Poor writing, weak testifying

A barricade situation at E. Lombard and S. Eaton is backing up traffic-- sounds like the barriccaders are the guys who held up Hopkins Federal on Pratt Street.

So after pressure from the city council, the BPD has made with the Plan, which sounds basically like the same as the old plan (guns! Violent offenders! No redistricting!) but now with a hat tip to "gangs." The Brew deftly notes that the real reveal is in the back pages of the 200-page document, "a disturbing portrait of a dysfunctional department," including 40 percent of shifts staffed by $$ overtime, the much-touted Violent Repeat Offenders program laid waste by apathy and too many offenders and too few priorities, one-fourth of cases dismissed because officer simply don't show up to court, too few detectives, "poor" report writing and "weak" testifying.

BPD's strategic plan already confuses me. Made PIA request for contract I was later told doesnt exist. Then I see contract noted in the plan
— Joce Sterman (@jocefromABC2) November 21, 2013

Fenton says police say suspects have been arrested* in the "Alameda Corridor" robberies.

In the latest chapter of the BGF Jail Scandal, 14 corrections officers (including one now serving in Afghanistan), a kitchen worker, two inmates and two outside suppliers have been indicted for racketeering.* However, notes Van Smith, no supervisor has yet been charged, in spite of many affidavits asserting that higher-ups not only knew what was going on but profited from bribes. This makes 39 people indicted so far, with 10 guilty pleas entered.

A 14-year-old has been arrested* for the rape of the 11-year-old girl on Pratt Street November 3rd.

Police are ISO this guy who committed a robbery inside Mondawmin mall November 11th.

I dont know why,but per #scanner police expecting a crush of kids downtown & are preparing to have to close the Galleria, convenience stores
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) November 22, 2013

Justin Fenton is set be on Midday with Rodericks at 12:20 today, talking the Plan and Stop n Frisk.

Chris Montcalmo

Media blabber: a source tipped us off that the guy behind the Baltimore News Journal is one Chris Montcalmo, who outed himself when he mistakenly hit "reply all" to a police press release. He's apparently an expert in search engine optimization, bridal bouquets and baby sleep patterns and lives in Perry Hall. Why the secrecy, I wonder?

19 is the new 35

Extra-special Robert G. Moore, an accused drug kingpin and murderer who allegedly threatened the lives of two prosecutors,* went on trial today but didn't show up in the courtroom after a Judge deemed him too dangerous to be there,* an unusual move that is apparently not against the law.

Tumaina Bakani

Frank Harper, via Facebook

Frank Harper, 55, died after getting into a fight with an armed security guard* at a Subway/Citgo station at 5516 Reisterstown Road. Said security guard, Tumaina Bakani, age 33, is now being charged with murder. WBAL reports the whole exchange was filmed by the store's security cameras.

Two men were shot in the parking lot of a Citgo* -- a different parking lot of a different Citgo, this one at 2801 Edmonson Avenue (intriguingly titled on Apple maps as the "Princess Olaza Citgo")

A man was shot in the groin* near Morgan State University in the 1600 block of Northgate Road

A man was shot in the 200 block of Monastery Avenue

Down at Central Booking, officials were found to have accepted bail for an inmate who had been dead for two days* ... and still haven't issued his family a refund.

Doop de doo--- an inmate walked away from a work detail on Wednesday and was tracked down near the Westfield Annapolis mall.*

Yacoub

Eeww... coked-up Towson gynecologist Dr. John Yacoub was suspended on drug charges and was found to have pictures of patients' privates on his phone. And an air marshal from Maryland was arrested in Tennessee and accused of taking upskirt photos on a Southwest Airlines flight.

A 19-year-old was served a beer at Birrotecca and The Admiral's Cup, their defense? She was "dressed up very attractively that evening! ... 35 doesn't look the way it used to." 

"Prude Pleads Guilty to 2001 Rape" .. and he stole her purse, too.

The State's Attorney's office released a baffling array of pie charts and graphs, one showing a 15% uptick in felony convictions over the past month.

The dead body of 29-year-old Kevin Wheelan was found on a light rail train in Cunt Valley,* cause of death TBD.

In Bethesda, a three-year-old boy was kidnapped, then rescued after his abductor crashed into a tree.

And that kid who chewed a toaster pastry into the shape of a gun, attracting a laudatory lifetime membership from the NRA, has had his school record cleared.

Hot pregnant messes

A boy, age unknown, was shot in the head last night in Gwynn Oak,* and a man shot himself in the leg.

Despicable: it's been determined that Ronald Cox, killed by police in Reisterstown last summer* after they busted into his house and he tried to defend himself with a sword, was the subject of a County no-knock raid (and was not even the person police were looking for). Fatal no-knock raids are apparently rather common.

The body found yesterday on Loyola Southway was ID'd as that of missing Marcus 'Anton' Lesane.* Tweets Fenton, "His body was found by someone digging through this pile looking for something of value." Fenton also posted a poignant pic on Instagram (right).

