Neighborhood Children

An illiterate Westminster man pleaded guilty yesterday to sexually molesting four neighborhood children over a five-year period.Walter John Boraten, 50, entered guilty pleas to two counts of child abuse and two counts of attempted second-degree sexual offense in exchange for a sentence of no more than 16 years. Prosecutors also dropped a half-dozen other charges.Carroll Circuit Judge Raymond E. Beck Sr. will sentence Boraten on July 28. The judge allowed Boraten to remain free on bond until then, but ordered him to stay away from everyone younger than 18.Last summer, Boraten told Carroll County Child Abuse and Sexual Assault unit investigators in interviews that he had abused four neighborhood children.

Surveying the flood-damaged Echo House last week, contractors paused when they reached the second story: ruined floors pockmarked with craters, tangles of wires where the ceilings had caved in and crumbling walls. "This is where it really got it," said Kevin Maggio, a restoration expert. "No, this is only the second-worst floor," said Janice Lockwood, executive director of Echo House, a center in West Baltimore that provides a food pantry for the neighborhood, after-school programs for 80 children and treatment and counseling for hundreds of drug addicts.

One day, Dawn Braxton's life was full of hopes; the next, she lay racked with pain from a freak accident.The 32-year-old mother of three had just been accepted to University of Baltimore Law School, a lifelong dream, in 1990 when she slipped on a newly waxed floor at her Baltimore County workplace, reeled backward and crushed several disks in her neck.After surgery in 1991 and continual physical therapy, she is still in constant pain, and the left side of her body is often numb.The former Baltimore City police officer, who served on the force in 1980-82 and worked as a paralegal after that, is not used to inactivity.

The wind whipped through North Bradford Street, lifting trash off the pavement like an invisible hand and pushing it onto a sidewalk. Through yesterday's clutter of flattened fast-food cartons, crushed beer cans and empty bags of chips walked 16-year-old Deshawn Batson -- on a mission. Wearing shiny black shoes and a black suit and tie, Batson had heard about Thursday's lunchtime quadruple shooting in the 1700 block. He knew about the 10-year-old boy and two 15-year-old girls who were struck by stray bullets, and the 20-year-old man who was the intended target.

As Linda Harvey surveyed damage at the Park Heights Family Support Center in Baltimore yesterday, she couldn't help but linger near the playground. All that's left of the slides and ladders - the starting point of a fire that erupted Sunday - are ankle-high blobs of plastic and a metal frame. "I can show you what it used to look like," said Harvey, the director of the center who spent most of yesterday reassuring the teenage parents who come with their babies that the facility will reopen.

Shanta Davis has been to pajama parties before -- but none like the one she attended this weekend on a basketball court in the Lexington Terrace section of West Baltimore."

A Carroll County judge ruled yesterday that an illiterate Westminster man's statements to investigators -- in which he admitted to sexually abusing neighborhood children over a five-year period -- can be used as evidence in his jury trial.Defendant Walter John Boraten may be a 50-year-old who can't read or write, but that doesn't mean he is "incapable of confessing to a crime," Circuit Judge Francis M. Arnold ruled after a two-hour hearing.Mr. Boraten was alleged to have told county child-abuse investigators last summer that he had abused four neighborhood children.

At Brentwood Avenue and Chase Street, a block north of the Maryland Penitentiary, the neighborhood children, carrying their homework, come through the old chapel's door. Soon, a nun appears and the reading lessons, arithmetic tutorial program and supervised play begin.The Oblate Sisters of Providence cannot say no to any child who wants to learn. Their gift to their neighborhood is this informal after-school tutorial program that also provides a haven for children of crime-ridden, impoverished Johnston Square, a section of East Baltimore that stretches south of Green Mount Cemetery to the city jail.

Sally Kearsley, a painter who quietly assisted neighborhood children and arts movements, died Sunday of a heart attack at her Mount Vernon apartment. She was 71 and had lived in Reservoir Hill until five years ago. An artist who worked in oils and ceramics, she donated money to numerous cultural and neighborhood organizations. "She provided the initial seed money to enable the Contemporary Museum to open," said George Ciscle, a Maryland Institute College of Art curator who was founding director of the Contemporary, now at Park Avenue and Centre Street.

A Carroll judge ruled yesterday that an illiterate Westminster man's statements to investigators -- in which he admitted to sexually abusing neighborhood children over a five-year period -- can be used as evidence in his jury trial.Defendant Walter John Boraten may be a 50-year-old who can't read or write, but that doesn't mean he is "incapable of confessing to a crime," Circuit Judge Francis M. Arnold ruled after a two-hour hearing on pretrial motions.Mr. Boraten was alleged to have told Carroll County Child Abuse and Sexual Assault unit investigators in a series of interviews last summer that he had abused four neighborhood children.

