Psychiatric Evaluation

HAGERSTOWN -- A judge has allowed the state to seek the death penalty for a state prison inmate charged with murdering a correctional officer. Howard County Circuit Judge Dennis M. Sweeney ruled that the de facto moratorium on executions established by a Maryland Court of Appeals decision in December doesn't preclude prosecutors from pursuing the death penalty. Attorneys for Brandon T. Morris, 21, had argued during a hearing Friday in Ellicott City that unless the state's notice of intent to seek the death penalty were stricken, Morris would be denied due process because he would be tried without knowing what punishment he may face.

The Maryland State Police paramedic who won a sex discrimination lawsuit against his agency for being denied paternity leave has been allowed to return to work -- but only for administrative duties.Trooper 1st Class H. Kevin Knussman went back to work with his full police powers Tuesday for the first time since winning a $375,000 jury verdict two weeks ago.State police officials, however, still insist that he submit to a psychiatric evaluation before being allowed to resume his job as a paramedic with the medical evacuation helicopter unit.

A District Court judge ruled yesterday that a man charged with shooting a lawyer on a downtown Baltimore street Tuesday should be held in jail without bail until a psychiatric evaluation can be conducted.Richard Kenneth Geier, 23, is accused of chasing Jeffrey Martin Yeatman, 29, a product liability lawyer for Piper & Marbury, and firing a bullet that struck him in the shoulder. Yeatman was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was in fair condition yesterday.Geier -- charged with attempted murder, assault and reckless endangerment -- sat stiffly in a room at the Central Booking and Intake Center as his image was broadcast by video camera to Judge Ben C. Clyburn's courtroom in Eastside District Court.

A Harford County man accused of walking onto the track at Pimlico Race Course and standing in front of eight thundering thoroughbreds Saturday was charged with assault and other counts yesterday, city police said.Lee Chang Ferrell, 22, of the 100 block of Waldon Road in Abingdon was charged with first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct, trespassing, two counts of resisting arrest and an alcohol-related offense, said Barbara Miner, supervisor of records Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center.

Doctors at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center have found Ruthann Aron "competent and responsible" to stand trial next month on charges she tried to hire a hit man to kill her husband and a Baltimore lawyer.The report was sent yesterday to Montgomery County Circuit Judge Paul A. McGuckian, prosecutors and the defense team, said Barry H. Helfand, Aron's lawyer.McGuckian ordered the 60-day psychiatric evaluation to determine if Aron would be able to take part in the trial and assist in her defense.

A Riviera Beach man accused of killing his father and shooting at a police officer told a district judge yesterday he didn't do it.Via closed-circuit television, 44-year-old Steven Francis Fortmann appeared before Judge James W. Dryden for a bail review hearing with his arm in a sling and bandages on the right side of his face.He twice denied shooting and killing his father, Francis Joseph Fortmann, 72, while the older man sat in the living room watching television Monday."Judge, I didn't do nothing," he said.

An Annapolis man who killed his mother more than 25 years ago and was found not guilty by reason of insanity got a three-year extension yesterday of his authorization to live on his own, according to the State's Attorney's office.Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Clayton Greene Jr. said Jeffrey S. Miller, who shot his mother to death with a .22-caliber rifle, can return to the community when doctors feel he is ready to leave Crownsville Hospital Center.Ruth B. Miller, 48, a clerical worker at the U.S. Naval Academy, was shot in the abdomen and chest as she slept in her Spa Cove apartment Oct. 18, 1971.

An Anne Arundel circuit judge has freed a Glen Burnie man who had been held in jail and a state mental hospital for several months awaiting trial.Judge Clayton R. Greene Jr. ordered that Calvin Winfield Coates, 37, of the 6600 block of Shelly Road be released Monday after prosecutors agreed not to press kidnapping and related charges against him. He also ordered Coates to take his psychotropic medication and to stay away from the woman who made the allegations...

PHILADELPHIA -- A former National Security Agency clerk accused of spying for the Soviets was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation yesterday after he charged that "undercover agents" were planting drugs in his prison cell and said his pain medication was producing memory loss and confusion.During a bail-review hearing, Robert S. Lipka, 50, who has pleaded not guilty to one count of espionage, testified that he once saw an NSA file on Richard M. Nixon that suggested he spied for the Russians.

The Towson acupuncturist accused of abusing a patient and practicing without a license also was the focus of court action last year -- when his parents sought an emergency psychiatric evaluation of him.Baltimore County District Court records show that Milton and Shirley Garland were granted, a court order for the evaluation of Neil Garland in January 1995.In their request, the Garlands said they feared their son and cited a 1992 incident in which he allegedly attacked his mother. The couple wrote that their son had been "calling family and friends with horrible language and spewing hatred towards us. He calls us and says we won't have him as a son anymore and he will get even with us."

