A Co for Hoes

A road-rage murder on Erdman Ave,* the victim, homicide victim #68, was ID'd as Leon Cannady, age 26.*

Alleged child rapist John Merzbacher is petitioning SCOTUS to intervene in his case.* I'm sure they're all like, yeah, we'll get right on that. (Hey, Tricia Bishop's back!)

Sentencing scheduled for today for Policarpio Espinoza Perez.

Polygraphs for prison guards*? Aren't polygraphs admissible nowhere? Paging Byron Warnken! And is it just me, or is this prison scandal really only a scandal because of the four pregnant guards*? Four years ago we had a very similar scandal, with 24 indicted and tales of kitchen whoring, smuggled salmon, and oh yeah, cell phones. Lamentations were uttered, but it never made national news, I don't think. What I wonder: how do they know that these babies are all Bulldog's?

Report: city cocaine prices hit a high of $40k a kilo* last December.

The DOJ would like you to know that they are prosecuting the fuck out of some counterfeit-goods cases.

Anti-Semetic pamphlets in Timonium, a robbed Dunkin Donuts, a man kidnapped in Elkridge in the Patch blotter.

A man shot in the abdomen on Bonsal Ave*

A suspiciously dead body in a pool in the county*

Zeeshan Siddiqui

The G&M crab cake store was robbed. A guy was also stabbed to death there in 2007.

Eleven arrested in HoCo for running a HoCo, including the swarthy, squnity pimp at left.

Really? The circuit court is going to hear George Hughely's appeals (though only on a few small points).

Meanwhile in PGC, a teen allegedly set his house on fire because he was allegedly pissed at his family. Then he waited on the burning roof for the FD.

Robbed, beaten, stabbed, raped, shot

A city officer shot and killed a man in the 500 block of N. Madeira St.* (in soon-to-be-redeveloped E. Baltimore) (non-Sun link)

A man was shot at the Lutherville Light Rail station and a suspect is still at large. You may recall in 2008 two teens were abducted from the same light rail station and one was raped, 22-year-old Kiheem Malik Taylor and 18-year-old Brian Scott were found/pleaded guilty in that case. Actually, a lot of stuff has gone down at and on the Light Rail. 

Opening statements in the Michael Johnson trial* told a tale of a feckless older sister, videotaped nude frolicking, a jailhouse snitch who Johnson alleged to have asked for help disposing of Phylicia Barnes' body (opines Fenton on Twitter, "My interpretation/analysis of the new witness is that prosecution isnt putting too much stock in him.... on its face, what he is saying is enormously crucial. But he was almost an afterthought in opening statements.") and the doomed teen being targeted by the 28-year-old's lust and text messages. ... Barnes' cause of death is still unknown.

One Daren Ruffin allegedly stabbed his wife Melissa to death, less than a week after being released after wife-beating charges*

A man was robbed and beaten on University Parkway (almost two weeks ago)

Somewhere Judge Prevas is toasting to this-- former Catholic-school teacher and convicted child rapist John Merzbacher will stay in jail.

The Hyatt Regency of Baltimore has paid to settle Federal charges of unfair labor practices.

Activist Kim Trueheart was released from Central Booking at 3:45 a.m. on Thursday.

'the crude shorthand of the poor and violent city'

Joel Hopkins, 28, has been charged with the shooting in Brooklyn yesterday

A worthy cause: AT&T gave $300k to UB Law's center for Families, Children and Courts and truancy court program.

A teen was caught in Stoneleigh after stealing a minivan from the city and ramming a police cruiser with it.

Church official: we swear we didn't know about the Merzbacher abuse allegations* until 1988; case has renewed the push for effective abuse-reporting laws*

Rodricks writes about the murders of brothers Audie Mickens and James Johnson*

A woman was mugged in Waverly

Stolen in the Northern: a dog, a bunch of bikes, Japanese cars*

Baltimorean Bryan Benway was arrested for impersonating a police officer in AAC

Burglars have been hitting HarfCo and county Verizon stores

'a problem with the elastic in her underwear'

Aw geeze, in my absence we got up to 202* murders, which Cham has helpfully documented on her page. We've now surpassed 2011's total of 197, 2010 was 223 homicides; 2008 was 234; 2007 was 291; 2006 was 274; 2005 was 269.

