Suspended Sentence

A Glen Burnie man was placed on 10 years' probation yesterday for sexually abusing a friend's teen-age daughter and having child pornography on his home computer.In a plea arrangement, Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Pamela L. North sentenced Thomas R. Long Jr., 35, to two five-year terms of probation that Long's lawyer said would allow him to get the counseling he needs.North said she wants Long, who lives in the 8000 block of Phirne Road East, to receive treatment for his sexual offense and alcoholism.

A former Baltimore County teacher received a two-year suspended sentence and one year of supervised probation for sending child pornography over the Internet.Gary Lee Russell, 53, of the 700 block of Fairview Ave. in Annapolis must also register as a sex offender and get alcohol counseling under the sentence imposed Friday by Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Joseph P. Manck.Russell taught earth science at Old Court Middle School in Randallstown last year, but resigned when charged a few days before school ended in June.

After three years behind bars awaiting trial on a murder charge, William T. Flowers pleaded guilty yesterday in Baltimore Circuit Court -- and got to go home.Flowers, 21, whose case had been postponed 17 times, received a suspended sentence as part of a plea bargain after police could not find a key file to make the case against him."His smile looked as big as the courtroom," said Flowers' mother, Annie Cunningham, who was eagerly awaiting her son's arrival at her North Stricker Street home last night.

The owner of a Hampstead package goods store received a four-year suspended sentence and a $2,000 fine yesterday in Carroll County Circuit Court on his guilty plea to a marijuana distribution charge.Craig R. Arman, 33, of Bonnie Ridge in Baltimore, pleaded guilty to the charge in March and was sentenced yesterday by Judge Francis M. Arnold.He was arrested Aug. 29 after state and local police concluded a two-month investigation and raided C & E Liquors, which he operated in the 4100 block of Lower Beckleysville Road.

A Westminster man, whose hobby was making homemade fireworks, was given an 18-month suspended sentence yesterday after he pleaded not guilty to reckless endangerment and possession of destructive devices.The man, 42, is not being named to protect the privacy of his 17-year-old son, who was arrested in March after authorities found four homemade explosive devices at Bennett Cerf Park in Westminster.Explosives experts from the state fire marshal's office detonated two devices and disarmed the other two, authorities said.

A 21-year-old Glen Burnie man admitted in Howard Circuit Court yesterday spray-painting racist and obscene epithets on four county schools during a vandalism spree last winter.William Francis Holderman IV pleaded guilty to two counts of hate-bias crimes and one count of malicious destruction of property.He was given a three-year suspended sentence, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and placed on five years of supervised probation by Judge Dennis M. Sweeney.Holderman, along with an accomplice -- Elkridge resident Cory Lee Lafon admitted his role in the scheme in July -- must also pay about $9,000 in restitution.

A Baltimore County man was sentenced in Carroll County Circuit Court yesterday to three years in prison for his fifth drunken-driving conviction.Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. rejected testimony from friends and relatives that Jeffrey L. Hain, 40, of Monkton has turned his life around in the past year.Explaining his decision, Burns cited Hain's previous convictions, including a 1988 incident in which Hain had a blood-alcohol level of 0.20, more than twice the legal limit.In the most recent incident, Burns said Hain's blood-alcohol level was 0.24.

A Westminster man who pleaded guilty yesterday to assaulting his former girlfriend with a knife, breaking into her apartment and twice violating court orders to leave her alone was released with a suspended sentence of five years and five months.Despite a heightened awareness of domestic violence after three deaths in two incidents in Hampstead last month, Carroll prosecutors said they were forced to accept a plea bargain because the victim and other witnesses failed to cooperate.Under terms of the agreement, Juan Manresa Leyva received a suspended five-year, five-month sentence from Carroll County Circuit Judge Raymond E. Beck Sr., who again ordered Leyva to stay away from Nancy Rodriguez.

A former chief administrative officer of Garrett County, who was convicted of theft and pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges in January, was given a five-year suspended sentence yesterday in Carroll County Circuit Court.Robert J. Fousek Sr., 49, who now lives in Berlin on the Eastern Shore, was placed on five years of supervised probation and ordered to pay restitution of $6,000 to Garrett County on the theft charge and more than $7,000 to the state in back taxes and penalties.Judge Francis M. Arnold rejected a recommendation by state Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli to send Fousek to prison for a minimum of one year.

A former scale operator at the county's Millersville Landfill pleaded guilty yesterday to charges that she helped cheat the county out of about $5 million in uncollected trash-hauling fees, the state's attorney's office said.Jennifer Allison of Chester in Queen Anne's County agreed to cooperate with the state in its continuing investigation of criminal activities at the landfill in exchange for a reduced or suspended sentence, said State's Attorney William D. Roessler.From January 1992 to June 1995, Allison, 28, took bribes to record lesser weights for trash brought into the landfill by several commercial haulers who pick up trash for businesses and apartment complexes, county officials said.

