Trooper

The man who robbed off-duty law enforcement officers while they were in Baltimore to attend the funeral of Detective Troy L. Chesley Sr. on Jan. 16 pleaded guilty yesterday to armed robbery and using a handgun while committing a crime of violence. Jean Sierra, 21, of Owings Mills, was sentenced to eight years in prison, the first five to be served without the possibility of parole. Sierra admitted to robbing an agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and a Virginia state trooper as they left Canton's busy bar and restaurant area of O'Donnell Square around closing time the morning of the funeral.

Trooper 1st Class Eric D. Workman sensed something suspicious as he readied for work yesterday. His girlfriend, a trooper at the Golden Ring barracks, just happened to have a court appearance in Carroll County yesterday. His two supervisors joined him for breakfast at the Double T Diner in Catonsville before following him to work. Workman's instincts were right. A bright yellow banner, "Welcome Back Trooper Eric Workman" draped in front of the Westminster barracks on Route 140, greeted him. As Workman pulled up, Lt. Dean Richardson, the barracks commander, motioned him toward the front entrance.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine didn't much like wearing seat belts and was in a rip-roaring hurry to play an indispensable role in moderating the meeting between Don Imus and the Rutgers women's basketball team. The results were excruciating for him but educational for the rest of us. Corzine suffered a broken collarbone, leg, sternum, vertebra and about a dozen ribs when the state trooper driving his SUV at speeds that reached 91 mph crashed April 12. And the state's editorialists have been beating him up - in the figurative sense - ever since.

Protesting the latest killing by police of an unarmed man in Baltimore, several hundred angry people gathered at the site of the Thanksgiving Day shooting yesterday afternoon to demand justice.Just before 12: 30 p.m., a crowd of nearly 300 people held hands and formed a circle at West North Avenue and North Dukeland Street, where 17-year-old Eli McCoy was shot three times on Thursday by Housing Authority of Baltimore City police Officer Kenneth M. Dean III.The rally was organized by the All People's Congress.

Two Westminster men, who were arrested late Monday after allegedly trying to obtain the title for a stolen car, were taken to the state police barracks in Westminster, where troopers reported finding 2.5 ounces of suspected crack cocaine in one man's jacket pocket, court records show.Vincent M. Barber, 20, and Marvin Powell, 34, live at different addresses in the first block of E. Main St. Both men were charged with possession of crack cocaine, possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, theft over $300, theft under $300 and related conspiracy counts.

For Tfc. Richard Wolfe, a good day means not writing a speeding ticket or warning.But that's a rare day. The veteran trooper can't recall many good days in 13 years as a resident trooper at the Westminster barracks. As the barracks' top traffic enforcer in Carroll County, Wolfe makes more than 3,000 traffic stops annually, averaging nearly 300 written tickets and warnings a month.The numbers are double those of his colleagues, but Wolfe said fellow troopers do more criminal investigations and have less time to monitor traffic.

DON'T KEEP THE governor waiting.That's what a couple of Maryland state troopers did and now they aren't driving Gov. Parris N. Glendening anymore.A state police spokesman confirmed that two members of Glendening's security detail were transferred last week to other assignments, calling the moves "routine" personnel decisions.But sources say the transfers were made after a couple of incidents in which Glendening was not picked up as promptly as he would have liked.The final straw occurred recently when Glendening arrived on a state police plane at a Western Maryland airport expecting to be met by one of his police drivers.

The Maryland State Police paramedic who won a sex discrimination lawsuit against his agency for being denied paternity leave has been allowed to return to work -- but only for administrative duties.Trooper 1st Class H. Kevin Knussman went back to work with his full police powers Tuesday for the first time since winning a $375,000 jury verdict two weeks ago.State police officials, however, still insist that he submit to a psychiatric evaluation before being allowed to resume his job as a paramedic with the medical evacuation helicopter unit.

A 41-year-old Delaware man died late Saturday night after he was shot in the left shoulder by a Maryland state trooper who was dragged down a Cecil County road hanging from the man's truck after a traffic stop, police said.Maurice K. Moore Jr. of the 2700 block of Frenchtown Road in Newark, Del., was pronounced dead at Union Hospital in Elkton, police said. An autopsy will be performed, a spokeswoman for the Maryland State Police said.Trooper Raymond Lynn, who has been on the force three years, was placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation, Herman said.

A rape case against a former Maryland State Police trooper was dismissed yesterday after a judge suppressed the trooper's statements.A police report states that Jonathan M. Pilch, 26, of Myersville told investigators the alleged victim did not consent to sexual intercourse after a December party celebrating Pilch's graduation from the police academy.But Baltimore County Circuit Judge Thomas J. Bollinger issued a written ruling yesterday that Pilch's statements were "not free and voluntary."

