Horrible things done to children dept.

Lazara Arellano de Hogue was found guilty of vehicular manslaughter and six other counts in Towson this afternoon and is scheduled to be sentenced November 16 for the death of three-year-old Elijah Cozart. Judge John Hennegan deemed it "the most unsatisfying" verdict of his life.

In other bad news about kids, Venable LLC on behalf of Baltimore’s foster children has asked a federal court to hold the city accountable for "failing to reform its foster care system as promised" in 1988.

... the 1984 lawsuit alleged that pervasive abuse existed within the Baltimore foster care system, including improper placement of children, substandard health care and sporadic caseworker visits.

Bummer stat: according to advocates, there are 55% fewer foster homes for children than there were six years ago.
Update: More on MD's foster-care nightmare from the Sun's Lynn Anderson.

Interesting Q raised by this NY Mag piece, "Saving Justin Berry" (remember him?): should it be legal for journalists to download child pornography in the course of reporting a story?

November 5

Broadwater's Examiner monthly murder roundup gripping, informative

Two teenagers were shot this weekend, two men were shot in the Southern and Northwestern Districts.

MVA employee* Candace Nicole Green, got 19 months and car-dealership employee Ana Maria Lorena Creque got 30 months in prison for conspiring to produce and sell Maryland driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.
*I'd assume she's now a former employee... but then again They Say it's really hard to get fired from a state job...

City police arrested an a-hole in HarfCo after he rammed a police cruiser in the Southeast and led them on a chase up 95 to Bel Air.

As women get out of the sex trade, more drugs need housing. And another rehab story. All part of a Sun series on Baltimore's epidemic of hookers and HIVvies.

Carol Ott's got some justified criminal activity

Not Baltimore Crime but whatever dept.
Eww... more beef recalled due to poop germs!

Prosecutors who locked up "American Gangster" heroin dealer Frank Lucas say movie is a "bunch of lies"

November 2

Ten years for a crack-dealing couple; 10 for a gang member's illegal firearm; a guilty plea for cocaine base (is that different from crack?) down at the federal courthouse today.

Francis S. Lee, the alleged drug dealer who allegedly ran over two detectives on 33rd Street October 31 was ordered held without bail this morning.

Julian Collins, who berated judge Handy, got 50 years for a 2000 killing.

Two teenagers, 17 and 13, were shot in the right shoulder at around 9 p.m. last night in the 4000 block of Barrington Road in Gwynn Oak.

QTD= Westboro Baptist organizer Johnathan Phelps on the group's media strategy: "Let me put it to you this way: How much money (do) you think it takes to pay for an ad that says 'God hates fags' in The Baltimore Sun? I've never bought any advertising, but it takes big bucks from what I've heard."
Related: "Reversal likely in protest verdict"

Real Estate:
Did Colliers Pinkard breach their listing agreement when they brokered the sale of the office building at 300 E. Pratt Street?

Should ground rent holders be compensated for changes to the law?

I'll be away this weekend. Please don't burgle my house. Thanks.

November 1

A man was shot to death last night in an alley near Park Heights and Woodland Avenues. (thanks PP)

The man shot in Barclay yesterday has died.

Three shootings last night within less than an hour:

the first shooting occurred at about 9:50 p.m. when a man was shot in the face in the 2900 block of Woodland Avenue in northwest Baltimore. About 10 minutes later, a man was shot in the stomach at the intersection of Monument and Montford Avenue. A third man was shot multiple times about 30 minutes later in northwest Baltimore.

Blotter: A 16-year-old girl was kidnapped on Milford Mill Road about 11 p.m. Monday and released unharmed in the city; on Tuesday a man was shot in the arm during a robbery in Hanlon Park; a man was shot in the 800 block of N. Fulton Ave. about 1 a.m.; Two males, ages 14 and 19, were each stabbed in the stomach about 8 p.m. yesterday in the 1900 block of Etting Street.

