Intoxication

The article "City officer had previous alcohol-related shooting" (June 7) says Officer Ghaiji A. Tshamba was disciplined internally because he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of a 2005 shooting. This past Saturday, after firing his weapon 13 times at an unarmed man and killing him, the officer refused to take a breath test to determine whether he had been drinking. In Maryland, if you refuse to take a breath test after being pulled over due to a suspicion of driving under the influence, your driver's license will be suspended for 120 days for a first offense and one year for a subsequent offense, or instead of a license suspension, you may be allowed to drive if you install and maintain an ignition interlock device on your car for at least a year.

An allegedly intoxicated man allegedly drove into two homes on East MacPhail Road in Bel Air Wednesday night, hit a propane gas line that started a fire at one house and then backed his pickup truck into the other and knocked part of it off of its foundation, according to police. The driver, later identified as Michael Lee Smith, 54, of the 1000 block of Cedar Lane in Bel Air, then allegedly left the scene and was arrested a short time later near his home. At about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday, Harford County Sheriff's deputies were sent to the 1000 block of East MacPhail Road, where a vehicle, later identified as a 2001 blue Chevy Silverado, drove off the road and hit a home and propane gas line, starting a fire, according to a press release from the Harford County Sheriff's Office.

ANNAPOLIS -- The Maryland Department of Natural Resources cited six recreational boaters for intoxicated boating during a random check Friday and Saturday on the South River, a DNR spokesman said.DNR officers performed safety checks on 92 boats between the Route 2 bridge and the Riva Road bridge, Anne Arundel County's busiest boating thoroughfare, the spokesman said.Pub Date: 8/12/96

Los Angeles County Coroner's officials announced Wednesday that the official cause of death for Bubba Smith, the former Baltimore Colts defensive end who died August 3, was acute drug intoxication and other conditions. According to The Los Angeles Times , an autopsy found that Smith, 66, had the weight-loss drug phentermine in his system. The coroner also said that he suffered from heart disease and high-blood pressure. The report noted that Smith's heart was nearly twice the weight of a normal heart and some vessels were nearly blocked.

A 20-year-old Westminster man died last month of narcotic intoxication -- snorted heroin -- complicated by bronchial pneumonia, Westminster police said yesterday. Michael E. DePinto was found by his mother about 7 p.m. March 16 at the apartment he shared with his parents in the first block of Westmoreland St. His parents had been in West Virginia and were snowed in, delaying their return, said police Capt. Dean A. Brewer. Police received the final toxicology reports on DePinto's death yesterday.

A state medical examiner ruled yesterday that 20-year-old Michael E. DePinto, whose mother found his body at their Westminster home eight days ago, died of narcotics intoxication complicated by bronchial pneumonia.Until results from additional toxicology tests are completed, the medical examiner will not be able to tell authorities what drug or combination of drugs might have been involved, said Capt. Dean Brewer, a spokesman for Westminster Police Department.The investigation is continuing, he said.

A 21-year-old Columbia man was charged with driving while intoxicated after his car struck a woman walking across the street Tuesday night, Howard County police said.Thomas Hocker, of Cross Fox Lane in Columbia's Wilde Lake village, was released on personal recognizance hours after the accident, a District Court commissioner said.The victim, Freda Goldberg, 51, of the 8300 block of Montgomery Run Road in Ellicott City, was released from the Maryland Shock Trauma Center yesterday afternoon.

Suffocation caused the death of a 24-year-old Virginia man who died in Howard County police custody shortly after being arrested for allegedly abusing an infant Christmas Eve, a report from the state medical examiner's office said Friday.Police had originally attributed the death of Jose Inez Melendez of Alexandria, Va., to respiratory failure.The medical examiner's report also confirmed original claims by police that Mr. Melendez's blood alcohol concentration of 0.34 -- three times the legal limit for intoxication -- contributed to his death.

Memorial Day, celebrated by most as the beginning of summer, is enjoyed as a weekend of recreation and fun by Americans of many different ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds and traditions.Whether you plan to celebrate at home around a backyard barbecue, or out with friends at a park, lake or beach, you can do some simple things to prevent alcohol-related problems from ruining your fun.The U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention offers the following tips for adults attending or having Memorial Day activities where alcohol may be served:* Do not make drinking the main purpose of a Memorial Daygathering.

A 25-year-old woman pleaded guilty to homicide by motor vehicle while intoxicated yesterday in Anne Arundel Circuit Court stemming from her role in a May 1 car accident in Glen Burnie that killed her passenger.Melissa Ann Kramp of the 3200 block of Lily Ave., Baltimore, was convicted by Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr. based on a statement of facts read by Assistant State's Attorney Darryl Jones.Mark A. Uhlig, 26, of the 1700 block of Selma Ave., Arbutus, Ms. Kramp's passenger, was pronounced dead at the scene.

