April 11

Rozza Alston, 29, of the 1600 block of Saint Paul Street, pled not guilty at arraignment today. He was criminally charged March 16, 2007 with attempted first degree murder, attempted second degree murder, assault, armed robbery and plain-old robbery. Court documents allege that on January 26, 2007 Alston accosted an elderly female victim in the parking lot of a Kentucky Fried Chicken located at 1821 Saint Paul Street demanding her purse. When the victim refused, he allegedly stabbed her numerous times in her hand, arm and chest. Police arrested Alston on February 3.

Jean Sierra, 21, of Owings Mills, MD pled not guilty at arraignment today. He was indicted by the Baltimore City Grand Jury for multiple counts of robbery, armed robbery and assault. Court documents allege that on January 16, at approximately 2:30 a.m. Sierra pointed a handgun at a group of three off-duty law-enforcement officers, (Jason E. Dietsch of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Virginia state trooper and bagpipe player Michael McCann, and a Marie Burkhead, all in town for the funeral of Troy L. Chesley Sr) with the intent to rob them in the 2800 block of O'Donnell Street in busy Canton Square. Police responded and searched the area and detained Sierra, who was then allegedly identified by the victims. Sierra remains held without bail at the Baltimore City Detention Center.

Speaking of the garbage problem, how great would that be if we could ban plastic bags.

No, it isn't an old headline... charges will finally be officially dropped against David Evans of Bethesda and two other Duke lax players indicted for rape and kidnapping in May of last year.

Rodricks: Community "call-in" urges criminals of the Western to get a clue.

PdJ: CarlCo's James Allen Gregory, 62, has been released from jail after serving 27 months of a 36-month sentence for a violation of parole in Washington State. Gregory violated parole by being hired as a handyman at the Rainbows and Reasons daycare center in Westminster in 2001, where he was charged with sexually abusing two 3-year-old girls at the day-care center and other locations and was given a 15-year suspended sentence. It's all very confusing.

Two people were killed by a white man in a basball hat during a Fredneck road-rage incident.

Baltimore Crime collectable: the "Baltimore City Police / Policing the City that Bleeds" patch. Notes the description: "This patch was designed by some of the Baltimore City Police Department Officers because of the high Homicide rate in Baltimore City. They feel they have no support from the Mayor or City Council, so this was a patch that was designed to show their displeasure with the lack of support."

USS Constellation a Fraudulent Frigate!

According to Wikipedia, Harborplace's USS Constellation is a fraud! It's not the first US Navy vessel to put to sea, as city plaques proclaimed to schoolchildren for 137 years, but an 1850's Navy war sloop altered to look like a 1797 frigate!
Oh, my.

A letter:

Just saw your post about the Connie. I used to work there as a shipwright. Although there are people who will swear with their dying breath that it's the Frigate Constellation built in 1797 (I'm doing this from memory, forgive me if I get the details wrong), general consensus, including the current management, is that it was a new boat built in 1854. There was some kind of Naval chicanery with the money from congress back in the 1850s—they weren't allowed to build a new boat, so they said they were restoring the old one, but they pretty much restored it out of existence. I believe there was a book written on the subject recently by a guy named Footner. During a major restoration a few decades ago, they tried to make it look like the original, and did a bunch of stuff that later had to be undone in the most recent restoration (1990s).

So Boston beats us on the oldest ship, with the Constitution, but the USS Constellation has some pretty cool history, including slave trade interdiction off the coast of Africa and running famine relief to Ireland. Seems harsh to call it a fraud, I prefer to think the people who believed it was the frigate were just misguided. One important thing—although it was altered to look like the frigate, it got altered back, so what you see there between the water taxi and the paddle boats is the 1854 sloop.

Still, when you look at memorabilia on Ebay and such, the older stuff will say "USF Constellation" with an F for Frigate, and the new stuff will say "USS Constellation" with an S for either Ship or Sloop, I can’t remember. There are any number of old armchair sailors who can talk about this for days on end. I tend to tune out after "Not the original? Okay."
More importantly, I made the mast in the middle at the very top after the last one was struck by lightning.
Cheers,

Chris L.
Former boatbuilder

April 10

A man died of a gunshot wound in the 100 block of S. Morely St. near Gwynns Falls Park.

Donta Madison, 31, was shot in the parking lot of the Rite Aid on West Chase Street near Martin Luther King Boulevard Monday night, and survived.