The driver of what JZ called the "gold Infinite" that mowed down two officers was arrested yesterday afternoon in Bolton Hill.

It's WTF?! Day! (well, that's every day... but today is extra effed!)
How horrifying is the Elijah Cozart case? Lazara Arellano de Hogue's defense attorney reportedly apologized to the victim's parents. "I’m really sorry ... I just have to do what I have to do."

"A Baltimore City police cadet has been suspended while detectives investigate whether he was involved in the armed robbery of a McDonald’s in Parkville."

And the parking ticket scandal gets worse: contrary to city officials' claims that the bogus tickets were an isolated incident, a parking agent says that she reported habitual fake-ticket writing by an agent in 2005, but the city’s Department of Transportation did nothing about it.

Well, that's a relief: "A Maryland judge’s groundbreaking decision to disallow fingerprint evidence is not spreading like wildfire through the court system — at least according to a Baltimore County ruling Wednesday."

Sisters are doing it for themselves! Dealing drugs, that is.
Meanwhile, local law firm Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll has lost its attempt to halt a gender discrimination claim.

Snacks, a Honda, a Chrysler, an oven, range, dishwasher, washer and dryer & a weed trimmer= crap stolen in the Northern. Plus muggings as gun- and knife-point.

In St. Mary's County, trial is beginning in the case of Cory Ryder, a teen who tried to hire a hitman to kill his mom.

Quote of the Day

"I saw this show on CNN, with Anderson Cooper. Cats were talking about 'Don’t snitch, no matter what happens.' I can't see how a guy can be considered strong if he lets a bunch of assholes walk all over him and he doesn’t respond, just because of some code that a bunch of idiots have cooked up ... the street guidelines are just moron bullshit." -- Original American Gangster Leroy "Nicky" Barnes

October 31

An unidentified man was shot in the head in the 2400 block of Brentwood Ave. in the Barclay neighborhood.

Alexander Robertson-El, 24, was shot to death last night in the 700 block of Bartlett Ave. in the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello ("CHUM") East Baltimore Midway neighborhood* (thanks Burger).

One or perhaps two police officers working undercover were run over during an attempt to arrest a drug suspect in the 900 block of East 33rd Street this afternoon near the YMCA, the driver is still at large.
Reported JZ, "A gold Infinite matching the description of the getaway vehicle plowed into some parked cars ... [police are] in the process of getting a search warrant to see if anything was inside the Infinite that crashed."
Everything's inside the infinite, man!
UPDATE: A suspect has been arrested, and JZ edited their charming typos out of the story. What a shame!

The Ink identifies victim Christopher Burden and has updates on other cases.

Only in Baltimore would a 16-year-old getting shot be relegated to a three-sentence blotter item. Also not worthy of a whole story: a Molotov cocktail in the Southern (my, those are popular!), a man shot in the foot in the SE.

Details of yesterday's shooting in Loch Raven; the body found in the minivan a few days ago has been ruled a homicide.

That's a good question: "How does a 15-year-old find himself in possession of a .44 Magnum?"

Jim Kraft wants the City Council to have the power to pass new gun laws.
You're not getting any new gun laws until you use the ones you have, young man!

Albert Snyder won $10.9 million from the Westboro Baptist Church.

*Neighborhood maps have moved here, in the form of massive PDF files

October 30

A man died of gunshot wounds near the Mt. Pleasant Golf Course in Loch Raven.

The teenager shot by an officer yesterday has died and was identified as 15-year-old Ralph Simmont of the 7900 block of Scotts Level Road in Randallstown.

Did you know? "Hospitals are not required under Maryland law to report domestic violence cases when they don’t involve children or gunshot wounds."

Parking ticket scandal: "“They still have quotas, but they’re not called quotas, they’re called ‘expectations’.”

The case against the Westboro Baptist Church has gone to the jury.

The hit-an-run case against Lazara Arellano de Hogue, currently Towson's most-hated woman, continued with a witness who testified that de Hogue drove from Goucher Boulevard to Loch Raven Boulevard and then to Regester Avenue, got out of her truck and got back in. Yesterday another witness testified that the boy's legs were sticking out from under the truck. WTF?

