Extortion

On a recent crossing from Mexico back to the U.S., I was stopped for an alleged traffic infraction in Tijuana. The police ended up taking me to an ATM, where I withdrew $500 in cash. Then they let me go. What could I have done? This situation is maddening at best and frightening at worst, and it is one of the dirty little secrets of travel. Extortion of visitors happens more often than is reported. It's not confined to Mexico, of course, but because so many U.S. residents cross the Mexican border so often, whether to enjoy Baja's beaches or to shop, we might get our turn on the horns of this dilemma.

Lawyers for former state Sen. Larry Young won a key victory yesterday as an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge issued a ruling sharply limiting the testimony of state officials in the bribery and extortion trial of the West Baltimore Democrat.Judge Joseph F. Manck ruled that state prosecutors could not question state officials about Young's vote on a change in regulations that was crucial to the survival of the health care firm the former legislator has been accused of extorting money from.

In a potentially damaging blow to the prosecution, an Anne Arundel County circuit judge threw out the four extortion charges against former state Sen. Larry Young yesterday but left it for a jury to decide five remaining counts of bribery and tax evasion."

Former state Sen. Larry Young, once one of Maryland's most powerful and promising politicians, was charged in a nine-count bribery and extortion indictment yesterday with using his office to shake down a pair of minority-owned health care companies for more than $72,000.The indictment was handed up by an Anne Arundel grand jury after a yearlong investigation by State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli that included testimony from dozens of witnesses, including the last-minute appearance yesterday of the governor's chief of staff, Major F. Riddick Jr.The charges against Young are the latest development in a scandal that resulted in his ouster from the Senate, the first such expulsion in more than two centuries in Maryland.

Endorsing Rehrmann for governor means getting Sauerbrey. The question is why.Bill intervened to bring an Irish settlement. Tony Blair retaliates by meddling in the Middle East.A Chicago jury found that extortion and threats are wrong even when the perpetrators' hearts are pure. Oh, those Chicago juries.Be patriotic. Drink a keg for the Whitbread sailors.Pub Date: 4/22/98

The former director of a state loan program pleaded guilty to extortion in federal court yesterday for taking $60,000 in bribes to help two Maryland businesses obtain financing.Marie V. Torres, 48, who was director of the Export Finance Program of the Maryland Industrial Development Financing Authority, could get up to 20 years in prison. She is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 3.Torres was employed by the authority from 1988 until she resigned in March.Prosecutors said Torres was in a position to help businesses get financial assistance.

A New York man who is alleged to have threatened to "whack" two Baltimore County builders and their families after a dispute over money has been arrested and was awaiting extradition to Maryland yesterday, the FBI said.The FBI charged Gene Rose, 31, of Saugerties, N.Y., on Thursday with threatening the builders and demanding $25,000 in exchange for not hurting their families.Rose was arrested in Woodstock, N.Y., after being stopped by police for traffic warrants.He worked for Brian Neal Horton, 31, a drywall subcontractor arrested last month on suspicion of making the threatening calls, according to an FBI affidavit.

A New York man who is alleged to have threatened to "whack" two Baltimore County builders and their families after a dispute over money has been arrested and was awaiting extradition to Maryland yesterday, the FBI said.The FBI charged Gene Rose, 31, of Saugerties, N.Y., on Thursday with threatening the builders and demanding $25,000 in exchange for not hurting their families.Rose was arrested in Woodstock, N.Y., after being stopped by police for traffic warrants.He worked for Brian Neal Horton, 31, a drywall subcontractor arrested last month on suspicion of making the threatening calls, according to an FBI affidavit.

A New York state man who is alleged to have threatened to "whack" two Baltimore County builders and their families after a dispute over money has been arrested and was awaiting extradition to Maryland yesterday, the FBI said.The FBI charged Gene Rose, 31, of Saugerties, N.Y., on Thursday with threatening the builders and demanding $25,000 in exchange for not hurting their families.Rose was arrested in Woodstock, N.Y., after being stopped by police for traffic warrants.He worked for Brian Neal Horton, 31, a Tennessee drywall subcontractor arrested last month on suspicion of making the threatening calls, according to an FBI affidavit.

A former Anne Arundel County police officer has asked to have an extortion conviction on his record cleared to start a new life.Gregory W. Overstreet, 34, was a decorated nine-year veteran known as "Robocop" for his zealous pursuit of drug dealers and drunken drivers when he was convicted in 1994 of extortion -- admitting he tried to extort $500 from a Pasadena man he accused of fondling himself in Queenstown Park.Since then, Overstreet has been under house arrest and served jail time, sold his Harwood home and a landscaping business and moved out of state to escape the stigma of his crime.

