Overdose deaths down

Good news, overdose deaths are down for the second straight year. Odd news, fewer drug abuse fatalities means more hard to explain unclassified deaths.

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Police tweeted @ 1 am: " STABBING: WHEELER & HARLEM, ADULT MALE STABBED, PRONOUNCED AT SHOCK TRAUMA"

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Steven Frank Wilson, reportedly out celebrating his 24th birthday, was shot to death in the 1600 block of E. Eager St

Guilty Plea for Murder of 3-Year-Old Jabari Stocks

From the SAO:

Phillip Queen, 29, of the 100 block of Conley Drive pled guilty today to second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death. The State had called its first two witnesses yesterday and today when Judge Charles G. Bernstein accepted the guilty plea. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.

Queen pled guilty to the following statement of facts: On June 8, 2007 Queen caused the death of Jabari Stocks, 3, while babysitting him at he and his girlfriend’s house in the 900 block of Patapsco Avenue. The mother was working that night. Queen called the mother at work that night advising her that her that Jabari was not breathing and was unresponsive. Queen said that Jabari had choked. The mother left work and rushed home to take Jabari to Harbor Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

An autopsy was performed and the cause of death was ruled homicide by trauma to the brain with force. Testimony would have shown that Queen took a disliking to Stokes, calling him spoiled and that eventually, June 8, 2007, he hit Jabari in a way in which his head was slammed into an object, severing neurons in his brain.

Judge Bernstein did not schedule a sentencing date pending a pre-sentence investigation of Queen’s history. Felony Family Violence Division Chief Julie Drake and Assistant State’s Attorney Kelly Burrell prosecuted this case.

City gas theft, Calvert Hall student gets lost

A city employee stole gas with a city gas car unhindered for over a year, reselling it to a car theft ring for a nifty profit. Meanwhile, city police taught a Calvert Hall student who got lost en route to church a harsh lesson.

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An unidentified man in Forest Park, 3400 block of Fairview Ave.

Also, Fenton reports that one of yesterday's shooting victims was a 15-year-old boy, shot in the torso but expected to survive.

The man found dead on a burning couch on St. Paul Street was ID'd as Edward M. Davis, 39.

This morning's Hampden barricade situation involved a machete

In Woodlawn, 32-year-old Frank Sterling Brice was beaten to death on the lawn of his home

The city is fighting Wells Fargo's motion to dismiss its "reverse redlining" suit

This just in: "payday loan companies are really slimy"

Supreme Court: you can't scrap a test just because not enough minority candidates pass. Like, duh.

Two shootings & barricade situation

Baltimore PoliceDept SHOOTING: Reported @ 3200 DENISON. Police investigating - avoid area · 9 hours ago
Baltimore PoliceDept SHOOTING: Reported @ 501 McELDERRY, Police investigating - avoid area · 9 hours ago
Baltimore PoliceDept UPDATE BARRICADED PERSON: @ 3600 PAINE ST. Suspect in police custody, situation ended without injury.
9 hours ago · via Twitter

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Missed this one, sorry. Jermaine Womack, 32, was stabbed to death June 21-22 on Charter Oak Ave.

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"... two unidentified men were fatally stabbed in the 3000 block of Baker Street. Police said they received the call around 4 a.m. Saturday."

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A man shot at the Fat Boy Saloon in Dundalk

The 17-year-old twins accused of setting a dog on fire-- and their father (who Hermann says is 75!!)-- have been arrested for gun and drug possession.
Wonder what happened to mom?

Liberty Jewish Center to decide fate of rabbi convicted of molestation

Dixon's legal woes spook business community

Pull back the curtain on the cesspool!

JoAnn Woodson-Branche, the woman the BPD is blaming for the demise of 50 internal-affairs cases, has retained local celebujurist Warren Brown & is threatening to reveal the "cesspool" that is BPD internal affairs.
Well, of course it's a cesspool, it's apparently accountable only to itself!
Don't most cities have review boards that deal with police conduct?

Pervert watch

Teen charged with sodomizing two children while babysitting them.

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Two previously unreported homicides to add to the toll: an unidentified Hispanic man stabbed in the 2700 block of E. Fayette Street, and 51-year-old Wanda Hackett, strangled in the 2200 block of Tucker Lane.
(thanks Justin)

50 Internal Affairs Cases Closed

Cases against "Flex Squad" officers among 50 officially dropped

From Chuck

"The Sun has this article about the Perkins Homes shooting:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-fatal0625,0,6597627.story

And at the end, it says, "Dante Jeter, 21, of the 3700 block of E. Pratt
St. was arrested Tuesday and faces first-degree murder and other charges
in the May 4, 2008, death of Tyrone Freeman, of the 4800 block of
Frankford Ave."

Interesting, because one Arthur Jeter, then 18, of the 3700 block of E.
Pratt St., pleaded guilty for the attack on Zach Sowers.

Coincidence?"

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Murder of a young man at the Perkins Homes last night.

Lawsuit Part II

Plaintiffs in the recently setteled discrimination lawsuit against the Baltimore Police Department speak.

Suspicious indeed

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A man's body found in burning house in the 1800 block of St. Paul

This just in: NeighborhoodScout.com deems Broadway East America's 5th most dangerous neighborhood

More on the case against Dennis Testo

A county jury has acquitted Torin Sydney Baskerville, who police said drove the getaway car to and from a 2007 Brooklyn Park double homicide.

Alexis Ochoa, wanted for a Raleigh homicide and a robbery, was arrested here

City to settle a claim of race discrimination against a white lawyer by paying his legal costs and donating to the homeless

Judge: The county has to pay contractors for its detention center

Sgt. Hopson

The lead plaintiff in the recently settled $2.5 discrimination lawsuit against the Baltimore Police Department speaks out.

Domestic blitz

Will Poppin' Fresh incriminate his former flame?

More on the Glen Arm murder of Ron Koontz, killed by his crazy wife

Social services hasn't been filing court-ordered reports, but if the agency can manage to file three in a row, federal oversight of Baltimore's foster care system could end.
... still no answer to the question, why are there so many families who want kids and don't have them, and so many kids without families?

Dennis Testo's mullet is out on bail