Saturday, November 9, 2013

'I can't believe he was so stupid!"

Minor detail: while the city Grand Jury has indicted 48 alleged BGF members, only 35 of them are in custody.
Curtis Green,
via Epic magazine
Curtis "chronicpain" Green, a disabled grandpa from Utah, pleaded guilty to cocaine charges down in Greenbelt yesterday. Green was the Silk Road site administrator whose death was faked by the FBI to ensnare Ross "Dread Pirate Roberts" Ulbricht. Al Jazeera theorizes that Green was the one who brought down the whole organization when he used his real home address on a package of party powder. ("I can't believe he was so stupid!" Ulbricht groused to the undercover agent.) If you're following this case, here's a remarkably detailed timeline of events.

Speaking of the "cyberbiz" (oh BJ, you're so 'with it!'), remember that data breach where 12,000 Baltimore County employees had their personal information stolen? There's been another one, this time 6,600 employees had their bank account routing numbers stolen. "Baltimore County said last week that effective immediately, employees were no longer allowed to download personal information on their county hard drives." Hey there's an idea.

There's a story: Anthony Rackley, who escaped from a Maryland prison in July 1980, turned himself in in Oklahoma. Rackley was apparently being extorted by someone who was threatening to turn him in and decided "enough was enough."



Friday, November 8, 2013

The tiny tiny arc of justice

Oh, and look who he was-- an alleged BGF member who escaped in handcuffs during a raid* in the 400 block of Pittman Place.

A man was shot to death in the 1100 block of McKean Ave on the west side.

Fox Baltimore covered the Keifaber kerfuffle, "a drama that he says captures an assault." He's filing charges against Conway, and the video does seem to show her hand receding from the area of his face. Conway denies touching him and says, "I just feel really bad for him. I think he's delusional and has been traumatized by his loss."

Heather Mizeur was on Rodericks. She talked education, made no swipes at O'Malley or DG (that I heard), said "um" a lot and kept it pretty cerebral. In other words, she's got zero chance.

Anne Arundel copper thief arrested.. she apparently needed the copper to make tiny tweezers to sculpt her brows into tiny tiny asymmetrical arcs.

Black 48

edited video capture
of uncredited Tribune photo
Apparently while they were out of jail the OG BGF and Young BGFs held their meetings at Mund Park at E. 24th and Greenmount, where Batts and StephRB press conferenced yesterday.*

Thursday, November 7, 2013

200th homicide, 48 indictments


Bernstein, Batts and the mayor held a press conference with some large news: 48 indictments against members of the familia de guerrilleros negros. The Major Investigations Unit has been majorly investigating this bunch since 2005, and has tied that various alleged members to drugs, murder, guns, witness intimidation and various and sundry other gangly activities. 
     For those of you keeping track, murder victims of the gang are alleged to have included Neil Davis, Donatello Fenner, Carlos Williams, Justin Kendricks, Moses Malone, Trevon White, Lamarr Tucker, Dante Jordan, Rakim Muhammad, Adrian Holiday, Anthony Taylor, Gregory Rochester, Keenan McCargo, Byron Dickey, Kevin Hodges, and Lamontae Smith.
There are a lot of redacted names-- the snitches, I presume?
     Besides the number of indictments and corpses, it's also noteworthy that they were prosecuted under the Gang Prosecution statute of 2007, chapter 496, which makes having an "ongoing association" with a gang engaged in criminal activity a crime itself. While most of the defendants are also facing additional charges, some-- Warren Commodore, Tayvon Jefferson, Kashif Kittrell, Tavon Thompson, Jesse Tate, Marquise McCants and three defendants whose names were redacted-- are charged only with being in a gang. This would seem to be a clear violation of the Constitutional right to free association, and it'll be interesting to see what a judge will think about that. 

A woman was shot to death early this morning in the 1500 block of W. Baltimore Street, she was the city's 200th murder of 2013.


A priest who worked at Archbishop Curley High in the 70s, Michael Kolodziej, is being investigated for ... do I even need to finish this sentence? At this point can we just call it "the usual"?


