Gambrills

Military order to honor Fort Meade commanderThe Military Order of the World Wars will honor the outgoing garrison commander of Fort Meade, Col. Kent D. Menser, with its highest award on June 19.Colonel Menser, who is retiring at the end of the month, will receive the Military Gold Patrick Henry Award from the national organization that represents 20,000 people.Handing out the award will be Capt. Wendell Philips, a retired Naval reserve officer who lives in Harwood and who will become the new general commander of the organization.

A Gambrills man yesterday admitted choking and raping a 19-year-old woman last August in a Crofton parking lot.Abner David Stevens pleaded guilty in county Circuit Court to first-degree rape in return for a prosecutor's promise to recommend a sentence of not more than 25years in prison. First-degree rape carries a maximum penalty of lifein prison.Stevens, 31, of the 140 block of Jackson Street, was arrested in February after DNA tests linked him to the Aug. 18, 1990, rape of a Pizza Hut employee, Assistant State's Attorney Ronald M. Naditch said.

A black resident of Queen Mitchell Road in Gambrills found racist and other "vulgar" language spray-painted yesterday on his car, house and sidewalk, Anne Arundel County police said. The vandals also threw eggs on David Queen's property, police said. No other area residents reported similar vandalism yesterday, said police, who are investigating the incident. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 410-222-6155.

The state medical examiner's office has positively identified remains found by Anne Arundel County police last week as those of missing Gambrills teen-ager Joseph Aaron Demarest. The skeletal remains were found Jan. 8 in a wooded area at the end of Conway Road in Wilson Town, about 12 miles from Demarest's home on Red Fall Lane. Christopher Allen Bolen, 23, of Gambrills and Stefan Tyson Bell, 25, of Waldorf are charged with murder in the case. Both are being held without bail. Detectives from Anne Arundel County's cold-case squad began reinvestigating the case in early 2001.