Boy S Mother

A Baltimore County teacher faces a possible maximum 10-year prison term after pleading guilty to sexually abusing an Arbutus Middle School student.Steven Pearson Bartley, 33, who was suspended without pay by county school officials last summer, is to be sentenced Dec. 20 by Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Hilary D. Caplan.Bartley pleaded guilty yesterday to sexual-child-abuse charges and second-degree sex offenses. He was charged in the city because some of the sex acts occurred in Bartley's home in the 500 block of S. Collins Ave.Bartley still faces charges of sexual abuse and second- and third-degree sex offenses in Baltimore County.

The mother of a 14-year-old boy shot Wednesday night by city police as authorities say he attempted to rob a University of Maryland medical student at gunpoint said her son had dropped his gun before the officer discharged his weapon. Police are not identifying the 14-year-old, but the mother said the boy's name is Charles Henry Kelly III and that he was following the officer's orders at the time he was shot. Shawn Stokes, the boy's mother, said she got an account of what happened from two other boys at the scene who are friends with her son. A city Police Department spokesman confirmed that there were other boys present at the time of the shooting who have not been charged.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- As Monica Thomas and Saprena Smith dug into the fried catfish lunch special at Cupboard Too, a downtown restaurant, their conversation turned to the 9-year-old boy whom many people here feel they know on a first-name basis, even though most have never seen him.His name is Travis."

An Ellicott City man who had sex with a 14-year-old boy was sentenced Monday to a nine-year prison term after pleading guilty in Circuit Court, but that was reduced to 18 months in the Howard County Detention Center. According to police, the boy was a student at Young America Works, the Washington charter school where Ricardo Antonio Cuaderes was a teacher. Last fall, police say, Cuaderes, 57, took the boy to his apartment in the 3900 block of Normandy Woods Drive, where they engaged in anal sex and masturbation.

The dogeared photograph shows a barefoot boy standing in the back yard, beaming over his new-found treasure: a ripe tomato. The size of the fruit is dwarfed by the grin on the boy's face. Why the big smile for such a small tomato? It's the first one he ever grew.The boy was real proud of that tomato. He named it Gus, after Gus Triandos, a catcher for the Baltimore Orioles and his baseball hero. For several days he carried Gus around the house, placing it on tables and desks and his mother's ironing board, where folks would see it and say, "My goodness, what a wonderful tomato and aren't you a clever boy for raising such a thing?"

Mayor Sheila Dixon requested that a convicted felon with pending handgun charges be allowed to leave jail to attend his son's funeral yesterday -- offering to have city police officers escort him to it. Charles Murel, 20, has three firearms charges in a case scheduled for trial this month in Baltimore Circuit Court and was convicted in 2005 of carjacking, court records show. He is being held on a $150,000 bail at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Facility. Murel's son, Charles Murel III, 3, was killed June 30 when two cars collided and ricocheted into him and a woman in the 1900 block of W. Lanvale St. Saying Murel was too dangerous, a judge denied Thursday his request to attend the funeral.

A man was fatally stabbed during an argument early yesterday inside a Southeast Baltimore rowhouse. Police said they arrested and charged his live-in girlfriend with first-degree murder.Muriel Harris, 39, of the 1100 block of E. Pratt St. was being held in the Central Booking and Intake Center without bail yesterday. Authorities withheld the name of the 36-year-old victim pending notification of relatives.Police said the couple began quarreling about 2: 30 a.m. The victim was stabbed once in the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

An 11-year-old boy charged last month with dealing drugs has returned to his former East Baltimore neighborhood, bragging to police officers about his publicized arrest and raising concerns that he has taken up the illegal trade anew.The boy, who said in an interview last month that he grew up idolizing drug dealers, has been spotted by the police and a local shopkeeper on at least three occasions in recent weeks at street corners that are known for heavy drug trafficking in East Baltimore's Oliver community.

A 13-year-old East Baltimore girl was shot in the head and critically wounded by a 14-year-old boy while visiting today in a bedroom of his home.Police said the boy told them he thought the gun was empty.The victim, identified by police as Tezar T. Horsey of the 1700 block of Rutland Ave., was rushed to Johns Hopkins Hospital after the shooting.The boy, whose name was withheld because of his age, was taken to police headquarters for questioning by homicide detectives. Police were not immediately willing to call the shooting an accident.

The mother of a 14-year-old boy shot Wednesday night by city police as authorities say he attempted to rob a University of Maryland medical student at gunpoint said her son had dropped his gun before the officer discharged his weapon. Police are not identifying the 14-year-old, but the mother said the boy's name is Charles Henry Kelly III and that he was following the officer's orders at the time he was shot. Shawn Stokes, the boy's mother, said she got an account of what happened from two other boys at the scene who are friends with her son. A city Police Department spokesman confirmed that there were other boys present at the time of the shooting who have not been charged.

