Monday, January 16, 2012

Arc of Justice Long, Bending

Death penalty opponents are rallying in Annapolis today.

Occupy Baltimore is rallying at the proposed site of the new juvenile justice center.

CC president Jack wants to rein in spending on police training programs.

A Dundalk man got stabbed in the head when he tried to break up a catfight.

The roof of civil rights landmark Read's Drug Store has collapsed.

Ship employee (one site says a "pool boy") is accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl on the Enchantment of the Seas.

The Sun's Yvonne Wenger revisits patricides past in a not-very-enlightening article. Wonder what Nicholas Browning looks like/is doing these days.

Friday, January 13, 2012

"Jews can get away with anything in this city"

A man was shot at the B-More Chicken and Seafood carryout

The man who got away after one Manuel Imel attacked police as they arrested him was re-arrested.

The family of the first man murdered this year, 62-year-old Bruce Royster, has asked for the public's help to solve his killing. Royster was an accountant.

The woman accused of having her estranged husband Lee Martin killed has entered an Alford plea*

The teenager who was accused of killing a teacher at Cheltenham pleaded guilty*

Yes, I'm sure you're probably sick of the Conaway chronicles. BUT... Meister reports that Belinda is still taking that tax credit on her Randallstown home. And check out the comment David Anthony Wiggins left on his blog.. oh my. "I stand behind my statement that Jews can get away with anything in this city. I also stand behind my statement that Frank should have popped your ass. ... Gregg Bernstein, a Jew, is violating the Civil Rights of the People to equal access to the courts and denying the Right of the People to appear before the Foreman of the Grand Jury, and he is being protected on a federal level by Rod Rosenstein, a Jew, in his criminality."

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Stop Shooting. Start Living.

SRB has a thing for attracting baffling slogans. First there was "only a punk would hurt a dog," which left you wondering which kind of punk... like a punk rocker, or an Ashton Kutcher target, or a pirate peg boy? Then there was "I was drunk. Was it my fault?" an anti-rape campaign that sounds like a pro-drunk-driving campaign. Now comes "STOP SHOOTING. START LIVING." which sounds an awful lot like a certain European Sony campaign. Can one not have a rich, satisfying life and a little shooting, too? But anyway, the point is, Operation Safe Streets is back, in which convicts are paid to broker peace and help connect at-risk youth with services. The initiative has been controversial in the past, because, well, the city is paying convicts, and results are hard to quantify. In 2009 a Safe Streets worker was wounded at a memorial BBQ while hanging out with the notorious Blackwell brothers, Bodie Barksdale's nephew was a Safe Streets outreach worker (for better or worse), and last year, SRB yanked funding for the program after suspicions surfaced of possible ties to the Black Guerrilla Family, though no one from Safe Streets was ever charged. But if you're an established 501(c)(3) interested in running your own Safe Streets program in your neighborhood, there's a $375,000 grant on offer. But therein lies the rub... if you're an established 501(c)(3), how would you know all those criminals?

Flying bullets, Yorkie

Two shootings in Cherry Hill*

A woman was shot through her patio door in the Harford-Echodale-Perring Parkway neighborhood

Trial scheduled to start today for Lee Edward Stephens, one of two prisoners charged with stabbing David McGuinn to death in 2006.

Lead investigator in the Mary Hare murder was arrested three years ago* for not following his sargeant's order, reports Fenton

The Ink has last week's five murders

Immigration lawyer David Agatstein pled guilty to helping immigrants commit marriage fraud

Occupiers succeed in saving woman from eviction, for now

Counterfeit bill passed at the Charles Village Pub

A drive-by purse snatching in the Northern

A mugging with a piece of wood, a machete attack, an engine block stolen out of a parked Chevy and threatening gestures with a spacke knife in the Baltimore Guide blotter

Indictments for "D", "Peaches" (real first name = Tyeast), William Alvin Darden and Keith Eugene Daughtry for a scheme to transfer almost $1.4 million out of the Baltimore Housing Authority's bank account.

