Defense Attorneys

Attorneys for three men accused of killing Kenneth N. Harris resumed their verbal sparring Tuesday with the state's witnesses and their questioning of virtually every iota of testimony. But a crucial identification of two of the defendants by a security guard was left unchallenged in the defense's cross-examination of the witness, even as the lawyers took apart his professional history and other matters only tangentially related to the murder of the former Baltimore councilman on Sept.

The young boys involved in the shooting death of Monae Turnage, whose body they hid under trash bags in an East Baltimore alley, were sentenced in juvenile court Wednesday. The 13-year-old who said he pulled the trigger will be committed indefinitely to a treatment facility; the 12-year-old who helped him move the body will be monitored by the Department of Juvenile Services while living with a relative in Harford County. But the family of Monae — the bubbly 13-year-old who wanted to be a pediatrician — sat outside the downtown Juvenile Justice Center after the hearing, stunned at the outcome.

LOS ANGELES -- Under relentless cross-examination by defense attorneys, Rodney King admitted he lied in the past about some aspects of his beating, and he testified he is not now sure if the police officers who beat and kicked him used racial epithets.Saying he initially denied that racial slurs were used at the request of his mother, Mr. King said yesterday that his testimony the previous day was the truth but he couldn't be sure whether the officers were saying "nigger" or "killer" as he was taunted during his violent arrest on March 3, 1991.

If MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blakeexpects to increase the city's population by 10,000 in the coming years, she better hope she finds someone of the same caliber as Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld ("Bealefeld to step down," May 4). With defense attorneys and community activists bemoaning his zero tolerance policy, he held his ground. This city is infested with crime other than murder. Residents don't flee to the suburbs because the city is no longer enjoyable, they leave because of crime and high taxes.

About a week before jury selection was set to begin, a federal judge substantially delayed the start of the public corruption trial against former state Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell Sr. and his wife, pointing to "irreconcilable conflicts of interest" among the couple's attorneys. The unexplained departure of the Bromwells' attorneys days before the long-scheduled trial was to start left the schedule of the case in flux. Prosecutors, defense attorneys and the judge all declined to provide details about why the defense lawyers left the case so abruptly.

The lawyers representing a man accused of killing a correctional officer at the Maryland House of Correction in 2006 argued yesterday that their client should not face the death penalty because they are not being adequately compensated for their work on the case. Gary E. Proctor and co-counsel Michael E. Lawlor entered a motion yesterday to preclude the death penalty as a sentencing option in the murder trial of Lee Edward Stephens, one of two inmates accused in the killing, because the fees they are being paid by the state to mount a defense are "manifestly unreasonable."

A Pasadena woman charged with killing her estranged husband on Christmas Day 2000 listened in a courtroom yesterday as prosecutors characterized her as someone determined to win a custody battle, while defense attorneys described her as a battered wife who fired her gun in self-defense. As the trial of Kelly Ann Clutter began in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, attorneys and witnesses did not dispute that the 35-year-old woman shot and killed her husband, David Clutter Sr., 32, at her home on Solley Road on Dec. 25, 2000.

A West Baltimore teenager who says three city police officers kidnapped him and dumped him in a Howard County park with no shoes or cellphone testified that he lied about being beaten up, and denied telling an attorney that he was choked by the officers. The admission came Monday, on the fourth day of testimony in the kidnapping and misconduct trial of Officers Tyrone S. Francis, Gregory Hellen and Milton G. Smith III, who are accused of leaving Michael B. Johnson Jr. in Patapsco Valley State Park on May 4, 2009, after dropping off his friend, Shawnquin Woodland, in East Baltimore earlier the same day. When Johnson called 911 from Howard County, he told the dispatcher he had been beaten up, which he testified on Monday was untrue, except for a tap of a nightstick.

The recent acquittal of a man charged with raping his wife at knifepoint stunned local rape counselors -- but many legal officials say it illustrates the difficulties of proving spousal or acquaintance rape cases."

In an effort to target some of Maryland's most violent criminals, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s legislative agenda this year includes a bill that would give prosecutors broader powers to go after anyone who intimidates or harms witnesses, a chronic problem in Baltimore that stymies many of the city's homicide cases. The proposed legislation, among other things, would stiffen penalties for threatening or harming a witness, and allow some out-of-court statements to be used as evidence at trial.