City prosecutors announced yesterday that they will seek at a minimum a life sentence without the possibility of a parole for the Montgomery County man charged with drowning his three children in the bathtub of an Inner Harbor hotel during a custody battle with his estranged wife. Mark Castillo, 41, has pleaded not criminally responsible to the three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Anthony, 6; Austin, 4; and Athena, 2. Not criminally responsible is the equivalent of an insanity plea in other states.

Whatever drove a 41-year-old Rockville man to apparently kill his three young children in an Inner Harbor hotel last weekend may never be fully understood. But the explanation police say Mark Castillo offered them - that he wanted to punish his exwife - is typical in cases of men killing their children, experts say. "Most of the time, when men kill children, it's to get back at the women, sort of out of vengeance," said Dr. Neil Blumberg, a longtime forensic psychiatrist in Baltimore who has testified for the defense and prosecution.

HAGERSTOWN -- A judge has allowed the state to seek the death penalty for a state prison inmate charged with murdering a correctional officer. Howard County Circuit Judge Dennis M. Sweeney ruled that the de facto moratorium on executions established by a Maryland Court of Appeals decision in December doesn't preclude prosecutors from pursuing the death penalty. Attorneys for Brandon T. Morris, 21, had argued during a hearing Friday in Ellicott City that unless the state's notice of intent to seek the death penalty were stricken, Morris would be denied due process because he would be tried without knowing what punishment he may face.

The reputed California Bloods leader was supposed to be sentenced for a murder conviction in Baltimore yesterday. But last week, Shaidon "Don Papa" Blake was yanked out of the city's detention center by U.S. marshals who were under orders to bring him to a federal court in Las Vegas, where he faces a gun charge. The move surprised prosecutors, Blake's court-appointed lawyer, Blake's family and even the medical officer who was supposed to perform a psychiatric evaluation on the defendant.

A high-profile criminal defense attorney who represented a convicted killer at a capital sentencing hearing in 2004 testified yesterday that he did not object to the potentially damaging testimony of a psychiatrist, likening the doctor's assessment of his client to "throwing water on the wet man." Defense lawyer Warren A. Brown took the stand yesterday in Baltimore County Circuit Court at a motions hearing for his former client, Jamaal K. Abeokuto, whose death sentence was overturned on appeal and who is scheduled for a second capital sentencing hearing next month.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- After defense assertions that terrorism suspect Jose Padilla is suffering from severe mental health problems, a federal judge in Miami agreed yesterday to order a psychiatric evaluation of the accused al-Qaida agent. The examination will be conducted in coming weeks by the Bureau of Prisons and marks the first step for U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke in deciding whether Padilla, 36, is legally competent to stand trial, said two people involved in the case. Under federal law, criminal suspects must understand the nature and consequences of the case against them and be able to assist in their defense to proceed to trial.

A Baltimore County man accused of hitting his father in the head and face with a metal pole is being held at the Carroll County Detention Center on $100,000 bond, according to state police at the Westminster barracks. Daniel Thomas Lanahan, 27, of the 5600 block of Windsor Mill Road in the Woodlawn area is charged with repeatedly striking his father, Frank Lanahan, 43, after they argued about noon Friday in front of the father's home in the 4300 block of Poole Road in Finksburg, state police said.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Anne Arundel County. Northern District Stabbing: A man reported being attacked by four men Monday in the 100 block of Alview Terrance in the Harundale area. The man said someone pulled a handgun on him just before he was stabbed. Robbery: Two juveniles reported they were held up by two other youths with handguns Tuesday in the 600 block of Furnace Branch Ave. in Ferndale. Cash and a cell phone were taken. County police believe the same pair robbed another juvenile in the area of Pleasantville Road and Tranton Road.

Grove Point worries about APG vibrations GROVE POINT - Residents in this waterfront community in southern Cecil County believe ordinance testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground may be harming the environment. It is not the noise that has residents concerned, but the vibrations. Residents worry that the land between their homes and the water could crumble away over the next few years, damaging septic systems and uprooting trees. Grove Point resident Donald Palmer says a portion of the cliff in front of his house recently collapsed onto the banks of the bay, and he believes testing was the cause.

CHESTERTOWN -- Defense lawyers for a Laurel man accused of killing his two children last fall contended yesterday that Talbot County officials deliberately stalled a psychiatric evaluation that could have provided crucial evidence. During an unusual pretrial hearing in Kent County Circuit Court, a three-member legal team for Richard Wayne Spicknall II called a District Court judge, a detention center warden and a member of the team's Baltimore law firm to testify. Despite repeated attempts during the week after Spicknall's arrest, defense lawyers say, a private neuropsychiatrist was not allowed to examine their 27-year-old client.