Family Man

The family of Kent Leonard Cullison has filed a $20 million lawsuit against suspect Smith Harper Dean III and the estate of Sharon Lee Mechalske, Dean's former girlfriend.Cullison, 30, and Mechalske, 38, were shotgunned to death at her Hampstead home June 14, 1997. Dean, 39, was arrested in the front yard moments after a 911 dispatcher reported hearing gunshots as Mechalske frantically called for help.The civil lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Carroll County Circuit Court on behalf of Nancy L. Cullison, the mother and personal representative of her son's estate.

Neighbors and acquaintances of John R. Sierra all seem to remember him the same way, although few really talked to him: He was a quiet family man who seemed preoccupied.Sierra, 39, of the 9800 block of Old Annapolis Road in Ellicott City was fatally shot about 1: 30 p.m. Tuesday in front of a liquor store after wielding a knife at Howard County Police Sgt. A. J. Bellido de Luna and refusing to comply with the officer's repeated orders to drop it.Bellido de Luna shot Sierra once in the chest from about 10 feet away, police said.

Todd Bozeman adored his older brother Danny. It was Danny who taught him to swim, drive and do all the stuff a younger sibling ought to know. When Todd needed money, Danny gave him a buck. When Todd got into scrapes, Danny had his back. When Danny died at 55 in 2007, he left behind an orphaned teenage son, Okoye. Todd knew right away that he would look after the 15-year-old just as Danny had once watched over him. "If something happens to me, Bony, I want you to raise Okoye," Danny had said.

A state arbitration panel has awarded $1.6 million to the family of a 38-year-old South Baltimore man who died of a heart attack shortly after an emergency room doctor told him he had an upset stomach and sent him home, a lawyer for the family said.Lawrence Henry Korb Sr., a bottled water deliveryman who worked in Frederick, went to the emergency room at Frederick Memorial Hospital on Aug. 1, 1989, complaining of chest pains, said Joanne L. Suder, the lawyer.The physician who treated Mr. Korb ordered an electrocardiogram, consulted by phone with Mr. Korb's physicians and then sent the patient home, Ms. Suder said.

The nephew of an elderly Waverly woman went on trial in her killing yesterday, with prosecutors painting him as a traitor willing to see his family robbed so he could feed a drug habit.Danny Paul McGee, 40, of Parkville -- even though he wasn't at the scene -- was as responsible as if he had pulled the trigger of the gun that killed his aunt, prosecutor Denise Fili told a Baltimore Circuit Court jury during opening statements yesterday."More horrible than her gruesome murder is the fact of her betrayal," Ms. Fili said.

With the church pews crowded and the widow singing a hymn, friends and relatives of Michael C. Hargrove mourned the loss of the father of three young girls, who was struck down by an errant bullet while he stood at his apartment window last week. The emotional funeral at Full Gospel Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ was marked by pastors and friends trying to answer one question: Why did such an innocent person die? "We are left without answers," Bishop Jonathan D. Wallace said in his eulogy, urging the congregation not to lose faith in God. City police said yesterday that they were questioning witnesses but had no suspects and knew of no motive in the fatal shootings of Hargrove and Kevin A. Pearson.

The family of a Baltimore man killed when a trench collapsed on him in Ellicott City three years ago has sued his former employer, saying the company did not take steps to prevent the cave-in.The wife and five children of Robert Eugene Jones seek $15 million in damages from T. M. Moylan Plumbing & Heating Inc. of Catonsville, court records say.Mr. Jones died Sept. 15, 1989, when a deep trench in which he was working caved in, burying him under tons of dirt and debris, the suit says. He was 40 years old.The trench was dug for water and sewer lines that were being installed for a new housing development in the 2900 block of Timber Trails Court in Ellicott City.

As Baltimore County police investigate the death of Philip E. Wheeler four days after his arrival at the county detention center, members of his family are raising questions about the medical treatment he received. Wheeler, 44, of Baltimore, collapsed inside a cell in the jail's medical unit the evening of Dec. 29. He had been transferred to the medical area that day. But his wife and son said they have heard that Wheeler was sick for days, and that he may not have been promptly treated by corrections officers or the medical workers under contract to provide health care at the jail.

The family of a Hampstead man who was shot to death by hi lover's husband two years ago is suing the killer for $1 million in Carroll Circuit Court.In papers filed late Monday, Steven Edgar Rupp's mother, former wife, and two teen-age children are seeking damages from Charles Albert Rhodes, who is serving 15 years in state prison after pleading guilty to killing Mr. Rupp on April 6, 1991.The killer's wife and Mr. Rupp's lover, Dorothy Jeanne Rhodes, also is named as a defendant in the three-count suit.

The family of Antonio Carlos Towns, the owner of a West Baltimore barbershop who was shot to death in Towson after a high speed auto chase, has filed a $20 million negligence claim against the state of Maryland, the state police and the two troopers involved in the incident.But an attorney representing Mr. Towns' parents, his 3-year-old daughter and the child's mother, Jacqueline Day, said a cash settlement will not erase his clients' grief."In our system of justice, the only thing available to Tony's family, and this child specifically, are money damages," said attorney Terry S. Lavenstein.