This morning, Judge John C. Themelis sentenced Keon Stokes, 29, of the 1300 block of North Carey Street, to 36 years in prison -- 30 years for second-degree murder, three years for use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence, and 18 months each for car theft and arson, and the sentences are to run consecutively. A Baltimore jury convicted stokes March 20, 2007. Say charges,

On May 1, 2005 Stokes, in a stolen vehicle, struck and killed Kurt Fulp, 20, while Mr. Fulp was riding a bicycle in the 1500 block of Presstman Street. Stokes fled the scene without stopping. Police responded to a call of a car fire later that day and it was determined the burning vehicle matched the description of the one that struck Mr. Fulp.

In the county, Rami Adana Martin, 24, was shot to death at 1:30 a.m. in the Pikesville area.

"It was a regular afternoon at Keeper's Market, a tiny neighborhood convenience store on Brehm's Lane in Belair-Edison. Miss Debbie was buying her scratch-off tickets at the front counter, the store owner was checking inventory in the beverage case and Miss Linda and a manager were playing video games in the corner. ... Then ..."

Salvadoran Deysi M. Benitez, right, aka Rosi Chavez, aka Estela Sedillo, is officially Missing, according to the FBI; aka it's unknown if she is alive or dead.


PduJ: Christian Marcel Liverman, 30, who gave his address as Towson University, is charged with the sexual abuse of a 16-year-old female student at Chesapeake High School.

Non-Profit Malfeasance Dept.
Johns Hopkins University has put a financial aid director on paid leave after learning she had received about $65,000 of consulting fees from a student loan company.

A radiologist who was kicked out of the University of Maryland Medical Center after he performed a Muslim ritual has filed a $30 million lawsuit against the hospital.

April 9

A man was fatally stabbed in the throat in Pigtown.
And a man was stabbed in the arm and leg in the 2300 block of McCulloh Street in Reservoir Hill.

Dept of WTF?!:
Sun's Sara Neufeld: The city school budget is full of errors, including an item that "shows $6.2 million in salary money to pay zero employees."

Gregory Eaton was the armed robber who died at Fantasies Nightclub after being shot by off-duty police. Alex Reiff was also shot and is expected to recover.

Project Exile continues to target felons with guns. Meanwhile, the Blotter lists a shooting Friday morning on W. Lexington Ave., an armed robbery on Friday morning on E. Patapsco Ave., an armed carjacking at a gas station on Glynns Falls Pkwy. on Friday evening, and a shooting Friday night on Ascension St.

Oh, and also in the Blotter... a 10-year-old girl was robbed of her candy at knifepoint while walking to school in Woodlawn on Friday morning.

A 30-year-old man was attacked and robbed while walking along Furnace Branch Rd. in Glen Burnie.

"Do I dare disturb the universe?" Not if I go to school in Harford County.

April 8

Word in our inbox from

Delegate Jill P. Carter
Next Mayor of Baltimore

JILL P. CARTER MAYOR
829 East Baltimore Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
443-927-9076
www.peopleforjillpcarter.com

Dear Friend
Baltimore or Baghdad: which is the greater American tragedy?

As of March 19, 2007, violence has claimed the lives of 47 Americans in Baghdad since the start of the year. During the same period, violence claimed 61 lives in Baltimore, Maryland - most due to gunshot wounds.

Thousands marched this past weekend to end the loss of life in Baghdad. By contrast, the cry of outrage in Baltimore has barely risen to the level of a whisper."

The Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Carolyn Redd of the 5500 block of Jonquail Avenue, and Lawrence Gee, of Monastery Avenue for the first-degree murder of Mary Page. Court documents allege Carolyn Redd, the victim's daughter and her boyfriend Lawrence Gee lived with Mary Page at her residence sometime before August 19, 2006. Court documents also allege the couple was asked to leave the home. Court documents further allege the couple was seen near Ms. Page's home around the time of her death. Arraignment is scheduled for April 9, 2007, before Judge Lynn Stewart, 215 Mitchell Courthouse. Assistant State's Attorney John Cox will prosecute this case.

He's Just Not That Into You Dept.
Former Baltimore Police officer Kabeer Din was found guilty of conspiring to have his girlfriend murdered. Din wanted her dead, says the NYT, because he feared she'd "report something that would damage his reputation with the [NY] Police Department." In spite of the spate damning evidence, would-be victim Sherry Nohar is standing by her man.

HarfCo SA Joseph Cassilly is joining the choir against the proposed anti-gang bill. Or he just wanted to use that metaphor, "pig in a swimsuit."

April 7

Three people were shot Thursday, all injuries were non-fatal.

PduJ: "An Annapolis man who is in the country illegally from El Salvador was sentenced to four years in prison yesterday for possessing pornographic images of minors."

