October 29

WMAR is reporting that a body was found in the back of a minivan today at the Garden Village Apartments in the 5900 block of Radecke Road.

Police-involved shooting #30 was a youth who allegedly brandished a handgun when stopped by an officer. He's alive and in hospital. Died at Sinai Hospital.

TDR's Liz Farmer goes "Inside the War Room: Baltimore's plan to keep repeat offenders off the streets: is it working?"
(that headline needs a colonic!)

A 35-year-old man was shot in the right leg near Waverly Elementary school; a 17-year-old was shot in the right leg by a passenger in a red Cadillac in the Southwest.

On Saturday an "uncooperative" 18-year-old was shot in the arm on Hollins Street. And plenty of robbery and burglary in the Blotter.

More on the suicide of murder suspect Damon Smith, who threw himself out of a 10th floor window at Mercy Medical Center.

Senator Verna Jones fighting gangs with Christian rap, acronyms.

In the county at Woodlawn High, a catfight led to a 14-year-old girl being pepper-sprayed, and trips to the hospital for 20 students.

The Sun and the Examiner both cover the "die in" story-- which is better?

Stat from the Children's Defense Fund: "Blacks are five times as likely to be incarcerated as white youth for drug offenses."
(Why do they capitalize "Black"?)

Weekend

Twenty-six year-old Coppin State student Veronica Fludd was stabbed to death Friday morning in West Baltimore, her ex-boyfriend, Damon Smith, has confessed to killing her.
Update: Damon Smith died Sunday morning of self-defenestration.

This just in: Witness intimidation remains a problem. (Wonder if MD, like NJ, won't relocate witnesses with criminal records?)

Federal investigators have seized property belonging to Michael K. Lewis, accused of illegally filing bankruptcies for clients.

What the?! Drunk Dad Runs Over Daughter, Flees the Scene

Feel-good story: A. Robert Kaufman is getting a kidney!

October 26

An unidentified 23-year-old died after being shot in the neck and face in Brooklyn on Wednesday.

A 19-year-old was shot in the Hillen neighborhood and is in serious condition; a 15-year-old selling candy for school was robbed, stolen schoolwork, foreign coins, car radios and GPS systems in the Blotter.

Jessamy and Cummings are taping a PSA "encouraging anyone who witnesses a crime to come forward with a guarantee they will be protected."

Euch! PDJ = Morton Ellin, 77, of Pikesville, who lost his medical license after he admitted to engaging in “inappropriate sexual contact” with a patient "about 100 times." The "patient" says that he injected her with a sedative, and she didn't protest because she feared he would have her committed to a psychiatric hospital. Jezum crow!

In case you were wondering why it seems like every jour there's a perv, it may be because RJR is prosecuting more of them.

More on the fingerprint-evidence controversy.

The victim's family is glad to have the body of victim Nancy Riggins recovered, but the HoCoPo is unhappy with how detectives obtained the information.

More on Sunday's "die in" (if they want people to see it, why are they having it on a day when no one will be downtown?)

There's something you don't hear about every day: a molotov cocktail thrown into a Roland Park back yard.

Headline of the day: "Teen held for setting classmate's hair on fire"

In Laurel, a girl was abducted from a church and sexually assaulted.
Speaking of child molesters, here's a nauseating tale from AAC of child rapist Karl Johnson, released again and again.

In AAC, police are looking for a bank robber-- with a vag!

October 25

Two men were shot in separate incidents last night in the South and Northeast.

There's shocking, and then there's completely, utterly bananas: Judge Roger Brown sentenced Janice Jones, 27, and Dakia Frazier, 23, to time served for driving a woman to the police station and ordering her to recant an incriminating statement against Frazier's boyfriend, who's in jail for robbery and attempted murder. Unfreakingbelieveable!

Blotter: The man found in a burning car October 15 was named as Henry Mazyck, 39, of the 300 block of N. Kresson St. in East Baltimore.

