#BaltimoreProblems

Three murders this weekend,* all on the West side: Brent Nickens, 22, 2300 block of Westwood Avenue on Friday night, and an unidentified person in the 800 block of Brooks Lane on Saturday.  And a 24-year-old Thomas Rawlings was stabbed to death on the 1800 block of Fulton Ave. (seven blocks away from Westwood Ave) Fenton notes these murders come after 12 days of murder-free relative peace. (Fenton retweeted a victim picture, loso_badazz, to the left, but not sure yet which victim it is. #BaltimoreProblems)

Yet another Spectator article* addresses what that original gun charge was for and how his head got shaved (though I still wonder what those charges from CA were). Here's a question: if you found out you were wanted on a warrant and wanted to contact a defense attorney to help you turn yourself in, who would you call? assuming Jill Carter wasn't available.

Police are ISO the woman to the right, who they say mowed down a man in her Mazda on Frankfort Ave and fled the scene.

In pervy news, a dorm aide at the School for the Deaf is accused of touching three girls. And a man in Worcester, MA, Geoffrey Portway was arraigned after he and a guy in Kansas conspired to kidnap a Baltimore boy (among other things). And Ian Duncan writes about the Baltimore law firm that's helping parents of victims of a Delaware pediatrician* accused of molesting nearly 900 victims.

The WSJ visited Shock Trauma

In the County an off-duty officer was shot outside of a party in Overlea

A teenager was shot in Middle River*

County police are ISO the bald guy on the left, wanted for robbing a Woodlawn Shell station

Firestarter

A string of bizarre fires in Upper Fells set by a unknown arsonist who apparently doesn't like Hondas.
(Link fixed, thanks non)

Sausage parties, gay trollies and football

RT @baltimorepolice: Homicide detectives are investigating a stabbing that occurred overnight in the 1800 block of N. Fulton Ave.
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) December 7, 2012

Four people were shot night-before-last*

Sheila Dixon will be in court today for a probation-violation hearing*

Senator Lisa Gladden (D-41) in the courtroom, either for moral support or may have a trial of her own? Donald English representing Dixon!

— MrGiordano (@MrGiordano) December 7, 2012

The poop-storm of robberies continues in the SE, this week's Baltimore Guide collection includes the mugger who said "thank you," an escort forced to drive her her home by two suspects who then robbed her, a woman robbed after she refused to buy food for a guy lurking around a carryout.

Marc Steiner had a sausage party last night to talk homicides (which I guess is cool, given most perps and victims are also male), guests included Fenton and Guglielmi, here's a link to the podcast.

In other sausage party news, The Daily Beast has yet more deets on the Kevin Clash case. (Wonder if they'll phase Elmo out, the whole scandal rather tarnishes the brand, no?) Here's a Jezebel/Gawker summary if you don't want to read all them words.

Down in Greenbelt, the 4th is hearing the case of Anthony McIntosh, a prison guard accused of failing to get medical help for inmate Ronnie White.


More bad speed cameras-- imagine that, a profit-driven corporation cutting corners to maximize profit. Now the one on University Parkway has been demonstrated to have given out a ticket to a car that the camera tracked at 45 mph but was actually going 7.* Yes, 7. Meanwhile last Saturday Xerox/ACS closed down three lanes of Cold Spring to test the camera there and found no problems. Hrm. Last month a state audit found that Xerox/ACS didn't test the cameras before installing them using the standards they were supposed to, and didn't perform calibration checks once they were installed.

A prisoner, Brian Dargan, is being charged with attempted murder after shooting an officer in the leg at St. Joseph's hospital.

Two CV appliance-booglars, Chambers Agurs and Derrick Moffatt, were in court yesterday; both agreed to the statement of facts but pleaded not guilty and both got time served, were ordered to pay restitution and got two years of supervised probation (which Steve G. notes costs the supervisee $75 a month), though now Moffatt (caught red-handed toting a refrigerator door) wants to appeal.

