The More Things Change.......

Happened to find some old pictures and noticed a similarity.

If you notice the background in this picture you'll see Conrad Ruth's Villa, a outdoor party facility on Edwards Lane in Bowleys Quarters.

This first one was taken 1989

This one, 2002

Next, 2007

And finally, 2008

Guess I don't Know My Math

The price of crude oil has dropped 15% or so in the last few weeks.
My local gas station dropped their prices by 4%.

What's wrong here?

The Criminal Injustice System

A Sad Story

This story is a true story but the names will be changed as this one hit close to home and those that I'll write about still live somewhat nearby. It's a story where there is no happy ending, no redeeming value, a story of despair and hopeless lives.

Growing up in Perry Hall we had allot going for us. The area was still undeveloped and my group of friends had a wonderful couple of teenage years. There was a group of 15 or so who to this day have remained friends. We for a while had what we called the "fort". This was a 3 story structure that we build in the woods that had a working fireplace, lights powered by car batteries and a Formica outside bar courtesy of my parents redoing their kitchen. We drank quite a bit of beer back there and had parties frequently. One of the neighborhood girls who occasionally visited the fort was "Karen". She and her sister were friends with some of my buddies and I drank some beer with them from time to time at various parties and at the apartment complex where they lived. I'm guessing that 1975 or 1976 was the last time I had seen Karen.

February 12, 1991 I was working the Homicide unit and received a call of a possible homicide. The victim was at the G.B.M.C. emergency room. I met with the attending physician who led me to the victim and described what happened. The victim was a 7 week old female with visible contusions and abrasions on her face and head. The doctor stated that an adult male ran into the emergency room carrying the baby and shouting, "somebody help me, my baby is not breathing". The man was crying and smelled of alcohol. The baby was pronounced dead basically upon arrival. The victim had dilated and fixed pupils and no heart rate. The man cried, "I lost my baby girl".

I requested Dr. Frank Peretti of the State Medical Examiner's Office to respond and examine the victim. We had a good relationship with Dr. Peretti. It is not normal procedure for the M.E. to respond to a scene but Dr. Peretti offered to do so at any time. I guess a man who hunts rattlesnakes and calls that vacation, is not normal anyway.

Dr. Peretti examined the victim and found that her skull was fractured in many locations. He had me feel the skull myself to demonstrate how the fractures feel. He also noted that the baby exhibited visual symptoms of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. These symptoms are an elf like appearance of the eyes and ears. This is a result of heavy drinking of the mother while carrying the child. Having this information immediately at hand instead of waiting for the formal autopsy the next morning helped us quite a bit.

I went and met with the adult male who brought the victim in and began an informal interview.

The man identified himself as "Tim" and that the victim was his daughter "Amy". Amy was born the previous Christmas day. Tim also has a 2 year old son who was home with the mother. They all live together on Magledt Rd. in the Carney section of Baltimore county. They live in an upstairs apartment of a two story home. Tim described that he and his wife were home drinking a few beers and that his wife went to check on the baby and found her unresponsive. Tim immediately scooped up Amy wrapped her in a blanket and drove his pick up truck. Asked why he would drive her the whole way to Towson while she was not breathing and Tim said, "well I was going 100 mph". Tim had no explanation for Amy's injuries. While talking about his family Tim pulled a photograph from his wallet and said that it was his wife, Karen. I immediately recognized Karen as my old teenage friend.

We responded to the home and began the investigation. Prior to my arrival the precinct officers had taken custody of the 2 year old child and turned him over to social services. Karen was picked up by Tim's parents. The apartment was a real mess. It was filthy with trash, dirty clothes strewn about and cluttered with junk. A bottle of Absolut vodka was in the freezer and beer in the fridge. No evidence was found.

The following day we attended the autopsy of Amy. Dr. Peretti conducted the autopsy and found that all 4 sides of Amy's skull was fractured. There were also fresh contusions on her ankles and head. One of the bruises above Amy's right eye was approx. 1 week old.

Dr. Peretti described that his belief was that Amy was held by her ankles and repeatedly swung head first into a wall or similar object.

