamba, who was backing up the entire time with his gun drawn.

The two men were about three feet apart when Tshamba, 37, fired, his back to an alleyway trash container, unloading his service weapon into Brown, who struggled to push the Glock away, Kangalee said.

Continue reading "Victim's sister helps defense in Tshamba case" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Gahiji Tshamba, North Baltimore
        

From The Sun's court reporter Tricia Bishop:

Twelve bullets from an off-duty officer's gun struck Tyrone Brown, but it wasn't until the last one hit that the former Marine dropped.

Seven of them lodged in his 32-year-old body — they were later recovered from his buttocks, back, thighs and pelvis — and three passed clean through, an autopsy shows. Two others grazed him, leaving behind superficial wounds. And one hit him twice, entering and exiting a pinch of skin near his right hip, then driving back into his soft tissue and coming to a rest in his right buttock.

That one, which left a trail of wounds, likely hit Brown while he was bent over, Assistant Medical Examiner Melissa Brassell testified Thursday — the second day of the murder trial of Brown's killer, Baltimore Police Officer Gahiji Tshamba.

Tshamba, 37, got into a row with Brown outside a Baltimore bar on the morning of June 5, 2010, and shot him a dozen times as patrons emptied from the Mount Vernon bars. The officer says it was in self-defense, but prosecutors say Tshamba was the aggressor, drunk with power and alcohol.

Read full details from Tricia's story. The photos by Tricia are of Tshamba right after he shot Brown, and of his gun and the bullets, all of which are now part of his court trial.

In case you missed it, here's a compelling story, also by Tricia, of the opening day in Tshamba's trial, with a riviting account by a witness who acted out the shooting.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

Remember Thomas M. Dibiagio?

He's the Maryland U.S. Attorney who quit in 2004 -- later saying someone threatened him over his pursuit of pubic corruption. He's most famous for being reprimanded by his federal bosses for an internal email in which he "pressed his staff for three 'front-page' corruption indictments before Election Day."

Prosecutors make a living off intercepting the communication of others -- all those fun wiretaps catching criminals and politicians incriminating themselves -- so it should be of no surprise when their own internal communications get leaked.

Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein gets his reminder in today's Baltimore Sun, where Justin Fenton got hold of his internal emails to his staff about a police misconduct case that the city's top prosecutor had tried, getting two convictions on lesser charges than he had sought, and one acquittal.

In the memo, Bernstein criticizes the lead internal police detective (remember how he said during his campaign that unlike his predecessor, he wouldn't blast cops -- publicly at least), takes a swipe at the judge and jokes that one of his assistant's made him look good. 

Here are the highlights of the memo, which can be read in full here:

Continue reading "Bernstein's memo -- remember Thomas DiBiagio?" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein on Thursday afternoon announced the creation of a new "major investigations" unit that will be tasked with building proactive cases against violent, repeat offenders. 

To lead the unit, Bernstein landed a coup with the recruitment of Thiru Vignarajah from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland. Vignarajah is a graduate of Woodlawn High School who went on to attend Yale University and Harvard University, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He also clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. 

"Research and data reveal that a relatively small number of violent, repeat offenders commit a disproportionately large amount of violent crime. By strategically and aggressively pursuing, prosecuting and imprisoning these individuals, we will have a dramatic impact on the level of violence in the city, and as a result make Baltimore a safer place to live and work."

Many of the major cases brought in federal court are a result of state-authorized wiretaps, and involve the cooperation of federal and local authorities. The new unit is expected to help specifically develop such cases.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Justin Fenton reports:

Two Baltimore police officers convicted of misconduct for stranding two 15-year-old boys far from their homes received 18 month suspended jail terms and probation Wednesday, with a judge refusing prosecutors’ request to strip them of their badges.

Detectives Tyrone Francis and Milton Smith asserted their innocence before Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Timothy J. Doory handed down the sentence. “I still believe the only thing I’m actually guilty of is doing my job,” Smith said.

The father of one of the victims had asked that Doory send the men to jail. Francis and Smith were acquitted by a jury of kidnapping, false imprisonment and assault, and convicted on two counts each of misconduct. A third officer, Gregory Hellen, was acquitted by Doory in a rare dual judge-jury trial.

It was the first case personally tried by State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein.

The officers were accused of picking up two teens in West Baltimore at separate points on May 4, 2009, dropping one off on a street corner in East Baltimore and taking the other to the side of the highway that runs through Patapsco Valley State Park in Howard County. That teen, Michael Johnson Jr., was left in the rain without shoes and said his cell phone had been broken in half and thrown out of the window.

More details:

Continue reading "City police get suspended sentences for stranding teens" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein told residents at a North Baltimore community meeting that the juvenile justice system is weakened by a lack of facilities to house young offenders.

"The juvenile justice system is not good," said Bernstein, in response to a question about teenage drug dealers. "There is no real accountability.  There are no real repercussions."

Bernstein, who was sworn-in as state's attorney in January, joined Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III at a meeting hosted by Councilman Bill Henry.

"Limited facilities to commit juveniles" mean that they are "put right back in the communities" where they are getting into trouble, said Bernstein.

Bernstein told attendees that the state's attorney's had a better working relationship with the police department than it had under his predecessor, Patricia Jessamy.

"We have a much more cooperative relationship with the police department where we understand our roles and work together," he said.

Posted by Julie Scharper at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The murder trial of Baltimore police officer Gahiji Tshamba, who unloaded his service weapon into a former Marine outside a Baltimore bar last year, began Tuesday morning with hearings to determine what evidence can be presented in court, The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports.

Lawyers for Tshamba, 37, claim their client shot Tyrone Brown a dozen times in self-defense and was following proper police procedure during the incident, which happened in the early morning hours of June 5, 2010, after a night of club hopping. But prosecutors say Tshamba was intoxicated, irrational and that he murdered an innocent man who served the country.

The two sides spent the morning arguing about what can be said to a jury or judge, dependent upon what kind of trial Tshamba elects, though they agreed on one thing: Each wants the fact-finders to take a field trip to the crime scene, outside a back entrance to Club Hippo in Mount Vernon, during the proceeding.

"You don't get the largess of the situation until you get to the crime scene," said Assistant State's Attorney Kevin Wiggins.

Wiggins said at least two officers are prepared to testify that Tshamba appeared to be under the influence of alcohol after the shooting, talking about "how hot the chicks were that were with him that night" while he was being transported to Mercy Medical Center.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

From The Sun's Mike Dresser [full story here]:

The Baltimore woman whose driving errors led to a crash that left bicyclist Nathan Krasnopoler in a coma with possibly permanent brain injuries has resolved the traffic charges against her by paying $220 — about half the amount she would have been fined if Baltimore police had not erred in writing the tickets.

Jeannette Marie Walke, 83, pleaded guilty May 11 to negligent driving and failure to yield right of way to a bicyclist in a designated lane. She prepaid the ticket and did not appear in court. Such charges can be resolved by sending in a standard fine by mail.

Krasnopoler, a 20-year-old Johns Hopkins University student, collided with Walke's car Feb. 26 when she turned in front of him on University Parkway near the Homewood campus. According to his family, he retains brain stem function but is not expected to regain consciousness. The Krasnopolers have filed a $10 million lawsuit against Walke.

Johns Hopkins University Walke would have been fined $400 had not the police officer who wrote the tickets blundered. Police have admitted the mistake; Walke has not commented on the case.

The negligent-driving fine was assessed at $140 rather than the $280 called for under state law for cases involving a crash. On the failure-to-yield charge, she was fined $80 rather than the $120 she would have been assessed for an offense that contributed to an accident.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

A 25-year old Elkton woman pleaded guilty Thursday in Baltimore's U.S. District Court to conspiring to launder more than $400,000 in heroin proceeds, trading the drug funds for clean cash at Las Vegas casinos and other people's winning state lottery tickets, The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports.

