Showing posts with label speed cameras. Show all posts
Showing posts with label speed cameras. Show all posts

Friday, June 13, 2014

"James"

"James"
A man was shot in the head* at Caroline and East Biddle Streets. Eight murders this past week.

Kevin Simpson, alleged killer of Oscar Torres, 15, and Shanizya Taft, 12, is now a suspect in the murder of Martel Jackson,* shot behind a Citgo.

Police have released a sketch of a Belair-Edison sex assailant who may go by "James." His victim talked to Fox, telling them "James" left his clothes outside her window, broke in and sucked on her breast. He went outside to dress and she called 911, but police didn't arrive in time. *shudder*

One Alphonso Russell Jr., 57, has been charged with 88 counts related to breaking into more than 20 cars downtown,* "just days after he received a 6-month jail sentence for breaking into cars on April 4." So.. what was he doing out and about in the first place? Some kind of Piper Kerman situation where you get sentenced but don't have to report to prison for a while?

So much for speed camera reform: Brekford, which still operates in Hagerstown, Salisbury and Laurel in spite of its Baltimore City system* issuing speeding tickets to cars that weren't moving, issued a press release crowing that their old contract still applies and that they can still operate on the bounty system for tickets.

Early voting is going on from now until June 19, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and apathy is running high. Here's your sample ballot. For what it's worth and if you care, this blog endorses Heather Mizeur for governor (or Hogan, if that's how you swing), Brian Frosh for Attorney General, Elijah Cummings, Gregg Bernstein for State's Attorney, and Page Croyder for Judge, skipping #5, Alfred Nance.

Media blabber: Sun editor Andy Rosen is leaving to work for the Boston Globe, today's his last day.

Monday, June 2, 2014

Fever For The Flavor of Heroin

Four homicides this weekend, a man fatally stabbed in the 1800 block of N. Fulton last night, a man shot in the head in the 100 block of South Kossuth St., Patricia Lynn Harwood, age 50 was, stabbed to death at 40 Stockton St.,* Eric Howard, 47, shot in the back at 109 Denison St.

Remember when the BPD swept up 48 BGF members last fall? (or tried to, anyway?) Well, Ian Duncan has been on the grind to bring us the deets, which involve eight years of building cases, a shooting victim murdered* allegedly after reporting his robbery and shooting to the police and girlfriends and moms screening calls.*

Six guys were indicted and the BPD is ISO five more on charges of operating a heroin and cocaine ring in west Baltimore. The ring allegedly had its own brands, "Mercedes" and "fever."
ps., I just realized that I'm so old probably no one gets the reference to the title of this blog post.

Lynette Witherspoon
looks like Large Marge
One Lynette Witherspoon, biomom, abducted her six-month-old daughter Zynia, daughter was later found safe and unharmed. Eight-year-old Victor Wilson also went missing and was found. Neither case triggered an Amber alert, though, which is odd.

You'll need a shower after reading this article in the City Paper about child molestation and its apologists in Baltimore's Orthodox Jewish community.

Two more candidates for parents of the year: AAC's Brooke Michael and Michael May, who smoked K2 (aka Spice) and passed out with their 8-month-old in the car.

Speaking of kids, explain to me, please, why so many people (including ACLU) are so against youth curfews? "House arrest," really? "Infringing on parental rights?" Where was the ACLU when big government took away my right as a parent to serve my kids Scotch and cigars after a hearty meal? Anyway, final vote on the law is tonight.

A Catonsville mailman stole 20,000 pieces of mail.*

Christopher Tonjes, the mayor's IT director, has resigned amidst allegations that his office paid contractors for jobs* that may or may not have been done a). at all and b). by the people who were hired to do them.

Also tonight at 7 on MPT, another gubernatorial debate, and Brown is showing up to this one, They Say.

A new law is taking effect that bans the speed-camera bounty, which was already banned but something something loophole.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Urine Trouble

Police made an arrest in the murder of RaySharde Kevin Sinclair, 18, last Monday.* One Jimy(sp?) James Jackson was charged. According to his obit, Sinclair was from Richmond, VA.

Michael Jefferson Jr, 39, was found shot to death in Windsor Mill/Woodlawn on the county side on Easter. Also in the area, a 54-year-old man was robbed and shot.

Remember alleged murderer/kidnapper Timothy Virts? He's been indicted on nine criminal counts, including first-degree murder.

