Three murder convictions

Marquise Evans, James Wesley Spriggs, and Craig Bobian were all recently convicted of first-degree murder in separate cases. Evans got life plus 20 years, Spriggs got life and Bobian will be sentenced on December 1.

BTW, I see lots of life sentences but hardly ever hear about someone getting life w/o parole in the City. Is the SA's office reluctant to go for LWOP?

City taxpayer question of the day

Q: Why does a city pension board trustee fly to Miami for three days at taxpayer expense to meet with representatives of an investment firm that has offices in Philly?

A: Because city taxpayers are footing the bill, and since you don't have to tell where you stayed on their dime, you can pick a swank hotel and live it up.
B: Because the pension fund is $300 million in the red and you need a break from the stress
C: Because you paid this firm millions for worthless investment advice and now they owe you dinner by the pool
D: All of the above

Wife swapping

Not much neighborly love in Finksburg, after two men end up dead in an apparent murder suicide.

Drunken frat boy runs newspaper into ditch

Another Tribune Exec (and not the tittays guy, Randy Michaels) has apologized for sending out a memo about "sluts" (hey, that video's a classic!)
Now titties guy has suspended slut guy, and the site Jezebel has more on a former employee's harassment claims, including "saying she had been bitten on the neck by Mr. Michaels and that he walked through the office wearing a sexual device around his neck."

.. and now all afternoon we're going to be wondering what the hell kind of device that might be

Sluts n' Mullets

Eight murders this week, says the CP

The trial of mulleted murder suspect Dennis Testo continues, and TDR's Danny Jacobs has more on "no body" cases

Police are ISO suspect in Hampden store robberies

Clerical error almost cost inmate 14 extra years on his sentence

Oh, great: "Willie Featherstone is a sexual predator, but he keeps getting out of prison."

Rilly? Portfolio.com says Baltimore's income growth is 3rd-highest in the nation.

ps. what's better than this blog? This blog en francais!

NY is considering a crisis-pregnancy-center-signage bill similar to Baltimore's

eine kleine Nachtwunde

A guy stabs two at Oktoberfest

Four or five murders this weekend: adult male and Park Heights and Shirley; Daryll Hood, 22, 4700 block of Shamrock Avenue; Travis Lane, 29, found dead on the 3500 block of Calvert Street; Dennis Waddell, 1600 block of Warwick Avenue; James Ingram, 3000 block of Presbury Street; and a suspiciously dead guy in a vacant in the 800 block of North Fremont Avenue.

UM professor to review Baltimore police arrests

Smoochy lesbians ejected from Ravens game (ps. happy coming out day to our more closeted readers!)

Media blabber

Tribune CEO accused of offering a waitress $100 to flash her tittays to "senior colleagues"

East Oliver update

The drug dealers have moved from the park and are not camped out in front of a funereal home.

Left to die

A shooting victim was left to die in an alley in Oakenshawe.

Senior slain

78-year-old retired bus driver Sterling Palmer was stabbed to death in his home in the 2600 block of Edison highway

Don't check your email

with a laptop stolen from a dorm room...

Guilty

Guilty verdict in Harris case.

Verdict in Harris Trial

.. to be read within the hour

Mellow majorly harshed in Eastpoint

Police say it's the largest drug bust ever in Baltimore County, netting 478 marijuana plants, 640 pounds of processed weed, $12,000 in cash, and nabbing a couple of people.. one who sounds rather familiar
UPDATE: Hermann says it's "not the largest after all."

news of the crazy: a couple of star-crossed Dorchester County teens accused of trying to kill the gal's parents.. and her dad is standing by her.

...an investigation following the death of a teacher at Cheltenham reveals the juvenile facility "lacked — and continues to lack — basic security equipment"

... police are ISO Gary Latham, 27, for the murder of an elderly man in the 3500 block of Elm Avenue

"At prison book club, a former child soldier finds an audience that can relate"

Unfrickinbelieveable Waste & Sloppiness at DJS

Bykowicz reports an audit found the Dept of Juvenile Services lost $3 million due to "improper documentation" (yeah right) and ps., "The agency's failure to submit contracts to the state Board of Public Works on time, meanwhile, forced the spending panel to approve nearly $150 million in agreements after work had already begun."
And pps., says the dept spokesman, it's all Ehrlich's fault.

For a little backgrounder on leadership at the DJS, see the CP's "Juvenile Disservices"

Omar's comin

Michael Kenneth Williams to give a free talk tonight at Morgan State, reports the Brew

Jury in Ken Harris case deadlocked, ordered to keep deliberating

BPD Tweets: "HOMICIDE - 2354 SIDNEY AVE/ADULT MALE VICTIM FOUND INSIDE OF LOCATION"


View Larger Map

And a man and a woman shot last night on Claflin Ct. in Cherry Hill, the woman was shot in the back and died at Shock Trauma


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Albert Snyder vs. Westboro Baptist Church Inc. et al.