Joy Edison, who was originally indicted in August on drug charges alongside Steven Blackwell and Tahirah Carter, has also agreed to forfeit at least a half dozen Baltimore properties she bought using drug money. Sentencing is set for August 12.

Read more here.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore
        

An attorney from Rodgers Forge pleaded guilty today to child pornography charges and will be sentenced to 24 to 37 months in federal prison, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office has announced.

I had written about Joseph Patrick Redd in April after neighbors wondered why it took so long between the time the feds raided his house in March 2009 to the filing of criminal charges in April of this year. People wondered if authorities had left a potentially dangerous man in a neighborhood.

The answer was that Redd had been charged with downloading images of child pornography on the Internet, and not interacting with children. His case was deemed a low priority, compared to child predators, and it took a while for his computer and other evidence to be analyzed.

Of course, neighbors couldn't help but wonder why the big show of force and then nothing for more than two years. Here's a statment from the U.S. Attorney's Office:

Continue reading "Lawyer pleads guilty to child porn charges" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system
        

A 47-year-old attorney and magician who runs a children’s entertainment company in Baltimore County was arrested Monday and charged with flying to Florida to have sex with a 14-year-old boy, who turned out to be an undercover detective, according to police.

Howard Scott Kalin, who lives in the 1700 block of Anne Ave. in Essex, was being held without bail by the Lake County, Fla. Sheriff’s Office. Police said he runs “Funhouse Entertainment,” which has an address on York Road in Lutherville.

Members of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office cyber crime division said in a statement that Kalin contacted them in January through an Internet chat line, using the name “Ben Aldridge.” The detectives posed both as a 14-year-old boy and as the boy’s caregiver, the police statement said.

“Mr. Kalin also told undercover detectives that he would bring a basketball to the child and planned on having sex with the boy during his visit,” according to the police statement. On Monday, police said Kalin travelled to Florida and was arrested at a undisclosed meeting place.

Continue reading "Lutherville magician charged with child sex crime in Florida" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Breaking news, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

Assistant State's Attorney Michelle Martin — who recently tried three city police officers on kidnapping and misconduct charges alongside her boss, Gregg Bernstein — has been named the new training director for the Baltimore prosecutor's office, The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports.

"Under Ms. Martin's leadership and direction, we will now begin to develop a training program that will go far to improving the quality of the important work we do every day as State's Attorneys," Bernstein said in a statement issued Friday morning.

Bernstein, who took office in January, promised professional training for the entire staff during his campaign, in part to improve conviction rates within the office. He's repeatedly said that his predecessor, Patricia Jessamy, too frequently allowed violent repeat offenders to return to the streets.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports:

Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, the Baltimore actress who played a ruthless hitwoman on HBO's "The Wire," pleaded not guilty Tuesday morning to drug conspiracy charges and requested a trial by jury, tentatively set for Aug. 9.

Pearson, who appeared in Baltimore Circuit Court dressed in an oversized black polo shirt and baggy jeans, declined to comment Tuesday, saying she would talk "as soon as the case is over with."

She's "letting the lawyers take care of the legal issues and she's doing what she needs to do professionally," her attorney, Benjamin Sutley, said after the arraignment.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Felicia Pearson, who played the brutal killer "Snoop" in The Wire, is to be arraigned this morning in Baltimore Circuit Court on drug charges. She was arrested earlier this year in a local and federal drug sweep called "Operation Unusual Suspects."

At an earlier court hearing, a prosecutor alleged that Pearson used money from the acclaimed HBO series to help fund a drug organization. She later made bail, last month she was released from electronic home monitoring to travel to Philadelphia to film a movie.

Now she's back in court. The Sun's Tricia Bishop will be at the hearing to report back. Above is a picture of Pearson's arrest, taken by The Sun's Kim Hairston.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

From Saturday's Sun:

Baltimore prosecutors have cut a deal with a woman charged in the stabbing death of a Johns Hopkins researcher, agreeing to drop murder charges in exchange for testimony against her lover in a case that became a rallying point during last year's heated state's attorney's race.

Lavelva Merritt, 23, pleaded guilty to robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery, saying that her co-defendant stabbed Stephen Pitcairn last summer and that she punched the victim as he fell to the ground, stealing his cellphone while he lay there.

If she sticks to that story in the case against John Wagner, who's scheduled for trial next month, Merritt will be sentenced to 30 years in prison, with half of the time suspended, for a total of about 15 years followed by three years' probation.

Prosecutors did not announce the deal, and apparently wanted it shielded from the public. "We would not want the [taped statement], the written plea agreement, in the court file where any member of the press or anybody can just come in and get it and take it out," Merritt's attorney, Welch, told the judge. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Lawyers for two Baltimore police officers convicted of misconduct in a case personally tried by State’s Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein have filed motions for a new trial, citing “astonishingly inappropriate” remarks by prosecutors and improper jury instructions.

In court filings, attorneys for Detectives Milton Smith and Tyrone Francis cited a comment by Bernstein made in response to the defense contention that the officers had never previously been accused of wrongdoing: “We’re not saying … that all of a sudden their behavior just changes. We’re saying that this time they got caught,” Bernstein told jurors.

Francis’ attorneys, Michael J. Belsky and Megan E. Oleszewski, said there was not a “single piece of evidence” to support the idea that the officers had previously kidnapped people, making it “egregious, unwarranted, prejudicial, and just wrong,” according to court records.

Kenneth W. Ravenell and Milin Chun, attorneys for Smith, said in a separate filing that the remark “is shameful in itself but more so when considering that he is the leader of an office of young impressionable attorneys who look to him for guidance and leadership.”

Through a spokesman, Bernstein declined to comment on the allegations.

Continue reading "Convicted officers cite prosecutors' remarks in motion for new trial" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A new municipal courthouse would be built on downtown Baltimore's east side as part of a roughly $600 million plan to modernize and expand the city's Circuit Court campus, if public officials can find the money to carry out the project.

The renovation of the city's two existing courthouses — the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse and Courthouse East — would also be part of the project, which is expected to take six to eight years to complete, The Sun's Edward Gunts reported today.

Plans for the three-part project were presented Wednesday to members of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, a group affiliated with Baltimore's Circuit Court system.

The full report is posted on the Maryland Stadium Authority's website at http://www.mdstad.com/content/view/94/127/

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The Sun's Nick Madigan reports:

In the mind of Cleaven L. Williams Jr., the stabbing death of his wife on a Baltimore street was a tragedy that took place outside his control. The event, he said in court Friday, rendered him a victim, too, although whether of circumstance or fate he did not make clear.

In sentencing the 35-year-old defendant to life in prison, Baltimore Circuit Judge Timothy J. Doory admonished him to “accept 100 percent responsibility” for killing Veronica Graves Williams on Nov. 17, 2008, something he avoided doing during his trial in February and in his long statement to the court on Friday.

Above, Carlin Robinson, a cousin of the victim, joins friends and relatives outside the courthouse, in a photo by The Sun's Lloyd Fox.

Read past coverage of Williams, including how the judicial system failed the victim.

Read a letter the suspect sent to The Sun.

The judge, in declining to impose a no-parole sentence, called him an intelligent man who might still make something of his life once he is released, which could occur in about 25 years. Doory also gave Williams an additional three-year term, which he will serve consecutively, on a dangerous-weapon charge.

The murder of Veronica Williams, with whom Cleaven Williams had three children and was expecting a fourth, was a stunningly public act, witnessed by several people on a North Avenue sidewalk. The stabbing ended only when a police officer who happened to be nearby fired his gun twice at the knife-wielding suspect.

“He actually calls himself a victim,” prosecutor Kevin Wiggins told the court. “It’s his wife’s fault. She made him do it.”

Continue reading "Community activist sentenced for killing wife" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore
        

Decrying their actions as “cowboy tactics,” a Baltimore Circuit Court judge on Tuesday acquitted the last of three officers who had been charged with kidnapping and misconduct for picking up two West Baltimore teens and stranding them far from their homes.

