Probation

The commission that awards accreditation to higher education institutions has placed Baltimore City Community College on probation because of concerns about the school's ability to evaluate student learning. The Middle States Commission on Higher Education last month announced that it will review the school's accreditation after questions were raised over the "assessment of student learning" which "demonstrates that, at graduation, or other appropriate points, the institution's students have knowledge, skills, and competencies consistent with institutional and appropriate higher education goals," according to the commission's website.

A Naval Academy professor will spend two weekends in jail and be on probation, after he admitted breaking into the Gambrills home of his former girlfriend. Lt. Cmdr. Charles D. Spera, 31, of Bowie, was granted probation before judgment this week by Annapolis District Court Judge Megan B. Johnson, according to court records. She ordered Spera to serve four days in the Anne Arundel County jail and placed him on 18 months probation, after he pleaded guilty to burglary, the records say. The sentence, which is not a conviction, means his record can eventually be cleared if he meets all conditions.

An Anne Arundel County high school teacher was sentenced Wednesday to three years of supervised probation after pleading guilty to a fourth-degree sex offense involving a 17-year-old student. Kristyn N. Breeds, 29, who was a special education teacher and indoor track coach at Northeast High School in Pasadena, admitted to a sexual relationship that began in the spring of 2009 and ended in December, prosecutors said. The Severna Park woman was removed from the classroom on Jan. 4 and charged 10 days later with three counts of a fourth-degree sex offense.

No one was going to believe his account, he thought. Ricky Thomas — who'd done prison time for dealing drugs and resisting arrest — said he was sucker-punched in the face by a Baltimore police officer and stomped. Now he was locked up and facing charges of assaulting police. But there was video of the incident. And unknown to him, investigators with the Police Department's internal affairs unit and the city prosecutor's office were pursuing the case. Last month, Officer Donyell Briggs was given probation before judgment by a city judge on charges of second-degree assault and misconduct in office.

The teenager charged in the daylight abduction of a man from in front of his Guilford home this week is on probation for robbing a woman at knifepoint in the same North Baltimore neighborhood in 2008, a crime for which he served just one year in prison, according to court records. On June 18, a Circuit Court judge agreed to a deal struck between a prosecutor and a public defender in which John Couplin pleaded guilty to one count of robbery with a deadly weapon and a sentence of 10 years in prison.

For the second time in eight years, Carl O. Snowden, current director of the civil rights office in the state attorney general's office, received probation before judgment for drunken driving, and questions have been raised illegalities. "I'm going to have to figure it out myself," said prosecutor Henry Dove. The Talbot County assistant state's attorney was assigned to the Anne Arundel County case because Snowden, a former Annapolis alderman and aide to the previous county executive, has long been involved in civil rights and politics in the county and had worked with the Anne Arundel prosecutor's office.

An elderly Pennsylvania woman was sentenced this week to two years of probation and community service in the hit-and-run death of an 11-year-old boy from Baltimore last year. Fern Ness, 79, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge in the Memorial Day weekend death of Derek Johnson II in York County, Pa. Investigators said the boy was thrown more than 60 feet after Ness hit him as he was riding his bicycle near Jacobus. Prosecutors said Derek slid into Ness' path while trying to stop his bike at an intersection.

A Baltimore City firefighter received probation before judgment Wednesday in a drunk-driving crash last year that left a woman and her son hospitalized. Christopher Kyle Johnson, 30, was placed on two years of supervised probation for a traffic violation, while five counts of second-degree assault charges were dropped. His attorney, Bruce Robinson, said Johnson had no previous arrests or offenses, and he did not have any points on his license. "The judge was able to weigh the pros and the cons of this case," Robinson said, adding that Johnson had no previous record and that he had received numerous awards from the fire department for his service.

