Charging Documents

A popular history teacher at Glenelg High School in Howard County has been charged with several sex crimes in which he is accused of exposing himself to one student in a classroom, sending suggestive computer messages to another and persuading a third to meet him at a park with the promise of alcohol. He is accused of abusing her. Joseph Samuel Ellis, 25, a graduate of the Howard County school system, was arrested at 10:30 p.m. Friday by Howard County police. He was released Saturday and is free on $150,000 bond.

They stole his cell phone, credit cards and a watch. But for those common and easily replaceable items, Zachary "Zach" Sowers' attackers also nearly took his life. Two teenagers beat the 27-year-old near his home east of Patterson Park, according to Baltimore police, as he walked home from a Canton bar. Since the attack June 2, the part-time graduate student has been in a coma at Johns Hopkins Hospital while his friends and family - including his wife of eight months - have stood vigil and chronicled his slow recovery on an Internet site.

Welcome to the ultimate test of the Roger Goodell Doctrine. Superstar NFL quarterback Michael Vick has been indicted on a number of federal counts relating to his alleged involvement in the grotesque "sport" of dogfighting, the details of which are so sickening that it's almost painful to make the standard argument that he should be considered innocent until proved guilty. Of course, he should, because that's the American way, but commissioner Roger Goodell made it clear recently that he is not obligated to apply a constitutional standard when handling cases of player misconduct that he deems detrimental to the sport.

A Baltimore County judge ruled yesterday that the statements to police by a 41-year-old woman charged in the December dragging death of a toddler whose stroller was caught under the woman's truck can be presented at trial as evidence. Defense attorneys for Lazara Arellano de Hogue had argued that the statements should not be allowed, in part, because police had failed to properly translate from English to Spanish the woman's rights to remain silent and have a lawyer present during questioning.

A serial rapist who was convicted of one attack and pleaded guilty to three others, each during daytime hours and in different neighborhoods of Baltimore, was sentenced yesterday to 50 years in prison. Yesterday, Erskine Jones, 31, of the 400 block of E. Eager St., admitted raping three girls, ages 14, 16 and 17, from December 2003 to August 2004. DNA evidence linked Jones to the attacks long after they occurred. Circuit Judge Lynn K. Stewart accepted the guilty plea to three counts of rape.

A New Windsor-area teen-ager is being held at the Carroll County Detention Center in lieu of $15,000 bail after he was arrested Sunday on charges of raping and assaulting his mother, court records showed.The 17-year-old was charged as an adult with second-degree rape and second-degree assault. He is not being named to protect the privacy of the alleged victim.In charging documents, state police reported responding at 6: 26 p.m. to a 911 hang-up call from a home south of New Windsor. They were met there by a woman who said her son forced his way into the bathroom as she was preparing to bathe and sexually assaulted her, according to charging documents.

A Westminster man accused of robbing a Finksburg man at gunpoint of $5 was arrested yesterday on charges of armed robbery, assault, reckless endangerment and related offenses, court records show.An unsecured bond of $50,000 was placed on Matthew Justin Timmons, 19, of the 100 block of Charles St. before he was returned to custody in Baltimore County, where he is being held on unrelated charges, state police said.After the Baltimore County case is resolved, Timmons will be turned over to Carroll County authorities to resolve the other charges.

A Westminster man was free yesterday on a $5,000 corporate bond after being arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a woman at his apartment, court records show.The woman, who is not being identified to protect her privacy, told officers she went to the man's apartment late Thursday. She said he became sexually aggressive after he massaged her back and they had kissed for a while but complied when she told him to stop, according to charging documents. The woman said she fell asleep and awoke at 4: 30 a.m. to discover she was being raped, according to charging documents.

A 56-year-old Manchester man, who is accused of sexually abusing a relative this year and of raping and abusing another relative between 1972 and 1980, was freed yesterday on $75,000 bail, court records show.The man is not being identified to protect the privacy of the relatives, now 12 and 36 years old.According to charging documents, both alleged victims were interviewed May 3 by Ruth Ann Arty, an investigator for the Carroll County state's attorney's Child Abuse and Sexual Assault unit.

A woman whose handicapped daughter died in a Turners Station house fire this month was charged yesterday with killing her child -- and a man, whose decomposing body was found in a back room by firefighters.Elva E. Reid, 41, was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Venice Nicole Reid, 3, and George Koval Sr., 62, police said.Reid lived at 102 Calvin Hill Court with her daughter and a 7-year-old son who was injured in the Oct. 11 fire that swept through the two-story brick townhouse.