In Annapolis, Christopher Haarhoff pleaded guilty yesterday to helping his grifter mom murder her boyfriend, Frank Fertitta, and set his body on fire. Wow, that is one messed-up story!

October 29

WMAR is reporting that a body was found in the back of a minivan today at the Garden Village Apartments in the 5900 block of Radecke Road.

Police-involved shooting #30 was a youth who allegedly brandished a handgun when stopped by an officer. He's alive and in hospital. Died at Sinai Hospital.

TDR's Liz Farmer goes "Inside the War Room: Baltimore's plan to keep repeat offenders off the streets: is it working?"
(that headline needs a colonic!)

A 35-year-old man was shot in the right leg near Waverly Elementary school; a 17-year-old was shot in the right leg by a passenger in a red Cadillac in the Southwest.

On Saturday an "uncooperative" 18-year-old was shot in the arm on Hollins Street. And plenty of robbery and burglary in the Blotter.

More on the suicide of murder suspect Damon Smith, who threw himself out of a 10th floor window at Mercy Medical Center.

Senator Verna Jones fighting gangs with Christian rap, acronyms.

In the county at Woodlawn High, a catfight led to a 14-year-old girl being pepper-sprayed, and trips to the hospital for 20 students.

The Sun and the Examiner both cover the "die in" story-- which is better?

Stat from the Children's Defense Fund: "Blacks are five times as likely to be incarcerated as white youth for drug offenses."
(Why do they capitalize "Black"?)

Weekend

Twenty-six year-old Coppin State student Veronica Fludd was stabbed to death Friday morning in West Baltimore, her ex-boyfriend, Damon Smith, has confessed to killing her.
Update: Damon Smith died Sunday morning of self-defenestration.

This just in: Witness intimidation remains a problem. (Wonder if MD, like NJ, won't relocate witnesses with criminal records?)

Federal investigators have seized property belonging to Michael K. Lewis, accused of illegally filing bankruptcies for clients.

What the?! Drunk Dad Runs Over Daughter, Flees the Scene

Feel-good story: A. Robert Kaufman is getting a kidney!

October 26

An unidentified 23-year-old died after being shot in the neck and face in Brooklyn on Wednesday.

A 19-year-old was shot in the Hillen neighborhood and is in serious condition; a 15-year-old selling candy for school was robbed, stolen schoolwork, foreign coins, car radios and GPS systems in the Blotter.

Jessamy and Cummings are taping a PSA "encouraging anyone who witnesses a crime to come forward with a guarantee they will be protected."

Euch! PDJ = Morton Ellin, 77, of Pikesville, who lost his medical license after he admitted to engaging in “inappropriate sexual contact” with a patient "about 100 times." The "patient" says that he injected her with a sedative, and she didn't protest because she feared he would have her committed to a psychiatric hospital. Jezum crow!

In case you were wondering why it seems like every jour there's a perv, it may be because RJR is prosecuting more of them.

More on the fingerprint-evidence controversy.

The victim's family is glad to have the body of victim Nancy Riggins recovered, but the HoCoPo is unhappy with how detectives obtained the information.

More on Sunday's "die in" (if they want people to see it, why are they having it on a day when no one will be downtown?)

There's something you don't hear about every day: a molotov cocktail thrown into a Roland Park back yard.

Headline of the day: "Teen held for setting classmate's hair on fire"

In Laurel, a girl was abducted from a church and sexually assaulted.
Speaking of child molesters, here's a nauseating tale from AAC of child rapist Karl Johnson, released again and again.

In AAC, police are looking for a bank robber-- with a vag!

October 25

Two men were shot in separate incidents last night in the South and Northeast.

There's shocking, and then there's completely, utterly bananas: Judge Roger Brown sentenced Janice Jones, 27, and Dakia Frazier, 23, to time served for driving a woman to the police station and ordering her to recant an incriminating statement against Frazier's boyfriend, who's in jail for robbery and attempted murder. Unfreakingbelieveable!

