Psychological Evaluation

Recently, the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) received criticism for not allowing a military veteran to attend classes based on his writings in an English class about his violent thoughts and desires to hurt others. The shooting tragedy in Tucson, Ariz., where the shooter was denied attendance at Pima Community College because of his unusual behavior, suggests that CCBC took the appropriate action in requiring an up-to-date psychological evaluation from the student before allowing him to return to campus.

A motions hearing for an Ellicott City man accused of fatally poisoning his friend was postponed yesterday because doctors have not completed a psychological evaluation. Ryan Thomas Furlough, 18, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Benjamin Edward Vassiliev. Furlough is accused of slipping potassium cyanide into Vassiliev's soft drink in January as the two Centennial High School students played video games. Police say Furlough was romantically interested in Vassiliev's girlfriend.

A 15-year-old Joppatowne boy who brandished a 6-inch knife and threatened to kill himself on a Harford County school bus yesterday was disarmed by two other students and the bus driver, Maryland State Police said. The knife was taken from the boy, a student at the private Arrow Center School in Churchville, about 8:20 a.m., after the driver stopped the bus near Routes 146 and 543. The boy was taken into custody by police and transported to Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air for a psychological evaluation.

Two women charged with animal cruelty after authorities discovered in their Columbia townhouse more than 50 cats, many of them malnourished, along with the decomposing carcasses of 17 others, avoided jail time or fines yesterday by striking a deal with prosecutors on the eve of their trial. Ayten Icgoren, 80, entered an Alford plea, in which a defendant concedes that prosecutors have sufficient evidence for a conviction but does not admit guilt. In exchange, Howard County District Court Judge Neil Edward Axel sentenced her to probation and ordered a psychological evaluation.

A Keymar man was found guilty yesterday of firing a shotgun at a car in the mistaken belief that his wife and his brother were inside. Franklin E. Hagan, 53, of the 2100 block of Bruceville-Frederick Road pleaded not guilty, but agreed to accept the prosecutor's version of what happened the night of June 30 and early morning of July 1. Carroll Circuit Judge Michael M. Galloway found Hagan guilty of two counts of first-degree assault. He ordered a psychological evaluation before sentencing, set for April 19. Hagan became angry when his wife and brother left home to go out, according to prosecutor Clarence W. Beall III, outlining the state's case.

Negotiators spent about six hours early yesterday talking an armed 36-year-old man out of an apartment in Hampstead. The man is undergoing a psychological evaluation, according to Maryland State Police. The incident began about 3 a.m. after a state trooper responded to a 911 call from an apartment in the first block of Gill Ave., west of Route 30, according to police. The state trooper reported that when he arrived, a man pointed a rifle at him and ordered him to leave, said Maj. Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman.

A 24-year-old Hampstead woman, who had sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old boy, pleaded guilty to child abuse yesterday in Carroll County Circuit Court.In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to drop other charges against Victoria Michelle Eberwein, which included second-degree rape. Circuit Judge Raymond E. Beck Sr. agreed not to sentence her to more than two years in prison March 21.According to the prosecutors' statement of facts, Eberwein became friendly with the boy's family in January 1995 when she met his mother playing pool at the House of Pasta in Hampstead.

A 24-year-old Shady Side man was ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation at Anne Arundel Medical Center after threatening to commit suicide with a shotgun in his home Monday afternoon.At 2:45 p.m., police were sent to a home in the 1100 block of Grove Road after the man's wife called police and said he had called her office and threatened to kill himself unless she came home.When police called the home, then knocked on the door, no one answered. At 4:52 p.m., officers went by the home again and found the man inside.

Motions in the murder case of Ryan T. Furlough, the Centennial High School senior accused of fatally poisoning a classmate by spiking his soda with cyanide, were postponed yesterday after his lawyers said they are waiting for a psychological evaluation of their client. The evaluation will help attorneys decide whether an insanity plea is warranted, but it has been held up because the psychiatrist retained for the case has been in poor health, said Joseph Murtha, one of two attorneys representing Furlough.

A man armed with a rifle and a shotgun fired shots in a Southwest Baltimore house and held police at bay for more than seven hours yesterday before he surrendered, city police reported. The man was taken to the University of Maryland Medical Center for a psychological evaluation after the standoff, which ended at about 11:30 a.m. No injuries were reported. Police withheld the man's name because he wasn't immediately charged. Police were called to a house in the 1900 block of Lemmon St. about 4 a.m. after receiving a report of a domestic dispute, said Deputy Major Michael McDonald.