Sergeant

The news hit Stephen Joseph Schap's family and friends like a bomb: Stephen, the fresh-faced, kind and considerate kid they'd watched grow up in Gardenville was in a military prison in Germany, charged with commiting a murder.Longtime family friend Mike Cozzubo heard the news from Stephen's mother, Marianne.Stephen, a 26-year-old Army sergeant stationed in Germany, allegedly decapitated a man he suspected of sleeping with his wife."The alleged deed that occurred, I just cannot think that Stephen is a part of it," said Mr. Cozzubo of Towson.

Sgt. Richard Willard, who this week settled a lawsuit he filed against the city alleging he never got help after fatally shooting a man in 2005, sent me an email wanting to explain his situation further. I had talked to his attorney on Wednesday. The sergeant, who agreed to drop his litigation in exchange for the city dropping its bid to fire him, will retire July 1, giving him 20 years on the job and enough time to collect his pension, about half his $73,000 salary. His allegations raised questions about whether city officers who fire their guns suffer emotional distress and whether the department gives them enough help.

For Arizona Cardinals coach Buddy Ryan, there will be special meaning to the team's trip to Washington for the season opener Sept. 3 against the Redskins.Not because it's the opener, or that the Cardinals are seeking their third consecutive victory at RFK Stadium.What's special is that it will be Ryan's first chance to visit the new Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington.It's not the forgotten war for Ryan. He fought in it as a teen-ager, and the memories are still vivid.Ryan, who usually doesn't leave his hotel room on the road except to go to the stadium for the game, visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial last year when the team was in Washington.

Jurors in the retrial of two brothers accused of setting a pit bull ablaze heard testimony from two key witnesses Wednesday, one revealing new details in a police surveillance video while the other raised questions about what he saw the day of the crime. Police Sgt. Jarron Jackson identified Travers and Tremayne Johnson in the video, which shows parts of the May 27, 2009, incident. He pointed them out walking the dog and leading her to an alley close to where the dog was found in flames.

At about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Harford County sheriff's deputies responded to an accident on southbound Interstate 95 between the Edgewood and Bel Air exits, under the Route 24 overpass, police said in a statement. A 2001 Dodge Stratus was headed south in the highway's middle lane when it was cut off, police said, causing the driver to lose control. The Stratus subsequently stalled in a lane that acts as both an entrance and exit ramp. The driver could not restart the car and walked to safety on the right side of the road, police said.

Prince George's County police have suspended a sergeant who was at the scene of a beating last month of an unarmed University of Maryland student that occurred when crowds took to the streets celebrating a basketball victory. The beating was caught on a video that surfaced publicly Monday. County police spokesman Maj. Andy Ellis declined to identify the officer but confirmed the suspension, which occurred Tuesday night and is part of the widening investigation of the beating and any failures to halt or report it. The sergeant is the second officer suspended.

During opening statements in a civil trial Thursday, attorneys for two sisters said Baltimore police fabricated information to justify unconstitutional strip searches performed on the women in the back of a Brooklyn bar. But lawyers for the two officers being sued said the searches - which they say turned up cocaine, marijuana and painkillers - were appropriate and the result of a sergeant's witnessing drug dealing. They say the lawsuit is motivated by money. It's an expected back-and-forth between sides.

Sgt. Hezzie T. Sessomes Jr., a decorated 21-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, died Wednesday night in his Pikesville home of cancer. The Baltimore native was 46.A member of the crime resistance unit from 1985 until he went on medical leave in April, Sergeant Sessomes was remembered by colleagues as everyone's friend."

A shoe, a wallet, a skid mark and a battered bicycle -- that was all Air Force Sgt. Doug Pou left behind May 12, 1987, the day he vanished while taking a pre-dawn bike ride near his home in Albuquerque, N.M.For 60 days, anguished airmen searched for their buddy, unwilling to believe the star of their elite Air Force para-rescue team could be gone. Friends posted fliers bearing his picture, and relatives hired a private detective and offered a $5,000 reward.Finally, everyone gave up: The military declared Doug Pou dead, and those who had loved him went on with their lives.

