Drug Dealer

As he raised the claw of a backhoe over the tiny downtown Aberdeen home, Mayor S. Fred Simmons was reminded of the suspected drug dealers who once drifted through its doors and the angry pit bulls chained to trees in the front yard. With one violent jerk downward, Simmons sunk the claw into a front corner of the Washington Street home and tore it off, to the cheers of pastors and a gospel choir. Along with the controlled burns of two other houses, city leaders called yesterday's events a symbolic step forward in the effort to revitalize Aberdeen, a growing military outpost.

Arrested three times in 1996 and facing a possible prison sentence, Albert Sherman Stokes eagerly became an informant when approached by a Howard County police officer.In exchange for introducing undercover Howard County detectives to a drug dealer, the 31-year-old carpenter received a deal: Prosecutors dropped several charges -- including lying to a police officer -- put others on hold and recommended probation."I figured, the police are asking me to help them," said Stokes, who most recently lived in Laurel.

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge sealed all court records yesterday in a $500,000 wrongful eviction lawsuit brought by two former tenants of George A. Dangerfield Jr., a 29-year-old convicted drug dealer who owns more than 125 rental houses in the city.Judge Bonita J. Dancy issued a gag order requested by Dangerfield's lawyers, barring the parties from talking about the case in public. She then took the unusual step of sealing all court records, including tape recordings of yesterday's hearing.

A homeless Westminster man has been sentenced as a repeat offender to 10 years in prison without parole for distribution of crack cocaine to an undercover state trooper last year.Darrell Clifton Williams, 43, of Westminster went to trial in January in Carroll County Circuit Court but pleaded guilty after the jury got the case, said Assistant State's Attorney Theresa M. Adams.On the witness stand, Williams denied being a drug dealer -- then admitted under cross-examination that he had once sold the drug to an undercover trooper, who was working with Westminster police on Union Street in March 1998, the prosecutor said.

HERE'S A challenge: Drive through the Annapolis' Robinwood housing development in the midafternoon or early evening on a pleasant day and take a good look at the teen-agers and young men who will undoubtedly be standing or milling about.Now, try telling the difference between those who are dealing drugs or otherwise making trouble and those who are not.But wait. Before you take up that challenge, try this one: Look at those loiterers without presuming that all of them are up to no good.I took the same test myself.

Heroin maintenance: A solution for drugs or surrender to 0) them?Bravo to Dr. Peter Beilenson, the Johns Hopkins University and George Soros. I have advocated this approach for 20 years ("Test of 'heroin maintenance' may be launched in Baltimore," June 10). I believe it will cause a statistically significant decrease in crime.There is a segment of the heroin population whose only goal is the next "fix." And to achieve that end, nothing is sacred. From begging to petty theft to murder, there is nothing these addicts will not do to satisfy their uncontrollable need.

WASHINGTON -- WHEN THE Rev. Eugene Rivers, who left the mean streets of his poor Philadelphia neighborhood to go to Harvard, decided to go to the streets of Boston's rough Dorchester neighborhood as a minister, he received an important lesson from a tough local drug dealer.As Mr. Rivers tells the story, the drug dealer, named Selvin Brown, took the reverend on a tour of the poor black neighborhood's crack houses and drug hustlers.Mr. Rivers, himself a former gangbanger in the poor Philadelphia neighborhood where he grew up, was impressed by the sophistication of this lucrative industry, asked how the church ever lost such bright young minds as Mr. Brown's and why it continues to lose so many bright, promising children to the streets.

A suspected drug dealer was killed and a city police officer wounded yesterday afternoon when the two apparently struggled for the officer's gun in a West Baltimore alley, police said.Officer Shane C. Stufft, who celebrated his 25th birthday 10 days ago, underwent surgery last night at Union Memorial Hospital's hand center. Police said a bullet fired from the officer's gun passed through his left forefinger and hit the suspect.Officer Gary McLhinney, the police union president, said it was unclear last night whether the officer would be able to retain the finger.

A former Baltimore police officer was suspected of being an "enforcer" for a drug dealer and admitted listening to a murder plot that he did nothing to stop or report, a prosecutor said in court yesterday.The allegations against Andre Johnson, a former Eastern District patrolman who was found guilty yesterday of misconduct in office, are among the most serious in a string of charges against city police.Johnson, 23, told police "he did nothing to report this murder was going to take place, did nothing to stop it, did nothing to report it after it took place," said Assistant State's Attorney Elizabeth A. Ritter.

The hand-held vacuum looks like a Dust Buster, but it collects more than just lint. Call it the drug buster.With this new drug-detection system, called the Ionscan 400, the state is searching for the most minute traces of illegal narcotics on people who visit or work at Maryland's prisons. Officials say it's more accurate than a drug-sniffing dog -- and never gets tired or needs food or exercise."The message we're sending is if you're a bad person and trying to get drugs into our prisons, we're going to catch you," said William W. Sondervan, an assistant commissioner for the state Division of Correction, during a demonstration this week at the Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup.