Can we quit acting like it's an isolated incident when people who get beat about the head for a living turn out to be a touch mental? Anyway, happy purple Friday, some Raven got his guns taken away after being accused of domestic violence by his babies' mom.

Also in North Baltimore, five stolen government cell phones, a stolen 1988 Oldsmobile, a burgled yoga studio (how many yoga studios are there in Hampden these days?), a stolen marriage certificate.

The owner of an Annapolis trolley company says he'll shut down rather than be forced to trolley same-sex newlyweds. Note that discrimination against sexual orientation has been against the law in MD since 2002-- guess this Matt Grubbs guy was cool with same-sex hand-holding tourists so long as they were still second-class citizens when it came to marriage. Speaking of marriage, the coverage of the issuing of licenses here has been notably blase, compared to the excited tone of coverage in WA. .. I called down to the courthouse, where a guy named John told me six marriage licenses were issued for Baltimore city yesterday, and that the reaction around the state was similarly underwhelming. (In contrast, Seattle issued about 400 licenses yesterday.) But this is sweet: curmudgeonly traditionalist Frank Conaway Sr. told Pat Warren, "I’m going to see that if the court wants to open on New Year’s Eve, I’ll be here at 12:01. If they want to get married, I’ll be happy to do it." Aww! 

Down at Ft. Meade, the commander who made Bradley Manning stand at attention while naked will take the stand. 

Eenteresting Tweet from Fenton: Oakland has now been put in receivership, which will put it under the purview of a federal judge, a compliance director, and technically also the plaintiffs of its 12-year-old lawsuit if the plan is approved next Wednesday. It looks like it's the first police department ever to be in such a situation, and as the KQED story notes, none in this troika of bosses is actually responsible for running the department.

Sweet gay schadenfreude

Big fat sexual predator Shawn Nolan,* who worked at Hazelwood Elementary/Middle and insperminated a 15-year-old "won trust of parents and students," convinced everyone he was a doctor when he was, in fact, a hall monitor. Buck-passing ensued.

Justin George (the Bible-Tweety Justin) writes about the Warrant Apprehension Task Force, notes that the city does indeed have 50,000 open warrants* at a given time and has arrested 291 people so far this year (wait, is there a zero missing there?), at the top of the list the "most dangerous and accessible targets."

Today in BaltoSpectator news, Ian Duncan ("the only reporter who's listened to Monday's hearing,"  sniffed Fenton à Twitter) drops the nugget that MacArthur was committed for a competency evaluation* (which I believe he's copped to in the past, said it was the result of a false domestic-violence accusation from a vindictive paramour).

The local authorities are ISO Travis Lee Wildes, a prisoner who walked off a work detail and who should be relatively easy to find given the humungous flaming skull etched over his gullet.

Same-sex marriage licenses start getting issued today down at 628 Mitchell-- good Lord, Frank Conaway is not only going to have to do work, but work on behalf of gay people--ass-draggery shall achieve new pinnacles of excellence. (Actually, expect that tomorrow, after the reporters leave... nobody wants to make a bitchface on teevee.) I swear I just heard Adam Meister cackling.

Down at the City Council, MPC introduced a bill to ban cell phone towers on schools and rec centers. I can dig it.

Down at the 4th in Richmond, a re-hearing of the crisis pregnancy center case. New York has a similar law that is similarly on hold as of July 2011.

No bail for the Spectator

No bail for the Spectator after "lively" hearing*; AF James MacArthur told a Fox reporter the sawed-off shotgun found in his house was planted. Meanwhile the CEO of Spreaker is puzzled that police didn't try to shut down MacArthur's feed and that it's still on his site. IMO it's much to the BPD's credit that they didn't.
(Jason Yerg's negotiations reminded me so much of -- don't flame me now-- the counterintuitive points about leadership in Malcolm Gladwell's "What the Dog Saw." Leading with a calm and abiding presence, patiently waiting out a subject's tantrum. "Breathing even and deeply—rather than holding your breath—can mean the difference between defusing a tense situation and igniting it. ... Certain people, we say, 'command our attention,' but the verb is all wrong. There is no commanding, only soliciting." ... of course, it never hurts to have a giant battering ram as backup.)

