NEWS
By Matthew Hay Brown, The Baltimore Sun | May 11, 2012
Alan Gross, the Maryland man who is serving 15 years in a Cuban prison after taking communications equipment into the communist nation, is asking authorities there to let him return to the United States to visit his ailing mother before she dies. Gross, who grew up in the Baltimore area and lived in Potomac, told CNN that he and his lawyer had written to the Cuban government "on more than one occasion" to request permission to see Evelyn Gross. "I have a 90-year-old mother who has inoperable lung cancer.
NEWS
Tricia Bishop | May 11, 2012
A 10th Baltimore police officer was sentenced to federal prison Friday for taking kickbacks from an auto repair company, the Maryland U.S. attorney's office announced. Leonel Rodriguez, 32, of Essex, was sentenced to 30 months for extortion and conspiracy and ordered to pay restitution of more than $16,000. Rodriguez admitted illegally referring car crash participants to Majestic Auto Repair in Rosedale in exchanges for a $300 fee from the shop owners, who've also pleaded guilty in the scheme.
NEWS
By Tricia Bishop | May 10, 2012
A 32-year-old Crofton man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Thursday for armed bank robbery, after holding up the same two M&T banks a total of five times and making off with more than $30,000, sometimes wishing the tellers a “nice day” on his way out, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office. Wearing a hoodie and a neoprene face mask, William Alexander Norbeck burst into an M&T Bank on the 500 block of Solomons Island Road in Prince Frederick in March of last year, racking a 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun and telling everyone to “get down,” according to his plea agreement.
NEWS
By Arthur Hirsch, The Baltimore Sun | May 4, 2012
A Baltimore County man was found guilty by a Circuit Court jury Friday of fatally shooting a man found in an Owings Mills home in 2009, a state prosecutor said. Gerald E. Sears, 31, who was living in Owings Mills at the time of the killing, was convicted of first-degree murder, dealing cocaine and a handgun charge in the death of Scott M. Greenberg, 51, a father of two who ran a snowball stand on Reisterstown Road. He could be sentenced to life in prison without parole, said, Assistant State's Attorney Adam Lippe.
NEWS
By Tricia Bishop, The Baltimore Sun | May 4, 2012
With a full math and science scholarship to the Johns Hopkins University and accolades for his writing, Howard County's Mohammad Hassan Khalid seemed ready to continue the American dream his father embarked on years ago when he brought the family from Pakistan. But instead, on Friday the 18-year-old Khalid became one of the youngest people ever convicted in federal court of conspiracy to aid terrorists. He could receive up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at his sentencing, which has not been scheduled.
NEWS
By Tricia Bishop, The Baltimore Sun | May 3, 2012
Penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana in Maryland — less than 10 grams — will drop in October, when a new law goes into effect reducing the maximum prison term to 90 days from one year and cutting the potential fine in half, to $500 from $1000. Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein backed the bill, which was signed into law Wednesday, as a way to reduce the number of cases clogging the city's circuit courts. "To continue making Baltimore safer, we must focus our limited resources on the strategic investigation and aggressive prosecution of violent offenders," Bernstein said in a statement.