Pay denied to accused

Dominic J. "Crowbar" Carozza, a city Department of Public Works superintendent charged with first-degree murder, was today indefinitely suspended from his $35,900-a-year job, an agency spokesman said.

James Kapplin, DPW spokesman, said Carozza will be suspended as of Monday and will remain off the city payroll pending the outcome of the murder and handgun charges against him. Under Civil Service regulations, Carozza can appeal the decision by his boss, Jay S. Thorpe, head of the Bureau of Water and Waste Water, and George A. Balog, director of the agency.

Kapplin said Carozza, arrested Sept. 19, will be fired if he is found guilty of the charges.

Carozza, 58, is a longtime local crime figure who is in City Jail under no bail in the June 22 killing of Russell Charles Baker, 42. Baker's bullet-riddled body was found in the 800 block of Lancaster St., on the eastern edge of the Inner Harbor.

Two other men also are charged with the murder.

Carozza has survived a car bombing that claimed his right leg and was charged in the 1960s with a double murder and a separate slaying, but the charges were either dropped or he was acquitted. He also spent six years in Patuxent Institution for the serious wounding of an after-hours club doorman in 1961.