A 26-year man who was found dead last month in a basement storage room of an empty Jessup house died from cocaine intoxication, according to a preliminary autopsy report by the state's medical examiner. Elizabeth Schroen, a by Howard County police spokeswoman, said Thursday that "there was no foul play" in Najib Malik Abdullah's death and that police are still trying to determine whether his death was an accident or suicide. Police discovered Abdullah's body April 30 after the owners of the house, located in the 8700 block of Mary Lane, smelled a strong odor coming from behind the door to the storage room.

The Baltimore police officer suspected of killing a man behind a Mount Vernon club early Saturday after a night of revelry was disciplined by the city Police Department five years ago for shooting a man while intoxicated. Gahiji A. Tshamba, a 15-year veteran of the police force, shot a man in the foot after an off-duty confrontation outside a bar or restaurant in September 2005, a police spokesman said. Investigators and prosecutors determined that the shooting was justified, but Tshamba was disciplined internally because he was under the influence of alcohol at the time.

The article "City officer had previous alcohol-related shooting" (June 7) says Officer Ghaiji A. Tshamba was disciplined internally because he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of a 2005 shooting. This past Saturday, after firing his weapon 13 times at an unarmed man and killing him, the officer refused to take a breath test to determine whether he had been drinking. In Maryland, if you refuse to take a breath test after being pulled over due to a suspicion of driving under the influence, your driver's license will be suspended for 120 days for a first offense and one year for a subsequent offense, or instead of a license suspension, you may be allowed to drive if you install and maintain an ignition interlock device on your car for at least a year.

The day after Gov. Martin O'Malley's 18-year-old daughter was briefly hospitalized, apparently after drinking alcohol, the first lady called the incident a "teachable moment." "We … encourage all parents and teenagers to be safe this graduation season," Katie Curran O'Malley said in a statement Friday. Tara O'Malley, the second-eldest of the governor's four children, graduated Wednesday from Notre Dame Preparatory School and had been at a celebration Thursday. A Baltimore police officer found her "apparently unconscious" with a friend at the Inner Harbor about 7:30 p.m. She was treated at Harbor Hospital and released that night.

There is a reason that tough drunk-driving legislation has a difficult time passing in Annapolis – that is, besides House Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph F. Vallario Jr. The problem is that the people pushing for such bills are too nice, too squeaky-clean, too public-spirited. They're do-gooders. They're not in it for the bucks. And that makes some legislators uncomfortable. Sleazy, self-interested industries they can deal with. Ethically challenged lobbyists-for-hire – even those with felony convictions on the resume – are welcome in all the best back rooms.

Samuel E. Shropshire, the Annapolis alderman who was a contender for mayor this fall, was convicted Thursday of groping a Naval Academy midshipman, a crime for which he could be sent to prison for more than a decade. Shropshire, 61, was convicted during a bench trial on charges of second-degree assault and fourth-degree sexual assault for grabbing the crotch of a 21-year-old midshipman whom he mentored in an academy sponsorship program. "The defendant should have known better," said Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Paul F. Harris Jr. "He should have separated himself from the situation.

An Annapolis man faces up to five years in prison and a $3,000 fine after pleading guilty yesterday to vehicular homicide while intoxicated in a November 1991 accident that killed a man crossing the street with his dog.Kenneth James Campbell, 36, of the first block of Silopanna Road, pleaded guilty to running down and killing Kevin Hicks, 41, of the 1700 block of Belle Drive, on Nov. 20, 1991. Hicks was pronounced dead shortly after being struck by Campbell's 1976 Ford pickup truck while walking his dog at 8:40 p.m. along Forest Drive, prosecutors said.

Drug-intoxication deaths among Baltimore residents reached their lowest point in a decade last year, dropping significantly from a record high in 1999 when 238 people died, according to statistics released yesterday by the city's Health Department. Officials linked the 33 percent decrease to a concurrent increase in funding for drug treatment services -- which has nearly tripled in the past decade -- and a more than 60 percent increase in slots available to drug addicts in need of help.

Maryland health officials told state lawmakers yesterday that they were taking steps to minimize possible abuse of the addiction treatment buprenorphine as they spend millions to expand its availability. While insisting that misuse is currently not a serious problem, they outlined precautions in an appearance before a House of Delegates committee. These include screening for buprenorphine in overdose deaths, coordinating with police to monitor street sales and supporting a bill that would call for monitoring prescription drugs, including buprenorphine.