Trial

A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people - including 13 women working as corrections officers - who face racketeering and drug charges. Twenty of the accused also face money-laundering charges.

If the federal prison that gets Tavon White is anything like the last one I visited, even a charmer such as Bulldog will have a tough time recreating the life of the libertine he had at the Baltimore City Detention Center. White, a reputed leader of the Black Guerrilla Family prison gang, is accused of attempted murder; he's been on trial twice for that charge since 2009. Both trials ended in hung juries, and that explains why White, or "Bulldog," had enough time at the jail to get four of its correctional officers pregnant, one of them twice, according to recent federal indictments.

One of the colts entered in Saturday's 138th running of the Preakness Stakes can lay claim to a distinction not shared by seven others:  He's actually finished ahead of the expected favorite Orb in a race. Titletown Five, one of three Preakness entries trained by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, and Orb were both entered in a seven-furlong, maiden special weight race for 2-year-olds at Saratoga last Aug. 18. Maiden special weights are for horses that have never won a race in their career.

Women's basketball Terps ' DeVaughn to take part in WUG trials this week Maryland junior center Alicia DeVaughn will head to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., this week to take part in USA Basketball Women's World University Games Team trials. DeVaughn is one of 33 of the nation's top college athletes attending the trials today to Sunday. The World University Games women's basketball competition will be held July 8-15 in Kazan, Russia. Organized by the International University Sports Federation and held every other year, the WUG event is a multi-sport competition open to men and women between the ages of 17 and 24. DeVaughn averaged 8.4 points and 7.4 rebounds per game to help Maryland to a 26-8 record and an appearance in the Sweet Sixteen.

Nicole Stall boarded the first plane to Maryland she could catch when she heard of Benjamin Boniface's death last June. She was there to grieve the death of a boy she had known since his birth. But also to work. In the days after the 20-year-old's death in an early-morning car accident on the farm, she went to the barns where she had fallen in love with horses as a teenager. “I was completely out of it,” said William K. Boniface, known to most as Billy. “She just went out to the stallion barn, kept it running.

The jury has returned guilty verdicts on all counts against Jerome Williams, 17, and Charles McGaney, 22, two of three men who were on trial for the murder of former Baltimore City Councilman Kenneth N. Harris. A third defendant, Gary Collins, 22, was found not guilty of murder, but was found guilty of assault and weapons charges. More to come...

A Baltimore City Circuit Court judge has ruled that a lawsuit over mold in one of the ritzy Harborview condos can proceed to trial. Paul C. Clark, who bought a penthouse at the Inner Harbor complex for more than $1.1 million in 2009, is suing Zalco Realty and the 100 Harborview Drive Council of Unit Owners for $5 million. He contends that the defendants knew of water and mold problems before his purchase but issued him a "resale certification" that stated they were aware of no building or health code violations.

President Barack Obama came into office pledging to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba and to try terrorist suspects in U.S. courts rather than in military tribunals overseas. Yet, a year and a half into his presidency, Mr. Obama still has not succeeded in closing the facility, and the first trial of a terrorist suspect opened there this week before a military tribunal. That trial is rightly being closely watched now as a bellwether of how the Obama administration plans to deal with the thicket of political, legal and ethical issues raised by the Guantanamo facility's role in the war on terror.

The manslaughter and carjacking trial of Charles Johnson III, who's accused of killing three Baltimore teens in a car crash last year after blowing through a red light in a stolen vehicle, was postponed Friday until Oct. 3. Assistant Public Defender Jane E. McGough requested the delay so she could arrange for an independent evaluation of Johnson's mental health records. The 20-year-old has already been found competent to stand trial by state evaluators, but McGough said she wants an outside opinion.

George Huguely V sits in the corner of a narrow, white room, at the end of a long wooden table, looking every bit the college athlete who just rolled out of bed after a normal night out — but for the bloody scratches ringing his right ankle. Hours earlier, he had used that leg to drunkenly kick in his girlfriend's bedroom door, he tells Charlottesville detectives, during a 64-minute recorded interrogation into the fatal beating of Cockeysville native Yeardley Love. The public got its first look at the video Tuesday, two years after it was made, on the morning of May 3, 2010, and nearly three months after Huguely was convicted of second-degree murder in Love's death at her University of Virginia off-campus apartment.

The wake-up call came at 3:15 a.m. Tuesday, but Midshipman Alberto Salabarria was ready well before then. Anticipating a grueling, thrilling, muddy day of Sea Trials at the Naval Academy, Salabarria and some of his classmates couldn't wait. "Everyone was listening to music, trying to motivate themselves," Salabarria said. Staying upbeat is a key to surviving Sea Trials, a 14-hour test of strength, endurance and will that marks the end of the freshman, or "plebe," year at the Naval Academy.