A man went to jail in the county after he threw his pet yorkie off of his balcony

A century in jail for 28-year-old Jason Scott of Upper Marlboro, a former postal worker* linked to more than 50 burglaries, nine home-invasion robberies, carjacking, production of child pornography, gun theft, and gun-related charges. He's also charged with the killing of a mother and daughter in Largo. "He told investigators that he was inspired by the movie 'Bullet,' starring Mickey Rourke and Tupac Shakur."

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Bernsteinorama

Bernstein speaks! Not one but two articles out today about his first year, one with TDR's Ben Mook (subscription required) and another from the Sun and Tricia Bishop*, who Page Croyder says misrepresented her words.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Evicted Occupy to Occupy Eviction

Less than a month after eviction from McKeldin Square, Occupy has moved on to a new thing, the group plans tomorrow to occupy a home at 1433 W. Lombard St where the resident is scheduled to be evicted. Property search shows the home was acquired by Deutsche Bank in August, in 2006 it was flipped by one Jui Fan-Lee Yang.

Twenty-one years in the slammer for a Mississippi truck driver who caused four crashes in MD while hopped up on "bath salts"

A reader/blogger has procured an org chart of the Baltimore FBI field office, if you are interested in that sort of thing.

3, 4, 5

The third homicide of the year occurred Friday when 27-year-old Doral Hinton was shot to death in the 2400 block of Ashland Ave. There were also plenty of non-fatal shootings as well.

Virginia resident Raymon Parrot, 35, was shot and killed in the 4100 block of Mariban Court while visiting relatives Sunday.

A 2006 beating turned into a 2011 death, which has now become 2012's 5th homicide.* Joseph Curtis, age 65 at the time of his death, is counted in this year's tally. His attackers have already been tried for the crime.

The Skateworks rape trial has ended in acquittal. Davon Perry, 26, was found not guilty on two counts of rape while deadlocking on sex offense charges, leaving the opportunity for a re-trial open.

The City PD and the ATF are working together to solve the heinous murder of 84-year-old Mary Hines.

A Maryland man is in hot water for trying to join a Somali terrorist group.

A Towson liquor-store robber got 10 years in the Federal pen. 27-year-old Edward Sample was exiled after pleading guilty to the 2009-2010 robbery spree.

Another Baltimore criminal was exiled for the next decade. Darryl Carter, 48, got his prison term after being caught holding a gun while riding a bike down Oliver Street.

And yet another ten-year term for another Baltimorean. James Bridgeforth, 38, was given the parole-free term after copping to bringing in heroin from India, Ghana and Peru.

Finally, 15 years at Club Fed for Roger "Tink" Ford. Ford was a major player in the Gilmor homes drug conspiracy.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Rapes, Robberies, and More Rapes. 2012 is Really Starting on a Low Note...

A serial rapist has been arrested for, surprise, surprise, rape. Nelson Bernard Clifford Jr. age 34, was arrested for a series of rapes, including one where he broke into a woman's house and raped her while her children were nearby. Clifford, a convicted sex offender, had been charged with sex offenses 3 times prior, as well as having been indicted for failure to register as a sex offender multiple times. Clifford beat his last rape charge back in September.

A possible robbery turned into a very definitive shooting in Glen Oak. A man was shot in the back Friday night at the 5700 block of Chinquapin Parkway.

Police are ISO a perv who raped a transgendered teen back in November. Though, with his face being plastered everywhere, it should only be a matter of time.

30 years in prison for the death of a County teen. Jason Gross, 37, was given the 30-year term for the murder of Rochelle Battle, despite the fact that her body has yet to be found.

Finally, several charges were thrown out in the last day of trial in the Skateworks rape case. Several charges were thrown out Friday, including first degree rape and assault charges. But after deliberating for several hours the jurors were not able to come to a decision.

