Juvenile

The last man to take a horse to Belmont with a chance to snag the elusive final gem in the Triple Crown has some advice for Doug O'Neill. Stay true to the horse. "I think trainers going around asking other people what they should do, looking for how to handle it, that's stupid," Rick Dutrow, trainer of Big Brown in 2008, said in a phone interview Sunday. "It's got to be about your horse. Whatever anybody else did doesn't matter. You know your horse. " O'Neill, trainer of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I'll Have Another, has already disregarded common wisdom over the past three weeks.

The state's juvenile services secretary says he is considering expanding the size of privately run residential facilities for young offenders as his agency grapples with a shortage of beds. Sam Abed, who took the job in March, said youths in need of rehabilitation are languishing in detention centers as they await openings. "There is more need than there are beds," Abed said. "We're exploring ways we can increase the capacity across the state. " The comment was greeted with concern from a leading legislator on juvenile justice issues, who said the General Assembly has made clear its desire that programs be no larger than 48 beds.

UPPER MARLBORO — An adolescent was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder and the attempted rape of a teacher at the long-troubled Cheltenham Youth Facility in Prince George's County, and prosecutors immediately moved to try him as an adult. The juvenile charges against the Laurel youth, who was 13 at the time of the incident and turned 14 in early July, come five months after the death of 65-year-old instructor Hannah E. Wheeling. Her partly clothed body was found by another staff member at about 7:45 a.m. Feb. 18 outside a lower-security program for young offenders.

A 14-year-old boy has been charged with arson and illegal firearms use in connection with damage to a boat in northern Harford County, the Office of the State Fire Marshal said. A joint investigation by the fire marshal's office and the Harford County Sheriff's Office resulted in charges being brought against the juvenile, the fire marshal's office said in a news release. Investigators found a 16-foot bassmaster fishing boat located in the 4300 block of Auer Lane in Darlington had been heavily damaged by fire and that the 14-year-old and an 18-year-old were allegedly igniting fireworks Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Fire damage to the boat is estimated at $2,000, according to the fire marshal's office.

Our home of over 40 years in Rosedale was burglarized January 12th, including the theft of two cars. The same group burglarized a home in the Hamiltowne section on January 13th, including the theft of a car. The culprits were apprehended, and all three cars were recovered on January 14th after diligent efforts by the White Marsh precinct. Even though articles that were obviously taken from each home were recovered in the cars, the juveniles were released to the custody of their parents that night.

Baltimore County police said a male juvenile was arrested for trespassing near Towson Town Center about 9 p.m. Saturday. The juvenile was taken to the Towson precinct and charged, according to police. In a separate incident, David Keating, a spokesman for General Growth Properties, the owner of the mall, said a group of 10 to 12 girls "apparently got into some kind of verbal confrontation. " "Our security approached them at that point and they left the mall," he said.

One of the two boys accused of beating a 76-year-old black fisherman in a racially charged incident at a city park will have his case transferred to juvenile court, a Baltimore Circuit Court judge ruled Friday. Lawyers for Emmanuel Miller, 16, argued that the boy did not take part in the beating of James Privott and that, if found responsible in the attack, he could be rehabilitated in the juvenile system. Miller could be placed in an out-of-state program until he turns 18. Miller and Zachary Watson, now 18, are charged along with Calvin E. Lockner, a 27-year-old registered sex offender, in the August attack on Privott, who was fishing at Fort Armistead Park in South Baltimore.

Young Antonio, 12 when his mother turned him in to the police, puts a human face on the dry statistics of the Baltimore Bar Association's 1991 juvenile justice report. It is a face of dire need in a subculture of hopelessness, and the lessons Antonio and his friends have drawn from the slothfulness of law enforcement is that almost nothing happens, no matter what crimes they commit. By the time something does happen, the youths involved have difficulty connecting the dots between the court action and the precipitating criminal incidents.

State officials have agreed to review the planned capacity for a $100 million jail for juveniles in Baltimore — a concession to groups who say the project is too big. The detention center is designed to accommodate as many as 230 teens facing adult charges, more than double the number now behind bars. Such suspects currently are held in a wing at the Baltimore City Detention Center, an arrangement the Justice Department says lacks adequate separation from hardened adults.