OCEANSIDE, Calif. -- They were separated by two seas -- one of salt water, one of red tape -- and, as in any good love story, they set out to conquer those obstacles.It took almost a year, but Julie Ople was granted a limited visa, allowing her three months to come to the United States and marry Tim Burke, a Marine sergeant from Moorestown, N.J., who met, courted and proposed to Ms. Ople while he was stationed in the Philippines.On Oct. 26, she arrived in Southern California -- two months after Sergeant Burke was sent to Saudi Arabia.

The gun battle raged in three different spots near the old Murphy Homes high-rise in West Baltimore, ending on a cold February day with the death of a 20-year-old man in a hail of gunfire from four city police officers. Four years later, one of the officers claimed he was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but says he never got the help he needed to cope with killing a man. Instead, Richard A. Willard says the department is trying to fire him. The sergeant sued the Police Department this week, and is seeking an injunction in U.S. District Court court to delay his Feb. 22 termination hearing.

Astride the Harley-Davidson motorcycle, the Baltimore County police officer cut a striking figure. The officer was a rookie, on the short side - and an African-American woman. Twenty years ago, Gwendolyn Parrish became the first black woman on the Baltimore County police force on motorcycle patrol. The image of her wearing "black leather motorcycle boots up to her knees" is still the way Baltimore County police chief James Johnson remembers Parrish, who died last Saturday at 56 from complications following surgery.

Brian R. Murphy, a Social Security Administration senior technical adviser and Army veteran, died Friday of cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. The lifelong Hamilton resident was 59. The son of a Baltimore Life Insurance Co. regional manager and a homemaker, Brian Robertson Murphy was born in Scranton, Pa., and raised in Hamilton. He attended Northern High School and later earned his general educational development diploma. Mr. Murphy studied biology at Morgan State University before enlisting in the Army in 1974, where he served with the 82nd Airborne and attained the rank of sergeant.

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.

At about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Harford County sheriff's deputies responded to an accident on southbound Interstate 95 between the Edgewood and Bel Air exits, under the Route 24 overpass, police said in a statement. A 2001 Dodge Stratus was headed south in the highway's middle lane when it was cut off, police said, causing the driver to lose control. The Stratus subsequently stalled in a lane that acts as both an entrance and exit ramp. The driver could not restart the car and walked to safety on the right side of the road, police said.

Rats are brazen neighbors in many a Baltimore neighborhood. A city police officer discovered just how brazen they are when one furry scavenger turned criminal and broke into a squad car. The rodent apparently gnawed on some wires and waited. It chose a less-than-perfect moment to emerge from hiding early Wednesday and climb up the back of a sergeant as his partner drove to a robbery call in South Baltimore. Thinking his colleague was playing a joke by tickling his neck, Sgt. Marc J. Camarote took a swipe with his arm. The angry rodent bit the officer on the palm and thumb of his right hand, according to a police spokesman.

Sgt. James A. Kulbicki, the Baltimore police sergeant charged with murdering a woman who had filed a paternity suit against him, walked out of the Towson courthouse yesterday, free on $50,000 bail.Judge J. William Hinkel ignored a deputy state's attorney's arguments, reduced Sergeant Kulbicki's $750,000 bail and removed the restriction that the bail be paid in cash. Judge Hinkel said he didn't believe Sergeant Kulbicki is a threat to society or a risk to flee.The unshaven Sergeant Kulbicki, 36, thanked the judge and told reporters he was going home to take his 8-year-old son, Allan, for a walk and maybe to McDonald's.

A Howard County police sergeant is being investigated by the department after being accused of sexually assaulting a woman during his shift two weeks ago, according to several Police Department sources.Sgt. Thomas Martin, a supervisor for the midnight shift in the Columbia area, has been put on paid administrative leave while police investigate the claim, the police sources say. They spoke with The Sun on condition of anonymity.He has not been charged with a crime.Top police officials refused yesterday to discuss the accusation or provide information about the officer's career.

The father panicked. He had pulled into the breakdown lane of Route 100 in Anne Arundel County, just as Melissa Dicus gave birth to a girl in the front seat of his Chevrolet Impala. The infant, struggling to breathe, had turned blue. Loren Edward Weinstein raced around the car, grabbing blankets and shirts from the back seat. That's what Maryland State Police Sgt. Daniel McLain saw as he drove into work, slowed by Monday morning's rush-hour commute near Route 10 in Pasadena. McLain stopped his unmarked cruiser and rushed to the Impala, urged on by a frantic Weinstein, and grabbed the infant.