Schmuck sentenced

Thirteen-year-old Sarah Elizabeth-Kay Matthews, right, has been missing for three weeks, call police if you see her.

Tyrone Alson was indicted for first-degree murder (and pot possession/intent to distribute charges) for allegedly shooting his girlfriend in the back of the head in the 2600 block of Guilford Avenue, the shooting was caught on camera (yet even though police had him in custody on the drugs charges, they let him out for 11 days before they charged him for the murder, a big puzzler).

An acquittal in the murder of James Ingram, 46

Thirty-five years for Tavon Davis, the "schmuck"* who killed Isiah Calloway* to keep him from 'snitching' after his lawyer leaked to Davis that he was a witness*

Ten+ years for a 60-year-old heroin dealer

In the SE, a woman was robbed, bit and doused in bleach by her ex, another woman bit and robbed of her Coach® purse, and a man double-robbed by suspects in a Ford pickup. At a meeting at Max's Taphouse a police commander claimed there have only been 30 robberies this year in the SE. Uhm, maybe a zero was missing there? I counted 225 robberies just through May in the BmoreGuide SE Blotter archives...

Ian Duncan on the phenom of mailing pot,* Rodricks says half of the arrests in the NE US are for pot; the Morgan shooter had 16 baggies of it*

The city's lawyer filed a protective order* to prevent former Deputy Mayor Christopher Thomaskutty and current Chief Information Officer Chris Tonjes from answering questions from a lawyer regarding the city's $675k phone-and-computer purchases

The Commander of the Northern blames the Black Guerrilla Family for the doubling of the homicide rate (t)here; shootings are also up 31 percent. FWIW Northern District Deputy Major Richard Worley, Senator Lisa Gladden and Delegates Sandy Rosenberg, Nathaniel Oakes and Jill Carter will be at the RP Civic League meeting Thursday at 7 at the RP Presbyterian church at 4800 Roland.

James MacArthur @baltospectator is now showing up in the Md. inmate locator should anyone want to track him ow.ly/fOoRO
— Ian Duncan (@iduncan) December 4, 2012

A mortgage fraudster from Owings Mills got 35 years in the can*


Three crack dealers arrested in AAC

'the crude shorthand of the poor and violent city'

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

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

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

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

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

A woman was mugged in Waverly

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

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

Burglars have been hitting HarfCo and county Verizon stores

The mess that was this weekend

An allegedly crazy mom allegedly killed her two-year- old daughter son in the 1400 block of Broening Highway in the SE. 

Soon after The Baltimore Spectator was peacefully taken into custody, a man was fatally stabbed in the 2000 block of Monument St and a guy was shot while driving in the 2000 block of Charles St

And while said Spectator was barricaded a guy shot a would-be robber in the foot in the 100 block of North Potomac Street 

Two people nonfatally shot in Brooklyn

Two people, Okemia Lastezia and William Henry Cunningham, were stabbed to death in Parkville, in Solar Circle and Venus Court off of Perring Parkway.

And I guess after the Spectator locked up his house the police done busted in, because they found a sawed-off shotgun and ammo in his house* resulting in some new charges. He's being held without bond.

must have bagpipes

This situation. This negotiator. A tale told in Tweets. Lots and lots of Tweets. Here are some:

10hBaltimore Spectator ‏@BaltoSpectator

the polive have found me 

its about to be over ... I could die tonight. Thanks for tuning in ...My final thoughts for now will come in several parts. It's directed squarely at my fake, white, liberal friends. Particularly the gays... To the same people who've jumped up and down for the longest time crying about "dignity, fairness & equality," I knew you were full of it. ..If those things were truly such a concern. Why is it when it comes to others, ur all silent? Cuz ur selfish and fake. Nothing more to it. ... remember my funeral wishes ...

I stated them clearly in the show other night. must have bagpipes ... I am not afraid, but my family deserves better... my daughter deserves better. baltimore deserves betteer ...remember to tell my daughter I love her ... my story has been laid out there. now you will see how it ends. thanks for ignoringme baltimore sun. good job fenton ... proof, u need proof, why so many cops staged outside my position???? that proof enough???

Gus G. Sentementes ‏@GusSent

BPD swat probably responds to several barricade situations every day. Very common, most end calmly. Only difference tonight: it was a show.

Gym Carrey ‏@_HustleMarsalis

This dude is having a tweet-up with Baltimore City Police.

