Bad Checks

Racial insensitivity is always distasteful, but especially when it serves no real purpose. Consider the ludicrous practice of coding racial identification on checks written at retail stores. Until customers complained, Merry-Go-Round Enterprises, Sears Roebuck and Safeway Stores required clerks to identify and code a shopper's race on personal checks. The merchants, who have since discontinued the practice, claim the information was "solely for identification in the event that the check does not clear."

Baltimore prosecutors say Michael Murray ordered merchandise from companies like Coca-Cola Co. and Gillette Co., paid for it with bad checks and immediately ordered more products for nearly two years. In the end, authorities say, the Baltimore man defrauded nine companies of more than $335,000 in merchandise. Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to a felony theft charge and could be sentenced to as much as 18 months in prison and five years of supervised probation. He also could be ordered to pay up to $112,822 in restitution.

Interestingly, perhaps ironically, the color of Stephanie Austin's skin was not an issue in her successful civil damage suit against Paramount's Kings Dominion. A jury awarded her $80,000 for false arrest and malicious prosecution without ever hearing Austin's attorney suggest that the appalling treatment of a young black woman in a Virginia amusement park three years ago might have been racially motivated.Austin, too, was spared such contemplations, and almost, it seems, glad of it - even though her original complaints against Paramount included "corporate arrogance and racism."

It is inexplicable that in an article about merchants bemoaning credit card interchange fees, the cost to businesses of processing cash and check purchases is never discussed ("Fee to pay with credit card could be in offing," Aug. 14). I worked in retail for many years, and I know that accepting cash or checks costs merchants time and money. There's the issue of counterfeit bills, mistakes in making change, employee pilfering and bad checks that can require the merchant's appearance in court as a consequence.

The two men wore body armor with "POLICE" written across the chest and spilled out of their unmarked car, weapons drawn, ordering Christopher Dukes and his passenger out of their vehicle at a South Baltimore gas station parking lot. When Dukes pulled off, they embarked on a high-speed chase down Interstate 295 until catching up and placing the pair under arrest, charging documents show. Then it was time for the real police to take over. The men in the body armor were not Baltimore police officers or federal agents, but instead a little-known classification of security guards known as "special police," who are commissioned by the city or state to arrest and detain citizens - but only on specific properties.

In an attempt to halt the amount of bounced checks received by the town, the Town Council last week enacted a bad-check ordinance.Thenew ordinance, effective immediately, means that any person who has two checks returned to the town for insufficient funds will not be able to use a personal check to pay for town services for a period of five years.

A 28-year-old Edgewater man was in the county jail yesterday, charged with stealing nine checks from his father and cashing them for $425.Todd M. Muse of the 1600 block of Hilltop Road was charged with theft and passing stolen checks. He was being held on $4,500 bail. Muse also is wanted on theft charges in Prince George's and Calvert counties.Muse became a suspect in a monthlong string of thefts from newspaper vending machines in the Annapolis area last week when county police reported finding eight damaged boxes in his home.

The Howard County state's attorney's office is seeking to recall most of the arrest warrants issued for people who wrote bad checks yet repaid their debts, officials said yesterday.I. Matthew Campbell, deputy state's attorney, could not say how many, but he said "a number of cases" would be recalled.Prosecutors will review those cases and decide whether to have summonses issued or to drop the charges, Campbell said.At least seven people were wanted on arrest warrants even though they had repaid their debts.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Kweisi Mfume disclosed yesterday he wrote 12 bad checks at the now-closed House bank, becoming the third member of the Maryland congressional delegation among the 355 current and former lawmakers who had overdrafts.The three-term Baltimore Democrat had said he did not believe he had any overdrafts. But late Thursday night the House ethics committee told him he had a dozen overdrafts with a face value of just over $2,500.Half the checks were for amounts under $100, and all of them were covered within an average of seven days.