WTF? Our state has the 4th-highest marijuana arrest rate, paying $106 million in just a single year to enforce pot laws that the majority of citizens don't agree with. And while the arrest rate for white people has stayed about the same over the past decade. the arrest rate for black people has more than doubled, I guess thanks to O'Malley's devotion to the much-debunked "arrest everybody" theory* of crime reduction.







Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Gus Stone Got Stoned

Karl Berrain
Two brothers, Kurt Dewayne and Karl Berrain, un-named men shot in Upper Fell's Point*-- while shootings are rare in that area, robberies, assaults and property crimes are rampant.

Also one Kenneth Ray "Caveman" Stowers, 50, was killed in the 1200 block of Oliver Street. And look, there are victim photos -- and the photos are mugshots. Point taken, BPD communications. Indeed the Berrain brothers were not unknown to the civil or criminal justice system, with charges including armed robbery, assault, battery, drugs, domestic assault and failure to pay child support. For his part, at the time of his death Stowers was awaiting trial on drug charges, was found guilty of first-degree murder in 1993, was sentenced to 13 years, but was out by 2002 to face drug charges every few years since.

Officer Andrew Fitzgerald of Juvenile Booking was charged with assault and misconduct after allegedly punching a kid in the face.

Augustus Stone
The founder of Silk Road and local dealer Jacob T. George IV* may be in the hoosegow, but the site is back.

A robbery suspect crashed his car into a building on North Avenue* while fleeing police

Augustus Stone of the Deener had 158 pot plants in his house.

A third attack on a student in Towson, a Goucher student was robbed on Burke Avenue. Police think it's the same guys.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Morning work soundtrack

Luke Broadwater, Evan and Dennis the Cynic talk FOIA requests, speed cameras (FF to @ minute 40) "the city is pretty fed up... they paid [Brekford] about $700,000 for cameras that don't work" -- the city's all-thumbs PR machine, the Hilton boondoggle and Harbor Point on the City That Breeds podcast.

Monday, November 4, 2013

Hipster Oppression

yadina morales
Yadina Morales

Life in prison for Karla Porter, whose husband was killed at her behest in front of the Towson Hess station.

Yes, it's okay to drink a little bit when you're breastfeeding. Not okay: getting blackout drunk and passing out on top of the baby, smothering it to death, as Yadina Morales of Hagerstown is alleged to have done.

You know that weirdo "sovereign citizen" defense that Robert G. Moore was trying on for size? Apparently said defense is being brought back* courtesy of the Moorish American Science Temple.

Remember when Towson was a sleepy suburban burg where not much ever happened? Those days are apparently muerto -- a Towson student was stabbed on Burke Avenue and taken to Shock Trauma, and on Friday two students were robbed on Aigburth Road.

Sad: Terry Douglass, the woman who was mauled to death by her pit bull suffered from cerebral palsy. And the dog, "Boosie," had also attacked her as well as her grandson in the past and been taken by animal control but had been returned to her. Daughter: "she's probably in heaven saying he didn't mean to do it."

Sometime CP photographer Noah Scialom was arrested after not removing his "monkey ass" from 322 Howard Street, which police allege was operating as an illegal bottle club. Fenton has the police report, which includes rather more incriminating details and a certain "green leafy substance." Police seem pretty hot to trot lately when it comes to busting bootleg party spaces, or maybe it just seems that way because they're busting talkative and connected hipsters.
Detective Joseph Walker

Remember the cop from New Jersey who shot a motorist in a road rage incident on 97? He's claiming self-defense and gave an interview to the NY Post.

Lt. Parker Elliot, who was in charge of the NE District the day Tyrone West died* last July 18, has been reassigned to an undisclosed position. Still no cause of death has been released.

The CP's got the EPA's remarks on the Harbor Point site, and they're doozies: "[air and water test] results that are impossible, mathematically and practically," and references to obsolete equipment and improperly placed equipment. The Brew has more deets as well.



Saturday, November 2, 2013

The Hand that Fed You

A 56-year-old woman in CHUM died after being attacked* by her own pit bull.