Albert Snyder vs. Westboro Baptist Church Inc., et al. to be heard by the Supreme Court of the U.S. tomorrow morning

Harris jury asks about guns

Second day of deliberations ends with note from jury asking about the gun used to kill Councilman Harris.

HALLELUJAH!

Helen Holton pled "no contest" to a campaign finance violation this morning, a deal that will let her run for re-election next year. HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! Apparently God would rather have Carl Stokes heading the finance committee.

.. in other news
a report says trying juveniles as adults is counterproductive; an 18-year-old charged with killing a 16-year-old father-to-be in Edgewood (HarfCo); "Weekend without any killings ends with school police officer shooting"; and a fatal shooting in Fredneck; fingerprints ID a homicide victim found in Landover.

Council special...

Reduced rate for double parking, maybe

Alibi

A post-trial analysis of the defense of the alleged Harris killers.


.. also see Fenton's "Conspiracy theories swirl in closing arguments of Harris trial"

It's for real! Loopy septuagenarian Frank "Papa Bear" Conaway is running for mayor a 3rd time. Comment: "I can see lots of bear cubs getting no-bid contracts in Baltimore's future."

Enhancing skills to get an edge

Suspects and victim in the stabbing at Security Square Mall are students at the North American Trade School there. Wonder what they were studying?

TDR: Ken Harris case is to the jury

speaking of mental

What is going on with all of these teen suicides?
Is 50 cent behind this?

Mario Goes Mental!

R&B one-hit wonder Mario arrested after going crazy on his mama

Teardrop tattoo

Did accused killer Jerome Williams get a teardrop tattoo after councilman Harris was shot to death?

A-holes du jour

Closing arguments in Harris case ... and it's to the jury

Five indicted in Hopkins identity theft scheme

Smirking dude linked to 2007 murder by DNA

Officer Patrick Dotson got 10 years (all but 18 months suspended) for firing his handgun at a bar fight

New anti-perv laws take effect

Butterfingers Bureaucrats Bungle Bank Payments

TDR's Brendan Kearney uncovered a banking mistake that cost the city $600,000

Despicable them

Roommates Manuel Guttierez and Jaime Calderon charged in Cockeysville murder of Jose Ramirez

Soon the fill the next cell: store clerks who shamelessly flaunt flagrant violations of the no-plastic-bag law

Better late than never Dept. Washington Monthly's: Too Weird for The Wire: How black Baltimore drug dealers are using white supremacist legal theories to confound the Feds

Anne Arundel guy gets church volunteerism as part of drunk-driving sentence

Hebrew Wooed Negro Vote

Data shows a lot of voters crossed racial lines in the State's Attorney's election, including white people who voted for Jessamy

Dropped charge in Harris case

Prosecutors want to drop the most serious murder charge in Harris case.

Life without parole for Bloods gang leader Timothy E. Rawlings Jr., who ordered a hit on an 18-year-old fellow gang member Steven Parrish because he thought was gay

and an uniD'd woman found stabbed to death in east Baltimore

Hangman's Noose, Favored Fan, White Flight Pattern

Someone really ought to run a "Red Line" tour

Serial killer?

Interesting details from William Brown's interview with police, a man who killed two women and nearly murdered another.

Wire Creator Wins MacArthur 'Genius' Award

poses mournfully in front of rowhouse

Quality reading

If you haven't read Antero Pietila's Not in My Neighborhood, you really must. Finally got my copy on Saturday and couldn't put it down all weekend. Full of fascinating facts, not just about how housing segregation and blockbusting, but crazy tidbits, like before 1904, Baltimore didn't have an underground sewage system, just massive cesspools. Also MLK Jr. apparently actively avoided Baltimore, for reasons unknown. And apparently Pennsylvania Ave used to be main street!

Charges dropped againt helmet cam man

Judge tossed wire tap charges against the motorcyclist who caught a State Trooper behaving oddly, then posted it on Youtube.

White supremacist Calvin E. Lockner received a 31-year prison sentence today for assaulting an elderly black fisherman at Fort Armistead.

Lots of shootings this weekend. The current tally is five wounded and one dead.

The family of Sarah Foxwell have asked that outgoing Wicomico County State's Attorney Davis Ruark stay on as lead prosecutor in Thomas Leggs's capital murder trial.

AAAAAAAiiieee!

