Prepare your cheeks

So as you probably heard already, SCOTUS approved DNA swabbing from arrestees, by way of a convicted and de-convicted and now re-convicted Salisbury rapist. Love it or hate it and assuming the state can get it together enough to swab people and enter the info in a database, a whole lot of cases are going to start getting closed.

The city's 93rd homicide was Edward Spriggs, shot 15 years ago. Akeem Yarberough was #92, Fenton notes he just got out of federal prison.* #91 was an unidentified guy shot to death in front of the apartment building across from Jeong Kak.

The Washington Post is erecting a paywall.

Slumlord of the flies

A 30-year-old man was shot to death in the 700 block of Cator Avenue is homicide #90. He was shot in the back of the head but kept on driving.

How about slumlord Tom Karle Jr. of Summerfield Investment Group, who is allegedly harassing the holy heck out of a couple of Patterson Park residents with the gall to complain about him letting criminals live in his Section 8 properties. The cojones on this guy. Here's hoping this story will finally introduce him and his Section 8 vouchers to some consequences.

"Police review board called irrelevant, ineffective." Let's also call it futile, time-wasting window dressing, considering the board has no power whatsoever to enforce its findings.* What I wonder-- why do these members bother to serve, considering how much time it must take and that there's zero chance of affecting change? Related: "Mayor tries to suppress damning animal abuse report she commissioned." (Warning: graphic abused-dog photo.)

Armed robbery on the Light Rail at 3 in the afternoon, if Reddit is to be believed.

Good for you, city council members who are making disapproving noises at that Exelon $107 million nonsense.* But bet you a night at the city-owned Hilton it passes anyway.

@baltimorepolice just tweeted arrest in 4/25 murder, 3100 Pelham. Sources had told me victim in police databases as a verified BGF member
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) May 31, 2013

Overnight non-fatal shooting: 12:18am, 700 block of Cator Ave. Adult male reported to be shot. District detectives are investigating.
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) June 1, 2013

Shooting Update 5/26: 2800 N. Dukeland St. The victim has succumbed to his injuries. Homicide detectives are investigating.
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) June 1, 2013

Big Bradley Manning protest down at Ft Meade on Saturday.

How much would you pee if you woke up and saw this burglar staring you in the face?

In the belly of the whistling dog

A coupla drunk rednecks threw beer at a Yankees fan, then punched him and sent him over the railing onto concrete at the O's game, fracturing his skull.*

City officer Ashley Roane offered to give a drug dealer a confidential list of informants, the drug dealer was actually an informant.* Oops!

Two more murders* -- victims Wayne Vendemia ("blunt force trauma via hag") and Melvin Taylor -- bring the toll to 89.

Now that's odd: the NRA's minions claimed they sent over a million emails opposing gun control when it was up for a vote in April. Little more than a month later and the gun-rights lobby can't even scare up 18,000 signatures to move repeal to referendum and in typical never-say-fail fashion is claiming it's because they're going the lawsuit route.* Someday.

Also failed: the death-penalty anti-repeal efforts*
 

From hero to zero: "Z on TV"* lauds Petrice Sanders' interview with Andres Alonso that prompted him to have an on-air mini-meltdown. You can't criticize $99 chicken dinners because das raysis! Perhaps most scandalous of all: even though the media got hold of the audit, it doesn't sound like anyone in the school system even bothered to read it. Alonso: "I feel like I'm in the belly of the beast right now." Yes, because the Fox45 set is just like prison-- dude, did you even read the book? [@9:31 - also when he starts to lose it.]

Melvin Taylor, 23, who was shot a few days ago in 2800 blk of N Dukeland, has died, police say.
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) June 1, 2013

No tasks, no force

Legitimate rape on N. Calvert St. in Mt. Vernon, bootleg-looking camera photos released*

A dog walker robbed and stabbed and a whole lot of punching in the Southeast

Morgan State U lawyers are trying to get dropped the lawsuit* from Alexander Kinyua's victim, Joshua Caesar, guy who was beaten and blinded when the skitzy cannibal attacked him with a barbed-wire-wrapped baseball bat. In other news of responsibility-denying universities, records released by the University of Maryland show their decades-long efforts to cover up/avoid doing anything about the pervy molestations of swim coach Rick Curl.*

Irresponsible Pop-Tart owner Josh Welch got a lifetime membership in the NRA.