Damon Dorsey ‏@damedorse

I don't know enough about @baltospectator situation to really speak on it BUT I will say he is effectively using social media right now!

W. E. B. Deepthroat ‏@FeministaJones

This entire thing was about him getting attention and having people hear his complaints. It worked.

Justin Fenton ‏@justin_fenton

"This is a ratings bonanza," he says. "It's 10:57. Let's wrap this up for the networks." Sigh.

rolandsmartin ‏@rolandsmartin

Hey @jillpcarter. your client James MacArthur @BaltoSpectator is about to get arrested by Baltimore PD. So go to the police station

Justin George ‏@justingeorge

Do not have vantage point of spectator's door. Officer confirms he's in custody peacefully. #BaltoSpectator

5hMichael A. Wood Jr. ‏@MichaelAWoodJr

@BaltoSpectator The Sergeant out there has reached out to me. You have no excuse. He's a good man of God.

Sterling ‏@sterliwirl926

@MichaelAWoodJr thanks! Great team effort.

And a Twitpic.

... still not clear on what was it is he was wanted for. Failure to appear from 2009 "and another for subsequent failure to appear in court, according to court records, and the situation was ratcheted up after police said MacArthur made threatening statements to officers over social media." says Fenton, but which statements (and which gays? ... and no, he wasn't on the 11 o'clock news.

Update: a concise summation from Ed Ericsson ("police were taking MacArthur #serious"), also helpfuly cites a 2010 Fenton story that splains MacArthur's orginial charges and why you can't find em on the JIS (it's under 'Frank McArther').

Another shooting at Morgan

... a suspect is in custody

Think of the children!

Justin Fenton ‏@justin_fenton

Nelson Ave shooting of woman: was waiting for her sister outside club. Motive unclear; has record. Targeted or carjacking are poss motives

Justin Fenton ‏@justin_fenton

Northwest now up. [at COMSAT meeting] Say homicide on Boarman Ave has been closed with arrest (news to me). Homicide says its believed to be drug related

Last night's public COMSAT meeting is also available online, but it's two hours long, so maybe just read the Fenton story.*

A murder conviction for a guy who wrote a jailhouse apology letter to the family of victim

Two guys from Parkville got into a knife fight at Market & Lombard @ 2 a.m. this morning* causing a melee

A guilty plea from real-estate fraudster Alexander Sivels II, involved in Patterson-Park area "liar loans" with a company called Royal Real Estate

poor kid.

This just in: the westbound Cold Spring Lane speed camera is also a bunch of crap. If the city's going to be picking people's pockets can't they at least build a footbridge or even just a decent crosswalk for those poor Poly kids who have to cross that road? The citystate has made exploiting people's concern for kids into a fine art-- a state-sanctioned version of that gypsy scam where a woman throws a baby at you while her accomplice picks your pocket. But speed cameras/gambling/credit cards for education administrators are for the children! Won't somebody please think of the children?!

SA Gregg Bernstein dropped by Westport, told residents to keep calling police and that he's developing some kind of nuevo holistic drug thingy involving gardening or something.

And BatchGeo has your happy-pinwheel Pigtown crime map

In Towson, groping burglar Ricky Bostic has been charged with additional skeeves/thefts*

Brave patriot Bradley Manning testified yesterday, described forced nudity and a "shark-tank environment" at Quanitico. In violation of military law, guy has been held without trial for 921 days.

HBD Northwest Citizens Patrol,* which I guess is like Shomrim but goys can join?

Ding dong! Same-sex weddings can happen starting at midnight on Jan. 1

.. is that legal? Person claiming s/he got an STD from a MICA student plasters posters around town

The Truce on Drugs

Still pondering "The Truce on Drugs" -- could it be that murders are creeping up again because Batts isn't vigorously applying Bealefeld's strategy? And/but to what extent was that strategy applied to begin with? A cursory perusal of "inputs" at Central Booking still shows that CDS (Controlled Dangerous Substance, aka drug) arrests still shows made up a good 1/3-1/2 of the top charges-- if that's deprioritizing, holy shit. The OpenBaltimore data also shows 48,870 arrests for 2011, vs. the 65,000 the article asserts ... but even if there were an extra 16,000 undocumented arrests and none were CDS, that's still 25,813 arrests between Jan of 2011 and August of 2012 where drugs were the "top arrest charge." Still, shootings do appear to be way down, and that's something: 381 last year, vs 725 in 2000.

