Federal Prison

Man found dead in Canton fire identified A man whose body was found in a burning Canton rowhouse on Feb. 20 has been identified as the dwelling's owner, but the cause of death remains under investigation, a city Fire Department spokesman said yesterday. Shortly after firefighters gained control of the early-morning fire that heavily damaged all three floors of the debris-filled house in the 3000 block of Elliott St., they found the body of James W. Flanagan, about 60, in a bed on the second floor, said the spokesman, Chief Kevin Cartwright.

In the warm, comfortable living room of Jonah House, the "community of conscience" he calls home, 75-year-old Philip Berrigan greets a visitor, then settles back into a rocking chair. He looks for all the world like a fellow ready to simply sit and rock and whittle. He's not.Berrigan has spent half a lifetime fighting for what he calls "peace and justice." He's preached, protested, demonstrated and been arrested in myriad actions against war and nuclear weapons. He has no plans to stop now. Barely five months off a two-year prison stretch he did for an anti-war protest, what Berrigan wants to talk about this day is a demonstration that could land him right back in the federal pen.In the morning, he'll be out in front of a federal office building, protesting on behalf of members of the Jonah House community who have been barred from returning home by the federal probation system.

The case of a Baltimore drug lord who ordered executions from federal prison is a prime example of how inmates have run deadly criminal enterprises with unfettered access to telephones, a government inquiry has concluded.The Inspector General's Office, an investigative arm of the U.S. Justice Department, accused the Bureau of Prisons of "taking insufficient steps to address this abuse" despite being aware of widespread problems for years."A significant number of federal inmates use prison telephones to commit serious crimes while incarcerated, including murder, drug trafficking and fraud," Inspector General Michael R. Bromwich concluded.

Standing behind more than 50 sawed-off shotguns, submachine guns and high-caliber handguns seized in the Baltimore area, local and federal authorities said yesterday they are looking to send a message to armed criminals."

In one of the harshest white-collar sentences in Maryland history, international swindler Martin Bramson was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison yesterday for masterminding a huge insurance fraud and money-laundering scheme that reached around the globe.Bramson, 52, a one-time fugitive from Columbia who opened a bar in Mexico while on the run, appeared calm and relaxed as Chief U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz ordered him to federal prison."You're younger than I am. You will still have a lot of years left after your sentence," said Motz, who will allow 2 1/2 years of prison time that Bramson served in overseas jails to count toward his sentence.

Brian H. Davis, a former trucking executive whose hefty campaign contributions made him a high roller in Maryland politics, was sentenced yesterday to a year in prison for violating state election laws.In a brief hearing in Baltimore County District Court, Davis, 42, admitted to making thousands of dollars in campaign contributions under false names and to twice exceeding the state's $10,000 limit on contributions during a four-year election cycle.Under the terms of a prearranged plea agreement, Davis received three consecutive one-year prison sentences, with all but one year suspended.

Globe-trotting con man Martin Bramson, the mastermind in one of America's largest insurance fraud schemes, pleaded guilty yesterday to swindling more than $12 million from thousands of doctors and laundering the money in 588 banks around the world.The guilty plea ends one phase of the case against Bramson, a Maryland fugitive who was chased throughout Europe, Mexico and the Caribbean by Interpol before being tracked down in the tiny principality of Liechtenstein. But the hunt continues for millions more that he may have stashed in foreign bank accounts.

I was editorial page editor of the New York Daily News when in January 1985, Mario Cuomo named Sol Wachtler Chief Judge of the State of New York - a job that combines that of chief executive of a $1 billion statewide unified court system with chief magistrate of the state's appellate court of last resort. Powers both behind and in thrones of influence in the state and the land insisted that Wachtler, a moderate Republican, was destined to be governor, vice presidential candidate, U.S. Supreme Court justice, or all three, seriatim.

A pedophile who mailed child pornography to a Baltimore County teen before the teen, his brother and his father committed suicide could, if convicted, receive another three years behind bars on top of the 10-year term he is already serving, court records show.A Baltimore judge has issued an arrest warrant for Peter Dudley Albertsen II, 35, ordering him to return from federal prison in North Carolina to face charges that he violated his probation in the years after he pleaded guilty in 1990 to sexually molesting Justin Wilke.

FRACKVILLE, Pa. -- In the 1950s, Charles Brayford's walk home from school took him past one of the humming textile mills in this tiny Schuylkill County borough. There, he'd see 40 or 50 men who, having lost their jobs when the coal mines closed, were waiting to pick up their wives.By the early '80s, most of the textile industry had vanished, too. Younger people either moved away or commuted long hours to work in Harrisburg or Allentown.Now that sad slide into hard times seems, in the mid-'90s, to be over.