The Ink has names, details of murders from October 15-19.

An armed robbery suspect hung hanged himself at Central Booking.

The Examiner lets parking-ticket victims share their horror stories.

The NAACP, Justice Maryland, Associated Black Charities and other groups are holding a "lie in" this Sunday-- they hope to have as many volunteers as official murder victims sprawled in War Memorial Plaza, each holding a number corresponding to a victim.
Wacky fact: "if Baltimore had New York's murder rate, the city would see just 29 murders per year."

County ISO Robbers

The County is looking for suspects (and odds are they're in the city, don't you think?). First is Jerome Willis, left, who robbed an armored car with an accomplice and then drove off and left his buddy on the sidewalk! At right is an unknown suspect who robbed the bank branch inside the Giant on Loch Raven & Taylor Aves. in Towson on October 17.

October 24

Update: alleged baby-killer Billy Martin was re-arrested last night.

A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment (whatever that is) yesterday charging Steven Stone of Frederick and Jessie Dorsz of Walkersville with conspiracy to commit witness tampering for murdering federal witness David Lee in 2005. They both face a maximum sentence of death.

The October 19 death of Qur'ron Holloway, shot in the Lowell Liquors incident, was reported by police.

What the @#?!: "The Baltimore parking agent accused of writing dozens of bogus tickets is still on the city payroll, officials confirmed [yesterday]."

Prosecutors have dropped all charges against Latoya Renee James, a Central Booking guard accused of participating in a ring that stole inmates’ credit cards and ran up charges at Target and Wal-Mart.

"A suspected Bloods member who was allowed to walk out of court — despite an open warrant — has been arrested. But the case of Gary Watson, 20 — charged with participating in a riot at the Inner Harbor — is indicative of how administrative breakdowns hurt Baltimore’s efforts to serve 44,000 outstanding warrants, law enforcement officials say."

Blotter: A woman was carjacked and kidnapped in Reisterstown*; Marco Smoot, 28, was arrested for the murder of Lucy Hazel on August 28; George Scruggs, 34, was arrested for killing Darnell Thomas on August 29; burglaries & robberies.
* Wouldn't you think this would warrant a whole story? Has kidnapping become that common?!

The civil trial of the Westboro Baptist Church began yesterday with testimony from church members and the father of Marine Matt Snyder.

In HarfCo, Harold J. Tulley, a former assistant state’s attorney who screwed clients out of some $2 million, faces 300 years in jail.

Not Baltimore but irresistible... a 9-year-old girl escaped a perv in a VA Wal-mart with a swift kick to his gonadular area

Organizers on Facebook of the event, "Wear Black on Friday Oct. 26 For Justin" [ (Warfield, 18 of Columbia. HoCo, who OD'd on heroin in NJ) have a stipulation for participants:

READ THIS! IMPORTANT!
DO NOT REPLY TO ANY MESSAGES OR EMAILS FROM PEOPLE ASKING FOR INFO ABOUT THIS HORRIBLE EVENT. THEY ARE NEWS REPORTERS ASKING FOR A STORY. ALSO, THERE WERE NEWS VANS PARKED AROUND THE SCHOOL CAMPUS ASKING FOR STUDENT INTERVIEWS. DO NOT TALK TO THEM.

The media has already made lies about this, so don't give them anything so they will drop the story.

I wonder how many addicts OD'd in Baltimore City last year? because I haven't heard about a single one!

Baby Killer Escapes!

County police are looking for Billy Conrad Martin, 25, shown right, who walked away from a work detail at the county detention center. He was indicted in October for killing his five-month-old son, Calob (sic), who died after Martin allegedly hit him in the head and no one in the family sought medical attention. Three other family members are also charged.
Update: The Examiner reports that Martin was on the work detail because officials hadn't been informed he was charged with murder.

Idiots Acting Stupidly Dept.

