Police Detective

Opening arguments will begin today in the Circuit Court trial of an Ellicott City man charged with raping a 14-year-old girl who Howard County police say is borderline mentally retarded.The girl told police that a man walked her to a shed behind an abandoned house in the 3600 block of Fels Lane in Ellicott City and had sex with her the evening of March 4. The shed is near the Roger Carter Neighborhood Center in Ellicott City.Jury selection and the trial were delayed for several hours yesterday because a key witness -- a police detective -- was unable to appear in court, said defense attorney Jonathan S. Smith.

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.

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.

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 25-year-old Laurel woman was charged with prostitution after she allegedly propositioned a police detective Thursday night in a parkinglot.County police said the woman approached the detective on Whiskey Bottom Road and got into his car with him. He said he drove her to the parking lot of the Drexel Park apartments off Red Clay Road, and she offered him sex for money.Linda Carole Hose Gilbert was taken to Western District station to be charged.SEVERN MAN ARRESTED ON DRUG CHARGESA Severn man whopolice say was receiving drug shipments from California was charged with possession of marijuana after police searched his home Thursday night.

Taking the witness stand yesterday for the third consecutive day, a homicide detective who interviewed the two Mexican immigrants accused of killing three young relatives was put on the defensive -- about his acting abilities. Policarpio Espinoza, 23, and his nephew, Adan Canela, 18, are on trial on three counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy charges in the May 2004 slashing deaths in Fallstaff of an 8-year-old girl, her 9-year-old brother and their 10-year-old male cousin. The trial began with opening statements July 8 and could continue into early August.

The lead investigator in the case of a former Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps instructor charged with having sex with one of his students admitted in court Wednesday that he made a mistake by failing to seize any of Sgt. Charles Ray Moore's uniforms during a search of Moore's Bowie home. Under cross-examination from attorney Thomas Morrow, Howard County Detective Mark Orlofsky said "it was an error" not to take the uniform that Moore might have been wearing when a 17-year-old student said she had sex with him in the JROTC supply closet at Atholton High School.

A 28-year-old Howard County police recruit died yesterday shortly after finishing a two-mile run at the police academy in Columbia, authorities said.Roger Dale Cassell Jr. -- whose brother is a Howard County police officer and whose father is a state police detective -- finished the run and was cooling down with several other recruits when he collapsed about 3:45 p.m. in the parking lot.Police officials said a heart attack was the likely cause of death....

Richard Thomas Palmer, a retired city police officer and active church member, died of a heart attack Friday after collapsing at his Southwest Baltimore home. He was 62. A Baltimore native, Mr. Palmer was raised on Leeds Street and eventually bought the house across the street from the one his parents had owned. He graduated in 1958 from Edmondson High School and served in the Marine Corps as a field radio operator before becoming a police officer in 1961. "He had a photographic memory, never forgot a face - that's what made him such a good street cop," said longtime friend and fellow detective Oscar Requer.

A Baltimore City homicide detective was shot in the leg about a block from police headquarters Tuesday night. The plainclothes detective was shot a little after 9 p.m. in a parking garage in the unit block of South Frederick Street, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said. The unidentified 13-year police department veteran was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with a graze wound to his left thigh, an injury not considered life-threatening, he said. The detective was in the garage to get something out of his car when a man approached with a small-caliber revolver, Bealefeld said.