Down in MoCo, LeRoy Carhart's Germantown abortion clinic was found not responsible for the death of Jennifer Morbelli and determined that her death was from natural causes. Oh great, disseminated intravascular coagulation, another new, rare, horrible affliction for pregnant women to freak out about. Anyway, the medical examiner's finding naturally makes not one whit of difference to anti-family-planning activist groups.

One Larry Michael Parrish admitted to running a Ponzi scheme in which $9.2 million of investors' money was squirreled away in the Bahamas and Nevis.

How I love a Page Croyder rant-- today's deserving topic is O'Malley's 'Task Force.' 

And who can resist Honkytimes Heimbach squaring off with Shorty Davis? Not Vice magazine!

Santini's Restauarant in Joppa lost its liquor license after a 14-year-old held a booze-soaked fete* on the premises.

More speed cameras in the county-- and are the city's back on or still off? ...  consider downloading the app called Waze-- it's a free talking navigation system that also alerts you to the presence of cameras (though its routes can be a little wacky).

Put on your bitch hat

Awfulness: a 59-year-old man was beaten to death during a home invasion in Oakenshawe.* "Mark Counselman, president of the Oakenshawe Improvement Association, said neighbors knew the victim as 'Ray.' He was known around the neighborhood as an eccentric — the rear entrance to the apartment was decorated with Christmas lights, and on the ledge of the basement window was a Monopoly game and a baseball cap with the word 'Bitch' printed on it." .. and a 15-year-old boy was shot in the Eastern district.

The murder of Carter Scott was a setup,* says his ex-con dad. (Warning, link has a loud ad, but you get to hear Batts say "it is an ongoing vacation. I mean, investigation," followed by Ian Duncan's Leeds lilt Birmingham brogue).

The Ink has murders up through 5/24.

A man was shot at DePaola's Pub in Arbutus*

Twenty years for 31-year-old burglar Bill Fulton.

An Annapolis mom whose daughters were raped on video by their dad and a co-conspirator is now suing the men who viewed video of her children, including six men from Maryland. The case is Jane Doe vs. Matthew Alter.

Instagramming inmate Michael Earl Thomas told a reporter yesterday that his illegal cell phone has now been confiscated.

Task forces for some, shutdowns for others

"At least eight" shootings this past weekend,* one fatal (not counting the baby), one barricade situation in which one Walter McCoy shot his daughter's mother in the legs. It sounds like it was a bad weekend for shootings nationwide. Speaking of shootings, NPR did a story on the ridiculously low-tech way that weapons are traced. And the NYT detailed gun manufacturers' resistance to giving the feds any kind of help when it comes to tracking illegal dealers or suspicious purchases. Sniffed Jeffrey Reh of Beretta, "I can advise you that Beretta U.S.A.’s position is and has always been that the purchase by an individual of multiple firearms is not, in and of itself, evidence of improper or suspicious behavior.”

A second man, Cornell Harvey, was arrested for shooting one-year-old Carter Scott, a third suspect is still at large.

Following the BGF prison scandal, O'Malley's unleashing his scariest weapon: the task force.

Cherrie Gammon

Truth in stereotypes dept: Maryland members of the Outlaws motorcycle club "Maniac" and "Bugs" have pleaded guilty to dealing the crank.

A life sentence for Tyrone "Roland" Johniken for his role in the 2010 murder of block dancer Cherrie Gammon. Co-conspirator "Tay" got 40 years yesterday.

Fifteen years for Guatemalan cocaine dealer Edwin Galvez-Berganza.

Twenty years for York-Road-corridor crack dealer Kenneth Robinson.

The Historical Society has gotten back their documents stolen by Barry Landeau* and his Scott-Thorson-esque sidekick Jason Savedoff.

Michael Barnes re-trial postponed.

The police tried to cancel Kanye West's video projection* on the side of the Walters, citing a lack of proper permits, but Yeezy wasn't having it. This comes on the heels of the Pow Wow being shut down and the cancellation of the Moonrise and sex-fetish festivals. Why so much dislike for the First Amendment, BPD?