There was an armed robbery at Lynne's on the Avenue in Hampden, of all places.


"Was the urination and defecation taking place every day?.. You never took a picture of anybody urinating?" Citizens of Pigtown complaining about a liquor store were subject to rigorous questioning by the Liquor Board.

WTF? In AAC a midshipman tried to attack a taxi driver with a butter knife.

Air Force NCO (whatever that is), William S. Gazafi, 44, pleaded guilty to charges related to sexually molesting infants and toddlers. Aieeee

The man from PGC with the face tattoos, Antoine Perry (or is it Petty?) has turned himself in.

The apparent reasons behind Chicago's improving murder rate will sound familiar to long-time BCrime blog readers.

On a happier note, someone in the county vandalized a speed camera on Easter morning.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Settle Down, Towson Town

The Ink details last week's two murders and ID's the victim from Jan. 12 as Dalontae Harper.

Smith
King
Yet another armed robbery in Towson Town Center, this one with three guys and a knife in the parking garage behind the Cheesecake Factory. The most recent robbery was a man robbed by two guys with a knife in the mens' room near the food court, Malik Smith and Damon King were arrested and charged for that one.
Other TTC incidents: a guy shot in the hand at the Trader Joe's parking lot in 2012 after a riot at the Recher, teenage boys mugged next to Macy's, Rodney Pridget shot and killed in 2011, St. Paul's science teacher William Bassett shot and killed* in 2005 by a teenager named John Kennedy, a catfight caught on phone camera.

Police seized five guns and several dogs in the 1100 block of N. Carrollton, a 57-year-old man was arrested.

Carl Stokes blasted City Council members  who voted against a resolution that would have let his committee on the Council subpoena documents in the speed camera scandal (Kraft, Cole, Holton, Spector, Welsh and Reisinger, namely) calling the vote a "whitewash." Even Jack Young is mbarzd. Never heard City Council members so mad, actually. And OMG, SRB, NOT HELPING YOURSELF: she characterizes the scandal as "for ratings and for headlines" and adds, "they can use a subpoena, but all they have to do is ask to get the information." !!!

"Draft of legalized pot bill calls for taxes, potency ratings*"

Data collection on gang members, higher penalties for assaulting meter maids and for illegal dumping and withholding tax refunds from fugitives are part of SRB's legislative agenda.

Taylor Pepe and Desmick Lewis,
alleged Laurel shooters
Four men were arrested for their alleged roles in the death of Russell Rowe, a man who was shot multiple times then crashed his car into a tree and died in Laurel.

Legg Mason agreed to pay $21 million to settle claims of neglecting to report losses (without admitting to any culpability, natch).

The House Judiciary Committee held hearings about the "Revenge Porn" bill. Meanwhile "revenge porn" kingpin and "professional life ruiner" Hunter Moore was arrested in California, though for hacking, not for posting non-consensual nudes online.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Who's Zooming Who?

A 16-year-old, Lavar Crawford, was murdered in CHUM on Saturday* at 28th and Hugo, also where rapper Kevin 'Kev the President' Green was killed last September (that Kev link is muy NSFW, BTW).

There were supposedly two other murders this weekend if WBAL is to be believed, but WBAL might be confused: they're claiming an additional man was shot in the head Saturday (location not reported and nothing reported by the BPD) and Kendrick Andrew Martin, 41, was stabbed to death on Payson St* on Saturday.  ... Not to be confused with victim Arrington Michael Sydnor who was stabbed on Wheeler Street last Saturday. ... As someone asked on the Twitters, "If there was roof over #Balto and we called the entire city a mall, would the 19 homicides get more coverage?"
Kevea Muldrow

A girl named Kevea Muldrow has gone missing, call police if you see her.

Today in speed-camera rants, the Sun editorial board blasts the SRB administration* for its sketchy-ass secretiveness and questions its very credibility (but are you tired of hearing/bitching about speed cameras? Not me!), and the City Paper's Ed Ericson Jr. proffers a hefty list of various attempts at auditing and transparency that the SRB admin has stonewalled. Rodricks beats the war drum* for the unseemly public-private partnerships that are fertile ground for this bullshit, and Fox45 reports that city council members are being taciturn about Carl Stokes' proposal to investigate said bullshit, which the council will reportedly take up at their meeting tonight.