Good gracious, mere days after Andre Littlejohn was arrested for viciously abusing his two-month-old daughter, 20-year-old Dion Kearrie Ware is being charged with murdering his one-month-old son, Kearrie Dion Ware on Monday. (The Sun says he was 7 weeks, but still*) WTF, people? Babies just lie there, if they're annoying you can just go to another room! BTW if you're feeling overwhelmed as a parent, even if you don't feel like you're about to lay a smack down, I can't recommend enough calling 1-800-4-A-CHILD. It's 24/7, completely anonymous, staffed by really sweet trained social workers. And if a baby is crying there is absolutely nothing wrong with putting the baby in a crib and going outside for a minute.

Sad: the murder trial of James Cureton/Careton, accused of killing Tanise Ervin in 2011, was postponed -- both sides were prepared, family members and Mary Pat Clarke were in the house, but a judge could not be found. Also, there's a Judge Carrion in the city.

Also, Thomas Lee Meighan Jr., who got 13 years* for the hit-and-run vehicular homicide of 20-year-old Hopkins student Miriam Frankl, is trying to get some "post-conviction relief." In addition to the Frankl case he had nine previous DUI convictions and also pleaded guilty to another hit-and-run (!!) and got a suspended sentence for that (!!!). You may recall that in the Frankl case* a half-dozen people called 911* to report his wild, drunken ride from Highlandtown to Charles Village the city to Bel Air (with a break to pee on Patterson Park), but police ignored all of the calls.

A former city police officer/former RN was arrested for the shooting in Parkton that was called, at first, a "hunting accident"-- the shooter, Richard Heymann, says he intended to fire a warning shot but accidentally plugged the guy in the thigh.

A woman was stabbed in Owings Mills

Ew, in Edgewood a 27-year-old former employee of the city schools is charged with raping and impregnating a 15-year-old who he was supposed to be giving "therapy" to.

Former Orioles third-baseman Doug DeCinces has been charged with insider trading: 42 counts of securities fraud and one count of money laundering

Thirty years for a guy who robbed and murdered his quinquagenarian drug dealer

Missing teen Tyler Grimes was found

A man in Barclay was robbed while unloading groceries (reported as if that doesn't happen, like, every other day)

The Towson murder of Alsawab Sawab, 27, was reportedly "not random"

School crimes kept in-house

A former city school cop says crimes are kept off the books inside city schools.  Principals are doing all the dirty work.

'this scar was invisible because it was on his soul'

Must read: NYMag on "The Truce on Drugs: what happens now that the war has failed?" ... Which uses Baltimore as the prime example of said failure/truce, and details FHBIII's relatively radical shift away from drugs towards guns. Holy crap, in 2005 in our city 108,000 people were arrested-- one sixth of the entire population arrested in a single year. Now only 1/10th of the population is arrested every year!

The Ink recounts last week's six murders

Really? a UC Berkeley study claims Baltimore is the country's 17th most "under-policed" cities,* and Fenton sez puts the cost of crime at $3,400 per citizen (don't see where that figure is in the study and dunno how they came up with it, but here's a link to the study if you want to try to figure it out).

A woman was shot in the leg in a drive-by shooting near Langston Hughes Elementary*

An Owings Mills woman claims she got a beatdown from four men during a "road rage incident" on Thanksgiving

In Cumberland, Jerod Pridget, a 20-year-old prisoner from Baltimore was beaten nearly to death in his cell*

A drug courier from Czechoslovakia, Dmytro Holovko, is one of the latest defendants v horké vodě from the Brown organization,* which you may recall is a violent pot-smuggling group with ties to Jamaica and Mexico, implicated in the grisly murder and dismemberment of alleged cash courier Michael Knight of Woodlawn.

Van Smith profiles William Bond, nee William Crockett Rovtar, a guy who killed his dad with a hammer in Ohio as a teen and now is crusading against perceived corruption in the local judiciary.

