Grand Jury

Anne Arundel County Police Chief Col. James E. Teare Sr. appeared Monday night before the County Council but declined to answer questions under oath about allegations of misconduct by County Executive John R. Leopold, citing the ongoing criminal investigation. Teare was placed under oath and answered general questions from council members about himself and Police Department rules but told the council he had testified twice before the grand jury investigating Leopold and could not publicly repeat that testimony.

I'm not a gambler so I couldn't care less, but in my opinion the government is wasting a lot of money going after Calvin Ayre and others involved in Internet gambling ("U.S. grand jury in Md. indicts founder of Web gambling site," Feb. 29). Why not legalize and regulate online sports gambling and casino games and reap the billions in taxes it will generate? Seems like a no brainer to me. B. Dukes, Middle River

Sixteen-year-old Robert C. Richardson III was indicted Tuesday on murder charges in the January death of his father. The Harford County Grand Jury indicted the Bel Air teen, who has been held without bond in the Harford County Detention Center. Richardson has been charged with first- and second-degree murder as well as the use of a handgun during the commission of a crime. Harford County State's Attorney Joseph Cassilly would say little about the case late Tuesday. "A lot of speculation about a motive has surrounded this case from the outset; [it]

The Anne Arundel County police chief has been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury investigating whether County Executive John R. Leopold misused government resources, sources told The Sun's Nicole Fuller. Col. James E. Teare, Sr., the highest ranking county employee called to testify since the state prosecutor began investigating Leopold's use of his security detail, arrived Thursday morning at the county circuit court in downtown Annapolis and strode through the courthouse wearing his police uniform and shaking hands with acquaintances at about 10:15 a.m. "Whatever I'm able to say, I'll tell you," said Teare, before walking into the state's attorney's office, where the grand jury meets.

A man accused of shooting and killing a woman in Long Reach and a man accused in a fatal stabbing in Harper's Choice were indicted Wednesday, Oct. 12 by a Howard County grand jury. Dominique Davon McDonald, 21, of the 9700 block of Clocktower Lane in Columbia, is facing one count each of first-degree murder, using a handgun in a felony violent crime, and possessing a firearm after being convicted of a violent crime. He is accused in the Sept. 12 death of Baltimore-based bail bondswoman Nichole Bernadette McNair in the 8700 block of Hayshed Lane.

The trial of a Harford County man accused in the disappearance and killing of a 16-year-old girl from the city is scheduled to begin Wednesday in Circuit Court. Jason M. Gross, 36, of Edgewood, was arrested in April, 2010 and charged with first-degree murder, about 13 months after Rochelle Battle was reported to have vanished after leaving her home in the 2800 block of Boardman Avenue, in northwest Baltimore's Arlington neighborhood. Battle has never been found. When Gross was arrested, Baltimore County Police released a statement saying their investigation showed Battle may have been on an MTA bus near Eastern Avenue near North Point and Essex.

A federal grand jury indicted a Baltimore financial adviser Tuesday for mail fraud in an alleged scheme to defraud vulnerable clients including an 85-year-old with dementia of more than $838,500, according to the U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland. Federal prosecutors say Ralph Edward Thomas Jr., 52, was vice president of a Harbor Bank subsidiary in late 2001 when he convinced a woman who was a trustee of her injured daughter's $3 million legal settlement to move the account to Harbor Bank.

A federal grand jury has indicted four people, including a former employee of the University of Maryland Medical Center, in what prosecutors said was a scheme to steal patients' identities. The 17-count indictment was unsealed Thursday after the arrests of Kenneth Elliott McDowell, 47; Wendy Hinton, 21; and William White, 54, all of Baltimore. Devin Jarmal Smith, also known as Sean Jones, 20, also of Baltimore, is still being sought. "The defendants are charged with preying upon seriously ill hospital patients and their families by using their personal information to access their credit accounts and even to open new credit accounts using their identities," Rod J. Rosenstein, Maryland's U.S. attorney, said in a statement.

The cryptic email went out this week to some of the region's news media — including WMAR-TV and The Baltimore Sun — asking journalists to appear before the city's grand jury, which plans to spend the next few months analyzing the impact of crime coverage on efforts to end violence. It's a sort of term project squeezed in between criminal indictments, and a decades-old tradition for the panel. In addition to evaluating state's evidence, the 23 grand jurors in the city also examine a social issue during their four-month tenure and make recommendations for change.