Bring Back the Cemetery Picnic

So Memorial Day started after the Civil War, widows and survivors would picnic in the cemetery and sweep and decorate headstones. But as you remember the 4,488 dead in Iraq, 3,221 dead in Afghanistan, dead of Vietnam, Korea, WWII, WWI and earlier, think about the approximately 351,073 people killed in gun violence in the U.S. in the past decade. It's not men from the smellier countries we need to concern ourselves with. It's terrorists at home with no purpose and with testosterone and cortisol to burn and no one but the jackboots of the prison or military pipeline showing them how to build a life. What will we do about these men? How can we honor the dead of the conflicts of the past with our actions tomorrow?

Babies.

Eddie Tarver

Me: "holy crap, somebody shot a baby!" Longtime Baltimroean: "well yeah, but he wasn't aiming for the baby." ... Eddie Tarver, 20, was arrested in the shooting* Friday evening in South Baltimore, which killed Carter Scott. His dad, Rashaw Scott, survived and ID'd Tarver, who had two accomplices sporting latex gloves. Scott, aka Davon Greene, had been charged with murder himself, highlighting the mix of protracted self-defense and revenge at the core of so many of the city's murders. Yesterday "Batts spoke with people at the shopping center before talking to the news media, posing for photographs with a group of young girls and dropping in on a wrestling-themed child's birthday being held in a vacant storefront in the strip mall."

Also on Saturday, the officer who arrested Eddie Tarver shot a suspect in Washington Village (nee Pigtown)

Clifton Bernard

In Suitland, PGC, a two-year-old boy, Jamar Shipe, was murdered on purpose, and surprise, surprise, mom's boyfriend is charged, one Clifton Edward Bernard.

In the kitchen of the Towson Sheraton, one employee stabbed another in the head. The Towson Sheraton, room 1029, is also where in 2009 a man from NY, William Parente, killed his whole family.* For whatever reason Sheratons in general seem to attract a lot of nefarious activity.

Butthurt death merchants at Beretta have decided not to move out of Maryland after all, though took the opportunity to sniff via press release, "The idea now of investing additional funds in Maryland and thus rewarding a government that has insulted our customers and our products is offensive* to us so we will take steps to evaluate such investments in other states." Never thought I'd think this but have to hand it to tobacco companies at least a little-- when states started limiting advertising and smoking in bars and so forth, at least they took it on the chin, diversified their holdings and spared us all the faux vapors and couch-swooning.

Sunday Media Blabber Corner:
Former Commissioner Ed Norris is recovering after his motorcycle accident. He suffered a broken shoulder, broken ribs and minor brain damage.

Not long after Bernadette Woods' departure, dreamboat reporter Adam May announced he's leaving WJZ* for Al Jazeera, an opportunity that lets his family-- husband Derek Valcourt and their son-- stay in Baltimore. Al Jazeera is located in Doha, Qatar, where the penalty for same-sex sex is up to five years in prison, time that may include whippings. Oh, and if you drink a Cosmo? Whipping.
...update at 11:35, just watched his final sign-off and got verklempt. What a classy guy.
Sheldon Dutes has also left town, begging the question--  who's going to be the next candy for the hungry eyeballs of local news-watching ladies age 29-39? I demand to know!

Dick Irwin's* funeral will be on Tuesday.

The Sweet Smell of White Privilege

Check out convicted felon Francisco Milos and his girlfriend Lynnie Lewis, both 29, who were stockpiling assault rifles, bulletproof vests, pot and ammunition in their house north of Patterson Park.* ... Why does Burt look so disgruntled in that tattoo? Or is he actually puffing a doob?

Another police-lawsuit payout: $72,000 to three members of the Reyes family, who were arrested, punched, and saw one Tased while handcuffed* in front of the Mad River Bar & Grille.

So here is perhaps a reason why Baltimore City spends the second-most in the country per pupil: dinner cruises, $99 chicken dinners, a $250,000 suite renovation for the head of the IT department, mother-daughter makeovers and tutoring services that were never verified as performed (a la the tutoring fraud Joan Jacobson uncovered in 2010) and contractors who may or may not have done any kind of work.* So basically a repeat of the results of the legislative audit three years ago,* but with makeovers and chicken dinners on the side.

