Trial Date

Anne Arundel County police have charged a 19-year-old California woman with prostitution, operating a prostitution ring and human trafficking. Shkoyia Michelle Lomack of Sacramento was arrested Tuesday evening and remains in custody with a June 19 trial date. Officers received an anonymous tip that a woman was using hotels in the Linthicum area to house prostitutes and profit from their activities. Investigators say Lomack had used an Internet advertisement as a front for the prostitution ring that involved other women from California.

Anne Arundel County police have charged a 19-year-old California woman with prostitution, operating a prostitution ring and human trafficking. Shkoyia Michelle Lomack of Sacramento was arrested Tuesday evening and remains in custody with a June 19 trial date. Officers received an anonymous tip that a woman was using hotels in the Linthicum area to house prostitutes and profit from their activities. Investigators say Lomack had used an Internet advertisement as a front for the prostitution ring that involved other women from California.

The Allman Brothers and the Flaming Lips will headline this year's All Good Festival at its new location in Columbus, Ohio, Maryland-based Walther Productions said today. The jam band festival moved from its long-time West Virginia location in November after a fatal accident at last year's event left a young woman dead, resulting in three wrongful-death lawsuits.  Coincidentally, a U.S. District judge said today all three lawsuits will be tried together at a trial that has been tentatively set for August 19. All Good's 15th edition ended in tragedy when a truck careened into a camp of tents where attendees slept, killing a South Carolina woman, Nicole Faris Miller.

The Allman Brothers and the Flaming Lips will headline this year's All Good Festival at its new location in Columbus, Ohio, Maryland-based Walther Productions said today. The jam band festival moved from its long-time West Virginia location in November after a fatal accident at last year's event left a young woman dead, resulting in three wrongful-death lawsuits.  Coincidentally, a U.S. District judge said today all three lawsuits will be tried together at a trial that has been tentatively set for August 19. All Good's 15th edition ended in tragedy when a truck careened into a camp of tents where attendees slept, killing a South Carolina woman, Nicole Faris Miller.

The Baltimore couple accused of killing cancer researcher Stephen Pitcairn this summer as he walked home from a city train station is scheduled for trial on murder, assault and robbery charges early next year. Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Timothy J. Doory set a trial date of Jan. 26, 2011, for Lavelva Merritt, 24, and John Alexander Wagner, 37. Charging documents claim the pair stabbed Pitcairn, who worked at Johns Hopkins University, and robbed him of his wallet and iPhone on July 25, then left him for dead on the sidewalk in the 2600 block of St. Paul St. A neighbor heard Pitcairn's cries and held the young man as he died, just days before his 24 t h birthday.

A former patient at the Clifton T. Perkins state psychiatric hospital who was charged with killing another patient in September is scheduled to stand trial March 21 in Howard County Circuit Court. El Soudani El Wahhabi is accused of killing Susan Sachs on September 26. After nurses discovered Sachs lying face-down on her bed with a shoelace wrapped around her neck, El-Wahhabi, who lived down the hall, was charged with first-degree murder. Sachs' death was the first apparent murder in the Jessup facility's 50-year history.

U.S. District Judge William M. Nickerson set a May 15 trial date yesterday for Del. Tony E. Fulton, a West Baltimore Democrat, and Annapolis lobbyist Gerard E. Evans on charges of defrauding clients of Evans' paint and asbestos company. The federal mail and wire fraud charges stem from an alleged scheme in which Fulton talked about proposing legislation that could have cost Evans' clients millions of dollars. By threatening to introduce the bills, Fulton helped Evans drive up his lobbying fees, prosecutors charge.

A trial date in mid-November was set yesterday for three men charged in a shooting last month at Randallstown High School. Antonio R. Jackson, 21, of Owings Mills, Tyrone Devon Brown, 23, of Baltimore and Matthew Timothy McCullough, 17, of Randallstown are scheduled to go on trial Nov. 15 in Baltimore County Circuit Court. Attorneys for Jackson and McCullough said they plan to ask a judge to allow their clients to be tried separately, but prosecutors said they intend to try all three co-defendants together.

Anne Arundel County prosecutors may lose a high-profile manslaughter case without a trial because the trial date was delayed past the legal deadline without the lawyers' bringing it before a judge for approval. The lawyer for Kirk R. DeCosmo, who is accused of causing two fatal vehicular crashes in 13 years, is claiming that although he agreed to a trial date after the 180-day speedy trial limit, the pact he made with prosecutors is not valid. He has asked the Circuit Court's administrative judge to dismiss the charges.

