Ex-engineer sentenced for polluting bay
The former chief engineer of a U.S.-flagged car-carrier ship based in Baltimore was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court to six months in prison for allowing illegal discharges of oily waste into the Chesapeake Bay and for lying to the Coast Guard in its investigation, federal prosecutors said.
Mark Humphries, who had been assigned to the Tanabata, was found guilty by a jury in October of using a bypass pipe to discharge the waste without having it go through a pollution-control device required on all oceangoing vessels.
He was convicted of violating four laws regulating the discharge of bilge waste, prosecutors said, including failing to maintain proper records and producing false documents. Prosecutors said he enlisted cadets from maritime academies to help him in his deception.
The ship's other chief engineer, Stephen Karas, pleaded guilty to similar charges in March and is awaiting sentencing. The illegal discharges occurred in 2002 and 2003.
Baltimore
: Federal court
Man gets 22 years for dealing heroin
A 35-year-old man was sentenced yesterday to nearly 22 years in prison for distributing heroin around Baltimore, federal prosecutors said. U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles Jr. increased the sentence for Bishme Walker because he had been convicted four previous times in state court on gun and drug charges.
Walker was arrested March 14 after undercover law enforcement officers watched him enter a restaurant in the 1300 block of N. Charles St. in the Mid-Town Belvedere neighborhood and meet with several peoples, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the meeting was "an indication to investigators that a drug exchange had occurred." Authorities said they followed the man to South President Street near Inner Harbor East, where they said he met with another man.
"Walker exited the restaurant with the individual and they got into Walker's car," prosecutors said in a statement. "Believing that a drug exchange was occurring, investigators moved toward the car. Walker threw something, and they were ordered from the car."
Prosecutors said police found five plastic bags, each containing 100 grams of heroin.
Eastern Shore
: Queenstown
Parole violation suspect sought
Maryland State Police are searching for an Eastern Shore man accused of parole violation after he eluded authorities trying to arrest him Wednesday at his mother's home in Queenstown.