"Piece of tongue key evidence against killer" at the Perkins hospital

Aieee!

Fill in the blank: the "Preppy burglar" looks a lot more ______ up close!

... and the weekends' shootings spawns more of the same-old discussion.

Slashing

Weird tire slashing spree in Frederick targets only "light colored" vehicles.

A guilty verdict for Karl Marshall Walker Jr., a teacher who wrote a 8-year-old sexually explicit "love" letters is MD's first conviction for sex abuse without evidence of physical contact & sets precedent for pervs of the future

Dead witness in Harris case

Witness in Harris case who was killed last year made a contrary ID in ATM video

Gentlemen on the verge of a nervous breakdown

A guilty plea for assault, a hate crime and an attack on a corrections officer from Calvin Lockner, accused of a racially motivated attack on a septuagenarian fisherman last year. Enjoy what may be one of your last quotes from Jessamy's Deputy Division Chief of Communications & Governmental Affairs, Joe Sviatko (who is not an attorney, WBAL fact checkers): "It's safe to say that this is a plea agreement that we feel really good about because were going to get this person off the streets for 31 years."
We'll miss you Joe!

A new commander for the sex offense unit, one who "doesn't have experience with sex offense investigations," but "officials believe that may be a plus given the past problems in the unit." heh heh, sex unit.

HoCo police will buy 7 pairs of Blucher mocs for whomever finds the "Preppy Burglar".
UPDATE! He was nabbed and named as Jeremy Matthew Hall, 30, and Fenton & Hermann are "doing some background checking to see who this man is what he does for a living." Yes, do tell!

Sweeping away drug dealers

After they clean up the damn playground, they're going right back home to their fancy clothes and fancy cars. They’re just trying to look good for the cameras.

Oh, Jesus, there's some new bail bondsmen in town (thanks CP, and thanks readers for voting us Baltimore's 3rd-most-beloved blog!)

more on the raid

Hopkins shooter discussed killing himself a week before shooting.

Sounds like somebody has a case of the Mondays

Five people got shot on Monday night. It sounds like none of them were fatal.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner got a fancy new building.

A new start for police after Jessamy?

Wicomico County needs to figure out who will try the death penalty case against sex offender/alleged kidnapper and murderer Thomas Leggs after Davis Ruark lost his re-election bid.

Hopkins shooter

Police are searching the home of the Hopkins shooter in VA. Looking for suicide notes. etc.

Media Blabber

The Johns Hopkins News-Letter steps in it big time, garnering national press for two lovely pieces: one by Managing Editor Greg Sgammato on how much he hates to see "fat chicks at a Hopkins party," another by one Javier Avitia on the advantages of "Banging Under the Influence," topped it off with half-assed non-apology. Grooming some real charmers over there!

Yes, I know, not a crime, stick to crime reports, etc etc.

Sunday morning death

Two fatal shootings early Sunday morning.

Rage against the machine

Maybe Berstein's win will put a dent in the city's political machine?

Saturday crime news

State Senator Ulysses Currie pleaded not guilty to federal corruption charges.

Triple stabbing on an MTA bus in West Baltimore.

Gregg Bernstein will be holding a press conference in the 300 Block of 26th Street (between Calvert and Guilford) at 4pm.

A Concession to Dignity

Short and sweet, good for her. Golf claps. She's put in a long career as a public servant and ought to jet off to St. Bart's and go put her toes in the sand.
More from the Sun.

How wonderful to imagine this blog played a small part in such a golden moment!

ps., what an interesting coincidence, our first Jewish State's Attorney, immediately before Yom Kippur.

Lonely?

chat live with Justin Fenton at 12:30, then then bitch to Dan Rodericks at 1

Congratulations, taxpayers, you paid Margaret Burns $52 an hour to stand on the courthouse steps and talk smack about the ballot count.

More from Hermann

Friends like these...

WTF?! County police say a Reisterstown couple locked a woman in a bathroom for a year (a "friend"? Are you sure that's the word you're looking for, Jeff Hager?)

Murder/suicide at Hopkins Hospital

The son of patient killed his mother than shot himself after he shot a Hopkins doctor in the stomach.

Doctor shot at Johns Hopkins

A physician at Johns Hopkins is in critical condition after being shot by a man who was unhappy with his mother's medical treatment.

Doctor shot at Hopkins

Shooter still inside the hospital.

Give it up, lady!

Thousands of missing votes, sheesh! Lawsuit, I am like so shur. File it right next to that ethics complaint about Bealefeld's sign!

UPDATE: after a day of counting ballots, Bernstein's lead widened .