Speaking of, why are state Democrats trying to appoint someone convicted of gun charges to Tiffany Alson's seat?

Tavon Barnett

Police are ISO Tavon "Twin" Barnett, 19, right, wanted for the murder of Terrance Seale. Police say he's got got teeth, is 6'3" and has been known to hang out at the Cockeysville WalMart.

Well, there's a puzzler-- yesterday that "schmuck" got 35 years for murdering a witness; now one Anthony Hooks has gotten 55 years for pointing a gun at a civilian and a police officer.

A double stabbing on E Baltimore St shut down The Block*

A man was mugged for $300 in Remington

Police broke up a mob of teens hanging around outside Mondawmin Mall yesterday evening

Broadwater: city officials knew of ferkakta speed cameras four months ago, chose to ignore issues, and Walter Ave. speed cameras also miscalibrated*

"Little Italy Bocce Figure Charged with Fraud"

Police say County double-murder suspect Bryant Walls posted comments re. his marital strife on Facebook (Walls' page has now been taken down).

In Hoco, "The trial of a man charged with murdering his wife and then burying her remains under a shed in the back yard has been postponed"

OMG-- in Glen Burnie a woman was raped, stabbed, and forced to shop at Food Lion-- she was able to alert employees, who called 911

Hairron's gewin downy euchin

Schmuck sentenced

Thirteen-year-old Sarah Elizabeth-Kay Matthews, right, has been missing for three weeks, call police if you see her.

Tyrone Alson was indicted for first-degree murder (and pot possession/intent to distribute charges) for allegedly shooting his girlfriend in the back of the head in the 2600 block of Guilford Avenue, the shooting was caught on camera (yet even though police had him in custody on the drugs charges, they let him out for 11 days before they charged him for the murder, a big puzzler).

An acquittal in the murder of James Ingram, 46

Thirty-five years for Tavon Davis, the "schmuck"* who killed Isiah Calloway* to keep him from 'snitching' after his lawyer leaked to Davis that he was a witness*

Ten+ years for a 60-year-old heroin dealer

In the SE, a woman was robbed, bit and doused in bleach by her ex, another woman bit and robbed of her Coach® purse, and a man double-robbed by suspects in a Ford pickup. At a meeting at Max's Taphouse a police commander claimed there have only been 30 robberies this year in the SE. Uhm, maybe a zero was missing there? I counted 225 robberies just through May in the BmoreGuide SE Blotter archives...

Ian Duncan on the phenom of mailing pot,* Rodricks says half of the arrests in the NE US are for pot; the Morgan shooter had 16 baggies of it*

The city's lawyer filed a protective order* to prevent former Deputy Mayor Christopher Thomaskutty and current Chief Information Officer Chris Tonjes from answering questions from a lawyer regarding the city's $675k phone-and-computer purchases

The Commander of the Northern blames the Black Guerrilla Family for the doubling of the homicide rate (t)here; shootings are also up 31 percent. FWIW Northern District Deputy Major Richard Worley, Senator Lisa Gladden and Delegates Sandy Rosenberg, Nathaniel Oakes and Jill Carter will be at the RP Civic League meeting Thursday at 7 at the RP Presbyterian church at 4800 Roland.

James MacArthur @baltospectator is now showing up in the Md. inmate locator should anyone want to track him ow.ly/fOoRO
— Ian Duncan (@iduncan) December 4, 2012

A mortgage fraudster from Owings Mills got 35 years in the can*


Three crack dealers arrested in AAC

'the crude shorthand of the poor and violent city'

Joel Hopkins, 28, has been charged with the shooting in Brooklyn yesterday

A worthy cause: AT&T gave $300k to UB Law's center for Families, Children and Courts and truancy court program.

