Smoot

Dr. Matt Narrett of Ellicott City has been named executive vice president and chief medical officer of Erickson Retirement Communities, a geriatric health care company based in Baltimore. Dr. Roy Thomas Smoot Jr. has joined Maryland General Hospital as chief medical officer. Smoot is a fellow in the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Carol Greider, professor and director of molecular biology and genetics in the Johns Hopkins Institute of Basic Biomedical Sciences, has been awarded the 2007 Horwitz Prize along with two other researchers.

A former correctional officer convicted of stomping a detainee to death at the downtown jail was sentenced to 20 years in prison yesterday, a term criticized as too short by the victim's family and as excessive by people close to the suspect who argued that the guard was framed. Dameon C. Woods was found guilty two months ago in Baltimore Circuit Court of second-degree murder in the brutal beating of Raymond K. Smoot in May 2005 inside his cell at the state-run Central Booking and Intake Center.

Three correctional officers fired in the aftermath of the fatal of a detainee at downtown Central Booking and Intake Center are appealing their terminations and will have their grievances heard before an appeals board Monday, according to officials from the Maryland Correctional Law Enforcement Union. Robert Hudley, a former lieutenant at Central Booking, and Kene Jones, a former officer, were among eight correctional officers fired after Raymond K. Smoot was beaten inside his cell in May 2005.

A former correctional officer was convicted yesterday of second-degree murder in a stomping death at the city jail, a crime so brutal that eight guards were fired for lying, and a case so chaotic that two guards were cleared of criminal wrongdoing after defense attorneys alleged a cover-up hatched by their colleagues. Dameon C. Woods' murder conviction - a rarity for a public safety officer - stands as a testament to the brutality of the melee that led to Raymond K. Smoot's May 2005 death and to the problems engulfing the state-run Central Booking and Intake Center.

On October 7, 2006, LEOTA MAE (Lee Mae) McDANIEL; beloved wife of Michael L. McDaniel (Mickey); devoted mother of Michael L. McDaniel, Jr. and his wife Kathryn and Jeremy T. McDaniel and his wife Michelle; loving grandmother Kelsey E., Michael E. and Brianna M. McDaniel; dear sister of Susan Smoot, Peggy Hannon and her husband Mark and Jan Shipley and her husband Dan, daughter of the late Gardner David Smoot and his wife Leota Mae (nee Rabb). She is also survived by her father-in-law Milton M. McDaniel and his late wife Elizabeth and many loving relatives and friends.

Pointing to contradictory statements by some of the prosecution's strongest witnesses, a Baltimore Circuit Court judge dismissed yesterday a murder charge filed against one of the three former corrections officers accused in last year's fatal beating of a detainee at Central Booking and Intake Center. Judge John M. Glynn said jurors could have trouble with testimony given by witnesses who implicated two of the officers but did not mention the third, Nathan D. Colbert. The judge said evidence against Colbert, who had been charged with second-degree murder, was "considerably weaker" than for the other defendants.

On September 30, 2006, WENDELL SMOOT HALL, Sr., beloved husband of Patricia L. Hall (nee Lee); devoted father of Wendell S. Hall, Jr., and Virginia L. Clark and her husband Daniel; also survived by two nieces and two nephews. A memorial service will be held Saturday, 1 P.M. at the family owned Ruck Towson Funeral Home, 1050 York Road (beltway Exit 26A). The Family suggests memorial contributions in his name to Mercy Medical Center-Oncology Dept. 301 St. Paul Place, Baltimore, MD 21202.

When Kandis Harlee, a former corrections officer at the Central Booking and Intake Center, testified last Friday against of three of her former co-workers accused of stomping Raymond K. Smoot to death, she admitted that she had talked to other witnesses. Doesn't sound quite kosher, does it? Witnesses are routinely cautioned not to discuss their testimony with anyone, especially other witnesses. Harlee said those witnesses - also former corrections officers at Central Booking - told her about their testimony.

The attorney for one of three correctional officers accused of stomping to death a detainee at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center promised a jury that witnesses would lie, and there would be evidence of a cover-up. Days into what could be a three-week trial in Circuit Court, the lawyer, Andrew I. Alperstein, proclaimed in an interview: "I think we've delivered on that promise."

An inmate turns out to be a police informant allegedly killed by corrections officers. Corrections officers who were witnesses have sudden attacks of amnesia or sudden memories. Allegations are made of a clique of corrections officers conspiring to finger innocent men. And one alleged Brady violation. Can you believe all these things are connected to one trial? That's what we've learned so far, as former corrections officers Dameon C. Woods, James L. Hatcher and Nathan D.