Police Lieutenant

A former Anne Arundel County police lieutenant was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison for his relationship with a teen 30 years younger than him and for receiving child pornography, officials said. James Cifala, 47, of Edgewater, had a sexual relationship with a teenage girl, beginning in 2009, that involved Cifala using pre-paid cell phones and social networking sites to send and receive messages from the victim, including arranging sexual encounters with her, according to a release from U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

The first time I saw Audie Mickens, he had just turned 19 and he'd been arrested as the shooter in an attempted murder in Northwest Baltimore. He appeared at a hearing in District Court, and as I listened to the prosecutor detail the charges against him, I wondered how his life would turn out. Would the young fool go to prison? Would he die an early death? Was there any hope for a better outcome? Police alleged that, on the afternoon of May 3, 2007, Mickens had slipped a paintball mask over his face and stepped out of a Chevrolet Monte Carlo with a .45-caliber handgun.

A state police lieutenant has been suspended with pay after his arrest on drunken driving charges in his hometown of Hampstead last month. Until the charges are resolved, Lt. David A. Barcroft will perform administrative duties at his current assignment in the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division, said Lt. Bud Frank, a state police spokesman. Barcroft was charged with driving while intoxicated by a Hampstead police officer Sept. 24, after he allegedly was seen drinking before he moved his truck to park it in town.

Weeks after Baltimore County agreed pay about $500,000 to settle a workplace discrimination suit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, a former county police lieutenant and two former firefighters have filed federal lawsuits claiming that they were illegally forced off their jobs. Each of the suits filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore demands $2.3 million in damages and compensation for violations of rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which bars workplace and hiring discrimination based on medical conditions.

George Henneman II, a former Baltimore police lieutenant who enjoyed working with children through the Police Boys Club, died Nov. 25 of cancer complications at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Arbutus resident was 92. Born in the Baltimore community of Pigtown, he left Southern High School before graduation to pursue work. As a young man, he was a clerk at First National Bank and a machine operator in area shipyards. He joined the police force in 1942, working first for the Police Boys Club, which organized athletic leagues for city youth.

In a ruling issued yesterday, a Baltimore Circuit Court judge backed the city Police Department's decision to fire a lieutenant who was caught at an underground strip show while on duty last year. Lawyers for Lt. John Mack had appealed the decision of a departmental trial board, which found the lieutenant guilty of 38 misconduct charges and urged his firing in October. Police Commissioner Edward T. Norris, who earlier had told a City Council hearing that Mack was in a "whorehouse on duty," fired the officer.

Frank William Grunder, a retired Baltimore police lieutenant who ran the department's polygraph lab, died of kidney failure Saturday at Anne Arundel Medical Center. The Linthicum resident was 96, and the father of a slain city police sergeant. Born in Baltimore and raised on Fort Avenue, he graduated in 1926 from Calvert Hall College High School, where he played tennis and football. As a young man, Lieutenant Grunder rowed for the old Arundel Rowing Club in the Patapsco River and was an alternate for the 1932 Olympic games held in Los Angeles.

Services for Harry W. White, a retired lieutenant in the Baltimore Police Department who had been a World War II fighter pilot, will be held at 11:30 a.m. today at the St. James United Methodist Church, Lexington and Monroe streets.Mr. White, who was 66 and lived on Burleith Avenue, died Sunday at Sinai Hospital after a stroke.He retired in 1985 as a lieutenant in the Traffic Division, where he spent most of his 28-year police career.Before World War II he worked for the Glenn L. Martin Co., and afterward he worked for the post office.

Richard M. Catania Sr., retired director of security for the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel and former Baltimore City police lieutenant, died of cancer Dec. 9 at his Linthicum home. He was 64.He was director of security for the Sheraton from 1985 until he retired last year.The former resident of Morrell Park in South Baltimore joined the Police Department in 1955 and retired in 1985. He received 16 official commendations during his career.In 1965, he received a special commendation after he and another officer raced into a burning West Baltimore rowhouse and rescued three children.

A 41-year-old man charged with fatally shooting a Baltimore police lieutenant in May entered an insanity plea yesterday in Baltimore Circuit Court.Baron Michael Cherry of the 5900 block of Bertram Ave. entered a plea of not criminally responsible in the May 7 shooting death of Lt. Owen Sweeney, 47.Sweeney, a 28-year veteran, was killed by a shot fired through the front door of Cherry's northeast home after Denise Cherry had called police because her husband...