And in mall coverage, the shooter as ID'd as Darion Aguilar, 19, described by all as a pleasant and quiet kid. The 'love triangle' angle Tweeted by WBAL's @JohnVPatti hasn't held up-- the shooter and his victims weren't even Facebook friends and HoCo police have so far turned up no connections between them. WBAL reports that Saturday Aguilar's mom had reported him missing and police tracked his cell phone to the mall.

Two brothers are in custody after vandalizing a Presbyterian church in Perry Hall.

Here, have a collection of city police mug shots.






Thursday, January 23, 2014

Unreliable Witnesses

Tyrone West
Calvert Street is bringing it today-- Justin Fenton has put the Tyrone West documents on The Cloud, and uploaded audio* of a female witness's description of the "scuffle" to the Sun site. She was apparently the passenger in West's car and describes police and West (who she calls James?) somehow starting to fight, police and West punching each other on the ground, then on the police car, police hitting West in the face, more fighting on the ground, police Tasing West on the ground, more scuffling, West yelling "Travon Martin," more beating of West on Kitmore, West saying "you got me, stop beating me," then West getting away and running across the street followed by more beating, police cars running into each other at the crime scene, CPR. Other witnesses have described West being sprayed with pepper spray, but this witness doesn't.

Somehow, some way, intrepid reporters Luke Broadwater and Scott Calvert got their mitts on that secret speed camera audit that taxpayers paid $278,000 for but weren't supposed to see,* and hoo boy is it a doozy! Xerox's cameras had a whopping 10 percent error rate and 26 percent of the tickets were "questionable," costing Baltimoreans at minimum an estimated $2.8 million in erroneous tickets. The camera at Loch Raven Blvd. had an error rate of 58 percent (!!!) and the one at 6500 Eastern Avenue, 45 percent. Xerox is still the camera operator in the County and HoCo. Could class action lawsuits (a la New Jersey) be far behind?

In the Eastern district an 18-year-old guy was shot in the leg* there last night.

Lamin Manneh
Speaking of the Eastern, former Eastern District officer Lamin Manneh, 32, accused of pimping out his 19-year-old wife and her friend down by BWI? He's pleaded guilty* to operating a prostitution business. "In a federal indictment filed against Manneh in August, prosecutors said his wife had entered into a 'contract of slavery' with him and agreed to be subservient to him as her 'master.'"

Twenty years for gun-toting coke-slinging felon Antoin Lamont Garrison, 46.

The owners of Sam's NY grocery store on North Milton Street were arrested for allegedly stealing $1.5 million of food stamp money.

Remember Katz Insurance and Hal Katz? Apparently his son Geary is the operator of Senate Insurance, the "Kiss my Bumper" one, and now he's facing legal troubles of his own.



Weds February 5th the restaurants of Canton will hold a benefit night with proceeds going to the recovery fund of Jon Fogg, the Sun editor who had his skull fractured in six places, possibly by the guy below.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Ladies, This is Happening

Anthony Lontae Harper
and daughter, via Twitter
A triple stabbing outside of the Isis Nightclub in the 200 block of Park Avenue, a block away from where Eli Barber-El was shot in the head last month.

Three shootings last night* made for two homicides. If Twitter is reliable, the victim in the 3600 block of Reistertown Road was Anthony Lontae Harper. The weekend's deaths brought us to a total of 16 murders in the first 12 days of this year. A stabbing victim from Friday morning in the 2500 block of Fredrick Road was ID'd as Dejuan Willis, 17.


#14: Ricky Mellerson, found shot to death* in an overturned car Mt. Vernon.
Dejuan Willis, via Twitter

Police released a creepy video of  the killer of Jose Abreu pacing around the Latino American Deli on Smallwood St.

There's something new: arrests in Charles Village robberies.* ("Ladies, this is happening.")

Legalized marijuana has a new champion, senate president Mike Miller.  And a MoCo Democrat and a HoCo "civil libertarian" Republican are introducing a bill of their own.

Magical boots in Arundel Mills mall* forced a woman to pepper-spray 20 people in order to possess them. Also at the mall: two guys arrested for robbing a guy in the parking lot while he was sleeping in his car.

Why did the city discharge Brekford from its speed camera contract? A camera ticketing a parked truck* likely had something to do with it.

Whoops, in spite of the new law expanding background checks, somehow 200 people barred from owning guns got them, including a guy who used his in a carjacking.*

Police are looking for this guy who robbed the White Marsh McDonald's.

