Agents

WASHINGTON -- The FBI will temporarily send 50 additional agents to Maryland in coming weeks as part of a major shake-up at FBI headquarters that eventually will move 600 agents from desk jobs to field assignments in the nation's cities, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh said yesterday.In a blunt assessment of the agency's failings, Mr. Freeh said the FBI for years has "been top-heavy with supervisors and unnecessary levels of review and decision-making" that it can't afford in the face of budget cuts that have frozen the hiring of agents until 1996.

A federal court hearing scheduled for this morning could determine the fate of a $10 million federal lawsuit brought by a Pasadena man who was mistaken for a bank robber and shot in the face by an FBI agent more than three years ago. At issue is whether the judge will grant the defendants' motion to dismiss the claims against Special Agent Christopher Braga and his supervisor, Henry F. Hanburger. Joseph C. Schultz, now 23, was shot in the face March 1, 2002, shattering his jaw, after FBI agents searching for a bank robber stopped the car being driven by Kristen M. Harkum of Pasadena, then 16. Harkum, Schultz's former girlfriend, was not wounded in the shooting, but she also has filed a $10 million lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, arguing that her constitutional rights were violated.

Art Modell sat in his golf cart in the morning heat, watching the Ravens' first practice, longing for a simpler age.You know, once upon a time, when top draft picks actually showed up for the start of an NFL training camp, and agents weren't running sports.Let's get this out in the open, OK?The agents are out of control.From David Falk to Scott Boras to Eugene Parker, fans are sick and tired of them.So is Modell, who yesterday accused the agents for the Ravens' top three draft picks of orchestrating a combined holdout.

In the last two weeks, the Orioles have expressed preliminary interest in at least a dozen free agents, including Milwaukee lefthander Teddy Higuera and Boston outfielder Tom Brunansky.The question now is whether the club will dramatically alter its offseason strategy because of the $10.8 million payment for collusion damages facing each of the 26 major-league teams.The $10.8 million figure is not yet official, but no one is disputing published reports assessing the total settlement at $280 million, leaving Orioles officials to brace for the inevitable.

WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors are preparing to indict Aldrich H. Ames and his wife, Rosario, on espionage charges this week as part of a plea agreement that is close to being reached, people involved in the case said yesterday.Mr. Ames, a career Central Intelligence Agency officer who has been accused of being one of the most damaging double agents in modern times, is expected to receive a life sentence as part of a plea bargain.Intensive negotiations that have been under way since March are nearly complete.

Criminal investigators from the Department of Defense searched the offices of an Ellicott City manufacturer of defense supplies early yesterday, but federal officials refused to comment on the investigation.The agents entered the offices of C. R. Daniels Inc. in the 3400 block of Ellicott Center Drive about 9 a.m. They were wearing blue windbreakers and identified themselves as special agents of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, an arm of the inspector general's office in the Department of Defense.

This time a year ago, the Washington Bullets, looking for help at all positions, had 30 players attending their rookie/free-agent camp.As things developed, free-agent guards Haywoode Workman and Larry Robinson not only won roster spots, but also began the regular season as the starting backcourt.But the odds seemingly will be much greater for the free agents attending this year's three-day minicamp beginning today at Bowie State.The camp roster has been trimmed to 14 players, including five Bullets veterans and the No. 1 draft pick, guard LaBradford Smith of Louisville, who is reporting without a contract while the Bullets maneuver to find room in their salary cap."

Two men arrested by federal agents after their fleeing vehicle crashed into a car at a Baltimore intersection Wednesday were charged yesterday with conspiring to distribute heroin. Court documents allege that one of the suspects is the leader of a city drug ring and the other is his supplier from New York. After the crash, agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said, they confiscated six kilograms of heroin and duffel bags containing $400,000. DEA agents wrote in paperwork filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore that they have been targeting for several months members of a drug distribution organization allegedly run by Payton Green.

"Operation Innocent Images," the child-porn computer probe made public last week by the FBI, has vaulted federal investigators into the age of on-line detective work, and has begun to generate significant new cases.Officials said the pornography case, which grew out of a Maryland kidnapping, broke new ground in investigative technique, legal questions, and computer use by agents."This new trail will certainly have direct applications on white collar crime matters in the future, and on scams being perpetrated over commercial on-line services," said Timothy P. McNally, special agent in charge of the FBI Maryland-Delaware field office, which coordinated the investigation.

Contract talks for some of the NBA's top free agents -- including Washington Bullets forward Juwan Howard -- will get under way tomorrow after the league yesterday briefly imposed a lockout, only to reverse itself later after finally reaching an agreement with the players association.Yesterday's lockout, coming after both sides initially could not reach an agreement in the dispersal of $50 million in profit sharing, forced the cancellation of talks yesterday between the Bullets and Howard that were to take place at the Chevy Chase offices of agent David Falk.