I decided to take a trip to the Circuit Courthouse in Baltimore County Friday, to watch a few cases and just generally get a feel for how the county courts were handling cases. I bore witness to a bevy of cases, some interesting, some not so much. I managed to miss all the cases I had wanted to see, including the sentencing of Jason Gross, and the trial of Jeremiah Edwards, who was facing car theft charges, but more importantly was indicted for a Dundalk murder late last year.
I had completely forgotten that the Skateworks trial was going on, and sure enough, I walked into what I thought was a random jury trial, and instead found out to my surprise, that I had in fact walked into the closing statements of the Skateworks trial. I was both horrified, because I had up until then done a good job of burying my head in the sand about this case, and disappointed, because the state had done a very weak job of presenting their case against Davon Perry, 26. Although I had only been to the final portion of the trial, I got the sense that, had I been in the jury box some 10 feet away, my confidence in giving a conviction would have been sub-par a best.

But my trip to the courts wasn't entirely horrendous. I did catch the sentencing of Andrew Palmer, who if you may recall, was the man who made headlines for faking seizures at restaurants to avoid paying his tab. Palmer was on trial for... faking seizures! This time, at a local Applebees. Unfortunately for Palmer, his case was heard by the Honorable Judge Sherrie R. Bailey, who is by far my favorite judge now, after her non willingness to let repeat offenders walk. And golly, Andrew Palmer was a repeat offender, with, and I quote the prosecutor: "a 116 page criminal record" Palmer has been around. Around so much, in fact, that he was caught in the act due to the fact that a paramedic who responded to the scene recognized him from a prior fake seizure. The only line of defense Palmer offered before sentencing was the fact that he has been held since June on these charges, and last Friday he had supposedly "been nearly beaten to death by an inmate serving 127 years without parole." Of course, the great Judge Bailey wasn't interested in his sob story, and gave him the maximum, 18 months.

Friday, January 6, 2012

#2

Fenton Tweets: "Breaking: 84 y/o woman who died in fire yesterday morning had been first stabbed multiple times, autopsy finds..."
WTF?! Story here*

And WBAL has pictures of Jerome/Bootsy and friend, the Bolton Hill kidnapping home invaders. Guglielmi says it took police so long to release pictures because of the holiday weekend.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

'They brought a toilet and a megaphone'

Adam Meister takes to his blog now that "this part of the saga is over." ... check out this clip he found from the Afro-American, June 1972: Frank Conaway charged after hitting his wife and putting her in the hospital! On one hand, neither I nor Adam had been born when this went down. On the other, I get the sense it was not so easy to get charged with wife-beatery 40 years ago.

Abduction on Jordan Street

A Bolton Hill man was abducted on Jordan Street, taken on a tour of ATM machines and then left in some bushes on North Avenue*, minus his wallet, iPad, cellphone, gym bag and grey 2011 Infiniti SUV.

Remember the Walmart bleach attack? Now the alleged victim in that case, Ebony Odom, has been indicted for reckless endangerment and second-degree assault.

Murders may be down in the city, but they're up in the county

Lots of car-related crimes and a robbery at King Wok in the North Baltimore Patch blotter. In the Northern District, a 30 percent increase in shootings and a 22 percent increase in commercial robberies in '11, say police.

Kooky video of the day
: Adam Meister stroking his cat and Frank Conaway jumping out of bushes in WBAL's report about the conclusion of the latest installment of Days of Our Conaways.

Seriously?! Down in DC, 75-year-old Marion Barry is running for re-election.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Who'll pay for it?

The Maryland Court of Appeals has ruled that indigent defendants are entitled to public defenders at all court proceedings including initial bail hearings*. Public Defenders say they don't have the resources to do it.

No charges in Conaway kerfuffle

... for either Meister or Mr. Conaway. But Meister will surely face ¢harge$-- the "frail white boy" hired Warren Brown as his attorney. As for old Frank's firearm permit, his lawyer says it wasn't expired and the charges were based on clerical error.

The Ink recaps last year's 196 murders, with updates on cases. In case you were wondering, Belair-Edison was last year's most murderous neighborhood.