Sterling Ford
One Sterling Ford has been charged for a non-fatal shooting of a 50-year-old man that happened in the 2000 block of Homewood Avenue last Thursday, shooting that police didn't Tweet and doesn't appear to have been reported anywhere. Police are ISO two more suspects.
Fernandez

Another case of a church leader allegedly sexually abusing kids-- this time at Greater Grace Church, the accused is one Raymond Fernandez, said incidents happened in the late 90s and Towson police are ISO any other victims.


The case against the Jarrettsville lady accused of unlawfully screwing the pooch has been dismissed,* the HarfCo prosecutors have declined to prosecute for whatever reason.
Dayum, Ray Lewis lost $3.7 million of his money on bad investments and is suing BB&T Bank.

How's that curse I cursed you with, Kirstie?! Harbor Point construction has been delayed* by environmental agencies, which found "artificially high" levels of hexavalent chromium near the site. How they know it's artificial I have no idea.

Friday, November 1, 2013

A Lotta Ladyparts

Whoa, the Nikita Levy class action lawsuit could have as many as 9,000 plaintiffs, and guy had 10 servers' worth of recorded material (though it's hard to know exactly what that means, as servers hold different amounts of data. But even if the servers were 10 years old, though, that's still a LOT.). Fortunately, victims are being identified by billing records, and presumably not by picking out their ladyparts portraits from a line-up.

Prosecutors are in trouble* after arranging to have two witnesses in the Robert G. Moore murder trial* have lunch together. You may recall, Moore is the sovereign citizen *who, with his "crew," "the untouchables,"* allegedly threatened the lives of prosecutors while awaiting trail for charges of ordering the deaths of seven people to avenge the murder of wrestler Darian Kess.*


In the county, Laquesha M. Lewis was found guilty* of conspiracy to commit the murder of her baby's father. (She looks *much* better on Facebook. What a difference makeup makes. Too bad you can't put concealer on your soul.)

County employees had their personal information stolen.






Thursday, October 31, 2013

50 Ways to Cleave Your Lover

Fifty-five years for Larry Holly for the murder of Ryshawn Cox on N. Belnord Ave. in 2011.



Ninety-five and 110 years for Don Pulley and Terrence Rollins-Bey, who killed DeAngelo Bass and set his car on fire to conceal the crime, which was caught on camera.

Shawn Stevenson

Two life sentences for Shawn Stevenson in the death of Somchanh Sipayboun, the mother of his children and partner of 13 years. Stevenson raped her, bound her with duct tape, broke her spine and stabbed* her 14 times.

In the meantime, human tofu slice Anthony Brown has a press release re. his domestic violence plan, which involves a network of screening centers* and changing the standard of proof for victims to get a restraining order, and somethingsomething about cell phones. For his part, Doug Gansler, the guy who sent his son to a $33k school that's the source of the local saying "never drink from a cup from a Landon boy" has fired back with some blahblah about cheap political points. And our Bro-torney General may be onto something: as governor Brown won't be in any kind of position to change legal burdens of proof, and "setting up centers" = throwing money at the problem, while training health care providers and officers to assess domestic violence risk would be a lot simpler, cheaper and is backed by evidence that it's effective. Anyway, there's also a lady and some kind of Republicans in the governors' race, but they were apparently too busy blow-drying hair/reading from the Necronomicon to talk to Mike Dresser.

Rodney "Noah" Hubert of Pikesville was indicted for pimping a 16-year-old 

As one might expect, the family of Anthony Anderson has filed a lawsuit* against the BPD for an undisclosed amount. Anderson died of internal bleeding while being arrested in September of 2012.

Your exes will be so sad: a bill coming up next year could make it a felony to post explicit pictures of someone without their consent.

TIL Molly and ecstasy are not the same thing. Wait, or are they? Quit confusing me and just tell me what to freak out about, Internet!

SRB's still claiming no knowledge of the dirty "Smart Meters" bidding process.

There was a hearing yesterday on the troubled Detention Center; officials say cell phone blocking technology is going to fix stuff, because without cell phones there is no other way for human beings to communicate with one another.





Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Douglass Student Killed

Eighteen-year-old Darnell Moore, a student at Frederick Douglass High (not to be confused with columnist Darnell L. Moore) was murdered yesterday via shots in the back on West Preston Street near McCulloh homes. Another unidentified person was shot also.

The school administrator who allegedly sold students pot cookies was ID'd as Clyde Tatum, 40,* of Reach! Partnership School. A search of his house turned up a handgun and he was charged with being a felon in possession of a handgun-- Tatum had been convicted of gun and cocaine possession charges in the past. Super!

And Brittany Powers was charged with killing Gwendolyn Johnson, 24.
Brittany Powers

Zach Sowers' Attacker Arrested Again


Arthur Jeter
Police arrested Arthur Jeter for a handgun violation. Jeter, then 17, was one of the guys who assaulted/killed* 28-year-old Zach Sowers six years ago while he was walking his pug near Patterson Park. For agreeing to testify against fellow attacker Trayvon Ramos, Jeter had all charged dropped but armed robbery and got eight years. He also pleaded guilty to another armed robbery two days after the Sowers attack. At sentencing two of the attackers apologized to the Sowers family, Jeter was not one of them.*

Another guilty plea in the jail/BGF scandal: Kimberly Dennis, who was the first target of federal wiretaps, got down with two Guerilla guys (including inmate Derius Duncan, in a closet), allegedly smuggled in cell phones and tobacco and said of an inmate who was stabbed after not paying his smuggling tax to the BGF, "yeah, them niggas banged him. .. whoever catch, you gotta pay a bill." When Dennis was busted, the feds seized gel caps, condoms and her white Chevy Camaro. She faxes a maximum of 20 years.

Andrew Palmer
Andrew Palmer
The Ink details murders 186-189: Steven Wayne Pearson, Durrell Gaskins,  Keith Holly Jr., Lance-Trenton Maurice Allen and Darrell Berry.

Remember Andy Palmer, 46, who got out of thousands of $$ of restaurant checks by faking seizures? Well he was arrested again... for dodging restaurant checks by faking seizures.*





Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Progress!

Progress! A federal judge acknowledges that loosened marijuana regulations federally and around the country violates the equal protection clause, and handed down mere 18 month-11 year sentences to convicted pot distributors.*

The new state gun tax means a windfall for the Department of Natural Resources. ... everybody likes natural resources, but shouldn't that money rightly go to victims of gun violence?

Jacob Theodore "digilink" George IV was charged* with selling heroin and methylone on the Silk Road dark web site.

Study finds only 20 percent of MD college students have drug/alcohol problems.*And more shady dealings at the Liquor Board, including awarding a license to an LLC that doesn't exist.

County speeders are getting $56,000 worth of dropped tickets* thanks to Xerox not filing its calibration paperwork on time. .. and what of the city's Brekford cameras? They're still not up and running, in spite of the company's assertion that they would be functional by September 30.*

Remember how the city is poised to award a $martMeter contract to the Dynis corp, the shaky firm whose bid was $101 million more than the next-highest (and perfectly qualified) bidder? Well look who's powering up that bid: good old KO Public Relations, known for pushing citizen-pocketbook rapes such as corporate speed cameras, gambling and Harbor Point.

Today's mugshots:

Monday, October 28, 2013

By Virtue, Not by Force


The Sun has more details of yesterday's murders of firefighter Andy Hoffman and Marie Hartman,* and they are horrible and sad. Hartman leaves behind a six-year-old, and her 18-year-old sister, who hid in a closet then jumped out of a window to escape. Hoffman's Station 14 was draped in black today.

Students from Reach Partnership School were taken to the hospital Tuesday after a school administrator allegedly sold them pot-laced cookies

Christopher Hilliard
Down in AAC police arrested Eddie Jenkins, 20, accused him of being a serial peeping tom/flasher.* And in Dundalk police arrested AWOL sex offender Christopher Hilliard.

Bail bondsmen were shot at, beauty supply stores were burgled and a whole lot of people got mugged at gunpoint in the Patch Franklin/Woodlawn/Pikesville blotter.