A teen was caught in Stoneleigh after stealing a minivan from the city and ramming a police cruiser with it.

Church official: we swear we didn't know about the Merzbacher abuse allegations* until 1988; case has renewed the push for effective abuse-reporting laws*

Rodricks writes about the murders of brothers Audie Mickens and James Johnson*

A woman was mugged in Waverly

Stolen in the Northern: a dog, a bunch of bikes, Japanese cars*

Baltimorean Bryan Benway was arrested for impersonating a police officer in AAC

Burglars have been hitting HarfCo and county Verizon stores

The mess that was this weekend

An allegedly crazy mom allegedly killed her two-year- old daughter son in the 1400 block of Broening Highway in the SE. 

Soon after The Baltimore Spectator was peacefully taken into custody, a man was fatally stabbed in the 2000 block of Monument St and a guy was shot while driving in the 2000 block of Charles St

And while said Spectator was barricaded a guy shot a would-be robber in the foot in the 100 block of North Potomac Street 

Two people nonfatally shot in Brooklyn

Two people, Okemia Lastezia and William Henry Cunningham, were stabbed to death in Parkville, in Solar Circle and Venus Court off of Perring Parkway.

And I guess after the Spectator locked up his house the police done busted in, because they found a sawed-off shotgun and ammo in his house* resulting in some new charges. He's being held without bond.

must have bagpipes

This situation. This negotiator. A tale told in Tweets. Lots and lots of Tweets. Here are some:

10hBaltimore Spectator ‏@BaltoSpectator

the polive have found me 

its about to be over ... I could die tonight. Thanks for tuning in ...My final thoughts for now will come in several parts. It's directed squarely at my fake, white, liberal friends. Particularly the gays... To the same people who've jumped up and down for the longest time crying about "dignity, fairness & equality," I knew you were full of it. ..If those things were truly such a concern. Why is it when it comes to others, ur all silent? Cuz ur selfish and fake. Nothing more to it. ... remember my funeral wishes ...

I stated them clearly in the show other night. must have bagpipes ... I am not afraid, but my family deserves better... my daughter deserves better. baltimore deserves betteer ...remember to tell my daughter I love her ... my story has been laid out there. now you will see how it ends. thanks for ignoringme baltimore sun. good job fenton ... proof, u need proof, why so many cops staged outside my position???? that proof enough???

Gus G. Sentementes ‏@GusSent

BPD swat probably responds to several barricade situations every day. Very common, most end calmly. Only difference tonight: it was a show.

Gym Carrey ‏@_HustleMarsalis

This dude is having a tweet-up with Baltimore City Police.

Damon Dorsey ‏@damedorse

I don't know enough about @baltospectator situation to really speak on it BUT I will say he is effectively using social media right now!

W. E. B. Deepthroat ‏@FeministaJones

This entire thing was about him getting attention and having people hear his complaints. It worked.

Justin Fenton ‏@justin_fenton

"This is a ratings bonanza," he says. "It's 10:57. Let's wrap this up for the networks." Sigh.

rolandsmartin ‏@rolandsmartin

Hey @jillpcarter. your client James MacArthur @BaltoSpectator is about to get arrested by Baltimore PD. So go to the police station

Justin George ‏@justingeorge

Do not have vantage point of spectator's door. Officer confirms he's in custody peacefully. #BaltoSpectator

5hMichael A. Wood Jr. ‏@MichaelAWoodJr

@BaltoSpectator The Sergeant out there has reached out to me. You have no excuse. He's a good man of God.

Sterling ‏@sterliwirl926

@MichaelAWoodJr thanks! Great team effort.

And a Twitpic.

... still not clear on what was it is he was wanted for. Failure to appear from 2009 "and another for subsequent failure to appear in court, according to court records, and the situation was ratcheted up after police said MacArthur made threatening statements to officers over social media." says Fenton, but which statements (and which gays? ... and no, he wasn't on the 11 o'clock news.

