Saturday, June 21, 2014

El Killer

An unidentified male victim found shot to death* in the first block of S. Monastery Ave. near New Cathedral Cemetery at around 2 a.m. today.

Marilyn Mosby's campaign dug up the rather unsettling story of Janice Bledsoe, a former assistant state's attorney (and girlfriend of WBAL's Jayne Miller) who was fired rather suspiciously by Gregg Bernstein while investigating an illegal-police-overtime case against officers Robert Quick and Ian Dombrowski. The accusation is that Bernstein and Quick were friends, and Bernstein cleared Quick even though the evidence against him was straightforward.* "Bernstein represented Quick when he was sued by the family of Larry J. Hubbard Jr., who was shot by Officer Barry Hamilton after police said Hubbard tried to grab Quick's gun during a frantic scuffle in East Baltimore in 1999. Hubbard was shot in the back of the head, and some witnesses disputed the police account, saying Hubbard was beaten and shot in cold blood." Hm. And, reports Jayne Miller, in the past week Quick was suspended.

After a week in which police shot a steer and an officer slit the throat of a subdued Shar-Pei mix dangling from a control pole, police revealed that they'd stopped ordering animal tranquilizers because of some unnamed problem with the supplier.* They're now re-evaluating. The steer and dog stories have made national and international news, officers Jeffrey "I'm going to fucking gut this thing" Bolger and Thomas Schmidt have been suspended, and SRB, fully aware that you can get away with anything around here but messing with people's dogs, apologized all the way from Dallas.

Eric P. Henry
Brian Reiser, 49, was killed in Arbutus and his body was dumped in one of our city's many vacants.* Three men, Kevin Pendergraph, Roy Munson and Eric Henry, have been charged, and boy are they weird-looking.

Also in AAC a woman was robbed while waiting in line to check out at a store.

A 33-year-old pregnant woman was found dead of injuries in Rosedale.

Four Hyattsville men-- Hector Daniel Villanueva-Cortez, aka Muertito, 24; Roni Arriola-Palma, aka Maniako, 24; Luiz Guzman-Ventura, aka Casper or Chele, 20; and Jose Rodriguez-Nunez, aka El Killer, 25, have been charged with criminal conspiracy, they're allegedly tried to the MS-13 gang.

Have you heard of a device called a 'stingray'? Supposedly it tricks mobile devices into thinking it's a cell tower, and emails show U.S. Marshalls conspiring with police to deceive judges about the use of them to avoid legal scrutiny. 

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

True-To-Life Replica

Eric Harris, shot by police, was carrying a "true-to-life replica gun,"* police say.





SRB served up some pleather shrug realness at the Netflix/White House correspondent's party and in a Vanity Fair slideshow as one of the "Best Dressed Mayors." The Brew, in an uncharacteristically shallow and sexist turn, covered her coverage and weight loss then covered itself by noting that such coverage can "evoke cries of sexism." Also cries of lazy. Why not find out who made that dress and how much it cost? (It's like Herve Leger but bondage-ier. Johnathan Sauders Fall 2009?) How can she afford this stuff on a public servant's salary?

Four years after endorsing Gregg Bernstein the BPD says it's "neutral" on the State's Attorney's race.* Hrm. And speaking of, probably predictably, the Sun has endorsed Anthony Brown,* because Heather Mizeur "goes too far" and Brown has the "right priorities." Translation: Brown is going to win this thing and we don't want to lose access or have bad blood at the State House. Plus if we endorse Mizeur and Brown wins then the politicians might realize that the paper actually has very little influence any more.


Another day, another set of "residents troubled" by Canton assault-robberies.

The liquor board has a new chief, and he's 87(!!). You go, great-grandpa.

You'll never guess-- or maybe you will-- how much more Maryland spends per prisoner versus how much per public school student. Or maybe you will.