Prison Sentence

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- The fall from grace of Allan Boesak, an activist anti-apartheid cleric, ended yesterday with a six-year prison sentence for theft and fraud involving $200,000 donated for the victims of white supremacy.Boesak, 53, whose opposition to apartheid earned him an international reputation, used the stolen money to finance the high life after leaving his wife of 21 years to marry television producer Elna Botha.The tough prison sentence did little to quell the debate about whether and how much Boesak's high-profile activities during the years of the "struggle" should weigh in the scales of justice.

After making emotional appeals for mercy while acknowledging responsibility for illegally bringing a dozen young people to the United States and forcing them to work at menial jobs, three leaders of a Woodbine church were sentenced to prison terms yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.The events leading to yesterday's action began in 1992, when organizers of the Word of Faith World Outreach church left Maryland for Estonia, a small country on the Baltic Sea.After delivering Bibles and preaching for several years, church leaders returned with young Estonians under religious and student visas.

Mandatory sentence tied the judge's hands in 'nanny' court 0) caseThe issue in the case of Louise Woodward is not guilt or innocence and is not the authority of a judge to override a jury verdict by downshifting a finding from second-degree murder to manslaughter.The issue is the state of Massachusetts' blind adherence to mandatory sentencing.In Massachusetts, the mandatory penalty for a finding of second-degree murder is a life in prison sentence -- no judge, no jury discretion.The Massachusetts judge found himself between a very difficult rock and hard place.

John C. Dortch is a decorated Vietnam veteran, a law school graduate and a convicted murderer. He will not be a lawyer in Maryland, the state's highest court has ruled.Dortch, 51, was denied admission to the Maryland bar yesterday when the Court of Appeals said he cannot practice law while on parole for his role in the 1974 slaying of a police officer. Dortch's parole is for life."A person on parole is still serving a prison sentence, albeit, beyond the prison walls," Judge Howard S. Chasanow wrote in a 15-page ruling.

A Westminster man who received a suspended prison sentence in July after assaulting his former girlfriend with a knife is being held on $25,000 bail on charges of assaulting a friend with a knife, court records show.Juan M. Leyva, 27, of the 100 block of Pennsylvania Ave. was arrested Monday after witnesses told police Leyva and Penarbel Hymberto, 25, argued on South Center Street about 5: 35 p.m. over Leyva's not returning Hymberto's car on time, according to charging documents.Leyva faces charges of first-degree assault, reckless endangerment, using a deadly weapon with intent to injure and disorderly conduct in public.

Three puffs of marijuana, a drop of hallucinogenic drugs and a $40 contribution to buy LSD ended Drew S. Fullerton's Naval career yesterday as he became the fourth midshipman this year sentenced to prison on drug charges.In a staid court-martial at the Naval Academy, Fullerton, 22, pleaded guilty to four felony drug charges stemming from the arrest in October of two midshipmen caught buying LSD in a Glen Burnie hotel room.Each count carried a five-year maximum prison sentence. But a sealed plea bargain arranged before the three-hour hearing called for Fullerton's discharge from the Navy, expulsion from the academy, restitution of more than $80,000 in tuition and a 60-day jail sentence.

A North Laurel man was given probation and a suspended prison term yesterday for his role in a ring that stole 20 four-wheel-drive vehicles last winter.Jeffrey Kenneth Rhodes, 20, is the last of the seven members of a car club called the Low Riders to be sentenced in Howard Circuit Court.Judge Dennis Sweeney gave Rhodes an 18-month suspended prison sentence as part of a plea agreement Rhodes accepted in October for unauthorized use of a vehicle. The judge also ordered Rhodes to complete 18 months of probation, perform 100 hours of community service, and pay $627 in restitution and a $100 fine.

A 20-year-old man was sentenced yesterday to two years in prison in a plea deal for his role in a burglary ring that targeted scores of warehouses and construction sites throughout Maryland.Samuel David Thomas of Abingdon in Harford County was sentenced in Howard County Circuit Court after blaming his cocaine addiction for leading him into 38 thefts and burglaries.Thomas was one of four men charged in connection with burglaries and thefts in Baltimore, Howard County and four other Maryland counties that police say were carried out by the ring between January 1992 and July 1994.

WASHINGTON -- Convicted murderers facing a possible death sentence have a constitutional right -- limited in scope -- to try to convince the jury that society will be just as safe from them if they are sent to prison for life, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday.The information that a life sentence means an inmate will stay behind bars permanently, the court said in the 7-2 decision, may be used to offset pleas by prosecutors that murderers are so dangerous that executing them is the only way to protect society.