Update: a concise summation from Ed Ericsson ("police were taking MacArthur #serious"), also helpfuly cites a 2010 Fenton story that splains MacArthur's orginial charges and why you can't find em on the JIS (it's under 'Frank McArther').

Another shooting at Morgan

... a suspect is in custody

Think of the children!

Justin Fenton ‏@justin_fenton

Nelson Ave shooting of woman: was waiting for her sister outside club. Motive unclear; has record. Targeted or carjacking are poss motives

Justin Fenton ‏@justin_fenton

Northwest now up. [at COMSAT meeting] Say homicide on Boarman Ave has been closed with arrest (news to me). Homicide says its believed to be drug related

Last night's public COMSAT meeting is also available online, but it's two hours long, so maybe just read the Fenton story.*

A murder conviction for a guy who wrote a jailhouse apology letter to the family of victim

Two guys from Parkville got into a knife fight at Market & Lombard @ 2 a.m. this morning* causing a melee

A guilty plea from real-estate fraudster Alexander Sivels II, involved in Patterson-Park area "liar loans" with a company called Royal Real Estate

poor kid.

This just in: the westbound Cold Spring Lane speed camera is also a bunch of crap. If the city's going to be picking people's pockets can't they at least build a footbridge or even just a decent crosswalk for those poor Poly kids who have to cross that road? The citystate has made exploiting people's concern for kids into a fine art-- a state-sanctioned version of that gypsy scam where a woman throws a baby at you while her accomplice picks your pocket. But speed cameras/gambling/credit cards for education administrators are for the children! Won't somebody please think of the children?!

SA Gregg Bernstein dropped by Westport, told residents to keep calling police and that he's developing some kind of nuevo holistic drug thingy involving gardening or something.

And BatchGeo has your happy-pinwheel Pigtown crime map

In Towson, groping burglar Ricky Bostic has been charged with additional skeeves/thefts*

Brave patriot Bradley Manning testified yesterday, described forced nudity and a "shark-tank environment" at Quanitico. In violation of military law, guy has been held without trial for 921 days.

HBD Northwest Citizens Patrol,* which I guess is like Shomrim but goys can join?

Ding dong! Same-sex weddings can happen starting at midnight on Jan. 1

.. is that legal? Person claiming s/he got an STD from a MICA student plasters posters around town

The Truce on Drugs

Still pondering "The Truce on Drugs" -- could it be that murders are creeping up again because Batts isn't vigorously applying Bealefeld's strategy? And/but to what extent was that strategy applied to begin with? A cursory perusal of "inputs" at Central Booking still shows that CDS (Controlled Dangerous Substance, aka drug) arrests still shows made up a good 1/3-1/2 of the top charges-- if that's deprioritizing, holy shit. The OpenBaltimore data also shows 48,870 arrests for 2011, vs. the 65,000 the article asserts ... but even if there were an extra 16,000 undocumented arrests and none were CDS, that's still 25,813 arrests between Jan of 2011 and August of 2012 where drugs were the "top arrest charge." Still, shootings do appear to be way down, and that's something: 381 last year, vs 725 in 2000.

Good gracious, mere days after Andre Littlejohn was arrested for viciously abusing his two-month-old daughter, 20-year-old Dion Kearrie Ware is being charged with murdering his one-month-old son, Kearrie Dion Ware on Monday. (The Sun says he was 7 weeks, but still*) WTF, people? Babies just lie there, if they're annoying you can just go to another room! BTW if you're feeling overwhelmed as a parent, even if you don't feel like you're about to lay a smack down, I can't recommend enough calling 1-800-4-A-CHILD. It's 24/7, completely anonymous, staffed by really sweet trained social workers. And if a baby is crying there is absolutely nothing wrong with putting the baby in a crib and going outside for a minute.

