Central Booking

Aword of advice to Mayor Sheila Dixon: Never apologize for an act of compassion. In the final analysis, compassion is what we're talking about in the death of 3-year-old Charles Murel III. Not the criminal record of his daddy, Charles Murel, who's been convicted of carjacking and is still cooling his heels at Baltimore's fine Central Booking facilities while he awaits trial on handgun charges. His bail for the gun charges is $150,000. Dixon's staffers tried to arrange for Murel to attend his son's funeral.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Baltimore CityWestern DistrictArrest: A man was arrested Monday on a warrant charging him in the attempted murder and robbery of a deliveryman for The Sun on May 13. Detectives Alan Savage and Donald Grant said Mohammed Ghrieb, 34, was slashed in the face with a carton cutter and robbed of an undisclosed sum by a man he allowed to help him deliver papers near Mondawmin Mall....

In a two-day operation that ended last night, police arrested 16 men for solicitation and 15 women for prostitution in West Baltimore and impounded several cars belonging to customers.One of the men arrested Wednesday night solicited a female police officer for sex while riding a 10-speed bicycle, which also was impounded.Western District Sgts. James Kelly and Michael Caperoon said the arrests were made at Baltimore and Schroeder streets last night and at North and Pennsylvania avenues Wednesday.

Sheriff Kenneth L. Tregoning figures that Carroll authorities could have quickly identified a suspect -- who had given a bogus name after his arrest on theft charges -- if the county had central booking. "If we had had central booking in place, we would have learned who he was in a flash," said Tregoning, alluding to the case of Charles Clayton Chandler, 49, of Hagerstown, whom they called "John Doe" until learning his identity.Chandler was arrested in Mount Airy on Aug. 18 about the time four men were at large after escaping from Pennsylvania prisons.

During two unrelated raids last night and Wednesday, Northeastern District police arrested three people and seized $7,800, suspected cocaine worth more than $6,000, two handguns, two cars and drug packaging materials.Sgt. Bill Sekinger, head of the district's drug enforcement unit, said Andre X. Deshazo, 29, of the 5100 block of Lodestone Way and David E. Green, 23, of the 4000 block of Chesterfield Ave. were arrested about 6: 30 p.m. yesterday when officers raided Deshazo's apartment.Wednesday night, police raided a house in the 6000 block of Belle Vista Ave. and arrested Sheila Randle, 24, of that address.

IT TOOK cajoling, jawboning, and old-fashioned political muscling, but Baltimore's criminal-justice officials are finally working together to deal with backlogged courts, jammed lockups and frequent case postponements.In two controversial breakthroughs, judges have agreed to begin hearing cases in the Central Booking and Intake Center's built-in courtroom later this week. Early resolution of cases should alleviate overcrowding problems at that lockup and reduce court backlogs. Additionally, a protracted city hiring freeze affecting the State's Attorney's Office has been lifted.

Baltimore police identified yesterday two men killed in separate incidents Saturday, and said they had made an arrest in one of the slayings.Police also said yesterday they made an arrest in a fatal shooting that occurred in September.About 9 p.m. Saturday, Bobby Betts, 39, of the 4100 block of Park Heights Ave. was fatally stabbed about a block from his home during an argument with another man, police said.Acting on a tip, police arrested Joseph Bailey, 30, at his home in the 4100 block of Sunnyside Ave. about 10 p.m. and charged him with first-degree murder.

ALTHOUGH criminal-justice leaders have implemented only the first steps in a needed series of reforms, the improvement has been striking. After years of dangerous overcrowding, occupancy at the city's Central Booking and Intake Center is below capacity. As judges are hearing more cases, court backlogs and frivolous postponements have been reduced. Prosecutors have started weeding out cases too weak to try in court.The system's efficiency is likely to improve further after July 1, when the State's Attorney's Office will begin a round-the-clock review of arrests made by police.

STATE'S ATTORNEY Patricia C. Jessamy says insufficient funds may force her to delay for another year a crucial reform to unclog Baltimore's gridlocked courts."