Maryland State Police say a dump truck hit an overhead sign on Interstate 70, and the driver kept going. The most serious of three traffic infractions handed to Alvin J. Hall 3rd charges him with leaving the scene of an accident with property damage. If found guilty, the 49-year-old Glen Burnie man could spend up to a year in jail, be fined $3,000 and get 12 points on his license, enough for an on-the-spot revocation. The sign, 75 feet long, spanned three lanes and two shoulders of the eastbound portion of the highway and hung from steel posts and beams about a mile west of the Baltimore Beltway interchange.

A Maryland state trooper who took a routine complaint from a woman about a stolen debit card number uncovered an alleged identity-theft scheme that led this week to an arrest of a teen who authorities said had more than 80 credit cards and a machine to make them. Police said the suspect's undoing came after he went on a weekend splurge using the woman's card, starting with a vehicle emissions test and ending with a $650 tab at a nightclub where the trooper said "he had partied with friends."

The first thing Maryland State Trooper John Peach does when asked about the dangers of flying medical helicopters is to take out his cell phone with a picture of his wife, Kate, and 2-year-old daughter Elizabeth. He held up the image for me as he prepared his 38-foot Dauphin craft for his next call while parked in a hangar at Martin State Airport this week. He readily acknowledges that after the crash last September that killed two of his friends, pilot Stephen H. Bunker and Trooper Mickey C. Lippy, along with a volunteer emergency medical technician and a patient, in heavy fog in Prince George's County, he's a bit more wary of going out. "It was a little difficult at first," he told me. Peach told me that his daughter, even at such a young age, points to the sky every time a helicopter soars overhead.

Dundalk man, 37, charged after trooper hit on I-695 3 A Dundalk man has been arrested and charged with driving under the influence after he struck a Maryland state trooper issuing a ticket on Interstate 695 at Perring Parkway, police said. The trooper, identified only as Trooper Rosenfeld, was treated at Maryland Shock Trauma Center and released, police said yesterday. Michael J. Polanowski, 37, of the 7900 block of Diehlwood Road, is accused of driving a 2005 Nissan that drifted onto the shoulder just before 7:30 p.m. Thursday and struck the trooper's vehicle, which then struck the 1998 Hyundai he had pulled over, police said.

Man accused of killing wife pleads not guilty A Baltimore man accused of fatally stabbing his wife outside a courthouse where she had just received a protective order pleaded not guilty yesterday and asked for a jury trial. Cleaven Williams, 33, of the 900 block of E. North Ave. was arraigned on charges of first-degree murder and deadly weapons violations. He is accused of attacking his estranged wife, Veronica Williams, 28, about 4:15 p.m. Nov. 17 outside the Eastside Courthouse in the 1300 block of E. North Ave. An off-duty officer said he saw the attack, stopped to help the woman and shot the attacker in an attempt to stop the assault.

Two men were killed early yesterday in Harford County after crashing their car into trees along Route 155 while evading police, Maryland State Police said. Police identified the men yesterday afternoon as Charles Quinones, 37, of Baltimore and Willie Robertson, 74, of Bel Air. Troopers later found more than 6 ounces of cocaine in plastic bags in the car's trunk, police said. Investigators estimate the drug's street value at $18,000. Quinones was wanted on a felony warrant, police said.

Two would-be bank robbers held a Prince George's County family hostage overnight, hoping to use the bank employee mother to get to the money, Maryland State Police said. But their plan fell apart yesterday when a state trooper stopped the family car as it headed for the bank. Police said the crime began at 7:30 p.m. Friday. As the 39-year-old mother, a manager of the Sun Trust Bank in Silver Spring, walked into her house in Clinton, she was accosted by two men who had a gun and a knife, police said.

A trooper was fired yesterday by the Maryland State Police after he was arrested on charges of kidnapping a man in his marked cruiser at a fast-food drive-through, then leading Baltimore County police on a drunken high-speed chase. The incident unfolded about 2:30 a.m. Saturday at a Taco Bell restaurant at Loch Raven Boulevard and Taylor Avenue in Towson. Witnesses told county police officers that a trooper in plainclothes activated his siren and began yelling at people in the drive-through to get out of the way, according to police charging documents.

Trooper arrests suspect after armed robbery A state trooper on patrol apprehended a suspect in the armed robbery of a convenience store early Saturday in Harford County, and a second suspect was arrested by backup officers, Maryland State Police said. The trooper had observed suspicious behavior by a man standing outside a 7-Eleven on Philadelphia Road in Abingdon and parked his patrol car nearby to watch. While the trooper waited for assistance, the two men ran out of the store, carrying an undisclosed amount of money and property, police said.

Making flights safer is key to saving lives The editorial "Support for medevacs" (Nov. 28) focuses on the need to change the criteria used by EMTs when they decide to fly patients instead of driving them to the hospital. As a volunteer firefighter and EMT, I understand how difficult this on-the-spot decision can be. However, I'd like to remind readers that the Trooper 2 helicopter did not crash because the victims on board had what the media have often deemed minor injuries. I believe Trooper 2 crashed because of its outdated technology on board and an inexperienced dispatcher who was not able to help the veteran pilot land safely in deteriorating weather conditions.