Baltimore Circuit Court

Police arrest, charge 2 in October homicide Baltimore police said yesterday that they arrested a man and his girlfriend and charged them in connection with a fatal shooting in October in the northeastern part of the city. The victim, Marlon Beckford, 31, of the Bronx, N.Y., was fatally shot while sitting in a car with a woman and her 10-month-old son early Oct. 30. Beckford died at Johns Hopkins Hospital that day, police said. The woman and child were unharmed. City police said that an "extensive investigation" led detectives to two suspects.

A Baltimore Circuit Court jury has awarded $25,000 to a man who accused city police of battery and false arrest during a traffic stop three years ago.In a case before Circuit Judge Wanda K. Heard, jurors determined late Thursday that Stanley F. Shields of the 4600 block of Hawksbury Road in Pikesville was wrongfully arrested on charges of disorderly conduct Oct. 12, 1996.Police officials declined to comment because the department does not discuss cases in litigation.Shields had stopped his car in the 1700 block of N. Carey St. about 5 a.m. to ask two pedestrians for directions, according to court records and his attorney, Matthew Bennett.

Night court is the solution to backlog in city system; Getting away with MURDERWith all the concern about the breakdown in city courts threatening public safety, serious con- sideration should be given to the adoption of night court in Baltimore.While top officials are scouring to find or create temporary locations, negotiating with downtown business owners to convert vacant space could take time and money. That time could allow additional serious criminal charges to be dismissed because of trial delays and other procedural missteps.

The state's second-highest court threw out yesterday the manslaughter conviction of a former Baltimore police sergeant who shot and killed a 22-year-old motorist during a traffic stop three years ago.Stephen R. Pagotto had been the first city officer in memory to be convicted of a crime for firing his weapon in the line of duty, sparking tension in the community. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison, but was free on bail awaiting the outcome of his appeal.The Court of Special Appeals reversed a 2 1/2-year-old Baltimore Circuit Court jury verdict and ruled in a 120-page opinion that while Pagotto violated departmental rules and training guidelines, his accidental shooting of Preston E. Barnes on Feb. 7, 1996, did not amount to criminal negligence.

CARL STOKES brought up the business the other night, during those last few nasty minutes of the second televised mayoral debate. He questioned Martin O'Malley's commitment to the city of Baltimore because O'Malley's kids go to school in Towson, O'Malley's wife works in Towson, and O'Malley has a law practice in Towson.As we all know, Towson is a provincial capital. If you imagine Baltimore County as a large pair of pants from a Big & Tall store, Towson is its seat. (Interstate 83 would be the zipper.

A man set free after Baltimore judges and prosecutors bungled the armed robbery and carjacking case against him received a 17-year federal prison sentence yesterday for a crime spree in Northeast Baltimore.The stiff sentence given to Kevin Cox salvaged a high-profile case that infuriated a community and led to immediate calls for reform of Baltimore's court system.Federal agents re-arrested Cox and a co-defendant after The Sun detailed how the city court system failed to bring the two to justice -- and sent them back to the street.

A federal arbitrator has refused to award Baltimore teachers 1992-1993 pay increases of up to 6 percent that they sought to bring their salaries more in line with those of surrounding jurisdictions.The Baltimore Teachers Union had filed a grievance against the city, claiming that the city had unfairly failed to fund pay increases that it had agreed were needed to achieve the "goal" of salary parity. The agreement was contained in a letter accompanying a collective-bargaining agreement.Had Baltimore lost the grievance, the Dec. 7 ruling by arbitrator M. David Vaughn could have cost the city $17 million in back pay, officials said.

After four years of bitter legal wrangling, former Artscape officials agreed Wednesday to turn over to Baltimore some of the money raised for the arts festival when Gov. William Donald Schaefer was mayor.In settling a lawsuit filed by the city, the former Artscape officials agreed to turn over to the city 40 percent of the $666,513 that was raised for the summer event, in three annual installments of $88,868.The settlement does not say when the city will get the rest of the funds. Under the agreement, the former Artscape officials will pay their legal fees with Artscape funds.

John M. Staubitz Jr., the former state health official convicted of skimming thousands of dollars in the State Games scandal and who was on the lam for nearly a month before his arrest last week in Las Vegas, said last night that he had fled to avoid sentencing because he was "confused" and "scared.""It was a foolhardy thing to do," Staubitz said as Baltimore sheriff's deputies escorted him through Baltimore-Washington International Airport. "I guess I was just confused and a little scared.

An illegal Baltimore-based organization that allegedly trafficked in millions of dollars of cocaine has been shattered by the FBI, city and county police, the city state's attorney announced today.Five suspects have been arrested and were to face a preliminary hearing today in Baltimore Circuit Court. Others in the metropolitan area are expected to be charged in the 27 indictments handed up last Friday.Arrested were Linden Martin, 32, of the first block of Waldmann Mill Court; Conrad Ho Shang, 34, 3400 block of Dolfield Ave.; Shelly White, 5400 block of Jonquill Ave.; Patrick Ishmael, 26, 4200 block of Horizon Circle; and Clifton Grant, 33, 4900 block of West Hills Road.