Har! A Loyola sociology professor's ill-conceived assignment to have students act "outside of societal norms" led to a student's detention and an evaluation at Union Memorial.

A drunkard got home detention and three years' probation for assaulting a flight crew on his way from Arizona to BWI.

Murder Indictment, Robbery Sentencing

The Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Michael Blackwell, 28, of the 1700 Abbotston Avenue for first-degree murder. Court documents allege Michael Blackwell is responsible for a shooting incident on September 4, 2007 in the 2500 block of Garrett Avenue. Davon Qualls, 17, was found in the unit block suffering from gunshot wounds to the head. Qualls died from his injuries at Johns Hopkins Hospital the same day. An arraignment is scheduled for November 13, 2007 before Judge Martin P. Welch, Room 228, Courthouse East.

Today Judge M. Brooke Murdock sentenced Jerome Holloway, 36, of the 2500 block of W. Fayette St. to 25 years in prison for possession of a handgun and attempted robbery, the first five years served without the possibility of parole (if she hadn't specified that, when would he have been eligible?!). A city jury convicted Holloway August 20, 2007 of attempted robbery with a deadly weapon and possession of a handgun by a prohibited person. Details:

On November 1, 2006 at approximately 2:19 a.m. the victim had been at Greenmount and Preston Streets in his car. Holloway appeared at the driver’s side window and asked if the victim was hacking and then pulled out a silver and black handgun, got in the car and said, “You know what time it is. Give me your money.” The victim gave up his money, but took off with Holloway in the car at a high rate of speed, eventually crashing. The victim escaped, called police and gave a description of Holloway. Police caught Holloway a short time later and the victim positively identified him as the person who committed the robbery. Assistant State’s Attorney Kristen Hitchner of the General Felony Division prosecuted this case.

October 23

Witness intimidation is alive and well in the Northwestern.

Judge Souder's ruling that partial fingerprints were inadmissable in the murder trial against Bryan Keith Rose "virtually overturns 100 years of jurisprudence with respect to the admissibility of latent fingerprint evidence," and led to the trial being postponed. Rose is charged in the 2006 murder of Warren T. Fleming, a merchant at Security Square mall.

There was a cutting at Woodlawn High School yesterday morning, and not the good ol' "cutting class" kind, either.

Paul Stephen Riggins didn't kill his wife, but he somehow knew where her body was.

If you don't want to get hit with an attempted murder charge, don't try to run down a HarCo cop.

Huh. An unscrupulous attorney. Who'd'a thunk it?

The trial against alleged Westfield Annapolis Mall shooter Javaughn Norman Adams began today.

Gary Watson, the alleged Blood who walked out of the courthouse a few weeks ago, was re-arrested last week.

Cameras may be coming to the county.

Huh. An unscrupulous city meter maid. Who'd'a thunk it.

October 22

"Honey, do you know this guy?" Police officer Andre Robinson hooked up with a married woman while on duty in the NW, then shot her husband in the legs after he came after them with a crowbar. Jayne Miller reports that it's not clear if Robinson knew the woman was married.

The Blotter's back!
A man was assaulted on Woodbourne Avenue, a grocery store burgled, a handicapped person's Plymouth Voyager purloined, a man stabbed in the back in Essex, more than two dozen firearms stolen in White Marsh.

Last week's legal news, courtesy of TDR: Microsoft antitrust claims can proceed, lyin' lawyer Jerold K. Nussbaum was disbarred, the CSA decided that a rape defendant’s rights were violated when the state put a mentally disabled alleged victim on the stand but did not allow the accused to cross-examine her, parents who withdrew their child from a private school have to pay tuition, interest and fees, even if the school incurred no loss.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church go on trial today in an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit filed by Albert Snyder, the father of a Marine killed in Iraq. Meanwhile, church members spent their Sunday picketing the Baltimore Basilica.

The Guardian Angels are back and saying they're planning to patrol the Eastern District. Wait, haven't we seen this story before?

