Court In Baltimore

Federal prosecutors have accused a Chesapeake Bay charter captain and Eastern Shore entrepreneur who already has three fishing-law violations on his record with bagging too many Canada geese. According to court papers filed Friday, Levin F. Harrison III, also known as Capt'n Buddy, of Tilghman Island, was charged with the unlawful taking of Canada geese Jan. 12 on or over a baited area, and in excess of the daily limit. The maximum penalty is six months in prison and a $15,000 fine. He and his business are set for an initial appearance on Jan. 5 in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

A Houston woman was sentenced in federal court in Baltimore yesterday to 12 years in prison for distributing cocaine in Harford and Anne Arundel counties. As part of her Nov. 7 plea agreement, Lan Dang, 45, agreed to forfeit her recreational vehicle, which was used to transport the cocaine. In March 2003, investigators identified Lan Dang as a source of supply to a large-scale cocaine and marijuana ring in Maryland, according to court papers. Co-defendants in the case who also pleaded guilty but await sentencing are Antone Miranda-Ruffin, 30, of Pasadena; George Brown, 39, of Darlington; and Jeffrey Price, 40, and Joanne Price, 34, both of Churchville.

A 24-year-old Baltimore man has been convicted of carjacking and handgun charges in U.S. District Court in Baltimore and faces a mandatory life sentence under the "three strikes" law, federal prosecutors said. A federal jury convicted Collin Hawkins on Wednesday of using a gun during a carjacking in the city on Nov. 22, 2006. Sentencing is scheduled for April 25. Hawkins has previous convictions in state court on five drug-related charges in five years, which made him eligible for sentencing under the three-strikes law. "Collin Hawkins will never again carry a gun, carjack or shoot anyone in Baltimore," U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said in a statement.

Maryland's top federal prosecutor declined to comment yesterday on an FBI investigation of missing money that had been introduced as evidence at a bank robbery trial in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio's office is under scrutiny because federal prosecutors and the FBI agents assigned to the bank robbery case would have been directly responsible for securing the cash evidence. As much as $38,000, most of it in $20 bills, was discovered missing after the two-week robbery trial ended late last week, law enforcement sources said.

The family of a Severn woman killed in a 1998 car crash is suing the federal government for $20 million, saying the accident was caused by the negligent driving of a U.S. Defense Department employee. Gloria Deberry Mack, 35, died from head injuries she suffered in a head-on collision Aug. 24, 1998, in Anne Arundel County. Police said the driver of the other vehicle, Ellen M. Maxton of California, made a left turn into Mack's vehicle as Maxton was trying to follow co-workers from the Defense Security Service who were turning off Aviation Boulevard onto Dorsey Road.

A Pasadena man was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to a year and a day in prison for making false statements concerning bogus documents created to sell real estate in Anne Arundel County. A statement of facts submitted by federal prosecutors said Michael Dronet, 36, used a business known as Homebuyer's to purchase 19 homes in Glen Burnie at low prices, perform minor renovations and resell the properties at much higher prices. Prosecutors said the flipping scheme involved Dronet finding buyers for the homes and submitting falsified documents on behalf of the buyers to secure mortgages.

A 29-year-old man who appeared numerous times in the first Stop Snitching video pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Baltimore yesterday to conspiracy to distribute cocaine, gun possession and other charges, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. Sherman Kemp of Baltimore could face life in prison without parole. The video, a rambling, profanity-laced ode to street life, became a local political prop and a national emblem of Baltimore's crime problems. Between March and May of last year, Kemp purchased at least 5 kilograms of cocaine in New York and supplied the drugs to lower-level dealers in Baltimore, federal prosecutors said.

The Supreme Court today refused to hear the appeal of a former Community Savings and Loan officer who was denied permission to spend $500,000 she got from federal fugitive Tom J. Billman.The high court, without comment, refused to hear the case of Barbara A. McKinney, who claimed that court-ordered pretrial restraint on her use of the money deprived her of the right to hire defense counsel of her choice.McKinney, Community's former vice president and Billman's former mistress, is a co-defendant with Billman, another former Community official and Billman's holding company in a criminal fraud case tied to the Bethesda thrift's 1985 collapse.

Three Baltimore-area men have pleaded guilty in separate cases to child pornography charges, Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein announced yesterday. Roy Edward Hoover Jr., 37, of Baltimore was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to 10 years in prison for sexual exploitation of a minor to produce child pornography. According to his guilty plea, Hoover sexually assaulted a girl in his care for nearly three years, beginning in September 2004, when she was 14. Hoover took digital photographs of the assaults and downloaded them to his computer, according to Rosenstein's office.

A Texas man charged with owing $38,000 in child support pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Baltimore yesterday to violating federal child support recovery laws.Walter Alan Morgan of Emory, Texas, was arrested in Emory by federal agents Dec. 18 for failing to pay child support ordered by a Howard County Circuit Court judge in 1984.Federal officials said that Morgan failed to make $250 per month payments and owes more than $38,000. Morgan, who could be sentenced to six months in jail and fined $5,000, disputed the amount yesterday.