Sad: the murder trial of James Cureton/Careton, accused of killing Tanise Ervin in 2011, was postponed -- both sides were prepared, family members and Mary Pat Clarke were in the house, but a judge could not be found. Also, there's a Judge Carrion in the city.

Also, Thomas Lee Meighan Jr., who got 13 years* for the hit-and-run vehicular homicide of 20-year-old Hopkins student Miriam Frankl, is trying to get some "post-conviction relief." In addition to the Frankl case he had nine previous DUI convictions and also pleaded guilty to another hit-and-run (!!) and got a suspended sentence for that (!!!). You may recall that in the Frankl case* a half-dozen people called 911* to report his wild, drunken ride from Highlandtown to Charles Village the city to Bel Air (with a break to pee on Patterson Park), but police ignored all of the calls.

A former city police officer/former RN was arrested for the shooting in Parkton that was called, at first, a "hunting accident"-- the shooter, Richard Heymann, says he intended to fire a warning shot but accidentally plugged the guy in the thigh.

A woman was stabbed in Owings Mills

Ew, in Edgewood a 27-year-old former employee of the city schools is charged with raping and impregnating a 15-year-old who he was supposed to be giving "therapy" to.

Former Orioles third-baseman Doug DeCinces has been charged with insider trading: 42 counts of securities fraud and one count of money laundering

Thirty years for a guy who robbed and murdered his quinquagenarian drug dealer

Missing teen Tyler Grimes was found

A man in Barclay was robbed while unloading groceries (reported as if that doesn't happen, like, every other day)

The Towson murder of Alsawab Sawab, 27, was reportedly "not random"

School crimes kept in-house

A former city school cop says crimes are kept off the books inside city schools.  Principals are doing all the dirty work.

'this scar was invisible because it was on his soul'

Must read: NYMag on "The Truce on Drugs: what happens now that the war has failed?" ... Which uses Baltimore as the prime example of said failure/truce, and details FHBIII's relatively radical shift away from drugs towards guns. Holy crap, in 2005 in our city 108,000 people were arrested-- one sixth of the entire population arrested in a single year. Now only 1/10th of the population is arrested every year!

The Ink recounts last week's six murders

Really? a UC Berkeley study claims Baltimore is the country's 17th most "under-policed" cities,* and Fenton sez puts the cost of crime at $3,400 per citizen (don't see where that figure is in the study and dunno how they came up with it, but here's a link to the study if you want to try to figure it out).

A woman was shot in the leg in a drive-by shooting near Langston Hughes Elementary*

An Owings Mills woman claims she got a beatdown from four men during a "road rage incident" on Thanksgiving

In Cumberland, Jerod Pridget, a 20-year-old prisoner from Baltimore was beaten nearly to death in his cell*

A drug courier from Czechoslovakia, Dmytro Holovko, is one of the latest defendants v horké vodě from the Brown organization,* which you may recall is a violent pot-smuggling group with ties to Jamaica and Mexico, implicated in the grisly murder and dismemberment of alleged cash courier Michael Knight of Woodlawn.

Van Smith profiles William Bond, nee William Crockett Rovtar, a guy who killed his dad with a hammer in Ohio as a teen and now is crusading against perceived corruption in the local judiciary.

Today in Kevin Clash news: Gawker re-enacts the scandal with Spiderman and the Derpy Doo "My Little Pony" ("the bad things he did with Elmo scarred him, like when you skin your knee on the sidewalk, only this scar was invisible because it was on his soul"), the ravenous bottom-feeders at TMZ tell us Clash's nom de boudoir was "Mr. Tickler" (plus a whole lot more, which I shall now repress, lalalala) and New York magazine reports on Sesame Street's ace crisis-PR team, which includes the former CEO of Newsweek and a flak from the H. W. Bush White House. ... but srsly, what should the penalty be for a 40- or 50-something who engages in frottage with a 16-year-old? It's not right and it's not okay, but it's also not like molesting a 10-year-old either, exactly. ... FWIW, the age of consent in NY is 17.

y dis staberris a making my tung numb?