Seriously, Harford County? A drug takeback day there netted "hundreds of pounds"* of Rx's.

Jesus X. Christ, can't somebody shut Doug Gansler up? Or at least staunch the flow of Doug Gansler boner stories? Today's: the would-be gov remarking that when it comes to reporting teenage drinking to authorities "it has to do with if you have a boy or a girl.*" Not sure exactly what was meant by that, but here's a coincidence: Landon, the $33,565-a-year school attended by Gansler's hard-partying son, also happens to be the alma mater of convicted killer George Hughley V and is former home of the fantasy sex leagues the "Southside Slampigs" and the "Crackwhores."

Eight Federal Years for Kendell Richburg

Kendell Richburg, via MySpace
KR via MySpace
Kendell Richburg deserves his own novella and HBO mini-series, but it's Sunday night so this will have to suffice: At 36 he's just been awarded eight years in prison for conspiracy to distribute heroin and possession of a firearm.
    Is that too little considering how he framed grandmas with planted drugs* to boost his own arrest numbers? or is it too much, given that he started out as a good cop by partnering with an informant, yet evidently succumbed to BPD pressure to juke the stats *? Explains Slate,
Richburg did these things not for personal gain, but to benefit a confidential informant who fed him information that helped him make arrests. In order to keep his confidential informant on the street, Richburg gave him drugs that he could sell. Richburg tipped off the informant to police activity, helping him avoid arrest. But eventually, their arrangement took a more sinister turn."
Notably, Richburg was assigned to the VCIS,* the notoriously 'maverick' BPD department that groomed such mavericky mavericks as Jemini Jones. Richburg's defense: he was one of many* who "misrepresented facts." No doubt.
   So then what has became then of all of Richburg's many cases? And how has the police department changed procedures to prevent perverse incentives leading to malfeasance so police quit planting pot on grandmas? While O'Malley cabal's PR machine can find a high-schooler's personal photos from four months ago it can't muster comment on this case, apparently.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

City Firefighter, Girlfriend Killed by City Officer

Andy Hoffman
Firefighter Andrew Scott Hoffman, 27, of Engine 14 on Hollins Street and his girlfriend Marie Hartman, were murdered by city police officer Christopher Lee Robinson, 37, of Abingdon last night in a murder-suicide, reports Arundel News Network. Hartman was Robinson's ex-girlfriend. More from the Sun.

Also last night three officers were struck by a Jeep* in the 200 block of N. Franklintown Road while directing traffic outside of a club.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Persons deserving of your sympathies

- Lance-Trenton Maurice Allen, 21, shot to death in the back on Friday on N. Bentalou Street. Also Keith X. Holly Jr., 24, who was killed Thursday* and acquitted of murder charges last December, and also the family of murder victim James Ingram.*
Nelson B. Clifford

- The victims of Nelson Bernard Clifford, who has beat sex assault charges four times now,* even though DNA linked him to the crimes and the last victim alleges he'd broken into her house and raped her while she was sleeping. Oh, and he has yet another trial coming up.

Preston Scott
- The kids molested and photographed by Preston Lamont Scott II, a Slimeresque creep who volunteered with the Millersville Fire Department, coordinating teen dances.

- Overworked, underpaid Spanish teacher Maria Quintana, attacked by a student at the Liberation Diploma Plus Academy. (WTF kind of school name is that?)

- The girl who had her skull fractured and the boy who had his arm broken by Don Dwyer's boozed boating, and the Anne Arundel County inmate who has to spend the next 30 weekends with him.

- The Severn High's employee, likely making minimum wage, who got a gun stuck in his/her face.

- Reporter Audrey Hudson of the Washington Times, who had her home raided and personal files-- including notes about confidential sources-- seized by armed Homeland Security agents asking if she was the same Audrey Hudson who wrote "Air marshal stories." Hudson had previously revealed that the air marshals had lied to Congress after 9/11 regarding the number of flights it was protecting.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Grownups Gone AWOL

Smoke
Durrell "Smoke" Gaskins, 25, was stabbed to death reportedly as he tried to break up a fight* amongst Forest Park HS students.