We've all seen it on TV: A criminal is convicted and immediately led out of the courtroom, usually in handcuffs, and on to prison. That's the way the justice system works, right? Not always. When it comes to white-collar crime, federal judges and even prosecutors can seem a little soft on sentencing and detention, allowing convicted criminals relatively liberal latitude in when they begin serving time. In some cases, it can take months before a criminal is made to report for prison. Last year, a Baltimore woman was sentenced to prison time for fixing stock-option prices but permitted to stay free for months so she could spend Easter with her family.

A spokesman for Michael S. Steele defended the new Republican National Committee chairman yesterday against claims by a convicted felon that Steele misused campaign funds from his 2006 Senate bid. Curt Anderson, a political consultant and Steele spokesman, said the allegations had been "fabricated" by Steele's former campaign finance chairman, who was seeking a more lenient sentence in an unrelated criminal case. The Washington Post outlined the accusations in yesterday's editions, including a claim that Steele's campaign paid money to a company owned by his sister for services never performed, and the improper use of tens of thousands more in campaign money.

MVA employee indicted in illegal IDs production A federal grand jury yesterday indicted a Motor Vehicle Administration employee on charges that she illegally produced and transferred multiple Maryland driver's licenses for profit while she worked at the Glen Burnie branch. If convicted, Tenisha Byrd, who lives in Edgewood, faces a maximum of 15 years in federal prison. According to the indictment, the 25-year-old scanned in other people's driver test results when making the phony documents, which she exchanged for cash and unidentified "services."

Unless we learn that Michael Vick's sordid dogfighting past isn't in the past, I don't see how the NFL can keep him off its character-stained fields. And if Vick gets into someone's training camp in July after he receives an early release from federal prison, he'll be there in September, or October, or November. Two reasons: supply and demand. If he walked out of prison today, he would be better than the starters of at least five teams who are in quarterback-crisis mode: the Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders and, oh yes, the Philadelphia Eagles.

Driver pleads guilty in fatal accident A 51-year-old East Baltimore man has pleaded guilty to failing to remain at the scene of a motor vehicle accident involving a death, according to the Baltimore state's attorney's office. Baltimore Circuit Judge Sylvestor Cox sentenced Charles Henry Alston to four years in prison after the guilty plea Thursday, prosecutors said. Alston admitted that on Sept. 24, 2006, he was driving a green minivan in the 300 block of Hilton St. when he swerved off the road and struck Shana Henderson, 23. Henderson had been walking on the sidewalk with a friend.

Former state Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell, who pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge last year, reported to a federal prison yesterday to begin serving a seven-year sentence, according to a Bureau of Prisons spokesman. Bromwell, a Democrat, arrived about 2 p.m. at Devens Federal Medical Center in north-central Massachusetts. It is a decommissioned military base that houses male inmates who require specialized or long-term medical care, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons Web site.

A 28-year-old Baltimore man was sentenced yesterday to more than 15 years in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a gun, according to the U.S. attorney's office. U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles Jr. sentenced Michael Martin to 188 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, according to federal prosecutors. Quarles increased Martin's sentence after determining he was an armed career criminal, based on previous drug convictions and a conviction for assault with intent to murder.

A third drug dealer convicted of distributing a brand of heroin known as "Smackdown" in West Baltimore was sentenced yesterday to 14 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Donita Moore, 29, had pleaded guilty in March to distributing heroin in a five- to eight-block area of West Baltimore bounded by Baltimore, Pratt, Gilmor and Arlington streets from 2005 through June 2007, according to federal prosecutors. Law enforcement officers raided a house in Northeast Baltimore last June and found more than 3 kilograms of heroin.

A 36-year-old Clarksburg man was sentenced yesterday to seven years and three months in federal prison for using a computer to entice a 15-year-old Anne Arundel County girl into having sex with him. After his release from prison, Michael Lawrence Manoly is to register as a sex offender and will be under federal supervision for the rest of his life, U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake determined. Prosecutors said Manoly, using the screen name "Kevin" and portraying himself as 25, began corresponding with the teenager in February 2006.

A 24-year-old man was fatally shot yesterday in West Baltimore, becoming the city's 12th homicide victim of the year, city police said. Police responding to a reported shooting about 4:30 p.m. found the man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the back at Lafayette Avenue and Payson Street, said Agent Donny Moses, a police spokesman. The man was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he died several hours later. His identity was not available, but police were searching for the shooter.