Aron

Ruthann Aron will not be tried on charges that she tried to kill her husband by poisoning his bowl of chili.Aron, 55, appeared in Montgomery County Circuit Court yesterday in a jail-issued jumpsuit and showed no emotion as Deputy State's Attorney I. Matthew Campbell dropped the charges, saying "no public interest would be served" by a one- to two-week trial.But the former U.S. Senate candidate will be back in court Nov. 23 to be sentenced on charges that she hired a hit man in an unsuccessful attempt to kill Dr. Barry Aron and another man. Aron's lawyers say they will encourage her to testify -- the first time she will have taken the stand.

Aron Nwankwo has gotten a lot of mileage out of his senior year at City. In the classroom, he has maintained a 4.0 grade-point average, which helped him earn a full academic scholarship to study pre-medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. As for his athletic career, Nwankwo, 6 feet 7, is best known for his prowess on the basketball court, where he helped the No. 1 Knights win their second straight Class 2A state championship as a defensive catalyst and strong rebounder. Nwankwo also has developed a love for lacrosse, playing defense to help the Knights (10-1 overall, 9-0 in Baltimore City)

Invoking the slaying last week of her father, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ruthann Aron called for tougher sentences for criminals and took shots at one of her chief rivals for the nomination during a televised forum last night.The one-hour session aired live on WBFF-TV (Channel 45) was the first head-to-head meeting of the leading four contenders for the job now held by three-term Democratic Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, who faces token opposition in the Sept. 13 primary.The participants included the political target of Ms. Aron's jabs, former Tennessee Sen. Bill Brock, as well as first-term state Del. C. Ronald Franks and perennial candidate Ross Z. Pierpont.

Jason Aron Collins, an aviation technician first class in the Navy, died in a motorcycle accident July 3 in Sigonella, Sicily. He was 25. A native of Baltimore, Mr. Collins graduated from Mergenthaler High School in 1997. He immediately enlisted in the Navy and in five years had become a petty officer first class. He was the recipient of two Navy and Marine Corps achievement medals and earned his enlisted aviation warfare specialist pin while serving aboard the USS Carl Vinson. "He was just at the beginning of a long and important career," his commanding officer, Capt.

Ruthann Aron has fired her defense team less than a month after one of the attorneys urged her to plead guilty on charges she tried to arrange the deaths of her husband and a Baltimore lawyer.Attorneys Barry Helfand, Judith Catterton and Erik Bolog were Aron's attorneys when a deadlocked jury led to a mistrial in PTC March. Afterward, Helfand recommended that she plead guilty and seek the court's mercy rather than face a retrial scheduled for July 6.In their place, Aron has hired former Howard County prosecutor Teresa Whalen.

Ruthann Aron's murder-for-hire trial was to resume today with the testimony of the man prosecutors say introduced her to an undercover police officer posing as a hit man.The Montgomery County Circuit Court jury of 10 women and two men heard one day of testimony Thursday, then were sent home Friday after two jurors and a defense attorney complained of illness.Aron, 55, is being tried on two counts of solicitation to commit murder. The former Potomac businesswoman and unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate has pleaded not criminally responsible to charges that she hired a hit man last summer to kill her husband, Dr. Barry Aron, and Baltimore lawyer Arthur Kahn, who testified against her in a defamation trial.

The Montgomery County Council yesterday removed from the planning board Ruthann Aron, who has been charged with hiring a hit man to kill her husband and a Baltimore lawyer.Council Vice President Isiah Leggett called the unanimous vote to take away Aron's $18,500-a-year job "difficult and sad." But the council said it had no alternative for keeping the five-member planning board at full strength while Aron is in jail awaiting trial. Lawyers for Aron, a Potomac developer and 1994 Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, said last week that it would be unconstitutional to remove her while she is unable to defend herself.

Barring any last-minute changes, the Ruthann Aron murder-for-hire trial is poised to go to the jury today, four weeks and several dozen witnesses later.Aron's lawyers held out the option yesterday of calling one more witness this morning and indicated that Aron might take the stand -- although they noted it was doubtful.As of late yesterday, Montgomery Circuit Judge Vincent E. Ferretti Jr. and lawyers on both sides were making final HTC preparations for closing arguments at 9: 45 a.m.When the jury gets the case, its core task will be to decide one primary issue: whether mental illness was to blame when the Potomac developer and one-time U.S. Senate candidate contracted the killings of her husband and another man.Aron was arrested June 9 last year approximately one week after police were tipped off that she was interested in hiring a hitman, and hours after she dropped $500 toward a $10,000 contract on her husband's life at a Gaithersburg hotel.

Ruthann Aron's murder-for-hire trial in Montgomery County Circuit Court was postponed yesterday when one juror called in sick and another juror and the lead defense lawyer also reported feeling ill.Judge Paul A. McGuckian, himself battling a virus, sent everyone home.During jury selection, McGuckian increased the number of alternates to six because of the trial's anticipated three-week duration and the possibility of illness. One juror was dismissed in the trial's first day for undisclosed reasons.

Ruthann Aron, the former U.S. Senate candidate indicted on charges she hired a hit man to kill her husband and a lawyer, has been transferred from the Montgomery County jail to a psychiatric ward.A Montgomery Circuit Court judge late last week approved a request from her lawyers to move her to Suburban Hospital in Bethesda for a three-week evaluation and treatment for depression. She was transferred Monday.Aron, 54, was arrested June 9 after police said she made a down payment on a contract to have Dr. Barry Aron and Baltimore lawyer Arthur Kahn killed.