  Baltimore City posted new pay data for city workers on its Open Baltimore website Wednesday, and the numbers once again illustrate how overtime can help lift incomes far above annual salary levels. The figures show that 328 municipal employees - 172 at the Police Department - received gross pay at least 50 percent above their salary. The data covers fiscal 2012, which ended June 30. Police Lt. Stephen C. Nalewajko Jr. made more money than MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blake, earning $166,200 compared to the mayor's gross pay of $161,800.

Two Baltimore men were charged Thursday with multiple counts of attempted first-degree murder and assault in connection with a shooting that took place the previous evening in Dundalk and prompted a lengthy car chase through the city and parts of Baltimore County. The two men charged were identified as Charles Gregory Robinson, 33, of the 4500 block of Pimlico Road in Park Heights, who was also charged with using a handgun in a felony, and Quincy Alford, 31, of the 3300 block of W. Forest Park Ave. in the city's Ashburton neighborhood.

A former Anne Arundel County police lieutenant was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison for his relationship with a teen 30 years younger than him and for receiving child pornography, officials said. James Cifala, 47, of Edgewater, had a sexual relationship with a teenage girl, beginning in 2009, that involved Cifala using pre-paid cell phones and social networking sites to send and receive messages from the victim, including arranging sexual encounters with her, according to a release from U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

Anne Arundel County police lieutenants now have the chance to organize. The County Council has unanimously approved a bill that allows lieutenants to join a union or form their own, in an effort to provide greater fairness in compensation. Lieutenants, who occupy key supervisory roles, often are paid less than some of their subordinates because they are not part of a union and cannot earn overtime. The department, including Police Chief James Teare Sr., has sought to keep the lieutenants from unionizing, arguing that lieutenants joining less-senior officers in a union could present a conflict.

Citing pay disparity and the potential loss of officers, Anne Arundel County Councilman James Benoit has introduced legislation that would allow county police lieutenants to unionize. Frustrated that subordinates earn more money and have greater job protections, the lieutenants have been trying to become part of a bargaining unit since last year but have been rebuffed by a county government that opposes unionization of management personnel. "The injustice is, the lieutenants get less pay than the cops that work for them," said Benoit, a Democrat.

An Anne Arundel County police lieutenant is in federal custody on charges he received child pornography in the form of sexually explicit text messages and digital pictures sent to his cell phone by a teen-age girl more than 30 years his junior. Lt. James B. Cifala, 47, could be sentenced to between five and 20 years in prison if convicted. A detention hearing is scheduled today. "This case is particularly disturbing because it involves an individual who had a professional duty of protecting our children," Richard McFeely, the special agent in charge of the Baltimore office of the FBI, said in a statement.

A veteran Anne Arundel County police lieutenant was suspended from duty yesterday and accused of falsifying a prescription for Ritalin, the Police Department confirmed.Lt. Robert Tice, 44, a shift commander in the Northern District, was charged with two counts of prescription fraud after a pharmacist notified police Friday that Tice had altered his Ritalin prescription, according to police.Lt. Jeff Kelly, a police department spokesman, confirmed that a criminal summons was issued to Tice and that he was suspended -- with pay -- pending an internal investigation.

A state police lieutenant won a court-ordered reprieve yesterday after charging that he has been unfairly punished amid intense criticism of the agency's tracking of domestic violence orders. In a lawsuit, Lt. David Barcroft says officials want to transfer him from Pikesville to a "made-up" position in Salisbury, a seven-hour, round-trip commute from his Hampstead home. A ruling filed yesterday guarantees that Barcroft -- who supervised grant money used to maintain the domestic violence database -- will remain at the Annapolis barracks until a hearing determines whether his transfer was fair.

One by one, they stood and walked up the blue carpet to the front of the chapel to pay their respects to Edward William Eldridge Jr. They were retired police colonels and active police majors in dress blues, black mourning bands stretched across their badges. A current Baltimore councilwoman and a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives. A police chaplain and a war veteran. The Baltimore County state's attorney. Neighbors, one-time friends and former colleagues. Strangers who felt it necessary to say goodbye.