A juvenile being held at the Baltimore City Jail suffered minor injuries when another juvenile stabbed him with a homemade knife during a fight yesterday, a jail spokesman said.Darryl J. Madden, the spokesman, said the stabbing occurred about 10:40 a.m. as the two youths fought in the jail's juvenile section.The victim was treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital for superficial cuts on his left shoulder, then released and returned to the jail, Mr. Madden said.The two youths, who were not identified because of their ages, were confined to cells last night while jail officials investigated the incident, Mr. Madden said.

The mother of a juvenile suspect who admitted this week to accidentally shooting 13-year-old Monae Turnage is being investigated in connection with circumstances surrounding the killing, the woman's attorney has confirmed. The attorney, Isaac Klein, said a prosecutor told him his client's DNA was found on Monae's bra. Two of Monae's relatives gave a similar account, saying homicide detectives informed them that DNA from the mother of the 13-year-old suspect was found on the girl's body.

Baltimore County police have charged two juveniles with second-degree arson in connection with a multi-alarm fire that caused $400,000 in damages to a Dundalk church last week. The boys, aged 12 and 13 years and Dundalk residents, also face second-degree burglary, destruction of property and reckless endangerment charges, police said. The investigation remains open and could result in charges against additional suspects, police said. Investigators said they found no evidence of a hate crime.

Violence is on the rise at a handful of Maryland's juvenile detention facilities. Staff members at the Victor Cullen Center used handcuffs to restrain youths nearly 200 times in 2011, up from 36 times in 2010. At Cheltenham Youth Facility, riots and other "group disturbances" took place 65 times in 2011, up from a dozen times in 2010. All of this information was readily available in a routine report on a state website, and helped lead to The Baltimore Sun's look this weekend at issues in the state Department of Juvenile Services . The document was filed under Gov. Martin O'Malley's StateStat program.

In the J. DeWeese Carter Center in Kent County, youths would pick fights that sometimes turned into melees, recalled Rodney Stallworth, who spent four months there last year on a drug charge. The detention system frustrated the 18-year-old East Baltimore resident, but he also called it a refuge. He sometimes acted out violently because he knew it would keep him there — and away from drugs and guns on the street. "Since we can't go home, we would try to send the staff home" angry, he said.

A 21-year-old man has been served with a warrant charging him with possession of the rifle allegedly used by a younger relative to fatally shoot 13-year-old Monae Turnage last month in East Baltimore, officials said. Martinez Armstrong of the 1800 block of N. Bond St. was charged with being a felon in possession of a gun and reckless endangerment after investigators made a forensic match on the .22-caliber rifle. Court records show he was being held on $500,000 bond. Two boys were charged last month with involuntary manslaughter for accidentally shooting Monae, whose body was found hidden under trash bags in her Darley Park neighborhood after she had left her home to go roller-skating.

Maryland horse racing got exposed for a lack of oversight Tuesday during an appeal to have the Rick Dutrow-trained King and Crusader reinstated as the winner of the $75,000 Maryland Juvenile Championship at Laurel Park. Dutrow and his horse's owner James Riccio lost the appeal, but Maryland horse racing may have lost more, as officials at Laurel Park were found to have not followed all of the proper procedures on the night of that December race. "I'm stabled at Laurel Park," said John Robb, the trainer of Glib, the second-place finisher who was declared the winner of the Juvenile Championship.

When 17-year-old John Edwards was shot in the head on Edmondson Avenue this month, no one marched on City Hall. There were no comparisons to Emmett Till, no columns in national newspapers about the anxieties of growing up black and male in a country still haunted by racial divides. Baltimore Ravens did not wear hoodies in solidarity. On average, one juvenile a month has been the victim of homicide in Baltimore over the past three years. Many, like Edwards, were written about and discussed briefly, then forgotten by all but loved ones.

Baltimore police called in extra officers and arrested at least 10 juveniles Saturday night as a crowd that witnesses described as rowdy and numbering in the hundreds walked around Downtown. The arrests ranged from curfew violations to disorderly conduct and assault, said Detective Donny Moses, a police spokesman. The youth massed on downtown streets, from 1st Mariner Arena on the west side to "The Block" on East Baltimore Street, and south through Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Moses said.