Talk-show host David Letterman said Thursday that he was the victim of a $2 million extortion attempt related to his sexual relationships with staff members on CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman." During a taping for Thursday night's broadcast, Letterman told viewers that three weeks ago, he was approached by a person who claimed to have information about the host's affairs with female staff members. This person, Letterman said, threatened to expose the relationships unless payment of $2 million was received.

So much for the sly swindlers we've come to know and hate: A new phishing scam making the rounds in Maryland skips the grifting and goes straight to extortion. According to the Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland, the scamster claims in e-mails written in something less than the King's English to be a hired assassin. Here's an excerpt from one such e-mail, according to the bureau: "Someone you call a friend wants you Dead by all means, and the person have spent a lot of money on this, the person also came to us and told me that he wanted you dead and he provided us with your name, picture and other necessary information's we needed about you. Now do you want to LIVE OR DIE?

On a recent crossing from Mexico back to the U.S., I was stopped for an alleged traffic infraction in Tijuana. The police ended up taking me to an ATM, where I withdrew $500 in cash. Then they let me go. What could I have done? This situation is maddening at best and frightening at worst, and it is one of the dirty little secrets of travel. Extortion of visitors happens more often than is reported. It's not confined to Mexico, of course, but because so many U.S. residents cross the Mexican border so often, whether to enjoy Baja's beaches or to shop, we might get our turn on the horns of this dilemma.

A former state investigator of the massage parlor industry has been charged with extortion, according to a two-count federal indictment unsealed yesterday. Paul E. Murphy, 55, of Bel Air was arrested by the FBI on Friday. Later that day, Murphy made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. No date for his arraignment has been set, said his attorney, Gerald C. Ruter. The FBI and the U.S. attorney's office declined to provide details about the extortion allegations lodged against Murphy.

A Hyattsville man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Greenbelt to more than three years in prison after he admitted he kept a stash of hand grenades and ingredients for a powerful poison in his home while he threatened a business competitor. Myron Tereshchuk, 43, could have received a maximum of 15 years in prison when he appeared before U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus. Tereshchuk had pleaded guilty in June to extortion for attempting to force a business competitor to pay him $17 million.

A former Baltimore Development Corp. official convicted of extorting $2,500 from a local businessman said yesterday that he asked for the money out of desperation as he tried to reunite his family and move into a new house. Terry P. Dean, 47, said he sought help from businessmen with whom he had worked on economic development deals in the city because he needed cash to cover the settlement costs on the home he planned to buy with his wife as they worked to repair their relationship after a two-year separation.

A federal jury convicted a former Baltimore Development Corp. official yesterday of extorting $2,500 from a local businessman, a transaction secretly recorded by the FBI. Terry P. Dean, 47, who was fired a year ago from his job as a senior BDC economic development officer, also had been charged with soliciting another $2,500 payment from a second businessman. There was no recording of that alleged transaction, however, and jurors acquitted Dean of charges relating to it. Chief U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg scheduled sentencing in Dean's case for May 30. Defense attorney Kenneth W. Ravenell said he would appeal the verdict.

Federal prosecutors told a jury yesterday that a former Baltimore Development Corp. official extorted $5,000 from two businessmen, while his attorney said the requests for money were "stupid" but not criminal. Terry P. Dean, 47, is on trial in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, charged with soliciting $2,500 from each man to help defray the closing costs on a home in Forest Park. Both businessmen were involved in revitalization projects Dean helped to shepherd at BDC. "The defendant in this case did not use a gun or a knife to commit the crime," Assistant U.S. Attorney Dale P. Kelberman said in his opening statement.

Investigators brought new charges yesterday -- including first-degree murder -- against the man accused of killing 8-year-old Marciana Monia Ringo, as federal, state and local authorities continued to search for him. On its Web site, the FBI listed a description of 22-year-old Jamal Kenneth Abeokuto of the 5200 block of W. North Ave. in Baltimore. He faces federal extortion charges, as well as new state charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and extortion. Milagro White, his former girlfriend and Marciana's mother, tried yesterday to cope with her loss.

As authorities in Arizona investigated a potentially new piece of the deadly cross-country puzzle left by the Washington-area snipers, a lawyer for one of the suspects said yesterday that the U.S. government has alleged a "crackpot extortion scheme" as a way to force the impending serial killings trial into federal court. Police in Tucson, Ariz., were re-examining the March 19 killing of a food salesman shot while practicing chip shots at a local golf course. FBI officials notified Tucson authorities that John Allen Muhammad, 41, and Lee Boyd Malvo, 17, were in the area at the time, visiting Muhammad's sister.