Drug Dealing

Enthroned atop a milk crate, his toenails painted purple, the musician slaps away at a six-string guitar with only four strings, rattling out a love song to a Baltimore street.A week after restaurant patrons ran for cover during a gunbattle on North Charles Street, the return of Bruce "Guitarman" Timmons to his sidewalk stage there was one of many signs Tuesday that life is back to normal for one of the city's most historic and funky neighborhoods.The Mount Vernon area has been loved for decades for its bohemian atmosphere and ornate architecture that hasn't changed much since F. Scott Fitzgerald drank at the Belvedere Hotel in the 1930s.

A federal jury found two leaders of an upstart Baltimore gang guilty of murder and drug dealing yesterday, the first convictions indirectly tied to the death of Northern High School's star quarterback Rocco Colavito Cash.Marshawn D. Stokes and Ahmad S. Linton, alleged leaders of what prosecutors called a small but vicious drug circle, were convicted of chasing down Anthony Hamilton, a rival gang member, and killing him as they stood over him in a Southeast Baltimore alley in August 1997.The 18-year-old quarterback was killed in the same area later that day when a gang member mistook him for a rival enforcer and shot him from a passing car, prosecutors said in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

ANNAPOLIS CITY leaders, who whined about footing the bill for a New Year's Eve celebration expenses, apparently aren't so tight with a buck when it comes to a potentially costly day in court.The city was ready to let Annapolis First Night proceed without its participation and on city-owned properties because it didn't want to absorb the cost of police overtime and cleanup. Fortunately, Annapolis-based USinternetworking Inc. bailed out the city by agreeing to kick in $18,000 for the annual celebration.

Members of the City Council will hold a hearing next week to investigate the number of illegal pay phones throughout Baltimore and their impact on drug dealing.Northeast Councilman Martin O'Malley called yesterday for the session of the council's Legislative Investigations Committee in reaction to an editorial published in The Sun on Sunday that criticized the city for allowing the phones.The report showed that one of Baltimore's most infamous drug corners, Monroe Street and Lafayette Avenue in West Baltimore, has six pay phones, none of which received the necessary city approvals before being installed.

Six members of the East Baltimore Nickel Boys gang, which violently protected the lucrative crack-dealing turf it had staked out in the O'Donnell Heights public housing complex, were convicted in U.S. District Court yesterday of several counts of drug conspiracy, murder conspiracy and federal handgun charges.One battle over turf led to the killing two years ago of Northern High School quarterback Rocco Cash, who was allegedly shot by rival gang members who mistook him for a Nickel Boys enforcer.

IT'S TIME to wake up, Baltimore, and learn from the vibrant U.S. cities that have turned the corner on street violence. As long as drug dealers rule our corners, all city efforts to improve schools and create jobs will be for naught.New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and some other cities are boasting significant decreases in their homicide rates. Even Washington, Philadelphia and New Orleans are now making substantial progress with zero-tolerance policing. In fact, virtually every major city has mustered the public will and know-how to reduce violent crime.

Saying he was "absolutely tortured" by the case, a federal judge has acquitted three men accused of being Eastern Shore drug dealers, ruling the government did not prove that they were involved in the conspiracy with which they were charged.Although U.S. District Chief Judge J. Frederick Motz said he was not "suggesting prosecutorial abuse," he expressed concern about the government's growing use of conspiracy statutes, which allow evidence that would not be allowed in other criminal cases.

BALTIMORE -- Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties are among 10 school districts in the state sharing $35,000 in grants to help improve nutrition education and the eating habits of students.The grants were awarded as part of the Healthy School Meals, Healthy Children program, a joint project of the State Department of Education and the Maryland Cooperative Extension Service.Appeals court limits length of police traffic stopsANNAPOLISANNAPOLIS -- Police cannot detain a motorist they stop for a minor traffic violation -- even though they are watching him for suspected drug dealing -- longer than necessary to handle the traffic violation, the Court of Special Appeals ruled yesterday.

John Baumgarten and his two sons have been sentenced to lengthy federal prison terms for running a giant cocaine ring out of their Severna Park barbershop, prosecutors said.The Baumgarten organization sold more than 60 pounds of cocaine and instilled fear throughout Cape St. Claire, where the Baumgartens lived."We're especially pleased at the lengthy sentences because these prosecutions had a significant impact on the community in Anne Arundel County," said Lynne A. Battaglia, the U.S. attorney for Maryland.

Fewer signs of drug dealing, at least in public. Fewer fights breaking out on the street. Weary-looking addicts, wandering around without a fix.Just 24 hours after police arrested 29 people -- all allegedly members of the Veronica Avenue Boys, one of Baltimore's most notorious and violent drug-trafficking organizations -- Cherry Hill looked like a different place yesterday.Not a showcase. Not without its obvious problems of poverty and drug addiction. But maybe a little more peaceful, a little less overwhelmed.