At approx. 11:00am that same morning a hearing was held at the county courts building to decide temporary custody of the 2 year old child. This child also had signs of bruising which appeared to be abusive. He was placed with the grandparents. Both Tim and Karen had hired attorney's and refused to be interviewed any further.

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That evening I went to the apartment to interview the occupant of the 1st floor apartment. This was a single female named "Angie". She advised that she knew the couple for awhile now and that she thought Karen was a little jealous of her. Tim had flirted with Angie before and Karen may have sensed it. She said that both Tim and Karen drank heavily and Karen drank while pregnant. They would argue from time to time but Amy never saw any physical altercations. On the evening of the murder Amy said that she was talking to Tim in the stairwell which led to his apartment. After about 5 minutes she heard a door slam upstairs. Tim said that he better get going before Karen got too mad. Amy heard some loud yelling from the apartment and some heavy footsteps. After approx. 20 minutes she saw Tim come downstairs with the baby and drive off.

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I later spoke with other family members among them Karen's sister Cathy who I also knew. The story emerged of two alcoholics that would drink together and argue together. It was believed that Tim had struck Karen in the past but this wasn't verified. Both were known to take the kids with them to bars.

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It couldn't be determined as of yet who actually killed Amy. We obtained arrest warrants for both Tim and Karen and charged them both with 1st degree murder.

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I responded with a female detective to the home of Karen's parents and took her into custody. This was the 1st time in about 15 years since I had seen her. As we were driving back to the office for processing of the warrant she began to ask how I was and how many of our mutual past friends were doing. This kind of freaked me out. She is in custody for killing her 7 week old baby girl and all she talked about was our teenage years.

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After they were charged and met with their attorneys the following was worked out. Karen agreed to plead guilty to 2nd degree murder and charges were dropped against Tim.

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The trial took place on October 15, 1991. Assistant states attorney Scott Shellenberger prosecuted the case before Judge William Hinkle.

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Karen testified that earlier in the day they had received a mortgage approval for a house they had a bid on. She was excited and drank pretty heavily before Tim got home to celebrate. When she caught Tim talking to Amy she got jealous. She was pretty intoxicated at this point and became so enraged that she took it out on the baby. As Dr. Peretti surmised, she picked Amy up by the ankles and smashed her against the wall. She placed her back in the crib, waited a few minutes and "checked" on her. When she was found not breathing she told Tim something was wrong.

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Karen was sentenced to 12 years in prison for 2nd degree murder.

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Sadly, on November 10, 1992 Judge Thomas Brennan heard a motion for reduction of sentence and granted the motion to "time served".

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After killing her 7 week old baby Karen served only 13 months in prison.

-

The lives of Tim and Karen haven't gotten much better. Tim has been arrested for assaulting a police officer and both he and Karen have filed bankruptcy and were divorced in 2004. Karen has since been arrested for a Driving While Intoxicated. She received probation.

The Murder of Valerie Brown, Part 3

Chapter 3, The Trial

After a few preliminary hearings the trials of Rowland and Donna began on March 21, 1991. In an unusual request the defendants asked the court to be tried together. Each had their own attorneys, and the the judge granted their request.

Assistant States Attorney Steve Bailey was assigned as prosecutor. I worked with him on other cases and Steve was an excellent prosecutor.

After the opening arguments the witnesses including myself were sequestered. This means we were forced to sit on the hard benches in the hallway. This prevents our hearing any witness testimony, and we are also instructed not to talk about the case with each other.

An hour or so goes by and one of the most bizarre things happened. Steve Bailey rushed out of the courtroom and yelled to Stanley and me, "don't talk to anyone". He then ran down the hallway for what reason we had no idea. We later learned that during a routine witness testimony, such as the motel attendant describing what he knew, the attorney for Donna interrupted the court and told the judge that his client, Donna, had decided to change her plea to guilty and confess to the court what happened. Obviously this is an extremely rare occurrence and one that sent shock waves through the courtroom. Rowland's attorney was broadsided by this and objected. The judge called a recess to study the matter and that sent Steve Bailey running to his office to consult with his boss, Sandra O'Conner. The end result was Donna took the stand to testify against Rowland and also incriminated herself.