Officer Gregory Hellen, whose name was rarely invoked in two weeks of testimony, was spared from a misconduct conviction only because the case had essentially been mischarged, Judge Timothy J. Doory told him.

“You should be ashamed of your participation in what was done that night,” Doory said in handing down his decision.

The verdict came a day after a jury convicted two other officers charged in the case, Milton Smith III and Tyrone Francis, on two counts each of misconduct in office while clearing them of kidnapping, false imprisonment and assault. Though tried together, Hellen opted to have his fate decided by Doory.

Defense attorney David B. Irwin said his client, who declined to comment with a $100 million civil lawsuit filed by the victims still looming, was relieved by the judge’s decision. “We're obviously very happy that a good, young detective was exonerated of the charges,” Irwin said.

The officers were each accused of picking up two West Baltimore teens on May 4, 2009, driving one to East Baltimore and leaving the other in a Howard County park without shoes or socks. Defense attorneys for Francis, who drove the car, and Smith, who was accused of placing the teens in the van and pushing them out, had argued that the teens had been wildly inconsistent and concocted their stories because they were police informants.

Doory said he believed the victims.

“There is one central fact that cannot be changed, that stands like a monument in the middle of this case: In the dark of a rainy night, a 15-year-old child was found without shoes, 11 miles from his home,” Doory said. “Nothing changes that fact.”

Continue reading "Third officer acquitted in kidnapping, misconduct case" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The Sun's police reporter Justin Fenton reports today that two city officers were convicted of misconduct, but cleared of kidnapping charges, in the first trial led by State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein:

After nearly two weeks of testimony, jurors took about three hours to reach the verdict. Detectives Tyrone S. Francis and Milton Smith III were convicted of two counts each of misconduct — a misdemeanor — for picking up two 15-year-olds from West Baltimore in May 2009 and leaving them stranded far from their homes.

The third officer charged in the case, Gregory Hellen, will have his fate decided by the judge overseeing the case, Circuit Judge Timothy J. Doory.

"We're very pleased with the jury's verdict, which we believe reflects a real careful consideration of the evidence and their view of the nature of misconduct," said Bernstein, who said he was limited in his comments because Hellen's case is pending.

Defense attorneys for Francis and Smith immediately said they would file a motion arguing that the jury was given improper instructions, resulting in a misconduct verdict that was "inconsistent," given that officers were acquitted of felony kidnapping, false imprisonment and assault charges.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The final three members of the Black Guerrilla Gang have pleaded guilty in federal court, wrapping up cases against 21 members what authorities described as a violent group responsible for money laundering, drug dealing and attacks inside Maryland prisons.

Police said they used pre-paid debit card accounts to deal drugs beyond prison walls.

“This case reflects an unprecedented commitment by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to combat crime and corruption in state correctional facilities," Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said in a statement. "An intensive investigation that included wiretaps on contraband prison cell phones resulted in evidence that BGF leaders ran the gang while incarcerated in state prisons.

"The crimes included extorting protection money from other inmates and using contraband cell phones to arrange drug deals, approve robberies and arrange attacks on cooperating witnesses," Rosenstein said. "In addition, gang members persuaded corrupt correctional officers to participate in the gang’s criminal activities by smuggling drugs, tobacco, cell phones and weapons into prisons.”

The arrests exposed corruption in prsion -- a guard was charged with helping deal drugs -- and revaled a handbook endorsed by an educator as promoting empowerment but described by authorities as a guide, or a "constitution," for gang life. The gang also had ties to an outreach group devoted to getting troubled youths off the streets.

Here is a previous story by The Sun's Justin Fenton exposing alleged activities of a corrections officers:

Continue reading "Gang members plead guilty" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A Baltimore Circuit Court jury convicted a man of attempted first degree murder and several handgun violations for opening fire on 11 city police officers in 2009. The suspect still faces charges in the killing of a customer and the wounding of the owner of a Catonsville convenience store.

Bradrick Green got into the confrontation with police who were searching for a suspect in the November 2009 shooting of Sudhir Shah, who owned Yours Convenience Store in Catonsville. A customer, Brian Michael Meise, 52, was killed in that holdup. At left is a picture of Shah when he reopened his store, taken by The Sun's Lloyd Fox.

Shah, a popular member of the community, reopened his store in May 2010. "And I have bad memories in my mind," he told a reporter then. "I'm going to work. I have to. But I'm not going to own a gun. Don't believe in that."

Here is a story with more details on the arrest of the suspect and his conviction in the shootout. He is scheduled for trial Oct. 3 in the store shooting.

Continue reading "Man convicted of opening fire on police; faces murder charge in killing of customer, wounding owner of convenience store " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system, Southwest Baltimore
        

A man who supplied drugs that federal authorities said led to a fatal overdose was senenced today to nine years in prison, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office. Luis Reyes-Torres, 26, distributed morphine and methadone.

"Drug dealers should be on notice that they can be held accountable if anyone dies after taking the drugs that they distribute," Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said in a statement.

Reyes-Torres pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the nursing home where he worked and giving them to a woman. That woman gave them to another man in exchange for marijuana. That man then sold the drugs for $60 to Brandon Sgaggero of Frederick.

On March 6, 2008, Sgaggero was found dead in his apartment. An autopsy found that he had overdoses on methadone and morphine. Two other intermediaries have pleaded guilty to selling drugs and are to be sentenced in June and July.

Prosecutors said this is the third case prosecuted in Maryland "in which the distribution of drugs resulted in a drug user dying from an overdose." A Boonsboro man was sentenced to 20 years in prison and an Olney woman was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2008.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

The man charged in connection with last month’s fatal shooting of a 19-year-old woman in Better Waverly is already in jail and being held without bail in connection with a January armed robbery, according to court records.

James Cureton, 21, of the 5200 block of Anthony Lane, now faces first-degree murder and other charges in the death of Tanise Ervin. Authorities had described her as an innocent bystander who had just graduated high school and was planning to attend college to study nursing.

Baltimore Police also announced Friday that suspects have been charged in a fatal shooting in January as well as in a February stabbing.

Ervin was one of three people shot March 12 outside a carryout in the 900 block of Gorsuch Ave. The shop is steps away from where she lived with her mother in Serenity House, an apartment building that is an offshoot of a women’s shelter run by the Sisters of Mercy and Sisters of Notre Dame.

Continue reading "Suspect in killing of bystander faces armed robbery charges in separate case" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a former United Way of Central Maryland employee on charges that she bilked the nonprofit out of more than $400,000 by steering deposits to a bank account she had allegedly commandeered.

Dorothy Shields Talbot, 48, who lives in Woodlawn and worked in United Way’s finance department from 2001 through 2010, was charged with wire fraud. A statement from the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office says she had been responsible for depositing donations into a corporate bank account.

Talbot faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. Her initial court appearance has not been scheduled. Reached by telephone Thursday evening, Talbot said, “I don’t have any comment” and then hung up.

Continue reading "United Way worker indicted on charges she bilked $400,000 from nonprofit" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The Maryland Lottery's slogan may be "Let Yourself Play," but the feds are saying it's the lottery that got played. Authorities are saying a suspected drug dealer laundered money through winning tickets.

In a scheme outlined in a federal indictment filed Wednesday -- and fully explored in a story here -- prosecutors say that Steven Blackwell bought winning $5,000 lottery tickets from three players and then cashed them in for the proceeds. The original player presumably got their winnings tax-free, and the suspect got clean cash out of the deal.

Three times in a little overa a month, the indictment says, the same woman working for Blackwell cashed three winning tickets, each for $5,000. The charges also include allegations that money was laundered through Las Vegas casino chips, including up to $35,000's worth from the Venetian Resort.

You may remember Blackwell -- he's been linked to a string of violence and authorities are trying to break up his alleged empire by seizing $10 million. He is linked to two real estate companies that own a string of properties in the city and he owns a $740,000 house in Elkton.

