Maryland State Police

Maryland State Police were investigating a fatal motorcycle accident that closed lanes on Interstate 97 Tuesday afternoon. No further details were released pending notification of family members. A caller reported the incident about 2:23 p.m., saying a motorcycle had slid under a truck on I-97 between Crain Highway and Quarterfield Road, said Capt. Debbie Bowen, an Anne Arundel Fire Department spokeswoman. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, she said.

The Maryland State Police have fired a probationary trooper charged with raping a female acquaintance after a party celebrating his graduation from the academy, a spokesman said yesterday.Jonathan M. Pilch, 26, of Myersville was fired Wednesday after an internal investigation of the criminal charges by Maryland State Police officers, said Capt. Gregory M. Shipley.Pilch is charged with second-degree rape, a felony, and his trial has been scheduled for early next month."The information contained in that investigation was cause enough to terminate him," Shipley said.

A 42-year-old Sykesville man was arrested yesterday on charges that he violated state gun laws by possessing weapons after being convicted of several crimes involving drugs, according to the Maryland State Police in Westminster. Jerome Mark Horner of the 4200 block of Jim Bowers Road was taken into custody without incident by troopers, who recovered 21 long guns, two handguns and one assault rifle, police said. He was awaiting an appearance yesterday before a District Court commissioner.

A Westminster state police communications operator will be honored Thursday as Telecommunicator of the Year for her role in dispatching troopers to a double homicide last year.Betty J. Ford, 38, was chosen from 20 police and emergency dispatchers from Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C., nominated by their supervisors. Ford, who was unavailable for comment, will be cited at an awards luncheon in Dover, Del.She works the night shift at the Maryland State Police barracks in Westminster, where she has handled thousands of emergency and routine calls since 1988.

A man was critically injured in Laurel on Friday morning when his car veered off Interstate 95 and crashed into the rear of a parked tractor trailer, Maryland State Police said. According to State Police Sgt. Anthony Riley, the driver was traveling northbound when his vehicle left the road, drifted onto the shoulder and struck the tractor trailer, which was parked on the shoulder. The driver's vehicle became trapped underneath the tractor trailer; fire and rescue officials removed the motorist from the vehicle with the Jaws of Life hydraulic rescue tool, Riley said.

WHAT'S the most recognizable symbol of Maryland's state government?Perhaps you would say the state flag, albeit with cluttered field and a design more appropriate to the finish line of an auto race. Or maybe the Great Seal, whose prominence was recently revived by free translations of the old Tuscan motto Fatti Maschii, etc.But just as recognizable is the Stetson hat worn by the Maryland State Police for nearly four decades. It's the hat that the Texas Rangers made famous as a symbol of law enforcement on the frontier, later adopted by a number of local and state police forces.

Police searched water near the Bay Bridge Sunday night after witnesses called 911 to report a possible suicide attempt. No one had been found as of yesterday, Maryland Transportation Authority Police officials said. Two passing motorists called police just before 10 p.m. to report that a man was standing near the edge of the westbound side of the bridge, said Catherine Leahan, a spokeswoman for the agency Leahan said one of the callers told police that the man was outside the guard railing near mile marker 34. Officers found an unattended vehicle in the slow lane, Leahan said.

An Anne Arundel County judge ordered yesterday convicted sex offender Robert Marshall Eiseman held without bond while he awaits trial on rape and eight other charges stemming from an attack on a woman 14 years ago. Indicted in September, Eiseman, 42, will go on trial Nov. 6. He is charged in an attack Dec. 1, 1988, on a 22-year-old woman as she returned to her Cape St. Claire home from work. Maryland State Police said Eiseman was the first person charged in a cold case based on a DNA match in the Maryland State Police DNA database.

Scout leader accused of abuse 20 years agoA veteran Boy Scout leader has been charged with sexually molesting one of his scouts nearly 20 years ago, Maryland State Police said.Police said the victim, now 30, has been undergoing counseling to deal with psychological problems related to the abuse. He reported the incident recently to state police, according to charging documents.The incidents, which included fondling and oral sex, occurred from 1975-1978, according to court records.Dr. Harold A. Neufeld, 70, of Frederick was charged Wednesday with child abuse, second- and third-degree sex offenses and assault and battery.

The man convicted of the execution-style double-slaying of two Baltimore nightclub employees was sentenced yesterday to 60 years in prison - the maximum amount of time he could have received for two counts of second-degree murder. On April 16, 2003, Anthony Jerome Miller, 31, fatally shot Jason M. Convertino, 31, and Sean M. Wisniewski, 22, in a Fells Point apartment in the 1900 block of Gough St. The two men were promoters who had worked for Redwood Trust in downtown Baltimore. A city jury acquitted Miller, of the 4500 block of Runnymeade Road in Owings Mills, of first-degree murder charges but convicted him of second-degree murder.