Donna stated that she was driving Rowland around were driving north on I-695. Rowland spotted a Chevy Lumina being driven by a white female (Valerie Brown) and told Donna to follow her. Valerie exited onto Rt. 40 West and pulled into the motel parking lot. Donna stayed behind her. Valerie drove to the rear of the parking lot which was closer to her room, parked the car, opened the trunk and removed a box of books and along with her pocketbook carried them into the rear hallway entrance to the motel. Rowland followed Valerie inside. A few seconds later Rowland ran out of the building, got into the car and told Donna to drive away. Rowland had Valerie's pocketbook. They then drove to several gas stations where they would buy $2.00 in gas and a carton or two of Newport cigarettes. Their intention was to make some money selling the cigarettes. Donna testified that she knew Rowland was going to rob the victim but didn't know he was going to shoot her.

After the damaging testimony by Donna, Rowland then changed his plea to guilty. Rowland was sentenced to Life in Prison. Unfortunately in the state of Maryland a life sentence is approx. equal to 18-20 years. The best I can determine is that Rowland is still in prison at this time but likely to be paroled soon. Donna was sentenced to 30 years for her part. I'm not sure how many years Donna served but records show she was arrested at least twice since 2002 for theft and drug charges. She received a 5 year suspended sentence for the theft charge. As of now she's still out of jail.

Throughout the investigation and trial I spoke often with Valerie's mother, Jean and her fiancee, Chuck. Her father Tom was too distraught to come to Maryland for trial and I never met or spoke with him. For several years the Brown's and I exchanged Christmas cards and letters. I haven't contacted them in years and although Jean was very appreciative to know that others remembered Valerie I don't think it's appropriate for me to stir the memories for her any longer.

As I wrote in the earlier chapter this homicide investigation had so many facets to it that it seems unbelievable at times. The fact that the gas station attendant wrote down the tag number, that the one witness positively identified Donna as the suspect using the victim's credit card. But the most unimaginable fact of all was my driving around 30 miles from the crime scene and just happening to drive up on the murder vehicle and suspects.

What or who led me to that point in time, to that location, to allow this case to be solved, I don't know. You could call that great police work, but I know better.

The Murder of Valerie Brown, Part 2

Chapter 2, The Investigation

Rowland and Donna were taken to the Whitemarsh precinct where Stanley and I began to interrogate them. As normal procedure the two were split up and questioned separately.

The story they told was that Donna's mother was moving and needed a truck to haul her property. Rowland's friend Wesley worked at a car dealership and had access (he stole) to vehicles on the lot. Wesley would "rent" vehicles to friends on occasion. They said that Rowland gave them the mini-van the day before to help with the move. This information would put the vehicle in Wesley's control the night of the murder. They also gave us information on Wesley's girlfriend Juanita. We asked where we could find Wesley and was told that he lived on 20th Street in Baltimore city but did not know the address. They also stated that Wesley would pick up Juanita each night at 9:30pm on Mt. Royal Ave. as she got out of night school.

They remained under the belief that they were stopped only because of the stolen vehicle. We released them without charge because of their cooperation but did photograph them for identification purposes.

Wesley was known to operate a Dodge Shadow however he didn't have any vehicles listed to him through Motor Vehicles. His address on his driver's license was no longer accurate.

The following evening the career criminal squad along with other members of the homicide unit staked out the school on Mt. Royal Ave. Approx. 9:20pm Wesley pulled up in his Dodge Shadow and waited for Juanita. At 9:30pm Juanita got into the car and they began to pull away. At this time we conducted what has to be one of the most exhilarating things a cop can do. A "felony stop".

A true felony stop occurs when a suspect believed to be armed is pulled over by several police officers who use methodical steps to have each occupant of the car exit the vehicle separately while the officers remain behind cover, watching the other occupants. Eventually each is handcuffed face down on the pavement. This takes several minutes at times as safety is the issue and there is no reason to rush things.

What we did was a Hollywood style stop where we blocked the car and rushed to rip the occupants out of the car and onto the ground before they know what hit them. This leaves you with an incredible adrenaline rush which lasts for hours. This style is a little more dangerous but works well when you surprise your suspects and scare the hell out of them.

