Bowling Brook

When Paul Grier took over the fledgling basketball program at Carroll County's Bowling Brook Prep three years ago, he set out to accomplish one specific goal."

Why did a detective continue to interrogate a woman after she invoked her right to have a lawyer present? It's a question that Carroll County law enforcement has been grappling with since last fall -- and one that last week sank a prosecution in the case of a Baltimore City teenager who died at Bowling Brook Academy in 2007. In internal memos circulated last fall, officials in the state's attorney's and sheriff's offices discussed detective Douglas Epperson's descriptions of the questioning in the murder case of Jeremiah P. DeMario, who was killed in 2010.

There are few other boys basketball teams in the metro area that have faced as tough a challenge this season as Bowling Brook. Consider that the western Carroll school, which provides a second chance to at-risk youth from around the area, must begin each season with a completely new roster, since students seldom attend for more than a year. Now, consider that the Thoroughbreds' early-season schedule has included games against top-10 powers such as Mount St. Joseph, McDonogh and Old Mill, as well as Westminster and Century, two of Carroll County's best.

Carroll County prosecutors have dropped reckless-endangerment charges against five former juvenile facility staff members in the death of a Baltimore teenager because the main detective on the case is being investigated for perjury. "It's devastating right now," said Felicia Wilson, the mother of Isaiah Simmons III. The 17-year-old died in 2007 at Bowling Brook Preparatory School, a facility for juvenile offenders in Keymar. The five defendants, whose trial was scheduled for May, were accused of pinning Simmons to the floor and delaying calls for help.

Seven years after winning a rezoning battle for higher density development in North Laurel, a developer has abandoned plans to build 194 apartments in favor of selling 160 town house lots, due to the difficult economic climate.The James F. Knott Development Corp. submitted plans this month for the last phase of Bowling Brook Farms, off Gorman Road, which is expected to have 1,140 town houses and apartmentscompleted by the end of 1993."In the financing environment today, apartments are more difficult to develop," said Kevin Geraghty, senior development manager for the Towson-based firm.

They call themselves the Thoroughbreds because their home turf is part of the famous Wyndham Walden 260-acre Bowling Brook horse farm that was once home to seven Preakness winners.But the only race the 40 boys at Bowling Brook school in Middleburg in Carroll County are running is one they hope will take them back into society.For many of these repeat offenders in the juvenile justice system, this is their last chance to turn their lives around.They have been selected by Bowling Brook, a private, juvenile court-operated school for boys 16-18, because they have shown a potential to be helped back into the mainstream of life.

Bowling Brook senior two-way lineman Quintin Miller, 6 feet 2, 280 pounds, is the small prep school's first major Division I-A recruit. Temple and Penn State have expressed interest in Miller, who is from Pittsburgh and is a big Steelers fan. What is your ultimate dream in football? Go all the way. Just to be on an NFL franchise. Any team. What separates the Steelers from other NFL teams? I would say the fans. They're like our 12th man. They're great. Do you have a favorite college?

Bowling Brook Preparatory School, the privately run institution for delinquent teenage boys just outside Taneytown, will soon break ground for additions that -- eventually -- will almost double the student body. But before building four dormitories and enrolling more students, school officials say they want to complete a vocational building that will offer a new menu of on-campus practical skills training and build up other athletic and academic programs. Bowling Brook recently received county approval for the expansion, which will include the $2.3 million vocational building, a 20,000-square-foot recreational building and the new dorms.

A month after a youth died while being restrained at the Bowling Brook Preparatory School, authorities have not determined what caused his death or whether any laws were broken in the way the juvenile facility's staff handled him. Though investigators say dozens of people have been interviewed, key student eyewitnesses to Isaiah Simmons' death have not been contacted by the Carroll County Sheriff's Office since the youths were removed from the residential program,...

Who was Wyndham Walden, the founder of Bowling Brook Farm?He was, quite possibly, the best horseman of his time, the leading trainer of classic winners during the last quarter of the 19th century.He trained for 31 years, from 1872-1902, and during that time saddled 101 stakes winners as well as the victors of more than 1,000 races.Most of these horses he trained at Bowling Brook, which originally comprised 1,800 acres. He moved there from New York "to get the horses away from those dreadful Long Island mosquitoes," his granddaughter, Thelma Shriner, has been quoted as saying.

