Take the pot, leave the guns

Celine Foster

Two teenagers are missing in the area: Celine Marie Foster, 14, is missing and reportedly suicidal; Alondra Cornee Johnson  is 7 months pregnant.* Can't find a picture of Johnson, other than the very old and fuzzy one on her Facebook page, but she was "last seen wearing a green or black shirt, purple skirt with small white circles and black sandals. Jackson drives a 2005 Chevy Malibu with Maryland tags, 8AY3315. She was seen in the 6000 Unit block of White Stone Road, 21207 at around 2:15 p.m."

The Sunpapers addresses that age-old and oft-asked question: is there such a thing as a heat crime? With eight people shot on a 96-degree day in April it would seem so, but apparently there's no conclusive evidence either way.*

Horror in HoCo: Robert Jarrett III testified against Robert Jarrett Jr.*

John M. Thompson

Down in the 'deener, police seized more than 30 weapons plus some marijuana from one John M. Thompson, age 45, who had also barricaded his door and fashioned some kind of sniper blind behind it and also had guns trained at his windows. Americanly, the marijuana was illegal but the guns weren't.

The Glen Burnie chef who wrestled a rifle away from a robber and hit him on the head with it talked to WBAL.

A woman was home-invaded, beaten and raped in Lutherville/Mays Chapel. Also in Lutherville, the old fake-BGE-guy scam.

With tax day on Monday, the SAO would like to remind you of all the tax evaders that they've known before.

Poor Towson U. First the plagiarizing professor, then the baseball team, then the racists, and now:
SCAM ALERT-Beware of calls from (301) 653-5495
On 04/10/2013 University Police received a request for assistance from a TU student’s family indicating the student had been abducted and that a $500 ransom had been demanded. Upon checking, it was determined that the TU student had not been abducted and was found safe on campus.

Investigation revealed that in the last several months, more than 10 telephone scam cases have been reported to law enforcement throughout this region that involves cell phone number (301) 653-5495. The scams involve the caller stating the recipient’s family member has been involved in an accident or even kidnapped. The caller will not know the family members name. The scam involves the demand for money to be sent by wire transfer or money order and directs the recipient not to involve the police. Law enforcement has tracked the caller’s phone to Puerto Rico. Because the nature of the calls involve the safety of family members, a call recipient may miss critical clues and become traumatized unnecessarily. Please note the phone number in this alert and be aware of the scam.

Trigger fingers thawed

Warm weather makes Baltimoreans go wacko! Six Seven Eight shootings between 6:30 p.m. yesterday and 2:12 a.m. today,* all are still alive, and all cases apparently lack any known suspects or motives.

Murder trial for Robert Jarrett Jr. started today,* he's accused of killing his wife and burying her in his HoCo backyard in 1991. Jarrett's defense lawyer, George Psoras, sounds insufferably sarcastic and snide-- "Good luck with that."

Brekford Corp's speed-camera contract was approved by the Board of Estimates.*

Fifteen years for nine-time convicted gun-toting felon Derrick Woodlon.

Cameron Serafin

AP- "Poverty's Grip Seen Across Baltimore."

The manager of Mo's Seafood, Dundalk branch, was shot by a robber

A five-year-old, Cameron Serafin, was kidnapped by his non-custodial mother in Fairfax county, VA-- keep an eye out, please.

Baltimore might tolerate a little Bolivian marching powder being sold here and there, but Altoona, PA, not so much. Yet another dealer, 52-year-old Kenneth Piner, was found guilty of 28 drug-related charges. Prosecutions from "Operation Last Call" (not to be confused with the JFK mini-bottle scandal) have been going on since the first bust in 2011-- next up, the Baltimorean "Rocco."

DEA asserts in court docs that current wholesale price of a kilogram of cocaine in Baltimore is $40,000....
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) April 11, 2013

.. and a flask-sized bottle of vodka

According to Fenton's Tweet feed, it was one crazy violent night last night all over the city, bringing our homicide total up to at least 56. A man was hit on the head with a beer bottle at a bar fight in the 1600 block of Cypress (which might be the county); later he died of his injuries and was identified as Cyrill Montel Holland, age 28. One 69-year-old Herman Cook was stabbed to death on Groveland Avenue in the NW. Baltimore Police Tweeted a shooting in the 6100 block of MacBeth Drive. And Kevin Rector Tweeted "Two shot in Poppleton, one critically injured the other serious but stable; and police also investigating Glen Oaks shooting."

Fallout continues from Kendell Richburg's case-cooking ways-- now four officers have been suspended* in the NW district in connection with the ongoing Federal investigation, though the BPD isn't saying who they are or what they did. Richburg's attorney, Warren Brown, blames the fake arrests on the pressure police feel. " if the curtain was pulled back, you would see that his M.O. was standard operating procedure. That's the way a lot of them work, because they're being judged by those numbers."

WTF?! A man and his four-year-old daughter were shot while sitting in their car in Overlea.

The Murder Ink covers murders 50-53, plus updates.

The NRA's president says the group plans to take Maryland's new gun law to court.* Meanwhile, both  the NYT and Bloomberg are painting rosy, backlit pictures of our gov as a progressive heartthrob.

