Alford Plea

A third-grade teacher at Logan Elementary School in Dundalk entered an Alford plea yesterday to child abuse involving three of his former female pupils and resigned from his job.Stephen Douglas Vaught, 35, of the 8500 block of Harris Ave. in Parkville was charged with three counts of child abuse in December after three 9-year-old girls in his class told police he had inappropriately touched them. In front of Baltimore County Circuit Judge Alexander Wright, Vaught entered an Alford plea to one count of child abuse, which means he declined to admit guilt but conceded prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him."

In Baltimore CountyWoodlawn woman enters Alford plea in boyfriend's deathTOWSON -- On the day her trial on a murder charge was to begin, a Woodlawn woman entered an Alford plea -- declining to plead guilty but acknowledging prosecutors had enough evidence to convict her -- to a second-degree murder charge, said Assistant State's Attorney Marsha Russell.Diane M. Mustafa, 37, was charged in Baltimore County Circuit Court with first-degree murder in the killing of her boyfriend, William E. Lewis, 42, who was shot twice in the back of the head after the two argued April 20, 1998.

Shaking his head in anger, the Anne Arundel County judge who seven years ago sent Brady Spicer to prison for a near-fatal assault refused yesterday to approve a deal to free the Annapolis man a federal judge said was unfairly convicted.Minutes later, the county's administrative judge said he would not take over the case, leaving Spicer crestfallen and prosecutors stunned at the prospect of taking a 9-year-old beating case through the courts again.Circuit Judge Eugene M. Lerner defiantly announced that the federal judge who'd sided with Spicer was wrong, the prosecutors' decision not to challenge the federal judge was wrong, and the negotiated plea they'd brought him to end the case was wrong.

On the day his death penalty murder trial was to begin, Eugene E. Winder ignored his lawyers' advice and admitted in court that he killed three people in the Eastern Shore town of Fruitland and set their house on fire in February 1998.After hearing a statement of facts in the case, Baltimore County Circuit Judge John F. Fader II convicted Winder, 25, a Fruitland electrician, of arson and first-degree murder in the deaths of his estranged girlfriend, Christie Lee Mainor, and her grandparents, John and Geraldine Mainor.

Shaking his head in anger, the Anne Arundel County judge who seven years ago sent Brady Spicer to prison for a near-fatal assault refused yesterday to approve a deal to free the Annapolis man a federal judge said was unfairly convicted.Minutes later, the county's administrative judge said he would not take over the case, leaving Spicer crestfallen and prosecutors stunned at the prospect of taking a 9-year-old beating case through the courts again.Circuit Judge Eugene M. Lerner defiantly announced that the federal judge who'd sided with Spicer was wrong, the prosecutors' decision not to challenge the federal judge was wrong, and the negotiated plea they'd brought him to end the case was wrong.

Nine months after his 11-year-old son died drunk in a car driven by a teen-ager who had just left his house, a father admitted in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court yesterday that he turned his home into a haven for drug and alcohol parties for youths.Edward E. Cordova Sr., 47, entered an Alford plea, denying the charges but agreeing that prosecutors have the evidence to convict him on two counts of maintaining a drug house and one of recklessly endangering another person. In exchange, prosecutors dropped 26 related counts.

A Pasadena man will be sentenced May 21 on manslaughter charges stemming from an April 1998 drunken-driving accident in which his car spun out of control and slammed into a tree, killing his passenger.Joseph H. Schneider, 26, of the 7800 block of Catherine Ave. was indicted on 10 counts stemming from the accident on Marley Neck Road near Harundale.The car's owner, Michelle L. Moore, 25, of the 1700 block of Hilyard Road in the Hillendale area of Baltimore County, died in the accident. Schneider was treated at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center for a broken leg and other injuries.

Triple ax murderer Eugene E. Winder was sentenced to death yesterday by a Baltimore County jury for the killings last year of his girlfriend and her grandparents in the small town of Fruitland in Wicomico County.A 12-member jury took 6 1/2 hours to deliberate yesterday, deciding that they did not believe defense attorney Thomas J. Saunders' explanation that a "bipolar" mental disorder caused Winder to kill Christie Lee Mainor and her grandparents, John and Geraldine Mainor.Winder, a 25-year-old electrician from Salisbury who admitted in court last week to the murders, showed no emotion as the jury read its verdict in Circuit Judge John F. Fader's courtroom.

Based on erroneous information supplied by the state's attorney's office, a story in the April 30 Howard County edition of The Sun incorrectly reported the type of plea entered by Tak Wha Tsang. Tsang entered an Alford plea to a rape charge, meaning he conceded that the state had enough evidence to convict him, but he did not admit guilt.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 5/12/98

A Washington County man received a six-year suspended prison sentence and was ordered to pay restitution of $1,930 after being convicted yesterday of breaking into an Eldersburg home.Joseph P. Garity, 24, of Clear Spring, pleaded not guilty in Carroll County Circuit Court, but agreed to accept the prosecutor's version of what happened.Prosecutor Clarence W. Beall III said that on July 1, Garity and two relatives of the victim broke into a home in the 6800 block of MacBeth Way, where they stole $1,850 and tickets to an Orioles game.