Awful: sperm donor Andre Littlejohn has been charged with abusing his two-week-old daughter, who had bleeding, burned genitals and rib fractures, but is fortunately still alive. At the tender age of 23, Littlejohn already has three teardrop tattoos.

Fenton digs into a massive drug conspiracy* that involves/d millions of dollars, heaps of watches, garages full of cars, ties to Milton Tillman Jr., cocaine-stuft strawberries and about $8 million for the Feds.

Stranded on death row: O'Malley is reportedly planning to try again next year to abolish the death penalty in MD. While the majority of the U.S. still supports it, says Gallup, that support is at its lowest point since the 60's.

Another robbery/shooting in Justin George reports that the vicinity of Greenmount Avenue has had eight shootings in the past month,* including two murdered 16-year-olds. (Though note he's including as far south as the vicinity of the 1000 block of Greenmount, which is way down by Eager St., and also including as far north as 27th and Boone, a mile and a half away-- so that's not particularly surprising/unusual.)

Who's terrorizing the Quakers? Friends School today had its fourth bomb scare of the year.

Another carjacking on York Road near Homeland, this is the third one in that area since July. Lock ya doors!

Victim's advocates hope that the Merzbacher case will lead to stricter mandatory suspected-abuse reporting requirements.* Apparently there are reporting requirements, but there's no penalty for anyone who doesn't follow them. ... of all the lame excuses: "[Archdiocesan] spokesman Sean Caine said the church didn't realize it was obligated to report the allegations when it first learned of them."

The BPD is opening a COMSAT meeting to the public, the first one is this Thursday at 7 p.m. at 3500 W. Northern Parkway.

The Patch's "Rouge's Gallery" includes three male teens arrested for jumping a boy for his Chicago Bulls hat and two guys arrested for robbing people they'd just sold pot to.

Another Thanksgiving stabbing, just hard about this one: in HarfCo a brawl between two guys with the last name of Carter; one Carter stabbed the other Carter in the face, then dropped his pants and said "You want to know how it feels to be raped?"(Jezuz, not on top of the turkey!) then threatened witnesses with a handgun when they tried to call for help.

Tyler Grimes

Police and family are ISO 15-year-old Tyler Grimes of Milford Mill, if you see him call county police.

A shooting today in Parkton, though police say it might be a hunting accident.

Furry TV Creatures

So a third Kevin Clash accuser has surfaced, and this one's writing a book (and holding a press conference and also filing a lawsuit for to get some amount of cash). Why didn't any of these guys go to the police? ... Apparently while NY has no statute of limitations on prosecuting first-degree child sex assault involving victims under 16, there is a five-year SOL for second-degree a/o non-forcible abuse that starts when the victim turns 18. Clash's latest accuser is 29, accuser #2, Cecil Singleton, is now 24 (and claims he and Clash "dry humped" but didn't swap fluids 'til Singleton turned 18). The first accuser, Sheldon Stephens, is now 24 (and apparently available for totally pointless interviews).

Did you ever wonder why, when you called Katz Insurance, they didn't check your credit? Because Hal Katz was (allegedly) pocketing your cash! Katz Insurance has lost his license to insure in MD after the Insurance Administration uncovered some sketchy dealings, including $795k in missing money. And now his creditors are suing. RIP, Katz Insurance ads ... don't let the door hitcha where the good lord splitcha. 

And over in the Chillage, Steven Gewirtz is keeping tabs on trials forthcoming.

'a problem with the elastic in her underwear'

Aw geeze, in my absence we got up to 202* murders, which Cham has helpfully documented on her page. We've now surpassed 2011's total of 197, 2010 was 223 homicides; 2008 was 234; 2007 was 291; 2006 was 274; 2005 was 269.

