Grand Jury

Records turned over to a federal grand jury investigating municipal tax-sale auctions show that two of Maryland's largest tax-sale investors didn't bid against each other for properties during the past four years in Montgomery County. Bidding lists were among documents demanded in the subpoena, which also sought any records from 2002 to 2007 that would show whether bidders communicated with one another about what properties they would bid on and prices they would pay, or about any inducement not to bid on certain properties or not bid at all. The subpoena is part of an investigation being coordinated by the Justice Department's antitrust division in Washington.

At least the Washington Nationals will have had a memorable season in one regard. The record books will forever show that the hard-luck team had a hand in making San Francisco Giants' star Barry Bonds the home run king of baseball. Specifically, it was the left hand of pitcher Mike Bacsik Jr., who served up a 3-2 fastball Tuesday night that Mr. Bonds slammed for career homer No. 756. Mr. Bonds was going to hit it against someone, and it might as well have been that team to our south. We figure anything that makes the Nats look bad can't help but make the Orioles look a little better.

A Howard County grand jury indicted a 20-year-old Hanover man this week in the stabbing of a Columbia man who had allegedly stolen his car. On June 16, Howard County police responded to a report of a stabbing at a townhouse in the 9300 block of Indian Camp Road in Oakland Mills and found Elijah Walter Jackson, 21, with multiple wounds on his left side. Jackson was transported to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center and survived. During the investigation, Daryl Anthony Marshall told Detective Cpl. Aaron Dombrowsky that Jackson had stolen his car, according to court records.

WASHINGTON -- I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby told a federal grand jury three years ago that he did not believe he had discussed the wife of an administration critic with officials from the CIA and the State Department, contradicting sworn testimony by the officials at Libby's perjury trial here. The revelation came yesterday as prosecutors began playing audio tapes of Libby's eight hours of testimony before a federal grand jury that was investigating how the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame became public.

SUSSEX, Va. -- Michael Vick's legal woes compounded yesterday, when a Surry County grand jury indicted him and three associates on local charges related to dogfighting. About three hours after convening, the grand jury charged the suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback with one count of promoting or engaging in dogfighting, and a count of beating, killing or causing dogs to fight. Both are felonies that carry sentences of up to five years in prison and fines of up to $2,500. "We are disappointed that these charges were filed in Surry County since it is the same conduct covered by the federal indictment for which Mr. Vick has already accepted full responsibility and pled guilty to in U.S. District Court," Billy Martin, an attorney for Vick, said in a statement after the indictments were announced.

THE POT CONTINUES to boil in the unending soap opera of the Carroll County school system.The grand jury investigation is apparently completed. We hope there will be something to show soon for the secret deliberations of the 23-member panel.Now comes a longtime school system critic, former school comptroller James E. Reter, who churns up a lurid plot twist involving marital infidelity and blackmail of school officials. Mr. Reter, who was defeated in the 1998 election for the county Board of Education, wrote the grand jury offering to tell details of his affair with a co-worker and of alleged threats by the school superintendent to expose him.Mr.

A city grand jury that regularly inspects jails will be asked to review a human rights group's report that sharply criticized conditions for youths confined in Baltimore City Detention Center.Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy said she will recommend that the report by New York-based Human Rights Watch be reviewed by a new city grand jury to be impaneled in January.She disclosed those plans in a Nov. 16 letter to Jonathan M. Smith, executive director of Public Justice Center, a Baltimore advocacy group that provides legal services to the poor.

A former comptroller for the Carroll County Board of Education has volunteered to testify before a county grand jury, saying that the school board has for years "stonewalled" efforts to have a performance audit and that Superintendent William H. Hyde once tried to "blackmail" him.In a letter hand-delivered to the Carroll County state's attorney Oct. 13 with a number of supporting documents, James E. Reter, a certified public accountant who was comptroller for...

An attorney for Linda R. Tripp launched his first legal assault yesterday by filing a motion seeking to toss out the indictment of the Columbia resident on felony wiretapping charges because, he said, state prosecutors used her immunized testimony during their investigation.That motion and several others were expected, but the length and detail of the arguments highlighted the unusual nature of the high-profile case."Sometimes you see boilerplate motions," said Joseph Murtha, a Tripp attorney.

LOS ANGELES -- A unit of aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corp. is the focus of a Los Angeles federal grand jury probe of possible long-term kickbacks involving sales of defense radar systems to foreign governments, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.Lockheed disclosed in a recent SEC filing that it received a federal subpoena July 15 seeking documents relating to the sales of radar systems by its New Hampshire-based Sanders unit in 1990.Neither the company nor the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles would elaborate on Lockheed's disclosure in the Aug. 4 SEC filing.

