False Imprisonment

The second of two bounty hunters accused of bursting into an Ellicott City apartment, taking the occupants' money and holding them there for more than two hours pleaded guilty yesterday to five counts of false imprisonment after conceding that he made a "mistake" and stayed "too long." "It definitely was a mistake, and because of that, that's why I'm in the situation I'm in," Everett Ambush Chambers, 27, told Howard County Circuit Judge Diane O. Leasure. Noting prosecutors' belief that Chambers, of the 4400 block of Mary Ave., was "less culpable" than his co-defendant, Darnell Anthony Brown, 30, Leasure sentenced Chambers to 18 months in jail, suspending all but the month and a half he served while the case was pending, and placed him on two years' unsupervised probation.

Anne Arundel police have charged a teenager as an adult and are looking for four others in connection with a home invasion in Glen Burnie Tuesday. Terance Johnson Jr., 17, of the 100 block of Henson Road in Glen Burnie, faces multiple counts of armed robbery, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment, assault and theft. The victims, who were not injured, told police that five men broke into their home in the 100 block of Southbridge Drive about 2 a.m. The suspects, who were armed and masked, ran from the home after taking money and property.

The 25-year-old woman had known William Thomas Parrish III since they were about 16 and had started seeing him romantically in December after he was released from jail. A couple of months later, Parrish was holding her against her will in a modest brick home owned by his grandfather in Finksburg, according to court documents. By the time she managed to escape, the woman says, Parrish had beaten, burned and assaulted her, gagged her with socks and tattooed her with his name. Parrish was arrested Saturday after authorities searched the house and is facing charges of first- and second-degree assault, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment and malicious destruction of property, police said.

A 22-year-old Baltimore County woman was locked for nearly nine months inside a Reisterstown apartment bathroom, where she was beaten and starved. On Tuesday, she sat quietly in the corner of a courtroom and listened as her captors were sentenced. Germaine A. Smith-Bey, 31, and, Kimberly Stacy King, 39, were sentenced in Baltimore County Circuit Court for their role in keeping the woman, now 25, tied up for months in their apartment on Brookebury Drive, where she became emaciated and suffered injuries that covered her body.

Gary C. Cronin, the Manchester man jailed overnight in August because he showed up in court $8.50 short to pay a fine and costs stemming from a parking ticket, is suing the state for $500,000.In a three-count negligence and false imprisonment lawsuit filed Friday in Carroll Circuit Court, Mr. Cronin, 28, says he "was subjected to the extreme humiliation of being photographed, fingerprinted, searched, re-searched and strip-searched" because of Carroll District Judge Donald M. Smith's decision to put him in jail rather than give him eight more days to pay $15 in court costs.

A Texas woman was arrested over the weekend on charges including child abuse after her 8-year-old autistic son was found wandering alone in her room at a downtown Baltimore hotel with his hands bound behind his back, city authorities said. The mother - identified as Crinne Bohanon, 41, of the Dallas suburb of Allen - was being held without bail at Central Booking and Intake Center on charges of second-degree assault, child abuse, reckless endangerment, leaving a child unattended and false imprisonment, said Margaret T. Burns, spokeswoman for the city state's attorney's office.

Eliyahu Werdesheim, one of two brothers accused of assaulting a teenager in Northwest Baltimore, was convicted Thursday of false imprisonment and second-degree assault, in a case that has sparked neighborhood tensions and raised questions about a community patrol group. The second brother, Avi Werdesheim, was cleared of all charges. Eliyahu, 24, and Avi, 22, each had been charged with second-degree assault, false imprisonment and carrying a deadly weapon — a walkie-talkie issued by the neighborhood watch group Shomrim — with the intent to injure Corey Ausby, who was 15 at the time.

CARROLL COUNTY FINKSBURG Man indicted in imprisonment case A Reisterstown man accused of holding a woman against her will for more than a month in a Finksburg home was indicted by a grand jury on more than three dozen charges, including assault and reckless endangerment, according to court documents. William Thomas Parrish III, 25, was indicted on 39 counts last week, said David Daggett, Carroll County deputy state?s attorney. The charges include first- and second-degree rape, first- and second-degree assault, false imprisonment and sodomy.

Anne Arundel police have charged a teenager as an adult and are looking for four others in connection with a home invasion in Glen Burnie Tuesday. Terance Johnson Jr., 17, of the 100 block of Henson Road in Glen Burnie, faces multiple counts of armed robbery, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment, assault and theft. The victims, who were not injured, told police that five men broke into their home in the 100 block of Southbridge Drive about 2 a.m. The suspects, who were armed and masked, ran from the home after taking money and property.

A 21-year-old man who pleaded guilty last month to assaulting a law enforcement officer, false imprisonment and escape was sentenced yesterday in Baltimore District Court to four years in prison. Rodney M. Bethea admitted that he took a civilian police employee hostage in April at the Northeastern District station in Baltimore, where he was being interviewed after an arrest on a charge of marijuana possession. Yesterday in court, the employee submitted an impact statement that was reviewed by The Sun. In it, she describes the fear she felt and how the attack has made her tense and anxious.

