Stepdaughter

Erika Slack, a homemaker and volunteer who escaped Russian-occupied post-World War II Europe, died of Alzheimer's disease complications Thursday at the Blakehurst Retirement Community in Towson. The former Guilford resident was 87. Born Erika Muehlen near Neumunster, Germany, she spent her youth on a family farm where she developed a love for gardening and horses. While in high school, she learned to speak English. In an autobiographical narrative, I, Her Story, which was written many years ago, Mrs. Slack described her experience in what is now the Czech Republic in the spring of 1945.

The aroma of Italian sausage, onions and peppers filled the evening air in downtown Annapolis as Terry Cook Sr. prepared dinner on a portable grill he bought for the occasion.The 26-year-old Edgewater man has been camping outside the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court House since Tuesday, awaiting the start of duck blind licensing for squatters -- on Monday.When licensing begins, the No. 2 man in line will have been there seven days, with his buddy, Mike Streit, 32, also of Edgewater, who's No. 1 in line.

A Howard County circuit judge has ordered authorities to conduct a psychiatric examination of the Columbia man accused of killing his wife and injuring his stepdaughter outside the courthouse in Ellicott City in March.Under the order, which was signed Tuesday and filed yesterday by Judge Diane O. Leasure, state psychologists will examine Tuse S. Liu, 49, to see if he is competent to stand trial and if he is criminally responsible for his actions.Liu is accused of fatally shooting his wife, So Shan Chan, 52, and wounding his stepdaughter, Wing Sau Wu, 26, on March 11 in the courthouse parking lot after a divorce hearing.

A Keymar man was arrested and held without bail yesterday after a shotgun was fired at an occupied car late Wednesday.State troopers, responding to a call in the 2100 block of Bruceville-Frederick Road at 12: 16 a.m. yesterday, said witnesses told them that a man had fired a 12-gauge shotgun, striking the trunk of a 1988 Oldsmobile. No one was injured.According to charging documents, the man told police he thought his wife and brother were in the car. In fact, police said, the man's stepdaughter and her boyfriend were in the vehicle.

A Baltimore lawyer has been found negligent in representing an Eastern Shore man whose stepdaughter won an $885,000 judgment against him for sexual abuse.A Baltimore Circuit Court jury returned its verdict last week against attorney Michael P. May.The jury found that the client, Symcha Shpak of Neavitt, near St. Michaels in Talbot County, was entitled to $500,000 for humiliation and embarrassment.But it also found that Shpak did not deserve to get back $1.1 million -- the amount of the judgment his stepdaughter won in a Baltimore County Circuit Court case seven years ago, plus interest and legal fees.

A Hampstead man who pleaded guilty to raping his now-deceased stepdaughter was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison with all but one year suspended.Joseph G. Turner Sr., 54, will serve the time at Carroll County Detention Center and be placed on four years of probation upon his release.Prosecutors said Turner went with a man to the Taneytown home of his stepdaughter, then 23, to do repair work Jan. 3, 1996.After the other man left, Turner assaulted his stepdaughter.The woman, who called police and was interviewed about the incident, was fatally struck by a pickup truck Jan. 19, 1996, as she walked along Route 140 in Taneytown.

A Hampstead man who is accused of raping his now-deceased stepdaughter was released on an unsecured $50,000 bond after he was charged Friday, exactly one year after the alleged assault.In addition to rape charges, Joseph G. Turner Sr., 54, faces charges of sexually abusing a vulnerable adult, assault with intent to rape and related offenses.In charging statements, police said Turner went with a man to the Taneytown home of his stepdaughter, then 23, to do repair work Jan. 3, 1996.After the other man left, police said the stepdaughter was assaulted.

Members of the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants are answering readers' tax questions through April 15.Q: My husband died in January 1993 and left a Smith Barney trust account to his daughter. Smith Barney sold the stock in the trust at a considerable gain, gave the proceeds to my stepdaughter and issued 1099B forms with my husband's Social Security number on it to me. On the advice of my CPA, I paid capital gain taxes for 1993, when this should have been my stepdaughter's responsibility.

A 51-year-old Havre de Grace man, who acknowledged fathering his stepdaughter's three children, was sentenced yesterday to 15 years in state prison for sexual child abuse and perverted sexual practices.Harford Circuit Court Judge Cypert O. Whitfill ordered the man to serve the sentences -- 15 years on the abuse charge and 10 years on the perverted practice charge -- concurrently. The judge also recommended that he serve his time at the Patuxent Institution in Jessup.To protect the victim's identity, The Sun is not identifying the man.The victim, now 37, testified at the man's trial in December that he began abusing her when she was 9 years old. Her first child was born in 1974, nine months to the day after her stepfather began a Christmas Eve tradition of having sex with her, the victim said.

A 51-year-old Havre de Grace man, who acknowledged fathering his stepdaughter's three children, was convicted in Harford Circuit Court Friday of sexual child abuse and perverted sexual practices.Judge Cypert O. Whitfill ordered a pre-sentence investigation of the defendant, Richard Lindon Haney, of the 200 block of Wilson St., and revoked his $10,000 bond pending sentencing Jan. 26.The victim, now 37, testified that Haney began abusing her when she was 9 years old, shortly after he had married her mother in New Jersey in 1966.