Another day, another church youth group leader charged with possession of child porn. Today's winner, Robert David Wright of Clynmalria Methodist church in Phoenix.

Monday, November 18, 2013

¿dónde está el plan?

A bloody weekend:* a murder yesterday in the 1300 block of Longwood (who Cham ID's as Kennard Buckner, a forklift operator) ; Devon Bultler, 26, was killed near Ramsay and South Calhoun Streets and an unidentified 47-year-old man was also shot in the torso during the same incident, the current toll is 210. 

The man shot in the 900 block of Watson Street (near the shot tower) was ID'd as Raymond Gordon, 31.*

With the homicide rate spiking, and seven months after the BPD paid some Massachusetts consulting firm $285k to come up with a plan in 90 days to "revamp" the department, Jack Young is all like, hey Batts, Where's the plan?* And Batts is all like, stop pressuring me! And Young is like, you'd best get in here and answer some questions, and Batts is like, look, it's Baltimore, everything moves slow, and the Sun is like, Batts has a Master's degree, can't he think up a plan on his own? And then Robert Cherry is all like, Hey! Look! The police union has a plan! It's based on our real-real Baltimore policing experience and you all can have it for free! and everyone is like, lalalalala, we can't hyearrr you!

Have you seen this guy who robbed the Subway sandwich shop* in the 4600 block of W. Northern Parkway?
http://priceisrightlosinghorn.com/
Vroom vroom, bitchez! The city's speed cameras have officially been "mothballed,"* with the city attempting to cut ties with the contractor Brekford. No comment from Brekford though their stock is like [sad tuba sound effect].

A "non-affiliate" was robbed of a messenger bag near JHU.

No way, two more Towson University students were robbed, this time on the 1300 block of Hillsway court and at gunpoint. I thought they caught those dudes, but apparently not, or there's more now.

Speaking of the county, fuck you Scott Jacobson. I'm glad the iPad you bought in a gas station parking lot was fake. Because if it was real, then it would be stolen from some poor slob. Dear reader, if some twat approaches you in a parking lot with some too-cheap something, call the fucking police! It bears repeating, if you have stuff like iPads, laptops, etc, get yourself a cheap little carbide etching pen, skritch your name or phone number or your house sigil on it. That won't keep it from getting stolen, but at least it will slow down Dicky McParkinglot and will help you identify it if it is recovered.

And a feel-good crime story: a Homeland woman's bikes getting stolen helped her find her missing African spur tortoise, Tortley. Tortley is now snuggled in warm hay, "alert and surprised."
I don't get it.

Wired: how operation "Marco Polo" took down the Silk Road (Marco Polo? Get it? Get it?)

Speaking of the Silk Road, here's a mildly interesting story that explains why opium smoking went out of style and heroin moved in.

Something I just heard about for the first time from an infographic next to New York Magazine's abortion cover story: the allegation that sometime between 2012 and now Maryland passed a law that limits insurance coverage for abortions. An August 2013 chart from the National Women's Law Center seems to show this is not the case and even the right-to-lifers, generally on top of this stuff like Chris Christie on a ham sandwich, don't seem to know anything about it. So an NYMag mistake, or is there something to this? Also in NYMag: Sheila Dixon, "Rap-Sheet Mayor."

Also in "women's law"-- the story of a PA judge who ordered a mom to stop breastfeeding so her ex-husband could have overnights with the baby leads to the tidbit that only Maine has a law that compels family court judges to take breastfeeding status into account when determining custody. 

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.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Androids for inmates

Following CBS Evening News' story on Carol Ott and her Slumlord Watch last week, the Sun's Ian Duncan wrote about* Nether Baltimore's Wall Hunter project to paint murals on said slum properties. Today in the CP Ed Ericson Jr. stone-cold busts Ian Duncan, Justin George and Carrie Wells not doing their homework checking Rochkind's lawyer Danny Stenger's claim that Rochkind didn't control the property at 4727 Old York Road (... but if he did, added the lawyer, the Exodus-themed mural would be a "hate crime.") Looking forward to that correction. And y'know, really, the mural project is gifting these slum bums with valuable works of art. If Rochkind had any sense of money (or sweet irony) he'd remove the mural and donate it to a museum for a write-off ... or sell it to Bank of America or Wells Fargo to install in the lobby of their corporate HQ, hyuk.