BALTIMORE'S CRIMINAL justice system is in the midst of a crisis. In the past year, we've seen a spate of judges setting defendants charged with serious crimes free because their cases had been repeatedly postponed, and news reports of a large backlog of criminal cases and management inefficiencies, suggesting a need to overhaul the city's prosecution and court practices.The citizens of Baltimore are not receiving the level of criminal justice they deserve.Concern for public safety, the integrity of the criminal-justice system and responsibility to taxpayers prompted the General Assembly to demand accountability from those in charge of the criminal-justice system and to provide additional resources to address the immediate problems.

Police reports in Baltimore city and county: Eastern Baltimore Drug arrest: Three district officers - Sgt. Lennardo Bailey and Officers Luis A. Ruiz and Angel Gonzales - were working a drug detail in the 2100 block of Aiken St. about 3 a.m. Tuesday when they observed two men involved in a possible drug transaction. When the officers approached the pair, one of them escaped on foot and the other attempted to drive away and was stopped. Seized from the man were two gelatin capsules containing cocaine.

Four men housed in Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center were hospitalized late Friday night after a fight that resulted in several stab wounds that were not life-threatening. The fight occurred a few minutes before midnight in an area of the facility where pretrial detainees are housed, according to Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. Two of the men were taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center. The other two were treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

A federal judge has granted class action status to two categories of people in a civil suit that claims officers at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center regularly and illegally detained certain arrestees too long and strip-searched people without cause. The ruling, issued Thursday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, opens the door for tens of thousands of people processed from May 2002 through April 2008 to join the suit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages. Central booking processes everyone arrested within city limits.

Central Booking is getting a new warden A Baltimore woman who has worked in corrections for 30 years is the next warden of the city's Central Booking facility. Naomi Williams started as a clerk in the Baltimore City jail in 1978. Today, she will be named warden of the Central Booking and Intake Facility at a change of leadership ceremony. Williams will oversee the facility where every person arrested in Baltimore is taken. State corrections officials said nearly 100,000 people who have been arrested end up at Central Booking for processing.

Two corrections officers from the Central Booking and Intake Center were arrested yesterday and charged with stealing credit cards of people under arrest. Lontona Maria Webb, 38, of the 3600 block of Clarinth Road and Latoya Renee James, 24, of the 1300 block of Dalton Road each face multiple counts of credit card fraud, identity theft and misconduct in office, according to charging documents. In addition, Webb's boyfriend, Michael Moore, 26, also of the 3600 block of Clarinth Road, was charged with multiple offenses in connection with the scheme that police say defrauded eight victims of more than $5,000.

Aword of advice to Mayor Sheila Dixon: Never apologize for an act of compassion. In the final analysis, compassion is what we're talking about in the death of 3-year-old Charles Murel III. Not the criminal record of his daddy, Charles Murel, who's been convicted of carjacking and is still cooling his heels at Baltimore's fine Central Booking facilities while he awaits trial on handgun charges. His bail for the gun charges is $150,000. Dixon's staffers tried to arrange for Murel to attend his son's funeral.

A detainee at Central Booking and Intake Center was found hanging from a sheet in his cell Tuesday night in an apparent suicide, officials said yesterday. It was the third suicide this year at the detention facility, according to Barbara Cooper, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Division of Pretrial Detention and Services. At 8:10 p.m., a correctional officer found Franklin L. Halterman, 33, of Northeast Baltimore hanging from the ceiling of his cell with a sheet tied around his neck, Cooper said.

Central Booking makes changes Central Booking has made what Warden Mitchell J. Franks describes as small but critical improvements in the booking process that have helped officials avoid major problems for nearly a year. Audit finds trouble in schools An independent audit of the Baltimore County school system found a breakdown in oversight and teacher training that has led to a disconnect between what children need to learn and what is being taught. City schools' budget unveiled Classes would become smaller at some elementary schools, and middle schools would be reconfigured under a $1.2 billion budget proposal unveiled by the interim city schools chief executive officer.

On Lt. Debra Sisco-Watts' computer inside Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center, the names of a dozen people who have been held for more than 15 hours stood out in red text at the top of the screen. The names of dozens more were below in black. This slight, but important, difference in color and location is her signal to pay extra attention so that a complicated booking process doesn't bog down. The names in red were the problem. "If I don't have a document, I'll call a liaison," said Sisco-Watts, who oversees an early warning system on the booking floor and was discussing some of the things that can cause delays.

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