PDJ: Daniel Cuneo, who got 5 years 5 months in jail for arranging sex for clients with underage girls in the Philippines.

Weekend

Big Ideas:
One you may have heard before: the crime decline of the '90s was related to the elimination of lead in gas in the 70s.
One you probably haven't: avoiding criminals by disguising yourself as a vending machine.

Killadelphia's crime-fighting volunteers are about to get training to patrol the streets for 90 days, and Bodymore waits to see what will happen.

(Alleged) PDJ = Nicholas J. Arminio.

Arminio surrendered his New Jersey teaching license in 1994 after two female students separately accused him of inappropriate touching. The state of Maryland didn't know that when he applied for teaching credentials and took a job at [Eastern Technical High School,] in Baltimore County. He eventually resigned and lost that license, too. Even so, until this month, he was coaching football at another Baltimore County high school [Perry Hall High] in a job that does not require a teaching license. After the AP started asking questions, he was fired.

Arminio claims the Toms River, NJ allegations were made up by teenagers seeking attention.

Sure, smoking kills more Baltimoreans than violence or drugs... but gunshot wounds don't have that cool, smooth flavor.

HoCo is offering 5,000 clams to whomever can find gas station robber Terrence Edward Boone, 24, and his 14-year-old accomplice Shawn Timothy Crockett (they're from Baltimore of course).

Most of the hijacked diesel fuel stolen on Friday was recovered from an underground tank in Washington.

Sad: A MD state trooper, Sgt. Pride T. Rivers, shot and killed himself Saturday morning on the corner of West South and South Bentz streets in Frederick.

News of the Weird: Money magazine "just ranked Mount Vernon as one of the top 35 best places to retire."

Thought-provoking headline: "Methodists Meet to Evaluate Transgenderism, Starting With Baltimore Pastor"

October 19

At about 2 a.m. an officer in the Southern found a man shot to death in the driver's seat of a Ford Explorer in the 4200 block of Audrey Ave., and
The shooting reported here yesterday on Walbrook Avenue turned out to be a fatal one, and two suspects were apprehended after a car chase.
(But if the shootee is dead, how can we know they didn't consent to the shooting? After all, sadomasochists sometimes like that kind of thing... Thanks Galt)

A man walked into Lowell Liquors in the 3200 block of Woodland Ave. (near Park Heights Avenue) last night and shot three men ages 19, 20 and 29. The 19-year-old was treated and released, conditions of the other three are unknown.

Police are still looking for Emory Lewis, left, wanted for the September 8 murder of Felicia Spratley.

Nationwide, "the Supreme Court’s decision to review the constitutionality of lethal injection procedures has slowed the annual number of executions to the lowest level in a decade."

Dwayne Price, 18, was charged yesterday in connection with the rapes of an 88-year-old cancer patient and a 73-year-old woman in South Baltimore in September of 2005.

Four federal child pornography cases have led to the indictments of Larry Cordell of Frederick and Stephen Michael Gayer of Baltimore, a guilty plea from John Ray Manning of McHenry and a 30-year sentence for Fabrice Snowden of Edgewood.

Parking tickets are big business for the city! Says Janis, "In current fiscal year 2008, the city expects to write $12 million worth of tickets and collect $8 million in fines."

Speaking of big business... OC ho's busted
(wow all these online ho's could keep a department busy! <-don't open that link at work)

Lt. Col. William H. Steele of AAC was found not guilty of aiding the enemy by loaning an unmonitored cell phone to an inmate in Iraq, but was found guilty of unauthorized possession of classified documents, behavior unbecoming an officer and failing to obey an order. More details here.

Remember MoCo cracker-hater Quinton Thomas, whose "REAL TALK" to a wrong address got him convicted of the fatal shooting of Stephen W. Kelley? He was sentenced to life without parole.