Fenton talked to a neighbor* about the murder of Mark Dukes at 336 Payson St. on Monday: "After the first shot, I screamed and dropped to my knees and ran upstairs," said the woman, who identified herself as Cheryl Nancy, 25. Two of her four children stood on the front stoop, near a pack of cigarettes and a flask-sized bottle of vodka."

David Hunter, the first person charged by Bernstein for being a member of a criminal gang, was arraigned Monday and trials were scheduled for April 22 and June 27. Also, Subway-sandwich-shop robber Jamal Bailey is supposed to go on trial Friday.

Remember when the body of Christine Jarrett was found entombed in concrete under a shed on her husband's property in Elkridge? Police say she was killed in 1991, and her husband is finally going on trial, with jury selection due to wrap up today.

A guy was mugged for $200 and a cell phone in Hampden

Here's a feel-good story: a gun-toting robber tried to rob Mikie's restaurant on Crain Highway in Glen Burnie; bad-ass employee took the gun from him and beat him over the head with it. Unfortunately, though, the robber got away.

Sine Die Bloody Sine Die

So Sine Die came and went* with 100+ bills sent to the guv, including a ban on hand-held cell phones while driving, and a ban on cyberbullying, but without a resolution to the pit bill bull, and with Vallario Jr.'s withered haunches resolutely planted on the marijuana decriminalization/taxation bill, HB1453/ SB297, keeping it from being out to a vote in even with 57% of MDers supporting it.

So sad:

Stab victim worked 2 jobs, "an extremely dedicated, hard worker trying to do whatever it took to get back to school”baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/…
— Justin George (@justingeorge) April 8, 2013

One Jamal Champan was convicted of first-degree murder for the 2010 slaying of an unnamed victim in the NW

The battle for control of the message, meta edition-*- neighbors are criticizing police silence on 45-minute-hovering-helicopter incidents. Here's a good idea: Seattle has pioneered something called "'tweet-by-beat,' with 51 hyper-local Twitter feeds putting out calls for service — excluding sex crimes and domestic violence — through an automated feed. That was a move made after the agency in 2011 overwhelmed followers of its main account by tweeting nearly every incident reported to police. Police in Cambridge, Mass., in February also began "real-time" tweeting of 911 dispatcher logs."

A police van was in a wreck in Overlea

12-stepping might help you quit drinking, but it can't make you a decent human being, it seems. Are AK-47s even legal here?

Delegate Don Dwyer holding an interesting fundraiser....selling $10 raffle tickets for achance to win AR-15 or AK-47
— Joce Sterman (@jocefromABC2) April 9, 2013

Just spoke with outgoing @baltimorepolice internal affairs chief Williams, who said he leaves extremely bullish on the agency & leadership
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) April 8, 2013

This HarfCo Sheriff's deputy is such a badass

le dernier jour

The Senate gave approval to the Medical Marijuana bill-- you know, the one that lets Hopkins set up its own pot clinic in 2016 but has such strict strictures it'll help about 20 patients? In the meantime it looks like the decriminialization bill will waste away in Vallario's committee. How... ironic that he says the bill is a "bad message to kids," while at the same time his son has a flourishing practice as a defense attorney defending people arrested on drug charges. Also "ironic"-- his biggest campaign contributors include Lexington National Insurance Company (as in bail bonds), criminal defense firms and a MD gun-rights group.

Why do denizens of the UK have such huge boners for "the Wire"? Dunno, but David Simon was interviewed by the Guardian recently.

Balt city detectives now on Thames St in fells point investigating blood stains and bits of teeth on cobblestone street. Cc @justin_fenton
— Gus G. Sentementes (@GusSent) April 8, 2013

Idiots afoot

Homicide #53 was a man stabbed in the 200 block of East Pratt St. (as in right by Harborplace) after leaving work* at the Cheesecake Factory at around 2:20 a.m. Update: one Matthew James Darby was arrested, and the victim was named as 20-year-old Anthony Black.* Darby, a Frederick resident, has a prodigious criminal record that includes charges for burglary, assault, DUI and drugs.

Homicide #54 was in the 300 block of S. Payson St. this morning*

Alleged local drug kingpin Jeffrey Cofield was arrested in Atlanta. And Jose Rodriguez of Santa Maria, CA, was arrested in Santa Barbara County for an attempted murder here in February. And a Baltimore guy was arrested in DC for sexually assaulting women in a parking garage.

More on the Renior buyer, Marcia "Martha" Fuqua, and the story's starting to sound a little... skecthy. She went to Goucher and MICA (where her thesis involved analyzing a Renior portrait), was studying to be a blackjack dealer, and btw her brother says she didn't buy the painting at a flea market and that it was actually owned by their mom for many years. Hmm.

In North Baltimore, the owner of the Ashland Cafe was robbed and stuffed in a freezer, a guy accidentally shot himself with his dad's .22 and a woman was carjacked after getting Chinese carryout at one of the (increasingly sketchy) mini-malls at Loch Raven & Taylor.

Would the BPD ever consent to this? Ha. But when police in Rialto, CA wore some camera sunglasses, "Even with only half of the 54 uniformed patrol officers wearing cameras at any given time, the department over all had an 88 percent decline in the number of complaints filed against officers." (Thanks Cham!)

Admin note: to join the Facebook group, you must respond to a confirmation message-- if you have requested to join but not been added, check your "other" messages.