Police Sergeant

When Baltimore police forced their way inside a rowhouse on North Luzerne Avenue, they were acting on a tip that occupants were selling drugs. The bust was based, a department spokesman said, "on community intelligence." Police charging documents filed this week say detectives found what they were looking for: •A blue shoe box inside a tall dresser in a basement bedroom that contained a digital scale, a cell phone, large and small plastic bags containing up to a half-pound of suspected marijuana and two bags containing suspected drug residue, each filled with cash - $100 in one, $325 in another.

Sgt. Richard Willard, who this week settled a lawsuit he filed against the city alleging he never got help after fatally shooting a man in 2005, sent me an email wanting to explain his situation further. I had talked to his attorney on Wednesday. The sergeant, who agreed to drop his litigation in exchange for the city dropping its bid to fire him, will retire July 1, giving him 20 years on the job and enough time to collect his pension, about half his $73,000 salary. His allegations raised questions about whether city officers who fire their guns suffer emotional distress and whether the department gives them enough help.

Mary Jane LaPlante, a retired Baltimore City police sergeant who handled military aircraft during World War II, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease Friday at Carroll Lutheran Village. She was 88 and lived in Westminster. Born Mary Jane White in Baltimore and raised on Linnard Street, she attended St. Bernardine's Parochial School and was a 1940 graduate of the Institute of Notre Dame. She attended the University of Maryland, College Park. Family members said that as a young woman, Mrs. LaPlante wanted to learn to fly a plane and bicycled from her home off Edmondson Avenue to the old Rutherford airfield near Woodlawn, where she took flying lessons.

A Baltimore police sergeant was suspended and criminally charged with perjury and misconduct after a months-long investigation into allegations he used false information to obtain a search and seizure warrant. Sgt. Dennis W. Workley, who's been on the force since 1996 assigned to the Eastern District, was charged Wednesday by the Baltimore state's attorney's office via criminal information. No details were immediately available. Police union lawyer Michael Davey, who expects to represent Workley, said Wednesday afternoon that he  hadn't yet seen the charging documents and couldn't comment.

The 21-year-old son of a Baltimore police sergeant was arrested Thursday night after officers raided the family's rowhouse in the 1000 block of N. Luzerne Ave. and found a half-pound of marijuana, the department's chief spokesman said. The sergeant, who was not identified but is assigned to the Northern District, has been placed on desk duty. Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said an internal investigation is being conducted to determine whether the officer knew about the drugs and whether drugs were being dealt from the house.

The gun battle raged in three different spots near the old Murphy Homes high-rise in West Baltimore, ending on a cold February day with the death of a 20-year-old man in a hail of gunfire from four city police officers. Four years later, one of the officers claimed he was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but says he never got the help he needed to cope with killing a man. Instead, Richard A. Willard says the department is trying to fire him. The sergeant sued the Police Department this week, and is seeking an injunction in U.S. District Court court to delay his Feb. 22 termination hearing.

Sgt. Richard Willard, who this week settled a lawsuit he filed against the city alleging he never got help after fatally shooting a man in 2005, sent me an email wanting to explain his situation further. I had talked to his attorney on Wednesday. The sergeant, who agreed to drop his litigation in exchange for the city dropping its bid to fire him, will retire July 1, giving him 20 years on the job and enough time to collect his pension, about half his $73,000 salary. His allegations raised questions about whether city officers who fire their guns suffer emotional distress and whether the department gives them enough help.

A county police sergeant who allegedly used a picture of a nude woman to harass a female co-worker has been charged administratively with conduct unbecoming an officer and violating the department's sexual harassment policy, police officials said.Sgt. Lafayette Harvey, a patrol supervisor at the Northern District station, was charged in December with harassing a female officer and a civilian employee who works at the station with him, Sgt. Mark Howse, assistant to the chief, confirmed Friday.

Charles F. Siford, a retired Baltimore police sergeant, died of heart failure Saturday at Atria Assisted Living in Salisbury. The former Northwood resident was 94. Born in Sparrows Point and raised on an eastern Baltimore County farm, he attended public schools. He had been a route salesman for a laundry company before joining the Police Department in 1945. His first assignment was walking an Eastern District beat in Highlandtown. He won numerous commendations before being promoted to sergeant in 1956.

When a police sergeant approached a black Jeep Cherokee parked on the side of Piney Orchard Parkway in Anne Arundel County, its hazard lights blinking, she thought it would be a routine check on a stranded motorist. But the encounter was the first in a series of events that ended with the motorist's death. Police said that when the sergeant approached, 41-year-old Patrick Raphael Toney, an academic adviser at Bowie State University, got out of the vehicle, threw items onto the ground and spat.

Jurors in the retrial of two brothers accused of setting a pit bull ablaze heard testimony from two key witnesses Wednesday, one revealing new details in a police surveillance video while the other raised questions about what he saw the day of the crime. Police Sgt. Jarron Jackson identified Travers and Tremayne Johnson in the video, which shows parts of the May 27, 2009, incident. He pointed them out walking the dog and leading her to an alley close to where the dog was found in flames.

The Monkees came to town for a concert last night, and had 10,000 teeny-boppers swinging from the rafters. For an eternal hour, what are normally only a bunch of electronic particles on a television screen became oh so real to an enthusiastic, youthful, predominately female audience which turned the Civic Center into a temporary insane asylum. The turned-on generation turned out in force and fashion and did just what is normal for such occasions: screamed, applauded, cried, charged the stage and generally went hysterical.

The gun battle raged in three different spots near the old Murphy Homes high-rise in West Baltimore, ending on a cold February day with the death of a 20-year-old man in a hail of gunfire from four city police officers. Four years later, one of the officers claimed he was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but says he never got the help he needed to cope with killing a man. Instead, Richard A. Willard says the department is trying to fire him. The sergeant sued the Police Department this week, and is seeking an injunction in U.S. District Court court to delay his Feb. 22 termination hearing.

Despite the placid assurances of Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, the 4th of July at the Inner Harbor was a nightmare for many. Thugs terrorized tourists. One man was shot twice. Another was slashed to death. A 4-year old was shot in the groin. The Sun's nuanced assessment? These things happen. Baltimore's reputation for violence "is a product of many circumstances. " ("Inner Harbor fireworks," July 6.) The Sun glows on: "Any reasonable person must conclude that Mr. Bealefeld has been steering Baltimore on an appropriate course.

In a remorseful letter to her mother, a 23-year-old pregnant woman accused of burglarizing her parents' home described how her heroin habit had overshadowed her sense of right and wrong. "I'm sorry for everything that I have done to you," Crystal Ann Evans wrote in the letter, reproduced in court documents after her Feb. 14 arrest. "It really wasn't me, the drug took over my life!" Evans is one of two women picked up by police in connection with a string of crimes in recent months in the Baltimore County countryside that prompted some residents to arm themselves.

While trying to avoid incriminating his friends, a reluctant witness in the animal-cruelty trial of twins Travers and Tremayne Johnson came close to implicating himself while testifying Tuesday. Prosecutors interrupted Michael Taylor, 21, while he was answering defense questions on the stand, raising Fifth Amendment concerns and leading the court to call in Taylor's attorney before allowing him to proceed. The disruption occurred after defense attorneys pointed out that Taylor's appearance matched a description of someone seen running from the West Baltimore alley where a pit bull nicknamed Phoenix was set on fire May 27, 2009.