Thursday, March 31, 2011

One crime is never enough

City worker who the IG caught partying on the clock at SJ Deli is caught again abusing tax dollars.

"The city is burning down"

Jhoma Blackwell's mom had some choice words for city officials

Murrell Alfred Hearns Jr., 31, shot in a Pigtown parking lot, died of his injuries

What the?! A mother and her son were both arrested for the murder of Reginald Wragg

East Baltimore developers to City Council: mistakes were made. Relocated resident: "You gave me nothing but heartache"

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Don't Drag Race

Donneil Raeburn's trial for a fatal drag-racing accident on I-70 began on Tuesday.

Gun stolen from businessman registered to police commander. I had no idea that the owner of Arcos was "politically connected." They did have good Mexican food a few years ago.

Classics

In Edgewater, a man was arrested after a stand-off in which he swung a sword at officers

A knife fight over a pee bucket in the Baltimore Guide blotter

Fifty years ago, says Baltimore or Less, police busted a stripper for dancing provocatively with a snake. The dancer's lawyer said it was strictly art.

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The man shot at the Frankford Gardens Shopping Center at 5400 Sinclair Lane has died

More details on the fatal stabbing in Remington-- Fenton Tweeted that she was 16, WJZ says she was an 18-year-old nursing student, IV says "teenage woman"-- and the murder of Gregory Davenport, who (Lord forgive me) sounds like he had it coming.
UPDATE: The police ID'd the victim in Remington as Johma Blackwell, 18

Fenton also dropped by a creepy/sad memorial for 48-year-old Mary Williams, killed in one of our many if-the-killer-had-been-in-jail-like-he-was-supposed-to-be-this-wouldn't-have-happened murders.

Last week's three murders in the Ink

Shomrim is being sued for assault by "notorious gadfly" Leonard Kerpelman

TDR says the city council held a hearing re. East Baltimore Development Inc. last night. Also in politics, The CP visits elected officials' homes, SRB cut $65 mil from the city budget, the Senate Leader says the odds of the "trans bill" passing are "next to none (rallying certain commentors against the "homopromo" lobby), and the House Minority Leader said multiple poaching bills are "overkill". And, reports JZ, "A man on trial for sending Governor Martin O’Malley a threatening email is getting a groundswell of support."

& finally quote of the day from Fark: "Perhaps Justice Scalia wouldn't get in car accidents if he rode a horse, like the Founding Fathers intended"

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

more details on stabbing

teenage girl was stabbed to death...

Fox says..

"Breaking News: Baltimore City Police are investigating after a woman was found dead inside a home on Huntingdon Ave. We have a crew on the way and will bring you more information as it becomes available."

This can't be happening

A supervisor is suspended without pay for allowing DOT employees to party all the time.

ugly, dangerous, depressed and angry

40 years for 20-year-old Donald Vaughan, who slithered between the cracks of probation supervisors and sexually assaulted a Canton woman and slashed her neck with a knife. He also pleaded guilty to a 2007 rape, and faces charges related to two rapes in VA.

30 years for Taron K. Melvin (including five years without possibility of parole ...ooooo) for the murder of Shawn Williams, 28.

The city council approved the new district map. More details from Patch.com on how this affects the North side (there goes Belinda Conaway's neighborhood...!)

The MD Senate passed the wine shipping bill 45-0.

The Dooce is starting a new cold case news series next Tuesday

That's-a interesting: Caesar's Den, Chiapparelli's, Da Mimmo, Sabatino's and Vaccaro's have joined a lawsuit against the State Center project

"Baltimore is ugly, dangerous, depressed and angry, according to national lists."

Sunday, March 27, 2011

"Good, minimal protections"

At least we don't live in Uganda! The House passed the "Trans Bill," which will make it illegal to discriminate against a bio-dude who looks like a lady or vice versa when it comes to jobs or housing (though it is apparently still legal to kick someone of questionable gender off of a bus, out of a restaurant, out of the mall, etc.). Interestingly, supporters included the two Dels. who waffled on same-sex marriage, Sam Arora and Tiffany Alston.

And a "questionable death" at 36th and Falls this morning

Re. the county murder arrests announced on Friday, Hermann notes that the Jan 8 murder of Nathan Bowles hadn't been disclosed to the public in the first place, and asks "What made Friday the perfect day to release weeks- and months-old news?"

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Worse and worser

The man stabbed in Barclay was ID'd as Reginald Leon Wragg, 46

Crazy video of four guys beating the tar out of a guy at the Charing Cross shopping center in Edmondson Heights.

Horrible: Social Services placed foster children in homes "despite credible evidence that the care providers had abused or neglected children," said a General Assembly audit, and "also failed to follow up on 159 children born to parents who had had their parental rights terminated."

In the county, arrests for the murders of Nathan Bowles, Vincent I. Thomas and Gerardo E. Botello.

