Rasin

Public access to unserved criminal warrants will be restricted across the state in response to complaints by law enforcement officials that suspects are being tipped off before they can be arrested.Chief Judge Martha F. Rasin of Maryland's district court said yesterday that beginning as soon as next week, she will block computerized access to unserved arrest warrants. And a higher court judge said he wants to further restrict access.While First Amendment advocates criticized Rasin's decision -- saying it will make it harder for the public to monitor police actions -- police praised her."

A Glen Burnie man charged with killing his wife asked a District Court judge for the "worst penalty" during his bail review hearing yesterday afternoon.Gary Paul Stephens, 41, of the 1000 block of Fairway Avenue, was charged with first-degree murder after investigators found his common-law wife dead in the bedroom of their home Monday morning.Judge Martha Rasin ordered Stephens held without bond and ordereda psychological evaluation."For what I did, I don't deserve bail," Stephens told the judge.

AS CRUDE as the gesture was, history says City Council member Sheila Dixon had a point when she brandished her shoe at white male colleagues during the shouting match over redistricting. Dixon was demonstrating that political power in Baltimore is shifting to the other foot.It's blacks' turn, all right, and they deserve it. For in the latest turn of the screw, the politics of Mobtown has come full circle. The assertion of ethnicity has once again rearranged the map of the city.Why anyboby's surprised is the mystery.

LET'S HOPE that yesterday's deal for a full-time court at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center is a real reform and not just a negotiating ploy. Too much time has already been wasted on bureaucratic wrangling in this city where slayings are rampant and the criminal-justice system allows many murderers to go unpunished. "We are finally moving forward," Mayor Martin O'Malley said of Chief District Judge Martha F. Rasin's "conceptual" willingness to place a judge at the intake center five days a week.

Bail remained at $2.5 million yesterday for an Arnold man suspected of robbing Busch's Chesapeake Inn Dec. 17.Annapolis District Judge Martha Rasin told the defendant, Everett Van Carr, 20, "I've heard nothing but information that would endorse what the [court] commissioner has said."Mr. Carr, who lists his address as the 1400 block of Shot Town Road, is charged with robbery with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, robbery, false imprisonment and assault with intent to rob. He was arrested at his home Friday night.

A Montgomery County man charged with drowning his children in the bathtub of an Inner Harbor hotel told a judge yesterday that he has been trying to plead guilty to the crimes for five months but that his public defenders have blocked him from doing so. Mark Castillo, 42, asked Baltimore Circuit Judge Gale E. Rasin to permit him to fire his public defenders and represent himself. Earlier this summer, Castillo instructed his attorney to withdraw his plea of "not criminally responsible" - Maryland's equivalent to an insanity plea - which a judge granted in June, according to court records.

A Glen Burnie man who has served time for kidnapping is being held in the county jail on $300,000 bail in the abduction of and sexual assault on a 3-year-old girl near her home Sunday morning.Charles William Callahan, 43, of the 300 block of Highland Drive has been charged with first-degree rape, second-degree rape, first-, second-, third- and fourth-degree sex offenses, perverted practice, kidnapping, two counts of battery, malicious destruction of property and resisting arrest, according to Annapolis District Court charging documents.

A man accused of sexually abusing two boys was released from the Anne Arundel County jail yesterday after his bail was reduced from $150,000 to $40,000.In lowering the bail, District Court Judge Martha F. Rasin ordered James Earl Shinaberry, 34, of the 7600 block of Benesch Court to avoid any contact with people under age 18.Mr. Shinaberry is charged with sodomy, unnatural and perverted sex practices, a second-degree sex offense, a third-degree sex offense and battery.The accuser in that case was 10 years old when the alleged abuse started in 1978, and 18 years old when it ended in 1986, according to court papers.

STATE HOUSE lobbyist and convicted felon Bruce C. Bereano took over an Anne Arundel County courtroom last week to try to save his law license.A fixture in State House circles since the mid-1970s, Bereano called in friends from all reaches of his life to vouch for his character and his fitness to practice law.The parade of 39 witnesses provided a remarkable glimpse of the good will an energetic lobbyist can generate over a quarter-century.Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, for whom Bereano worked when Hoyer was president of the Maryland Senate, praised him for drafting environmental legislation that Hoyer sponsored and won political credit for.Former Del. Kay G. Bienen of Prince George's County described how Bereano, at her request, helped get her daughter out of jail after a brush with drugs and crime.

Two teenage girls who told police that Lamont Davis mistakenly shot 5-year-old Raven Wyatt during a Baltimore street fight last summer were reluctant to repeat those statements in court Tuesday while the defendant and his supporters looked on. One of the girls changed her story completely, claiming police had pressured her into making a false identification, while the other had to be ordered to answer questions. The judge determined the former teen was lying and threatened the latter with contempt charges if she didn't comply, which she finally did after a long pause, describing Davis, 17, as the person she identified months ago. The judge ruled that the girls' identifications of Davis as the suspect can be admitted at trial.