Say this much for Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III: He's willing to deliver on a bet. Bealefeld appeared on radio station 98 Rock on Tuesday morning to sing a karaoke version of Whitney Houston's "I'm Every Woman," honoring an agreement he made with the mayor's office after his all-male police team lost a marathon relay Saturday to an all-women's team headed by an official from City Hall. "Suddenly, every drug dealer in town is petrified," cracked host Mickey Cucchiella after Bealefeld cruised through his droll rendition of the song.

City drug dealer given 15 years for selling crack U.S. District Court Judge William D. Quarles Jr. sentenced Baltimore drug dealer Otis Rich, 34, yesterday to more than 15 years in federal prison for distributing more than 3.5 kilograms of crack between March 2006 and August 2008. His co-defendant, Devon Marshall, 37, of Abingdon pleaded guilty yesterday to the same charge on a larger scale. Marshall, who faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison at his April sentencing, said he obtained cocaine from Mexico and helped distribute more than 150 kilograms throughout the city.

An 18-year-old man has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the shooting of a man who was using a toy gun to rob a drug dealer. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, the Baltimore state's attorney's office said. On Aug. 9, prosecutors said, Omar McGee learned that Troy Richardson, 30, of Dundalk was robbing a drug dealer in an alley off the 3400 block of Dupont Ave., near where McGee lived in Northwest Baltimore. McGee shot Richardson twice in the leg and once in the face, prosecutors said.

SOME MORNINGS, PERHAPS EVEN ON A morning like this one, James Berry III will lie on his mother's couch at 4 a.m., unable to sleep. The only light in the living room will be the flicker of the television. The thoughts inside his head will collide and carom off of one another until he cannot sit any longer. He'll slip into his athletic shorts and a black hooded sweat shirt. He'll walk through the living room and pass the shiny silver and gold boxing trophies that bear his name. He'll open his front door, step off his porch and soak up the quiet, cool darkness of Ellerslie Avenue.

As he raised the claw of a backhoe over the tiny downtown Aberdeen home, Mayor S. Fred Simmons was reminded of the suspected drug dealers who once drifted through its doors and the angry pit bulls chained to trees in the front yard. With one violent jerk downward, Simmons sunk the claw into a front corner of the Washington Street home and tore it off, to the cheers of pastors and a gospel choir. Along with the controlled burns of two other houses, city leaders called yesterday's events a symbolic step forward in the effort to revitalize Aberdeen, a growing military outpost.

Police charge suspect in nightclub killing A West Baltimore man suspected in a fatal shooting at a nightclub was arrested yesterday evening after he was released from Maryland Shock Trauma Center, city police said. Eugene D. Parker, 31, of the 500 block of S. Bentalou St., was charged in a warrant with first-degree murder and a handgun offense in the killing Sunday night of a security officer at the club, police said. The shooting occurred about three hours after the security guard, Harold Robinson, 39, of South Baltimore, and another security officer had ordered several men out of Club International in the 2300 block of W. Baltimore St. for disorderly conduct, being intoxicated and public urination, police said.

The date of Dec. 30, 2006 on the calendar indicates it must be time for my annual Chutzpah Awards. Usually, I honor 10 dubious winners. But in 2006, three were filled with such audacity that they took chutzpah to new limits. There is no room for the seven other spots. Here are the honorees: Third place: Martin O'Malley, mayor of Baltimore and governor-elect of Maryland. No, not because he took a police department that was never Bill of Rights-friendly and made it even less so. It's not even for promoting Baltimore's 60 percent graduation rate as an achievement during his gubernatorial campaign.

ATLANTA -- All wars have a way of creating collateral damage, as the desk-bound bureaucrats euphemistically call the dead innocents, destroyed buildings and decimated towns that just happen to be in the way of bombs and bullets. Kathryn Johnston was collateral damage in America's misguided "war on drugs." On Nov. 21, the 88-year-old woman was shot dead by Atlanta undercover police officers who crashed through her door after dark to execute a "no-knock" search warrant for illegal drugs.

I hear men who grew up in Baltimore - guys my age, some a little younger, some 20 years younger - talk about homecomings, but not the kind associated with high schools or the military, Thanksgiving or Christmas. The two Marine Corps veterans I spoke with last week used the phrase "I got home" in reference to their release from prison, not active duty. "I got home in oh-three," Ben Townsend said. He's 48, a former Marine, former drug dealer, formerly homeless man looking for a job. "Got home in 2002," said Mark Lonesome, 28, former Marine, former drug dealer, also in need of work.

Drug dealer is given 22 years, 6 months A 36-year-old Baltimore man who admitted that he killed a fellow drug dealer was sentenced in federal court yesterday to 22 1/2 years in prison. Charles Garrison pleaded guilty in December 2004 to conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, and using a firearm during a drug trafficking crime. According to the statement of facts presented at his guilty plea, Garrison distributed cocaine, crack and heroin.