Criminal Record

Caught with a couple of joints he didn't get the chance to light up, Eric Staton was ordered to appear before a Baltimore judge. Two weeks later, in a basement courtroom on North Avenue, prosecutors said they would drop the possession charge if Staton agreed to pick up trash for five hours. Staton, 42, hesitated before taking the deal. "Ten grams is nothing," he told a spectator during the hearing. "They should legalize that marijuana. " In recent years, Maryland has taken small steps to scale back laws against possession of marijuana.

Baltimore police officer Robert W. Mitchell faces a second-degree assault charge after police and prosecutors accused him of overstepping his powers and beating a young man more than a year ago. The Baltimore state's attorney's office also charged Mitchell on Friday with two counts of misconduct in office. Prosecutors allege that Mitchell beat Baltimore resident Tiyon Williams in the 1000 block of N. Mount St. on May 19, 2012. "The allegations against Mr. Mitchell are reprehensible," Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said in a statement, "and I promise we will continue to aggressively target those who sacrilege the good men and women of this department and the sacred privilege of serving our community.

On April 25, theU.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission(EEOC), for the first time in 25 years, updated its guidance on how employers may use criminal background checks in the hiring process. The new guidelines reaffirm that it is illegal under the Civil Rights Act for companies to exclude people from employment based on arrest or conviction records - unless the offense is directly related to the job at hand. The need for EEOC action was dire. More than 1 in 4 Americans - 65 million people - have an arrest or conviction record, leaving a significant segment of the population largely shut out of the job market.

Have you ever just messed up? I'm not talking about leaving your coffee on the roof of your car. I mean a major, life-altering mistake. Think fiscal cliff-level personal disaster. Now imagine paying for the mistake with jail time - then continuing to pay for the rest of your life by being shut out of every new opportunity to reestablish yourself. That's the life of Marylanders with prior misdemeanor convictions right now, and the General Assembly appears to want them to keep living their nightmares, while taxpayers foot the bill.

Baltimore police officer Robert W. Mitchell faces a second-degree assault charge after police and prosecutors accused him of overstepping his powers and beating a young man more than a year ago. The Baltimore state's attorney's office also charged Mitchell on Friday with two counts of misconduct in office. Prosecutors allege that Mitchell beat Baltimore resident Tiyon Williams in the 1000 block of N. Mount St. on May 19, 2012. "The allegations against Mr. Mitchell are reprehensible," Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said in a statement, "and I promise we will continue to aggressively target those who sacrilege the good men and women of this department and the sacred privilege of serving our community.

An Edgemere man pleaded guilty Wednesday to having sexual contact with a teenage boy, in a plea deal that allowed him to avoid trial on a rarely used charge of exposing a victim to the HIV virus. Steven Douglas Podles, 36, was charged after police said he engaged in sexual activity with a 13-year-old outside the teen's home in February 2012. Podles had been treated for HIV, prosecutors said, but the boy did not contract the disease. The two met on Grindr, an adult dating app that requires users to be 18 or older.

A former Western Maryland College athlete and honor student, convicted last year of lying to police about being raped, will have the conviction wiped off her criminal record, a Carroll Circuit Court judge ruled yesterday.Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. granted Amye Lynne Walker's request for probation before judgment because she "should not have a criminal record," the judge said.The judge also agreed to allow Ms. Walker, 23, of Calvert County to serve the remaining 2 1/2 years of her three-year probation unsupervised.

Lawrence Banks, a man convicted in two 1991 murders and questioned in two recent killings, was sent back to prison yesterday, his parole revoked by a commissioner who called his 30-year criminal record "horrendous." Banks, 53, a Baltimore native who has spent half of his life in prison, had been held since Dec. 13 on two possible parole violations. A day earlier, his girlfriend's 22-year-old daughter and 9-month-old granddaughter were fatally shot in a house in Laurel that they all shared.

The family of a 28-year-old man found fatally stabbed Friday behind a railroad car in Southwest Baltimore said they're struggling to understand why someone would take his life. LaConte Mitchell, who worked security at Spring Grove Hospital Center, had never been arrested and "was always on the straight and narrow," said Tyronea Williams, 37, a close cousin. "He was a good kid — trouble never found him, and he never looked for it," Williams said. Mitchell was found suffering from stab wounds about 6 a.m. Friday at the end of the 600 block of S. Fulton Ave. in a grassy field near an idled set of railroad cars.

Four Baltimore County Republican leaders took the unusual step last month of urging 7th District candidate Richard K. Impallaria to reconsider his candidacy for a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates because of concerns about his criminal record. Del. Alfred W. Redmer Jr., the House minority leader; Sen. Andrew P. Harris of the 7th District; Del. James Ports Jr. of the 8th District; and R. Karl Aumann, district director for GOP gubernatorial candidate Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s congressional office, met with Impallaria before the Sept.

