50 Ways to Cleave Your Lover

Fifty-five years for Larry Holly for the murder of Ryshawn Cox on N. Belnord Ave. in 2011.

Ninety-five and 110 years for Don Pulley and Terrence Rollins-Bey, who killed DeAngelo Bass and set his car on fire to conceal the crime, which was caught on camera.

Shawn Stevenson

Two life sentences for Shawn Stevenson in the death of Somchanh Sipayboun, the mother of his children and partner of 13 years. Stevenson raped her, bound her with duct tape, broke her spine and stabbed* her 14 times.

In the meantime, human tofu slice Anthony Brown has a press release re. his domestic violence plan, which involves a network of screening centers* and changing the standard of proof for victims to get a restraining order, and somethingsomething about cell phones. For his part, Doug Gansler, the guy who sent his son to a $33k school that's the source of the local saying "never drink from a cup from a Landon boy" has fired back with some blahblah about cheap political points. And our Bro-torney General may be onto something: as governor Brown won't be in any kind of position to change legal burdens of proof, and "setting up centers" = throwing money at the problem, while training health care providers and officers to assess domestic violence risk would be a lot simpler, cheaper and is backed by evidence that it's effective. Anyway, there's also a lady and some kind of Republicans in the governors' race, but they were apparently too busy blow-drying hair/reading from the Necronomicon to talk to Mike Dresser.

Rodney "Noah" Hubert of Pikesville was indicted for pimping a 16-year-old 

As one might expect, the family of Anthony Anderson has filed a lawsuit* against the BPD for an undisclosed amount. Anderson died of internal bleeding while being arrested in September of 2012.

Your exes will be so sad: a bill coming up next year could make it a felony to post explicit pictures of someone without their consent.

TIL Molly and ecstasy are not the same thing. Wait, or are they? Quit confusing me and just tell me what to freak out about, Internet!

SRB's still claiming no knowledge of the dirty "Smart Meters" bidding process.

There was a hearing yesterday on the troubled Detention Center; officials say cell phone blocking technology is going to fix stuff, because without cell phones there is no other way for human beings to communicate with one another.

Missing Person: Help us find 70-year old Gloria Plater. Missing since September. Call 911 w/ info on her whereabouts. pic.twitter.com/x5DtA5QTLD
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) October 31, 2013

Jason Crawford was arrested by #BPDND in the 300 Block of E 27th St. for a handgun violation #ASaferBaltimore pic.twitter.com/GLtmTVMoEm
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) October 29, 2013

David Turner arrested by #BPDCD in the 300 Block of MLK Blvd. for a handgun violation #ASaferBaltimore pic.twitter.com/o1bsAXWnNk
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) October 29, 2013

Help us locate this suspect wanted for a shooting on 9/28 in the 3700 block of Columbus Dr. Call 911 w/info. pic.twitter.com/r29GVLIfl5
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) October 29, 2013

Misconduct Monday

Speaking of Gregg Bernstein, not long after the Hitler post, he made an appearance on* the Larry Young show on WOLB 1010 AM (have other people heard of this station?) to defend his decision to not pursue any charges against Detective Todd Strohman, the one who tackled Anthony Anderson, causing his death. Bernstein said that the ME found that Anderson had a pre-existing enlarged spleen, which is interesting because the autopsy report doesn't mention that at all and lists his primary cause of death as from torso injuries. Also interesting, Bernstein apparently agreed with a caller that the war on drugs is "not working," but apparently didn't explain why, then, his office still prosecutes them.

An officer shot a man tonight who he believed was concealing a gun*-- the man is in serious condition and the gun apparently has not been found. Fenton Tweets it's the second police-involved shooting since Friday night.

And finally in misconduct news, the Board of Estimates is fixing to pay out $270,000 in settlements, on top of the $10.4 million paid out in the previous three years.

... and here's a link to the full Fenton Phylicia Barnes* court case report of the day, and a bonus douchey detail:

Justin Fenton ‏@justin_fenton

Deena testifies that when [Michael Johnson] came over the night Phylicia disappeared, he said he was concerned for himself since he was last to see her

No Charges for Anthony Anderson officers

DEREK VALCOURT ‏@DEREKVALCOURT

@Gregg_Bernstein : officers involved in death of Anthony Anderson will not be criminally charged-actions did not amount to excessive force

... But the DOJ's Civil Rights division is investiagting, for what it's worth.

A Tale of Two Andersons

Cheshire and Bernstein are hosting a press conference on the Anthony Anderson case today at noon in Mitchell 506.

Another Anderson, Jamar, was convicted for 1st-degree murder for shooting at a woman and killing her cousin instead.

A jury has been selected for the Phylicia Barnes case, so presumably the five reporters are back in the courtroom today.