Today in Kevin Clash news: Gawker re-enacts the scandal with Spiderman and the Derpy Doo "My Little Pony" ("the bad things he did with Elmo scarred him, like when you skin your knee on the sidewalk, only this scar was invisible because it was on his soul"), the ravenous bottom-feeders at TMZ tell us Clash's nom de boudoir was "Mr. Tickler" (plus a whole lot more, which I shall now repress, lalalala) and New York magazine reports on Sesame Street's ace crisis-PR team, which includes the former CEO of Newsweek and a flak from the H. W. Bush White House. ... but srsly, what should the penalty be for a 40- or 50-something who engages in frottage with a 16-year-old? It's not right and it's not okay, but it's also not like molesting a 10-year-old either, exactly. ... FWIW, the age of consent in NY is 17.

y dis staberris a making my tung numb?

Awful: sperm donor Andre Littlejohn has been charged with abusing his two-week-old daughter, who had bleeding, burned genitals and rib fractures, but is fortunately still alive. At the tender age of 23, Littlejohn already has three teardrop tattoos.

Fenton digs into a massive drug conspiracy* that involves/d millions of dollars, heaps of watches, garages full of cars, ties to Milton Tillman Jr., cocaine-stuft strawberries and about $8 million for the Feds.

Stranded on death row: O'Malley is reportedly planning to try again next year to abolish the death penalty in MD. While the majority of the U.S. still supports it, says Gallup, that support is at its lowest point since the 60's.

Another robbery/shooting in Justin George reports that the vicinity of Greenmount Avenue has had eight shootings in the past month,* including two murdered 16-year-olds. (Though note he's including as far south as the vicinity of the 1000 block of Greenmount, which is way down by Eager St., and also including as far north as 27th and Boone, a mile and a half away-- so that's not particularly surprising/unusual.)

Who's terrorizing the Quakers? Friends School today had its fourth bomb scare of the year.

Another carjacking on York Road near Homeland, this is the third one in that area since July. Lock ya doors!

Victim's advocates hope that the Merzbacher case will lead to stricter mandatory suspected-abuse reporting requirements.* Apparently there are reporting requirements, but there's no penalty for anyone who doesn't follow them. ... of all the lame excuses: "[Archdiocesan] spokesman Sean Caine said the church didn't realize it was obligated to report the allegations when it first learned of them."

The BPD is opening a COMSAT meeting to the public, the first one is this Thursday at 7 p.m. at 3500 W. Northern Parkway.

The Patch's "Rouge's Gallery" includes three male teens arrested for jumping a boy for his Chicago Bulls hat and two guys arrested for robbing people they'd just sold pot to.

Another Thanksgiving stabbing, just hard about this one: in HarfCo a brawl between two guys with the last name of Carter; one Carter stabbed the other Carter in the face, then dropped his pants and said "You want to know how it feels to be raped?"(Jezuz, not on top of the turkey!) then threatened witnesses with a handgun when they tried to call for help.

Tyler Grimes

Police and family are ISO 15-year-old Tyler Grimes of Milford Mill, if you see him call county police.

A shooting today in Parkton, though police say it might be a hunting accident.

Furry TV Creatures

So a third Kevin Clash accuser has surfaced, and this one's writing a book (and holding a press conference and also filing a lawsuit for to get some amount of cash). Why didn't any of these guys go to the police? ... Apparently while NY has no statute of limitations on prosecuting first-degree child sex assault involving victims under 16, there is a five-year SOL for second-degree a/o non-forcible abuse that starts when the victim turns 18. Clash's latest accuser is 29, accuser #2, Cecil Singleton, is now 24 (and claims he and Clash "dry humped" but didn't swap fluids 'til Singleton turned 18). The first accuser, Sheldon Stephens, is now 24 (and apparently available for totally pointless interviews).

Did you ever wonder why, when you called Katz Insurance, they didn't check your credit? Because Hal Katz was (allegedly) pocketing your cash! Katz Insurance has lost his license to insure in MD after the Insurance Administration uncovered some sketchy dealings, including $795k in missing money. And now his creditors are suing. RIP, Katz Insurance ads ... don't let the door hitcha where the good lord splitcha. 

And over in the Chillage, Steven Gewirtz is keeping tabs on trials forthcoming.

'a problem with the elastic in her underwear'

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

Justin Fenton

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

Cherrie Gammon

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

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

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

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

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

Merzbacher

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

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

A man was shot to death in Towson

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

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

Elmo out!