We took Wesley and Juanita into custody for the "stolen vehicle" charge and transported them to the homicide office. We interrogated them separately. We began with Wesley. Wesley freely admitted to taking the mini-van and dealer tag from the dealership. He agreed that he lent the vehicle to Rowland and Donna to help her mother move. He told us however that he gave them the vehicle 2 weeks ago, not the day before we found the vehicle as Rowland and Donna said. This, if true, put the vehicle back in the hands of Rowland and Donna the night of the murder.

I asked Wesley if he owned any guns which he said he didn't. I asked if Rowland had any guns and he said Rowland has a .32 caliber gun on a .45 frame. Asked what he meant by that he said the gun was "you know, an automatic". Juanita in her interview admitted that she smoked Newport cigarettes. She also said that Donna sold her a carton on Monday night, the night of the murder. Wesley and Juanita were at a friends house on Oswego Ave. Monday night watching Monday Night Football and Rowland and Donna showed up after the game and Donna had some cartons of Newports to sell. Asked what time they came to the house Wesley said Arsenio Hall was on the television. Wesley also said Rowland had the mini-van when he came by.

We later checked with WMAR channel 2 and learned the football game ended approx. 11:30pm and Arsenio was on approx. 11:40pm. This placed Rowland and Donna in the suspect vehicle approx. 1 hour after the murder and in possession of Newport cigarette cartons which were the same brand purchased with Valerie Brown's credit card shortly after her murder.

It seemed that we had the killers and let them go. They implicated their friends with a believable story and now their friends turned it back on them, this time with corroborating evidence. Of course now Rowland and Donna know we are going to be looking for them and they went into hiding.

To further better our case we conducted a photo-array in which you place the suspect's photograph in a folder with 5 other similar looking people to see if the witnesses can pick the suspect out. Sort of a line up with pictures. We used the photograph that we had taken of Donna at the Whitemarsh precinct the night of the initial contact. We showed this group of photos to the witnesses at the gas stations and the one witness who had best described the suspect buying the cigarettes, picked Donna's photograph out as the person buying the Newport cigarettes with Valerie Brown's credit card. Bingo!

It's now about two weeks after the murder. We have warrants for the arrest of Rowland and Donna for the murder of Valerie Brown. We had their names placed in the Crime Stoppers Program along with this information placed in a story in the Baltimore Sun.

A few days later we were on the 3-11pm shift and I came in early to check on a few things.

I received a phone call at the homicide office from a woman claiming to be the sister of Rowland. She said he and Donna were staying at her house in the Park Heights area of Baltimore city and she wanted them gone. She said they had came by a few days before and asked if they could stay for awhile. She at that time didn't know they were wanted. When she read it in the paper Rowland denied it and she initially believed him until she saw Donna reading the article on the murder. Donna asked Rowland, "It says she was shot in the head. Where was she shot?" She knew then they had done it.

As I had come in early my partner Stanley was not with me. I called in some guys from the daylight homicide squad and again borrowed the ever helpful career criminal unit.

The career criminal unit consists of 5-6 undercover detectives which are primarily responsible for tracking down repeat offenders and arresting them. Because they are plain clothed, long hair, and driving non-descript cars, we used them quite often when hitting a house on a search warrant or looking for our suspects.

We met with some uniformed city police officers a few blocks from the house. Since we were going to raid a house in their jurisdiction we notify them whenever possible.

We parked a few houses away and as I approached the house Rowland's sister was sitting on the porch. She walked out to greet me and whispered that Rowland and Donna were both upstairs. I asked if she saw any weapons and she said no.

A group of about 5 of us entered the house. Others stood guard out back and in front. We hid the best we could which wasn't very good at all. When we got to the stair case we shouted the usual police stuff to Rowland and Donna. The ol' come down the stairs with your hands in the air routine. Rowland came into view quickly, cooperated and came down the steps where he was arrested. He was unarmed. Donna wasn't so quick to cooperate. She refused to show herself so we had to go up the stairs and search for her. We found her hiding in a bedroom also unarmed. We search the home with the consent of the owner but the murder weapon wasn't found.

