Year in Review

January
The first posts of '06 were made by Chuck.
Said a non, "damn my boi ronny aka butch was killed new years day butch we love u and we here holdin it down r.i.p"

Soon after the ball dropped, police had begun to look for Graham Buckmaster's GMC after he killed his live-in partner Lisa Moore.

The Northwest was outraged at the murder of Warren Fleming by 21-year-old career criminal Brian Keith Rose.

O'Malley's Catholic father died, causing the future governor to miss a Planned Parenthood event.

By Jan 21 there had been 18 murders. The "Flex Squad" scandal blew up, and Warren Brown called Jemini Jones' accuser a "big fat liar."
A redacted report suggested fixes to Central Booking.. and was promptly sent to the "round" file by the MD Dept of Public Safety and Correctional Services -- the very agency that commissioned it.
And you can't forget that Keith Mills story!

February
The Feds began to hand out hefty sentences in the McAbier firebombing case.

The strange murder of Natasha Bacchus Magee was recollected for a jury in HoCo.

"Big thick" John C. Gaumer admitted to killing Hampden's Josie Brown in Arbutus (and a reader was outraged that I wrote "poor thing" about Brown: "she was a person, not a thing!").

Vernon Evans Jr. was scheduled to die on the 5th, but didn't.

WBAL noted that the ME's office had 275 homicides down for '06, even with the justifieds and whatnot taken out. The police reported 269.
Commented a reader Feb. 23,

"the police xagerate details, ricky wilkins a.k.a Noodles is not a cold blooded killer...and hopefully at his trial in june that will show! we just went 2 south beach right b4 the murder.....look up the murdered guys backround Terrance j. williams, he is no saint! shout out to noodles hold it down in city jail and if u get off we gone back 2 florida! holla murdaland records all day every day!"

Before the white couple was arrested for asking directions in Cherry Hill, David Ervin, 57, was arrested after reporting being carjacked.

March
After we got our paws on the city homicide book, we tried to do math. Remarkable: 47 of '05's homicides were John Does.

Stories of police-on-police activity ....Dan Ostrovsky of the Daily Record described a lawsuit in which Baltimore Detective Cassidy Kampfhammer and her partner, an officer Donato, falsely claimed to have bought drugs at an address, not realizing the house belonged to two police officers. When she realized her mistake she called her husband, Lt. Sean Kampfhammer, and the couple cooked up a scheme...

And another [auxiliary] officer, Winnie Gibson Watts, claimed police barged into her home and arrested her and her children, claiming to be looking for a suspect.

Lax coach Greg Raymond (left) didn't get charged with vehicular manslaughter after his choice to drink (a ton) and drive ended with his friend's skull impaled on a pole.

Anonymous said...
As someone who knew Matt why don't you all consider this: Raymond was Matt's best friend. He isn't being charged with anything because Matt's parents did not want to prosecute him. Did you know he was driving because Matt asked him too? Do you think accidently taking the life of your best friend in accident isn't punishment? So, why don't all rid yourself of your holier than thou attitude. Ever heard of the saying, "But for the grace of God there go I..." People make mistakes and this was a mistake with horrible consequnces. But before you say the prosecution has "no balls" know the facts. What's more important: someone being prosecuted so you can feel like justice is being done or the wishes of a family who just lost their youngest son being honored?

Police officer Dante Hemingway was shot multiple times. Jobrea Lodge was arrested and went on to throw pee on an officer in Central Booking in the heat of August.

Hamm gave a two-part interview to WYPR.

"Let me tell you about Leonard Hamm. Leonard Hamm don't need to be police commissioner. Leonard Hamm was doing very well as a retired citizen of Baltimore. And could very easily go back and do that again, if, in fact, I had that kind of interference that everybody was talking about. Secondly, the mayor and I have a relationship where he is my boss. He's in charge of the city. And what the mayor wants is a safe city; he don't tell me how to go about doing it and making it safe. He just wants results. All he wants to know is, 'What happened with this thing? How're we doing with this? What's coming along with that?' So that, when reporters, such as yourself, come and stick a microphone in his face, he'll be prepared."

..to be continued...