Prosecution

A Baltimore City Community College employee has been indicted on allegations that she directed student tuition payments into her personal bank account, the city prosecutor's office announced Thursday. Michelle Campbell of Waldorf was indicted by a city grand jury on 13 counts charging her in a scheme that prosecutors say netted about $8,000. State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein will personally prosecute the case, his office said in a news release. According to the state's attorney's office, Campbell worked as an administrative assistant at the school's Lombard Street campus, where her job included helping students register for courses that would lead to certificates in jobs such as pharmacy technicians, nursing assistants and teaching assistants.

Con artist Rodney Getlan did not just take people's money - his actions caused them to lose their homes. That he stole the sanctuary of a roof and four walls may have led to Getlan's getting a much longer prison term. Baltimore County Circuit Judge Vicki Ballou-Watts sentenced Getlan to 35 years in prison this week, a sentence on par with punishment for some violent crimes. "Rodney got what he deserved," said Lauri Hartz, who attended the court proceeding as one of nearly 50 known victims of Getlan's scheme to divert mortgage payments to his own accounts.

The case of John Merzbacher, the former South Baltimore Catholic middle school teacher who turned out to be a serial child sexual abuser, represents a terrible tragedy of child abuse fostered by too many others willing to turn a blind eye. But if his case is extreme, it is not unique, and it's particularly galling to hear of cases like that involving Mr. Merzbacher, whose behavior went unreported for decades, or Penn State's Jerry Sandusky, where...

A Bethesda-based insurance company that gained advantage over competitors by allowing its employees to inappropriately access a federal Medicare database has agreed to pay the federal government $3 million to avoid criminal prosecution, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. According to an agreement with prosecutors, top officials at Coventry Health Care Inc., which is incorporated in Delaware but headquartered in Bethesda and provides group and individual health insurance to some five million members nationally, knew of the inappropriate use of the database and did nothing to stop it until a federal agency raised concerns.

From how we live to where we can live, Marylanders have been expected to make an increasing number of personal sacrifices for the cause of cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay over the last two decades or more. Many have been small (whether laundry detergent contains phosphates or not now seems inconsequential), while others, including the cost to homeowners and businesses of greener, more advanced sewage treatment or storm water control systems, have been substantial. But are the state's most egregious polluters - those who truly thumb their noses at laws protecting the nation's largest estuary and knowingly spill noxious materials into the bay and its tributaries - held as accountable?

Would putting more polluters behind bars help restore the Chesapeake Bay? The Center for Progressive Reform believes it would. In a new report, the  a pro-regulatory think tank argues that both state and federal authorities prosecute water polluters too rarely in Maryland and that the state penalties for conviction aren't stiff enough to deter violators. Criminal prosecutions are an effective way to improve enforcement of environmental laws, especially when government regulators lack the funds to adequately inspect all potential polluters, says Rena Steinzor, the center's president and a professor at the University of Maryland's law school.

As Albert McClellan closes in on a starting job on the Ravens' defense, the outside linebacker is in the process of dealing with an accusation of domestic violence. McClellan was arrested on June 30 in his hometown of Lakeland, Fla., and charged with battery (a first-degree misdemeanor), and simple assault with threat or intent to do violence (a second-degree misdemeanor), according to court documents obtained by The Sun.  Although the case remains active on the Polk County docket with a Sept.

I'm writing today to encourage The Sun to pay greater attention to accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower Pfc.Bradley E. Manning's pre-trial hearings and eventual court martial. Pfc. Manning is accused of leaking the largest document dump in U.S. history to WikiLeaks, including the Iraq and Afghan War Logs as well as the infamous "Collateral Murder" video depicting an Apache helicopter attack on Reuters journalists. Mr. Manning faces 23 different charges including "aiding the enemy," and if convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Political consultant Julius Henson's attorney used a stack of fake oversized money, invoked slavery and called prosecutors' election fraud case against his client a "bunch of bull-honky" during his closing argument Wednesday afternoon. Using props, charts and a blend of humor and outrage, Edward Smith Jr. talked to the jury for an hour, shifting his style between folksy and erudite. He quoted lyrics from the song "Backstabbers" by the O'Jays, showed jurors a photo of what he called a "twisted" man meant to represent the prosecution, and recommended that the deputy state prosecutor "just walk out the door right now" rather than present his arguments.

Political consultant Julius Henson plans to suggest in court this week that he is being prosecuted by the state's Democratic establishment only because he dared to work for Republicans, his attorney said Monday. Henson is accused of election fraud stemming from a 2010 Election Day "robocall" that prosecutors say was intended to trick black voters into staying home. But Henson's attorney contended Monday that prosecutors would not have brought the case had his client continued to work for Democrats, as he had in previous campaigns.