Probation for Wayne J. Schepens, a former NSA employee accused of awarding more than $770,000 in contracts to companies in which he and his wife had financial interests.

Evening of April 6

Judge Wanda sentenced Donald Washington, 23, of the 1900 block of West Franklin Street, to 20 years in prison. More than two years ago, on October 27, 2005, Washington pled guilty to the second-degree murder of two-year-old Andrea Carroll-Butler. September 23, 2004 Washington beat to death Andrea Carroll-Butler, his girlfriend's daughter, at their residence in the 1900 bock of West Franklin Street. The medical examiner ruled that Butler-Carroll died as a result of blunt force trauma. Washington admitted striking the girl several times with his fist.

April 6

An 8-year-old girl was hit by two cars in Govans, but only one driver waited at the scene.

More on the police shooting at Fantasies Nightclub in South Baltimore that left one robber dead and one wounded.

A 12-year-old girl was left alone on a sidewalk in a strange neighborhood after city police arrested her father during a traffic stop in November.

Richard Cannon was arrested in Knoxville (Washington County) after attacking his estranged wife and sending her to Shock Trauma.

There was an armed robbery at a Frederick movie theater.

Two people jumped into the Glynns Falls while trying to flee police in West Baltimore.

Two armed men robbed a Wachovia Bank in Hanover yesterday morning.

Calvin Mcrae got nine years for smuggling heroin in jigsaw puzzles.

HoCo thieves, one of whom got caught on video, are stealing from unlocked cars.

Paula Anderson got 18 months for stealing $317,000 from UMMC.

Criminal justice expert Tyrone Powers loves Hamm but says he's gotta go.

In non-Baltimore news, today marks the 13th anniversary of the plane crash that killed Juvenal Habyarimana. His death led to the most efficient genocide in the history of humanity, during which Rwandan citizens were murdered at the rate of 5 per minute for 100 days. Rwanda is smaller than the state of Maryland, and the people are nearly all Christian. Many who sought refuge in their local churches were slaughtered by their local political and/or religious leaders.

April 5

Off-duty officers thwarted a robbery at Fantasies strip club in South Baltimore, and one would-be robber is dead.

Dating "troubled Tommy" tended to start out nicely with cards and roses, but things would go swiftly downhill from there.

Slots of fun: a tape of now-disgraced Senator Bromwell sounding very Sopranos as he riffs on the "big bucks" potential of casinos, slots and statewide OTBs.

Things that make you go ?: What's with a 25 percent difference between the level of robberies Comsat figures show in the City, and the figures State Police have?

April 4

Horrible: another Hispanic-family murder suicide, this time in MoCo! Mom is alive and found the bodies.
What is going on out there?

Don "Overkill" Papa of California's Bounty Hunter Bloods "denies that he bound, tortured, burned and suffocated Terrance Randolph, 19, in a West Baltimore house a year ago this month." But, "he admits he was drawn to the city's lucrative drug culture ... Pennsylvania Avenue is a freaking gold mine,' he said to police, according to court papers. He boasted that he made $180,000 selling drugs there one night. 'This is the heroin capital of America, ain't no more dope sold nowhere than right there on Pennsylvania Avenue. It's the largest open air drug market in the world for heroin." But take note, "... these gangs here are not even Bloods ... these are a bunch of Internet surfers ... none of these gangs are in allegiance with an official Blood set."

Skitzy Vitali A. Davydov pled guilty to killing Dr. Wayne Fenton in Rockville.

Pervs of the day: couple Diana Cornwell, 34, and her husband, Jesse, 32, who have been "accused of soliciting money for sex in an advertisement on a popular Web site - with her husband acting as her pimp."

PDJ of last December 5, Timothy Gounaris, will get 60 days after an Alford plea in the County.

For "the 13th time in 15 months ... charges have been dropped against a defendant accused of a homicide or other violent crime" in PGC. Wonder how often that happens in the City?

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake vows to persue a new law that would give police the right to evict home and business owners for having two nuisance violations in two years.

A protest in the Eastern is "another chapter" in the arrest of young Gerard Mungo Jr. A dull chpater, with lots of sign-waving and finger-pointing.

Baltimore History Corner: Did You Know? Somebody Rioted on West North Avenue in Baltimore in 1968 and busted up a pharmacy.

... Torts for Dorks
In District Court, Hershey Co is suing the maker of "Dork Peppermint Patty" stickers.

April 3

An unidentified man in his early 20s was fatally shot near the 3600 block of St. Margaret's St. in Brooklyn.