A man serving a 30-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting two Ellicott City girls in 1991 went to court Thursday, asking for relief from what his attorney called a "death sentence."Patrick Leo Cunningham, 54, requested a panel of three Howard Circuit Court judges to review the sentence he was given for six charges -- crimes he said he did not commit."I didn't do this," said Cunningham, of Owings Mills. "I don't know what else I can do."The Circuit Court panel -- made up of Judges James Dudley, Raymond Kane Jr. and Cornelius Sybert Jr. -- can maintain, reduce or increase Cunningham's sentence, which was set by Judge Dennis Sweeney in December.

A Pasadena man was sentenced last week to 18 months in jail for causing a fatal head-on crash when driving drunk in the aftermath of a fight with his girlfriend. Christopher John Nelson, 26, also will serve five years of supervised probation for the Jan. 8 collision that took the life of Elizabeth M. Fowler, 54, of Severna Park. Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Michele D. Jaklitsch suspended another 6 1/2 years of a prison sentence. Another 18-month sentence for causing life-threatening injuries to Fowler's passenger and friend, Steven Desombre, will run at the same time as the first one. Jaklitsch also ordered Nelson to attend a victim impact panel at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

Baltimore police identified yesterday four victims from a recent spate of homicides, including a 14-year-old boy killed in Sunday's quadruple shooting. Police said the boy, Perrish Parker, was killed along with 26-year-old Darren Davis and 45-year-old Troy Brown when gunfire erupted in the 4000 block of Oakford Ave. in Northwest Baltimore on Sunday night. He was the 24th juvenile homicide victim this year, and the second 14-year-old killed in November, the city's deadliest month of 2008.

In April 2003, William Vincent Brown pleaded guilty to dealing 30 gel caps of heroin to an undercover Howard County detective, but a judge kept him free on bail as he awaited sentencing. Six days later, Baltimore police say, he raped and nearly killed a prostitute, leaving her for dead in a city park after severing her ears. The judge's decision not to hold Brown was the first of many breaks the defendant received in a drug case that moved through Howard County's court system at a time when city police say they now believe he carried out three violent attacks on women.

Former state Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell, who pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge last year, reported to a federal prison yesterday to begin serving a seven-year sentence, according to a Bureau of Prisons spokesman. Bromwell, a Democrat, arrived about 2 p.m. at Devens Federal Medical Center in north-central Massachusetts. It is a decommissioned military base that houses male inmates who require specialized or long-term medical care, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons Web site.

A Harford County man convicted of crack and cocaine distribution was linked to the shooting death of a confidential drug informant during a sentencing hearing yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Gary B. Williams Jr., 28, of Abingdon was convicted on three counts of drug distribution in December. The key witness in the drug case was Robin Lee Welshons, an informant who was cooperating with federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents by making recorded telephone calls and buying drugs from Williams in 2005, court records showed.

A federal judge in Baltimore yesterday sentenced an Afghan national living in Maryland to almost two years in prison for filing false documents in his immigration case. U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis sentenced Nabi Nabil, 30, of Brandywine to 22 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for conspiracy to obstruct proceedings before a United States agency. Nabil is subject to deportation proceedings after he serves his prison sentence, prosecutors said. According to his guilty plea, Nabil applied for status as a permanent resident but lied about his marital status.

A federal judge handed down a relatively harsh sentence yesterday against one of the supporting players in the bribery case against former state Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell Sr., saying that the crime of lying to investigators warranted six months in prison. David M. Jackman, 51, a former project manager for a Baltimore construction company who had pleaded guilty in federal court to lying to investigators about discounted work done at Bromwell's Baltimore County home, received the prison time plus three years of probation in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

A humbled and contrite Thomas L. Bromwell, who exercised extraordinary political power during almost a quarter-century in elected office, was sentenced yesterday to seven years in prison, ending a public corruption investigation that exposed how a local construction-firm executive spent years bribing the former state senator. Near the end of the two-hour sentencing hearing in the cavernous ceremonial courtroom at U.S. District Court in downtown Baltimore, the 58-year-old Baltimore County Democrat stood up and gripped the lectern.

A 38-year-old Baltimore man was sentenced yesterday to six years in prison for bank fraud and aggravated identify theft for his role in fraudulently opening credit accounts, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Christopher Carson had pleaded guilty to opening accounts in the names of at least 15 victims, federal prosecutors said. Carson worked with Nekia Hunter, who purchased credit reports stolen from a mortgage company and then manufactured fraudulent Maryland driver's licenses for Carson and others.

On Christmas Eve of 2004, the Atlanta Falcons gave Michael Vick a 10-year, $130 million contract, more in recognition of his promise than his production. Almost three years and $22 million worth of signing bonus later, Vick is likely headed to prison and his football career is in jeopardy. The brilliantly talented, but tragically flawed quarterback has fallen short of the Falcons' vision in every way possible. It is uncertain whether there will be any more NFL Sundays in store for Vick after a 12-to-18-month prison sentence - the punishment expected to be meted out for a guilty plea to dogfighting charges.