An overnight shooting in Woodlawn

Carl Snowden was found guilty of a misdemeanor drug possession charge*

An unrepentant illegal dirt biker got 165 days in prison

Justin Fenton ‏@justin_fenton

Robberies reported recently in SE District, anecdotally, seemed high. Stats: Total over last 30 days was 44% higher than same period last yr

Oh no! Kevin Clash has resigned from Sesame Street - a second accuser, one Cecil Singleton, has come forward claiming he had sex with the puppeteer when he was 15, almost 20 years ago, and ps. he wants $5 million. (Why have both of these accusers gone to Clash's bosses at Sesame Street or to TMZ, but not to the police?)

TSA agent Michael Scott Wilson got two years in prison for possessing child pornography

In HarfCo, a homeowner stabbed a would-be robber

Two more murders

A man was shot to death on Elgin Ave. in Walbrook on Friday night

Richard Erdeck, 33, from Essex was shot to death in Forest Park yesterday* in the 3900 block of Woodhaven Ave, police say it was a drug deal gone wrong

Kevin Rector Tweets that exactly two-thirds of the shootings so far this year have been nonfatal: Two-to-one ratio, in fact. 320 nf vs. 160 fatal

Luke Broadwater and Scott Calvert investigated the living beejebus out of 'our' speed camera program,* apparently the largest speed-and-red-light camera program in all of North America. They found a whole lot of errors, including mis-calibrated cameras, cameras that are supposed to be near schools but aren't and tickets issued to the wrong person, says Scott Calvert: "One city camera gave out bad speed readings over 7 months -- and the city knew it was off" Councilman Brandon Scott wants a hearing.*

A 20-year-old man, Danzel Carter, was charged with stabbing a 60-year-old woman* in the gut while robbing her near Patterson Park on S. Curley Street. The guy has no criminal record and the victim picked him out of a photo array.

Eleven years for heroin dealer Quinnard Shuler

From JHU security:

UPDATE- ARREST- Commercial Armed Robbery – Subway Restaurant, 3233 St. Paul St. – The Baltimore Police have arrested and charged an individual for the November 9th armed robbery of the Subway restaurant. The individual is currently incarcerated.
Attempt Unarmed Robbery of Non-Affiliate – 2700 Blk. N. Charles St. (east side) - On Nov. 17th at approximately 1:49 AM, a non-affiliate was walking northbound when a suspect pushed the non-affiliate to the ground from behind and attempted to pull a backpack off the non-affiliate's back. The non-affiliate started yelling at which time the suspect fled the area. The non-affiliate received minor injuries due to the fall. The area was canvassed for the suspect by BPD and Campus Security with negative results. Suspect Description: Male, black, light complexion, 20-25 years of age, medium build, 5’-10”, wearing light blue hooded sweatshirt, and blue jeans.
Theft from Auto – 3400 Blk. Guilford Ave. – On Nov. 15th at 11:00 PM, a JHU graduate student parked her vehicle at this location and left it unlocked. The graduate student returned on Nov. 16th at 9:50 AM and noticed her sunglasses and loose change had been taken from on top of the center console. Investigation continuing. 

Thanks to science, the hand of Hedgepocket Way was determined to have belonged to city resident Darnell William Butler, 24, of the 3800 block of Ferndale Avenue in Gwynn Oak. Butler had prior convictions for theft, and in November of 2009 was sentenced to three years in prison. In June of 2010 his sentence was "reconsidered." In February of 2011 he was pulled over for driving with expired tags, and in May of 2011 he was arrested for driving without a license. In June of this year he was charged with "fraudulently falsifying validation tabs" (whatever that means) and resisting arrest, and in July he was charged with violating his probation. Notably, he didn't have any charges/convictions for violent offenses, guns or drugs. ..update, the Medical Examiner's office has ruled Bulter's death a suicide.

A man was beaten and robbed of $2 in the 200 block of E. 25th

A Baltimore bootlegger pleaded guilty to infringing more than 1,000 software copyrights

"Police break up homelessness sleep-out, but 'nicely' this year"

A police car responding to a call got into an accident with a car full of teens out driving around at 3 a.m. (Apparently city curfew laws are for kids up to and including age 16, though if the driver was on a provisional license he could be in trouble for driving without someone over the age of 18 in the car).

Well, that's nice! The missing girl from Reisterstown, Sasha Samlal, has been found. (Wonder if she'da been found sooner if the bulletin went out less than two months after she was missing?) As with most of the missing-teen-girl cases, no word on where she was or what she was doing.

Out in Towson, the Recher theatre was found blameless by the liquor board* for the melee last September

Sheeit, another attempted carjacking with kids in the car, this one in White Marsh outside the Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Fortunately this time the mom hollered and scared the guy off.