Mahmud Faruq Brent (aka Mahmud Al Mutazzim) a Baltimore man who drove a cab in DC, pled guilty yesterday in Federal court to attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.

Police are investigating the murder of 16-year-old Estefany Gonzales. Some of the girl's friends think she might have been killed by a stray bullet.

The family of William Thomas Parrish III knew he was holding a woman captive, but they were too afraid to report him.

Blood was found on Charles Eugene Burns' car that links him to 25-year-old murder victim Jennifer Lynn Blankenship.

Sheila D. is trying a "conflict resolution and violence intervention program" called Operation Safe Streets, which she hopes will lead to a decline in crime by election time.

The senate has approved expunging records for people who are arrested but never charged. Now what about the ones where charges were "abated by arrest"?

A month-long undercover investigation by Anne Arundel cops led to 12 arrests, four cars, two guns, and about $50,000 in drugs.

Fredneck:
The Latinos of Frederick are horrified by the murder-suicide family of five.
If they were white the story would be on the cover of this week's People magazine!

Former sixth-grade teacher Michelle Dohm was convicted of making bomb threats directed at five students.

Evening

Jemini Jones' Second Set of Charges Dropped
"Two months after a city jury acquitted a Baltimore officer of one set of rape charges, city prosecutors today dropped a second set of rape charges against him."
He faces trial again in two weeks for illegally carrying a handgun.

William Thomas Parrish III, 25, of Reisterstown, allegedly kidnapped, beat, burned, tattooed and raped a woman at his grandfather's house in Finksburg.

A man shot ot death in Woodlawn was ID'd as Jamar Mackie, 24.

Give 'Em Hell Zell!

Some fabulous media news-- the Tribune Co., (owners of the Sun) is going to be sold for real this time and will go private (as it should have been all along). So long, Chandlers... don't let the door hit you where the Good Lord split you!

The new owner, Sam Zell, is "bullish" on the news business and developing the Internet side of the Tribune's holdings, his soon-to-be papers report. He's baldish, gnomish, sent his brother-in-law to jail, and is fond of ducks, motorcycles, salty language and contemporary art. What's not to like? (Though the title "vulture investor" is a bit unsettling. And all that debt.)

More coverage: NYT

April 2

A 16-year-old girl, Estefany Gonzalez, was shot and killed on Friday night in O'Donnell Heights.

Andre McBride was fatally shot in the head on Saturday afternoon in the 6600 block of Knottwood Ct.

David Johns has been ID'd as the man who was fatally shot early Friday morning on Noble St. in the Southeastern.

Luke Broadwater at the Examiner looks at the month in murder: we have 9 more homicides than we did at this time last year, shootings are up by 24%, and lots of innocent bystanders are getting caught up in the killings.

Gina Fowler believes that her daughter, Jill Conklin, may have been murdered. Conklin's body was found by a fisherman beneath an I-95 overpass in Linthicum.

The autopsies are complete on the four children in Frederick.

Last night, two teenagers were shot, one in the neck and one in the back, on Loyola Northway in the Northwest.

Perv of the day: former NIH researcher McClellan Walther got four years for his child porn collection.

Hmmmm... has John Galt's true identity finally been revealed?

Answer to the "Trivia" Question

The Q was, until the mid-50s, Baltimore housing and school were was racially segregated by law and "negroes" could only live in three neighborhoods. What were they?

The A:
The East, West and South sides of town.
A PA librarian found this article, "The Transnational Contexts of Early Twentieth-Century American Urban Segregation," which in spite of the horrible title turns out to be quite a worthwhile read, full of interesting info. In it we learn that the law didn't dictate where "Negroes" had to live, exactly. Instead, "white" people segregated themselves into the gay-sounding "favored fan" of the North, and in 1911 the Baltimore City Council passed the West Segregation Ordinance* which apparently allowed neighborhood associations to have racially restrictive neighborhood covenants. However, of all the 1910's white housing projects, only Guilford's covenant (and possibly Northwood's, see comments) was in-your-face enough to specifically include restrictions on resale to Negroes in the home deeds (a tip Olmstead et. al got from real estate developers in Chicago).

The U.S. Supreme court struck down racial real-estate covenants in 1917, so in Baltimore racial housing segregation was on the books for just four years, though the "marketized system of urban residential segregation-- along with its consequences for unequal access ... and unequal exposure to toxins and the criminal justice system-- remains virtually unscathed."

ps. Why did the same real estate developers who didn't want to put racial language in the deeds for Roland Park feel more emboldened for their next construction project? Apparently July 4, 1910 was Jack Johnson's victory over white boxer James Jeffires, who came out of retirement solely to prove "that a white man is better than a Negro." Jeffries' loss incited white people to riot nationwide, and local whites ("officers of neighborhood associations, letter writers and signers of petitions") brought pressure to lawmakers address the "Negro invasion."

