Crime Watch

City policeman, charged in assault, is suspended

Anthony M. Stevenson, a Baltimore police officer who lives in Abingdon, has been charged with second-degree assault and reckless endangerment and suspended from the force after a man was struck in a Bel Air bar a week ago. The man was conversing with friends at Looney's Pub sometime after 1 a.m. Feb. 7, Bel Air police said, when Stevenson, who was off-duty, made a series of unwelcome remarks to two women in the group. When the man objected, Stevenson struck him with a fist in which he was holding a beer bottle, causing severe facial cuts, according to court documents. Volunteer firefighters took the 27-year-old victim to a hospital. Bel Air Police Sgt. J.C. Lockard, who was at the bar doing a routine business check when the incident occurred, found the victim being held in a chokehold and made the arrest, officials said. A spokesman for Baltimore police said Stevenson, 28, has been suspended pending the outcome of the case. A trial is set for April 13.

Jonathan Pitts

Accused professor unlikely to be extradited for trial

A Maryland professor accused of genocide should be extradited to Rwanda to face charges, that country's prosecutor-general said yesterday, but that is unlikely because the United States does not have an agreement to send suspects there, immigration officials said. The professor, Leopold Munyakazi, was arrested last week, accused of being in the United States illegally and is confined to his home. He taught French at Goucher College until officials there learned in December that he had been indicted on genocide charges in his home country. Rwandan Prosecutor-General Martin Ngoga said in a statement yesterday that Munyakazi should be extradited swiftly. The U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with the Rwandan government, so sending Munyakazi to face trial in Rwanda is "not even on the table," said Brandon A. Montgomery, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Munyakazi is subject to possible deportation on a charge of overstaying his visa and will have the right to plead his case before an immigration judge, Montgomery said. Munyakazi denies that he participated in genocide.

Associated Press