No baby no

Oh noooo... DPW and police are reportedly searching the trash at N. Carrolton and Harlem for a baby, Fenton confirms that police got a call about a baby in a bloody basket. Please, Lord, make it be a food baby. UPDATE: no baby.

A man in the 3900 block of Gwynn Oak was shot multiple times but survived.*

Johnny Johnson

The family of Matt Hersl, who was fatally mowed down at 115 MPH by an H'd out Johnny Johnson, is furious that prosecutors plan to offer Johnson a plea deal.*

Two different gunshot victims walked themselves to the hospital yesterday.*

Glad to see the ACLU is speaking out against the Bail Bonds industry. Why does MD have the 4th highest rate of marijuana arrests? Could it be the Bail Bonds lobbyists? ... who happen to be top donors to Del. Joe Vallario, the guy who trapped Kurt Anderson's overwhelmingly supported decriminalization bill in committee.

Sign of the times? Baltimore prosecutors getting "active shooter" training - not for their cases but basic survival pic.twitter.com/iQIfIpTFze
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) December 4, 2013

The Baltimore Development Commission wants your opinion.

5 shootings in 5 hours

last night and another shooting today,* making 28 shot since Friday, helpfully mapped by Spotcrime.

Members of Special Enforcement Section just carried out raid in 600 block of N Kenwood, blk south of quintuple shooting; drugs, guns,arrests
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) June 26, 2013

Meanwhile Anthony Gugliemi has been reassigned following his unsatisfying remarks after last weekend's record-breaking wave of violence. ("I can see how it looks bad" apparently not a sufficient apology/explanation). So who's the new flak? And police hit the streets ISO tips.*

Milton Tillman Jr.

Milton Tillman III's notorious bail bond company 4 Aces may be put out of business by a new ruling that requires it to quit stalling and actually pay its bonds.* Don't hold your breath, though, the company is masterful at stalling and dodging. Tillman reports that the company has $300 million in liabilities (though the court is only asking for 1/300th of that for the moment). What's kind of amazing is that someone convicted of tax fraud is allowed to own a bail bonds company.

Employee of Charles Street GameStop threatened with death by robbers.

Thirteen years for accused hairron dealer Antonio Lamont "Tracey" Johnson

The Guardian (UK) revealed that the NSA has 850,000 analysts checking phone records, calls and emails. Meanwhile, Bradley Manning's trial is continuing in its 4th week down at Ft. Meade.

TIL in 1983 Johns Hopkins Hospital offered treatment for "severe pedophilia." Wonder what that entails? Also between 1960 and 1985 the Boy Scouts had 1,365 reports of "perversion" in its ranks.

Free pens and solid-gold paper clips

Happy Friday news dump, gun nuts! After eight hours of debate, booing and sighs, the gun bill went to the House yesterday with the assault-weapons restrictions intact. Nathaniel T. Oaks: "Why do the authorities need to retain the fingerprints?” 
Uhm like because duh?
Also released, a list of items found at Adam Lanza's house. What a difference a Bushmaster makes-- if he'd taken an armful of any of the other weapons in his arsenal, how many might still be alive?

Ed Ericson Jr. writes about the variegated dramas of the "Men of the Pen" -- Big Boyz Bail Bonds

Harbor East developers are edging closer to a $107 million tax break, and howcomes traffic cones got 5 times more expensive in three years and office-supply costs quintupled? Hrm?

In another case of the city paying taxes for developers, the state's attorney's office will be spending $1.4 million a year to get out of its rat-infested courthouse offices and into schweet suites in the SunTrust building.

Batts and Bealefeld sat behind a table together at UB Law

White supremacist Matthew Heimbach blarbed to the JZ

Gunning

The death of Henry Mills in 2011 was to avenge the death of fellow Black Guerilla Family member Naim King in 2007, reports Justin George,* which led to an unusual conviction under the state's gang statute.

Brandon Mitchell

How did 18-year-old Brandon Kyle Mitchell get bail for a first-degree murder charge*? TWICE*? Shrug. He's now been convicted of the murder of 16-year-old Omar Johnson, a bystander who was watching a fight (presumably between Mitchell and someone else). Oh well, no harm no foul and all's well that ends well, right?

Baltimore police are investigating apparent homicide of unknown man at 600 S Fulton Ave. this morning. No details yet.
— Justin George (@justingeorge) March 8, 2013

Body found this morning in 600 S Fulton was behind train car twitter.com/justin_fenton/…
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) March 8, 2013

4:20 is coming 2 1/3 hours early today: HB 302, aka the Maryland Medical Marijuana Act, is set to be read today, along with two other medical marijuana bills. The bill would let the state's "Academic Medical Centers" distribute the pot in town. Curt Anderson's full frontal decriminalization bill is to be read March 19, And Bobby Zirkin's got a pot law too, making less than 10 grams a civil offense and fine of $100.

