Westminster Man

A 51-year-old Westminster man who faked his engineering credentials to work for a Columbia firm pleaded guilty Monday in Howard County Circuit Court to one count of counterfeiting a public seal. Lawrence D. Novakowski of the 3000 block of Nicodemus Road will be sentenced July 1 by Judge Timothy J. McCrone; he could receive up to two years in prison. According to Senior Assistant State's Attorney Kim Oldham, a complaint by an engineering firm in Sparks that Novakowski's credentials were phony helped launch an investigation by two state agencies that concluded he used a state seal to fraudulently obtain a license that helped him get a job in Columbia.

Mourners of Airman 1st Class Matthew Ryan Seidler said the Westminster man had followed his dream of serving his country, found a band of brothers in the Air Force and died protecting his fellow soldiers in Afghanistan. "When we talked to him New Year's Day, it was the happiest that he had ever been in his life," his father, Marc Seidler, told the more than 500 mourners who filled the Sol Levinson & Bros. funeral home Tuesday in Pikesville. "He loved the Air Force. " Matthew Seidler, an explosive ordnance disposal apprentice, was killed Jan. 5 by a bomb in Helmand province.

A 45-year-old man drowned in a boating accident on the Elk River Saturday, authorities said. Maryland Natural Resources Police said officers were dispatched to the private Chesapeake Isles Community along the Elk River to investigate a capsized vessel and persons in distress. They said vessel had taken on water before capsizing in a mooring area near the community. The operator and three passengers were pulled from the water by witnesses. The operator was unconscious.

ELDERSBURG - A 21-year-old Westminster man was arrested on Jan. 4 after the county Sheriff's Office said he was driving a vehicle that struck at least five parked vehicles, three mailboxes and a stop sign in the Harvest Farms and Carroll Highlands communities of Eldersburg. Early Wednesday morning, a resident reported a white truck that struck a mailbox. The vehicle description was broadcast and a State Trooper patrolling the area located and stopped the truck traveling a short distance from the scene.

A 19-year-old Westminster was arrested and charged with first- and second-degree assault after a Frederick man was stabbed in the parking lot of TownMall in Westminster on Oct. 17. The Westminster Police Department said that on Monday at 7:01 p.m., officers responded to a report of a stabbing in the mall's parking lot. When police units arrived on the scene they found that a 23-year-old Frederck man had been stabbed in the abdomen. The victim was transported to University of Maryland Shock Trauma for treatment.

ELDERSBURG - A 21-year-old Westminster man was arrested on Jan. 4 after the county Sheriff's Office said he was driving a vehicle that struck at least five parked vehicles, three mailboxes and a stop sign in the Harvest Farms and Carroll Highlands communities of Eldersburg. Early Wednesday morning, a resident reported a white truck that struck a mailbox. The vehicle description was broadcast and a State Trooper patrolling the area located and stopped the truck traveling a short distance from the scene.

A 29-year-old Westminster an was arrested on Thursday, July 7, and charged with robbing a bank on Main Street in Westminster earlier in the day. The Westminster Police Department reported that on Thursday, July 7, at about 12:30 p.m., officers were dispatched to the PNC Bank, at 132 W. Main St., for a reported robbery. Police said that witness told them a black male — dressed in all black clothing and wearing a plastic bag on his head — had entered the bank and presented a teller with a note demanding money.

A Westminster man is accused of raping, beating and burning the 21-month-old girl daughter of his girlfriend while the mother slept nearby, Carroll County sheriff's deputies said Tuesday. Ryan Chad Gifford, 23, was arrested Sunday and charged with first- and second-degree assault and first- and second-degree child abuse after the girl's mother took her to a hospital for treatment of burns, a swollen face and extensive abrasions. Gifford was being held at the Caroll County Detention Center in lieu of $500,000 bond after a bail review hearing Monday.

A Westminster man was found guilty Monday of child sexual abuse and first-degree assault of a 21-month-old girl last year, the Carroll County State's Attorney's office said. Ryan C. Gifford, 24, faces a maximum of 25 years in prison on each of the two charges when he is sentenced on June 1 in Carroll County Circuit Court. The toddler and her mother were staying at Gifford's home on April 11, 2010, when the assault occurred, according to charging documents. Police said Gifford attacked the girl in a shower while her mother was sleeping, and after drinking a half-gallon of white wine.