Caught with a couple of joints he didn't get the chance to light up, Eric Staton was ordered to appear before a Baltimore judge. Two weeks later, in a basement courtroom on North Avenue, prosecutors said they would drop the possession charge if Staton agreed to pick up trash for five hours. Staton, 42, hesitated before taking the deal. "Ten grams is nothing," he told a spectator during the hearing. "They should legalize that marijuana. " In recent years, Maryland has taken small steps to scale back laws against possession of marijuana.

Alexander Moulton completed a four-year apprenticeship program last year to become a painter at the Coast Guard shipyard in Curtis Bay, following in the footsteps of his father, who said his son worked seven days a week to provide for two children. On Sunday night, the 29-year-old ate dinner with his parents and then headed off to a friend's house in Central Park Heights, where he was fatally shot inside a vehicle. His death was one of five being investigated by city homicide detectives over a 30-hour period in Baltimore.

Two men have been charged with shooting three people, killing one, during a home invasion in Northwest Baltimore last month, court records show.  Roger Spears, 32, and Eric Jones, 20, were charged with first-degree murder and related charges in the Feb. 2 shooting, which occurred in the 3400 block of Reisterstown Road and killed 46-year-old Quentin Cannady, a Navy veteran who worked as an audio/visual engineer.  According to charging documents,...

The family of a 28-year-old man found fatally stabbed Friday behind a railroad car in Southwest Baltimore said they're struggling to understand why someone would take his life. LaConte Mitchell, who worked security at Spring Grove Hospital Center, had never been arrested and "was always on the straight and narrow," said Tyronea Williams, 37, a close cousin. "He was a good kid — trouble never found him, and he never looked for it," Williams said. Mitchell was found suffering from stab wounds about 6 a.m. Friday at the end of the 600 block of S. Fulton Ave. in a grassy field near an idled set of railroad cars.

An Edgemere man pleaded guilty Wednesday to having sexual contact with a teenage boy, in a plea deal that allowed him to avoid trial on a rarely used charge of exposing a victim to the HIV virus. Steven Douglas Podles, 36, was charged after police said he engaged in sexual activity with a 13-year-old outside the teen's home in February 2012. Podles had been treated for HIV, prosecutors said, but the boy did not contract the disease. The two met on Grindr, an adult dating app that requires users to be 18 or older.

Antwan Reddick leaned against the padded blue walls of the Owings Mills wrestling room and smiled. With a 26-1 record this season, the 152-pound senior hopes to win his third straight county title in this weekend's Baltimore County championships at Franklin. The first two came in Prince George's County while he wrestled at DuVal, and he finished as the Class 4A-3A runner-up last season at 138 pounds. Yet sometimes it's hard for him to smile. Since he was 5 years old, Reddick has been in foster care.

Investigators began hunting yesterday for the owners of an assisted-living service that operated an unlicensed group home in Owings Mills where a 33- year-old caretaker was fatally stabbed this week, allegedly by a resident. Several of the mentally ill men and women living in four apartments at the Briarwood Apartments were being interviewed last night about what kind of care and supervision they received from the assisted-living service, A Touch of Love Assisted Living Group Inc., as state health officials prepared to place them in licensed group homes.

Two men have been charged with shooting three people, killing one, during a home invasion in Northwest Baltimore last month, court records show.  Roger Spears, 32, and Eric Jones, 20, were charged with first-degree murder and related charges in the Feb. 2 shooting, which occurred in the 3400 block of Reisterstown Road and killed 46-year-old Quentin Cannady, a Navy veteran who worked as an audio/visual engineer.  According to charging documents,...

Maryland said Friday it has admitted Dezmine Wells, a highly coveted basketball player expelled by Xavier following a sexual assault allegation that a prosecutor said was unproven. It's uncertain whether Wells will be able to play for the Terps this season. Maryland will soon seek an NCAA waiver -- the process is expected to take about three weeks -- under which the guard-forward would receive an exemption from the transfer rule and not be required to sit out a season. It is difficult to predict the outcome of the request because Wells' case appears unique -- a player expelled from a school but backed by a prosecutor and never criminally charged.

On April 25, theU.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission(EEOC), for the first time in 25 years, updated its guidance on how employers may use criminal background checks in the hiring process. The new guidelines reaffirm that it is illegal under the Civil Rights Act for companies to exclude people from employment based on arrest or conviction records - unless the offense is directly related to the job at hand. The need for EEOC action was dire. More than 1 in 4 Americans - 65 million people - have an arrest or conviction record, leaving a significant segment of the population largely shut out of the job market.