Rowland and Donna were charged with the murder of Valerie Brown. They were read their Miranda Rights and refused to be questioned.

Next Chapter - The Trial

The Murder of Valerie Brown

Of all the homicide cases I worked during my time as a "murder police" the case which is the most tragic and compelling and has stayed freshest in my thoughts is the murder of Valerie Brown.

I always thought I should put this to paper but never had and I'm sure as I type this more memories of the case will come to me. This case had an unbelievable amount of twists and a combination of really good police work and a allot of luck which to this day makes me wonder, was it just luck?

This is a completely true story.

Chapter 1, The Crime

It was September 17, 1990. I had just returned to work from a vacation in Ocean City, MD. and was ending my first night of 3-11 shift. I cut out maybe 10 minutes early and received a page while driving across I-695. My partner at the time Stanley Harmon paged to let me know we picked up a homicide call at a motel in the 5800 blk Rt. 40 West in the Woodlawn Precinct.

When I arrived Stan and I began the investigation. A white female 29 years of age was found in an entrance hallway just inside of a rear entrance to a wing of the motel. She was lying on her back, there was an apparent gunshot wound to the center of her chest and a box of text books scattered on the floor. There was a single black hair consistent with that of an African-American visible on the victim's shirt. We learned shortly that Ms. Brown was a college text book salesperson and was in town from her home in Philadelphia to visit with some college clients. She had checked into her room at 8:00pm and was found dead approx. 10:30pm. Her pocketbook was missing so we began the investigation with the belief she was the victim of a robbery. The only "witness" to the murder said she heard a young white girl say, "Oh my God, Oh my God".

I spoke with the victim's mother, Jean, and fiancee, Chuck, both of whom lived in Philly.
It's hard enough to make a death notification but to have to do it by telephone is a unusually cold way to do it. We had a local Philadelphia officer respond to their house and have him stand by as her mother called me.
They gave us the back story and also assisted with providing information regarding Valerie's credit cards and such.
I also spoke with a friend of Valerie, a local girl named Marie. Marie had tried phoning Valerie at the motel around 10:00pm and when she didn't get an answer she called the desk. The attendant went to Valerie's room and found her in the nearby hallway. Marie said that Valerie had met her out for a few drinks after she arrived in town and left her to go back to the motel.

An autopsy was conducted the next morning and it revealed that Ms. Brown had been shot once with a .32 caliber pistol. The bullet pierced her spinal cord which caused her to drop instantly when shot.

Early in the morning we cancelled her cards and flagged them so that any transactions occurring with her credit cards would immediately be reported to us. Within a day or so we received information that Valerie's credit cards were used at a few gas stations in the general area of Woodlawn and in Baltimore city. We went out to interview the employees working at the times the cards were used. It was learned that the person using the card was a black female wearing a fluorescent green jacket who would purchase a few gallons of gas and a carton of Newport cigarettes using the stolen card. Most of the attendees didn't remember the female using the card but one described her very well and another wrote the tag number of her vehicle on his copy of the receipt. He noticed the vehicle was a dark mini-van and had dealer tag, 1A29581, which he found odd so he decided to make a note of it. (Luck #1) The tag was found to be reported stolen from a car dealership located right next to the murder scene. I researched all the previous thefts from the dealership and also obtained a list of all employees. One employee named "Wesley" who worked the lot as a car wash jockey would come into play later. Also at the time of a recovery of a previously stolen vehicle from the dealer, a prescription bottle was found with a name and address from Radecke Ave. in the Garden Village area of northeast Baltimore at the County line. This too would come into play. (Luck #2)

A few days after the murder I was working overtime and Stanley and I split up to follow up on some different aspects of the investigation. I thought I would head out to Garden Village to speak with the owner of the prescription bottle found in the previously recovered stolen vehicle from the car dealership. As these things often turn out, the woman no longer lived at the address on Radecke Ave. and there was no other address on file for her. I drove a few blocks away to the Cedonia Mall parking lot and wrote up some notes and kicked back for a few minutes to relax.

