Baltimore State

A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people - including 13 women working as corrections officers - who face racketeering and drug charges. Twenty of the accused also face money-laundering charges.

Baltimore police officer Robert W. Mitchell faces a second-degree assault charge after police and prosecutors accused him of overstepping his powers and beating a young man more than a year ago. The Baltimore state's attorney's office also charged Mitchell on Friday with two counts of misconduct in office. Prosecutors allege that Mitchell beat Baltimore resident Tiyon Williams in the 1000 block of N. Mount St. on May 19, 2012. "The allegations against Mr. Mitchell are reprehensible," Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said in a statement, "and I promise we will continue to aggressively target those who sacrilege the good men and women of this department and the sacred privilege of serving our community.

Baltimore police officer Robert W. Mitchell faces a second-degree assault charge after police and prosecutors accused him of overstepping his powers and beating a young man more than a year ago. The Baltimore state's attorney's office also charged Mitchell on Friday with two counts of misconduct in office. Prosecutors allege that Mitchell beat Baltimore resident Tiyon Williams in the 1000 block of N. Mount St. on May 19, 2012. "The allegations against Mr. Mitchell are reprehensible," Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said in a statement, "and I promise we will continue to aggressively target those who sacrilege the good men and women of this department and the sacred privilege of serving our community.

Marilyn J. Mosby, a former Baltimore assistant state's attorney and the wife of City Councilman Nick Mosby, told The Sun that she plans to run for Baltimore state's attorney next year. Mosby's confirmation of her intention to run in 2014 came as she alleged that the city prosecutors' office is partly to blame for the alleged corruption scandal unfolding at the city jail involving the Black Guerilla Family gang. Federal prosecutors said last week that an inmate named Tavon White awaiting charges for attempted murder, who has been in the jail since 2009, turned the facility into his own fiefdom, impregnating corrections officers and running a lucrative drug organization.

William Franklin Cecil III, a former air traffic controller who later became a lawyer and an assistant state's attorney assigned to the Baltimore Firearms Investigation Enforcement Unit, died Friday of brain cancer at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. He was 59. "Bill was one unique individual. If he had an opinion, you knew about it. He was a fighter in the courtroom and a fighter in life," said Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy. Mr. Cecil, the son of an insurance company executive and a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised on Putty Hill Avenue.

"I'VE BEEN working my fanny off to give the citizens everything they deserve, but I need to get funded adequately." - Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy at a news conference Friday.

A Baltimore grand jury began hearing testimony yesterday in the death of a South Baltimore man who suffered a head injury after falling to the sidewalk while being arrested by two city police officers.At least three witnesses testified at the panel's closed session on the events surrounding the arrest of 31-year-old George T. Hite, said Deborah Wood, one of the witnesses.Mark Cohen, an assistant state's attorney, confirmed that the case went to the grand jury yesterday.Ms. Wood, a resident of the block where the arrest occurred, said she testified for about 30 minutes yesterday morning.

A new bill may make more federal money available to protect witnesses in state and local cases around the country, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings said Thursday morning. He made the announcement in Baltimore, where witness intimidation has been a persistent problem. This week, a federal jury is hearing testimony about the murder of Carl Stanley Lackl, who was killed before he testified in a homicide case. Retaliation against witnesses has escalated to the point where "it basically can destroy your criminal justice system," Cummings said.

With a purple health care union banner waving beside him outside state office buildings in Baltimore, Thomas E. Perez, a Democratic candidate for Maryland attorney general, accepted the endorsement of labor and other leaders yesterday. "I believe that access to health care is a civil rights issue as well as a health care issue," Perez said during the brief campaign appearance in the midday heat. Among those endorsing Perez were the Service Employees International Union - United Health Care Workers East; Baltimore's Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)

Jean Stovall Anderson, who during her 30-year career as a receptionist in the Baltimore City state's attorney's office became a trusted friend of judges, lawyers and crime victims, died Thursday of cancer at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. She was 71.Mrs. Anderson was the first black female to work in the Baltimore state's attorney's office, according to Judge Charles E. Moylan of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, who as the city's top prosecutor hired her in 1966.At the time of her death, she was assigned to the victims' services unit.