Mayor Sheila Dixon requested that a convicted felon with pending handgun charges be allowed to leave jail to attend his son's funeral yesterday -- offering to have city police officers escort him to it. Charles Murel, 20, has three firearms charges in a case scheduled for trial this month in Baltimore Circuit Court and was convicted in 2005 of carjacking, court records show. He is being held on a $150,000 bail at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Facility. Murel's son, Charles Murel III, 3, was killed June 30 when two cars collided and ricocheted into him and a woman in the 1900 block of W. Lanvale St. Saying Murel was too dangerous, a judge denied Thursday his request to attend the funeral.

The boy is so small his mother was afraid to send him out to play football. But on Baltimore's streets, he was tough enough to rack up arrests for fighting and drug distribution that rival rap sheets of the city's more seasoned offenders. His record includes at least seven criminal cases in the past two years, according to sources familiar with it. This week he completed his rapid rise through the criminal justice system - charged with murder at age 13. If convicted as an adult, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

The 14-year-old boy accused of driving a stolen car the wrong way in the Fort McHenry Tunnel on Friday and causing a head-on collision that killed two women was labeled a flight risk yesterday by a judge who ordered him detained. Prosecutors charged the teen as a juvenile with automobile manslaughter and auto theft, saying they could not build a first-degree murder case - one of the few instances in which someone so young can be tried as an adult. The decision spares him the harsher sanctions of the adult criminal justice system, despite a record that dates to the boy's eighth birthday and includes twice running away from homes for troubled youths.

Baltimore police officials said yesterday an officer overreacted by handcuffing the mother of an 8-year-old boy who may have witnessed a homicide after the woman objected to her son being questioned. The department also offered an apology to the woman, who police said bit the officer during the incident Thursday when the two struggled over the boy in the 1000 block of N. Collington Ave. "There could have been a better response," Deputy Commissioner Barry Powell said of the officer's handling of the incident.

After the shooting, the suspect sat in the elementary school office drawing pictures -- entirely age-appropriate behavior when you are 6 years old. Law enforcement officials agree that the boy who fatally shot another first-grader at their school outside Flint, Mich., on Tuesday is too young to be held criminally responsible for the horrifying act. But the question remains: Who, then, is responsible? Police in Mount Morris Township, Mich., have arrested a man reported to be the boy's uncle, with whom he was living, on an outstanding felony warrant on charges of receiving stolen property.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- As Monica Thomas and Saprena Smith dug into the fried catfish lunch special at Cupboard Too, a downtown restaurant, their conversation turned to the 9-year-old boy whom many people here feel they know on a first-name basis, even though most have never seen him.His name is Travis."

Baltimore police officials said yesterday an officer overreacted by handcuffing the mother of an 8-year-old boy who may have witnessed a homicide after the woman objected to her son being questioned. The department also offered an apology to the woman, who police said bit the officer during the incident Thursday when the two struggled over the boy in the 1000 block of N. Collington Ave. "There could have been a better response," Deputy Commissioner Barry Powell said of the officer's handling of the incident.

While the body of 8-year-old Jerome R. Durant Jr. lay in a Woodlawn townhouse, his family collected money from his trust fund and bought a $244,000 house in Owings Mills in the boy's name designed to make caring for him easier, court records show.As recently as Wednesday, the day the body was discovered long after the boy's death, the family collected more than $5,000 for medical and housing supplies.A $25.9 million settlement in a 1988 medical malpractice case, which established the trust fund for the child -- who had cerebral palsy -- also calls for the boy's mother to collect nearly $3 million after his death, according to court files.

A Woodlawn man was convicted of second-degree murder and child abuse this week in the killing of his girlfriend's 3-year-old son, who died of head injuries in February 1998.A Baltimore County jury deliberated for two hours Thursday before convicting Gary A. Deese, 31, of the murder of Kyle Gary Faust just a few weeks after the boy's birthday.Assistant State's Attorney John Cox said the boy's mother, Julie Faust, testified that she left the boy sleeping in Deese's care on the afternoon of Feb. 8, 1998.

A man was fatally stabbed during an argument early yesterday inside a Southeast Baltimore rowhouse. Police said they arrested and charged his live-in girlfriend with first-degree murder.Muriel Harris, 39, of the 1100 block of E. Pratt St. was being held in the Central Booking and Intake Center without bail yesterday. Authorities withheld the name of the 36-year-old victim pending notification of relatives.Police said the couple began quarreling about 2: 30 a.m. The victim was stabbed once in the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.