More details from a previous story by Sun reporter Justin Fenton:

Continue reading "Lottery used to launder drug money, federal authorities say" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore
        

In a legal case that has lasted years and pit a cop from the small western Maryland town of Thurmont against the Maryland State Police, the state's highest court has finally ruled that the cop can't sue over a botched emergency call.

On Oct. 24, 2002, the cop, Richard White, was dispatched to an ACE Hardware store for a report of an armed robbery that had just occurred. The state police dispatcher, William Henrickson, based his information from the store employee who had dialed 911:

"Yea, I'm in Thurmont at the ACE Hardware. I just got shafted. A guy just robbed me."

Henrickson's dispatch sent White on a high-speed chase of a man he thought was armed. The officer missed a turn on Yellow Springs Road, went into a culvurt, became airborne and slammed into a tree. The officer was severely injured.

Turns out the man being chased was wanted for shoplifting, not armed robbery. And he didn't have a gun.

Continue reading "Court says officer can't sue dispatcher over botching call" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

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
        

Continue reading "Teen says officers accused of kidnapping did not beat him" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, West Baltimore
        

Lawyers for two of three police officers charged with abducting teens and abandoning them in a park without shoes and cell phones are saying the youths mde up the stories to avoid being branded snitches.

That comes from opening statements made by defense attorneys at the trial's opening this morning. A third defense lawyer is set to give his opening remarks later today. Here's a full story on this morning's events.

The case is being prosecuted by State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein, who told the court that the accused officers took the teens because they believed they were “above the law they swore to honor and uphold. The defendants didn’t feel these victims showed an adequate amount of respect."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, West Baltimore
        

Attorneys for three Baltimore police officers accused of kidnapping and misconduct have been unsuccessful in trying to get their cases heard separately, but a development before Friday's lunch break could lead to that result anyway.

Earlier in the morning, Circuit Court Judge Timothy J. Doory struck down a motion to have the allegations of kidnapping by two different teens severed into different cases. That came on the heels of Doory's rejection yesterday that the defendants, Tyrone Francis, Gregory Hellen and Milton Smith, be tried separately. 

Attorney David B. Irwin, who represents Hellen, told Doory that the Court of Appeals has "strongly disapproved of joint and simultaneous trials of co-defendants when one wants a trial by jury and the other by judge." He said such a case was recently struck down by the appellate courts. "There's too many landmines," Irwin said.

Continue reading "Motions continue in case against 3 officers accused of kidnapping, misconduct" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The three city police officers charged with kidnapping two Baltimore teens two years ago will be tried on the charges together, a judge ruled Thursday, rejecting arguments by two of the defendants' lawyers that a joint trial would be unfair to their clients.

The trial of officers Milton G. Smith III, Tyrone S. Francis, and Gregory Hellen marks the first time new city State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein has prosecuted a case since a stint with the U.S. Attorney's Office from 1987 to 1991. The former defense attorney was elected last fall after a campaign that included a pledge to occasionally try cases, unlike his predecessor.

Lawyers for Francis and Hellen argued Thursday that their clients were less involved in the incidents because they mostly stayed in the van while Smith allegedly spoke with and detained Woodland.

Read more here.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

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
        

[Photo by me]

Law enforcement authorities this morning raided the office of defense attorney Stanley H. Needleman. At his law office in the 1000 block of N. Calvert St., an unmarked vehicle with a Baltimore Police shirt hanging in the window and emergency lights on the dashboard was parked out front, and the front door was ajar with a handwritten "Closed Today" sign taped to it. Through the front window, men appeared to be looking through papers, and three agents were lingering around back of the office. A spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration initially denied that agents were involved, then said the agency would have no comment.

Needleman used to share office space with his son, attorney Jonas Needleman, and Jonas' wife, attorney Christie Needleman. Jonas and Christie apparently moved up the block to a new space in recent months.

Two other attorneys share space with Stanley Needleman on other floors of the building, but their offices were not targets of the raid.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (25)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

City prosecutors just issued this press release on the accident that critically injured Johns Hopkins student Nathan Krasnopoler:

The State's Attorney's Office for Baltimore City and the Baltimore City Police Department announced today that two traffic citations have been issued to Jeannette Marie Walke, 83, arising from an incident on February 26, 2011 near Johns Hopkins University in which she struck student Nathan Krasnopoler, 20, while operating her motor vehicle.

Walke was cited for negligent driving and failure to yield right-of-way to a bicyclist in a designated bike lane prior to crossing the lane. Maryland defines negligent driving as the 'careless of imprudent' operation of a vehicle 'that endangers any property or the life or person of any individual.' Each violation that Walke received carries a maximum fine of $500 and three points.

'In conjunction with the Baltimore City Police Department, we have conducted a careful and thorough investigation, and concluded that these charges were appropriate based on the circumstances. Our combined investigation found no evidence of gross negligence, which is required to support a charge of vehicular manslaughter,' said State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein. 'This was a terrible tragedy, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Krasnopoler family.'

The Baltimore Police Department and the State's Attorney's Office take seriously all incidents involving bicyclists and motorists. 'We will prosecute drivers who harm cyclists to the fullest extent of the law,' Bernstein said.

The attorney for the family, who have filed a $10 million lawsuit against Walke, said they agree that manslaughter charges were not appropriate. "The family understands that this was not an intentional act, and that is was an 'accident' and recognizes therefore that she should be cited with traffic citations as opposed to being charged with manslaughter," said attorney Andrew Slutkin.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

[This post has been updated]

Baltimore State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein will try his first case as the city’s top prosecutor this week when three city officers go on trial for misconduct allegations, his office confirmed.

The case involves three city officers – Tyrone S. Francis, Milton G. Smith III, and Gregory Hellen – who are accused of picking up a teenager in West Baltimore in May 2009 and dropping him off in Patapsco Valley State Park in Howard County, without shoes or a cell phone. A second teen was dropped off in East Baltimore.

The officers were indicted last March on charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment, second-degree assault and misconduct in office, among other charges.

During his campaign last year, Bernstein, a former federal prosecutor and defense attorney, had criticized predecessor Patricia Jessamy as being out of touch and said he planned to try cases alongside his assistants. Jessamy saw trying cases as outside her responsibilities as the office’s administrator.

“I'm not going to cherry-pick high-profile cases. That's not what this is about,” Bernstein said in a television interview last fall. “What I'm suggesting is that, as the state's attorney, it's important to show leadership, and you show leadership by being in the courtroom prosecuting whatever cases need to be prosecuted.”

Continue reading "Bernstein to try first case - against city officers" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

After the verdict was read, two detectives in the front row hung their heads and buried them in their hands. Friends and relatives reached out to each other for comfort, eyes welling up and staring forward in disbelief.

Jurors had found 26-year-old Sian James guilty in the killing of off-duty Baltimore Police Det. Brian Stevenson — but the charge fell far short of their expectations.

“We’re completely unhappy,” Stevenson’s partner, Det. Thomas Jackson, fumed after the verdict. “In the blink of an eye, he took the life of this great individual, and now all that we’re left with are memories.”

James, a former Jiffy Lube manager, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for hurling a piece of concrete at Stevenson’s head during an argument over a parking spot in Canton last October. Prosecutors said James ratcheted up an argument into a deadly assault. His defense attorney said James had been threatened and feared for his life.

James had faced charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, and carrying a dangerous weapon. He was convicted only of involuntary manslaughter. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years at sentencing in July.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Southeast 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
        

Private defense attorney Janice Bledsoe will leave her firm to join the Baltimore prosecutors’ office as head of the new Police Integrity Unit, State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein announced Thursday.

The division replaces a Police Misconduct Unit created a decade ago under his predecessor, Patricia Jessamy, and is the result of a “comprehensive review and reorganization,” according to a statement.