When investigating a homicide we basically work 24 to 36 straight hours and then work 16 to 18 hour days until exhausting all leads. Sometimes a 15 minute power nap or at least an extended coffee break is in order.

While sitting at the Cedonia Mall lot I started to think about my days working the Parkville precinct which handled the county area of Garden Village. This neighborhood was a bit of a problem area. Garden Village was in both Baltimore county and Baltimore city and in order to get from one section of the county to another section of the county you had to drive through an alley by the basketball courts and transverse a section which was in Baltimore city.

Just for the heck of it I decided to drive that route I remembered. It had been 5 years since I was around here and I thought I'd look around. I drove through the section of the county and into the city. I was driving along a road which had a upcoming curve to the right. I glanced at a mini-van parked along the curb and noticed it displayed a dealer tag. A closer look revealed the tag 1A29581, the tag wanted in the murder of Valerie Brown. (Luck #3) I also noticed a female in the driver seat wearing a green florescent jacket. I quickly went around the block and came back to a spot where I could watch the van. I originally had no idea what road I was on but saw I was on Schering Road as I came back around. I immediately called in the troops. As it turned out I was in Baltimore city so they were called to assist. Being in an unmarked car the suspect had no idea I was there so I had the city police set up out of sight on both ends of the street. I waited what seemed like forever for my backups to arrive. The homicide office was 30 minutes away but at least the uniformed city guys were nearby. From the distance I could see the brake lights light up on the van indicating that someone was hitting the pedal on occasion but the vehicle didn't move. I couldn't see if anyone else was around the vehicle due to my limited visibility.

This bit of "luck" has to be defined a little clearer. I was in the general vicinity of this neighborhood only because a pill bottle was found in a recovered vehicle from a past crime that really had nothing to do with this case. This was one of those follow-up investigations which 99% of the time leads to absolutely nowhere. This also led to nowhere but did at least put me in the area. My driving down this road where the murder vehicle was located was by absolute dumb luck. I should not have been there, should have been on my way back to the office, but for reasons unknown to me I decided to goof off a little and ride around a neighborhood I hadn't been in for 5 years. A neighborhood that I never liked anyway and as it turns out I was driving in the city believing I was still in the county. This was one of those moments where you have to think, "maybe there is a God". Certainly the odds of me being at this place at this time, by accident, is astounding. As it turned out the mini-van had been at that place for the first time and I showed up within a few hours.

A few minutes went by and some members of the county career criminal unit showed up. One of them sat with a city officer so that we all were now in communication with each other.
After a total of maybe 15 minutes the van began to pull away. I got up to the rear bumper and as we got to the end of the block we stopped the vehicle. The vehicle was driven by "Donna" who was wearing the florescent jacket and she was accompanied by her mother and younger siblings. She related that her mother was in the process of moving that day into a house on Starleigh Rd.

We asked and received permission to search the house. Donna's boyfriend "Rowland" was in the house at the time of the search. Nothing of evidentary value was found in the house. Donna and Rowland lived elsewhere so none of their personal property was there.
Still Donna and Rowland possessed a stolen vehicle and tag. That's all I told them at this point, didn't mention the murder just yet. They had some splainin' to do.
We drove them to the Whitemarsh precinct to begin their interrogations. These would lead to another series of twists.

Next chapter: The Investigation

The year 1957: A little history. I was lucky enough to be raised in my home town of Perry Hall, MD. A once small community with only a handful of fast food joints and a couple of meat markets and liquor stores.

Our house was located on Kahlston Rd. off of Belair Rd. (Earl Weaver Way). A dead-end street which abutted up to the Gunpowder State Park and plenty of woods and trails.



This was a wonderful area to grow up. Plenty of kids our age, plenty of places to explore and the safety of a country setting.
I've never lived more than a few miles from here and at least 3 of my childhood friends still live in the homes they were raised in.

Fast forward to 1975. I graduate from Perry Hall High School and after a short stint serving the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P food stores) in 1976 I realize my childhood ambition and join The Baltimore County Police Department. My various bouts of underage drinking and small town thievery prepared me nicely to become a cop.

This seems like a good drop off point. I'll bid you adieu and will continue soon with a little police history and a story that still makes me think, maybe there is a God.