Rapes, Robberies, and More Rapes. 2012 is Really Starting on a Low Note...

A serial rapist has been arrested for, surprise, surprise, rape. Nelson Bernard Clifford Jr. age 34, was arrested for a series of rapes, including one where he broke into a woman's house and raped her while her children were nearby. Clifford, a convicted sex offender, had been charged with sex offenses 3 times prior, as well as having been indicted for failure to register as a sex offender multiple times. Clifford beat his last rape charge back in September.

A possible robbery turned into a very definitive shooting in Glen Oak. A man was shot in the back Friday night at the 5700 block of Chinquapin Parkway.

Police are ISO a perv who raped a transgendered teen back in November. Though, with his face being plastered everywhere, it should only be a matter of time.

30 years in prison for the death of a County teen. Jason Gross, 37, was given the 30-year term for the murder of Rochelle Battle, despite the fact that her body has yet to be found.

Finally, several charges were thrown out in the last day of trial in the Skateworks rape case. Several charges were thrown out Friday, including first degree rape and assault charges. But after deliberating for several hours the jurors were not able to come to a decision.

I decided to take a trip to the Circuit Courthouse in Baltimore County Friday, to watch a few cases and just generally get a feel for how the county courts were handling cases. I bore witness to a bevy of cases, some interesting, some not so much. I managed to miss all the cases I had wanted to see, including the sentencing of Jason Gross, and the trial of Jeremiah Edwards, who was facing car theft charges, but more importantly was indicted for a Dundalk murder late last year.
I had completely forgotten that the Skateworks trial was going on, and sure enough, I walked into what I thought was a random jury trial, and instead found out to my surprise, that I had in fact walked into the closing statements of the Skateworks trial. I was both horrified, because I had up until then done a good job of burying my head in the sand about this case, and disappointed, because the state had done a very weak job of presenting their case against Davon Perry, 26. Although I had only been to the final portion of the trial, I got the sense that, had I been in the jury box some 10 feet away, my confidence in giving a conviction would have been sub-par a best.

But my trip to the courts wasn't entirely horrendous. I did catch the sentencing of Andrew Palmer, who if you may recall, was the man who made headlines for faking seizures at restaurants to avoid paying his tab. Palmer was on trial for... faking seizures! This time, at a local Applebees. Unfortunately for Palmer, his case was heard by the Honorable Judge Sherrie R. Bailey, who is by far my favorite judge now, after her non willingness to let repeat offenders walk. And golly, Andrew Palmer was a repeat offender, with, and I quote the prosecutor: "a 116 page criminal record" Palmer has been around. Around so much, in fact, that he was caught in the act due to the fact that a paramedic who responded to the scene recognized him from a prior fake seizure. The only line of defense Palmer offered before sentencing was the fact that he has been held since June on these charges, and last Friday he had supposedly "been nearly beaten to death by an inmate serving 127 years without parole." Of course, the great Judge Bailey wasn't interested in his sob story, and gave him the maximum, 18 months.

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Fenton Tweets: "Breaking: 84 y/o woman who died in fire yesterday morning had been first stabbed multiple times, autopsy finds..."
WTF?! Story here*

And WBAL has pictures of Jerome/Bootsy and friend, the Bolton Hill kidnapping home invaders. Guglielmi says it took police so long to release pictures because of the holiday weekend.

'They brought a toilet and a megaphone'

Adam Meister takes to his blog now that "this part of the saga is over." ... check out this clip he found from the Afro-American, June 1972: Frank Conaway charged after hitting his wife and putting her in the hospital! On one hand, neither I nor Adam had been born when this went down. On the other, I get the sense it was not so easy to get charged with wife-beatery 40 years ago.

Abduction on Jordan Street

A Bolton Hill man was abducted on Jordan Street, taken on a tour of ATM machines and then left in some bushes on North Avenue*, minus his wallet, iPad, cellphone, gym bag and grey 2011 Infiniti SUV.

Remember the Walmart bleach attack? Now the alleged victim in that case, Ebony Odom, has been indicted for reckless endangerment and second-degree assault.

Murders may be down in the city, but they're up in the county

Lots of car-related crimes and a robbery at King Wok in the North Baltimore Patch blotter. In the Northern District, a 30 percent increase in shootings and a 22 percent increase in commercial robberies in '11, say police.

Kooky video of the day: Adam Meister stroking his cat and Frank Conaway jumping out of bushes in WBAL's report about the conclusion of the latest installment of Days of Our Conaways.

Seriously?! Down in DC, 75-year-old Marion Barry is running for re-election.

Who'll pay for it?

The Maryland Court of Appeals has ruled that indigent defendants are entitled to public defenders at all court proceedings including initial bail hearings*. Public Defenders say they don't have the resources to do it.

No charges in Conaway kerfuffle

... for either Meister or Mr. Conaway. But Meister will surely face ¢harge$-- the "frail white boy" hired Warren Brown as his attorney. As for old Frank's firearm permit, his lawyer says it wasn't expired and the charges were based on clerical error.

The Ink recaps last year's 196 murders, with updates on cases. In case you were wondering, Belair-Edison was last year's most murderous neighborhood.

And what the hell? Video of balding man attacking cops is making the rounds. WJZ identifies him as Manuel L. Imel. Blame it on the alalalalalcohol!:

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Aw geeze, it seemed like we were going to go four whole days into 2012 with no murders, but it was not to be. The first victim of the year is reportedly a 62-year-old man shot in Park Heights last night. *

The Ink details last week's four murders, plus updates

In the County, a girl gang-raped at Skateworks identified one of her attackers* -- she was 12 and he's 26. Blargh. One of the other attackers, Kadeem R. Santiful, 19, plead guilty, and the other, Tracey W. Hankins, 15, was moved to the juvenile justice system.

Oh Conaways, you so crazy! Frank Senior pays* $3,640 in back taxes

Three men (including Thomas Jefferson!) cop to stealing $2.6 million worth of metal through a fence-hole at the Port of Baltimore. Sounds like Peanut is still at large.

A sexagenarian M&T trader pleaded guilty to stealing $223k from her former employer and one of its trading partners

Donor Richard Stewart pleaded guilty to failing to pay employment taxes, so the guv re-gifted his contributions to a group that shoots deer for the hungry.

Hermann: 80 percent of perps had it coming

Life "" art: Omar Little arrested for handgun charges*

Hermann does the math so you don't have to: 80 percent of 2011's murder victims had criminal records, as 90 percent of those arrested for murder. I wonder if the trend holds from a few years back in which victims had been arrested more times, on average, than alleged perps.

2012's first shooting victim is 13*

Bernstein to organize prosecutor's caseloads into geographic "zones"*, as opposed to by crime category. Sensible solution, or deck chairs?

A case to watch: MD being sued over racial disparities in school funding

Dickeyville tire-slasher arrested

Er, whut? The city sheriff is going to start seizing the Housing Authority's stuff to pay for the lead paint judgement against them

2011 Homicides

With 197 homicides this year, Baltimore has had its lowest homicide total since 1977. Fenton from the Sun reports on the near-jubilance of public officials over this under-200 year.

Last year we had 223 homicides,
2008 was 234;
2007 was 291;
2006 was 274;
2005 was 269.
We've blogged 1,487 murders.

Here is the complete listing of 2011's 197 victims:

197.  Phylicia Barnes, 16, 6500 Eberle Dr. Found: (4/20/11) Added: (04/26/12)

196. Tiyon Campbell, 31, 2800 block of W. Garrison (12/28)