Quote of the Day

Anne Arundel judge Paul Harris dropped domestic violence charges against a man who punched a woman in the face in front of an officer because, he said, he couldn't be sure that she didn't consent to the beating. "'You have very rare cases. Sadomasichists sometimes like to be beat up,' he said."
(Thanks JB)
UPDATE: More details in the Sun story.

There was a shooting at Walbrook & McKean Avenues on the West Side.

October 18

Baltimore soldier Jerrell Hill, charged with shooting five people in a gang-related dispute last month, could be freed from an Oklahoma jail today, as Baltimore city prosecutors intend drop the case.

e first Kopera-related appeal (or the first one we know about) has come up and was denied.

In the county, sentencing was postponed for John A. Miller IV, convicted of killing 17-year-old Shen Poehlman. Miller withdrew his guilty plea, "effectively firing the public defenders who have represented him."

"For the second time in six days, a convicted sex offender was found to be accidentally left off the state's public registry Web site after his release from jail." But the Capitol won't say who he is "to protect the victims." Meanwhile Baltimore police say "Anne Arundel County is on the hook" for omitting rapist Eugene Waller, AAC says they notified the city that he lived here, but the city was unable to locate him.

Hey "Wire" fans, a nice long article on David Simon in this week's New Yorker. Spoilers: The fifth season is definitely the last, and "will be about 'perception versus reality'—in particular, what kind of reality newspapers can capture and what they can’t."
(More interesting David Simon-related reading: "Who Gets to Tell a Black Story?" the tale of Simon and Charles Dutton's experience on The Corner, from the NYT's "Race in America" series)

Boy Trouble

A 17-year-old boy was shot in Edgewood.

County police are looking for Daniel Joseph Tasker, a disabled 13-year-old boy who ran away from home.

A carjacker, an identity thief, a "Silver Spring Stabber" and a tax protester met their fates at the Garmatz courthouse.

Unsurprisingly, the Justice Department is prosecuting fewer organized crime, environmental and bankruptcy fraud cases and is going for terrorism and perverts instead.

October 17

Dismaying Stats from YPR: "Of the 320 adults charged with gun crimes through September 15th, 2007, 120, or 38- percent, were already on probation. Many had suspended sentences, including 24 charged with armed robbery, attempted robbery, or carjacking. Six were charged with attempted murder; 15 more with assault. Of the 50 gun-crime suspects so far this year with the greatest number of prior convictions, more than a quarter would not have been at large the day they were caught with a gun, but for suspended prior sentences."

Galt reports,
"The body found in the trunk of a burning car is now a homicide.
So is Andre Bryant."

"Crystal Nikkita Newby, 21, of the 2900 block of Southland Ave. is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Qasim Kabah at his home in the 2500 block of Terra Firma Road." The two were fighting over the sale of an assault weapon.

More dangerous than Iraq indeed: An 18-year-old Baltimore soldier, Jerrell Hill of the 5600 block of Lothian Road, was detained this week at an Army base in Oklahoma after city detectives accused him in the gang-related shooting of five people in the Barclay neighborhood last month. He's awaiting extradition.

Today the Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Omar McGee, 18, of the 3400 block of Dupont Avenue for first-degree murder and deadly weapon. Court documents allege on August 9, 2007 Omar McGee was identified as the person responsible for a shooting incident in the 3400 block of Dupont Avenue. Troy Richardson, 30, was found in the middle of the unit block suffering from several gunshot wounds. He succumbed to his injuries at Sinai Hospital the same day. An arraignment is scheduled for November 9, 2007 before Judge Martin P. Welch, Room 228 Courthouse East.

Two Towson U. football players were busted for marijuana, and TU sororities are in trouble for posting pictures of underage drinking on Facebook. And worst of all, Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Teri Hall says:

"Ironic that we have all these women doing things that they shouldn't have been doing as part of sorority recruitment and they post them on Facebook for everybody to see."