North County residents say they are pleased with the recent monthlong crackdown on crime in the area where Brooklyn Park abuts Baltimore. "It scares the willies out of everybody to begin with, knowing that we have this element roaming around our community," said Woody Bowen, president of the Olde Brooklyn Park Improvement Association. He said neighborhood residents are relieved to know that several dozen arrests were made, homes raided, and drugs and guns seized, because that will alleviate the problem for now. But residents still feel uneasy, he said, because drug trafficking is sufficiently lucrative that newcomers will take over and dealers who are arrested will have the money to post bond.

Baltimore officials want to be able to quickly intervene when they uncover drug dealing at stores and restaurants. Testifying yesterday before a Senate committee, a housing department employee said "illicit businesses" continue while the city waits more than a month to file a civil action against the property owner and its tenant - under a state law that they want repealed or revised. A House committee will hear testimony on the bill today. "What we're talking about are places that most often are just fronts for drug operations," said Robert Durocher, a city attorney with the housing department.

For weeks, police have been trying to use the city's public nuisance law to shut down Linden Bar and Liquors, a West Baltimore packaged goods store that has been the target of frequent complaints about drug dealing on the premises and was the scene of a recent fatal shooting. The difficulties authorities have had trying to padlock an establishment that has seen a rash of violent incidents over that past 24 months suggests the nuisance law is at best a very cumbersome tool. Small liquor stores, which often dominate corners in the city's poorest, most distressed neighborhoods, are magnets for trouble, from vagrancy and loitering to drug dealing and violent assaults.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III is expected to decide by Aug. 22 whether a North Avenue liquor store that authorities say is a haven for violence and drug dealing will be closed for a year. Police officials held an administrative hearing yesterday for Linden Bar and Liquors, which was notified last month that it might be closed under the city's new public nuisance law because of criminal activity in and around the store. During the hearing, police submitted into evidence nine incidents of violence and drug activity at the store, highlighting a July killing inside Linden Liquors that was recorded by the store's security camera.

Sealed off from the violence of East Baltimore by hydrangea bushes and a brick wall, the grotto at St. Frances Academy is a peaceful oasis for prayer and contemplation. At least, it used to be. Drug dealers in the academy's troubled neighborhood have invaded the school grounds, selling their product on the sidewalk in front of the Catholic high school and hiding their stashes in the grotto, next to the statue of the Virgin Mary. Teachers and students have seen the dealers shuttling between the street and the grotto during school hours.

Sealed off from the violence of East Baltimore by hydrangea bushes and a brick wall, the grotto at St. Frances Academy is a peaceful oasis for prayer and contemplation. At least, it used to be. Drug dealers in the academy's troubled neighborhood have invaded the school grounds, selling their product on the sidewalk in front of the Catholic high school and hiding their stashes in the grotto, next to the statue of the Virgin Mary. Teachers and students have seen the dealers shuttling between the street and the grotto during school hours.

The four pit bulls were kept in a cramped backyard and tethered with heavy chains. As animal enforcement officer Ricky Martin approached the yard, the dogs barked and growled. Two of them had open wounds, evidence, Martin said, that they had been used in an organized dogfight. He also noted smears of dried blood inside the dogs' shelters. It was not the first time authorities had visited the East Baltimore rowhouse. Police raided it in May and found seven dogs, including four puppies, and a gun. They suspect that the vacant rowhouse is being used to shelter fighting dogs and that those responsible are involved in other illegal activities.

The Watchdog column debuted in October to showcase everyday problems that people have trouble getting fixed. It has, in a short time, gotten broken light poles repaired, a dead tree cut down, an inoperable fire hydrant replaced and, when trash accumulated at a bus stop on Northern Parkway, led to the installation of not one new garbage can but three. Readers have responded with more than 200 e-mails, telephone calls and letters, some with photographs. People are angry about crime, leaking water pipes, messy yards, fast drivers, slow drivers, cracked sidewalks and streetlights with burned-out bulbs.

As a Baltimore city councilman in the 1990s, Martin O'Malley railed against the Police Department's failures to effectively combat a brazen drug trade that was fueling more than 300 homicides annually. When he ran for mayor in 1999, O'Malley promised to make crime-fighting his top priority. His victory gave him the mandate to launch a controversial, zero-tolerance approach to drug corners, to revamp the Police Department's inner workings and to boldly pledge that murders would be reduced to 175 a year.

Dealer tied to officers gets 18-month term The Baltimore drug dealer who once assisted two corrupt police officers and then turned against them in federal court will spend less than 18 months in prison for his role, a judge ruled yesterday. Antonio Mosby, 40, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for conspiracy to distribute heroin. He had earlier entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors in return for his testimony against former police officers William King and Antonio Murray. At the officers' trial last spring, prosecutors presented evidence that Mosby conspired with King and Murray to distribute heroin.