Police Detective

After a six-day trial, a federal jury awarded $225,000 on Wednesday to a Baltimore County police detective who suffered a seizure on the job in 1996. William Blake, 40, who remains in the department, contended in his suit against the county's government that it had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by ordering him to submit to neurological and fitness-for-duty tests 10 years after he had the seizure. Blake, a member of the department since 1987, was pronounced ready to work three weeks after becoming ill, returned to his duties and suffered no further epileptic episodes.

Baltimore Police asked for the public's help Friday in identifying victims of a Dundalk man they say collected and traded child pornography. David Ralph Fisher, 42, of the 6500 block of St. Helena Street in Dundalk, was arrested Thursday after a sting operation by officers posing as a 14-year-old girl, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. He faces charges of possession and distribution of child pornography and sexual solicitation of a minor. Detectives began investigating Fisher in November after an associate reported that she had found photographs and videos on his computer that showed adults having sex with children as young as two years old, police said.

Wilbert Leon Sisco Sr., a retired Baltimore police detective, died of heart failure Tuesday at Chester River Hospital Center in Chestertown. He was 79 and lived in Chestertown. Mr. Sisco grew up in Rock Hall and graduated from Garnett School. He served two years in the Army and was a sergeant stationed in Germany and Japan. He married Evelyn C. Johnson in the late 1940s. The marriage ended in divorce. In 1954, he joined the Baltimore Police Department and started out patrolling Gay Street, Broadway and Fayette Street.

Out on bail after being caught on tape beating the elderly man she had been hired to care for, Anastacia Oluoch boarded a plane at Dulles International Airport, police said, and fled home to Kenya via Italy and Ethiopia. More than five years later and after an international search, Oluoch was again brought before a Baltimore judge Tuesday, brought to trial through the first ever international extradition by the Baltimore Police Department. She pleaded guilty to abusing 90-year-old John Taylor and was sentenced to six years in prison.

John J. Heidenberg, an Anne Arundel County police detective, was killed Saturday when his 1949 Ford pickup truck ran off a road near his Mechanicsville home. He was 35. Detective Heidenberg, a narcotics officer assigned to work with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, was showing the antique vehicle to a prospective buyer, who was slightly injured, said Deputy 1st Class Mark Clark of the St. Mary's County sheriff's office. Last year, Detective Heidenberg was awarded a citation for his work with a narcotics team.

Charles A. Glass, a former Baltimore police detective and an avid pool player, died June 28 at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Lebanon, Pa., after a long illness. He was 58. Mr. Glass was born in Baltimore and grew up in the Govans area. After graduating from City College, he joined the Navy at age 17 and served aboard the destroyer-submarine USS Hunter during the Cuban missile crisis. He later served aboard the USS Camp and the USS Enterprise. Mr. Glass attended the police academy shortly after his tour of duty.

Garnett "Gus" Dobbin Johnson, a Vietnam veteran and retired Baltimore County police detective, died Feb. 26 of lung cancer. He was 59. Fellow officers said he was an aggressive investigator who spent most of his career working armed robbery cases -- from bank robberies to street holdups -- solving about a third of all the department's cases. "He was a hell of a cop," said Gus Vaselaros, who worked with him for 20 years. "He led the show, he knew his job, and he was a damn good detective."

A Howard County police detective was charged with trespassing yesterday, accused of peeping into an apartment window, police said. Detective 1st Class Francis Mort, 33, of Elkridge was served with a summons after reports of a peeping tom at an apartment complex in the 6300 block of Orchard Club Drive in Elkridge. Two residents of the complex called police about 3:30 a.m. Jan. 26 to report a man peering into another resident's window. When police arrived, they found Mort in the building.

A headline on an article in yesterday's editions of The Sun incorrectly stated the guilty plea of Nicholas J. Tomlin, a former Baltimore police detective. Tomlin pleaded guilty to striking one teen-ager and pistol-whipping another.The Sun regrets the errors.A former Baltimore police detective pleaded guilty yesterday to assaulting two teen-agers he believed had shot a fellow officer, pistol-whipping one and striking the other with his flashlight, prosecutors said.Nicholas J. Tomlin, 28, who resigned from the city force and is employed by the DeForest, Wis., Police Department, entered an Alford plea in Baltimore Circuit Court and received a six-month suspended sentence from Judge Mabel H. Hubbard.

Baltimore Police asked for the public's help Friday in identifying victims of a Dundalk man they say collected and traded child pornography. David Ralph Fisher, 42, of the 6500 block of St. Helena Street in Dundalk, was arrested Thursday after a sting operation by officers posing as a 14-year-old girl, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. He faces charges of possession and distribution of child pornography and sexual solicitation of a minor. Detectives began investigating Fisher in November after an associate reported that she had found photographs and videos on his computer that showed adults having sex with children as young as two years old, police said.