“It is vital to maintaining public trust in our criminal justice system that the state’s attorney’s office acts vigilantly to ensure that allegations of police misconduct are thoroughly investigated and, where appropriate, prosecuted,” Bernstein said in the statement. “This is why I immediately focused my attention on reviewing the unit and developing a plan to improve its performance.”

City officers have recently been implicated in a towing company extortion scheme, and payouts in civil misconduct cases cost Baltimore about a million dollars each year, said City Solicitor George Nilson.

Bernstein, who took office in January, had previously declined to say whether he intended to maintain a separate police-prosecution unit or try another model.

-Tricia Bishop 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The trial of a man charged with killing an off-duty Baltimore police officer using a chunk of concrete during a dispute over a Canton parking space is scheduled to begin this morning. Check back for updates on opening statements.

The Sun's Jessica Anderson reports: Police said Sian James struck Detective Brian Stevenson, an 18-year veteran and married father of three, in the left temple with a "fist-sized" concrete fragment, just an hour before the officer's 38th birthday last October. James is charged with first-degree murder.

The altercation happened in a private parking lot in the 2800 block of Hudson St. about 10 p.m. Oct. 16. Police said Stevenson was out having dinner with a longtime friend near Canton Square, and the argument broke out in the parking lot of an eye care clinic. The detective suffered "massive head injuries" and was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, where he died.

Read a tribute to the the officer. The photo above from the funeral was taken in October by The Sun's Jed Kirschbaum.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Southeast Baltimore
        

The mother of a 27-year-old motorcycle driver killed during a high-speed police chase last year filed a $40-million lawsuit Wednesday against the city and the officer who struck her son, alleging the man ignored orders to abort the pursuit and lied about how the crash occurred, The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports.

The lawsuit comes after a lengthy investigation report, prepared by the Maryland State Police, concluded that Baltimore Officer Timothy Everett Beall was "told to end the chase" and that he acknowledged the command, turning "off his lights and siren." Yet he still followed the driver, Haines Holloway-Lilliston, onto an Interstate-695 exit ramp, ramming into the back of the motorcycle while distracted by his telephone and radio communications, the report said.

Beall, 32, told investigators that Holloway-Lilliston "crashed out in front of him" and that the cruiser never collided with the bike. But Maryland State Police Sgt. John McGee concluded that such an "account of the collision could not have occurred as it would defy the laws of physics."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system
        

Newly disclosed documents show that federal authorities searched a home and business at the center of a corruption investigation involving Baltimore police who allegedly steered accident victims to a towing company.

The documents show that agents are particularly interested in documents related to insurance. Authorities have already charged 17 city officers, along with the owner of the Rosedale towing company and an employee. Those charges are related to alleged kickbacks.

In previously filed court documents, the FBI referenced several insurance issues -- alleging officers told victims to allow the towing agency to talk to insurance agents, inflicted more damage on cars than they had sustained in accidents and may have overbilled for towing and storage.

Read complete coverage of the case. Some more details on the latest developments are below:

Continue reading "Feds seek insurance documents in towing probe" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's proposed operating budget, which The Sun reported today would increase spending by 1 percent, includes level funding for police and public safety, and allows the city to follow through with a plan to fill police vacancies, fund crime cameras, and fund youth violence prevention programs, officials say.

Here's the breakdown, based on budget documents:

Continue reading "Mayor's budget: public safety" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Gregory Davenport, who was killed Tuesday morning in Harlem Park, sports an extraordinary record of being charged with murder and attempted murder without a conviction, according to court records. Since 2001, he was charged in such cases five different times, and in the past decade faced serious criminal charges a total of nine times. In each instance, the charges were dropped or he received a light sentence.

Clarification: It's important to stress that Davenport was never convicted of the violent charges he faced. But in trying to understand why he was killed, the notion that five different families, friends, and associates all were told by police and prosecutors that he was a killer raises the possibility that the crime was retribution. Police often say that revenge killings don't necessarily happen the same day or the same week, but play out over the course of years. We haven't heard anything more on this case from police, but they're investigating it and trying to track down who did it, regardless of what Mr. Davenport may or may not have done in his life. We'll update the case if there's an arrest.

1. In December 2010, Davenport is charged with handgun possession. He is held without bond until January, when the charges are dropped.

2. In November 2009, Davenport is indicted on first-degree murder charges. The charges stemmed from a home invasion in Glen Arm, in which 35-year-old Lamont Blackstone, along with his family, were held up and robbed. Baltimore County prosecutors said they did not have sufficient evidence to pursue the charges against Davenport, which were dropped.

3. In May 2007, Davenport is indicted on first-degree murder charges. The Sun reported at the time that he was charged in the murder of Dewitt Smith in the 1600 block of Rosedale St. on April 27.

Continue reading "The Nine Lives of Gregory Davenport" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (40)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Donald Doc Vaughan, 20, pleaded guilty Monday to two rapes that occurred in Canton, including one in which he slit the victim's throat after she paid him for shoveling snow in front of her house. For the crimes, he received life in prison with all but 40 years suspended, according to the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office.

Vaughan had returned to Baltimore after a few months living in tiny Kilmarnock, Va., where he was under surveillance as a suspect in two rapes. The Baltimore Sun reported that a Maryland judge let Vaughan move to Virginia, where local authorities assumed responsibility for Vaughan's juvenile supervision under interstate agreements. But they did not notify Maryland officials that Vaughan was returning for the holidays or that he was a rape suspect.

Charges are pending in Virginia, where the police chief said he hadn't investigated a rape in 24 years on the job until Vaughan came to town. Police say he's confessed to the attacks.

"It was the biggest thing ever," Kilmarnock town manager Tom Saunders told The Sun's Larry Carson about the uproar locally over the rapes.

"It's far and away the worst," Saunders added. "It was just very traumatic. There's a lot of widows in town."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Southeast Baltimore
        

The owner of a Towson title agency was sentenced to more than six years in federal prison for defrauding lenders out of $3.9 million in eight months, the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Friday.

Anthony V. Weis, 45, pleaded guilty to charges of mail and wire fraud and was ordered to report to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to begin his sentence on May 17. The president of Maple Leaf Title also was ordered to pay $4 million in restitution to 13 victims and their insurance companies.

One of the victims, Suzanne Hall, recounted last summer how her Cockeysville house went into foreclosure when she tried to refinance her adjustable-rate mortgage through Maple Leaf, which took her money but failed to pay off her old loan.

Continue reading "Title company owner sentenced in mortgage fraud case" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system
        

[This post has been updated]

A seventh man was convicted in Baltimore Circuit Court Friday in what police and prosecutors say was a gang-related killing of a man who was beaten, wrapped in a blanket, stabbed and set on fire for failing to carry out a task.

With his trial about to begin – in which several co-defendants were expected to testify – 25-year-old Anthony Williams entered an Alford plea, maintaining his innocence but acknowledging prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him in the murder of Petro Taylor in December 2008.

“The evidence the state would present was very strong, and he was afraid the jury would believe the witnesses,” said his defense attorney, Nicole Egerton.

Police say that members and associates of the “Bounty Hunters,” a so-called enforcement arm of the Bloods gang, met for a party at the Red Carpet Inn on Reisterstown Road. There, Taylor was attacked and tossed into the trunk of a vehicle, believed to be dead.

The suspects drove to Leakin Park to dispose of the body, but realized he was still alive and stabbed him three dozen times before dousing him in gasoline and setting his body ablaze, sources told The Sun at the time.

Continue reading "Alleged "Bounty Hunter" gang member takes plea" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Gangs, Northwest 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
        

The man accused of shooting police Officer Michael Rice on Friday night had increasingly dangerous interactions with police, court records show. 

In 2008, according to court records, 23-year-old Gerry Gough was stopped in North Baltimore and struggled with officers, who eventually recovered baggies of marijuana. A year later, he was at a Northwest Baltimore bus stop when detectives saw the outline of a handgun in his pants and chased him.