Eliyahu Werdesheim, one of two brothers accused of assaulting a teenager in Northwest Baltimore, was convicted Thursday of false imprisonment and second-degree assault, in a case that has sparked neighborhood tensions and raised questions about a community patrol group. The second brother, Avi Werdesheim, was cleared of all charges. Eliyahu, 24, and Avi, 22, each had been charged with second-degree assault, false imprisonment and carrying a deadly weapon — a walkie-talkie issued by the neighborhood watch group Shomrim — with the intent to injure Corey Ausby, who was 15 at the time.

Two men were given life sentences Tuesday for their roles in the May 2010 kidnapping and rape of a woman who was stranded in downtown Baltimore and seeking help, prosecutors said. Jerome Lee, 29, and Jamal Richards, 28, were convicted by Baltimore juries in November. On May 22, 2010, the men were driving when they saw a woman on North Eutaw Street seeking assistance and they offered to drive her home, according to a statement from the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office.

A convicted sex offender who was cleared by a jury of rape charges in September has been linked through DNA to two other rapes, including a November attack on a woman in her Reservoir Hill home, court records show. Nelson Bernard Clifford of the 800 block of Brooks Lane was charged Dec. 6 with raping a woman at knifepoint after breaking into her home while she was sleeping about 9 p.m. Nov. 12, according to charging documents. Police say he blindfolded her, bound her hands and threatened to slash her face.

If the city's most outspoken activists gave Gregg Bernstein a honeymoon period after being sworn in earlier this month as Baltimore's new top prosecutor, it appears to be over. Two groups of loosely affiliated community organizations and special interests protested on opposite sides of the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse on Monday, accusing Bernstein of being tight-lipped on a racially charged assault case and criticizing his "unholy" alliance with the Police Department. On the west side of the courthouse, protesters formed a picket line, calling the shooting of Officer William H. Torbit Jr. a murder and carrying signs with such incendiary slogans as "Arrogant Racist State's Attorney.

The brother of a man charged with assaulting a black teenager while a member of a Jewish neighborhood patrol group has now been charged in the same incident, the city state's attorney's office announced Friday. Avi Werdesheim, 20, faces the same charges as his brother, Eliyalu Eliezer Werdesheim, 23, in the November 19 incident in Northwest Baltimore, according to a news release from the state's attorney's office. Eliyalu Eliezer Werdesheim was charged on January 20. State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein said in a statement that the new charges are the result of a continuing investigation.

With matching jackets and radios and a hotline staffed around the clock, members of an Orthodox Jewish citizen patrol group in Northwest Baltimore view themselves as a necessary complement to city police to keep their neighborhood safe. But one member may have recently taken the role too far. On Tuesday, a participant in the Shomrim patrol organization was arrested after allegedly striking a 15-year-old boy and telling him, "You don't belong around here. " Police arrested 23-year-old Eliyahu Eliezer Werdesheim, a former Israeli special forces soldier, and charged him with first-degree assault, reckless endangerment and false imprisonment in a Nov. 19 incident in the 3300 block of Fallstaff Road.

A 22-year-old Sykesville man has been charged with theft, a weapons violation and two counts each of rape, false imprisonment and battery, in connection with the Westminster woman he was living with.Craig Collins, of the 5700 block of Hodges Road, was arrested Wednesday and held on $20,000 bond following a bail review hearing in district court.Mr. Collins is charged with holding the 23-year-old woman in her apartment for five hours on Aug. 12, where he allegedly attempted to rape her at knifepoint.

Two Harford men convicted in Harford Circuit Court for raping a pregnant 19-year-old Havre de Grace woman were each sentenced to 20 yearsin prison Tuesday.Richard L. Wallace, of Aberdeen, and Christopher U. Eley, of Havre de Grace, were given the sentences after their motions for new trials were denied.Eley, 21, was convicted of first-degree rape, assault with intentto rape, battery, assault and false imprisonment following a March 8trial.Wallace, 21, was convicted of first-degree rape, assault with intent to rape, assault, assault and battery and false imprisonment after a April 9 trial.

A 22-year-old woman was held against her will and brutally abused for as long as nine months before being dropped off, critically injured, at a Baltimore County hospital, police confirmed Thursday. Two people have been arrested in the case and charged with attempted murder, assault and false imprisonment. The victim, who has a year-old child, remains in critical condition at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, according to police. Police said that Germaine A. Smith-Bey, 29, and his girlfriend, Kimberly Stacy King, 37, kept the woman tied up in a bathroom in their apartment on Brookebury Drive in Reisterstown and released her bindings only when she would scream that she needed to relieve herself.

The three Baltimore police officers accused of dumping a West Baltimore teen in a Howard County park last year with no shoes or a cell phone turned themselves in Wednesday and were being held as of late afternoon on six-figure bails. Tyrone Francis, 29, Gregory Hellen, 30, and Milton G. Smith III, 32, were indicted by a city grand jury on charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment, second-degree assault and misconduct in office Tuesday. On May 4, 2009, a teen said the officers pulled him into a police van and drove him into Patapsco State Park in Ellicott City, snapping his cell phone and leaving him there without shoes.