"It's unclear if [Jessamy]'s now satisfied with the integrity of the election, but [head of the elections board] reiterated that all votes were in except for the remaining absentee ballots left to count and the provisional votes."

The mask

Witnesses didn't know the color of the mask worn by the gunman who killed Councilman Harris.

The Tweet Trail

[at around 10 a.m.] "So I was told late late last night that the missing disks aren't scanfalous like it sounds. The results of those places were tallied.... And publicly posted in the window of each place. The only issue would be that they didn't make it into the tally... So bottom line as its been explained to me, is its not like the totals are unknown and could be manipulated. While Bernstein's lead isn't huge, based on the outstanding votes it seems insurmountable at this point"

... how nice of that Fenton to stay up all night and then go back in the next morning. Ah, youth.
Pat is right, they should count all the votes!
..also there was some kind of robbery/shooting situation near Mercy High.

.. here we go

Tweets Fenton: UPDATE: Tricia Bishop reports that Jessamy camp claiming that 6 to 10,000 votes are unaccounted for.. more to come

... Tricia Bishop says Jessamy claims cards are missing for six districts

Julie Bykowicz and some other smart people talking about the primaries on WYPR

Insert "Fat Lady Sings" joke here

"We are not conceding" says Jessamy's campaign spokeswoman.

City Primary Results 2010

Here's the official results of all city races

It's morning in Baltimore

Way to call it, readers, accurately predicting the teeny tiny margin in the State's Attorney's race. (Two points! What is up with that? And the turnout-- 13 percent! Tsk!
But all's well that ends well, right? (Or all's well that's statistically extremely unlikely)
So stuff it, racists and cynics!



"Good morning Baltimore .... The rats on the street all dance around my feet... There's the flasher who lives next door, there's the bum on his barroom stool, they wish me good luck on my way to school..."

Looking Like Bernstein by a Hair

Tweeted Fenton after midnight from board of elections HQ on scenic Baltimore Street:
"Latest update w 71.38 percent: bernstein 17304, Jessamy 16665, lansey 1351"

Club owner testfies

Recounts Councilman Harris' last words.

Historic "apathy" for city election

Election turn-out "low" and getting lower.

Bernstein vs. Jessamy Poll

What Do You Think? Who's going to win this thing? Bernstein by 70%+ Bernstein by 60%+ Bernstein by 59% or less Bernstein by less than 5% Jessamy by 60%+ Jessamy by 59% or less Jessamy by less than 5% Jessamy by 70%+ Current Results

more on the Harris trial...

So much for the crime decrease

Reported rapes are up 20% in Baltimore since the under-reporting scandal broke.

Northwood gothic

Ken Harris trial today: the mystery woman, Monica Foreman-Robinson, revealed she met the victim in a bank line whilst married to a city officer, a student testified to pools of blood and a mystery man with a match.

Harris trial begins

A jury has been seated and opening statements are today, says WBAL.

Fenton is Tweeting about it:

Def atty Jerome Bivens says 'somebody had to be arrested, guilty or not.' 'When govt wants to charge you, they can charge you'
Prosecutors: 'rent-a-cop' provided tip that led to identification of suspects, whose dna was found in discarded items near crime scene
Robbery in New Haven Lounge captured on video and will be played for jury; shooting not captured.

And at noon today on Rodericks, FHB III

From Farm to Tabled

Tricia Bishop writes an obituary for the Jessamy administration

and reveals that Bernsteins's son has had addiction problems in a glowing profile.

Also prolific this week: is CP's best PIO of 2006, "Wizard777"?
"Mr. Bernstein should consider spending less time in court and more time at home"-- if so, low blow, Joe!

Some non-Jessamy/Bernstein news

A 15-year old was shot near Pigtown this morning.

Two dead shooting victims in Ellicott City. Sounds like it might be a murder-suicide.

Motorcyclist is killed in a hit and run on Saturday night.

Gang member and murderer Dajuan Marshall had his recent conviction overturned because of juror misconduct. It sounds like at least one juror looked him up on MD Judiciary Case Search.

Billy Murphy will blow your mind

.. with his big brass ones! The celebutorney, who appeared on The Wire as himself and whose great-grandpa founded the Afro, told Justin Fenton "he gave incumbent State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy 'a 15-year pass just because she was a black woman'" says his past support was a "failure of leadership" on his part .. and it gets more intense from there. Wowz.
Ok, maybe it doesn't really take brass ones to jump off a sinking ship, but still, those are some sentiments you don't hear every day, no?