Gough told police in a debriefing after that arrest that he carried a weapon for protection and knew how to get more – his cell phone wallpaper even displayed an image of him clutching a weapon, court records show. But he received just six months in jail from a District Court judge.

District Court Judge Barbara Waxman sentenced Gough to six months in that case, and ordered him to pay a $300 fine. He never paid and was ordered to serve another three days in jail. We've placed a call to Waxman to find out more about the case.

Police say on Friday, Gough didn’t wait for police to approach him.

Continue reading "Man's interactions with police increasingly became dangerous" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore
        

Continue reading "Victim confronts murderer, rapist: "I'm not scared of you"" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Northwest 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
        

A man whose suspended sentence in an armed holdup in Guilford three years ago became emblematic of problems with the city’s criminal justice system pleaded guilty Thursday to two more violent attacks in the North Baltimore neighborhood and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

“You are a menace to the community,” Circuit Judge Lawrence P. Fletcher-Hill told 21-year-old John Couplin. “The only thing that I can do is isolate you from the community. … There’s a possibility you will rehabilitate. Maybe.”

Continue reading "Man guilty in Guilford attacks; had received suspended sentence in earlier case" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

She pleaded guilty to murder, but she won't be going to prison. The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports that D'Lanna Simmons was found "not criminally responsible" for beating to death her 66-year-old aunt with the steering wheel locking device known as "The Club."

Tricia reported:

"This was a clear case of somebody who was psychotic," Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Gale E. Rasin said, reading from a doctor's report on Simmons' mental status.

Simmons struck her aunt, Cecelia Mitchell, approximately 56 times on the evening of Sept. 17, then called 911 for help "stating that she had hurt her aunt and that [the woman] was dying," Assistant State's Attorney Tonya LaPolla told the court. Simmons was covered in blood when police arrived.

Simmons will be sent to the Clifton T. Perkins hospital.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A 38-year-old federal officer convicted by a jury of manslaughter in the shooting death of his half-brother was sentenced last week to 16 years in prison with all but 13 years suspended, records show.

Prosecutors said Curtis Anthony Warren, an Iraq war veteran who worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs, deliberately shot Curtis Anthony Pounds during an argument in the basement of Warren's Northeast Baltimore property where Pounds rented a room.

Continue reading "Federal officer gets 13 years in brother's death" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

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
        

Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, the high-profile capture from Thursday's sweeping drug bust, battled with a Baltimore judge today in her first court appearance since being charged with conspiracy to distribute heroin.

[Read about Pearson's troubled history]

Here's one exchanged with Judge John Addison Howard, after a prosecutor accused her of helping to bankroll the suspected drug organization (photo of Pearson at left is by The Sun's Kim Hairston).

“I have no money,” she told Judge John Addison Howard. “Check my bank account. I have no money.”

When the prosecutor argued that Pearson travels frequently for her job, the 30-year-old actress angrily shot back, “How can I go anywhere? Everybody knows my name.”

Howard answered that is the precise reason for holding her without bail. “You are a good actress. … Everybody knows your name. People change names. They also can …”

Pearson interrupted: “I can’t change my face.”

“Well, you can change your appearance,” the judge responded. “I’ve seen the episodes of The Wire in which you appear. You look very different than you do here today, and I’m not talking about the jumpsuit, I’m talking about your general appearance.”

More details, and the response from her lawyer, Paul W. Gardner:

Continue reading "The Wire's Snoop spars with judge, gets no bail" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore
        

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
        

The owner of a Baltimore pawn shop will spent nearly four years in prison for laundering money as part of broad scheme that involved auctioning off stolen goods. He is one of more than a dozen defendants, most of whom have pleaded guilty.

The Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office announced the latest chapter on Tuesday when Michael Garonzik, who owned the We Buy pawn shop,was sentenced. Authorities said he bought stolen goods from "boosters," who shoplifted cosmetics, gift cards, DVDs, tools and other items from stores including Target, Safeway, Wal-Mart and Kohl's.

When this story broke last year, I went out to one of the pawn shops and watched the owner and his son clear out. The case had put him out of business, at least for a moment: 

Continue reading "Pawn shop owner sentenced" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

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
        

Police have charged Ellerson Carter, 55, with second-degree murder and related charges in the killing of George Marshall, a landscaping wholesaler who police say was run over when he tried to stop Carter from breaking into a vehicle on his South Baltimore warehouse property. 

Not surprisingly, Carter has a long record of similar incidents, with a slew of criminal convictions for theft, burglary and car theft dating back to the late 1980s and is currently on probation. None of them turned deadly like Saturday's incident, however.  

Here's a snapshot of his record from available online court records:

Continue reading "The criminal history of Ellerson Carter" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system, South Baltimore
        

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
        

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
        

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
        

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
        

In December, a federal judge sentence Byron Keith Brown to 15 years in prison for bilking people out of $17 million in an Internet Ponzi scheme.

On Tuesday, you can buy his luxury cars during an auction run by the U.S. Treasury Department being held in Ellicott City (photo at left provided by the treasury department).

Brown was convicted after a three-week trial in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. He ran a company called "In God We Trust Financial Services" and several others under different names in Virginia and Maryland. He used to live in Ellicott City.

Prosecutors said that from 2003 to 2009, Brown pushed an investment scheme in which he created fake investors to give the appearance that people were sending him up to $1 million "Brown used funds from new investors to make payments to old investors and to conceal his diversion of investors' monies," prosecutors said.

With Brown securely in prison, the feds can now auction off his cars. Here's a list:

2007 Lamborghini Murcielago            2005 Rolls Royce Phantom
2004 Mercedes Benz Maybach 57       2006 Aston Martin
2008 Maserati Gran Turismo              2002 Ferrari 360
2004 Bentley Continental                  2007 Jaguar XKR CPE
1936 Auburn Speedster                    2006 Land Rover
2006 Mercedes Benz S500                2005 Land Rover Range Rover
2007 BMW 3 Series                          2004 Audi AA8
2005 BMW 7 Series                          2005 Volkswagen Beetle
2005 GMC Canyon

See pictures of the cars here.

For more information:

Continue reading "Cars owned by Ponzi schemer to be auctioned" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

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
        

UPDATE: Federal authorities say that the case involves 17 city police officers. We're posting the criminal complaint below. Here are some quick highlights from a statement from the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office:

A criminal complaint was filed today charging 17 Baltimore City Police officers and two brothers who own a car repair shop with conspiring to commit extortion in connection with a scheme in which the repair shop owners paid police officers to arrange for their company, rather than a city-authorized company, to tow vehicles from accident scenes and make repairs.

According to the affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, the general pattern of the extortion scheme allegedly consisted of the following: from January 2009 to the present, the BPD Officers were either dispatched by the police department to the scene of an accident, or otherwise showed up at the scene.  Shortly after arriving at the accident scene, the BPD Officer would call Moreno, or use the vehicle owner’s cell phone to call Moreno, and provide Moreno with details about the accident and the damage to the vehicle.

Original post: A dozen or more Baltimore city police officers have been arrested this morning in connection with a federal corruption probe that involves an improper relationship with a Baltimore towing company, sources said.

Multiple sources say the officers are mostly from the Northeast District and many of them are officers who were recruited years ago in a push to bring in Latino officers from Puerto Rico. That information could not immediately be confirmed.

UPDATE at 3:25 p.m.The president of Latino officers association says only 3 of officers charged were recruited during the Puerto Rico initiative. Others were recruited from New York and Maryland, and are of varying nationalities, the association says.

Officials from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Baltimore and the FBI announced that a press conference will be held at 3 p.m. today to discuss the arrests.

-Justin Fenton and Julie Scharper

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (32)
Categories: City Hall, Courts and the justice system, Northeast Baltimore, Top brass
        

Updates on two cases, two different jurisdictions:

-Charges dropped against JROTC instructor, teacher in Howard County: During a trial, which ended in a hung jury, it was revealed that Charles Ray Moore's accuser had changed her story, and that handprints belonging to the young woman and traces of semen that did not match Moore's DNA were found by police technicians in the storage room, reports The Sun's Don Markus. Prosecutors said they had no plan to retry Moore after a November mistrial on charges of fourth-degree sex offense and having sex with a minor student in his authority.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Howard County
        

A success for the Charles Village Court Watch program.

