County Sheriff S Department

Robert G. Pepersack says he inherited a county Sheriff's Department with a long list of shortcomings, but he's looking at the bright side."What I inherited was 28 deputies who are willing to work and were just waiting for leadership," Pepersack said Friday. "You can look at that two ways, as a disaster or a golden opportunity to start from square one and build the department."Pepersack, a Republican who routed seven-term incumbent William R.Huggins in last month's election, called a Friday news conference to outline the changes he has made since taking office Dec. 3 and talked about his plans for the agency, which has a $1.2 million budget.

South Carolina authorities continue to gather evidence from a party attended by Michael Phelps in November at which he was photographed allegedly smoking marijuana, but even as more arrests are made and witnesses interviewed, what's still unclear is what might happen to the 23-year-old Olympic swimmer. A lawyer representing a man who attended the party said the Richland County Sheriff's Department investigation seems to be targeting Phelps - to the point investigators are asking questions only about the 14-time gold-medal winner.

Services for Earl Czapkiewcz, a retired sheriff's deputy and auto mechanic, will be held at 2 p.m. today at Bounds Funeral Home in Salisbury.Mr. Czapkiewcz died of a heart attack Nov. 30 at Peninsula General Hospital in Salisbury. He was 65.Born in Baltimore, Mr. Czapkiewcz was a deputy for the Baltimore County Sheriff's Department before serving in the Army during World War II in the Far East.After the war, Mr. Czapkiewcz returned to his job with the Sheriff's Department. He left to open an auto glass business in Baltimore and then he moved to Princess Anne on the Eastern Shore in the late 1950s.

After nearly 13 years of sharing the services of a resident state trooper, New Windsor and Union Bridge might soon look to the county Sheriff's Department for protection. Rising costs of the trooper program, which could exceed $100,000 in fiscal 2003, have Carroll's two smallest towns rethinking which agency can best serve them for the least cost. Each town shares 75 percent of the cost: $94,000 in the current fiscal year for a trooper's salary, vehicle and equipment. The county picks up the remaining 25 percent.

In counties with police departments, sheriff's deputies are not public safety employees and are not entitled to the same workers' compensation benefits that police officers can receive, the Court of Appeals ruled yesterday.A deputy's duties -- escorting prisoners, providing courthouse security and serving warrants -- aren't those of a police officer under the state's Workers' Compensation Act, the court held. The decision means that Howard County Deputy Nancy Shah, who suffered injuries to her right foot on Dec. 30, 1988, and is partially disabled, is entitled to only $82.50 a week for 25 weeks instead of the $128 a week that a public safety employee can collect.

A Lutherville man driving with a revoked license was arrested yesterday after a high speed chase that started in West Virginia when a motorist allegedly tried to run over two deputy sheriffs there and ended in Frederick County after the fleeing driver rammed a police cruiser.Cpl. Tom Winebrenner of the Frederick County Sheriff's department said his office received a call from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department in West Virginia that a possible drunken driver in a sports utility vehicle had tried to run down two deputy sheriffs -- who were on foot -- before driving north into Maryland.

After nearly 13 years of sharing the services of a resident state trooper, New Windsor and Union Bridge might soon look to the county Sheriff's Department for protection. Rising costs of the trooper program, which could exceed $100,000 in fiscal 2003, have Carroll's two smallest towns rethinking which agency can best serve them for the least cost. Each town shares 75 percent of the cost: $94,000 in the current fiscal year for a trooper's salary, vehicle and equipment. The county picks up the remaining 25 percent.

South Carolina authorities continue to gather evidence from a party attended by Michael Phelps in November at which he was photographed allegedly smoking marijuana, but even as more arrests are made and witnesses interviewed, what's still unclear is what might happen to the 23-year-old Olympic swimmer. A lawyer representing a man who attended the party said the Richland County Sheriff's Department investigation seems to be targeting Phelps - to the point investigators are asking questions only about the 14-time gold-medal winner.

A Harford County man was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation yesterday following a standoff with officers of the county Sheriff's Department at a church in Perryman where the authorities said four young children were being held against their will.The man was taken into custody without incident at 1:10 a.m. when members of the special response team entered Mount Calvary Baptist Church on Cranberry Road. The children were not injured.The Harford County Sheriff's Department said charges were pending against a 26-year-old Perryman man. He was sent to Spring Grove Hospital for psychiatric treatment.

Harford Crime Solvers is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and indictment of a suspect wanted for an armed robbery Tuesday at U.S. Books, an adult bookstore in Edgewood.State police gave this account of the incident: a man wearing a yellow ski mask entered the store at 3011 Pulaski Highway at about 6:30 a.m.The man pulled out a shotgun and threatened a clerk. He then tookan undetermined amount of cash and then fled on foot.The suspectis described as a black man, having a thin build and about 6 feet tall.

