Criminal Record

A Baltimore pawnbroker -- who claimed he had no criminal record when he asked a Baltimore County judge to wipe out his 1995 wife-beating conviction -- beat his previous wife 20 years ago, court records show.The earlier conviction surprised lawyers for Charles H. Weiner, the prosecutor in the recent case and women's groups that protested the January decision of Baltimore County Circuit Judge Thomas J. Bollinger Sr. to wipe out Weiner's latest conviction."It shocks me," said Weiner's lawyer, Steven R. Freeman, when told last week that Weiner received probation before judgment for beating his first wife.

Nathaniel Hurt, on trial in the slaying of a 13-year-old boy, was convicted in 1980 of assault and received a one-year suspended sentence with one year of supervised probation, according to court records. Articles in The Sun on Saturday and yesterday incorrectly stated that he had no criminal record.The Sun regrets the error.

Carroll District Judge Donald M. Smith was not told about the extensive criminal record of a man accused of attacking a Westminster woman when he released the man on unsecured bond, according to a tape recording of the court hearing.Judge Smith released the suspect, Charles Bernard Thomas Jr., 48, March 20 on charges that he had kidnapped and sexually assaulted a woman in January.Police are now seeking Mr. Thomas because, they charge, he stabbed the woman and stole her car early Tuesday.Carroll prosecutors have said publicly that it was "unfortunate" that Judge Smith lowered Mr. Thomas' bail from $30,000 to $5,000 and made it unsecured, which meant that Mr. Thomas was freed without having to post cash or collateral.

When Carroll County residents heard that Charles Bernard Thomas Jr. had been arrested for the savage stabbing of his girlfriend last Tuesday, a week after being released from the detention center on an unsecured bond on earlier assault charges, they immediately blamed District Court Judge Donald M. Smith. This was another example of a lenient judiciary "coddling" criminals, they said.They were wrong.As reported by The Sun's Darren Allen last week, court transcripts show that at the March 20 bail review, prosecutors failed to inform Judge Smith of Mr. Thomas' 30-year criminal record -- which included convictions for manslaughter, burglary and grand theft.

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.

A Finksburg man who last year pleaded guilty to growing enough marijuana to keep someone "high for the next 20 years" will have the conviction wiped from his criminal record, a Carroll Circuit judge ruled yesterday.Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. granted James Carl Prodoehl's request for probation before judgment. The ruling means Prodoehl, 30, of the 2900 block of Bloom Road will have a conviction for manufacturing marijuana taken off his record after he completes four more years of probation.Last January, Prodoehl pleaded guilty to the charge and was given a suspended five-year prison sentence.

When a prospective customer walks into a gun shop in Maryland to purchase a handgun, he or she must wait two weeks for a state police criminal record check.Besides handguns, the two-week waiting period also applies to purchases of the Mossburg Bull Pup shotgun and military assault-type rifles, such as the AKS, Colt Sporter and Uzi carbine, which all fire in semiautomatic mode.Other shotguns and rifles can be bought immediately without a record check, said Melvin Abrams, president of the corporation that operates the Valley Gun Shop, in the 7700 block of Harford Road in Parkville.

If you pass the Brady bill, I'll sure sign it.-- President Clinton.With this short sentence in his address to Congress last month, President Clinton altered prospects for passage of the handgun-control proposal named for James Brady, the White House press secretary wounded in 1981's assassination attempt against President Reagan. The proposal had been bottled up for years by President Bush's insistence that it be tied to broader crime legislation. No longer. Mr. Clinton is ready to sign just as soon as Congress gets a simple, clean bill to his desk.

LibrariansEditor: What's this about closing the School of Library and Information Science of the University of Maryland? How shortsighted can administrators be?Who know how to organize, store and make available information? Who know the technique and art of ''putting knowledge to work''? Librarians who have learned in accredited library schools the intricacies of information organization, the many ways of disseminating and exchanging information and the skills needed to get the right information to the right person at the right time.

Freddie D. Widener, a longtime criminal whose family terrorized northern Baltimore County in the 1970s, has been sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in federal prison for robbing a federal credit union in Middle River last year.Widener, 35, of the 15400 block of York Road in Sparks, cried in U.S. District Court yesterday as he recounted a life of heroin abuse and jail terms. He said his crimes were prompted by an unhappy home life and abuse from his late father, whom he described as "a jealous and violent man."

Thousands of Marylanders have had their arrest records removed from public view because of a new state law that requires automatic expungement for those who are detained and released without charge. Proponents say the nine-month-old law is working as intended, removing potential barriers to obtaining employment, housing and loans. Another major change in state expungement law takes effect Oct. 1, when some criminal convictions in Maryland can be wiped out without a pardon from the governor.

I asked Darryl Russell about the slick, full-color folder on the dinette table in his house in Baltimore County. "Oh," he said, "that was for a company that sets you up in the cleaning business. But it was too much money." The company wanted $4,000 to provide industrial vacuums and steam cleaners, and then a 5 percent take on revenue from cleaning contracts on office buildings. It was a good idea for Russell, a 45-year-old ex-offender eager to get on with his life, but not a great deal, and certainly not something he could afford.

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.

Marcus McDowell was just 16 years old, a teenager who already had a high school diploma, a girlfriend with a "promise ring" and plans to start community college this year. He was on his way home Monday evening when he left a store in the 5100 block of Harford Road and found three people trying to rob his friend, city police said. Marcus intervened. He was shot twice, dying less than an hour later. "It was just Marcus being Marcus," said his mother, Darlene Belvin, 33. "If you're his friend, he would put his life out there to help you."

A man named Nathaniel Nelson, who described himself as a 45-year-old recovering heroin addict with a criminal record, finally got clean and sober, and hit the streets of Baltimore a couple of years ago - not to find a fix, but to find a job. After being turned down numerous times by employers because of his criminal record, he went to an employment agency. The agency found Nelson a job in a downtown hotel as a kitchen utility worker, washing dishes and scrubbing pots. He had the job for 14 months and claimed to have had an exemplary work record.

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is dropping a plan to hire a private investigator to examine allegations that he groped at least 16 women over the past three decades. The governor is busy with the state's budget crisis and doubts that such an inquiry would appease critics, Rob Stutzman, communications director for Schwarzenegger, said Monday. Because of that, he has decided not to look into the charges himself as he promised to do in the final days of the recall campaign, Stutzman said.

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.

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.

One is a former drug addict turned coffee brewer who moved into a shelter for battered women to help turn her life around. Another, a state employee, has a criminal record that includes drug charges. A third, a Canadian citizen, was working without the proper permit. They all worked at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, and they were among the 10 workers there indicted this week on federal charges. Seven are accused of making false statements that concealed their criminal history to obtain airport-issued security badges.

Donald Antonio White Jr. was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole yesterday in the killing of police Sgt. Bruce A. Prothero in an emotional hearing that focused on White's career as a criminal and Prothero's life as a father. Baltimore County Circuit Judge Barbara Kerr Howe said in sentencing White that she couldn't understand why he was free at the time of the killing, given his criminal past. "He's led a terrible life. I wonder when I look at this record, where has the system been?