EAGLE, Colo. - The woman accusing Kobe Bryant of sexual assault made an impassioned plea to the judge yesterday, asking him to set a trial date, and saying she has faced constant death threats and upheaval in the nearly nine months since she made the allegation. John Clune, the lawyer for the 19-year-old alleged victim, included in the court filing a letter to Judge Terry Ruckriegle from the woman's mother that recounted in detail the stress the family has endured. "We are constantly worried about her safety," wrote the mother, whose name is blacked out in the letter.

Sixteen-year-old Robert C. Richardson III was indicted Tuesday on murder charges in the January death of his father. The Harford County Grand Jury indicted the Bel Air teen, who has been held without bond in the Harford County Detention Center. Richardson has been charged with first- and second-degree murder as well as the use of a handgun during the commission of a crime. Harford County State's Attorney Joseph Cassilly would say little about the case late Tuesday. "A lot of speculation about a motive has surrounded this case from the outset; [it]

Closing arguments are expected Wednesday morning in the death penalty trial of a prisoner charged with fatally stabbing a correctional officer in the now-closed House of Correction. As the defense began presenting its case Monday, jurors heard prisoners testify that neither of the masked killers of Cpl. David McGuinn appeared to be Lee Edward "Shy" Stephens. Stephens, 32, is one of two convicted murderers accused of escaping from a cell whose lock had been jimmied and ambushing McGuinn.

With jury selection extending past last week, opening statements that had been scheduled for Monday in the death penalty trial of a prisoner charged with killing a correctional officer are expected to take place Wednesday. Lee Edward Stephens, 32, is one of two life-term prisoners accused of fatally stabbing David McGuinn in July 2006 as he walked on a skinny catwalk along cells at the Maryland House of Correction. The slaying was among the main reasons the prison, in Jessup, was closed.

Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia are asking for a postponement until spring in the trial for an Ellicott City teen charged with aiding a terrorist, citing complexities in a case filled with classified information, voluminous evidence and multiple defendants. Also, according to documents filed by the U.S. attorney's office for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, an alleged accomplice remains incarcerated in Ireland pending extradition. Prosecutors say he has neither retained an attorney nor had a single court appearance related to the case.

The Baltimore trial of brothers Avi and Eliyahu Werdesheim, who are charged with assault and false imprisonment — accused of beating a black teenager last year while members of a Jewish patrol group — has been postponed for a fifth time. The racially charged case, which has strained relations between some black and Jewish city residents, was set for trial Monday. But defense attorneys asked for an advance postponement last week, according to Mark Cheshire, a spokesman for the Baltimore state's attorney's office.

A Baltimore County basketball coach was charged over the weekend with sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy, police said Monday, but the coach's employer defended the man. Police have charged Tyrone Terry Jordan, 55, of the 3400-block of Oakfield Ave. in Gwynn Oak, with sexual abuse of a minor, a felony, and fourth-degree sex offense, a misdemeanor. A 14-year-old boy told police that Jordan, his basketball coach, had touched him inappropriately on Aug. 31 while he was at the Hoops Summer Camp, located in the 3700 block of Twin Lakes Court in Windsor Mill, at the Twin Lakes Racquet Club, according to Baltimore County police.

MANASSAS, Va. - A Prince William County Circuit Court judge appointed a second attorney yesterday to defend sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad, giving him two seasoned lawyers with experience in high-profile cases. During a 10-minute hearing, Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. delayed setting a trial date and named Alexandria-based lawyer Jonathan Shapiro co-counsel with Peter Greenspun of Fairfax, who represented Muhammad yesterday in court. Shapiro and Greenspun are also paired in a Fairfax County triple homicide case set to go to trial next month.

Sixteen-year-old Robert C. Richardson III was indicted Tuesday on murder charges in the January death of his father. The Harford County Grand Jury indicted the Bel Air teen, who has been held without bond in the Harford County Detention Center. Richardson has been charged with first- and second-degree murder as well as the use of a handgun during the commission of a crime. Harford County State's Attorney Joseph Cassilly would say little about the case late Tuesday. "A lot of speculation about a motive has surrounded this case from the outset; [it]

A federal judge on Friday reversed an earlier ruling and ordered a Baltimore police officer charged in a drug conspiracy case to be jailed until his trial, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office. No trial date has been set. Officer Daniel Redd, who has been imprisoned since his arrest last month, was granted a conditional release Thursday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephanie Gallagher, who ordered that he be discharged to his mother's house under electronic home monitoring.

Two campaign aides to Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that they violated election laws last fall by ordering Election Day robocalls to Democratic homes in predominantly African-American areas that suggested the vote was over. Monday's arraignment was the first appearance in Baltimore Circuit Court by Paul Schurick, a longtime Ehrlich aide, and Julius Henson, a consultant to Ehrlich's 2010 campaign. Henson and a consulting company employee also are accused in a multimillion-dollar civil complaint in federal court.