Bald stabber on the loose

Keep an eye out for this freaky-looking stabbing suspect who weaseled out of flex cuffs to escape from police

.. and more State's Attorneyiana:
Fenton's story about the "set us back 60 years" remark has generated a giant, steaming pile of comments, about 99% overtly hostile to Jessamy. Except for one Jessamy hired flak true believer in the talk forums. Some nuggets:

"FOR THEM TO HARP ON THE REAL AFFLICTIONS OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN PAST TO JUSTIFY THE NONSENSE THAT HAPPENS TODAY IS SHAMEFUL"

"Let social workers work out the issues in people's lives. That's not the job of the State's Attorney. I'm a computer programmer. If I went around telling my coworkers that I think computers should be abolished and used that as an excuse for not writing any programs, I'd get fired."

"She should at least have the courage to stand up and say what she wants people to infer from her statement: "There'll be german shepherds and fire hoses and white policemen beating poor innocent black folk with billy clubs! And black people will be forced to eat in separate restaurants, use separate bathrooms, ride in the back of the bus!!" You know, instead of being a word coward."

and Dan Rodericks is piling it on, quoting an Innocence Project co-director who says Baltimore's State's Attorney's office is currently "the extreme end of obstruction" when it comes to introducing DNA evidence that exonerates a convict (you'd think the wrongfully convicted would be the "not everybody" of "not everybody needs to be in jail" fame... but apparently, everybody, they are not).

.. and, finally, if you really, really can't get enough of this race, the Daily Record subjects the candidates for State's Attorney to a written exam, with predictably dull results.

Inmate found dead in his cell at CB.

Nooooooooo!

Dick Irwin officially retired

Sun endorses Bernstein

FYI.

while Cummings & Mfume lead a Jessamy rally

And the Afro-American endorses Jessamy: "In the race for Baltimore City state's attorney, Gregg Bernstein has distinguished himself as the main opponent of incumbent Patricia Jessamy. In part, he has done this by saying the state's attorney's job is 'to prosecute and convict people who commit a criminal offense.' We believe this is too narrow a definition. Another would be the ways the state's attorney's office impacts at-risk communities before a court appearance in [sic] needed."

Page Croyder: ... Jessamy, Jessamy, Jessamy!

Intervene and treat!

Justin Fenton covers Jessamy's "set us back 60 years" remark.
Hello, the 50s were not exactly a kind time for Jews, either. But the big WTF?! = Jessamy saying Bernstein "doesn't think a prosecutor's office should have anything to do with prevention, intervention and treatment." No sugar, Sherlock, it's the prosecutor's office! The job description is to prosecute people! And sending someone to treatment instead of jail is a judge's call anyway, not a prosecutor's! Ay yi yi, oy vey and lawdy lawdy, no wonder this town is in such a mess.

Speaking of, a report from the board of elections says early voting is a big snooze, fewer than 2 percent of Maryland voters showed during the first 5 days. Shameful!target="_blank">official site to watch on Tuesday night

One way to get back at the boss

is remote accessing his computer and causing porn to appear during a company power point presentation. The only problem is, you may get indicted.

probably

Adam Meister asks, "Are these Frank Conaway Sr. comments anti-Semitic?"

This is how it works

Pawnshop owner pleads guilty to stealing a whole lot of stuff...maybe from your car.

Man from WVA killed in Edmondson Village in what police call a drug deal gone bad

So, what's new at City Hall?

How about drug busts in the park out front? Hint: look at the bottom right.
(Taken Wednesday at around 3pm.)

Pigtown fuming

Pigtown residents not happy after assault charges are dropped in a case that drove a former neighbor all the way to Oregon.

Bad Doctors

Dr. George Shepard has had his medical license suspended after a woman was critically injured during a botched abortion at his clinic. One of the other doctors in this case was not licensed to practice medicine in Maryland.

Baltimore to revert to 1950?

Jessamy: Bernstein will "set us back 60 years".

The 1950s had the lowest crime rates of any decade in the 20th century and the city had a population of 950,000 vs 630,000 today. Gwynn Oak and Ashburton were known not for crime but massive amusement parks. Of course all of this was built on the backs of a violently subjugated underclass and most people didn't have air conditioning, but still.. it's amazing to imagine what it must have looked like!

UGH -- another murdered baby

Spotcrime reports that a 10-month-old murder victim arrived DOA at Shock Trauma at 2:42 this afternoon from 1921 W. North Avenue.

Grabassing

An undergrad groped in Homewood

One thing about early voting-- candidates in hot races sure have to keep up a relentless marathon of gab. Gregg Bernstein's on WYPR right now (but no Jessamy-- she must have worn out her vocal chords at UB last night).
..it's nice to listen to smart people talk!

Drug dealers, take a hike

The East Oliver community plans to walk drug dealers away...