Assault Charges

Kelli Oliver and Talaya Kirkland, the daughter and granddaughter, respectively, of Baltimore County Council member Kenneth N. Oliver, walked free from a Catonsville courtroom Wednesday after a judge determined that they had acted reasonably in resisting what they viewed as an illegal arrest. Oliver, 40, had been charged with second-degree assault, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after a traffic stop in September for a burned-out tail light. Kirkland, 23, was charged with hindering and disorderly conduct.

WEATHER Today's forecast calls for showers and thunderstorms, with a high temperature near 78 degrees. Tonight is expected to be mostly cloudy, with a low around 66 degrees. TRAFFIC Check our traffic updates for this morning's issues as you plan your commute. FROM LAST NIGHT... Sex offense, assault charges stem from Balto. Co. officer's foot massage : A Baltimore County police officer faces sex offense and assault charges after a fellow officer said he gave her a sexualized foot massage in March.

A 29-year-old Pasadena man faces attempted first-degree murder and assault charges after Anne Arundel County police said he and another man fought Sunday inside a home they share near Rock Creek Park. According to police, officers were called about 4:30 that afternoon to the residence on the first block of Bar Harbor Road, where they found Robert Lee Still, 55, suffering from non-life-threatening stab wounds. Still told officers he and Jesse Lee Allgaier had an argument that turned physical when Allgaier attacked him with a knife and stabbed him in the upper body, then fled.

ON THE SITE... Sex offense, assault charges stem from officer's foot massage :  A Baltimore County police officer faces sex offense and assault charges after a fellow officer said he gave her a sexualized foot massage in March. Angry at 'Avengers' showing, man allegedly pulls theater fire alarm : Fire marshals and Harford County Sheriff's Office deputies were called to the Regal Cinemas in Abingdon Monday night after a customer became belligerent over the showing of "The Avengers" film.

Patrick Downey III returned to North County High School in Glen Burnie Tuesday, days after prosecutors in Anne Arundel County dropped charges against the two-time former state wrestling champion. The decision Monday by school and county administrators to reinstate Downey came after the State's Attorney decided not to pursue charges of second-degree assault, robbery and theft stemming from an incident last September. Downey had been placed on "home teaching" following his arrest.

The mother of R&B singer Mario today dropped the assault charges she filed against her son in October, admitting she was intoxicated at the time. Shawntia Hardaway, who accused the Baltimore-born performer on October 1 of assaulting her and trashing their Fells Point apartment, appeared before the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City this afternoon and asked for the charges to be dropped. She has battled heroin addiction in the past. Prosecutors dismissed all charges against the singer, whose full name is Mario Dewar Barrett.

The Baltimore state's attorney's office has refiled assault charges against two city police officers who had their original cases dismissed last month after a judge ruled prosecutors failed to follow correct procedures, according to court documents. Officer Jack H. Odom Jr. is charged with three counts of second-degree assault and Officer Michael D. Brassell faces one count of second-degree assault, prosecutors said. Both officers have been suspended with pay. The officers are accused of assaulting a man and two young women outside Maria D's, a Federal Hill pizza shop, in October.

Assault charges against a county police officer accused of injuring a Mount Airy veterinarian at police headquarters have been dropped. The county State's Attorney Office dismissed assault charges against Officer 1st Class Donald R. Cook Aug. 6, following the recommendations of a grand jury that heard testimony from several witnesses. Dr. Richard Burroughs, 51, accused Officer Cook of assault in May after Dr. Burroughs went to the police station and got involved in a scuffle while he tried to pick up a summons.

A county Circuit Court judge dismissed drug and assault charges against a Brooklyn Park man yesterday because a court commissioner, and not a police officer, served the man's charging documents.Wade T. Hobbs Jr. was arrested during a July 17, 1989 traffic stop on Ritchie Highway at Church Street in Brooklyn Park, court records show.After a county police officer observed a "metal smoking pipe" in the glove box of the car, Hobbs was searched and a small bag of suspected marijuana was found in his pocket, records show.

