RIP, Frank Melvin Papa Bear Conaway Senior

Frank Melvin "Papa Bear" Conaway senior, pater familias of a troupe of local circus bears, was found dead in bed in his Ashburton abode by his cub Frank. He was 81.

Conaway was elected to the MD House of Delegates in 1971 and was elected as the city's Clerk of the Court in 1998. 

He's survived by wife Mary, former Registrar of Wills, current Registrar of Wills Belinda Conaway, dereistic city council member Frank M. Conaway Junior (D-40th), some woman named Monica, and at least four grandchildren: Ray, Frank Melvin the 3rd, Lacynda and Kelly, the latter three of whom were arrested for pot dealing in 2013.

FMC Sr. was well-known for his family-themed campaigning at intersections and in median strips, and known around city office buildings for his spiffy style, which included well-cut broad-shouldered suits with pocket squares, jaunty bow ties and his trademark crumb-duster moustache. His rambling tangents at the city Criminal Justice Coordinating Council were often peppered with colorful turns of phrase ("Baltimore is turning into a Dodge City, a Deadwood, or more aptly, a Tombstone from the days of the Wild West, where gunfights erupted spontaneously and lawlessness reigned supreme.") and he also liked to repeat that adage about that owl.

He was also the reluctant defendant in that no-go 2006-2007 gay-marriage lawsuit Conaway v. Deane v. Polyak, the reluctant target of the karate kicks of blogger Adam Meister, and is the only person in history to lose elections to both Willie Don and Stephanie R-B. 

He was by all accounts a derelict office manager; under his tenure the Clerk's office regularly lost or improperly accounted for millions of taxpayer dollars and a 2010 legislative audit that found his office lost a prodigious $43.4 million in 33 months. 

But in a time before the Internet he glad-handed and bear-suited his way to an indelible political name brand, one that's kept voters checking off his family name on ballots more than four decades, and was one of those surprising, quirky characters that made living in this great city so worthwhile. 

We should all be such wise old bears.

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.

#BlackMan'sRights??

Good Jeebuz! Three men were arrested last night after a four-hour, two-county crime spree that involved 12 victims, including a man stripped naked, another man shot in the eye and the leg, and a wrecked Lincoln Continental.

A third murder at Perkins Hospital? Really?

The prosecution rested yesterday in the robo-call case, after Julius Henson's employee Rhonda Russell, who recorded the "relax, everything's fine" message, offered the lamest excuses ev. er., testifying that the calls were "reverse psychology ... I was told this call would stimulate whoever wanted to vote for Mr. Ehrlich." Never mind that the calls went only to Democrats or that Russell's notes included the phrase "suppress turnout in black communities." Not every member of the black community is horrified by this, though. Wrote Mr. Hassan MrPolitics Giordano on the Facebooks, "First their aim was at Julius (Henson), and still is quite frankly; now they're looking 2 hang Frank Conaway?! I guess an outspoken black man who doesn't have 2 rely on them 2 gain fortune & fame better learn their place huh?! SMDH...#BlackMan'sRights??"

Speaking of, the Sun has posted the police report from the Conaway/Meister kerfuffle... oh my, not very flattering to either one of them! The report says Adam Scott attempted a karate kick, and Frank Melvin was indeed on the sidewalk with his gun. Oh, my.

Stephanie Lynn Schwab, the "Blonde Bandit," the Thanksgiving carjacker, the potato-chinned MS-13 mom, was nabbed on the D.C. beltway after robbing a bank in McLean, VA.

More good news: Fenton tweets that November ended with "only" 10 homicides: the lowest level in 40 years. A man who allegedly home-invaded the elderly in Pikesville has been arrested. So relax. Everything is fine. The only thing left is to watch it on TV tonight. Congratulations, and thank you.

"things happen differently"

... so what did I miss, Baltimore?
It looks like police arrested one Alvin Ray Wright Sr.*, 48, for the rape of a 13-year-old girl in an abandoned rowhouse on N. Caroline Street in October. He doesn't have a record of prior sex offenses, just drug and car-theft charges, but DNA evidence implicated his evil ass after his sample was given high priority in the testing queue.

A woman robbed with a toy gun in Roland Park and a shootout in the 5400 block of York Road in the North Baltimore Patch Blotter

The Conaway/Meister drama continues, and here's a nugget that will make you crap a book on how to puke: Conaway's lawyer J. Wyndal Gordon says Conaway is being investigated because both Meister and Bernstein are Jewish*: "When you have a situation where you have a Jewish victim and an African-American male, you have things happen differently than if it happened to be a regular case ... perhaps because of their commonality in their religion."

Ehrlich aides' robocall trial kicks off today. Hilariously, the wife of the judge in the case got one of the calls, but Judge Lawrence Fletcher Hill says that won't affect his judgment.

