Warrant

Nicholas S. Constantine, one of five city narcotics officers facing perjury charges in Baltimore Circuit Court, has been found innocent of lying to a judge about a May 1991 search warrant.Officer Constantine, 26, was one of the key players in a drug raid in July at the home of a relative of the mayor's wife. The charge that was heard yesterday related to a different raid, in the 4900 block of Palmer Ave.The officer still faces two other perjury-related counts -- one involving the mayoral relative's home -- that were likely to go to trial today.

WASHINGTON -- The state of Maryland failed yesterday in its plea to the Supreme Court to give police broad authority to look for evidence of crime in luggage that suspects leave with their friends.Without explanation, the justices turned aside a state appeal seeking to reinstate the conviction of a Florida man for possessing cocaine with intent to distribute it.The Maryland Court of Appeals last April struck down the conviction of Lenard B. Owens of Fort Pierce, Fla., because police -- acting on a tip -- had gone to an apartment in Hagerstown and had taken and opened a closed bag that Mr. Owens had left there overnight with a friend.

A 24-year-old Baltimore man has been charged in a warrant with killing an Anne Arundel County man in Bolton Hill in November - which occurred four days before police say the same suspect participated in the killing of a downtown restaurant owner. Antoine Bolden, 24, of the 2000 block of Eutaw Place, was charged Sunday with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Myron Lee Chase, 46, police said. Chase was probably operating an unlicensed cab, known as a hack, and had been told to drive to the 200 block of W. Lanvale St. on Nov. 16, police said at the time.

Baltimore detectives believed they had enough evidence to charge Gerald P. Reed with the attempted murder of another man this week. But prosecutors balked at issuing an arrest warrant, pointing to flaws in crucial witness testimony. Hours later, despite the attention the case had drawn from authorities, police say Reed again went looking for Mathaddues Rozier, barging Tuesday evening into the Southeast Baltimore rowhome of Rozier's father, 79. Reed fatally shot the elderly man in his chair, authorities say. The younger Rozier was upstairs when his father was killed.

Baltimore County police have issued an arrest warrant for a Towson insurance executive who disappeared amid allegations that up to $1.1 million is missing from the company.The warrant, issued Oct. 8., charged Hamilton Schmidt, the former chief executive of Charter Group Inc., with grand theft of the company's automobile.Mr. Schmidt, 38, was last seen Sept. 14 driving a medium-blue 1992 Cadillac Seville, a company car with Maryland plates ZTH-451.The next day, he sent a letter to his sister, Susan Schmidt, telling her that he had to get away for a while, police said yesterday.

Carroll County Sheriff Kenneth L. Tregoning announced yesterday that he will seek a second term, saying he enjoys the job and wants to continue his plans that emphasize coordination with other police agencies. Changes during his four years include: expanding road patrol to a 24-hour operation; expanding the capacity of the county detention center; joining a reconstituted county drug-enforcement task force; improving mutual-aid agreements, including deputizing town police officers; and a central booking unit that he said saves each officer 2 1/2 hours per arrest -the equivalent of having 4 1/2 more officers on county roads.

The Baltimore state's attorney is dropping criminal charges against approximately 200 accused drug dealers or users who were arrested by five narcotics officers now facing prosecution for perjury, police and prosecutors said yesterday.About 60 percent of the cases being dismissed are felonies, and in some instances, suspected mid- to high-level cocaine and heroin dealers not only have been released from jail, but can reclaim alleged drug money seized during their arrests, police sources said.

Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, the actress who played a cold-blooded killer of the same name on the HBO series The Wire, was arrested on minor drug charges yesterday after police picked her up for refusing to cooperate as a witness in a murder trial, records show. Members of the homicide unit forced entry into the 28-year-old's Northeast Baltimore home Wednesday morning to serve a "body attachment" warrant, which would allow authorities to detain her, if necessary, until the Sept. 16 murder trial of Steven James Lashley.

On June 3, Circuit Judge Francis M. Arnold signed a search warrant that allowed the county's drug task force to seize bags of marijuana plants from a Pleasant Valley home.But on Wednesday, Judge Arnold threw out the search warrant he signed only four months ago, saying it failed to establish reasonable grounds for the search.And with that ruling, he threw out the bulk of the task force's case against the couple who live in the house.The eight-hour raid at the home in the 1300 block of Pleasant Valley Road was considered a successful one for the Carroll County Narcotics Task Force.

A Baltimore police major is under internal investigation on allegations that he urged a prosecutor to recall an arrest warrant for the son of his pastor, according to sources familiar with the case. The major, Stephen Davis of the Northeastern District, declined to comment this week. But last month, the commander said he did nothing more than orchestrate the surrender of the suspect. Police sources and others familiar with the investigation say internal affairs detectives are examining whether Davis, a 15-year veteran, improperly approached a prosecutor last month and asked her to recall the warrant for Kenneth L. Barney Jr., 32, of the 3000 block of Druid Park Lake Drive.