No lady, that's stupid. You have a doctorate and work in education but don't know the meaning of ironic-- THAT is ironic!

Bogus tickets?! The parking division is more evil than we even knew! Dixon says the inspector general is going to investigate.
QTD from Jaclyn Schwarz: “They’re always blaming the people who live here. My house was broken into, and they said it was my fault for not having the correct lock. It’s a very difficult city.”

Oricil to see Can from Inside

At a hearing yesterday, Judge Barry G. Williams found Kenneth Ellis, 27, of Bowie, MD guilty of violating his probation. Judge Williams sentenced Ellis to three years in prison, consecutive to a seven-year prison term he is currently serving following a Baltimore County assault conviction in August 2007. On June 20, 2006 Ellis, also known as “Oricl,” pled guilty to six counts of malicious destruction of property. Judge Williams sentenced him to a suspended three-year prison term, 18 months probation and 500 hours of community service. Ellis was a prolific “tagger” spray painting the name Oricl on property across the city. As part of his original sentence, he was to work with Department of Public Works Crews to clean up the graffiti. The assault conviction in August and the fact that Ellis completed just 32 of the 500 hours triggered today’s violation of probation hearing in city Circuit Court. Says the SA's office, yesterday's "hearing highlights the continued emphasis on the identification and prosecution of repeat offenders in Baltimore on supervised parole or probation who commit a new offense or technical violation."

Man, Pregnant Woman Shot

A double shooting in the 2600 block of Quantico Avenue killed a man and put a nine-months pregnant woman in serious condition.

Another grade-school boy trucked to the hoosegow! Eight-year-old Eric Turner was arrested after stabbing a classmate with a comb at Woodhome Elementary (near Harford & Taylor Aves). JZ:

"The situation depends largely on one's point of view. Did Turner slip and fall into a classmate while holding a comb, or did he stab the classmate with a comb while fighting in the hall?"

Or, was this the last straw for school officials who'd talked to his family more than once, only to have them excuse and defend his behavior? Mysteries upon mysteries...
(ps. the boy arrested for sitting on the mini-bike, Gerard Mungo Jr., was 7, for what it's worth, and unlike Stabby was just sitting around!)

At a hearing today Charles Brockington, 47, ("rims guy") of the 4000 block of Cedardale Road pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence. Under terms of the plea agreement, announced in open court, Brockington faces a maximum of 10 years in prison suspending all but five years without the possibility of parole. Judge John Kaye Allison scheduled sentencing for December 17, 2007. Here's the JZ story. (thanks PP)

Four MDers were sentenced in a scheme to transport hundreds (hundreds?!) of illegal-alien prostitutes to the state.

From SA's office (edited): Today, after one day of deliberation, a jury returned a verdict of guilty on the charges of possession with possession and intent to distribute heroin in the case of Kennard Miles, 22, of the 700 block of Lakewood Drive. Miles was arrested as a result of a Baltimore City Police Department investigation focusing on the 2500 block of Monument Street, the 600 and 700 blocks of N. Rose St., and the 700 block of N. Luzerne Ave. On 6/30/06, Miles was observed receiving a black bag by an officer operating a pole camera focused on the 700 block of N. Luzerne Ave. The officer informed a waiting arrest team of the transaction. Miles fled the arrest team, and during the foot pursuit, Miles threw the black bag into a garage on 900 block of Lakewood Ave. The bag was recovered, and Miles was apprehended. The bag was found to contain 636 gelatin capsules of heroin. The trial, which lasted two days, began on October 10 and concluded on October 12 before Judge David Ross. The case was prosecuted by LaRai Forrest. Sentencing is scheduled for October 22, 2007 at 9:30am.

Fun fact! Odds of being arrested during a drug transaction, according to David Kennedy: less than 1 in 15,000.

The Sun has choice quotes from supersassy Baltimore County District Judge Bruce S. Lamdin. Here are the original stories by Van Smith of the CP from last month and six months ago.