Bail

A New Windsor-area teen-ager is being held at the Carroll County Detention Center in lieu of $15,000 bail after he was arrested Sunday on charges of raping and assaulting his mother, court records showed.The 17-year-old was charged as an adult with second-degree rape and second-degree assault. He is not being named to protect the privacy of the alleged victim.In charging documents, state police reported responding at 6: 26 p.m. to a 911 hang-up call from a home south of New Windsor. They were met there by a woman who said her son forced his way into the bathroom as she was preparing to bathe and sexually assaulted her, according to charging documents.

From the windows of state Sen. Clarence M. Mitchell IV's old office on Druid Hill Avenue, printed signs carry two distinct promises.A campaign poster declares that a vote for Mitchell is a vote "for a better Baltimore." In larger letters across the tall glass panes, another sign announces: "Druid Bail Bonds: Home in a Hurry."The signs advertise the two worlds of Clarence Mitchell, a licensed bail bondsman who represents the third generation of one of Baltimore's political dynasties. This week, when the senator switched sides and voted against a bill aimed at unclogging Baltimore's courts -- legislation that could have cost bail bondsmen considerable profits -- those two worlds collided, his critics argue.

A Westminster man accused of stealing three all-terrain vehicles and a motorcycle was held yesterday at the county jail in lieu of bails totaling $100,000, court records showed.Jeffrey Scott Bartholomey, 36, of the 600 block of Gist Road was arrested early Tuesday in Westminster, but state police were unable to identify him until his fingerprints were submitted to the FBI for verification, according to charging documents.Bartholomey was charged on counts of burglary, theft over $300, obstruction of justice and giving a false statement to police.

When heavily armed police officers swarmed into a Pen Lucy rowhouse last month, they thought they had finally busted a drug gang suspected of selling crack cocaine in the North Baltimore neighborhood.They seized three handguns -- one of which police linked to four shootings and a homicide -- and said they found a man sitting at a kitchen table filling vials with crack cocaine, getting them ready for street sale.But an alleged member of the Old York-Cator Avenue Boys -- who was convicted of manslaughter in 1991 and served 15 months in prison -- posted bail a day after his Dec. 15 arrest.

A Carroll County judge refused yesterday to lower bail for a Mount Airy man charged with sexually abusing three children last year after tempting them with lollipops.Robert E. Tibbits, 63, was returned to the Carroll County Detention Center in lieu of $50,000 bail after a hearing by Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr.Tibbits has severe heart problems, said Daniel Shemer, assistant public defender, who asked for bail of $15,000. He said his client would agree to home detention while awaiting trial.

Frustrated by lenient bail, Baltimore police and the Downtown Partnership have called on state court officials to keep those who repeatedly break into and steal from cars locked up.The outcry came after police say five men -- arrested in recent months and charged with stealing more than $130,000 in goods from 200 vehicles -- were back on the streets within days.If the trend continues, officials warn, it will wipe out recent declines in vehicle break-ins, and spur on thieves who can clean a vehicle of money, cellular phones and handicapped parking permits in 10 seconds.

An Eldersburg man was ordered held in lieu of $200,000 bond yesterday on charges of putting a pistol to his 16-year-old daughter's head and pulling the trigger six times.The man, who is not being named to protect the privacy of the girl, was charged with first- and second-degree assault and with using a handgun in committing a felony.According to court records, the man was angry because of a $300 phone bill and confronted his daughter about it. She told police that before she could explain, he went upstairs and got a gun. He was arrested late Wednesday.

THE FATE of a key criminal-justice reform bill this week shows that money talks as loud as ever in Annapolis. By guaranteeing that indigent persons who are arrested have legal representation at their bail hearings, the bill would have reduced costly and unnecessarily long pretrial jail stays and helped to unclog the courts.The bail bond lobby, however, saw this bill as a threat to its lucrative businesses. The decisive vote against the bill was cast by Sen. Clarence M. Mitchell IV, a Baltimore Democrat -- and a licensed bail bondsman.

Bail was revoked and additional charges were filed against a 35-year-old Westminster man who was accused last month of assaulting the mother of his infant son.State police in Westminster arrested Kenneth E. Kern Thursday night on charges of telephone misuse and violating a protective order the woman obtained to prevent him from contacting her after the alleged assault Sept. 10.Bail on the new charges was set at $100,000 in District Court Friday morning. Prosecutors said Kern was served with a bench warrant signed by visiting Circuit Judge Elsbeth L. Bothe on Friday that revoked the $75,000 bail he posted Sept.

A Carroll County carpet store owner, who is accused of nearly 70 counts of theft, surrendered for a bail revocation hearing in Westminster yesterday as Baltimore County authorities waited to take him into custody.Roy D. Marshall, 31, formerly of Willow Avenue in Westminster, listed a Dayton, Ohio, address in Circuit Court documents that he signed yesterday. He was seeking reinstatement of a $75,000 bail that was revoked last month because he allegedly had written two bad checks in Florida while Carroll prosecutors thought he was living with his mother in Ohio.