Ex-Baltimore man guilty in 1997 rape A former Baltimore man entered an Alford plea to first-degree rape, acknowledging Friday that prosecutors had evidence to convict him in the rape of a 66-year-old woman in 1997. Under terms of the plea, Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Philip T. Caroom can sentence Vander Davis, 41, to up to 30 years in prison when he returns for sentencing in December. The victim had interrupted her gardening outside her Glen Burnie home on April 30, 1997, to quiet her dog. When she went inside her house, she was raped, prosecutors said.

Annapolis teen reports rape near vacant home A 14-year-old girl told Annapolis police that she was raped Monday evening outside a vacant home in the 200 block of Admiral Drive. The girl told police that her attacker ran away after he assaulted her about 10:30 p.m. The girl fled to her home, where police were called. The investigation is continuing. - Andrea F. Siegel Columbia woman enters Alford plea to assault A 39-year-old Columbia woman entered an Alford plea for second-degree assault Tuesday in Howard County Circuit Court.

Even a gun bust made by Baltimore's top cop can't buy jail time. Two brothers detained by Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III on New Year's Eve after he chased down men firing shotgun blasts into the night accepted plea deals Monday that will not require them to serve jail time. The arrests were dramatic, an example of Bealefeld personally carrying out his oft-reiterated strategy of going after "bad guys with guns." The commissioner and a member of his executive protection team pursued the suspects through an alley and into a rowhouse, and Bealefeld held one of them at gunpoint as a crush of officers converged to back him up. But the disposition in court eight months later highlights the city's continued challenges in translating such arrests into meaningful convictions.

A 54-year old Howard County man was sentenced to 30 years in prison Friday for attacking his former girlfriend and her daughter last summer. Raymond Samuel Watson, of Gwynn Oak, had entered an Alford plea in April after being found guilty of second-degree attempted murder. An Alford plea is a way for a person to enter a plea without admitting guilt. According to police, Watson repeatedly stabbed Shirley Green with a meat cleaver and beat her with a pry bar in front of her North Laurel home last August, then did the same to Green's daughter, Nija, when she came to her mother's aid. Watson, who was wearing dark clothing and hiding in the bushes of Green's neighbor's home, had been upset because she had broken off their relationship, prosecutors said.

Two men shot; police exploring possible link Two shootings were reported in the city's Northeastern District Monday night, according to a Baltimore police spokeswoman. In the first incident, a man was shot in the chest and right buttock about 10:50 p.m. in the 7200 block of McClean Blvd., said Officer Nicole Monroe, a Baltimore police spokeswoman. The victim was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital. The second victim walked into Good Samaritan Hospital shortly after 11 p.m. after he was shot in the chest and arm at Moravia and Belair roads, Monroe said.

The intended target, prosecutors say, was Lee Dotson, a member of an O'Donnell Heights gang engaged in a vicious, weeks-long turf war. But the bullet hit his 16-year-old girlfriend, Estefany Gonzalez. Dotson, the only eyewitness to the crime, refused to name her killer. Yesterday Juan Hernandez, the man prosecutors believe killed the former Patterson High School student, entered an Alford plea - an acknowledgment that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict but not an admission of guilt - to second-degree murder and handgun charges.

A Baltimore man was sentenced yesterday to 28 years in prison for assaulting a woman during an attempted robbery at the home of a man accused in an Anne Arundel County dog-fighting operation. Ambrose Eugene Rawls Jr., 29, entered an Alford plea in April to charges of first-degree assault, attempted robbery and use of a handgun during the commission of a felony. In an Alford plea, the defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges that the state has enough evidence to convict. Prosecutors had sought a 38-year prison term.

The 20-year-old son of a career thief who received 30 years in prison Tuesday in the stabbing death of her boyfriend entered a guilty plea yesterday to a charge that he helped dispose of the body. Matthew Haarhoff was released from jail after more than two years awaiting trial. But Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Pamela L. North tacked on one condition to the plea agreement that led to his release: Haarhoff can have no contact with his mother, Cynthia J. McKay, for one year. "You need a recess from her," North said.

A former and current Baltimore police officer received suspended jail sentences yesterday in a case in which a Morgan State University office manager and two young women were assaulted outside a Federal Hill pizza shop in 2005, according to city prosecutors. The victim, Akhenaton R. Bonaparte IV, has said the two officers, who are white, harassed him and called him a racist as he and his two young female friends talked about African-American history in Maria D's shop on Light Street. Jack H. Odom, who resigned from the force after the incident, was sentenced to a 10-day suspended jail sentence and a year of probation.

20-year term imposed in light rail rape case A serial sex offender was sentenced yesterday to the maximum 20 years in prison for repeatedly raping a 22-year-old woman he had met at an Anne Arundel County light rail station. Eugene Waller, who was linked to the victim through DNA, entered an Alford plea to second-degree rape Friday, denying guilt but conceding that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. Waller, 50, could have gotten up to life in prison on a charge of first-degree rape, but the prosecutors' case was damaged by convenience store security footage showing Waller and the victim holding hands before the assault.