As a concerned Baltimore City school teacher, I was caught up in the City Council's deliberations regarding the bottle tax ("Bottle tax rise gains in council," June 12). I was imagining a classroom with beautiful, vibrant colors and large clear windows that allowed natural light to pass through. I thought of clean scents of newness and possibilities. I thought of how I could help my students understand that our school is an example of what is possible through hard work and perseverance.

A Baltimore County man suffered a "diabetic attack," causing him to act abnormally when police tried to restrain him and then pepper sprayed and Tasered him, resulting in his death, according to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit brought by his wife against county and state police. Linda Johnson says her husband, Carl D'Andre Johnson, who died shortly after he fought with officers two years ago, "would experience an episode of low blood sugar [and] he would have some difficulty, sometimes acting erratically, and would react negatively to being touched," in a suit filed in Baltimore County Circuit Court last month.

Henry Hager, the husband of former first daughter Jenna Bush Hager, is entitled to a $296 property tax discount on his South Baltimore rowhouse for the current tax year, the state Department of Assessments and Taxation says. An article Tuesday in The Baltimore Sun questioned the validity of Hager's homestead credit for the year that began July 1. The credit program is supposed to be available only to owner-occupants, and Hager has rented out the house since August - nearly the entire tax year.

Gregg Bernstein won a murder conviction from a Baltimore jury Friday after prosecuting his second trial as the city's state's attorney, his office announced. After roughly two days of hearing testimony and three hours of deliberation, a jury found William Carr, 50, guilty of murder, robbery and handgun crimes in connection with the June shooting death of Chong Wan Yim, a 55-year-old delivery man, outside a liquor store at the Erdman Shopping Center in Belair-Edison. Carr faces a maximum of life in prison plus 45 years at his sentencing, set for May 23. Bernstein's first prosecution ended with mixed results.

Baltimore City State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein hosted a summit Tuesday about witness intimidation where police, prosecutors and witness assistance providers could discuss the best ways to protect and support victims and witnesses of crime. "Violent retaliation against victims, witnesses, and informants threatens the very fabric of our criminal justice system and our communities," said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings in a statement before the summit. Cummings was the event's keynote speaker.

The head of Caesars Entertainment Corp. promised Monday to bring a "world-class" Harrah's casino to Baltimore that would be marketed heavily to 43 million gamblers in the company's rewards program if his group is given the go-ahead by Maryland's slots commission "We believe we will bring a lot of people to Baltimore who might not otherwise have come," Gary Loveman, the chairman, CEO and president of Caesars, told the commission during a site visit...

Federal and local law enforcement officers continued yesterday to praise a program they say has helped rid the streets of some of the city's most violent criminals. Nearly 200 Baltimore defendants were charged last year with federal crimes through Baltimore Exile, an initiative designed to combat illegal gun possession, according to statistics released yesterday by the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. Federal prosecutors charged about 30 percent more people with firearms-related crimes last year than in 2006.

Joseph G. Koutz, 84, deputy state's attorney Joseph G. Koutz, a retired lawyer and former Baltimore deputy state's attorney, died Friday of cancer at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 84 and lived in Lutherville. Mr. Koutz was in private practice from 1946 until 1951, when he was named assistant city state's attorney by Judge Anselm Sodaro, who was then Baltimore state's attorney. In 1959, he was appointed deputy state's attorney. Mr. Koutz resigned in 1963 and was in private practice until 1969, when he returned to the prosecutor's office.

Baltimore officials are asking the state to strip more than $1.3 million in property-tax credits they say were improperly granted to 2,157 homes, an early example of what city officials vow will be a continuing battle against tax-credit scofflaws. The city's Finance Department also intends to collect up to seven years of back taxes, penalties and interest from the property owners unless they can prove they lived in the homes during those tax years. The city says those owners don't occupy the homes, as the tax break requires.

After he campaigned on a slogan of "Fight Crime First," many expected that for his first case, Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein would pursue a repeat offender who had slipped through the fingers of the previous regime. Perhaps a drug killing, or a case of witness intimidation. But to the surprise of critics who worried that he would be too cozy with the police who endorsed him, Bernstein chose to try three city officers charged with kidnapping and misconduct after picking up two West Baltimore teens and dropping them off far from home.