The family of a Baltimore teen who died while being restrained at a Carroll County reform school in 2007 has reached a $1.2 million settlement with the private school and the state Department of Juvenile Services. News of the settlement was first posted in mid-December on the Web site for Steven D. Silverman, the attorney representing the family of 17-year-old Isaiah Simmons III, where it was referred to as "high profile" but did not name the plaintiffs. On Wednesday, the Daily Record quoted state officials who confirmed that the posting referred to the settlement with Bowling Brook Preparatory School.

The directors of Silver Oak Academy, a new privately run facility for juvenile delinquents, gave tours to state officials and neighbors Thursday, pointing out that there is plenty of room to grow on 78 rural acres in Carroll County. Seventeen teenage boys now live there, though the Keymar campus can accommodate 150 or more. S. James Broman, president of Rite of Passage, the Nevada-based company that owns Silver Oak, said he is pleased Maryland gave his group "an opportunity to prove itself."

Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services seemed to have learned the right lessons from the death of Isaiah Simmons III, the 17-year-old Baltimore boy who was killed in 2007 while being restrained at the Bowling Brook youth lockup in Carroll County. The sprawling facility was closed, and state leaders rightly used the death as a rallying cry for finally moving Maryland toward a system of small facilities for juvenile offenders - no more than 48 beds each - located in or near the communities the youths came from and connected with comprehensive family services.

Facility likely to defy DJS reforms The Sun's editorial "A return to Bowling Brook" (Aug. 6) cautions the state, as it moves toward reopening Bowling Brook Preparatory School in Carroll County, to proceed in accordance with the Department of Juvenile Services' reform guidelines calling for "small" 48-bed treatment programs. Yet it appears unlikely that such an approach will be followed. Rite of Passage, the Nevada-based company that has applied for a license to run the Bowling Brook program, operates facilities in Western states that serve hundreds of children; its Ridge View facility in Colorado can house 500 youths.

A Nevada company is seeking a license to operate a program for juvenile offenders at the old Bowling Brook Preparatory School in Carroll County. The type of program and the number of clients Rite of Passage would serve are not yet publicly known. But as state officials review the company's request, Maryland's efforts to reform the juvenile justice system should be uppermost in their minds. Juvenile offenders who need residential treatment should be in programs that serve no more than 48 teenagers and are close to their homes.

A Nevada company that recently purchased the grounds of the Bowling Brook Preparatory School - a Carroll County youth lockup that was shuttered last year after a Baltimore boy died there - has applied for a state license to operate a juvenile program. Rite of Passage has been working for months to open a privately run facility for young offenders - a move that some advocates have said could contradict the state's new approach to treating juvenile delinquents in small residential settings.

A Nevada company that recently purchased the grounds of the Bowling Brook Preparatory School - a Carroll County youth lockup that was shuttered last year after a Baltimore boy died there - has applied for a state license to operate a juvenile program. Rite of Passage has been working for months to open a privately run facility for young offenders - a move that some advocates have said could contradict the state's new approach to treating juvenile delinquents in small residential settings.

In a field where failure is the norm, the Bowling Brook Preparatory School seemed to be the rare program that worked. Judges sent young armed robbers there, and they emerged college-bound high school graduates. A rural community watched with approval as urban delinquents became young gentlemen who volunteered at town fairs and pancake breakfasts. Lawmakers in Annapolis took notice, showering the privately run reformatory with millions in construction dollars so it could house and rehabilitate more of the state's swelling population of juvenile offenders.

After an intense, hourlong debate - and over the objections of the state comptroller - the Maryland Board of Public Works approved the transfer yesterday of Bowling Brook Preparatory School, clearing the way for a Nevada company to reopen the Carroll County facility for juvenile delinquents. Some youth advocates and state legislators criticized the Department of Juvenile Services for rushing forward with a plan that could result in a 173-bed, privately run facility, which they said contradicts the state's juvenile justice strategy of 48-bed regional treatment centers.