As Linda Harvey surveyed damage at the Park Heights Family Support Center in Baltimore yesterday, she couldn't help but linger near the playground. All that's left of the slides and ladders - the starting point of a fire that erupted Sunday - are ankle-high blobs of plastic and a metal frame. "I can show you what it used to look like," said Harvey, the director of the center who spent most of yesterday reassuring the teenage parents who come with their babies that the facility will reopen.

Annapolis resident Phyllis Saroff can recall vividly the frosty winter evenings when she and two neighborhood children - each of them armed with a flashlight and a pair of ice skates - used to walk through the woods to a crowded, moonlit rink in the middle of Quiet Waters Park. "There would always be people watching the skaters, drinking hot chocolate and listening to the music over the loudspeakers," said Saroff, who lives in Hillsmere Estates, a neighborhood adjacent to the park. Last season, the once-popular ice rink closed because of costly, much-needed renovations.

A Woodlawn teen-ager who was fatally shot Wednesday night was finishing summer school and looking forward to making a compact disc with fellow members of the rap group Forilla, his mother said yesterday. David Louis Baskin Jr., 18, died on a sidewalk in the 2500 block of Elesmere Court about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to Baltimore County police. Baskin, of the 2400 block of Barnsely Place, was shot in the upper body. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said yesterday they know of no motive and have no suspect in Baskin's killing.

Devon Davison's words tumble out as he talks about his life, his dreams, the molecular differences between cotton fibers and polyester, and his plans for a vacant city firehouse at 43 S. Carey St. in Southwest Baltimore. He plans to buy the century-old station, move in and set up a digital arts studio where local artists and neighborhood children can use computers for video, broadcasting and other creative projects. He also hopes to link with city schools to provide internships for students.

Sally Kearsley, a painter who quietly assisted neighborhood children and arts movements, died Sunday of a heart attack at her Mount Vernon apartment. She was 71 and had lived in Reservoir Hill until five years ago. An artist who worked in oils and ceramics, she donated money to numerous cultural and neighborhood organizations. "She provided the initial seed money to enable the Contemporary Museum to open," said George Ciscle, a Maryland Institute College of Art curator who was founding director of the Contemporary, now at Park Avenue and Centre Street.

Richard L. Connor recalls looking out the window of his Corpus Christi Community Center in West Baltimore a few years ago, seeing children hanging out on the streets after school."

A 51-year-old Westminster man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, with another eight years suspended, for his June conviction on charges of sexually abusing four children in his former neighborhood.Walter John Boraten, formerly of the 1700 block of Strand Ave., was sentenced Friday in Carroll Circuit Court to a total of 28 years -- two consecutive 10-year terms on child abuse counts and two consecutive four-year terms on two counts of attempted second-degree sexual offense.Judge Raymond E. Beck Sr. suspended a total of eight years on Boraten's terms for child abuse and ordered him to serve five years of supervised probation after his release.

The wind whipped through North Bradford Street, lifting trash off the pavement like an invisible hand and pushing it onto a sidewalk. Through yesterday's clutter of flattened fast-food cartons, crushed beer cans and empty bags of chips walked 16-year-old Deshawn Batson -- on a mission. Wearing shiny black shoes and a black suit and tie, Batson had heard about Thursday's lunchtime quadruple shooting in the 1700 block. He knew about the 10-year-old boy and two 15-year-old girls who were struck by stray bullets, and the 20-year-old man who was the intended target.

Neighborhoods, I have concluded, are a lot like children. Sometimes, especially when they are endearingly small, you wish it were possible to stop time -- to keep them just as they are -- though you know they are bound to grow and change. Sometimes the change occurs without our realizing it, at which point it is useless to try to make them fit a mold that has already been broken. Communities, like kids, are tougher and more adaptable than we think. But both are vulnerable to outside influences.

Like any young businessman, Christopher Bowser, 10, carefully prepares for his biggest day of the year -- Preakness Day."I had to chain my [shopping cart] in my back yard last night, so it would be there this morning," said Christopher, a fourth-grader at Langston Hughes Elementary.Before 8 a.m. yesterday, Christopher and his nephew, Shawn Jackson, 7, a Mount Washington Elementary first-grader, had walked the two miles or so from Christopher's Arcadia Avenue house to Pimlico Road and Ken Oak Road in Mount Washington.