First-degree awesomeness

Awwwyeaah. Some lucky jurors today are enjoying the deets of Carl Snowden's latest case*-- you know, the one where he was smoking a blunt in a car parked in Druid Hill Park with the windows down in the company of a sex offender? (As opposed to the case where he was driving drunk, or the other case where he was driving drunk, or the case before that when he was driving drunk.) Apparently fearing the infinitesimal possibility that a city jury could be found that would give half a sweet goddamn, Snowden hired as his lawyer Stuart Simms, who was the State's Attorney pre-Jessamy and who, as it happens, the judge once worked for. So basically they'll work out a plea deal to sentence Snowden to a round of Jager shots at the Sidebar and probation supervised by topless models.

Brian Maye, 22, was arrested and charged with abducting and raping a 13-year-old who was walking along Edmonson Avenue on November 9. Also, a 13-year-old girl was snatched off the street and raped and her attacker was still running around free for five days, but the police didn't think anyone would want to know about that or are already operating on the assumption that there's probably at least one 20-something man driving around and raping young women in the city at any given time.

The ATF is driving around arresting 24 sundry members of a gun-n-drug operation (wouldn't you want to save that announcement until after you've arrested them?)

One Tarslia Jackson was found guilty of assaulting a 71-year-old woman in her care at the Northwest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, and was sentenced to probation and a $35 contribution

Smokin Snowden's boss, Doug Gansler (and some other lawyers) squeezed a $90 million settlement out of lyin-ass drug dealers GlaxoSmithKline

A hand on Hedgepocket Way*

Life for Killer Dad

Hari Close III

Ugh, in a burg of awful cases, this one is ... no words. Life in prison for Hari Close III, an aspiring male model who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, admitting he stabbed his son Dalyire Damion McFadden* in the neck on the boy's first birthday. Still no clue as to what Close's motive might have been. Skitzy? Mad at his son's mom? We'll never know, I guess. The murder happened during the trial of those fetal-alcohol kids who set Phoenix the pit bill on fire, and the contrast between the interest and outrage surrounding that case vs. this one begs you to question what dogs are doing right that human children apparently are not.

... but it is nice that there are people do pay attention and care about stuff, like Charles Village's Steve Gewirtz, who's back on his grind, noting forthcoming cases plus a postponement for the drunkard who ran over some JHU students, left the scene, was sentenced to an interlock device (ooo) and has since been charged for driving with a suspended license three times, to no effect.

194

The person shot at 28th and Fenwick in CHUM last night has died,* he was/is 18-year-old Christopher Briggs of Montpelier Street. Fenton notes that Briggs was charged with murder in 2009 at the age of 15, but prosecutors dropped charges due to lack of evidence.*

Accused child-killers Policarpio Espinoza and Adnan Canela's third trial began today; WBAL reports they've been offered a plea deal. Here's Julie Bycowicz's guide* to what's likely the most opaque and byzantine case in Baltimore history, a telenovela from hell. The alleged killers, also cousin and uncle of the victims, were/are all illegal immigrants from Veracruz, Mexico, and even after eight years and two trials, still no one's established a motive for the murders.

Van Smith has a rundown of the statuses of the various Nicka Conspirators.

Automatic license-plate readers that scan tags, check the criminal history of vehicle owners and track movements are already in some police cars, it appears, and Adam May and somebody named Captain Long took a look at the "police tool in action." Is this the news or Honcho? Someone pass me my salts, I'm getting the vapors!

A woman unlocking her car on S. Curley Street was stabbed in the stomach and robbed of her purse, another woman had her own hat pulled over her face and was punched in the face by a robber, a woman walking through Patterson Park and was choked and robbed while the perp's buddies laughed at her ... why does it seem like the SE is home to especially gratuitously sadistic robbers? (also see Sowers, Zach.) Lead in the pipes? Bayview human test subjects? Seriously, if you live there you really need to move the hell out. Way to kill my vapors, Baltimore Guide SE Blotter.

Another city officer is in hot water, though details are vague*-- Officer Roberto Santigo-Pagan is being investigated by the HarfCo Child Advocacy Center, which deals with cases of serious cases of child physical and sexual abuse.

Sasha Samlal

For shit's sake, this 15-year-old girl, Sasha Samlal, right, has been missing from Reisterstown since September 21 and police are just now releasing her photo.

