Gang

A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people - including 13 women working as corrections officers - who face racketeering and drug charges. Twenty of the accused also face money-laundering charges.

Amid the unfolding jail scandal in Baltimore right now, there are two things relevant to the gay community that I want to bring up. I'm not sure if there are any connections between the two, or if one affects the other. But viewed together, they do present some interesting questions. First: Non-heterosexual inmates in jails and prisons across the country reported a far greater degree of sexual victimization in the last two years than their straight counterparts, according to a study released by the U.S. Department of Justice last week.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts says that the Black Guerrilla Family gang is spurring much of the recent violence in the city as it tries to expand its reach.  Batts, who recently took over as commissioner after working 30 years on the West Coast, asked his commanders to draw up "conflict diagrams" so he could better understand the web of connections driving crime in Baltimore.  He said those diagrams showed that the Black Guerrilla...

As the alleged leader of the Black Guerrilla Family gang at the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal prosecutors say, Tavon White could get access to pretty much whatever he wanted: drugs, phones, money and sex. He is now being held under more straitened circumstances at a state prison in Cumberland, according to his attorney, who is asking a judge to reconsider the conditions of his detention. "The totality of his belongings were as follows: A jump suit, one pair of underwear, shower sandals, a sheet for the bed. Period," the lawyer, Gary E. Proctor, wrote in a court filing.

Recognizing Baltimore's feuding gangs should be easy: Red for Bloods. Blue for Crips. But it's no longer as simple as looking for different-colored bandannas hanging from the back pockets of jeans. Gang identifiers, in addition to traditional signs and tattoos, can be almost anything, manifested in wardrobes of significant variety. A blue belt. Red rosary beads. Pockets turned inside out. The 'C' in a Colorado Rockies baseball cap. The red in a Cincinnati Reds hat. There's no set uniform, according to a law enforcement expert, but there are recognized symbols that gang members incorporate into their everyday attire.

Six members of the East Baltimore Nickel Boys gang, which violently protected the lucrative crack-dealing turf it had staked out in the O'Donnell Heights public housing complex, were convicted in U.S. District Court yesterday of several counts of drug conspiracy, murder conspiracy and federal handgun charges.One battle over turf led to the killing two years ago of Northern High School quarterback Rocco Cash, who was allegedly shot by rival gang members who mistook him for a Nickel Boys enforcer.

Carroll County officials acknowledge that the county has a gang problem that has involved the Crips, the Bloods, MS-13 and Vatos Locos. Gang incidents have been largely intertwined with expanding illegal drug operations in the county during the last few years, officials said. "They're very much interrelated," said Jennifer L. Darby, a senior assistant state's attorney for the county. "Not every drug dealer is a gang member; not every gang member is a drug dealer. But they do go hand in hand."

Baltimore officials suspended more than $1 million in city funds for anti-violence programs Monday after workers at a West Baltimore community center that has received taxpayer dollars were accused of operating as a front for gang activities. Federal authorities indicted 13 people on heroin distribution charges, including at least two who were employees of Communities Organized to Improve Life Inc., or COIL, a nonprofit organization that runs adult literacy programs and other outreach services, according to court records and officials.

Baltimore Police say a recent shooting in Waverly that injured a 16-year-old girl was gang-related, and detectives have charged a 22-year-old man in the case. Derrod Miller, of the 300 block of E. 33rd St., was charged Tuesday with attempted first-degree murder in connection with the July 22 shooting. According to police, the teenage victim was walking in the 500 block of E. 35th St. with others at about 11:30 p.m. when she noticed a group of people in the south side of the block who appared to be watching them.  One of the men broke off from the group and began walking toward them, then opened fire "indiscriminately" in her direction.

Police identified a man who was shot and killed Friday afternoon in Charles Village as Donatello Fenner, a 22-year-old who has long been on law enforcement radar as a leader of a North Baltimore gang. Police found Fenner with several gunshot wounds about 4:20 p.m. in an alley in the 2600 block of N. Calvert St. Fenner was said to be a ranking member of the Young Gorilla Family gang, and that group has been linked to much of the violence recently in the Barclay neighborhood, just south of where Fenner was found wounded, according to police.