Justin George tweeted that Jennifer Owens,* "corrections officer accused of smuggling drugs into Baltimore jail & having relations with BGF gang leader, pleads guilty ... To one count of racketeering conspiracy. Sentencing is in January." Notable "J.O." quote from the CP“I understand you stressed out, cuz you locked up, ok, but I am too. You locked up, and I’m fucking pregnant again. Like really, who the fuck does that? Only my dumb ass do shit like that, for real. I can accept that I fucked up. I know I did, but I did that shit cuz I wanted to. I don’t regret it.”  That makes two BGF perps who have taken pleas so far, 23 to go.

A woman was shot to death in Parkville while putting her 3-year-old in the car.
Brekford's speed cameras are up, so why hasn't the city turned them on yet?* Waiting for Harbor Point rage to dissipate first?

Doug "Androids for inmates*" Gansler gets even less appealing, now claiming Anthony Brown is running on his African-Americanness. FWIW Brown's parents are Swiss and Jamaican.

MoCo PoPo ISO victims of pervy old music teacherSilver Spring Elementary School teacher Lawrence Wesley Joynes, he's been charged with sexually abusing 14 girls so far.

Karla Porter's jury still deliberating guilty guilty guilty guilty guilty, of first-degree murder and = five other related counts.

Matthew VanDyke's Syria short copped some pixels on the Business Insider site

Thursday, May 30, 2013

No tasks, no force

Legitimate rape on N. Calvert St. in Mt. Vernon, bootleg-looking camera photos released*

A dog walker robbed and stabbed and a whole lot of punching in the Southeast

Morgan State U lawyers are trying to get dropped the lawsuit* from Alexander Kinyua's victim, Joshua Caesar, guy who was beaten and blinded when the skitzy cannibal attacked him with a barbed-wire-wrapped baseball bat. In other news of responsibility-denying universities, records released by the University of Maryland show their decades-long efforts to cover up/avoid doing anything about the pervy molestations of swim coach Rick Curl.*

Irresponsible Pop-Tart owner Josh Welch got a lifetime membership in the NRA.

Down in MoCo, LeRoy Carhart's Germantown abortion clinic was found not responsible for the death of Jennifer Morbelli and determined that her death was from natural causes. Oh great, disseminated intravascular coagulation, another new, rare, horrible affliction for pregnant women to freak out about. Anyway, the medical examiner's finding naturally makes not one whit of difference to anti-family-planning activist groups.

One Larry Michael Parrish admitted to running a Ponzi scheme in which $9.2 million of investors' money was squirreled away in the Bahamas and Nevis.

How I love a Page Croyder rant-- today's deserving topic is O'Malley's 'Task Force.' 

And who can resist Honkytimes Heimbach squaring off with Shorty Davis? Not Vice magazine!

Santini's Restauarant in Joppa lost its liquor license after a 14-year-old held a booze-soaked fete* on the premises.

More speed cameras in the county-- and are the city's back on or still off? ...  consider downloading the app called Waze-- it's a free talking navigation system that also alerts you to the presence of cameras (though its routes can be a little wacky).

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Catalog shopping and a naked man on a fire truck

Woman murdered in Arbutus in a "domestic," awkward stock image used, details scant. But hey, Mercy hospital's use of technology to detect strangulation bruising is "getting international attention." ... hrm, that victim's name sounds familiar.

Homicides closed, motives and explanations lacking.* 

Officer Robert Mitchell is in trouble for assaulting someone on N Mount Street last May, a fracas allegedly publicized* via WorldStarHipHop (link plz?)

Tavon "Bulldog" White got his bid for federal prison,* where you can get your hair done and shop out of catalogs, whilst a Fredneck Democrat and a Scheißhaus Eastern Shore Republican defended the prison guards' bill of rights. And you must give grudging props to anyone able to fail upward in such a spectacular fashion: head of DPCS investigations, Jesse Ballard III, is retiring with his schweet state pension* to double-dip with a federal job. Maybe with a new investigator we can finally be first in non-consensual jailhouse sex. Goddamn you Marion County IL.

PCP: it's a helluva drug






Joe Vallario's district: soft on crime, hard on a nude man smoking angel dust on a fire truck. Wonder if Mohamed Bah is any relation to murder victim Oumar Bah.

Betting pool: how many couples will show to be married by SRB in a mass wedding at the Pride Festival* on June 16 at Druid Hill Park? Is that wonderful or creepy? Dear God won't someone please tell me what to think?!