What, what? Mayor SRB officiated at the wedding of two city lobbyists.

Cleaners on Old York Road robbed at gunpoint, as was the Stadium Lounge for like the bazillionth time.

At a Roland Park Civic League meeting, Batts apologized to a woman whose babysitter had to wait 20 minutes for police to respond while burglars were in her house.* ... wow, when's the last time you heard any city official apologize for anything? He also reportedly told the audience that their help is needed to improve "people who do not have the sophistication" of Roland Parkers, particularly in areas of town where residents "don’t 'speak,' 'dress' or 'smell' like them."

Morgan Arnold and Jason Bulmer were indicted and charged as adults* for the murder of Morgan's dad Dennis Lane.

Weed indeed

The Ink recounts last week's two murders and has updates, including the solving of the 10-year-old murder of Jermain Murdock.

WTF?! A City College freshman was attacked and beaten by a mob of girls from the school and the girls' male accomplices.

Seven people have been shot over the past two days*

Fifty years for James Pasco, who scammed the elderly in SE Baltimore

Lots of robberies on the East side

Dayum, 140 pounds of pot in HarfCo

Good for Fox News (how often does one say that?) ... the local affiliate has filed a complaint after being shut out of Monday's meeting that gave $107 million of taxpayer money to the Exelon Corp.

Two people were sent to shock trauma after an arson at the Family Dollar

Police confirm a man was robbed and stabbed multiple at Patterson Park last night, around 9:45 p.m. Had went to meet friend walking her dogs
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) May 22, 2013

What price decency

No good deed dept: Antomar Jones convicted of killing his youth program mentor Corey Taylor whilst robbing him*

Henry Estrella-Cordova of Ecuador was arrested by ICE in Silver Spring for allegedly raping a nine-year-old girl in the city two weeks ago.

Police canvassed the Forest Park area looking for leads in the murder of the mayor's cousin Joseph Haskins.

Police have released 911 tapes in the James Smith/Kendra Diggs barricade/murder situation/clusterfuck.

sup gurl.

I would rather hope not: officially no 4th trial for Policarpio Espinoza Perez.

OMG you guyz jail looks so fun! Just hanging out in front of the cells, fake-chatting on the phone. #livefromthecell, y'all.

Family of Sean Cannady approved to get $100,000 in their wrongful-death suit from the city. Officer Jemell Rayan shot three people in 18 months, and he's still working the streets. As a city officer.

Should Catholic Charities be running a city homeless shelter?

Civic-minded individuals protested the selling of the Sun to the Koch Bros.

Out in Parkville, some letter carrier was all like "fuckit."

Here's a head-scratcher: when it comes to the price per student of education, Baltimore city, at $15,400 per, is only second to New York, and MoCo is third. FWIW, Maryland spends $38, 383 a year for each prison inmate.

the officer who shot Cannady, Detective Jemell Rayam, was involved in three shootings in 18 months.

Read More at: http://foxbaltimore.com/news/features/featured/stories/family-man-killed-undercover-cop-gets-100k-1229.shtml#.UZwhhxgqnLY

the officer who shot Cannady, Detective Jemell Rayam, was involved in three shootings in 18 months.

Read More at: http://foxbaltimore.com/news/features/featured/stories/family-man-killed-undercover-cop-gets-100k-1229.shtml#.UZwhhxgqnLY

Teeny tiny violins

An "adult male" shot to death in Belair-Edison*, a woman shot May 10 has died.

This is not a repeat: a man and a boy were shot outside on the west side

Add to the murders, drug dealing, beatdowns, racketeering: the BGF is also not gay-friendly*

Somebody stole Ray Rice's guns*

Grab your ankles, taxpayers: the Exelon Corp got awarded $107 million of your money in a closed-door meeting* to build a fancy new HQ, but you, homeowner, get a 9%... oh no wait, 15% increase in your water bill and taxed on the very rain that falls on your property because the city and state are sooo broke.

It's that time of year again, when a young teenager's fancy turns to thoughts of fighting in a pack at the Harbor.*

Police Department Sergeant Dennis Workley found guilty of misconduct in office for supplying false information to get a warrant to raid a home in East Baltimore in which Christmas presents were smashed with a sledgehammer and only a "dime bag" of pot was found. A deal was reached that keeps Workley out of prison.

