Jail

Last week we learned that adult children of divorce will almost always revert to childish behaviors. Case in point, Briana, the daughter previously known as The Most Reasonable Person in Orange County, dissolved into a impertinent, recalcitrant, petulant brat upon meeting her mother's boyfriend. This week Briana grows up and fights like a big girl … but we'll get there soon enough. Elsewhere in the O.C., there are tiaras to be worn and bling to be bought as Alexis goes all out for her little princesses, and Slade decides to declare Gretchen his queen.

A Circuit Court judge has ruled against a contractor who claimed Baltimore County owed the company $1.4 million in a dispute over construction of the County Detention Center. Judge Judith C. Ensor rejected the appeal from George Moehrle Masonry Inc., a company based in Frederick, and affirmed the decision of a county hearing officer, who had awarded the company $72,603. According to a statement from the county, Moehrle had a $3 million contract for work to be performed in 2004 and 2005.

From the Baltimore Sun's Jill Rosen: Ethan Phillip Weibman who plead guilty last fall to animal abuse in the death of one cat and the beating of another was sentenced Wednesday to 90 days in prison. After District Judge Charles A. Chiapparelli's ruling, officers immediately took the 20-year-old, a short-time Baltimore resident originally from a wealthy hamlet in Westchester County, N.Y., into custody, as his mother shrieked in protest. “It's not just a crime, it's a person I'm sentencing,” Chiapparelli said.

From The Aegis dated May 7, 1987: Accused cop killer Frank Green was transferred from the Harford County Detention Center 25 years ago this week to the state prison system. Green's lawyer said Green's life and health were at risk in the county jail because a county sheriff's deputy was one of the people wounded during the "incident" in September in which a Maryland Transportation Authority Police officer was shot and killed. Deputies staff the jail. Others called the "incident" involving Green more of a rampage.

E ighteen days after his marijuana-possession arrest, one of our clients, a 25-year-old Baltimore man, remained in jail at taxpayer expense. The defendant, a veteran of the war in Iraq, never failed to appear in court and had only one previous conviction for using marijuana, which resulted in his current probation. But he was still incarcerated at the city's Central Booking and Intake Center, simply because he could not afford his $1,000 bail. Maintaining a pretrial jail population is costly.

Perhaps you saw the report on Drudge about "closet-gate,"  which broke this weekend , in which staffers for Vice President Joe Biden constrained a Florida journalist to closet during a fundraiser at a wealthy developer's house. But what you haven't heard about -- until now -- is the 4-minute phone call that preceded that deprivation of freedom. Through our well-placed sources at the White House, we present to you the entire transcript of that phone call between party host Alan Ginsburg and the vice president.

The new tenants at the old Baltimore County jail in Towson say they're often asked about ghosts, but so far have heard nothing — no murmurings from the solitary confinement cell, no whispered prayers from those souls stepping through the heavy metal door to the gallows. That dark gray door is still there, as are many of the cells. The new tenants, though, are happy to be there, starting a new day in the life of the three-story stone building on Bosley Avenue at Towsontown Boulevard that opened as a jail in 1855.

Baltimore County police continue to search for a prisoner who was mistakenly released from the county's detention center Monday. Kevin Taron Kent, 26, was released by staff at the detention center, according to a news release from the Police Department. He was arrested Friday for narcotics violations and had been denied bail, according to police. Kent's last known address is in the 3300 block of Orlando Ave. in Baltimore. Police describe him as a black male, 5 foot 9, 190 pounds, with short black hair and brown eyes.

Former NBA player Oliver J. Miller was sentenced Friday to a year in the Anne Arundel County jail for pistol-whipping his girlfriend's brother in Arnold. Miller, 41, who was living with his girlfriend in Edgewater, pleaded guilty last fall to first-degree assault and carrying a handgun. "I apologize for the wrong I've done," Miller told Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Paul A. Hackner. He said he is "just a man protecting the people I love. " The allegations stemmed from a family argument at a cookout April 17 at a friend's home.

A former Annapolis mayoral candidate and alderman was ordered Monday to spend next weekend in jail for groping the crotch of a drunken Naval Academy midshipman whom he was sponsoring. Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Paul F. Harris Jr. said he probably would not have jailed Samuel E. Shropshire, but Shropshire's words to a pre-sentence investigator changed that. Despite Shropshire's text-messaged apology to the midshipman shortly after the incident and subsequent admission in a telephone call, Shropshire told the investigator that his 21-year-old accuser was "lying through his teeth," the judge said.

