Abuse

Breakdown of family real key to violence The subtitle to Sunday's editorial regarding juvenile homicides noted that "officials need to recognize that this isn't just a policing problem" ("Death at an early age," Jan. 4). However, our society, as well as The Baltimore Sun, needs to recognize the primary source of the problem - the breakdown of the family. While I recognize the importance of government programs in the fight against violence in our urban, poor communities, many of those same well-intentioned programs have, over the last five decades, played a deadly role in undermining intact families among the poor.

This should be the best time of year for the Ed Block Courage Award Foundation. A pack of NFL stars are on their way to Baltimore to be honored by the foundation tomorrow and to spend time with abused children. Thousands of eyes will turn to Ed Block and its cause. But the foundation is under fire from former board members and sponsors who say it gives little money to the 17 children's shelters it's affiliated with. In December, the foundation asked one dissatisfied board member to step down, and three others with ties to him resigned shortly after.

A retired Naval Academy professor has been charged with sexually abusing a female relative when she was 12 to 14 years old. Patrick Ryan Harrison, 66, of Hot Springs Village, Ark., was charged Friday with three counts of second-degree rape, five counts of second-degree sex offenses, a third-degree sex offense and a fourth-degree sex offense. Now 27, the woman told Anne Arundel County police in December that she was sexually abused from 1994 to 1996 in Harrison's former residence in Annapolis, according to charging documents.

Our marijuana laws are the real travesty The Baltimore Sun made a number of valid points in its editorial about Michael Phelps ("Snark attack," Feb. 6). But there is more that needs to be said. No one would bat an eyelash if Mr. Phelps had been photographed hoisting a Budweiser. Yet the data show unmistakably that alcohol is more addictive than marijuana, vastly more toxic and orders of magnitude more likely to make its users aggressive or violent. Given the laws, Mr. Phelps took a big risk.

A former Baltimore County gymnastics teacher pleaded guilty yesterday in what federal prosecutors called one of Maryland's largest child pornography cases. Patrick David Bogan, 41, an Edgewood resident who worked with children at a White Marsh gymnastics center, could receive a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after admitting to acquiring child pornography through the mail and over the Internet. Authorities were led to Bogan after he accessed an Internet file linked from an FBI-controlled computer while perusing a bulletin board that contained child pornography.

Moments after hearing his cellmate talk about his desire for some harm to befall a Baltimore County prosecutor, Timothy Bryce made a promise. "No matter what happens," the jailed man told fellow inmate Michael B. Martin, "what you have told me will never go beyond us." But about two hours earlier, detectives had fitted Bryce with a digital recorder that captured much of what was said during the men's conversation. Excerpts of that recording were played yesterday during the second day of Martin's trial on charges that he solicited his cellmate to kill both the prosecutor who handled a 2005 sex-abuse case against him and a developer who proposed building a child care center in Martin's community, and to set fire to the home of an elderly woman who told people at Martin's church about the abuse allegations.

Ex-county man accused in sexual abuse of child A former Baltimore County man has been charged with sexually abusing a child in Baltimore and Harford counties, police said yesterday. Fabrice Snowden, 41, of the 600 block of Burlington Court in Edgewood is accused of sexually abusing a child from 1999 to December 2006, and the victim told detectives that the sexual abuse was videotaped, according to authorities. The victim also told detectives that Snowden sold pornographic videos to someone in India, police said.

LOS ANGELES -- Negotiators completed a historic deal yesterday that settles the legal claims of more than 500 victims of alleged sexual abuse by clergy in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Victims will receive a total of $660 million, by far the largest of any settlements arising nationwide from the five-year-old clergy abuse scandal, representatives of both the church and the plaintiffs confirmed last night. The average payout will be in excess of $1.3 million. "The settlement is complete," announced Raymond Boucher, the lead attorney for victims.

The resignation of a state juvenile services official in the wake of disclosures of past abuse at a Montana facility doesn't end the matter. Juvenile Services Secretary Donald W. DeVore still has to answer for the agency's failure to fully investigate the employment record of Chris Perkins, who was appointed to run the state's new residential treatment center in Frederick County. The controversy over Mr. Perkins' employment involves allegations of abuse at the Swan Valley Youth Academy he ran in Montana.

Maryland senators heard tear-filled testimony yesterday in support of a bill that would establish a one-year period for childhood victims of sexual abuse, regardless of their age, to bring civil lawsuits against their perpetrators. "Does anyone want to protect pedophiles?" asked sexual abuse victim Tom Dembeck, 50, of Cockeysville, as he stretched out his arms and turned to face a crowded audience before the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. Dembeck accused the proposal's opponents of aiding offenders.