Justin Fenton ‏@justin_fenton

Man killed in Tuesday double shooting on N. Milton Ave is named Milton: Justin Lee Milton, 32. Police said he lived in NE Balt.

Cham Green

We have another homicide ID, the man killed on the 600 block of Milton 2 days ago is Justin Lee Milton, 32. From looking on the Judiciary he is originally from Hurlock in Talbot County and lived in Northeast Baltimore. He has no previous drug charges. This may be his FB page: http://www.facebook.com/justin.milton.338?ref=ts&fref=ts

Justin Milton

Works at ElectricianWent to North Dorchester HighLives in Baltimore, Maryland

Justin Fenton ‏@justin_fenton

At Charles Village Civic Association meeting, where both Police Commissioner Batts and State's Atty Bernstein are visiting ... Director of @CVCBD thinks progress being made w prostitution problem in southern part of district: "I think they're getting annoyed with us" ... Bernstein says in six of the 1st 10 mos of 2012, SAO had conviction rate over 70% while taking 13% more cases over prev yr  

The flippin Cold Spring Ro/Fo has been robbed yet again, for at least the 3rd time this year. Where are the pictures? I've heard if >$1,000 is taken police don't even request copies of the tape. ... So out of whose pocket comes the stolen cash? The franchise operator?

Good move, homeowner that took a picture of a burglary suspect he caught trying to break in his front door, bolt-cutting device in hand.

... I generally try to not think about Anne Arundel County, but this story's got it all-- coffee cans of urine, 45-minute trysts in a bowling alley parking lot, sign yanking, boob talk and mistresses catfighting by their Daddy's hospital bed-- someone really ought to write a musical. 

Insanity is Hereditary

Justin George reports the city's 7th homicide.*

Anthony Anderson's family is keeping the pressure on for charges to be brought following Anderson's death in custody.

Del. Frank's Ki Dos in Trouble

Speaking of family names, three young Conaways have been arrested for pot dealing. Frank Melvin the 3rd and sisters Lacynda and Kelly Conaway are nieces of disgraced, defeated city council member Belinda and kids of Baptist Gnostic Christian Eubonic Kundalinion Spiritual Ki Do Hermeneutic Metaphysicbipolar Delegate Frank M. (just M) Jr. (D-40th), son of the kooky City Court Clerk Frank M. Sr. and Register of Wills Mary Conaway. I demand mugshots!

BWHAHA! Booze-cruising legislator Don Dwyer blames his turning to the bottle on the gays and other Republicans, reports Rodericks: "I felt a tremendous amount of pressure in my family. You take those personal issues [and] add betrayal on the professional side, and it really gets to be overwhelming." The "betrayal" he felt came when three other delegates, including two Republicans, changed their minds and voted for the same-sex marriage bill that became state law on Jan. 1. "That betrayal really affected me," Dwyer said. "I was physically ill. You pour your heart into an issue like that and it's devastating." No Don, that was the DT's.

DOUBLE BWHAHA! Speaking of bags of dicks, Hassan Giordano reports that homohating /vote-suppressant jailbird Julius Henson aspires to run for a Senate seat against his former employer Nathaniel McFadden for the city's 45th district. Talk about biting the broom you rode in on. ...surely McFadden had Henson sign a non-disclosure/non-compete before he hired him? ... And like Henson even wants that job-- you know he just wants to bleed the beast and get at that GOP war chest. Well, why not, don't hate the player, hate the game. What do you think he'll name his party boat ... ? 

And huzzah, a compromise on the pit bull ban.

Anthony Anderson = homicided

The Med Examiner has ruled Anthony Anderson's death a homicide from blunt-force injury and primarily a pulmonary contusion (bruised lung), fractured ribs, hemorrhaged tissues, a torn spleen and blood from those injuries filling his guts (hemoperitoneum) -- not an overdose or by choking on .
swallowed drugs as the BPD initially reported, though police do say "morphine" was in his system 

(yes, not "opiates," "morphine" in particular. Is the toxicology report finished? If so, where is it?)   Here's the autopsy report released by the family & uploaded by Fenton, and the Fenton story... you may recall that our new presumptive police chief resigned in Oakland after a court found that his department had failed to implement court-ordered policies to control police abuses, that citizens who complained about it faced "cavalier rejection" of their complaints, and that "the agency misused an early-warning system that flags officers who frequently use force or generate citizen complaints." Baltimore, of course, doesn't even have a public system by which to track or address such complaints to begin with, unless you count our citizen review board that's sworn to secrecy and has zero power, or the invisible-to-us internal police "administrative reviews" that the department openly admits take "months or years*" to complete.  