Blotter: The man found in a burning car October 15 was named as Henry Mazyck, 39, of the 300 block of N. Kresson St. in East Baltimore.

The Ink has names, details of murders from October 15-19.

An armed robbery suspect hung hanged himself at Central Booking.

The Examiner lets parking-ticket victims share their horror stories.

The NAACP, Justice Maryland, Associated Black Charities and other groups are holding a "lie in" this Sunday-- they hope to have as many volunteers as official murder victims sprawled in War Memorial Plaza, each holding a number corresponding to a victim.
Wacky fact: "if Baltimore had New York's murder rate, the city would see just 29 murders per year."

County ISO Robbers

The County is looking for suspects (and odds are they're in the city, don't you think?). First is Jerome Willis, left, who robbed an armored car with an accomplice and then drove off and left his buddy on the sidewalk! At right is an unknown suspect who robbed the bank branch inside the Giant on Loch Raven & Taylor Aves. in Towson on October 17.

October 24

Update: alleged baby-killer Billy Martin was re-arrested last night.

A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment (whatever that is) yesterday charging Steven Stone of Frederick and Jessie Dorsz of Walkersville with conspiracy to commit witness tampering for murdering federal witness David Lee in 2005. They both face a maximum sentence of death.

The October 19 death of Qur'ron Holloway, shot in the Lowell Liquors incident, was reported by police.

What the @#?!: "The Baltimore parking agent accused of writing dozens of bogus tickets is still on the city payroll, officials confirmed [yesterday]."

Prosecutors have dropped all charges against Latoya Renee James, a Central Booking guard accused of participating in a ring that stole inmates’ credit cards and ran up charges at Target and Wal-Mart.

"A suspected Bloods member who was allowed to walk out of court — despite an open warrant — has been arrested. But the case of Gary Watson, 20 — charged with participating in a riot at the Inner Harbor — is indicative of how administrative breakdowns hurt Baltimore’s efforts to serve 44,000 outstanding warrants, law enforcement officials say."

Blotter: A woman was carjacked and kidnapped in Reisterstown*; Marco Smoot, 28, was arrested for the murder of Lucy Hazel on August 28; George Scruggs, 34, was arrested for killing Darnell Thomas on August 29; burglaries & robberies.
* Wouldn't you think this would warrant a whole story? Has kidnapping become that common?!

The civil trial of the Westboro Baptist Church began yesterday with testimony from church members and the father of Marine Matt Snyder.

In HarfCo, Harold J. Tulley, a former assistant state’s attorney who screwed clients out of some $2 million, faces 300 years in jail.

Not Baltimore but irresistible... a 9-year-old girl escaped a perv in a VA Wal-mart with a swift kick to his gonadular area

Organizers on Facebook of the event, "Wear Black on Friday Oct. 26 For Justin" [ (Warfield, 18 of Columbia. HoCo, who OD'd on heroin in NJ) have a stipulation for participants:

READ THIS! IMPORTANT!
DO NOT REPLY TO ANY MESSAGES OR EMAILS FROM PEOPLE ASKING FOR INFO ABOUT THIS HORRIBLE EVENT. THEY ARE NEWS REPORTERS ASKING FOR A STORY. ALSO, THERE WERE NEWS VANS PARKED AROUND THE SCHOOL CAMPUS ASKING FOR STUDENT INTERVIEWS. DO NOT TALK TO THEM.

The media has already made lies about this, so don't give them anything so they will drop the story.

I wonder how many addicts OD'd in Baltimore City last year? because I haven't heard about a single one!

Baby Killer Escapes!

County police are looking for Billy Conrad Martin, 25, shown right, who walked away from a work detail at the county detention center. He was indicted in October for killing his five-month-old son, Calob (sic), who died after Martin allegedly hit him in the head and no one in the family sought medical attention. Three other family members are also charged.
Update: The Examiner reports that Martin was on the work detail because officials hadn't been informed he was charged with murder.