With a full math and science scholarship to the Johns Hopkins University and accolades for his writing, Howard County's Mohammad Hassan Khalid seemed ready to continue the American dream his father embarked on years ago when he brought the family from Pakistan. But instead, on Friday the 18-year-old Khalid became one of the youngest people ever convicted in federal court of conspiracy to aid terrorists. He could receive up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at his sentencing, which has not been scheduled.

The judge presiding over the trial of two brothers accused of assaulting a teen in Northwest Baltimore plans to give her ruling in the case Thursday afternoon. Baltimore Circuit Judge Pamela J. White has heard a week of arguments in the bench trial of Eliyahu Werdesheim, 24, and his brother, Avi Werdesheim, 22. After the prosecutor and defense attorneys completed their closing statements Wednesday afternoon, White told them that she expects to issue her verdict at 3 p.m. Thursday.

Prosecutors alleged Friday that the 28-year-old man charged with murdering Phylicia Barnes asphyxiated the teenager in her sister's Northwest Baltimore apartment, and then moved her body using a 35-gallon plastic tub. Michael Maurice Johnson, the ex-boyfriend of Phylicia's older half-sister, was seen by a neighbor sweating and struggling to move a container from the apartment, Assistant State's Attorney Lisa Goldberg said at a hearing while arguing...

The head of Baltimore's police union, Robert Cherry, launched a heartfelt defense of Det. Daniel T. Nicholson IV, who is suspended and accused of conducting an authorized raid while searching for his missing 15-year-old daughter: "I think what Detective Nicholson did is no different than what any concerned parened would do. He went out to find his missing daughter and make sure she was safe. In the end, I think the facts will prove that he did not abuse his position or his power.

With Trayvon Martin a household name, two brothers accused of beating a black teen during a citizen's patrol now want their trial delayed or moved. The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports today on efforts to distance the case in Baltimore with the one in Florida . Attorneys for Avi and Eliyahu Werdsheim are to be back in court today to further argue their motion before a judge. Their hearing comes a day after neighborhood watch leader George Zimmerman is released on bail in Florida in a case that has enraged people on all sides across the country.

Attorneys for two Jewish brothers, who are accused of beating a black teen while patrolling their Northwest Baltimore neighborhood, argued Monday that their trial should be delayed or transferred because African-American leaders and the news media have inextricably linked it to the Florida killing of Trayvon Martin. The similarities between the cases "are conspicuous," defense lawyers for Avi and Eliyahu Werdesheim wrote in an eight-page motion filed in Baltimore Circuit Court, shortly before the brothers' trial was set to begin after six postponements.

The woman who was with Kenneth N. Harris the night he was killed said in court Monday that she was "terrified" when a man in a white Halloween mask walked up to the car they were sitting in and fired a shot at the former Baltimore city councilman, showering them both with glass. Monica Foreman-Robinson, whose identity was not publicly known until she took the stand at the start of the trial of three men accused of killing Harris on Sept. 20, 2008, said the car shook as the bullet shattered a driver's-side window.

Prosecutors alleged Friday that the 28-year-old man charged with murdering Phylicia Barnes asphyxiated the teenager in her sister's Northwest Baltimore apartment, and then moved her body using a 35-gallon plastic tub. Michael Maurice Johnson, the ex-boyfriend of Phylicia's older half-sister, was seen by a neighbor sweating and struggling to move a container from the apartment, Assistant State's Attorney Lisa Goldberg said at a hearing while arguing...

The letters come, one after the other, from the Otero County Detention Center in New Mexico to a bungalow-style home in Dundalk that is encircled by a chain-link fence and festooned in a ribbon of Ravens purple. The letters are from Shelby Nichole Smith, who was an altar girl at Amazing Grace Lutheran Church and a top graduate of the old Southern High School before enlisting in the Army. Now she's known by her childhood nickname, BeBe, and authorities refer to her in official documents as "the gossip girl.

WEATHER Today's forecast calls for sunny skies and a high temperature near 55 degrees. It is expected to be partly cloudy tonight, with a low temperature around 43 degrees. TRAFFIC Check our traffic updates for this morning's issues as you plan your commute. FROM LAST NIGHT... Teare appears before council, declines to answer questions : Anne Arundel County Police Chief Col. James E. Teare Sr. appeared Monday night before the County Council but declined to answer questions under oath about allegations of misconduct by County Executive John R. Leopold, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.