A second Maryland firm has sued the owner and general contractor of Baltimore's historic B&O Building in an effort to get paid for work done to complete the $65 million Hotel Monaco that opened there in late July. Attorneys for D.F. Smith Inc. of Glen Burnie, a masonry subcontractor, filed a complaint this week in Baltimore Circuit Court to establish and enforce a mechanic's lien against the property. The complaint filed by Michael P. Darrow of Hillman, Brown and Darrow PA states that Smith is seeking $29,761.

When Jon Meyer and his fiancee moved to Baltimore a year and a half ago from Annapolis, they figured their Canton rowhouse was far removed from the city's violence. But he said the orange chalk scrawled in a gutter across from his home - reading "head" and "foot," marking where a body was found Tuesday night - served as a startling wake-up call. "It's very, very unusual for there to be any kind of crime around here," said Meyer, 61. "To have a murder take place on your street, it's very sobering."

ACLU asks court to let spy suit move forward 2 Believing Maryland State Police officials have not disclosed all documents related to a 14-month surveillance operation, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a court brief asking that its Public Information Act lawsuit continue moving forward. Details of state police spying emerged this summer as part of the lawsuit, filed in Baltimore Circuit Court by the ACLU of Maryland. In 2005, undercover agents secretly joined the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, a peace group; the Baltimore Coalition Against the Death Penalty; and the Committee to Save Vernon Evans.

Former Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Clark will not get his job back, a city judge has ruled. Saying Clark's case was flawed and that returning him to office would create too much chaos, Circuit Judge Carol E. Smith on Tuesday denied the former commissioner's motion for reinstatement. Clark, who says he was wrongly dismissed in 2004, is also suing the city for $120 million. The case returned to city court after the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, sided with Clark in a March ruling, saying that mayors may fire commissioners only under certain circumstances.

A man found fatally shot on a West Baltimore street Thursday evening was identified yesterday as Jamal Alphonso Harrison, 22, of Randallstown, according to a city police spokeswoman. Police said Harrison was found about 6:10 p.m. lying in the 1900 block of N. Rosedale St., near North Avenue, suffering from at least one gunshot wound to the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Officer Nicole Monroe, the spokeswoman, said Harrison's last known address was his parents' house in the 9900 block of Shoshone Way. But Monroe said the victim had recently moved in with his girlfriend in West Baltimore.

Police arrest, charge 2 in October homicide Baltimore police said yesterday that they arrested a man and his girlfriend and charged them in connection with a fatal shooting in October in the northeastern part of the city. The victim, Marlon Beckford, 31, of the Bronx, N.Y., was fatally shot while sitting in a car with a woman and her 10-month-old son early Oct. 30. Beckford died at Johns Hopkins Hospital that day, police said. The woman and child were unharmed. City police said that an "extensive investigation" led detectives to two suspects.

Prosecutors drop 2 remaining abuse cases against teacher Nearly three months after a Baltimore private school teacher was acquitted of sexually abusing a student, city prosecutors dropped the remaining two cases against him yesterday. But prosecutors say they plan to use the evidence from those abandoned cases to try to keep Charles Carroll, 30, behind bars. A convicted murderer, Carroll could be sentenced to 15 years if found guilty of violating his parole. A hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.

Unions endorse former Del. Cole for 11th District council seat William Cole, a former state delegate who is running for City Council in the 11th District, picked up several union endorsements yesterday, according to his campaign and interviews with union officials. Cole, who lives in Reservoir Hill, was endorsed by the United Auto Workers Local 239 and the Baltimore Building & Construction Trades Council, which represents 15 labor organizations. "Cole has been in the trenches with us before -- he has shown that he can be open-minded and fair," Rod Easter, president of the trades council, said in a statement.

A city police officer on foot patrol in a Northeast Baltimore shopping plaza spotted a man wanted in a double killing this month and stopped and arrested him, police said yesterday. Officer Richard Hall, 24, who joined the department in May 2006, recognized the man in Northwood Shopping Center in the Hillen neighborhood, according to Agent Donny Moses, a police spokesman. Moses said Hall knew the suspect from a photo distributed to officers by the Northeastern District's gang intelligence unit.

Two men were gunned down in an ambush Sunday night, their four killers stepping out of the woods to shoot them with a high-powered assault rifle at a Northeast Baltimore apartment complex. Three more victims were found fatally shot in the streets of East, West and Northwest Baltimore. The five homicides - an especially deadly weekend even by Baltimore standards - brought the toll for the year to 174. That is up significantly from 147 at the same time a year ago, and according to the statistical measure the FBI uses - homicides per 100,000 residents - comparable to 1993, the city's worst annual total.