Idiots Acting Stupidly Dept.

Har! A Loyola sociology professor's ill-conceived assignment to have students act "outside of societal norms" led to a student's detention and an evaluation at Union Memorial.

A drunkard got home detention and three years' probation for assaulting a flight crew on his way from Arizona to BWI.

Murder Indictment, Robbery Sentencing

The Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Michael Blackwell, 28, of the 1700 Abbotston Avenue for first-degree murder. Court documents allege Michael Blackwell is responsible for a shooting incident on September 4, 2007 in the 2500 block of Garrett Avenue. Davon Qualls, 17, was found in the unit block suffering from gunshot wounds to the head. Qualls died from his injuries at Johns Hopkins Hospital the same day. An arraignment is scheduled for November 13, 2007 before Judge Martin P. Welch, Room 228, Courthouse East.

Today Judge M. Brooke Murdock sentenced Jerome Holloway, 36, of the 2500 block of W. Fayette St. to 25 years in prison for possession of a handgun and attempted robbery, the first five years served without the possibility of parole (if she hadn't specified that, when would he have been eligible?!). A city jury convicted Holloway August 20, 2007 of attempted robbery with a deadly weapon and possession of a handgun by a prohibited person. Details:

On November 1, 2006 at approximately 2:19 a.m. the victim had been at Greenmount and Preston Streets in his car. Holloway appeared at the driver’s side window and asked if the victim was hacking and then pulled out a silver and black handgun, got in the car and said, “You know what time it is. Give me your money.” The victim gave up his money, but took off with Holloway in the car at a high rate of speed, eventually crashing. The victim escaped, called police and gave a description of Holloway. Police caught Holloway a short time later and the victim positively identified him as the person who committed the robbery. Assistant State’s Attorney Kristen Hitchner of the General Felony Division prosecuted this case.

October 23

Witness intimidation is alive and well in the Northwestern.

Judge Souder's ruling that partial fingerprints were inadmissable in the murder trial against Bryan Keith Rose "virtually overturns 100 years of jurisprudence with respect to the admissibility of latent fingerprint evidence," and led to the trial being postponed. Rose is charged in the 2006 murder of Warren T. Fleming, a merchant at Security Square mall.

There was a cutting at Woodlawn High School yesterday morning, and not the good ol' "cutting class" kind, either.

Paul Stephen Riggins didn't kill his wife, but he somehow knew where her body was.

If you don't want to get hit with an attempted murder charge, don't try to run down a HarCo cop.

Huh. An unscrupulous attorney. Who'd'a thunk it?

The trial against alleged Westfield Annapolis Mall shooter Javaughn Norman Adams began today.

Gary Watson, the alleged Blood who walked out of the courthouse a few weeks ago, was re-arrested last week.

Cameras may be coming to the county.

Huh. An unscrupulous city meter maid. Who'd'a thunk it.

October 22

"Honey, do you know this guy?" Police officer Andre Robinson hooked up with a married woman while on duty in the NW, then shot her husband in the legs after he came after them with a crowbar. Jayne Miller reports that it's not clear if Robinson knew the woman was married.

The Blotter's back!
A man was assaulted on Woodbourne Avenue, a grocery store burgled, a handicapped person's Plymouth Voyager purloined, a man stabbed in the back in Essex, more than two dozen firearms stolen in White Marsh.

Last week's legal news, courtesy of TDR: Microsoft antitrust claims can proceed, lyin' lawyer Jerold K. Nussbaum was disbarred, the CSA decided that a rape defendant’s rights were violated when the state put a mentally disabled alleged victim on the stand but did not allow the accused to cross-examine her, parents who withdrew their child from a private school have to pay tuition, interest and fees, even if the school incurred no loss.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church go on trial today in an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit filed by Albert Snyder, the father of a Marine killed in Iraq. Meanwhile, church members spent their Sunday picketing the Baltimore Basilica.