Unsmart metaphor dept: "Quadriplegic's wife to stand trial for killing him," "gun control activists have fired the first salvo in the battle over gun rights."

Catalog shopping and a naked man on a fire truck

Woman murdered in Arbutus in a "domestic," awkward stock image used, details scant. But hey, Mercy hospital's use of technology to detect strangulation bruising is "getting international attention." ... hrm, that victim's name sounds familiar.

Homicides closed, motives and explanations lacking.* 

Officer Robert Mitchell is in trouble for assaulting someone on N Mount Street last May, a fracas allegedly publicized* via WorldStarHipHop (link plz?)

Tavon "Bulldog" White got his bid for federal prison,* where you can get your hair done and shop out of catalogs, whilst a Fredneck Democrat and a Scheißhaus Eastern Shore Republican defended the prison guards' bill of rights. And you must give grudging props to anyone able to fail upward in such a spectacular fashion: head of DPCS investigations, Jesse Ballard III, is retiring with his schweet state pension* to double-dip with a federal job. Maybe with a new investigator we can finally be first in non-consensual jailhouse sex. Goddamn you Marion County IL.

PCP: it's a helluva drug

Joe Vallario's district: soft on crime, hard on a nude man smoking angel dust on a fire truck. Wonder if Mohamed Bah is any relation to murder victim Oumar Bah.

Betting pool: how many couples will show to be married by SRB in a mass wedding at the Pride Festival* on June 16 at Druid Hill Park? Is that wonderful or creepy? Dear God won't someone please tell me what to think?!

Scott Calvert dishes the dirt on the speed-camera shutdown*

Patricidal HoCo teen Morgan Arnold has Asberger's, mental health issues,* walked around meowing with ears on before going goth. Mom alleges she pushed for more mental health treatment but dad resisted.

And Obama visited.

A pound of loud

Despite his pleas that he has plans to record a workout video, Judge Wanda Heard called rapist Alvin Ray Wright Sr. a "monster" and gave him four life terms for raping a 13-year-old victim in the basement of a vacant rowhouse.

Three overnight shootings, no suspects, no motives, etc.

Today in BGF prison follies, Fenton posted the Tavon White affidavit which has some pretty entertaining conversation transcripts and info-- apparently the price of sex with one of 14 ass-peddling corrections officers was $150 (a lot if you're only making 75 cents a day). And of course White's lawyer is griping about the conditions in Cumberland*-- the Grey Goose is warm, the salmon is previously frozen and the kitchen hookers are all dudes. Judge Holland has scheduled a two-month jury trial on racketeering charges for June ... June 2014.

Customs Enforcement here seems to have busted an international Bitcoin money-laundering operation.

HOLY SHIT A PIPE BOMB!! Well, it's Taneytown, did anyone nazi that coming? ... in case you're not from around here, Taneytown is perhaps best known for its inveterate KKK Klavern,  which was still vandalizing houses,* affixing Klan stickers to urinals and parading down the middle of the street* and in broad daylight relatively recently.

Another murder in Columbia, victim is Omar Oliver, 39.

What time is it? Time to get a whole bunch of your shit stolen in the Southeast.

A woman kicked down her ex's door in Pikesville.

The woman shot by police in Pikesville, Stephanie Kamlot, also allegedly assaulted her former neighbor in the parking lot of the Seven Mile Market last year.

"Sex fetish festival canceled in Canton"

Oh, Jamar.

Markell S. Jones pleaded guilty to killing Freddie Jones Jr., 52, (no relation) in the Yau Bros. carryout in 2011. Jones, then 17, was caught on tape and brought into the police station by his parents. Fenton Tweeted that last week Jones said on the stand that his confession was coerced.

Last 2 Baltimore homicide victim IDs: 5/11, 2400 Chelsea Ter., Bobby Stanberry, 40; 5/13, 500 N Decker Ave., Marcus Lemon, 24. Both unsolved
— Justin George (@justingeorge) May 14, 2013

Yikes, a home-invasion robbery in Hampden-- gun-toting robbers purloined video games and a laptop in the 3500 Chestnut Avenue.

Allegation: city woman was beaten by police for filming a police beating.