SAN FRANCISCO -- This is America, and you need a drilling rig to plumb the depths of our culture's bad taste. When the head of the National Rifle Association said President Clinton tolerated a certain level of murder in this country for his political gain, I thought that was the bottom. But no, there were depths of bad taste below that. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of New York, who excuses shootings of unarmed citizens by his cops, called the federal agents who rescued Elian Gonzalez from his loony relatives "stormtroopers."

In counties with police departments, sheriff's deputies are not public safety employees and are not entitled to the same workers' compensation benefits that police officers can receive, the Court of Appeals ruled yesterday.A deputy's duties -- escorting prisoners, providing courthouse security and serving warrants -- aren't those of a police officer under the state's Workers' Compensation Act, the court held. The decision means that Howard County Deputy Nancy Shah, who suffered injuries to her right foot on Dec. 30, 1988, and is partially disabled, is entitled to only $82.50 a week for 25 weeks instead of the $128 a week that a public safety employee can collect.

A Lutherville man driving with a revoked license was arrested yesterday after a high speed chase that started in West Virginia when a motorist allegedly tried to run over two deputy sheriffs there and ended in Frederick County after the fleeing driver rammed a police cruiser.Cpl. Tom Winebrenner of the Frederick County Sheriff's department said his office received a call from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department in West Virginia that a possible drunken driver in a sports utility vehicle had tried to run down two deputy sheriffs -- who were on foot -- before driving north into Maryland.

As dawn approached yesterday, a team of Frederick County Sheriff's Department investigators completed a task that had taken them all night -- unearthing two decomposed bodies in shallow graves in a field.By yesterday afternoon, Frederick County Sheriff Carl R. Harbaugh got the word from the state medical examiner's officer.The bodies were those of Hans and Ruth Koenig, an elderly Clarksburg couple who had been reported missing Thursday. The couple were identified through dental records.Sheriff Harbaugh said the Koenigs were last seen June 20 and were reported missing 10 days later.

EASTON -- A Talbot County grand jury indicted Sheriff John J. Ellerbusch Jr. on four counts of theft, misconduct and perjury yesterday after an investigation by the state prosecutor, who said his office found evidence that he stole more than $71,000 from the department.The indictment followed a four-month probe of Sheriff Ellerbusch that was sparked by a complaint to state investigators, said State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli.Mr. Montanarelli declined to provide details of the indictment, but sources close to the investigation said Sheriff Ellerbusch is accused of stealing some of the money distributed to his department by federal officials after the conviction of Sandra Filbert Amos, an heiress and former Talbot County resident who was arrested in 1989 for conspiring to distribute cocaine.

Mayor Earl A. J. "Tim" Warehime Jr. seemed puzzled by the recent departure of two-thirds of his town's police force.It wasn't that Officers Michael Bunn and Francis Reda left the force. Rather, it was where they ended up finding new jobs.Bunn, a four-year veteran, and Reda, on the job about four months, are the two newest road deputies for the Carroll County Sheriff's Department, a department that, like all other county agencies, has been under a 15-month hiring freeze."I thought they were supposed tohave a hiring freeze over there," Warehime said during Tuesday night's Town Council meeting.

Mayor Earl A. J. "Tim" Warehime Jr. seemed puzzled by the recent departure of two-thirds of his town's police force.It wasn't that Officers Michael Bunn and Francis Reda left the force. Rather, it was where they ended up finding new jobs.Bunn, a four-year veteran, and Reda, on the job about four months, are the two newest road deputies for the Carroll County Sheriff's Department, a department that, like all other county agencies, has been under a 15-month hiring freeze."I thought they were supposed tohave a hiring freeze over there," Warehime said during Tuesday night's Town Council meeting.

Delmer D. Hamm, 50, was charged June 23 following a two-month surveillance of a Havre de Grace marijuana field by the Harford Joint Narcotics Task Force.Hamm, who has no fixed address, was charged with manufacturing marijuana and carrying a handgun while trafficking drugs, the task force said. He is being held at the county Detention Center on $500,000 bond.Since early May, task force investigators were keeping 24-hour surveillance on the marijuana plants to find the cultivator, police said.

A Harford County man was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation yesterday following a standoff with officers of the county Sheriff's Department at a church in Perryman where the authorities said four young children were being held against their will.The man was taken into custody without incident at 1:10 a.m. when members of the special response team entered Mount Calvary Baptist Church on Cranberry Road. The children were not injured.The Harford County Sheriff's Department said charges were pending against a 26-year-old Perryman man. He was sent to Spring Grove Hospital for psychiatric treatment.

Delmer D. Hamm, 50, was charged June 23 following a two-month surveillance of a Havre de Grace marijuana field by the Harford Joint Narcotics Task Force.Hamm, who has no fixed address, was charged with manufacturing marijuana and carrying a handgun while trafficking drugs, the task force said. He is being held at the county Detention Center on $500,000 bond.Since early May, task force investigators were keeping 24-hour surveillance on the marijuana plants to find the cultivator, police said.