City police have arrested three men and charged them with gang-raping three women in separate incidents that took place in the parking lot of Seton Keough High School in Southwest Baltimore, records show. The attacks occurred two weeks apart and shared similar characteristics, and detectives determined the suspects' identities after the most recent victim was able to remember the tag number on the vehicle of one of the suspects. Police did not announce the incidents or the arrests. Charged in the crimes are Anthony Oisediamen Edoror Jr., 19, and Opeyemi Adigun, 20, both of Gwynn Oak; and Adeamoloa Adeniran, 20, of Halethorpe.

Two teenagers have been arrested and charged as adults in connection with what police have described as a racially motivated beating of a 76-year-old black man. Zachary Watson, 17, of the 900 block of Jack St. and Emmanuel Miller, 16, of the 1600 block of Spruce St. were arrested and have been charged with 18 counts of attempted murder and other offenses, along with Calvin E. Lockner, 28, whom police arrested Tuesday. Lockner, a self-professed white supremacist who is a registered sex offender and has a tattoo of Adolf Hitler, told detectives that the victim was targeted because he was black.

A woman whose home was burglarized as she stayed with her daughter was shocked to spot her belongings offered at a neighbor's yard sale, Anne Arundel County police say. The woman recognized an array of her items - including Christmas decorations, Beanie Babies, an Oriental rug and a dresser - being sold by a man who was wearing one of her T-shirts, charging documents say. Police said they found $25,000 worth of her clothes, furnishings and other possessions...

An occasional karate trainer who police say told a friend that he had killed a Glen Burnie man has been charged with murder, Anne Arundel County police said Wednesday. Joseph Samuel Serio, who lives in an apartment in the 7800 block of Bruton Drive in Glen Burnie, was ordered jailed without bail Wednesday on first-degree murder and related counts in the fatal shooting July 15 of Lamont Gordon Jr., 28. Shortly after the killing - which led authorities to lock down nearby schools - witnesses told police they had seen a man chasing and shooting at Gordon.

A Maryland Transit Administration police officer has been charged with raping a 15-year-old Elkridge girl who asked him for help finding her way home on the light rail, according to charging documents. Officer Donald Brown was taken into custody June 24 after Howard County police were contacted by a case worker for a local foster care organization. The girl told police that she thought she was being escorted to a police station to make arrangements to get home but was instead taken to Brown's top-floor apartment in downtown Baltimore, where they had sex. He then gave her $25 to get back home and told her to leave, according to police.

Police announced Tuesday the arrest of a 21-year-old city man in the killings of two women whose bodies were found last week at their Northeast Baltimore home. Mark K. Floyd of the 4200 block of Seidel Ave. is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree assault and theft, according to court documents. The victims, Lydia Steed, 31, and Allisha Royster, 23, died of multiple stab wounds to the backs of their heads June 6 or June 7, according to the medical examiner's office, and had been robbed.

Christopher David Jones had a penchant for making silly faces in photographs: His head cocked to the side, his green eyes turned inward, his mouth gaping. In other photos, he struck a sly smile, the typical antics of a 14-year-old boy. Christopher was endearing in other ways, too, his family and friends said, winning over his girlfriend's father with deference and a shared love of sports. Those were some of the photos and stories shared with the hundreds of people who crowded inside Riva Trace Baptist Church for Christopher's funeral Wednesday, four days after the Crofton teenager died after he was attacked while riding his bicycle home.

Prosecutors crafting the cases against the teenagers charged with killing a 14-year-old Crofton boy will have to show a direct connection between the beating of Christopher David Jones and his fall while riding his bicycle shortly afterward, criminal defense lawyers said on Tuesday. Details that could make those links will not be in place for weeks, authorities said. The complete autopsy report probably will not be available for a month, police said. It is expected to shed light on the nature of Jones' injuries, first allegedly at the hands of his attackers, and then as he fell and hit his head when pedaling away.

The family and friends of the 14-year-old Anne Arundel County boy who was killed in a conflict with at least two other neighborhood boys implored a crowd of nearly 1,000 people gathered Monday night at a candlelight vigil not to retaliate. "I want to encourage you tonight to make a choice to give up the violence ... not retaliate, to forgive," Pastor Dennis Gray, of the Riva Trace Baptist Church, told the crowd, many of them teens, gathered at the spot where Christopher D. Jones was fatally injured Saturday in his Crofton neighborhood.

Tow truck driver sold cars to recycler, police say A Baltimore tow truck driver has been arrested, accused of taking disabled vehicles left along roadsides and selling them to an auto-parts recycler, state police say. Charles Jennings III, 38, of the 4200 block of Labyrinth Road, turned himself in Tuesday at the Golden Ring Barracks. Police said he is charged with four counts of auto theft and four counts of theft over $500, though they are investigating him in connection with more than 80 cars sold this year at a recycling yard in the 4700 block of Erdman Ave. Police say Jennings filled out required indemnity forms, identifying him as the owner, for four vehicles found at the lot. One of the cars was a 2000 Infiniti that the lien holder tracked down by activating a GPS device.