September 11, 2008
3 teens pick wrong victim; one is seized, two sought
Three teenagers picked the wrong man to rob Monday night in an alley in West Baltimore. One was arrested, and police were seeking the other two. Police said the man was sitting in his parked car in the 100 block of S. Mount St. when he was approached by three teenage boys who talked to him about drugs and asked the man to meet them in an alley behind nearby Lemmon Street. There, police said, one of the boys brandished what appeared to be a small-caliber handgun and demanded the man's money. Instead, police said, the man pulled out his semiautomatic handgun, grabbed the boy standing nearest him and said, "You're under arrest!" With that, the other boys fled. The man was a plainclothes Southern District undercover officer who was working a drug detail. Arrested and charged as a juvenile with attempted armed robbery was a 15-year-old who was being held at the city's Juvenile Detention Center. The officer's name was not released.
Richard Irwin
Pikesville doctor convicted of illegal drugs scheme
A Pikesville doctor was convicted yesterday of conspiracy to distribute illegal drugs and cocaine possession after an extensive investigation that included Baltimore County police, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Maryland Board of Physicians. Dr. Louis W. Miller, 65, an internist, agreed to write prescriptions for narcotic pain medications for patients - including an undercover detective - who told the doctor they needed the pills only because they were addicted to them, Baltimore County prosecutor John Reilly told a judge in Baltimore County Circuit Court. Investigators found in Miller's office and home glass vials of cocaine, hundreds of pain pills, pill crushers, short plastic straws with white residue, bongs and a wooden pipe containing marijuana residue, according to court documents. As part of a plea agreement, Reilly dropped 10 other charges and will request a sentence of six to 12 months in prison. Defense attorney Joseph Murtha declined to comment after the hearing. Miller, whose medical license was suspended last year after his arrest, is to be sentenced in November.
Jennifer McMenamin
CCBC student robbed; three sought by police
Baltimore County police said yesterday they were seeking three men who robbed a Community College of Baltimore County/Essex student of $1,400 on the school's parking lot last month. The student, John David Clayton, 21, of Phoenix told police he was putting up the convertible top on his Jeep about 9:30 p.m. Aug. 21 when three men got out of a silver or white car and told him to get into their car or he would be shot. He was taken to another location on the lot, then beaten and robbed before the men drove off. He said no weapon was displayed and that one man had the pattern of the letter "F" cut into his hair. The student told police he earlier had withdrawn the money from an ATM. Metro Crime Stoppers, at 410-276-8888, is offering a reward for information leading to an arrest and an indictment.
Richard Irwin
Man, 30, handed term of 35 years in robbery plot
A 30-year-old Baltimore man was sentenced to 35 years in federal prison yesterday for conspiracy to commit commercial robbery and related gun and drug convictions, the Maryland U.S. attorney's office said. "His reign of terror on the citizens of Baltimore is over," Carl J. Kotowski, assistant special agent in charge of the Baltimore division of the Drug Enforcement Agency, said in a statement. According to testimony presented during his nine-day trial in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, Rahsean Holmes planned to break into a drug dealer's home, a businessman's home and a hotel room loaded with narcotics and cash. He was arrested before he could follow through. A co-conspirator, 26-year-old Terrance Gray, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in July. A third conspirator is scheduled for sentencing next month.