Whut. Jailbird BGF chief Tavon "Bulldog" White got four Central Booking guards pregnant* (and as it happens, all 13 of the indicted guards are female.). According to a wiretap, the BGF kept prison violence down, put out and let guards drive their schweet drug-dealer cars in exchange for guards turning a blind eye to sex, drugs, phones and smuggled salmon. Two of Bulldog's babymoms, Jennifer Owens and Katera Stevenson, apparently so enjoyed the broom-closet sex that they got themselves tattoos of his name. Also indicted: Hamma Head, Maine and Monster.

Even for the town that invented the clusterfuck, the speed camera situation is a special hot mess. The judge Mrs. Martin O'Malley was forced to void more than 6,000 tickets* after Xerox skipped town without leaving behind the evidence needed to convict drivers of cited vehicles.

The Ink details last week's five murders (correction from yesterday: East Trenton, where a man's body with facial lacerations was found, is behind the Miracle Temple Church of the Harvest. It's West Trenton that's behind the McDonald's).

A man was stabbed inside MedStar® Harbor Hospital on S. Hanover.

North Baltimore blotteriana: eight cans of Red Bull, 1995 Jaguar, church laptops.

NYMag's James Gleick nails it: the modern media environment is "Total Noise, only louder."

joder la policía

One guy is dead and two injured after a police-involved shooting last night in the 2700 block of Edmonson Ave.*

A man was shot to death at 8:22 this morning in the 2600 block of Loyola Southway.

A man was found dead of laceration wounds behind the North Avenue McDonald's on Trenton St. Saturday night. Yes, the McDonald's with the vittlevayor®.

An update on the shooting at Central Booking yesterday, a guy being held on loitering charges was shot trying to scale the fence (though police say he was not just loitering, but also opening unpurchased bags of chips)*.

A shooting on Marbourne Ave in South Baltimore.

Twenty-five Black Guerrilla Family members and 13 corrections officers were reportedly indicted in a racketeering conspiracy inside Central Booking. You'll recall that 24 members of the BGF were indicted in 2009 for smuggling cell phones, drugs and tobacco into prison with the help of corrupt guards.

Ronaldo Martin was apparently arrested for saying"fuck the police" and those bon mots alone. Page Croyder calls bullshit, and now that song is going to be stuck in my muthafuckin head all muthafuckin day. (Can't find the official video anywhere, but at least that one has Spanish subtitles. Can you believe that album is 25 years old? And still holds up.).

What the hell, Hampden? A guy pulled a gun on a woman after she accidentally bumped into him (she even said "excuse me"!) in the 3900 block of Falls Road.

Media blabber: how horrible are the Koch Bros.? Tribune employees now say Rupert Murdoch is looking pretty good. Related: job site careercast.com deemed newspaper reporter the worst job of 2013.

Big Boyz' Bondsman Gets Big House Boot

collegehumor.com via Pinterest

Oh those bad boyz of bail! Kick em all out! Big Boyz bail bondsman  Ethan Nochumowitz (Nochumowitz?!) was barred from Central Booking. Said his lawyer Andrew Graham, "was not impolite, nor did he raise his voice. He was assertive." Hrm.

'Foxy Methoxy'

.. WTF is that? A new hallucinogen?? DiPT? Whut?? Are there any with-it people out there who have heard of this? In any case corrections officer Michael McCain has been indicted for possessing and intending to distribute said "Foxy," plus some good old-fashioned weed at Central Booking and Intake.

March 12

Two reported killings over the weekend: On Saturday, Allen Coates was at a birthday party at Maceo's Lounge. He confronted a man who was "groping" a woman at the party and was repeatedly shot as a result. Early Sunday morning, 40-year-old Damon Smith was found in an alley of the 5000 block of Denmore in the Northwest; he had been repeatedly shot more than an hour before.

17-year-old Andrew Tuell was arrested in Utah for the Annapolis murder of Terrance Powell, and Daniel Lawson was arrested in Glen Burnie for last week's murder of James Fabian in Brooklyn Park (AAC).

BaCo popo want CoCo.

A 50-year-old Delaware woman traveled to Harford County and unsucessfully hired a hit man to take out her step-mother.

DNA evidence led prosecutors to drop charges against Andre Christopher King, accused of raping an 8-year-old. The victim's family still claim that he did it.

A 16-year-old was killed when his drunk friend crashed into a tree.

A librarian was robbed at gunpoint in the elevator of a parking garage while she was on her way to work at the Towson public library.

A happier, friendlier Central Booking awaits you.

Gregory Kane looks at the recent stabbings at the Maryland House of Corrections in Jessup.

A man who might have been drinking a the flight from Phoenix was arrested at BWI for slapping flight attendants.

It's not right to work so hard for your constituents yet bring home a paltry $80,000, so I think we'd all agree that our city leaders deserve an 18-to-26% pay increase.

Perhaps our state workers also deserve a raise, so they can stop watching porn at work and do it at home instead.