Wilkens Ave RoFo robbed again

Alleged East Coast Rapist Aaron Thomas pled not guilty, is rather unremarkable-looking

Better news: House passed the bill to limit natural gas drilling in Western Maryland, probably after members read this freaky-deaky hydrofracking story in the NYT (or watched the "Gasland" documentary)

Also on the Patch, "Dumb Maryland Laws You May Have Violated"

DOT at work, gambling

13 DOT workers busted last night for playing dice on the job.

Friday, March 25, 2011

37? 38?

A fatally stabbed man found in an alley in the 2100 block of Barclay Street

Crazy standoff situation in Cherry Hill

30 years or less for the 7th "Bounty Hunter," Anthony Williams, involved in the murder of Petro Taylor in 2008. (In 2009 Judge Prevas, via his clerk Susan Janoski, mailed me a hefty packet with the details of this case, oddly paired with an unrelated, banal illegal-weapon-seizure case-- page after page of tragic, pitiful details of Petro Taylor's torment and torture and begging to call his mother and trying to escape. I always meant ask Prevas why he sent that to me, esp. aired with some random weapons case- did he mean to say that that is what it's like to be a judge, boring cases then cases that make your neck hair stand on end?)

30 years for a woman whose robbery plan killed her neighbor

"Maryland's Court of Special Appeals has struck down the conviction of Darryl A. White Jr. on weapons charges stemming from a 2008 shootout with police in which two men died"

Remember John Nicklas and Shannon Leigh Honea, who did things to children in Essex/Middle River that that made a neighbor "want to vomit"? (Not to be confused with Jesse Aaron Davison and Tiffany Bolner of this month's other child-abusing-porn-making puke-inducing story). Niklas got 60 years, Honea has a plea agreement pending for 30-35 years.

President of the Baltimore county FOP is accused of drunkenly displaying his weapon and punching a sedan driver in the face.

Twenty years for Aaron Davis, convicted of robbing a Towson liquor store

And corrections officers in Hagtown "have filed a petition asking that a union leader be banned from the prison for allegedly threatening them during a meeting"

Some good news, the house has passed a bill to ban BPA in sippy cups and baby bottles. BPA shrinks your 'nads, and there is some credible evidence that exposure contributes to obesity, among other things.

Adam Meister claims that Frank Conaway is also a water-bill deadbeat, and asks "why is the Sun going after Jill Carter?" Says Carter, "Reporters and editors like to keep a close relationship with the politically powerful. The gov, speaker, et.al, steer them in the direction of who to cover and how to spin the stories." .. do you think the Sun has it in for Jill Carter?

More Dennis Edwards Drama

Former JZ personalty's wife has been charged with assault and use of a handgun.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Sin, the wages of

"Alcohol tax increase advances to full senate." Fun fact I learned from this book:before Prohibition, all government activities were paid for by the alcohol tax; the income tax was supposed to get the government off of the teat. But of course now we have both, because there's no such thing as the government ever wanting less money. Also poised to pass, the wine shipping bill. So how long until I can order 18 cases of Trader Joe's 5-buck chuck to dodge the jackassed tax?

Also approved in the Senate: medical marijuana.

Doug, put ya Ballys on. It started on White Marsh Drive, and now county police are looking for Seth Josiah Burgess, 21, a suspect in a shooting at Bally's Total Fitness White Marsh.

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Man found stabbed to death in vacant home on North Ave

Creepy & sad: officer shot on the same block where another cop was killed a decade before

It all seemed like just so much grousing, but now I'm starting to wonder if the Sun (or at least Laura Vozzella) really does have something against Jill Carter. "Deadbeat" is an awfully strong term for someone with an unpaid water bill, whilst there's nary a word in the papers about Belinda Conaway, who either doesn't live in the district she represents, or does but is cheating on her taxes by claiming her primary residence is somewhere she doesn't actually live (a sin of commission, as it were).

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Making the scene

Whoa! City officer charged with sexually abusing a minor, and the dept apparently has no compunction about putting his name right on out there.

Can you ID any of the people in these photos from the scene right before the fatal stabbing of David McLaughlin Jr.?

The Ink has last week's four murders and some updates.

Former marine Tyrone Brown was shot by off-duty officer Gahiji Tshamba, who was indicted for first-degree murder and assault. The police department is being sued by his family for $270 million, and today Tricia Bishop delves into the victim's sketchy mental health history (and the officer who shot him is apparently no prize pig either). Also witness accounts and charging documents

More on the Landsdowne murder of 17-year-old Keon Dobbs

Hee hee! Van Smith covers the drug bust of Reptilian Records' "Chris X," noting that the reporter was familiar with X's pot-dealing past, "having purchased small quantities of marijuana at the store more than 10 years ago while working as a freelance journalist and bartender." Then Van and Mike get into it in the comments section. I love this town!

Inside the mind of child killer Melvin Jones

Inside the case of the sex offender who killed an 11 year-old boy for cheating on him, by the BPD homicide detective who worked the case.