Stephen Gewirtz, a retired math professor who is tracking cases, hoping for better justice, reports that a burglar pleaded guilty today. The sentence Jerome Owens agreed to is in addition to time he's already serving, and he has a violation of probation hearing scheduled for next week.

All told, he could go to prison for up to 19 years. Had he not taken the plea, he would've faced 22 years if convicted by a jury, Gewirtz reports. For him, that translates into a good plea bargain.

Charles Village revived the moribund Court Watch program after several high-profile cases, most notably the killing of Stephen Pitcairn, the Johns Hopkins researcher who was stabbed on St. Paul Street.

Here is the e-mail from the Court Watch program that offers more details on the case:

Continue reading "Target of Charles Village Court Watch pleads guilty" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

Two members of a Jewish citizens' patrol group from Northwest Baltimore were in court today to answer charges that they beat a teenager and told the black youth he didn't belong in the neighborhood. The case has inflamed tensions and sparked a protest today, the video of which can be watched here.

The Baltimore Sun's Nick Madigan wrote:

Avi and Eliyahu Werdesheim, brothers and former members of a Northwest Baltimore patrol group called Shomrim, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to beating a black teenager last fall as he walked through their neighborhood.

Outside the courthouse downtown, two groups of demonstrators — one composed of Jews, the other of African-Americans — loudly stated their positions on the case, the former in support of the duo, the latter against what they said was an act of racism.

Avi Werdesheim, 20, and his brother, Eliyahu Werdesheim, 23, are charged with false imprisonment, second-degree assault and possession of a deadly weapon in the Nov. 19 incident, and face a maximum sentence of 10 years if convicted. Both are scheduled for trial on May 2 in Baltimore Circuit Court.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

The opening sentence to Tricia Bishop's story on the murder trial of the community activist:

The trial of Cleaven L. Williams Jr., who is charged with murder in his wife's stabbing death, opened Tuesday with the defense and prosecution agreeing on one thing: He did it.

The question is not whether Williams killed his wife outside a Baltimore courthouse, moments after she had been in court seeking a protective order against him, but whether the killing was premeditated or brought on by spontaneous rage.

It also was revealed at Tuesday's trial testimony that many believe Williams wanted to die after he stabbed his wife on East North Avenue, begging a police officer who shot him to finish the job.

Read Tricia's complete story here, and meanwhile look at the photos that were entered into evidence on Tuesday. Testimony in the trial continues today. Williams was a well-known community activist who marched in anti-crime walks with city leaders.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore
        

The trial of Cleaven L. Williams, a community activist charged with killing his wife outside a Baltimore courthouse, is expected to get underway this morning with opening statements. But a hearing on Monday offered this bombshell, reported by Tricia Bishop:

Four days before Cleaven L. Williams Jr. stabbed his wife seven times on a Baltimore street, he wrote a letter outlining plans to kill her, according to testimony he gave in court Monday. "I figured that I had a [sexually transmitted disease] and I contracted it from my wife," Williams said, explaining that he wrote the undelivered letter because he was upset. "I write a lot, that's my vent."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore
        

From Baltimore Sun reporter Tricia Bishop:

The murder trial of Cleaven L. Williams Jr. — who's accused of fatally stabbing his pregnant wife outside a Baltimore courthouse in 2008 — began Friday morning with attorneys arguing whether the autopsy photos could be shown to jurors.

Veronica L. Williams was stabbed seven times in her face and neck, and the images taken by the medical examiner are described as graphic, showing wounds stretched wide to measure their depth.

"They're very shocking," said defense attorney Melissa Phinn. She contends that the photographs would prejudice jurors against her client, while prosecutor Kevin Wiggins said they are necessary to show "the extent of the injuries." The judge said he would allow them to be presented, with portions blocked out.

You may remember this case for another reason: the suspect was shot by a Baltimore police officer moments after the stabbing, and a witness urged the cop to fire again. The stabbing occurred just as the victim left court to obtain a protective order.

And later, a police commander was accused of sending text messages to the suspect, who was well known as a community activist and who went on police crime walks, as police were trying to serve an arrest warrant on him. The deputy major was later cleared but police studied whether the warrant for Williams had been handled outside normal procedures.

Reporter Melissa Harris, who is no longer at The Sun, wrote a long story on the Williams case.It includes this chilling account of the stabbing and the shooting of the suspect, picking up just as the victim was leaving court on East North Avenue:

Continue reading "Trial begins of community leader charged in wife's death" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore, Neighborhoods
        

From Sun courts reporter Tricia Bishop (this post has been updated): 

Prosecutors said Friday that they will retry the animal-cruelty case against brothers Travers and Tremayne Johnson, who were accused of fatally setting fire to a pitbull in 2009, after the first trial ended in a hung jury Monday.

The new trial is scheduled for May 4. 

"The Court's order prohibiting public comment about the case remains in effect. We will respect the Court's order and look forward to the retrial," Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein said in a statement.

Continue reading "Dog-burning case will be tried again" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
Categories: Breaking news, Courts and the justice system
        

"He smirked at me."

That's how Baltimore Police Officer Todd Strohman described the gunman just before he
pulled the trigger, putting a bullet into his shoulder, a bullet that will remain inches above his heart for the rest of his life.

The cop had another message for state lawmakers who make up the Senate's Judiciary
Committee contemplating tougher guns laws proposed by the city (see city's website describing proposed legislation): If the proposed laws had been on the books, the person charged with shooting him wouldn't have been on the street.

The audience applauded Strohman and the lawmakers wished him well. There was no sense
in grilling him on the necessity of enhanced gun legislation. The man charged in the crime had served two years of a 12-year sentence for armed robbery (the judge had suspended six of the years) and had been charged with five previous gun crimes. He had gotten out a little more than two weeks before the shooting on North Calvert Street.

"Seventeen days after he gets out, he shoots one of our cops," said Deputy Police Commissioner Anthony Barksdale.

See more on the gun hearing:

Continue reading "City, county leaders press for tougher gun laws" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere, Kenneth Harris trial, Neighborhoods, Police shootings, Top brass
        

Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein said Wednesday that he wants to assign assistant state's attorneys to geographic areas to track repeat offenders plaguing their communities.

Prosecutors currently focus on specific types of offenses, such as drug cases, general felonies or homicides. The community prosecution model would divide the city into zones, with a group of prosecutors working more collaboratively with police to track and build cases against targeted individuals.

"They would be focusing on all crimes in that particular area," Bernstein told members of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. "The goal is to have them prosecute defendants, not cases." 

Such a model is used in cities across the country, including Philadelphia, where Bernstein said he recently met with District Attorney Seth Williams. It is also done with varying effort in places from Manhattan and Brooklyn to Anne Arundel County, and was tried out for 18 months in a Baltimore neighborhood in 2003 using grant money.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Neighborhoods
        

Baltimore leaders, including top cops, the mayor and the new state's attorney, are making their annual pilgrimage to Annapolis this afternoon to lobby for stronger gun laws. It's the sixth consecutive year of trying, and this time Baltimore officials are, so to speak, bringing out the big guns.

Scheduled to testify before a Senate committee are residents of crime-riddled city neighborhoods and a police officer who was shot on North Calvert Street. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has even unveiled a web site -- Safer City Baltimore -- to track gun legislation and read the text of the bills.

Last year's efforts failed, but bills actually got out of a house committee, and that in itself was considered a victory.

A proposal to extend the law making using a handgun in the commission of a felony to include all guns -- so that a person who robs a store with a rifle gets the same time as someone who robs a store with a handgun -- got widespread support. But a bill to extend being a felon in possession of a handgun to include all guns brought both bills crashing down. Opponents said it would unfairly punish felons who wanted to use rifles to hunt.