A man was shot and killed overnight in the unit block of N. Wheeler Ave. in Southwest Baltimore, police said Sunday morning. Police said that at approximately 1 a.m. Sunday, officers responded to the scene for a report of a shooting. When they arrived, they found 27-year old Christopher Samuels suffering from a gunshot wound to his head. Police said he was transported to Maryland Shock Trauma, where he was pronounced dead at 1:26 a.m. The killing makes seven deaths in a little over seven days in the city.

Defense attorneys for the man accused of murdering Phylicia Barnes have filed motions claiming to have a witness who saw the teen alive in Cecil County and attacking the credibility of the lead police detective who investigated the case. In a motion filed in Baltimore Circuit Court, defense attorneys for Michael Maurice Johnson say they intend to call an "alibi witness" named Robert Hickman Fields when the case comes to trial in January. Johnson was charged with murder April 25 in the high-profile disappearance of the North Carolina teen.

He first heard the "wails for help" as he walked out of the police station about 10:30 p.m. Saturday. After jumping in his car, putting down the windows and following the sounds, the detective got closer and heard the sound of "metal hitting an object. " Soon after, Detective Mike Ebaugh of the Prince George's County Police Department allegedly witnessed a man "strike a nearly lifeless man with a shovel to the head," according to police. Ebaugh jumped out of his car, pulled out his handgun and ordered the man to drop the shovel, just as the man was "poised to hit the victim once again," police said.

As a retired police detective, I know that the prohibition on marijuana reduces public safety ("Stirring the pot," Nov. 12). My colleagues in Maryland spend tens of thousands of hours searching out and arresting people for possessing and smoking a green plant. Meanwhile, pedophiles are left freer to rape our children, drunk drivers sail past traffic stops where police are looking for pot under some kid's front seat, and teens are shot because selling marijuana is their only opportunity for employment.

A veteran Baltimore police detective must resign from the department after being placed on probation for stealing groceries with her daughter, a cashier at the store where the theft occurred. Darlene Early, a Western District detective who joined the department in 1990, entered an Alford plea Wednesday to one count of theft under $1,000. An Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain innocence while admitting that prosecutors have enough evidence for a conviction. Her 18-year-old daughter, Ciara Anderson, pleaded guilty to the same charge, prosecutors said.

An unidentified woman was found fatally shot in an Essex apartment early Wednesday morning, according to Baltimore County police. Officers first responded to an apartment building in the 900 block of Garden Drive about 5:30 a.m. for a report of multiple gunshots in the building, according to Cpl. Cathy Batton, a police spokeswoman. There, they found a woman with multiple gunshot wounds, Batton said. The woman, who was the only person in the apartment when police arrived, was pronounced dead at the scene, Batton said.

An off-duty Baltimore police detective died Saturday night after he was assaulted in Southeast Baltimore, police said. Sources have identified the officer as Brian A. Stevenson, an 18-year department veteran. Stevenson, who police said was assigned to the Northeast District, was hit in the head with a rock or another hard object and may have been stabbed, said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. Police established a crime scene in the parking lot of the Mercy-Canton Family Care center in the 2800 block Hudson Street, near Streeper Street Saturday night.

A Baltimore police detective who was thrust into the national spotlight while leading the investigation into a teenager who disappeared has been suspended after authorities said he allegedly went on a rogue hunt for his own missing daughter. Law enforcement sources — one within the city police department, another affiliated with police who has information on the case — said Tuesday that investigators are probing allegations that detective Daniel Thomas Nicholson IV used his badge while off duty to gain entry to homes in an unauthorized search.

A Baltimore police detective who was thrust into the national spotlight while leading the investigation into a teenager who disappeared has been suspended after authorities said he allegedly went on a rogue hunt for his own missing daughter. Law enforcement sources — one within the city police department, another affiliated with police who has information on the case — said Tuesday that investigators are probing allegations that detective Daniel Thomas Nicholson IV used his badge while off duty to gain entry to homes in an unauthorized search.

A man was shot Sunday afternoon at the corner of Kirk Avenue and Fillmore Street in Northeast Baltimore, according to the Baltimore City Police Department. No other details were available as detectives continued to investigate. Police were also investigating an incident in the 5400 block of Jonquil Avenue, where a man was shot in the arm. andrea.walker@baltsun.com twitter.com/ankwalker Text BUSINESS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun Business text alerts