Bernstein has hired a young hotshot to do some prosecutin' up in the state's attorney's office*, heading up a division that is "new" and "major." His notable achievements so far include attending basketball games, making a baby, and encouraging prosecutors to paint their offices (with coveralls over their suits, one hopes).

WTF?! County man committed suicide by setting himself on fire in front of cops

ps. this is weird, the Sun reported yesterday* that James L. Owens is suing the city of Baltimore for $15 million ... but the suit was filed (and widely reported) on October 12. A worthwhile story to be sure, but why write about it now?

* Sun link ... I'll try to warn you from here on out so you can save your monthly clicks!

Clerk, clerk thyself

Oh, too funny. The MD state police report that the handgun Frank Conaway, Sr. may or may not have "brandished" while he was or wasn't chasing Adam Meister has an expired permit. If it's true that Conaway left his property with the gun, he could be facing a month in jail. Oh, my. Conaway is the Clerk of the Court, so his job is to file and maintain the court's records and legal documents. Yet he groused to Justin Fenton, "I was never notified. I think there's an obligation on the part of the state police to notify." ... uh, really? If anyone knows that kind of information shouldn't it be the Clerk of the Court?!
... here's a WBAL interviews with "strong young guy" Adam and "I could have taken care of him otherwise" Frank.

.. and why is no one asking (or telling) exactly what Adam said to Frank?

Tonight's the night

... Occupy Baltimore gets evacuated, camper-protestors believe.

In other news, Adam Meister claims doddering Clerk of the Court Frank Conaway, Senior, took a swing at him today, after Meister ran into him and asked him why he wasn't at work at 10:30 a.m on a Monday and other harsh words were exchanged. LMFAO! One (rather far-fetched) version of the story has Meister pounding on the door and delivering a karate chop. In the police version Conaway brandished a firearm, but Meister claims he didn't.

And the case of the fetal-alocohol-syndrome-lookin brothers accused of burning Phoenix the pit bull was postponed for the 4th time.

And octogenarian Margaret Hepburn has gone missing, please call 911 if you see her.

Rats!

Ehrlich's aides Julius Henson and Paul Schurick were indicted for conspiracy to violate election laws for those "relax" robocalls, and Bykowicz + Linskey have all the deets. Apparently the call list came from Henson's previous clients...

TDR bullet-points the Office of Legislative Audits' shocking discoveries in Frank Conaway's office

"'Beware the Ides of March,' Julius Caesar was warned before he was stabbed to death on March 15. But Michael Smith, an inmate in the Maryland correctional system, had no such warning on March 15, 2007," sayeth Van Smith, when members of the Bloods gang, allegedly angered by his performance as a behind-bars pot dealer, stabbed him in a prison van. Now his meticulous lawsuit exposes the City Detention Center's piss-poor non-efforts at controlling gang networks

Blog comment of the day: "dontae nichols u need to die for shootng montrell williams i hope brun in hell"

Owner of Cockeysville's Padonia Park Club, a "swim and child care center," charged in child porn case. "... detectives seized a Dell laptop computer with images of young girls that Rigger allegedly used at the Jennifer Road pool and at his home." Wait, what?

and don't miss Rat Bites Cop, replete with a photo of the perp in a baggie

Monday 2008

This, we don't see everyday here: A woman who goes by the name of Princess Marie (and is allegedly in a cult) has been charged with the starvation death of her child.

It wouldn't be Harm City if we didn't have some gunsmoke...

Plenty of nonfatal offenses happened this weekend, according to the Blotter. But hey, if it didn't result in someone dying, then not such a big deal right? I mean, the victims can just buy new things...

Stephen Janis and Luke Broadwater do two fine jobs in discussing the William Brown case as seen by the possible victims, and the aftermath in the community he was from.

Adam Meister discusses the oddity that is Frank Conaway, Jr. I've had a chance to meet him and his very humorous father in the past. I gotta say, Frank Jr. came across as pretty stuck up - which was kind of shocking for a guy that's a clerk working for daddy turned politician/chauffeur. Sheesh. Frank Sr., Mary, Belinda, and Frank Jr. Take that, Kennedys!

Oh, and before I forget: Free Kwame!

Politics*

Keiffer Mitchell met with Hamm today: "we talked about the crisis, it was a frank conversation."
Hours later, Mitchell went on WBAL to call for Hamm's resignation: "leadership starts at the top, there's a lack of direction ... people are losing faith, if there is a real direction, that why I've come out and suggested that Commissioner Hamm step down."

Finally, a politician who can turn a phrase! Frank M. Conaway Senior has officially entered the race.Baltimore is turning into a Dodge City, a Deadwood, or more aptly, a Tombstone from the days of the Wild West, where gunfights erupted spontaneously and lawlessness reigned supreme."

*Sorry... with the election coming up you can't avoid them!