Justin Fenton

Homicide clearance rate as of today: 32% for cases this year, 46% FBI UCR rate (this yr cases plus prior cases that were closed this yr)

Cherrie Gammon

A federal conviction for murder and racketeering for Tyrone "Roland" Johniken, aka Hassan Muhammad, involved in a heroin ring based out of "The Block" and involved in the murder of (alleged informant, mom dancer and addict) Cherrie Gammon. The DOJ's PR also reveals that the third conspirator in Gammon's murder, "Miami," was one Gary Cromartie, the Sun's story reveals that Gammon was also involved in a relationship with an unnamed city officer.* ("According to documents in the case, the officer Gammon had a relationship with was later involved in a raid on a building that was used by the crew and Johniken's residence. But whether Gammon was cooperating with police remains unclear.")

Down at police HQ, an officer accidentally shot himself during roll call

Friends School on Charles St. enjoyed its third bomb threat of the school year.

Robberies/assaults in Fell's Point include a woman choked unconscious, a guy stabbed in the stomach and robbed after leaving a nightclub (El Oasis?), and a victim assaulted by a group of people after calling out a shoplifter at the Family Dollar. Anecdotally it seems like there are not just more robberies lately and they're becoming more brazen and violent, probably best to not leave the house until sometime after Christmas.

A dad is in caliente agua, charged with kidnapping after stuffing a kid who was bullying his son into his car.* So many Baltimoreans, so few conflict-resolution skills...

Merzbacher

Still waiting on a decision in the Merzbacher case from Richmond; the former Catholic-school teacher/gun-toting child rapist is appealing his conviction claiming he was not informed of a plea deal by his counsel. Judge Prevas, rest his soul, threw out a prior appeal after finding that Merzbacher's now-dead convicted-felon lawyer was not a credible witness. In the meantime Tricia Bishop's got more horrid Merzbacher/Catholic School tales to tell,* including a recounting of court documents that prove that the church knew of the claims at least as early as 1974, plainly contradicting Archbishop Lori's ridiculous assertion last month that church officials didn't know a thing about the allegations until 1988. Liar, liar, vestments on fire. (Baltimoreorless has a collection of non-paywall "Merz" stories if you want to read more.)(... and people wonder why I refuse to give to Catholic Charities, gahh!)

Retired police chief FHBIII will be teaching at Stevenson University's* newish Criminal Justice program

A man was shot to death in Towson

In Annapolis at Thanksgiving a woman stabbed her half-brother in the neck with a serving fork, and in AAC a woman stabbed her boyfriend while he was trying to leave her crazy ass.

Media blabber: whilst driving down south I was fascinated to learn that central Virginia has not one but two weekly newspapers, $1 each, that publish almost nothing but mug shots-- Gotcha! and Crime Times. A convenience-store clerk told me Gotcha! sells more, possibly because the back of the paper also includes a list of all of the restaurants that have health code violations. It's a bit unsettling that it's comprised of pictures of people who have been arrested but not indicted or convicted of anything, mistakes do happen and some of the arrests are as petty as "allowing dog to run at will." But wonder if Baltimore could support such a newspaper? @40,000 arrests a year, that's a lotta trees. (Baltimore does have a page of health-code-violation closures, but it appears to be out of date.)

Concealed carry, y'all, whut whut?

The Washington Times says arguments will kick off tomorrow down in Richmond in the concealed-carry case, aka Wollard v.  Gallagher (in the meantime there are also a ton of other fascinating issues on the dockets, including the Merzbacher case* (The child rapist w/ the thief lawyer that Prevas sent to jail), UPS being sued by one Peggy Young, allegedly forced from her job for getting pregnant, and  transgender prisoner Ophelia De'Lonta suing for gender-appropriate accomodation. Doug Gansler will be arguing the less-guns position, BCounty resident Raymond Wollard will be rep'd by lawyers from the Second Amendment Foundation of Bellevue, WA. 

In the meantime the court of BCrime mostly supports no-cause concealed carry permits:

good idea	98 (57%)
bad idea	54 (31%)
I have no idea what you're talking about.	18 (10%)

Votes so far: 170
Poll closed 

In the meantime I'll bet anyone on here a buck that the first person shot by a permitted concealed weapon in MD after this law passes will not be a criminal. Blog as my witness, send me your email and I will Paypal you $1 if the first recipient of a concealed-carried bullet is actually shot during the commission of a crime. But if it's a kid accidentally shooting their face off, road-rage BS, domestic murder/suicide or some doucheburger in the ER w/ their nards shot off you little gunslingers better pay up.

ps.  the MD suicide rate in 2010 was 48th in the country, at 8.7 per 100,000 ... wonder what it'll be a year after concealed-carry?