The blech files: a 19-year-old with fetal-alcohol-y eyes who was arrested for robbing old people has also been linked to assgrabbing activities along East Joppa Road.

What the?! A professor of engineering at Morgan, Manoj Kumar Jah, has been indicted in a grant fraud scheme, wherein he allegedly solicited grants from the National Science Foundation to do research, but then used the $$ to pay his credit card bills, mortgage and give a $11k check to his wife.

The medical marijuana lobby is gearing up for its annual fight against the prison lobby. (Speaking of, according to The Sentencing Project, in 2010 MD had 70 prisoners housed in private, for-profit prison(s). Wonder what prison(s) and what companies run them?)

And finally, apropos of nothing, this painting of the Oriole bird, Mr. Boh and Poe doing the heroin lean deserves its own $24.5 million wing at the BMA.

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Two brothers were shot to death during a home-invasion robbery in the 2500 block of West Lafayette Street, their mother was also shot in the face but survived. (FWIW, The Spectator reported in graphic detail of how the brothers were shot at point-blank range in the head but police,* WBAL and WJZ report they were shot in the torso.)

A man was shot near E 28th and Fenwick and is in serious condition

Police have released a picture of some suspects in the brutal middle-of-town, middle-of-the day robbery/ beating of 32-year-old John Mason.

Apple, meet tree--involved dad Rodney Parker was arrested for taking a gun to a disciplinary meeting at his son's school, The Academy for College and Career Exploration in Hampden. Never heard of it, though it occupies the same address as Robert Poole Middle School, alma mater of the kids that perpetrated that horrendous beating of Sarah Kreager on the #27 bus in 2007. ... in case you were also wondering, Nikita McDaniels, that bus gang's 15-year-old alleged ringleader (and Robert Poole student body vice president) is still in an out-of-state juvenile facility until she turns 21, which will be sometime next year.

And finally, the Smoking Gun has uncovered Kevin Clash's Snuffleuphagus accuser, one Sheldon Stephens, an aspiring male model from Harrisburg, PA with a criminal history that includes phony checks and an "domestic" robbery from another rich older guy. TSG also pokes a major hole in TMZ's "six-figure settlement" claim. ...sounds like this fancy Nancy tried to shake down Clash and Sesame Street, failed, sold his story to TMZ, then stepped off when he realized The Street was not going to back down from defending their bazillion-dollar monster. Aww, I just want to give Elmo a hug! Elmo should really be more careful next time!

No taint on Elmo

.. but you knew that already. The accusations were brought to you by the letters B and S, and by the number "unknown six figures" (if "close sources" are to be believed). Winning comment from Gawker: "Good lord. Will we ever get a look at this guy? He's like the Snuffleupagus of sex accusers. Not since the blue dot accused a Kennedy of rape has someone remained so mysterious." (But why pay him off if nothing is true? But if they are true, why go to Sesame Workshop before the police?)

Also from the TMZ, a local bus driver delivering a beatdown to a student playing loud music.

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Justin Fenton ‏@justin_fenton

Unidentified man died yesterday after being stabbed in the 1800 blk of N Rutland Ave, near Broadway and North Ave, at around 3:30 pm (story here*)

A man and a woman were shot in the 2600 block of McKean Ave in Mondawmin.*

The East Coat Rapist, 41-year-old Aaron Thomas, has declined a plea deal

In Essex last week John Falkenstein Jr. was arrested for stabbing to death his "girlfriend" Janet Palasik, 48.*

Eww, a 39-year-old officer was accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old girl while on duty. Still, is it cool to announce his name publicly before he's even been indicted, given that (like Elmo's) the accusations are of the career-ending variety?

Fifty years for Marcus Lynch, convicted of rape, assault and kidnapping a 13-year-old girl in Frank C. Boeck Park.

Three flaming a-holes who scammed and also violently robbed elderly people, Sierra McCoy, 26, James Pasko, 29, and Vaneka Powers, 32, were indicted by a grand jury on related charges. James Pasko and his brother Christopher and their friend Michael Fields were also indicted on charges related to their robbery of a 90-year-old man.

Ten years for Eric Coley, 55, for his gun-toting, heroin dealing ways (and his co-conspirator was 60)

SCOTUS has agreed to review MD's ruling that bars DNA collection from people who have been arrested