The chairman and chief executive officer of First Mariner Bancorp was granted probation before judgment Tuesday on a charge of having a loaded handgun in his carry-on luggage earlier this month at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, according to court records. Edwin F. Hale, 64, who also owns the Baltimore Blast indoor soccer team, was placed on one year of unsupervised probation by a judge in the Glen Burnie District Court and fined $342.50, court records show.

A former Carroll woman convicted in 1984 of killing her husband was given probation before judgment yesterday on a September theft charge.Julie Rebecca Wilt, 33, received the ruling during a sentencing hearing before Carroll Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns.Wilt faced a jail term of up to 20 years, but Burns said he considered circumstances surrounding the incident and Wilt's efforts to teach fellow inmates to read during her nine-month incarceration in Jessup."I feel that there's a good possibility that Mrs. Wilt can salvage her life and become a productive citizen," Burns said in handing down his decision.

Carolane Williams does not flinch when confronted with the particulars of her difficult year, which included an employee uprising and unwanted scrutiny from the leader of the state. "I knew I was going to have to tough it out," says the woman who has led Baltimore City Community College for the past five years. She regards the backlash as a natural byproduct of bold leadership, though others have accused her of pressing ahead on questionable decisions without regard for useful input.

Lavelva Merritt was sentenced to an additional five years in prison Monday after a judge ruled that she violated her probation from an earlier drug case when she and a boyfriend attacked a Johns Hopkins researcher last year, the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office announced. Merritt, 25, was previously sentenced to 30 years in prison — with half of the time suspended — for robbing Stephen Pitcairn as he walked home along St. Paul Street in July 2010. Her boyfriend, John Wagner, was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years for stabbing Pitcairn to death during the robbery.

John Wagner was ordered to serve an additional seven years in prison for the 2010 murder of a Johns Hopkins researcher after a judge ruled Friday that the stabbing death violated Wagner's probation from an earlier assault case, the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office announced. Wagner, 38, was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years in October for the robbery and murder of Stephen Pitcairn last year, as the young man walked home along St. Paul Street. Both he and his co-defendant, Lavelva Merritt, were on probation for other cases at the time of the attack.

Lavelva Merritt, who helped rob a Johns Hopkins researcher last year as her boyfriend murdered him, was sentenced to 30 years in prison Monday under a plea deal struck in May, though half the time was suspended, making her eligible for parole in roughly six years. The term is short compared with the life sentence her accomplice, John Wagner, received last month after an emotional trial in Baltimore Circuit Court, but it reflects her cooperation in the case, prosecutors said. "Without Ms. Merritt's testimony, I'm not sure whether we would have been successful" in convicting Wagner, Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein said Monday.

The head of the Baltimore County police union has had his police powers restored after he received probation before judgment on misdemeanor assault charges in Circuit Court this week. Sgt. Cole B. Weston had his police powers suspended and was placed on administrative duties soon after he was charged in late March with second-degree assault and reckless endangerment in connection with an altercation with another man in Parkville. Police spokeswoman Detective Cathy Batton said that after an administrative hearing at the Police Department this week, Weston's police powers were restored.

A teen who police say was driving unsupervised on a learner's permit when her sport utility vehicle collided with a car whose driver later died was on probation on a previous traffic citation, court records show. After Sunday's two-car collision, Anne Arundel County police issued four traffic citations charging Elizabeth Ramirez, 19, of Millersville with running a red light, driving unsupervised on a learner's permit, and negligent and reckless driving. Police said she was the driver of a Jeep Cherokee that turned left into an oncoming car on Route 3 near Davidsonville Road.

Thomas Andrews Drake, the former NSA employee accused of felony espionage but convicted of a misdemeanor computer violation, was sentenced Friday in Baltimore's federal court to 240 hours of community service and one year's probation. It was an abrupt end to a lengthy case that became a rallying point for both free-speech advocates and those seeking to plug media leaks. It had also threatened to imprison Drake, who was accused of retaining classified information to give to a Baltimore Sun reporter, for up to 35 years before a surprising plea deal was struck on the eve of trial last month.