In Maryland Three N.Y. men convicted in scheme to smuggle liquor A federal jury convicted three New York men yesterday in a liquor-smuggling scheme that investigators said stretched from Maryland to Canada and cost the Canadian government nearly $6 million. David B. Pasquantino, 54, and Carl J. Pasquantino, 53, brothers from Niagara Falls, N.Y., were convicted on six counts each of wire fraud by jurors in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Arthur "Butch" Hilts, 42, of Sanborn, N.Y., was convicted on one count of wire fraud.

Ruthann Aron, the former U.S. Senate candidate who pleaded no contest to hiring a hit man in 1997 to kill her physician husband, was released from home detention yesterday, according to Montgomery County jail officials. The 57-year-old Potomac resident -- who was also charged with solicitation to commit murder against attorney Alfred Kahn -- had been on home detention since June, with an electronic monitoring device and various reporting requirements. Aron, who could not be reached for comment last night, pleaded no contest in a July 1998 trial that followed an earlier mistrial.

ROCKVILLE -- A Montgomery County circuit judge refused yesterday to shorten the jail sentence of former U.S. Senate candidate Ruthann Aron, despite her teary plea for forgiveness.During a three-hour hearing, Aron's lawyers sought to have her moved to a halfway house now rather than in April, saying her mental state is deteriorating.At the end of the hearing, Aron rose to plead her case."I don't know what I could say to the court. I don't know what anyone could say for me," she said in a soft, flat voice.

ROCKVILLE -- Annapolis lobbyist Bruce C. Bereano is being accused of legal malpractice by a bankrupt dump owner who was a key witness in Ruthann Aron's murder-for-hire trial.In a $50 million suit filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court, William Mossburg Jr. says Bereano abandoned him during a legal battle with county officials over the cost of fighting a fire in 1994 at his North Potomac dump.Mossburg hired Bereano from July 1995 to July 1996 after the county sued him to recover the $2.6 million it spent putting out the fire and removing the debris.

A 25-year-old Baltimore medical student named Aron Sobel dreamed of saving lives. After he died in a bus crash in Turkey, his mother has fulfilled her son's wish -- by offering her grievous loss as a warning to travelers."

ROCKVILLE -- Ruthann Aron will do on network television what she refused to do during her two murder-for-hire trials: tell her story.A Montgomery County Circuit judge refused yesterday to block a jail house interview between Aron and Barbara Walters for the ABC news magazine "20/20."Lawyers for Aron's estranged husband, Dr. Barry Aron, asked Judge D. Warren Donohue for a gag order, saying the publicity would taint the jury pool in the couple's civil lawsuits against each other.But after an hourlong hearing, Donohue said he was denying the request because "a gag order would have a substantial effect on Ms. Aron's First Amendment rights and perhaps the rights of the press."

The jury in Ruthann Aron's murder solicitation trial will deal separately with the questions of her innocence and sanity, a Montgomery County circuit judge ruled yesterday.Aron, a Potomac developer and unsuccessful candidate for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, has pleaded not criminally responsible to charges she tried to hire a hit man to kill her husband and a Baltimore lawyer who testified against her in a civil trial.Judge Paul A. McGuckian approved a request from prosecutors for a two-phase trial that will begin Dec. 15 despite the objections of Aron's lawyers, who said her mental state goes to the heart of her defense.

After almost 20 hours of deliberations, the jury in Ruthann Aron's murder-for-hire trial remains deadlocked.The 10 women and two men received additional instructions from Montgomery County Circuit Judge Paul McGuckian yesterday before being told to report for duty today.McGuckian gently urged them to "step back and look at a problem differently, turn it inside out and take a different perspective."The jurors, who appeared tired and tense Wednesday, seemed more relaxed yesterday. They did not send notes to McGuckian and came out of their deliberation room only for a lunch break.

ROCKVILLE -- They don't have enough spaces filled for a game of Hollywood Squares yet, but jailers at the Montgomery County Detention Center say they've set the rules for celebrity inmates.The sprawling complex off Interstate 270 is home to two national headline-getters this weekend: boxer Mike Tyson and former politician Ruthann Aron.Tyson was sentenced Friday to spend a year in jail for attacking two motorists after a Gaithersburg fender-bender last summer. Aron was given two consecutive 18-month sentences in November for trying to hire a hit man to kill her husband and a lawyer.

I. Matthew Campbell, the Montgomery County prosecutor who handled the Ruthann Aron murder-for-hire case, has been hired as a deputy state's attorney in Howard County.He will be responsible for overseeing the prosecution of criminal cases, State's Attorney Marna L. McLendon said.He joins Deputy State's Attorney Dario Broccolino, who is responsible for the office's administrative cases, McLendon said.Campbell prosecuted Aron, a 1994 candidate for the U.S. Senate, who was sentenced in November to three years in prison after pleading no contest to charges she tried to hire a hit man to kill her husband and another man.Campbell, 52, served as deputy state's attorney in Montgomery County for 14 years and has experience prosecuting economic crimes and offenses by public officials, McLendon said.