A federal grand jury indicted 18 alleged gang members on racketeering charges, including a detainee at a state-managed detention center, news that could draw more scrutiny to Maryland's beleaguered correctional system. Federal officials say the members of the Bloods, most of them operating out of Howard County, broke into houses, stole money and other items, and sold drugs, including oxycodone, ecstasy and marijuana. Eighteen Bloods members were charged with racketeering, and three others not in the gang were charged with selling drugs, federal officials said.

General Assembly leaders say a joint committee of top legislators will hear from corrections officials about alleged corruption at the Baltimore City Detention Center. The briefing, to be held in June, replaces a House Judiciary Committee hearing that had been scheduled for next week. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch announced the joint public briefing of the Legislative Policy Committee by top corrections officials in June. Alexandra Hughes, a spokeswoman for the speaker, said the exact date of the briefing is expected to be announced next week.

The Kool & the Gang concert scheduled for next month at the new Aberdeen Proving Ground Federal Credit Union Arena at Harford Community College has been canceled, an HCC spokesperson confirmed Friday. "The cancellation was by mutual consent, and we hope to work with Pyramid Entertainment to schedule a replacement concert in the near future," Nancy Dysard, HCC's director for marketing and public relations, wrote in a e-mail. The concert by the 1970s R&B group was supposed to take place on May 10. Tickets were priced between $50 and $75. Dysard said those who already bought tickets to the concert have two options.

We haven't had gangs of youth riding dirt bikes in the central business district recently, but before that it was commonplace. City Circuit Court Clerk Frank M. Conaway Sr., however, apparently doesn't think that was a problem ("Don't penalize city kids for riding dirt bikes," April 26). A year ago groups of 25 to 35 youths on dirt bikes would routinely come into downtown in the evenings and wreak havoc on residents. The noise from these vehicles, whose engines are not muffled, was astounding because it was amplified by the walls of nearby buildings.

Corrections officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center were preparing for a middle-of-the-night search of jail cells, aimed at rooting out drugs, cellphones, weapons and any other contraband inmates had stashed away. But the officers weren't the only ones getting ready. Hours before the planned checks in January, an FBI affidavit says, word reached Tavon White, an inmate who prosecutors say reigned as the jailhouse leader of a violent gang called the Black Guerrilla Family. White's alleged tipster, according to court records: a corrections officer at the jail.

State corrections secretary Gary D. Maynard ordered polygraph tests Friday of top administrators and "integrity reviews" of every employee at the Baltimore City Detention Center in an effort to root out corruption at the jail. Maynard has moved his office to the facility from Towson to oversee a review of leadership, staff and operations amid allegations that the Black Guerrilla Family gang developed broad power inside the jail, a spokesman said. More than two dozen inmates and correctional officers in the city jail are charged in a scheme that officials say involved the smuggling of drugs and other contraband, including cellphones, into the facility.

When a group of gang members, affiliates of the Bloods, discovered that one of their own had sent text messages on his cell phone "that were gay in nature," a prosecutor said, they decided to kill him. The body of Steven Parrish was found May 29, 2008, in a wooded area behind his home on Thornhurst Court in Randallstown. He had been stabbed and beaten, and a red bandana covered his face. His MP3 player, digital camera and pocket knife, items he always carried, were gone. He had turned 18 four days earlier.

Rodney Pridget and his girlfriend were unaware they were being followed as they stopped at Build-A-Bear Workshop, Nordstrom and other stores at a crowded Towson Town Center Mall six days before Christmas. But as they left the mall, a man vying to become a member of the Black Guerrilla Family gang in North Baltimore fired six shots and killed the 19-year-old Pridget, according to prosecutors. The prosecution of the men accused in the shooting has shed light on an incident that shook holiday patrons in the Baltimore County seat and illustrated how violence from a city gang dispute can spill into a busy suburban mall.

Allegations that a cabal of Black Guerrilla Family gang members effectively took over the Baltimore City Detention Center have prompted a rare out-of-session legislative hearing on the state's prison system. The House Judiciary Committee scheduled a May 8 public inquiry into the matter, according to committee members and staff.  The House Appropriations Committee, which oversees funding for the prison system, has been invited to attend the 1 p.m. meeting.  A federal indictment unsealed Tuesday alleged the BGF gang, under the leadership of inmate Tavon White, established a lucrative smuggling operation that involved corrupt female corrections officers.

A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people - including 13 women working as corrections officers - who face racketeering and drug charges. Twenty of the accused also face money-laundering charges.