Gwendolyn Johnson, 24, was shot to death in the housing projects of old Latrobe.*

Nelson B. Clifford
Nelson B Clifford, sex offender extrordinaire, once again is claiming that the sex he had* with a stranger after he broke into her apartment was consensual.

Andre "Redrum" Roach, of the Bloods Roaches, has pleaded guilty to racketeering, of the federal kind of racketeering,* and so shall now make his home in Cumberland or thereabouts for thirty years henceforth.

Letting a bunch of private-school teenage twats trash a beach house* is surely mind-bogglingly boneheaded for anyone over the age of 22. Buuuut it must be said, if the O'Malley administration put half as much effort into transparency for citizens and reporters as they are putting in to ferret out the deets on Doug Gansler, perhaps our fair state would not be such a D-minus, and perhaps state officials such as Doug Gansler would think twice before making extremely poor life decisions. I so hope news sources will start covering Heather Mizeur's campaign in any kind of way, because with a year to go I am already sick as a tray of Jell-o shots of hearing about these dudebros riding their douche canoes down Mt. Shitsandwich. 

And here, have a bonus numbnuts: Matthew Mitchell, 30, a drunk dad who drove with his 4-month-old on his lap and wrecked his car, putting the baby in the hospital. I hate you all and Im going to take a nap now.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Implied, Expressed, Informed

Gabrielle Smith
One of the weekend's homicide victims was ID'd as Latreshia Gowdy, 32, who reportedly lost a fight she allegedly started with her ex-husband's new lady friend,* Gabrielle Smith. WBAL reports the two women are former BFFs, Smith is now charged in Gowdy's murder.

Steven Wayne Pearson, 57, a former firefighter and Marine who was robbed and beaten in December of last year on McCullough St., has died of his injuries.*
Natafre Green

The woman found shot to death in the PT Cruiser was ID'd as Natafre Green, 30, Cham found her photo on Classmates.com (Harbor High class of 2002); the man shot on Monroe Street was ID'd as Daryl Darrell Fletcher, 27.

Remember Nelson Clifford? The accused rapist was linked by DNA to three different sexual assaults, yet convinced three different juries that the sex was consensual, including the case when Clifford allegedly broke into the victim's apartment through the window, and one where he stole $60 from the victim. He's now facing a fourth trial next month.*

Lawyers: the vj pix taken by Towson gynecologist John Yacoub were taken consensually*  before, during and after vaginoplasty. Yes, vaginoplasty. It's a thing.

Towson's getting seedier: a store on W. Pennsylvania Ave was robbed of $2,500.

Monday, October 21, 2013

The dead, the drunk and the bald

Dammit, Baltimore! Things were going so well. But four homicides this weekend,* bringing the toll to 185. Thomas Carter, 22, and also two women, one stabbed in the stomach and one shot to death in a moving PT Cruiser in Shipley Hill, and a man shot to death in the 1800 block of West Lafayette.
Marvin Hutton

Marvin Hutton was arrested for the murder of Ronn Williams on September 24.

Time for rehab, Joshua Osterholt. Driving drunk with pot and kids in the car,* tsk! Though why this is a feature story is a bit puzzling, surely drunk drivers transporting at least one of those kinds of cargo are pulled over at least once a day. But have some token shame. Shame!

Bon mots du jour: "church members clean up human feces from the back alley almost daily."

While we await the naming of public enemy #5, the City Paper has helpfully organized enemies 1-4 into a chart.

David B. Simon
Media blabber: word on the street is last week there was a major shakeup at the Daily Record, with editor David B. Simon (no, not that David Simon) delivering stinging rebukes at a editorial meeting and quitting after a mere 10 months of working there, followed by the walkout of the two-person art department, leaving long-suffering managing editor Barbara Grizincic to manage the mess. To maintain the paper's quota of bald dudes, former Sun and Patch reporter Bryan P. Sears has now joined the turbulent tabloid as a government reporter.