An Anne Arundel County jury acquitted a Waldorf man Friday who prosecutors alleged had tried to erase a $400 drug debt by shooting a pregnant woman. Jerold R. Burks, 22, thanked his lawyer, weeping parents and God after the jury, which had deliberated seven hours over two days, found him not guilty of attempted murder, conspiracy and related charges. "Never for a second" did Burks' parents think he shot hairdresser Jodi Torok in the head in the foyer of her Crofton home on Oct. 27, 2008, said Darryl Burks, the defendant's father.

Baltimore County police arrested a suspect Tuesday in the killing of an Owings Mills man in August. Acting on a grand jury indictment, police arrested Gerald Edward Sears, 30, of the 2300 block of Wheatley Road, near Leakin Park in Baltimore. He is charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery and using a handgun in the commission of a felony. The body of Scott M. Greenberg, 51, was found by his ex-wife Aug. 22 in his parents' home in the 2300 block of Velvet Valley Way, where he had been living.

Talk-show host David Letterman said Thursday that he was the victim of a $2 million extortion attempt related to his sexual relationships with staff members on CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman." During a taping for Thursday night's broadcast, Letterman told viewers that three weeks ago, he was approached by a person who claimed to have information about the host's affairs with female staff members. This person, Letterman said, threatened to expose the relationships unless payment of $2 million was received.

Howard Dixon, a retired city police officer who gets paid $60,566 a year to hold the door for the mayor, is a more valuable public servant than might be imagined. Valuable to the mayor he serves, anyway, in a don't ask, don't tell kinda way. Take that day in 2004 when, state prosecutors say, Sheila Dixon handed a wad of cash - $4,000, in $100 bills - to Howard Dixon, who is paid to escort her to events and who is no relation. Prosecutors allege that then-City Council President Dixon, just back from a Chicago shopping spree with developer-boyfriend Ron Lipscomb, asked Howard Dixon to put the cash in his bank account, and then write a check to help cover her whopping American Express bill.

Defense lawyers for Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon won a legal victory Wednesday morning when a judge ordered state prosecutors to hand over two subpoenas that a grand jury had issued in the City Hall corruption probe. Circuit Judge Dennis M. Sweeney gave prosecutors two days to produce the documents, but Deputy State Prosecutor Thomas "Mike" McDonough stood in court and passed the two pieces of paper to the defense table. "Discovery has been provided," McDonough said. The mayor's lawyers had initially sought the documents to bolster their contention that prosecutors were misusing a grand jury.

Lawyers for Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon continued a legal quarrel with state prosecutors and filed new papers Tuesday aimed at forcing the state to turn over all grand jury subpoenas issued since January when the mayor was first charged with perjury and theft. Dixon attorney Dale P. Kelberman wrote in a court filing that he needs to review the subpoenas in order to prevent "possible injustice" in the case and called the state prosecutors' arguments for withholding the information "a combination of confusion, obfuscation and irrelevancy."

State prosecutors in the City Hall corruption cases defended their investigation of Baltimore's mayor, arguing they did not abuse the grand jury process when they issued three subpoenas this summer before dismissing their initial indictment of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon. Deputy State Prosecutor Thomas "Mike" McDonough contends in court papers filed Friday that new investigative material brought to a Baltimore grand jury after Dixon's original indictment in January supported the second set of indictments that were brought against Dixon in July.

A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment Thursday, charging two Baltimore men - Johnnie "JR" Butler and Calvin "Turkey" Wright - in connection with gun crimes and a murder, in addition to the drug-distribution conspiracy alleged a year ago. It's the first time Butler, 33, has been indicted for murder, though police have long suspected he was linked to at least two homicides. In June, police filed an application for statements of charges and arrest warrants against Butler and Wright, 37, alleging they tortured and killed Sintia Mesa, whose naked body was found stuffed into the trunk of her Toyota Solara in January 2007.

Mayor Sheila Dixon will go to trial Nov. 9 on charges of theft and perjury, and plans to enter a not-guilty plea, according to her lawyers. State prosecutors and defense attorneys for Dixon hammered out a new schedule for her case after a Baltimore grand jury handed up two new indictments against the mayor last week. At a court hearing Wednesday morning, prosecutors dropped the original indictment against Dixon, which like the new case stems from allegations that she stole gift cards intended for the needy and failed to report gifts she received on city ethics forms.

Attorneys for Mayor Sheila Dixon have moved to block the state prosecutor's attempt to get additional information from one current and one former city employee he has called to testify before a grand jury. The lawyers filed a motion this week to quash subpoenas issued to Dixon's scheduler, Zoe Michal, and Anne Lansey, who previously worked in the city's Department of Transportation. Michal and Lansey were to appear Thursday at the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse. In his motion, Dixon's attorney, Arnold Weiner, said that the state prosecutor is abusing the grand jury process by subpoenaing witnesses to gather more evidence for the mayor's coming trial.