And what the hell? Video of balding man attacking cops is making the rounds. WJZ identifies him as Manuel L. Imel. Blame it on the alalalalalcohol!:

#1

Aw geeze, it seemed like we were going to go four whole days into 2012 with no murders, but it was not to be. The first victim of the year is reportedly a 62-year-old man shot in Park Heights last night. *

The Ink details last week's four murders, plus updates

In the County, a girl gang-raped at Skateworks identified one of her attackers* -- she was 12 and he's 26. Blargh. One of the other attackers, Kadeem R. Santiful, 19, plead guilty, and the other, Tracey W. Hankins, 15, was moved to the juvenile justice system.

Oh Conaways, you so crazy! Frank Senior pays* $3,640 in back taxes

Three men (including Thomas Jefferson!) cop to stealing $2.6 million worth of metal through a fence-hole at the Port of Baltimore. Sounds like Peanut is still at large.

A sexagenarian M&T trader pleaded guilty to stealing $223k from her former employer and one of its trading partners

Donor Richard Stewart pleaded guilty to failing to pay employment taxes, so the guv re-gifted his contributions to a group that shoots deer for the hungry.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Hermann: 80 percent of perps had it coming

Life "" art: Omar Little arrested for handgun charges*

Hermann does the math so you don't have to: 80 percent of 2011's murder victims had criminal records, as 90 percent of those arrested for murder. I wonder if the trend holds from a few years back in which victims had been arrested more times, on average, than alleged perps.

2012's first shooting victim is 13*

Bernstein to organize prosecutor's caseloads into geographic "zones"*, as opposed to by crime category. Sensible solution, or deck chairs?

A case to watch: MD being sued over racial disparities in school funding

Dickeyville tire-slasher arrested

Er, whut? The city sheriff is going to start seizing the Housing Authority's stuff to pay for the lead paint judgement against them

Sunday, January 1, 2012

2011 Homicides

With 197 homicides this year, Baltimore has had its lowest homicide total since 1977. Fenton from the Sun reports on the near-jubilance of public officials over this under-200 year.

Last year we had 223 homicides,
2008 was 234;
2007 was 291;
2006 was 274;
2005 was 269.
We've blogged 1,487 murders.

Here is the complete listing of 2011's 197 victims:

197.  Phylicia Barnes, 16, 6500 Eberle Dr. Found: (4/20/11) Added: (04/26/12)


  • 196. Tiyon Campbell, 31, 2800 block of W. Garrison (12/28)
  • Saturday, December 31, 2011

    Justice Delayed

    It has been more than five years after the murder of CO David McGuinn at the Maryland House of Correction. Jury selection in the trial of the first of his two alleged killers begins Tuesday* in Anne Arundel County.

    Friday, December 30, 2011

    'I don’t think there’s anything about which
    I will ever be more grateful'

    Have you seen these two, wanted for attempted armed robbery on the Light Rail? (Left, via WBAL)

    Robberies galore in the southeast and coats for the homeless stolen in the southern, reports the Baltimore Guide

    Last week's four murders recapped in the Ink. Says O'Malley of the drop in the murder toll this year, "I don’t think there’s anything about which I will ever be more grateful in public service."

    The WaPo follows up on the case following the killing of U of MD student Justin DeSha-Overcash

    Police backtrack on the whole "prosecutors are stalling and hindering our cases" thing

    Two "doctors" (can you call them doctors if they lost their licenses to practice?) are facing murder charges under Maryland's "viable fetus" law after two botched abortions. The women lived.

    Nathan A. Chapman Jr., once a prominent man about town, is now a man about a halfway house*

    Hellz yes, tax giveaways need more scrutiny

    The FBI says gun sales are up

    The Tribune Co. bankruptcy case will lurch on until at least this summer with hearings not starting until May. In better news, the judge has reversed himself, deciding that Zell won't be in line for a bankruptcy payout after all.

    Drugs are bad for you

    Three suspected heroin overdose deaths in two days in Harford County.