Maryland Natural Resources Police are investigating a fatal boating accident on Saturday involving a 45-year-old man from Westminster. According to Natural Resources Police, officers were dispatched to the Chesapeake Isles Community along the Elk River June 25 to investigate a capsized vessel and persons in distress. The vessel had taken on water before capsizing in a mooring area near the private community, police said. The operator and three passengers were pulled from the water by nearby witnesses who found the operator unconscious.

A 19-year-old Westminster was arrested and charged with first- and second-degree assault after a Frederick man was stabbed in the parking lot of TownMall in Westminster on Oct. 17. The Westminster Police Department said that on Monday at 7:01 p.m., officers responded to a report of a stabbing in the mall's parking lot. When police units arrived on the scene they found that a 23-year-old Frederck man had been stabbed in the abdomen. The victim was transported to University of Maryland Shock Trauma for treatment.

A 29-year-old Westminster an was arrested on Thursday, July 7, and charged with robbing a bank on Main Street in Westminster earlier in the day. The Westminster Police Department reported that on Thursday, July 7, at about 12:30 p.m., officers were dispatched to the PNC Bank, at 132 W. Main St., for a reported robbery. Police said that witness told them a black male — dressed in all black clothing and wearing a plastic bag on his head — had entered the bank and presented a teller with a note demanding money.

Maryland Natural Resources Police are investigating a fatal boating accident on Saturday involving a 45-year-old man from Westminster. According to Natural Resources Police, officers were dispatched to the Chesapeake Isles Community along the Elk River June 25 to investigate a capsized vessel and persons in distress. The vessel had taken on water before capsizing in a mooring area near the private community, police said. The operator and three passengers were pulled from the water by nearby witnesses who found the operator unconscious.

A 45-year-old man drowned in a boating accident on the Elk River Saturday, authorities said. Maryland Natural Resources Police said officers were dispatched to the private Chesapeake Isles Community along the Elk River to investigate a capsized vessel and persons in distress. They said vessel had taken on water before capsizing in a mooring area near the community. The operator and three passengers were pulled from the water by witnesses. The operator was unconscious.

The last place you're apt to find Westminster resident Bruce Lesh — a history, government and politics teacher and chairman of the social studies department at Franklin High School, inReisterstown — is standing in front of a class pontificating on history's broad themes or regurgitating names and dates. "We have nearly a hundred years of data that tells us that that old model of teaching history just doesn't work," he said. Lesh is the author of "Why Can't You Just Tell Us the Answer?

Ryan C. Gifford had used a lot of heroin that day and drank wine and other alcohol, his lawyer said. "He was high pretty much the entire evening," said his lawyer, Lee McNulty. That is why his client had no recollection, he said, of assaulting, burning and sexually abusing a 21-month-old child on an April night last year, acts that doctors said almost killed the toddler and for which Gifford received a 50-year prison sentence — half of it suspended — in a Westminster courtroom Thursday.

Ryan C. Gifford had used a lot of heroin that day and drank wine and other alcohol, his lawyer said. "He was high pretty much the entire evening," said his lawyer, Lee McNulty. That is why his client had no recollection, he said, of assaulting, burning and sexually abusing a 21-month-old child on an April night last year, acts that doctors said almost killed the toddler and for which Gifford received a 50-year prison sentence — half of it suspended — in a Westminster courtroom Thursday.

A Westminster man was found guilty Monday of child sexual abuse and first-degree assault of a 21-month-old girl last year, the Carroll County State's Attorney's office said. Ryan C. Gifford, 24, faces a maximum of 25 years in prison on each of the two charges when he is sentenced on June 1 in Carroll County Circuit Court. The toddler and her mother were staying at Gifford's home on April 11, 2010, when the assault occurred, according to charging documents. Police said Gifford attacked the girl in a shower while her mother was sleeping, and after drinking a half-gallon of white wine.

Maryland State Police are investigating the stabbing death of a Westminster man found early Saturday. The victim is identified as Steven R. Hobson, 40, of the unit-block of Main Street, according to police. Shortly before 2:30 a.m., Westminster Police responded to a 911 call from a building in the unit-block of East Main Street. Officers found the victim in an apartment in the residential and commercial building. Responding medics pronounced the victim dead at the scene.