Sooo, why did Oakland get to have federal court oversight and Baltimore never has? We had the "Flex Squad" in the SW planting drugs and framing people,* just like Oakland's "Riders." We've had officers shot in chaotic no-clear-lines-of command incidents,* just like Oakland. So why did the Oakland PD get total federal oversight and Baltimore has never gotten more than a federal visit or two?
In other news, plans for the new youth jail soldier on.* (remind me, is it federal or local money building this jail?)

And thank you Kevin Rector, finally*-- after a slew of confusing rape/ abuction stories a little clarity: three sex assault/ kidnapping/ robbery victims, two perps -- Kenyon Waller and William Campbell -- who're both now in jail. The first incident of a teen kidnapped at gunpoint off the street then robbed and sexually assaulted was Sept. 25, but as far as I can tell only the Catonsville Patch reported it. Wonder why. I'd throw in a dab of snark here about how if it had happened to a blonde girl in Towson you wouldn't have been able to eat your Cheerios without hearing Don Scott recount every filthy little detail, but my outrage fatigue is acting up.

Fifteen years for Timothy Dennison, 22, who bought "sham cocaine" from an ICE Homeland Security Investigations agent (whatever happened to the DEA?)

A scathing report from the Senate found that the Department of Homeland Security has spent about a billion dollars to spy on citizens, while thwarting not a single terrorist attack. Next (or probably already) from Homeland Security: automatically tracking everyone's car's movements using license-plate scanning technology. Grouses a proprietor of a for-profit license tracking service, "I take absolute exception to any government telling me that I can't go into public and take video ... that's taking my freedoms away." 

What's that aboot eh?

So Batts' first move as presumptive commissioner was to hire Judy Pal, right, as his communications pro.* Pal was born in Canada and has held jobs with a bunch of police agencies, as well as with Madison Square Garden and the Labatt Brewery of Ontario. Fenton and LinkedIn report that most of her jobs she stayed in for only about a year (and between the time that I started this post until I finished, the security was changed on her LinkedIn profile-- I saved it from the cache and uploaded screenshots here). According to her bio with the Public Agency Training Council, she has "extensive communications experience dealing with sensitive and image-threatening issues such as criminal conduct of police officers, international scandal, fractured community and media relations..." which will no doot come in handy. According to a speaker bio she is also "credited with re-tooling the image of the largest police department in Atlantic Canada." Yesterday Batts was also quietly sworn in as an officer-- the only photo appears to be from somebody's cell phone. He'll officially be be commissioner after the City Council confirms him. Sounds like there's no question that that'll happen, though I think there are some quality reasons to have questions about this guy, eh?

Rage on the East Side after the death of Anthony Anderson,* 46, the guy who police at first said choked on drugs he was swallowing to avoid arrest, then amended to say "its not clear whether he OD'd or died another way." According to witnesses, the "other way" was Anderson was run up on from behind by officers, who lifted him "as high as a basketball hoop" and slammed him to the ground and kicked him. Police acknowledge he had at least one broken bone; autopsy results are pending. Fox has video of citizens and the Baltimore Peoples {sic} Assembly protesting yesterday.

The Ink has details on last week's seven murders

Stephen Gerwitz is back in court for the trial of Sydney Brewer-- sounds like the car Brewer allegedly stole was equipped with LoJack, hyuk

The Justice Policy Institute has a new report out on the various fucktifications of our city's fucktified bail system

The man shot by an officer in Dundalk near Merritt Point Park was ID'd as 22-year-old Joshua Lopez of La Marque, Texas.

Your usual burglaries and violent boyfriends and husbands in the SE Baltimore Guide Blotter, and eww, a woman on Eastern Avenue got pee in her house due to seepage after a drunk guy took a leak on her door.

Ed Ericsson reviews Michael A. Wood Jr.'s Eliot

The trial of Tom Kiefaber has been delayed til November; Kiefaber reportedly told the court he needs more time to arrange for a public defender because he's "basically homeless" 

Er... Kevin Kamenetz is blaming Brian Recher, owner of the Recher Theater, for the bad behavior of his patrons outside. (What would they have him do?) And bad news, ass-humping white girls, Recher responded by postponing the "Barstool Blackout" event that was scheduled for tonight "until this whole thing blows over." 

Interesting poll numbers this morning from Gonzales: 58 percent of MDers willing to opine to strangers on the telephone support the Dream Act (surprisingly high), expanded gambling is at a a virtual tie, and what WBAL is calling "same gender marriage" is favored by a mere 51 percent of poll-takers (which should be worrying to supporters, as people have a way of telling pollsters they support same-sex marriage then voting against it in the booth, aka the Bradley effect). Also the poll margin of error is 3.5 points, so, meh.