A jury in Howard County Circuit Court found a 38-year-old Laurel man guilty Monday of first-degree child abuse, second-degree assault and two counts of neglect for leaving his 2-year-old niece in a bathtub filled with scalding water last October, then leaving her alone again when he went to a pharmacy to buy an analgesic. The little girl suffered second-degree burns over 20 percent to 25 percent of her body, police and prosecutors said. Michael Oye-Adeniran, of the 9200 block of Traders Crossing, faces up to 25 years in prison when sentenced Dec. 21. Judge Timothy J. McCrone revoked Adeniran's bond after the jury took less than two hours to convict him after a five-day trial.

A federal judge ruled Monday that evidence of alleged prior abuse and corporal punishment is admissible in the trial of Roberto E. DeLeon, an Anne Arundel County man who is accused of beating his 8-year-old stepson to death in 2007 while the family was living in Okinawa, Japan. Opening statements in the case, being tried in Baltimore U.S. District Court, are expected today. According to court filings, DeLeon, 27, was a former military man who was in the process of leaving active duty and residing with his parents in Glen Burnie in late 2006 when he married Air Force Staff Sgt. Sabrina Brown.

Former priest accused of child sex abuse A former Catholic priest from North Carolina has been accused of sexually abusing a child in Ocean City more than 30 years ago. Ocean City police say 64-year-old Michael Barnes of Haywood, N.C., has been arrested in his home state and is being held there. Police say they got a complaint about the abuse this spring and that the incidents took place between 1977 and 1982. A Baltimore County man in his 40s filed a lawsuit against Barnes in Delaware in June.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold announced Thursday the creation of an animal advisory group to examine county laws and policies relating to issues such as animal abuse, pet waste and leashing dogs. The 16-member Animal Welfare Council will be responsible for community outreach relating to animals, reviewing pet rules and regulations, and developing public education efforts on issues such as reporting animal abuse and neglect. Wendy Cozzone, who heads Cheryl's Rescue Ranch in Odenton, was named chairwoman of the council.

A Baltimore County man in his 40s is suing the Archdiocese of Baltimore for an undisclosed amount of money, alleging negligence by the Roman Catholic Church after what he claims were years of sexual molestation by one of its priests. The lawsuit, filed in Delaware, alleges that the Rev. Michael L. Barnes abused the plaintiff while he was a minor at the St. Clare School in Essex. The suit names Barnes, the school and St. Clare Roman Catholic Church as co-defendants. Barnes, who left the priesthood in 1988 but was employed by the Archdiocese of Washington as lay director of adult faith formation at a Rockville church as recently as January, could not be located Friday.

Two arrested after stolen SUV crashes into house Two male suspects were arrested Monday night after the stolen sport utility vehicle they were driving slammed into an East Baltimore house, according to city police. A man called police about 11:30 p.m. and said one suspect approached him and his girlfriend as they were standing in the 200 block of S. Hilton Ave., according to Officer Troy Harris, a police spokesman. "He gave him a hard-luck story about his grandmother," Harris said, and the pair agreed to give the suspect a ride.

Possible link between fire, teen's death probed Officials are investigating a possible link between a suspicious fire early Wednesday at a house in Odenton and the homicide of a 14-year-old boy in Crofton last weekend that may be tied to youth gangs. Anne Arundel County police are working with fire investigators, who called the small 3 a.m. blaze at the exterior of a house in the 2600 block of Lotuswood Court malicious. At a meeting on youth violence Wednesday night in Crofton called by county officials, a woman said she thought her family was targeted because of talk that her teenage son was involved in the death of Christopher David Jones, an accusation she said was false.

Baltimore police have filed new sex abuse charges against a former church deacon who was arrested last month on charges that he sexually assaulted a minor. Curtis Allen, 48, who was a deacon at Bethel El Temple Church of Christ in Northwest Baltimore, has been charged with third- and fourth-degree sex offenses and related counts and is accused of sexually abusing a teenage girl in 1990, court records show. The alleged victim, a woman who is now in her 30s, came forward with accusations after seeing news coverage of Allen's arrest in May, according to Officer Troy Harris, a police spokesman.

Band director pleads guilty in sex abuse case A Howard County high school band director accused of sexually abusing a female student over two years pleaded guilty Thursday, prosecutors said. Robert Douglas Johnston, 61, who taught at Mount Hebron High School in Ellicott City for 35 years, could have been sentenced to a maximum of 25 years in prison in a case that included sexual abuse of a minor. Under his plea agreement, he could face a maximum of 18 months at his sentencing Aug. 13, said Wayne Kirwan, a county state's attorney's spokesman.

There was little reason to suspect that something terrible - the withering abuse and neglect of a child - was happening behind the walls of the Griffin family's rented brick townhouse in Rodgers Forge. John Griffin, a graduate of private schools in Baltimore, had a job as a computer engineer that paid well. He and his wife, Susan, and their five children were all covered by health insurance. She had worked in a medical office before becoming a full-time mother. He jogged with friends. But the family was unraveling, distracted and consumed with internal warfare.