A child sex offense was reported in Arbutus, but not many details, other than one was an adult, one was a juvenile and they were "classmates."

The woman shot by police in Pikesville will be charged with assault.

Today's Arnold/Bulmer case update: Fenton & Dresser have charging docs and the detail that Bulmer texted Arnold a picture of the murder weapon, she approved.*

Police are charging the guy at left, Jamar Davis, for breaking into more than two dozen vehicles in AAC.

So did not see this coming: 30 days of jail time ordered for boozy-boating homophobe Don Dwyer, which is really unusual for a first-time offense (though a five-year-old's skull was fractured, so there's that). Dwyer has appealed.

Alleged BGF member Austin "Yellow" Roberts pleaded guilty to drug-trafficking-related charges downy shore. Roberts was named as a top drug lieutenant in the 2009/2010 "Grey Goose and salmon" prison scandal, but he's been on the run until he was nabbed in San Diego last December, once again with a crapton of cash in a secret compartment in his car. In other BGF news, Tavon White's lawyer wants him transferred out of state, and if you want to watch Bill O'Reilly call Gary Maynard a "moron," the CP's got your hookup.

Amazed that the story that the Justice Department accessed phone records 20 phone lines at the AP for two months has not garnered a whole lot of attention. The monitored records included reporters' home and personal cell phone numbers, and reporters at the AP still don't know exactly who was monitored or precisely why. And most puzzlingly, somehow it was all legal.

Arts & culture: NPR investigates the Baltimorean use of "yo" as a pronoun

Quite the surprises

A man was found shot to death in a car in the 2500 block of Chelsea Terrace. Or as the Deuce put it, "Baltimore City Police got quite the surprise while responding to a call for a car accident."

Task force officers responding to an ad for a "young looking" female instead found a haggard-looking cop's wife being pimped by her husband, Lamin Manneh.* Supposedly she's 19, so the mug shot camera must add some years.

A woman was shot multiple times in Cherry Hill on Friday.

 Don't pin it.

A guilty plea for misconduct from that skeezy cop Aaron Z. Pross, who sent a 16-year-old footage of himself working his gherkin in a patrol car (later found by said 16-year-old's dad), and taped himself boning (adult) women on the job at least 20 times.* Sounds like he got a good deal.

The murder of Dennis Lane allegedly by his 14-year-old daughter and her 19-year-old boyfriend just gets uglier. WJZ reported that the two had planned the murder for "months," and Kevin Rector reports that the daughter, Morgan Arnold, wanted her dad stabbed 10 times and her dad's girlfriend 15 times. "I have my reasons and I'll tell you later."* Meanwhile WBAL got its mitts on their mug shots.

Barricade situation in Laurel this morning.

A $14 million securities-fraud settlement against Lender Processing, a class-action suit in which the Baltimore County Employees Retirement System was a plaintiff.

McKenny

Eleven years for Ellicott City peeper Michael McKenny, who made a copy of a key to a condo where two women lived and hid cameras in their bedroom and bathroom.

Drunken Delegate Don Dwyer plans to hold a press conference-- after saying he wasn't going to run again, apparently now he is. I'll bet the knuckle-draggers in AAC are just dumb enough to re-elect him, too. Speaking of despicable men, seen driving over the Bay Bridge Friday afternoon in an 'Iridium silver metallic' $95,000 2013 Mercedes S550: Joe Vallairo.

Driving while stupid

Fenton's story appears to corroborate witnesses' and Jayne Miller's version of the James Smith/Kendra Diggs barricade/murder situation: police rescued Diggs from the house, but left her to die on the sidewalk once Smith started shooting.*

One of Wednesday's homicide victims, Joseph Haskins, was the mayor's cousin.* Also TIL her brother Wendell Rawlings was attacked with a sword in 2002.

Allegedly speedballing alleged vehicular manslaughterer Johnny Johnson was indicted today on nine counts.

 Larry Feldman

?!? allegation: that when the State's Attorney's office wanted to speak with Larry Feldman's client Isiah Callaway about one Tavon Davis, Feldman called Davis and suggested Davis deal with him using the "Sicilian option." A few days later Callway was killed in a $2,000 murder for hire.

At first I read this headline as "Charles Street to be closed for 29 years"... which is probably true.