A District Court judge on Thursday convicted an Ellicott City man of undertaking major renovations at his mother's Canton rowhouse without permits, but spared him jail time by suspending his 90-day sentence. Martin Pozoulakis, found guilty of two misdemeanor counts, also was fined $1,000. The case was a rare example of the city seeking jail time as punishment for illegal rehab work. In imposing the sentence, Judge Ronald A. Karasic said he was disturbed that Pozoulakis chose to "snub his nose" at city officials who tried to monitor conditions at the house in the 2100 block of Cambridge St. Pozoulakis, 54, waived his right to a trial.

Unless he's wearing Batman underwear and a cape, Mark Harvey — who usually dresses for Orioles games in a team ballcap and jeans — would be difficult to pick out of a crowd. That's why he attracted little attention Thursday as he walked outside Oriole Park, less than a week after Opening Day, when he ran onto the field as the Caped Crusader and was subsequently banned from the stadium for life. Harvey, 26, of Severn, who goes to the ballpark a half-dozen times a season, was disheartened by the ban: "I've been going to O's games since I was little.

There were at least as many police officers as protesters in front of City Hall on Tuesday evening after a group of about 40 people walked there from the site of a planned youth jail in downtown Baltimore. "It's screwed up," said community activist Kim Trueheart of the police presence. "It's a function of not wanting to understand that having a conversation is an important step in healing, solving problems and communicating. " The rally was organized to call attention to the death of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old unarmed African-American who was shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer named George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla., at the end of February.

It was unusual enough when Baltimore housing officials had to get a search warrant to gain entry to a Canton rowhouse where they believed illegal renovations were occurring. But the owner's son had barred inspectors, and neighbors were complaining of work that was noisy, substantial and ongoing. Then inspectors went inside and were shocked to find that the three-story home in the 2100 block of Cambridge Street had been gutted. Not only had the owner's son failed to pull required building permits, the city alleged in a lawsuit, but the work was so shoddy that the house had to be condemned.

A key witness in the case against Travers and Tremayne Johnson, who are accused of burning a pit bull puppy named Phoenix, abruptly refused to testify Tuesday, causing a judge to sentence her to six months in jail. Tiera Goodman, 25, of the 800 block of Braddish Ave. witnessed Phoenix as she was fatally burned in 2009 and testified during the first trial that she saw the 20-year-old Johnson twins running from the scene. The case is being retried after the previous trial ended in a hung jury.

From Luke Broadwater: A key witness in the case against Travers and Tremayne Johnson, who are accused of burning a pit bull puppy named Phoenix, abruptly refused to testify Tuesday, causing a judge to sentence her to six months in jail. Tiera Goodman, 25, of the 800 block of Braddish Ave., witnessed Phoenix as she was fatally burned in 2009, and testified during the first trial, which ended in a hung jury, that she saw the 20-year-old Johnson twins running from the scene. But Goodman, who is incarcerated on unrelated charges and initially identified the Johnsons to receive a $1,000 reward, charged her attitude from helpful to obstinate Tuesday.

Activists have launched a last-minute attempt to halt construction of a $100 million jail for Baltimore teenagers facing adult charges, saying the state needs to have a broader conversation about how to deal with young criminals. Groundbreaking for the 180-bed facility, at the state-owned complex that includes a dozen other prison buildings just east of downtown Baltimore, is scheduled for this fall. "This is a building that nobody wants and barely anybody knows about," said Terry Hickey, director of the Community Law in Action Center, which tutors jailed teens.

Chauncey Jones is just the kind of guy the state parole and probation system's Violence Prevention Initiative was created to keep tabs on. But his inclusion on the list and multiple allegations of violations weren't enough to send him back to jail before he was charged with murder. Jones, who turned 18 last month and stands 5 feet 3 inches tall, has a knack for acquiring guns; he was convicted twice for handgun possession as a juvenile and once as an adult. Given probation instead of prison, Jones had repeated infractions that prompted his probation agent to beg District Judge C. Yvonne Holt-Stone four times to lock him up - none of which was successful.

A disbarred Annapolis lawyer was ordered Thursday to serve 18 months in the Anne Arundel County jail plus five years on probation for siphoning nearly $308,000 from a client. Jerold K. Nussbaum, 60, whom Karen Gunther hired to handle her mother's estate, stole most of it in 2005 and 2006, according to prosecutors and court records. He had pleaded guilty in January. "Mr. Nussbaum not only stole my money, but I've lost my home," Gunther, the heir, told Judge Paul A. Hackner, according to a recording of the court hearing.

A controversial program that lets U.S. immigration officials check the citizenship status of people who have been arrested is being expanded to include Baltimore despite objections from Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and immigrant advocates. The Secure Communities program, which began in 2008 and is being phased in nationwide, lets federal immigration officials review fingerprints collected when people are booked. The review will start in Baltimore and Montgomery County on Wednesday, according to a Department of Homeland Security letter obtained by The Baltimore Sun. The decision prompted an outcry from some local officials, who have little control over the process and complained about a lack of notification from the federal government.