WASHINGTON -- Although a Pentagon investigative agency determined that as many as 140 servicemen were involved in alleged sexual misconduct at the Tailhook Association convention in 1991, only two Navy fliers and one Marine Corps officer are facing charges of assault resulting from the scandal.While lesser charges of unbecoming conduct and other infractions are still being reviewed against others, the three servicemen named in the more serious assault charges are accused of attacking only a handful of women.

City police say they have made an arrest in the killing of a 44-year-old woman found handcuffed and bound by the feet in her bedroom at the McCulloh Homes housing project.  Cheryl Thomas was found May 3 in the 400 block of Cummings Court at about 5 p.m. after police received a call for an assault, according to police spokesman Sgt. Anthony Smith. Officers found Thomas dead in her bed, the victim of an apparent asphyxiation. She was partially clothed, and was handcuffed with her feet bound, police said.

Anne Arundel police have arrested a Severn woman on assault and reckless endangerment charges. Tamika Annette Williams, 31, of 8500 block of Pioneer Drive, was also charged with using a firearm in the commission of a felony. Officers were called Thursday evening to the 8500 block of Pioneer Drive for a report of a large neighborhood fight. Williams was armed with a handgun and threatening to shoot another woman, police said. She was waving the gun in the direction of a group of people outside the home at about 8:30 p.m., police said.

Three teen-aged boys face robbery and assault charges in the beating Monday of a pizza shop worker in Brooklyn Park. Anne Arundel County Police charged two suspects, aged 15 and 16, as juveniles with robbery and second-degree assault. Shaquille Davon Johnson, 16, of the 800 block of Washburn Ave. in Baltimore, was charged as an adult with robbery, armed robbery and first-degree assault. The 31-year-old victim told police as many as 10 juveniles approached him as he was taking a break at about 3:30 p.m. behind the Seasons Pizza in the 5500 block of Ritchie Highway.

When springtime trends showed that 2011 homicides in Maryland would rise by 7 percent, the governor's office set in motion an intensified effort to arrest violent offenders wanted on warrants in areas where most of the state's violent crime occurs: Baltimore City and Prince George's and Baltimore counties. Local and state agencies worked in three phases from the summer through year's end, with more officers and longer hours paid for with $500,000 in federal grants. When it was over, 2,200 people had been arrested.

The president of the Baltimore County police union has been suspended with pay and stripped of his police powers after an internal department investigation, months after he received probation before judgment on misdemeanor assault charges, a department spokeswoman said. Sgt. Cole B. Weston, who has led the Baltimore County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 4 for 12 years, will be suspended pending an administrative hearing that has not yet been scheduled, said Elise Armacost, a department spokeswoman.

The trial of a former longtime nurse accused of assaulting a patient at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center began Wednesday, against the backdrop of two recent homicides and internal reviews of the state's maximum-security psychiatric hospital. Rita Ward, 56, is charged with injuring Lori Shilling, a 25-year-old woman who, because of mental health problems, was found not criminally responsible for her part in a 2008 robbery in Prince George's County. Ward maintained her innocence on the witness stand.

The head of the Baltimore County police union has had his police powers restored after he received probation before judgment on misdemeanor assault charges in Circuit Court this week. Sgt. Cole B. Weston had his police powers suspended and was placed on administrative duties soon after he was charged in late March with second-degree assault and reckless endangerment in connection with an altercation with another man in Parkville. Police spokeswoman Detective Cathy Batton said that after an administrative hearing at the Police Department this week, Weston's police powers were restored.

A Catonsville man who is serving an eight year sentence for violating the terms of his probation did not return from his work release assignment in Towson on Wednesday, according to state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. Mark Randolph, 35, was working at a Towson business as part program that employees offenders nearing the end of their sentence. He was at an unsupervised location, and officials said he did not return to the Baltimore Pre-Release Unit on Greenmount Avenue by 4:30 p.m. Randolph has faced numerous drug-related and assault charges over the past few years but most were dropped until he pleaded guilty in 2006 to drug distribution charge, according to court records.