The Spectator is out of jail and Tweeting.

House Republicans locate nards, demand jail tour, O'Malley renews cry for cell-phone blocking in prison,* a topic first broached in 2007 after a prisoner used a cell phone to order a murder from prison. Really you don't need a cell phone for that, any old prison phone will do. But this state loves nothing more than a one-shot expensive solution.

Scan Baltimore picked up --and Fenton verified-- a ridiculous, breathless car chase in the Northeast over a stop sign not fully stopped at and a marijuana cigarette on Wednesday starting at 10:09 p.m. (About 60% through the clip here)

A woman groped and carjacked on E. Fayette.

Guilty pleas from two restroom pickpocket/identity thieves.

The Bloods still exist in HoCo, 18 were indicted yesterday

Spectator Soon Sprung

Cham reports that the Spectator AF James MacArthur made a deal to plead guilty to charges and got six months plus three years' probation, or three years with all but six months suspended, but in any case with credit for time served he'll be free tomorrow. More from Ed Ericsson and Ian Duncan*

The woman killed yesterday by her off-duty city officer "boyfriend" was identified as Kendra D. Diggs, 37.*  The Sun made the rare move of publishing a Justin George photo that shows her body being loaded into an armored vehicle. Neighbors told Jayne Miller of WBAL that Diggs was rescued from the house, but that police left her behind once James Smith, a tactical-team officer, started firing with his service weapon.

Take a minute to look at Baltimore's open missing persons cases.

Drug bust in Greektown: "a convenience store that was selling more than just snacks."

Pooch screwed

 Stephanie Mickles

Harford County school employee Stephanie Mickles was arrested after copious photographic and video evidence was discovered of her fucking the family dog and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison. In case you were also wondering, the highest penalty for fighting a dog in MD is three years. Poisoning a dog to death, misdemeanor, $100 fine. 

Also in ArfCo, a man in a minivan is creeping around and stalking children.

A barricade situation on N. Parrish Street, and the barricadee is a 20-year-veteran city officer with tactical training, James Smith, who also had his toddler son in the house. Fenton updates that the situation has ended and the woman who was shot, his girlfriend, has died.

A man was stabbed in the head in a domestic dispute in Upton

Security chief at Baltimore Detention Center has been replaced -- not many details at the moment but more to come soon.
— Ian Duncan (@iduncan) May 7, 2013

Utah kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart told a crowd at Hopkins that shame from her absinence-only sex ed was what kept her from running away from her captors.

Tyrone Brown got life in prison for shooting Rodney Pridget to death at the behest of the BGF at Towson Town Center.

A man in Harwood disarmed a guy who tried to attack him with a sawed-off shotgun on 28th St.

A man was robbed in front of the FOP lodge in Hampden.

A DC officer, Jared Weinburg, was arrested for laundering more than $2 million for drug gangs in Baltimore and elsewhere.

Shorty Davis is running for Lt. Governor.

Drooling grandma

Three men were shot last night on the East side* in the 2900 block of E. Monument St.

Demetrius White was feed after five years in prison with help from the Innocence Project; one Jose Morales confessed to hiring a hit man to kill federal employee Robert Long who was a witness in a theft case against him. Related: the NYT on the difficulties and cost of getting a record expunged, even for the wrongfully convicted.

"A hunk" with a "body that's all that," drooled the grandma of one of Tavon White's bastard children.

Tougher penalties for jailhouse cellphones might (might!) have helped prevent the BGF prison scandal, but guess who let it die in committee?

A feel-good story about crime cameras.* Oh no, excuse me, the "Watch Center" where they watch the cameras. And monitor Tweets and collect data. Conspicuously missing: a discussion of how many criminals the camera/watch center has helped catch, versus the exorbitant cost. Related: trial for the Spectator is scheduled to start on Wednesday.

A man who was shot to death in Rosedale and then crashed his car into a Shell station was ID'd as 23-year-old Robert Wynder Jr.

Two women stabbed in Parkville, one fatally,* and Paul White Jr., the son of the deceased woman, was arrested.

A police chase in Woodlawn ended when the perp's car crashed into a house.

A woman in HoCo, Deborah Castellano, was shot to death in her car.

Good! Six neighborhood associations are suing Texas slumlord Scott Wizig.