Justin Fenton

Homicide clearance rate as of today: 32% for cases this year, 46% FBI UCR rate (this yr cases plus prior cases that were closed this yr)

Cherrie Gammon

A federal conviction for murder and racketeering for Tyrone "Roland" Johniken, aka Hassan Muhammad, involved in a heroin ring based out of "The Block" and involved in the murder of (alleged informant, mom dancer and addict) Cherrie Gammon. The DOJ's PR also reveals that the third conspirator in Gammon's murder, "Miami," was one Gary Cromartie, the Sun's story reveals that Gammon was also involved in a relationship with an unnamed city officer.* ("According to documents in the case, the officer Gammon had a relationship with was later involved in a raid on a building that was used by the crew and Johniken's residence. But whether Gammon was cooperating with police remains unclear.")

Down at police HQ, an officer accidentally shot himself during roll call

Friends School on Charles St. enjoyed its third bomb threat of the school year.

Robberies/assaults in Fell's Point include a woman choked unconscious, a guy stabbed in the stomach and robbed after leaving a nightclub (El Oasis?), and a victim assaulted by a group of people after calling out a shoplifter at the Family Dollar. Anecdotally it seems like there are not just more robberies lately and they're becoming more brazen and violent, probably best to not leave the house until sometime after Christmas.

A dad is in caliente agua, charged with kidnapping after stuffing a kid who was bullying his son into his car.* So many Baltimoreans, so few conflict-resolution skills...

Merzbacher

Still waiting on a decision in the Merzbacher case from Richmond; the former Catholic-school teacher/gun-toting child rapist is appealing his conviction claiming he was not informed of a plea deal by his counsel. Judge Prevas, rest his soul, threw out a prior appeal after finding that Merzbacher's now-dead convicted-felon lawyer was not a credible witness. In the meantime Tricia Bishop's got more horrid Merzbacher/Catholic School tales to tell,* including a recounting of court documents that prove that the church knew of the claims at least as early as 1974, plainly contradicting Archbishop Lori's ridiculous assertion last month that church officials didn't know a thing about the allegations until 1988. Liar, liar, vestments on fire. (Baltimoreorless has a collection of non-paywall "Merz" stories if you want to read more.)(... and people wonder why I refuse to give to Catholic Charities, gahh!)

Retired police chief FHBIII will be teaching at Stevenson University's* newish Criminal Justice program

A man was shot to death in Towson

In Annapolis at Thanksgiving a woman stabbed her half-brother in the neck with a serving fork, and in AAC a woman stabbed her boyfriend while he was trying to leave her crazy ass.

Media blabber: whilst driving down south I was fascinated to learn that central Virginia has not one but two weekly newspapers, $1 each, that publish almost nothing but mug shots-- Gotcha! and Crime Times. A convenience-store clerk told me Gotcha! sells more, possibly because the back of the paper also includes a list of all of the restaurants that have health code violations. It's a bit unsettling that it's comprised of pictures of people who have been arrested but not indicted or convicted of anything, mistakes do happen and some of the arrests are as petty as "allowing dog to run at will." But wonder if Baltimore could support such a newspaper? @40,000 arrests a year, that's a lotta trees. (Baltimore does have a page of health-code-violation closures, but it appears to be out of date.)

Elmo out!

An overnight shooting in Woodlawn

Carl Snowden was found guilty of a misdemeanor drug possession charge*

An unrepentant illegal dirt biker got 165 days in prison

Justin Fenton ‏@justin_fenton

Robberies reported recently in SE District, anecdotally, seemed high. Stats: Total over last 30 days was 44% higher than same period last yr

Oh no! Kevin Clash has resigned from Sesame Street - a second accuser, one Cecil Singleton, has come forward claiming he had sex with the puppeteer when he was 15, almost 20 years ago, and ps. he wants $5 million. (Why have both of these accusers gone to Clash's bosses at Sesame Street or to TMZ, but not to the police?)

TSA agent Michael Scott Wilson got two years in prison for possessing child pornography

In HarfCo, a homeowner stabbed a would-be robber