Man indicted in killing of Hamm's stepdaughter The man accused of killing the former city police commissioner's stepdaughter was indicted yesterday by a Baltimore grand jury on first-degree murder charges, according to the city state's attorney's office. Joseph Antonio Bonds, 35, of the 3500 block of W. Garrison Ave., is accused of assaulting and killing Nicole Sesker, the 39-year-old stepdaughter of Leonard D. Hamm. Court documents say Sesker died of blunt-force head injuries and was strangled.

An Annapolis man has been charged with repeatedly raping his stepdaughter for nearly a decade, since she was 7 years old, city police said yesterday. The man is also accused of sexually abusing one of the girl's friends from 1998 until the girl moved away in 2000. He was ordered held without bail yesterday on two counts each of rape, first- and second-degree sex offense and perverted practice; and one count each of incest and child abuse by a parent. The man's sister, Phyllis King, told District Judge Megan B. Johnson that he was a "good man" who worked hard to support his family.

Mary Purdy Hannaford, who loved arts and crafts and spent years making a cathedral quilt for her family, died Feb. 17 at Loch Raven Center of complications from old age. She was 94. Born and raised in South Richmond, Va., the former Mary Purdy graduated from John Carroll High School and earned a degree from a local business school. She did secretarial work at the Virginia Highway Department. She married Frank Batty, and the couple moved to Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood. She worked for the Monumental Life Insurance Co. After Mr. Batty's death, she met Russell Frederick Hannaford, a widower.

Edward J. Lopata, a lawyer and Marine Corps veteran, died of stomach cancer Wednesday at Anne Arundel Medical Center. He was 66. An Anne Arundel County resident for nearly 30 years, Mr. Lopata was born and raised in East Vandergrift, Pa. His father was a steelworker and his mother a homemaker. In the early 1960s, Mr. Lopata was a forward and co-captain for the Georgetown University Hoya basketball team. He earned his law degree at Georgetown in 1966. He practiced law for 23 years with the Washington-based firm of Jordan, Coyne, Savits & Lopata, representing insurance companies and other clients in product liability, workers' compensation and other cases.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court said yesterday it will decide whether a convicted child rapist can be put to death, thereby reconsidering a more than 40-year trend in the United States in which executions have been limited to murderers. The justices agreed to hear an appeal from Patrick Kennedy, a Louisiana man who was convicted of the brutal rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter. His lawyers described him has "the only person in the United States who is on death row for a non-homicide offense."

Erika Slack, a homemaker and volunteer who escaped Russian-occupied post-World War II Europe, died of Alzheimer's disease complications Thursday at the Blakehurst Retirement Community in Towson. The former Guilford resident was 87. Born Erika Muehlen near Neumunster, Germany, she spent her youth on a family farm where she developed a love for gardening and horses. While in high school, she learned to speak English. In an autobiographical narrative, I, Her Story, which was written many years ago, Mrs. Slack described her experience in what is now the Czech Republic in the spring of 1945.

John J. Callaway, a retired cabinetmaker who earlier had been a McDonald's manager, died of complications from a stroke Nov. 23 at Hanover Hall Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Hanover, Pa. The former longtime Taneytown resident was 67. Born in Baltimore and raised in Middle River, Mr. Callaway graduated from Kenwood High School. He served in the Army and remained in the reserves until 1974. Mr. Callaway managed McDonald's restaurants for 20 years, first in St. Joseph, Mo., and later in Baltimore, Eldersburg and Woodlawn before retiring in the early 1980s.

Prosecutors opened their case yesterday against Carl Preston Evans Jr., a convicted sex offender charged with killing his 13-year-old stepdaughter last summer and setting his family's Essex rowhouse on fire to cover up the crime. Michael S. Fuller, a Baltimore County assistant state's attorney, told jurors that police found two knives - one broken, both bloody - as well as a towel and T-shirt in a knapsack left on the front lawn of the Evanses' house the afternoon that firefighters pulled the body of Breaunna Floyd and her conscious baby sister out of the smoky blaze.

John Charles Bowers, an engineer and sculptor, died May 14 of complications from lung cancer at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Towson resident was 76. Mr. Bowers grew up in the Ednor Gardens neighborhood of Baltimore and graduated from Polytechnic Institute in 1946. He later graduated from the University of Maryland, where he studied engineering. During the Korean War, he was drafted and taught surveying at Fort Belvoir, said his second wife, Maryann Mardiney. Mr. Bowers worked as a mechanical and civil engineer for AAI Corp.

On February 27, 2006 HARRISON W. "BUD" NEUHAUSER, of Owings Mills; beloved husband of Helen C. (nee Marker) and the late MARY A. (nee Willett) "Mimi" Neuhauser. Survived by son and daughter-in-law H. Thomas and Bernadette T. Neuhauser, stepdaughter Sally Marker Showalter and her husband David; brother of Victor H. Neuhauser. Also survived by three grandchildren, two step-grandchildren and step-great-grandchild. Services from the Eline Funeral Home, 11824 Reisterstown Road (at Franklin Blvd.