The Guardian Angels are back and saying they're planning to patrol the Eastern District. Wait, haven't we seen this story before?

PDJ: Daniel Cuneo, who got 5 years 5 months in jail for arranging sex for clients with underage girls in the Philippines.

Weekend

Big Ideas:
One you may have heard before: the crime decline of the '90s was related to the elimination of lead in gas in the 70s.
One you probably haven't: avoiding criminals by disguising yourself as a vending machine.

Killadelphia's crime-fighting volunteers are about to get training to patrol the streets for 90 days, and Bodymore waits to see what will happen.

(Alleged) PDJ = Nicholas J. Arminio.

Arminio surrendered his New Jersey teaching license in 1994 after two female students separately accused him of inappropriate touching. The state of Maryland didn't know that when he applied for teaching credentials and took a job at [Eastern Technical High School,] in Baltimore County. He eventually resigned and lost that license, too. Even so, until this month, he was coaching football at another Baltimore County high school [Perry Hall High] in a job that does not require a teaching license. After the AP started asking questions, he was fired.

Arminio claims the Toms River, NJ allegations were made up by teenagers seeking attention.

Sure, smoking kills more Baltimoreans than violence or drugs... but gunshot wounds don't have that cool, smooth flavor.

HoCo is offering 5,000 clams to whomever can find gas station robber Terrence Edward Boone, 24, and his 14-year-old accomplice Shawn Timothy Crockett (they're from Baltimore of course).

Most of the hijacked diesel fuel stolen on Friday was recovered from an underground tank in Washington.

Sad: A MD state trooper, Sgt. Pride T. Rivers, shot and killed himself Saturday morning on the corner of West South and South Bentz streets in Frederick.

News of the Weird: Money magazine "just ranked Mount Vernon as one of the top 35 best places to retire."

Thought-provoking headline: "Methodists Meet to Evaluate Transgenderism, Starting With Baltimore Pastor"

October 19

At about 2 a.m. an officer in the Southern found a man shot to death in the driver's seat of a Ford Explorer in the 4200 block of Audrey Ave., and
The shooting reported here yesterday on Walbrook Avenue turned out to be a fatal one, and two suspects were apprehended after a car chase.
(But if the shootee is dead, how can we know they didn't consent to the shooting? After all, sadomasochists sometimes like that kind of thing... Thanks Galt)

A man walked into Lowell Liquors in the 3200 block of Woodland Ave. (near Park Heights Avenue) last night and shot three men ages 19, 20 and 29. The 19-year-old was treated and released, conditions of the other three are unknown.

Police are still looking for Emory Lewis, left, wanted for the September 8 murder of Felicia Spratley.

Nationwide, "the Supreme Court’s decision to review the constitutionality of lethal injection procedures has slowed the annual number of executions to the lowest level in a decade."

Dwayne Price, 18, was charged yesterday in connection with the rapes of an 88-year-old cancer patient and a 73-year-old woman in South Baltimore in September of 2005.

Four federal child pornography cases have led to the indictments of Larry Cordell of Frederick and Stephen Michael Gayer of Baltimore, a guilty plea from John Ray Manning of McHenry and a 30-year sentence for Fabrice Snowden of Edgewood.

Parking tickets are big business for the city! Says Janis, "In current fiscal year 2008, the city expects to write $12 million worth of tickets and collect $8 million in fines."

Speaking of big business... OC ho's busted
(wow all these online ho's could keep a department busy! <-don't open that link at work)

Lt. Col. William H. Steele of AAC was found not guilty of aiding the enemy by loaning an unmonitored cell phone to an inmate in Iraq, but was found guilty of unauthorized possession of classified documents, behavior unbecoming an officer and failing to obey an order. More details here.

Remember MoCo cracker-hater Quinton Thomas, whose "REAL TALK" to a wrong address got him convicted of the fatal shooting of Stephen W. Kelley? He was sentenced to life without parole.