Khakis were sullied

One Clifton Rodney Duncan Jr. caused a "disturbance" at the Rosedale K-Mart, then broke into a house, then barricaded himself at Winner Distributing and was taken into custody at about 7 p.m.

Rodney Pridget,
photo Tweeted by Fenton

More than two years after Rodney Pridget was murdered outside of Towson Town Center in what evidence indicates was a Black Guerrilla Family-ordered hit, the accused triggerman and final, youngest defendant, Tyrone Brown, was found guilty.

A water bottle was hurled, khakis were sullied, major defense lawyer Ivan Bates was retained and now Bernstein's Major Investigations Unit is now poring through the nuances of the case of two financial analysts and a venture capitalist who got into a Harbor East slugfest.*

@justin_fenton have you heard anything about the ridiculous amount of car break ins that have been happening by Riverside Park in S. Bmore?
— Steve Beck (@stevembeck) March 12, 2013

Sweet, sweet romance: John Leopold's girlfriend Jane Miller-- not to be confused with the girlfriend who subjected him to oral sodomy in the bowling alley parking lot, or the gimlet-eyed reporter-- testified at his sentencing down in AAC yesterday that Leopold is "remorseful and contrite" and that he referred to his taxpayer-funded pee-bag-dumping employee as "Dr. Patti."

Erin Thorne

More dirty from AAC: a 28-year-old teacher Erin Nicole Thorne is facing serious trouble following allegations from an 18-year-old student that she sent him sexts, texts and "obscene matter" and "engaged in sexual activity" with him after he turned 18 but while he was still a student at Broadneck High.

Nicholas Vargas, 24, of the Windsor Mill area drove up to Pottsville, PA, punched a man in the face at the Coney Island restaurant.

Ten years is a long time to go away for "criminal threats," no?

Damn, Dundalk, $1.5 million worth of counterfeit goods at the flea market*? (But is that the goods' actual value, or what it would have been if the goods were really the brand they were supposed to be?)

So the nefarious Koch brothers reportedly aspire to buy the Tribune-- the newspaper group or the whole sorry mess. But only if baby-eating dingo Rupert Murdoch or cracker-faced capitalist Lee Mitchell lose their bids.

Finally, have a sobering .gif in which you can watch Baltimore's middle-class neighborhoods disappear. 

Fathers, sisters, uncles of the year

A homicide, one Terry Williams was shot to death in the 400 block of Parksley Ave., Cham reports this is the city's 11th homicide of 2013.

Deana Barnes testified today* about being unable to reach Michael Johnson because his phone was off on the day Phylicia disappeared, Johnson's contradictory statements about when he last saw her, and about the video of drunken streaking that was apparently shown to the jury (but not the gallery of spectators). On Friday James McCray testified that Johnson had asked for his advice and help moving Phylicia's body.

Article in the NYT this weekend about new legal inroads towards restitution for child-pornography victims, and online has the story behind the story. Also in the NYT magazine: glorification of our fair city's illegal dirtbiking scene (so exotic!).

Patch crime blotters: a Chesapeake High student robbed by classmates, two Montgomery Ward freezers stolen and a cuckold threatened with a sword.

Homicide arrests in an AAC murder include a father-daughter team.

They said you'd have to be on crack to try to sell a slice of pie for $7, and unfortunately they were right.  One of the owners of Dangerously Delicious pies, Joey Belcher, died a mysterious and likely drug-and-alcohol-related death last month. The edgy pie chain is now down to one Baltimore location, in Canton.

The defense rested Friday in the Leopold case, with an orthopedic surgeon testifying that Leopold needed a catheter and was in horrible pain with deteriorated discs and leaking spinal fluid. Let that be a lesson to you, kids: two mistresses is too many.