Ew, remember peodphile Eric Toth, who installed a camera in the bathroom of his MoCo third-grade classroom, attempted to fake his own death, then fled and became one of the FBI's 10 most wanted after Bin Laden left a vacancy? He was found and arrested in Nicaragua last month,  the Post has more detail on how he spent the last five years.

Gun-stealing baby

 Sharmell Thomas

Des'Marie Braxton

Sharmell Thomas, now 23, was convicted of killing his girlfriend's 14-month-old child, Des'Marie Braxton, while he was babysitting her. Damn, I've read/written those words a lot of times. Sigh. Thomas was an aspiring actor and model, but he'd also been charged with assaulting a police officer, and at the time of Braxton's death there was a warrant out for his arrest for assaulting the child's mother, who nevertheless left her alone with Thomas for several days. You might recall Thomas has an eerily portentous Myspace page with sayings on it like, "YES I Am A HEADHURTER..lol" "OUR DEEPEST FEAR IS THAT WE ARE POWERFUL BEYOND MEASURE" and "its not how u start its how u finish."

#71: shooting death in the 600 block of Cokesbury Ave.*

"Dominic Matthews, 40, pled guilty this week to shooting his former girlfriend for refusing to marry him."

O'Malley signed that bill abolishing the Death Penalty, making MD the 18th state to do so.

Well, you can't bitch about what you don't know about: journalists were apparently (illegally) locked out of a speed-camera meeting with Brekford Corp.* Concurs an unnamed rep of the Maryland Drivers' Alliance:

The city created meeting minutes 5 months after the original meeting dates in order to respond to the complaint (the state's Open meetings law requires minutes to be kept for public meetings). In the minutes from the one meeting in November 2013 which I personally (only because I was informed of the meeting date by a member of the press and had demanded the opportunity to present evidence of speed camera errors), none of the other speakers were named and none of the details of the testimony and evidence presented by me or anyone else was listed... the document was clearly hastily put together based on someone's foggy recollection that a meeting had taken place that day.

Area dog thefts are on the rise,* and it's not just purebred puppies, neither. (Aiee, warning if you are a Sun subscriber, reading this article will subject you to a very loud advertisement).

Charges were dismissed yesterday against Robin McCoy, accused of randomly attacking a woman with a hammer on E. 25th St.

Six MD veterans are in trouble after allegedly falsely claiming that they were exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam.

A man was arrested for shoplifting 13 bars of soap at Herman's Discount on Greenmount; a man in Better Waverly claims his gun was stolen by a baby; a tuxedo was stolen in Hampden. 

 From Carrie Wells' Twiiter. LULZ!

The Sun's Ian Duncan was on TV last night, discussing the jail situation with horrible human being Bill O'Reilly.

On the ball

Long festering, well documented: "Maryland officials on Wednesday approved a $40,000 settlement with a former inmate who alleged that he was repeatedly assaulted after trying to back out of a smuggling operation with a prison gang that included a corrections officer." Wonder if said officer is still working there? Last week the Daily Beast interviewed Gary Maynard. "His golf partner rang at one point, too, wondering, Maynard guessed, if their golf game was still on. It was. 'I will be hitting the ball with great intensity,' he says."

 Sgt. William Hawkins

Well, at least one corrections officer is on leave: Sgt. William Hawkins, who met a man online for sex and then pointed a gun at him when the man asked him to pay for it. Surely despicable, but what kind of gigolo doesn't ask for the money first?

A Mt. Vernon man was pepper-sprayed and mugged by cross-dressing teenagers, and local property-management company says there have been four similar attacks.

WJZ's got a video of a man getting the living shit beat out of him at the Windsor Inn in Windsor Mill last Saturday.

O'Malley is expected to sign the bill repealing the death penalty today. The fate of the five men currently on death row-- Jody Lee Miles, John Booth-El, Anthony Grandison, Vernon Lee Evans Jr., and Heath William Burch--  is not clear.

Speaking of O'Malley, here's a relief! A national poll shows support for his presidential candidacy at one percent. Hillary's in first, of course, and in second place? "DK/NA."

The Ink recaps murders 64-67

Retired city cop Mark Heygood soothes his nerves by building robots.