April, Fools!

On the dock this week:
Tomorrow: Jemini Jones' second rape trial is scheduled to get going (presumably at 9:30 a.m.) at 236 Mitchell.
Also Sean Braxton, accused of robbing plainclothesed HoCo policemen.
Wednesday, no fewer than six murder trials are scheduled to begin, along with the usual.
The Schedule:

Chris Andrew Ward double MURDER TRIAL part 45 (robyne szokoly)
Kendrick McCain (juv, 15, charged with light rail murder) MURDER JUV TRANSFER HEARING 228E (paul oconnor)
Leshawn Green (pizza parlor murder, att murder) TRIAL part 46 (diana smith)
Roy McMillian, BPD Raid, gun and drugs part 45 2:00pm 236M (jason silverstein)
Dean Crater, 4B01859834~Murder 1st~ARRG~Judge Welch~Rm 228E~Don Giblin, ASA (forced entry along w/another person & fatally shot Arnilo Handy in 2nd floor bedroom)
~Paul Highfield, 6B01860480~Murder 2nd~Prelim Hrg~Hargrove~Rm 2~8:30 (CO-DEF DESTINY D'URSO, MOM ACCUSED OF KILLING 2 YR OLD, SON ANTHONY D'URSO)

Friday the 6th, the SA's schedule notes,
Child-murderer Donald Washington is DISPO (? Giving a disposition?) with Julie Drake
and Vivian Day is due on 1st-degree murder charges. Day is accused of wrapping the body of her lover, Nelsene Burnette, in plastic and leaving it in the closet of her apartment for three days.
Blarfghhhh.

March 31

Murders #70 and 71: Pelvin Derrien, 23, of the 6800 block of Sturbridge Drive was killed during what witnesses say was an attempted robbery (though nothing was stolen). And an unidentified man was shot on the 3400 block of Noble St. March 30.

Parents of a 14-year-old Kevin Cooper, who was fatally shot last August 12 by a police officer in his Southwest Baltimore house last year, have filed a $25 million wrongful death lawsuit. Police say Cooper was attacking the officer with a broom handle, the boy's family said he was unarmed and "never put his hands" on the officer.

...more Did You Know?

A librarian in Bethlehem, PA (thanks to the Maryland AskUsNow librarian chat function, in which an actual person will answer your reference questions for free!) found this article about Baltimore's "racial geography" by one Carl H. Nightengale at the Department of American Studies in Buffalo, NY. It's pretty long, though, so I haven't had a chance to read it yet!

C Love was kind of right, Upton was/still is I guess a black neighborhood, as confirmed from this site by the government... at least from 1910 on. But:

In 1900, the Federal Census showed the neighborhood to be entirely white (except for a few black servants) and probably of German-Jewish origins. By 1910, a major racial change had taken place; the 1500 block of Druid Hill Avenue, for example, had only two white families in that year.

Now how did that happen?

March 30

38-year-old Clarence Johnson was the bank robber who was killed during a shootout with Anne Arundel police.

While being questioned for the murder of Allen Coates, Lamont Thomas Harrell was linked to the murder of Andre S. Jones.

The body found in Linthicum on Wednesday has been identified as 23-year-old Jill Marie Conklin, and the ME reports no outward signs of trauma. Also, a woman's body was found in Randallstown, and has been tentatively ID'd as a woman whose missing from the city.

Holy cow! Witness testimony works!

Perv of the day: Salisbury resident / former youth coach David Lee, who was sentenced to five years for his child porn activities.

When I was 8, it never would have crossed my mind to beat up a 14-year-old.

HoCo police arrested 25 alleged dealers in Columbia, but didn't learn much about anything above street-level dealing.

Goodthink of the day: "When Big Brother is watching, people have a tendency to try to do the right thing." -- Kenneth Harris, 4th District, Baltimore City Council.

A senior citizen was charged with grand larceny after shoplifting at the Super Fresh in the Northern on Wednesday.

A Bel Air man was arrested in Wisconsin for allegedly stalking pop singer Michelle Branch.

Did you know?

... that before Cherry Hill became famous for attresting white people for asking directions, it was founded as a community for African-American World War II veterans?
"Trivia" Question: Until the mid-50s, Baltimore housing and school were was racially segregated by law and "negroes" could only live in three neighborhoods. What were they?)