Scott Calvert dishes the dirt on the speed-camera shutdown*

Patricidal HoCo teen Morgan Arnold has Asberger's, mental health issues,* walked around meowing with ears on before going goth. Mom alleges she pushed for more mental health treatment but dad resisted.

And Obama visited.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Hot pregnant messes

A boy, age unknown, was shot in the head last night in Gwynn Oak,* and a man shot himself in the leg.

Despicable: it's been determined that Ronald Cox, killed by police in Reisterstown last summer* after they busted into his house and he tried to defend himself with a sword, was the subject of a County no-knock raid (and was not even the person police were looking for). Fatal no-knock raids are apparently rather common.

The body found yesterday on Loyola Southway was ID'd as that of missing Marcus 'Anton' Lesane.* Tweets Fenton, "His body was found by someone digging through this pile looking for something of value." Fenton also posted a poignant pic on Instagram (right).

Whut. Jailbird BGF chief Tavon "Bulldog" White got four Central Booking guards pregnant* (and as it happens, all 13 of the indicted guards are female.). According to a wiretap, the BGF kept prison violence down, put out and let guards drive their schweet drug-dealer cars in exchange for guards turning a blind eye to sex, drugs, phones and smuggled salmon. Two of Bulldog's babymoms, Jennifer Owens and Katera Stevenson, apparently so enjoyed the broom-closet sex that they got themselves tattoos of his name. Also indicted: Hamma Head, Maine and Monster.

Even for the town that invented the clusterfuck, the speed camera situation is a special hot mess. The judge Mrs. Martin O'Malley was forced to void more than 6,000 tickets* after Xerox skipped town without leaving behind the evidence needed to convict drivers of cited vehicles.

The Ink details last week's five murders (correction from yesterday: East Trenton, where a man's body with facial lacerations was found, is behind the Miracle Temple Church of the Harvest. It's West Trenton that's behind the McDonald's).

A man was stabbed inside MedStar® Harbor Hospital on S. Hanover.

North Baltimore blotteriana: eight cans of Red Bull, 1995 Jaguar, church laptops.

NYMag's James Gleick nails it: the modern media environment is "Total Noise, only louder."

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Trigger fingers thawed

Warm weather makes Baltimoreans go wacko! Six Seven Eight shootings between 6:30 p.m. yesterday and 2:12 a.m. today,* all are still alive, and all cases apparently lack any known suspects or motives.

Murder trial for Robert Jarrett Jr. started today,* he's accused of killing his wife and burying her in his HoCo backyard in 1991. Jarrett's defense lawyer, George Psoras, sounds insufferably sarcastic and snide-- "Good luck with that."

Brekford Corp's speed-camera contract was approved by the Board of Estimates.*

Fifteen years for nine-time convicted gun-toting felon Derrick Woodlon.

Cameron Serafin
AP- "Poverty's Grip Seen Across Baltimore."

The manager of Mo's Seafood, Dundalk branch, was shot by a robber

A five-year-old, Cameron Serafin, was kidnapped by his non-custodial mother in Fairfax county, VA-- keep an eye out, please.

Baltimore might tolerate a little Bolivian marching powder being sold here and there, but Altoona, PA, not so much. Yet another dealer, 52-year-old Kenneth Piner, was found guilty of 28 drug-related charges. Prosecutions from "Operation Last Call" (not to be confused with the JFK mini-bottle scandal) have been going on since the first bust in 2011-- next up, the Baltimorean "Rocco."



Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Titillating Tuesday

Will Prop 8 /DOMA get struck down ... between now and June?
Will the jury find Policarpio Epsinoza Perez guilty a third time for killing three children?
So much suspense!
Some Enchanting Elevator

Royal Carribean's Enchantment of the Seas in the news again-- a 62-year-old woman was apparently murdered aboard a cruise ship that embarked from our fair port en route to Nassau. The ship has been crime blogg'd before-- a 14-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by a 25-year-old pool boy, two years ago a crew member was busted with cocaine and heroin.

But wait, isn't that already the law? Senators passed a bill to end the speed camera bounty system, and the bill "does not tighten requirements for allowing offenders to verify a violation."

WYPR's doing a show on our blue-light cameras on Friday.

Pro-gun-control moms are rallying in A-town today.