As the alleged leader of the Black Guerrilla Family gang at the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal prosecutors say, Tavon White could get access to pretty much whatever he wanted: drugs, phones, money and sex. He is now being held under more straitened circumstances at a state prison in Cumberland, according to his attorney, who is asking a judge to reconsider the conditions of his detention. "The totality of his belongings were as follows: A jump suit, one pair of underwear, shower sandals, a sheet for the bed. Period," the lawyer, Gary E. Proctor, wrote in a court filing.

A Baltimore teenager pleaded guilty to murder Monday as his trial was set to begin, following a failed attempt last week to have a confession withheld from jurors in the case. Markell Shelton Jones, 18, shot and killed Freddie Jones Jr. at the Yau Brothers Chinese carryout on Greenmount Avenue on Halloween 2011 during a bungled robbery attempt. The attack was captured on surveillance cameras and police released the footage to the press. After Markell Jones' family recognized him on television, his grandfather called police to have him taken into custody, according to testimony at a motions hearing last week.

Once thought to be a somewhat out-of-the-way spot for winter ski trips and summer getaways from the scorching heat, Deep Creek Lake and the adjacent Wisp Resort could become "the No. 1 - bar none - adventure sports destination spot in the world" if Todd Copley has anything to do with it. Toward that goal, Copley's Deep Creek 2014 LLC will be helping run next weekend's USA Canoe Kayak Slalom Team Trials there, as well as the sport's world championships in...

Frank James MacArthur, the blogger known as the Baltimore Spectator, could go on trial in May after pleading not guilty Monday to gun and resisting-arrest charges that have kept him in jail for months. MacArthur is accused in connection with a December standoff as Baltimore police tried to arrest him on a probation violation charge. During the standoff, MacArthur protested his arrest on an online radio station and live-streamed his telephone discussions with a police negotiator over the Internet.

Aberdeen freshman Stephanie Jones is one of 33 players who have accepted invitations to try out for the USA Basketball women's under-16 national team later this month in Colorado Springs, Colo. Jones, a 6-foot-1 All-Metro forward, led the No. 2 Eagles to the Class 3A state championship in March, averaging 17.3 points and 9.2 rebounds. Although she plays strong on the inside, Jones could also handle the ball and hit 3-pointers. Jones' quickness and versatility were keys to the Eagles' stifling defense and quick-strike offense after her sister, 6-foot-3 Maryland-bound senior Brionna Jones, was lost for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in January.

The trial for the twin brothers accused of setting a dog on fire so badly in 2009 that she later had to be euthanized has been postponed until at least July 26. Administrative proceedings for the re-trial of brothers Travers and Tremayne Johnson were set to begin Wednesday but were instead pushed back more than two months. The re-trial comes after a first trial for the Johnson brothers ended in a hung jury in February, with 11 jurors believing the brothers set the dog, later nicknamed "Phoenix" on fire, while one juror was unconvinced by the prosecution's case.

The murder trial of three men accused of killing former City Councilman Kenneth N. Harris was postponed Monday because one defense attorney is in trial with another client and a second lawyer needs more time to investigate the case. The state also needs time to respond to a defense motion, filed by Jason Silverstein on Christmas Eve, seeking to throw out certain DNA evidence as illegally obtained. The new trial date for defendants Charles McGaney and Gary Collins, both 21, and Jerome Williams, 17, is April 30. The three young men are accused of fatally shooting Harris in the early morning of Sept.

A Sinai Hospital cardiologist is launching a clinical trial of a type of coronary artery disease drug not yet tested in humans, building on a history at the Baltimore hospital of research to develop more effective treatments to prevent blood clotting. Dr. Paul Gurbel is studying an intravenous drug for patients undergoing cardiac stenting, when mesh tubes are implanted to widen blocked arteries. The drug, known for now as PZ-128, would be given to patients after stent implantation to prevent platelets from sticking together around the device, potentially leading to heart attack.

A request by the former owner of the Parkway Theatre for a new condemnation trial was denied Tuesday by Maryland's high court . A&E North LLC argued that the city should have paid to remove “automobile parts and other assorted junk” stored in the theater before the start of the 2010 condemnation trial. During the trial, jurors would tour the property to determine its fair market value and A&E “hoped the theater would show better without the junk” - thereby resulting in a larger “just compensation” award for the city's taking of the property.