MD's gun clubs claim that they've sent a (literal) million emails to MD's legislators re. SB 281/HB 294 opposing the bill's new gun licensing and sales restrictions.

Three people shot Tuesday night.

What did the Hopkins Men's Lacrosse team do to deserve a benching?

Street life, corporate life, life sentences

"Urban terrorist"/Grand Am driving career stick-up brothers Evan and Christopher Foreman started out robbing drug dealers and illegal immigrants, likely mentored in the robbing arts by brothers Michael, 45, and Brian, 39. The fraternal team went on to stage some very thought-out robberies of check-cashing stores, cash-for-gold stores and banks. Evan was sentenced to 24 years and 6 months* in the federal system, Michael got 12 years, Brian 4 1/4 years.
  For his part, Judge James Brednar called Christopher Foreman "depraved," and quipped, "you don't dip your toe in the water of bank robbery."
  "I don't think the court knows the street life," remarked his mother Darraux Horton, 59, who started her parenting career at age 14.

One Marcus Troy Evans, left, was arrested for a Christmas-day beating of a gay man on North Milton Avenue. Apparently Evans was arrested two days after the beating on drug charges but was released on bail six days ago, in spite of the new drug charges, recent domestic violence charges and a rap sheet that includes numerous assaults, gun charges and burglaries. What dingdong of a judge made that call, I wonder? His trial will be at 8:30 a.m. on Jan 29th at 1400 N. Avenue room 3. As an aside, I see Evans' bail bondsman was Lee Dixon was an agent for Milton Tillman's Four Aces bail bonds. Now that Tillman and son are in the federal pen I see Lee Dixon's working for what's been renamed* as Global Surety and Services, but is still a subsidiary of FCS of Houston, TX. It looks like they're hiring new "agents" if you're ISO a career change. It sounds like it's pretty much like being an insurance agent, only your client is the court and gay-bashing, drug-dealing burglars are your beachfront real estate.

Speaking of gay-bashing, outspoken homohater Don Dwyer says he "sought help" following the wreck of The Legislator; he's attended AA meetings and an alcohol intervention class (like, the same class every person arrested on alcohol-related charges has to go to?).  Happiest of all, he also says he's not planning to run for re-election.

Fenton leafs through the Dead Man Inc. corporate handbook* following an evening trailing the police and a BPD-TV camera crew en route to a shooting on Mannasota Avenue, where victims were transported to the hospital by "private car." (Meaning someone didn't want to wait for the ambalance and drove them to the hospital?)

One man turned himself in and two more were arrested* on charges related to a Thanksgiving road rage incident in Owings Mills.

In PGC you can trade Tide® for crack.

O'Malley says that the DP in MD is two votes close to repeal.

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.

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.

Don't Miss

...NPR's story on the Bail Bonds industry. All kinds of interesting!
Thnx PP

Also interesting: NYT on transgender name-changes. I wonder at what point, according to MD law, does someone undergoing a sex change officially become the other gender?

April 14

An 11-year-old boy was shot in the shoulder yesterday at around 5 p.m. at the intersection of Baker and McKean.

Johnnie "Smurf" Toomer of the 2900 block of East Monument Street was arrested for Thursday April 12's, quadruple shooting in Broadway East, but there's still no known motive. It does seem the the 20-year-old was the target, not the kids, and the 20-year-old was a witness for the upcoming murder trial of Allen Little, who accused of shooting William Kirkpatrick, 16, and Stanley Dorsey, 31, on Belnord Street on October 18 of 2005.

It's a mockery of the bail bond system!
Defendants are ordered to post big-bucks bails, but the city's bail bondsmens' low low prices get them out on the cheap.

Fenyanga Muhammad tells Richard Sher that police shot him four times for no reason. Jablow: witnesses at the scene tell a different story.

Annie Linskey has more on the search for Terrance Randolph's three killers, including the detail that Don Papa Blake, aka Shamvoy Smith, "reached out to the Baltimore police shortly after arriving in the city in late 2005 and told them that he was from California and had plans to straighten out the city's gangs." Yesterday she detailed Jordanna/ Jiordanna Wagner 's taped testimony about how the three took Randolph to the basement of 1900 block of Division St. for "discipline."

Scary stat: Through March 31, Baltimore police reported 161 shootings in Baltimore — a 32 percent increase from the same time last year.

Spyware is letting stalkers take fucking with victims to a new level.

Once again, courthouse workers are protesting the filthy conditions.

Federal court judge Garbis: touching and tipping in PGC strip clubs doesn't lead to crime.