Progressive MD uncovered $60 million a year MD in lost revenue spent on "corporate welfare"-- loopholes, allowable shifty accounting and superfluous tax breaks that the legislature refuses to fix.

Speaking of A-town, ef the medical marijuana bill, which would lend not a whit of help to pot-smoking grannies like Cher Neufer and Brenda Brown.* Can't we just leave hippie grandma and AIDS grandma alone and give pot to everybody (and tax it) like HBill 1453 aims to do?

The day Andrew Zimmern's "Maryland" episode of Bizarre Foods aired, the House passed a ban on shark fin soup-- TIL MD fisherpeople catch sharks for Chinese consumption. Incidentally Zimmern also went to the eastern shore, where he skinned and ate BBQ'd muskrat and grilled eel that's caught here and also shipped to Asia. The gallivanting gourmand also enjoyed chitlins prepared by Koreans, Korean food prepared in Silver Spring, and Spike Gjerde's whales (or maybe they were hotels).

Saved for later dept:
- A compendium on "The Rise and Fall of Prohibition in Baltimore, 1918-1933."




Thursday, February 28, 2013

Lies, sit-ups and refreshments

A cop in a federal drug case was caught lying, and Jayne Miller is wondering why lying cops are still working cases.

Today in Dr. Levy news, lawyers are demanding to know why his pen-camera wasn't discovered earlier,* and say previous patients stopped seeing him because of a lack of a "chaperone" in the room. FHBIII has now been called back from retirement to help on the case. (non-Sun link) ... if you're looking for a good ladydoctor, I can't say enough nice things about this practice.

A total of 12 officers have now been charged by the feds in the case of the beating of Kenneth Davis at Roxbury.

That gun-control bill is going up for a vote in the Senate today.

City officials are working out a deal to hold Brekford, the vendor of the new speed cameras, accountable for mistakes, but won't tell anyone just how they'll be doing that.


Whistleleaker Bradley Manning is set to give a statement today on why he passed info along to Wikileaks.


So the officer candidate who was shot in the head has been named, and he's 43. They take 40-somethings? Really? I guess they do. Searching around the only requirements appear to be that you're at least 20 and meet some rather underwhelming physical requirements (29 sit-ups in a minute? Sheeit, I hope so!)

Speaking of the BPD, couple of events:
Baltimore Police Community Ride-Along and Open House:
Friday, March 1st from 2:00-10:00pm @ Northern District Station
2201 West Coldspring Lane

Ever wanted to ride along with a police officer, observe first hand the work officers do on a daily basis? Then this is your chance. On Friday March 1st the Northern District will be hosting a community ride-along and open house. Participants will be paired with an officer and will patrol with them for several hours of their shift. Afterward refreshments will be served and participants will have the option to attend several presentations and a station house tour.

Those wishing to participate in the ride along are requested to be at the Northern District Station between 2:00pm and 2:20pm . The ride –along will continue until 6:00pm when refreshments will be served. The open house will continue until 10:pm. Participants need not participate in both segments of the event.

Reservations are requested to participate in the ride-along portion RSVP by calling 410-367-8491 ( If you leave a message with your name and Phone Number a slot will be reserved. You may also RSVP via E-mail at Ronaldo.Moralesjr@Baltimorepolice.org

Coffee with a Cop: Saturday, March 2nd at McDonald’s at 29th and Greenmount  9 a.m. to Noon Coffee Provided by McDonald’s

Join Northern District Police Officers for a Coffee Break: Meet and Great them, tell them what you think, find out about the challenges they face every day on the job, or just get to know them over a cup of coffee.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Don't date, don't drive, and never, ever buy tickets

Monte Carter
Another online-dating murder?! Jennifer Conyers, 32, was murdered and her house set on fire allegedly by a guy she met online.* She was murdered Friday and Monte Delano Carter, 38, was arrested Saturday, driving her car and with blood *still* on his pants and shoes. FWIW he (allegedly) used her ATM card to get cash and buy stuff he traded for heroin. How about instead of doing a background check on someone before dating them, just never dating anyone ever.



Also on Friday, a shooting on Homestead St.


Really, Daily Record?! "Capital Punishment Already Dead in Maryland" ... just because a crass headline comes over the wire it doesn't mean you have to publish it, geeze

"Just give us the cash, yo." Nice-guy Medfield robbers let a victim keep his wallet, reports the Patch.