Two teens injured in East Baltimore shooting Two teenagers were wounded early Thursday in East Baltimore when a gunman fired a single shot that struck them both, police said. Officers responded to a report of a shooting in the 400 block of N. East Ave. about 1:10 a.m. and found a 16-year-old female victim and a 17-year-old male victim inside a home in the Ellwood Park neighborhood, said Agent Donny Moses, a police spokesman. Witnesses said five or six people were sitting on a porch when an unknown man wearing a red T-shirt and baggy jeans appeared and fired one shot, Moses said.

Police investigate homicide on east side Baltimore police said Friday they know of no suspects or motive in the fatal shooting of a 24-year-old man this week in East Baltimore. Steven Wilson of the 2200 block of Homewood Ave. was shot about 12:20 a.m. Tuesday in the 1600 block of E. Eager St., said Donny Moses, a police spokesman. Wilson collapsed in the 100 block of Branch Water Court after the shooting, police said. He was transported to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:56 a.m. Wednesday.

For killing a woman who had let him stay at her Anne Arundel County home, Christopher Perkins O'Brien was sentenced to a decade in prison - but all but a year and a half behind bars and an equal amount of time on house arrest were suspended. Now he is accused of running afoul of the conditions set for doing time outside of prison. O'Brien was ordered yesterday to be held at the county detention center until an August court hearing, where he could be ordered to serve the balance of his suspended sentence.

A 26-year-old mentally challenged woman who was charged in the death of her 7-week-old son received a 10-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to first-degree child abuse. Harford County Judge William O. Carr suspended the sentence of Giovanna Mari Mosely of Abingdon on Wednesday. Mosely was released from jail Jan. 23, according to her defense attorney. Her son, Seth Gabriel Mosely, died of head injuries April 10, according to a death certificate. In August, Mosely, her husband, Richard Norman Mosely Jr., who has brain damage from a car accident, and their roommate, Daniel Evan Reilly, were indicted by a grand jury on charges of second-degree murder and two counts of child abuse.

A convicted murderer who persuaded a Baltimore Circuit Court judge to give him a suspended sentence because he was so sick that he could barely speak was sentenced yesterday to more than 15 years in prison for robbing a city bank of $620 a month later, federal prosecutors said. George Robert Chaney, 45, also will have to serve three years of supervised probation when he is released, the Maryland U.S. attorney's office said. "Mr. Chaney was granted probation in state court for murder," U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said in a statement.

Anybody know Antonio Santiful? If you do, please ask him to call me (410-332-6166) because, based on what little I know about him, Santiful ought to be looking for something new in his life right about now - a new job, and maybe a ticket out of town. A bullet across the face ought to get a young man thinking about a different scene and a different lifestyle. You know what I'm saying? Santiful survived a shooting last week on Cliftmont Avenue in Northeast Baltimore. So did another guy named Jerome Whitaker.

A former Department of Juvenile Services employee has pleaded guilty to felony theft in connection with misusing her state purchasing card, the attorney general's office announced last week. Monique Barnette Green of the 3200 block of Arbor Hill Court in Abingdon admitted using her state card in 2001 to buy items for personal use worth more than $11,500 - including groceries, car repairs, clothes and jewelry, according to prosecutors. Green was the assistant chief of telecommunications for the department at the time.

In Anne Arundel Aberdeen man identified as worker killed at BWI LINTHICUM - A worker killed yesterday in a construction accident at Baltimore-Washington International Airport has been identified as Marlo Cabot, 41, of Aberdeen. Cabot, an employee of Minneapolis-based Harmon Inc., was flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center about 10 a.m. Tuesday after a 1-ton pallet of glass panels fell on him. He died a few hours later. According to Harmon spokeswoman Mary Ann Jackson, Cabot had been employed as an iron worker with the company's Baltimore office since November last year.

In Baltimore City Elevators at Charles Subway station to be closed for 4 months The elevators at the Charles Center subway station will be closed for four months starting yesterday, according to the Maryland Transit Administration. The elevators will be closed to allow upgrades to make them compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Of the 33 subway elevators, 29 have been upgraded, and all are scheduled to be completed by June. MTA staff members will be available to assist riders unable to use the station's escalators on their own, said Cheron Wicker, a spokeswoman for the agency.

The wife of reputed cult leader Scott Caruthers pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge of conspiring to murder one of her husband's business associates. Dashielle Lashra, who had been jailed since her arrest in October last year, was sentenced to time served for her conviction and was placed on five years' probation. She left the Carroll County Detention Center yesterday afternoon. Caruthers, 57, an author and inventor who has been described as the space-alien leader of a cult that supposedly used cats to communicate with an extraterrestrial mothership, is awaiting trial on murder conspiracy charges.