So now the city is back in Annapolis with new ideas. One proposal would create a minimum 18 month sentence for all defendants convicted of having an illegal, loaded firearm. Another would increase the maximum penalty for felons in possession of handguns to up to 15 years, but would give judges discretion by making it a 5 to 15 year penalty.

Just a few moments ago, city police announced more gun arrests on Twitter -- a handgun seizure on Gwynns Falls Parkway and .357 handgun recovered on Frankford Avenue in Northeast. In the picture above by The Sun's Gene Sweeney Jr., Rawlings-Blake talks about 76 illegal firearms that were seized in 10 days in July in Baltimore. Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein and ATF Special Agent in Charge Joseph Riel are shown (left to right) in the background.

City leaders have had a hard time trying to understand why it's so difficult to get legislation passed to help them make Baltimore safer. The hearing is at 1 p.m. Check back to The Baltimore Sun later, on-line and in print, to see how the the city's bad guys with guns plays out in Annapolis.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

The Sun's Nick Madigan is reporting that the last of three defendants convicted in a racial attack on a fisherman in a South Baltimore park has been sentenced to 85 years in prison. But the judge suspended all but 10 years of the time.

Zachary D. Watson, 19, pleaded guilty armed carjacking, robbery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit assault and committing a hate crime to avoid a trial. Madigan wrote:

Baltimore Circuit Judge Lynn K. Stewart sternly warned Watson that she will make sure he serves all 75 years of the sentence if he commits any offenses during a five-year probationary period after his release. "I'll be around a long time," the judge said, "so when he finishes I'll be right here."

The attack on James Privott, who was 76 at the time, in Fort Armistead Park drew national attention when it became clear from police reports that his assailants had used racial invective during the incident. Privott, who was beaten with a hammer, punched and kicked in the assault on Aug. 18, 2009, told detectives later that, as far as he could tell, the attack was perpetrated by three men, later identified by police as Watson and his friends Calvin E. Lockner, 29, and Emmanuel Miller, 17.

In Watson's account to police after his arrest, he said that he and Miller had been standing some 20 feet away while Lockner, alone, pummeled the fisherman. Lockner, a self-professed white supremacist with an avowed admiration for Nazis and Adolf Hitler, was sentenced in September to 31 years in prison for his role in the attack.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, South Baltimore
        

The closure of the downtown prison known as Supermax has been hinted at for years and it happened slowly, with a dribble of prisoners, including five on death row, quietly moved elsewhere over the past two years. Most went to a new high-tech prison in Western Maryland.

The official end came Tuesday when the facility was turned over to the feds to be used as badly-needed pre-trial detention center. Finally, those awaiting trial in U.S. District Court in Baltimore can be held in one place, instead of scattered about the Northeast.

At left, a photo the cells in Supermax, taken by The Sun's Doug Kapustin, during a rare tour in 2008.

But nostalgia aside, Supermax had a frightening 21-year history -- two made-for-TV escapes and complaints of confinement more suitable for a gulag than an American prison. Inmates were held in lock down 23 hours a day in cells with tiny windows. There as the infamous "pink room" that had a hole in the floor for a toilet, no windows, in prisoners were shackled at the ankles and wrists and left in their underwear.

The feds called conditions inhumane. So did prisoner advocacy groups and eventually even state officials. A former state prison official said facilities like Supermax are needed, but the one in Baltimore should have been built away from the city and officials should have done more to help the inmates.

Read more about the history of Supermax and a news story on it's transformation to a federal detention center. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Prisons
        

Baltimore citizens were outraged after discovering that one of the suspects charged with killing Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Pitcairn in Charles Village had violated his probation several times, but had never been held accountable.

The Charles Village Community Benefits District decided to act. The group brought back Court Watch, a program in which volunteers track criminal cases, write letters to judges describing the adverse impact of crime and attend court hearings and trials.

It's an effective way to at least keep judges and prosecutors aware that the community cares about what happens. "When they know you're watching, it makes a difference," said Stephen Gewirtz, a retired math professor who has assumed the responsibilities of Crime Watch.

Sunday's Crime Scenes column talks with Gewirtz and explores some of the cases he's following, including a serial burglar and a man who police said went on a carjacking spree in Remington and Charles Village.

Continue reading "Watching the courts" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III were in Annapolis this morning briefing the city delegation on proposals for stricter gun laws.

City officals have been lobbying for years to boost penalties with not much success. Read the legislation -- Senate Bill 240 and Senate Bill 239. This year's proposals, according to the mayor's office:

The first bill would create a minimum sentence of 18 months for all defendants arrested with an illegal, loaded firearm. The second bill would strengthen sentencing options for felons in possession of guns by creating a tougher sentencing range of 5 years minimum to 15 years maximum, giving judges more sentencing options when faced with a repeat gun offender.

Here is a statement from the mayor's office:

Continue reading "Mayor, police commissioner lobby for gun laws" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

UPDATE: Juror were unable to reach a verdict Friday and will resume deliberations on Monday.

UPDATE: The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports --The jury deliberating in the animal cruelty trial of Travers and Tremayne Johnson sent a note to the judge Friday morning suggesting that they are having trouble reaching a verdict.

The 18-year-old twins are charged with setting fire to a pit bull known as "Phoenix" in 2009, in a case that has become the centerpiece in a series of animal abuse cases. Defense attorneys say the teens were wrongly accused by Baltimore police under pressure from outraged animal welfare advocates.

Complete details of Thursday's courtroom drama can be found here. The Sun's court reporter, Tricia Bishop, wrote about Thursday's closings:

Prosecutors had spent the fifth day of trial — highlighting the evidence, while the defense team pointed to the lack of it. Prosecutors Jennifer Rallo and Janet Hankin systematically connected the dots in their circumstantial case and asked the jury to consider the testimony of their key witness, city police Sgt. Jarron Jackson, akin to that of a reporter: someone who watches and interprets information.

A defense attorneys questioned  the timing of her clients on a video and provided a list of 41 things that the police allegedly failed to do in the investigation. They did not preserve the crime scene, she said; they waited a week to assign an investigator; they didn't collect important evidence; and they didn't investigate other suspects.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Courts and the justice system, West Baltimore
        

Two Florida men pleaded guilty on Thursday to assuming the identity of more than 50 Maryland residents and stealing more than $200,000 as part of a broad fraud scheme. The guilty pleas in U.S. District Court on Thursday close out a case involving six defendants. Four others previously admitted guilt.

Federal prosecutors said that Oscar Diaz, 30, and Wayne Curry, 36, both of Fort Lauderdale, defrauded banks in Maryland and five other states and took money from people's personal bank accounts.

Authorities said the men broke into cars parked outside churches, day care centers, parks and gyms and stole credit cards, driver's licenses and social security cards. "Diaz's co-conspirators would even follow funeral processions in order to target cars parked at grave yards," the U.S. Attorney's office in Maryland said in a statement.

The suspects used the information from the stolen cards to get information on personal accounts from banks. Prosecutors said one of the suspect's worked at a bank and helped his friends get checks made out to the men in the scheme. The men would then to the victims' bank and impersonate the people on the cards, sometimes putting on wigs, prosecutors said.

As part of his plea, Diaz will be sentenced to nine years in federal prison and must pay the victims restitution. Curry faces up to 30 years in prison. They are scheduled to be sentenced in March and April. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A federal jury on Thursday convicted the mastermind of a series of brazen robberies that netted more than $300,000 and left a Southeast Baltimore business owner zip-tied and duct-taped to a chair, the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Nikolaos Mamalis, 53, of Edgewood, faces at least 57 years in federal prison and could get up to life when he is sentenced in U.S. District Court in Baltimore in May. Four other conspirators pleaded guilty in the case and are to be sentenced over the next three months.

The guilty finding after a seven day trial brings to a close a complica