Haha, winning. The Sun obtains the Mayor's office's bitchy emails about speed camera coverage.* Also, Larry Young of WOLB apparently helped provide the Mayor's office with "talking points." Shady.

Carl Stokes wants to vacate the never-enforced law that bars high event-ticket surcharges.

Not Baltimore, but worth a mention: MSN claims that Christopher Dorner, a guy allegedly stalking and targeting members of the LAPD, is the "first drone target on U.S. soil." Not true, that honor goes to one Rodney Brossart of North Dakota. Also unless the drone is equipped with Hellfire missiles, not sure how it is any different than using a helicopter.

Meet the two old white guys who will be head of the Tribune Co. .. apparently the CEO sees the news audience as old and male, so which came first? Does the news reflect old male perspectives because old males are the primary consumer, or are old males the primary consumer because the news is from an old male perspective?

Friday, February 1, 2013

Still No Bail for the Spectator

Man shot and killed at the Continental Arms shooting range* in Timonium

Two teenagers were shot last night in Edgewood

Metaphor fail: Republican E.J. Pipkin calls the gov's handgun-licensing requirement a "poll tax." Because you're not really participating in democracy if you aren't equipped to shoot yourself or others in the head.

Carrie Wells reports that the officer who shot a man Tuesday* was also implicated in the shooting of Donnie Chestnut in 2007 (which you may remember as the "Popsicle-stick case")

Though rape charges were dropped against one of the owners of the Blue Agave, Cheshire says the investigation of the incident is ongoing.*

Really?! Some senators want to change the speed-camera law to give camera operators even less oversight, letting "specified persons" review tickets instead of requiring police officers to do it. Some nerve!

And, shocking to no one, the Spectator has been denied bail again (for the third time) by the same judge he yelled at at the last bail hearing.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

First homicide of 2013 = a baby

That does not bode well. The first murder of the year was a 7-month-old baby, Kendell Brown, killed by his own father, Francois Brown. Also the first baby of 2013 was a preemie born to an obese mother.

The Phylicia Barnes sex tape will be played in open court.* Euugh.

Dead Man Inc.'s Perry "Rock" Roark was officially given life in prison.* The current leader of the gang, James Sweeney, says Roark is a "snitch," Roark's lawyers dispute this. Roark says he's "a clear product of my environment."

A robbery sting netted some BGF members*

A massive child-pornography sweep netted 245 pervs nationwide and internationally, including one Robert Marzola of Essex, left.

The third trial for Espinoza and Canela, the alleged killers of three children, will happen in March*

The city plans to replace all 83 of the $450k-worth of speed cameras* that they bought.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Guns for gift cards

Tavon Barnett, 19, was arrested for the murder of Terrance Seale (#185), Barnett has been on the run (locally) since the murder.*

Among the malfeasances in the SE, a duct-taped security guard, a woman who successfully defended herself against a purse-snatcher with a small knife, a stolen bottle of Bacardi.

Data show that in Baltimore shootings are way way down.* So why is the WSJ breathless about "soaring" crime rates? Maybe because the facts don't jibe with the "be scared all the time" narrative? That paper has gone to major crap since Murdoch bought it. And guess what, the Tribune is trying to unload its newspapers, and guess who might be interested? Watch out, Fenton, you might find yourself replaced with a porn star.

Trial is scheduled to start today for Kenisha Thomas*, the woman who stabbed her infant daughter Pretty Diamond at a social services office. Speaking of morality and the formative years, interesting article from the New Republic on how neglect in the first two years of life leads to a fucked-up adulthood. And did you know that by the age of 5 months babies like it when mean puppets get punished, and that babies "are little bigots" when it comes to snack crackers? 

A preliminary hearing for The Baltimore Spectator, aka AF James MacArthur, will be held at 8:30 a.m. in room 1 of 5800 Wabash. And on Dec. 20th, Duane "Shorty" Davis is holding a vigil for him outside of Central Booking.

The temporary protective order against Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs has been lifted, so he can get his nine guns back. Also, his wife is really hot, in a plastic-y kind of way.


O'Malley says it's against the law for speed camera operators to get paid by volume,* which is, of course, how the city's camera contractors are paid. Luke Broadwater talked to Maynard n Shari about his story, sound file here (fast-forward to 8:30)


In spite of ample evidence that gun-buyback programs don't work, Prez Jack is championing one happening at City College this Friday. More from the BBrew