Woman was sexually assaulted yesterday in...

CATONSVILLE -- A woman was sexually assaulted yesterday in front of her two young children by an armed man who matches the general description of a man sought in several other recent sexual assaults and robberies, county police said.

Police said a man, wearing a blue bandanna over his face, entered a unit at Cedar Run Apartments about noon through a sliding glass door, threatened the woman and her children with a handgun and then sexually assaulted her. The 31-year-old woman was treated at the rape crisis center at Greater Baltimore Medical Center for undisclosed injuries and released.

Police described the suspect as a black man in his early 30s, about 6 feet tall, with a thin build and wearing a brownish-gray suit.

Officials decide on site for minilibrary in Hillendale

HILLENDALE

HILLENDALE -- After months of searching for a library site, county officials have settled on a storefront location in Pleasant Plains Shopping Center at Loch Raven Boulevard and Taylor Avenue.

The county is involved in lease negotiations on three contiguous stores under the shopping center's bingo hall. The shops will be united for a 3,600-square-foot minilibrary.

"We're on an aggressive track to get the library opened shortly," said Robert J. Barrett, special assistant to County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger.

Long-vacant house by school finally might be renovated

MIDDLE RIVER

MIDDLE RIVER -- A long-vacant, federally owned house on Alloy Circle behind Victory Villa Elementary School finally might be renovated.

A couple interested in buying, repairing and living in the one-story wooden bungalow has submitted a contract on it, using an unusual government mortgage program labeled 203 K. The program allows borrowers to have enough government-insured mortgage money to buy and renovate abandoned or damaged homes, repaying the loan on the normal 30-year cycle.

County officials -- who had levied a $52,000 fine for long-standing housing code violations on the house -- said yesterday that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has repaired the house and abated the fines.

William D. "Bill" Blaul Jr., spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, will resign his post to become director of external communications for the American Red Cross national headquarters in Falls Church, Va. He has been director of communications for the archdiocese for three years.

Baltimore County man slain during attempted robbery

A 37-year-old Baltimore County man was fatally shot early yesterday during an apparent robbery attempt in Mount Vernon, city police said.

Robert Nay Lewis of the first block of Seversky Court in Essex was attacked about 12: 05 a.m. in the 800 block of Park Ave. He was pronounced dead at 2: 30 a.m. at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said.

Investigators said witnesses told them that three men approached the victim and demanded money, and then one of the men took out a handgun and opened fire. Police said the victim was shot several times.

Study to examine effects of job stress on police, kin

The Baltimore Police Department, in conjunction with Lodge 3 of the Fraternal Order of Police, the union representing police officers, and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, has received a $400,000 federal grant to study job stress among officers and how it affects their families.

Hopkins psychologists plan to interview officers and their spouses during the next 18 months and then mail questionnaires to all 3,200 members of the force. The results will be used to find ways to ease stress-related problems.

"Police are normal people dealing with abnormal situations," said police Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier. "What they do and see on occasion can have an effect on their families."

Pub Date: 7/23/97