Man Is Charged

A Middle River man was charged with murder yesterday in the death of his wife, whose body was found dumped along Mohrs Lane, according to Baltimore County police. Police said Lloyd Preston McCaskill of the 9800 block of Dee Way killed his 20-year-old wife, Marie Elizabeth McCaskill, by either beating or strangling her after an argument. Officials said McCaskill called police to report her missing at 7:20 a.m. Friday. Marie McCaskill's body was discovered at 8:30 a.m. Friday by a pedestrian near the Mohrs Lane bridge between Pulaski Highway and Philadelphia Road.

Troy Kevin Turnage lived quietly just off Route 100 in Columbia until Baltimore police got a tip that he might be involved in criminal activity. A four-week Baltimore police investigation culminated Wednesday night in Turn- age's arrest and the seizure of about $1 million worth of crack cocaine from his two-bedroom apartment in a sleepy rental community called Orchard Crossing. Turnage, 32, paid his rent on time and never disturbed neighbors, said property manager Beth Centifonti, whose eyebrows shot up when she learned police confiscated 3.2 kilograms of crack from the apartment.

Bruce Daniel Bouch's trial on charges of allowing a wrestling ring in his back yard began yesterday with a motion by the prosecution to exclude mention of his efforts to help victims of the terrorist attacks in New York City on Sept.11. Bouch, a Carroll County volunteer firefighter, was honored by the county commissioners last month for his rescue efforts. He and 16 others from Gamber spent two days digging in the rubble for survivors and sleeping at the scene. "I have a right to ask him who he is and what he does," said George E. Rippel Jr., Bouch's attorney.

A Cumberland man was charged yesterday with trying to run over a Maryland trooper and leading state police on a high-speed chase that ended at a train crossing in Pennsylvania, authorities said. State police Sgt. Robert Farrell said troopers had responded to a 3:34 a.m. report of an altercation at a Denny's restaurant in LaVale when a man apparently involved in the disturbance accelerated his 1990 AMC Eagle at Trooper James Costa, who was approaching the vehicle on foot. Farrell said the man led three patrol cars on a 20-minute chase on a two-lane highway through LaVale and Corriganville in Allegany County and into Pennsylvania.

In an unusual move, Baltimore prosecutors have charged a 21-year-old man with filing a false brutality complaint against a city police officer -- an action that drew praise from the police commissioner but concern from a civil liberties group. Michael W. Connell of the 2800 block of Hampden Ave. is charged with two counts of making false statements to police about alleged beatings by officers last September. Connell is also accused of filing a false complaint to the city's civilian review board, prosecutors said, but he has not been charged in that incident.

A Baltimore County grand jury indicted two men yesterday, one on charges stemming from the death of his estranged wife in Essex in 1983, the other on charges related to the killing of an elderly neighbor in Cockeysville this month. Burnest Bush Jr., 43, of the 800 block of Bonaparte Ave. in East Baltimore, was indicted on a first-degree murder charge in the stabbing and strangulation of his estranged wife, said Assistant State's Attorney S. Ann Brobst. In the second case, Arthur E. Pascoe, 78, was indicted in the fatal shooting May 2 of June V. Maxwell, also 78, and an attack on a second woman, Carolyn D. Lyons, 71. He faces charges of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder.

Howard County police charged an 18-year-old resident of Savage with attempted murder yesterday, as the injured victim recovered at Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Terrance Pearson, 19, was shot in the stomach outside an apartment building on White Acre Road in Columbia about 10 p.m. Wednesday, police said. He was reported in serious but stable condition yesterday. Pearson, who lives in the 5800 block of Stevens Forest Road in Columbia, identified the assailant yesterday, police said. Police said that Andre Jamal Gadson, who lives in the 8800 block of Howard Hills Drive, was arrested Wednesday night on drug-related charges.

When James John Francis is tried in March on charges of first-degree murder, Baltimore County prosecutors will have a key piece of evidence to use against him. It isn't the photos the assailants took of the victim as he lay dying by the side of a highway Sept. 17. It is Francis' confession - or at least part of it. Francis, 18, Robin Marie Fogle, 18, and Sean Kevin Adams, 19, are charged in the fatal beating of Charles Edward Pall, 42, of the 900 block of Arncliffe Road in Essex. Pall had spent the day moving his furniture from Halethorpe to his new home in Essex.

An Anne Arundel County man has been charged with attempted second-degree murder after his mother told county police that he attacked her Saturday night. Timothy J. McAnulty, 20, of the 4700 block of Oak Road, Idlewilde, was also charged with first- and second-degree assault, police said. McAnulty, who lives with his mother, is being held without bond at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center, police said. About 6 p.m. Saturday, county police and firefighters responded to a complaint about a combative woman who was injured at the Oak Road residence.

A 23-year-old Elkridge man was charged with first-degree assault yesterday in the stabbing of a taxicab driver who refused to transport him, Howard County police say. Police said Ian Donnelly Parker of the 6600 block of Deep Run Parkway approached the driver, William McCoy, 50, of Baltimore, about 1:40 a.m. on Washington Boulevard in Elkridge. Parker asked McCoy to give him a ride, but McCoy said he was off-duty and was not taking any more customers, police said. Police said the man took out a knife and stabbed McCoy in his left side.