A Charles County man accused of conspiring in the shooting of a Crofton woman who believed he was the father of her unborn child can be freed from jail until his trial, in a bail ruling Monday that was a blow to Anne Arundel County prosecutors but was praised by his lawyer. Bail for Charles Brandon Martin, 32, was returned to $500,000 by Circuit Judge Michele D. Jaklitsch, the amount set when Martin was initially charged in March in the Oct. 27 shooting of a pregnant hairdresser. But when the married father was indicted last month, Circuit Judge William Mulford II ordered him held without bail, siding with prosecutors who said they feared for the victim's safety.

A Baltimore District Court judge whose previous bail decisions have been questioned set bail Friday for a 31-year-old man accused of helping a pastor hire a hit man to kill a blind and disabled man for life insurance money. Judge Nathan Braverman set bail for James Omar Clea III at $500,000 on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, use of a handgun in a violent crime, first-degree assault and related charges. A bail commissioner had ordered Clea held on no bond, and neither the city state's attorney's office nor other court officials requested a change in that status.

A lawyer for poor defendants in Baltimore told Maryland's highest court yesterday that his clients and others like them are entitled to taxpayer-funded lawyers at bail hearings held within 24 hours of their arrest. Should a majority of the court agree, the case would have wide-ranging consequences for the state's criminal justice system and require more public defenders, more space at central booking facilities statewide and more court commissioners, who are the first to set bail. But the lawyer for the Baltimore firm arguing the class-action suit pro bono said that giving poor defendants counsel at "all stages" of the criminal justice process would save the state money because it would mean jailing fewer people.

The city police union is calling on the chief of the District Court to prevent a Baltimore judge from conducting bail review hearings after he released on bail last month a man accused of murder. Paul M. Blair Jr., president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said he wants Chief Judge Ben C. Clyburn to investigate the actions of District Judge Nathan Braverman, who released Demetrius Smith on $350,000 bail July 11 after Smith was charged with murder. Smith was arrested and charged Sunday with shooting a 56-year-old man during a robbery.

A 25-year-old man who was charged with first-degree murder last month but released on bail by a District Court judge has been arrested again and charged in the shooting of a man during a robbery in South Baltimore. Police said witnesses identified Demetrius Smith as the man who shot Robert Long twice in the head near railroad tracks in the 400 block of S. Stricker St. on March 24, and he was charged July 8 with first-degree murder, assault and handgun violations. A bail commissioner held him without bond.

Two women were ordered held without bail yesterday on charges that they participated in the starvation death of a child whom they considered a "demon" because he wouldn't say amen after his meals, according to police charging documents. Standing side by side in court, Queen Antoinette, 40, and Trevia Williams, 21, refused to be represented by city public defenders during their bail review at the Central Booking and Intake Center. Police say Antoinette was the leader of a cult and that Williams was one of her followers; each is charged with first-degree murder.

A Harford County judge denied bail yesterday to a 36-year-old Pylesville man charged with first-degree murder. Kevin J. Sorrick is accused in the fatal shooting Sunday of Christopher Lee Fritsche, 34, of Havre de Grace. Fritsche died of a single gunshot wound to the head while attending a birthday party for his young daughter at Sorrick's home, authorities said. According to charging documents, the two men argued throughout the evening at the Harkins Road home that Sorrick shares with Fritsche's ex-wife, Yvonne Fritsche, 28. The arguing grew more intense as the party began to wind down with Fritsche, who was unarmed, yelling threats at Sorrick, police said.

A wanted man mistakenly released from the Baltimore jail on $10,000 bail surrendered to city detectives yesterday afternoon at his attorney's office, said the attorney, Christie Needleman. Nathan Parker, 28, has been charged with drug offenses, and authorities say he is a leading member of the citywide "Jigga" drug organization. After a raid on the organization last Wednesday night, in which police said they seized about $30,000 worth of heroin, a court commissioner set Parker's bail at $10,000, but subsequently increased it to $100,000.

When city police detectives raided homes and cars affiliated with the suspected "Jigga" drug organization, they hoped to remove from the streets leaders of what they called a large-scale heroin distribution ring in Baltimore. One of those men, however, walked free early the next day on bail mistakenly set at $10,000, instead of the $100,000 the District Court commissioner intended. The commissioner had initially set Nathan Parker's bail at the lower amount and then changed her mind. But the handwritten paperwork overwriting the earlier decision didn't make it into the jail's computer system in time, said Jimmie Foxworth, the top District Court commissioner in Baltimore City.

Two women whom Baltimore police and prosecutors are calling "persons of interest" in the disappearance of a toddler were ordered held without bail yesterday by a District Court judge. Travia Williams, 20, and Queen Antoinette, 39, were arrested this month in Brooklyn, N.Y., on a warrant charging them with assault in an case unrelated to that of the missing child. A third person charged in the assault case, Marcus Cobbs, 21, is scheduled for a bail review today. He is also being called a "person of interest."