Freeman Klopott

Feds, local officials say they've dismantled Latin Kings in Md.

Federal and local authorities say they've dismantled a Maryland-based group of the violent street gang the Latin Kings that started operations in Montgomery and Prince George's counties in spring 2007. National gangs like the Latin Kings, MS-13 and the Bloods have been steadily seizing territory in Washington's Maryland suburbs in recent years. On Thursday, authorities took 19 alleged Latin King members into custody, charging them with racketeering. "Today we executed the enforcement action on a very violent group of criminals who call themselves the Latin Kings," said Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "We dismantled a large...

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State Department adds restrictions to diplomats bringing servants into the U.S.

Diplomats below the rank of minister no longer will be able to bring domestic servants into the United States without being able to show they can afford to pay them a prevailing wage, U.S. State Department officials told anti-human-trafficking groups during a closed meeting Thursday, The Examiner has learned. The restriction is just one in a series of new guidelines diplomats will be required to follow if they want to bring laborers into the United States. Since 2000, there have been at least 42 documented allegations of diplomats engaged in the human trafficking of their servants, many in the Washington area, according to a Government Accountability Office report. Chief of Protocol...

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Executive accused of planning night of sex with young girl

An executive with a global aviation consulting company has been accused of trying to have sex with what he thought was a 13-year-old girl he met on the Internet who turned out to be an undercover Alexandria detective. David L. Beckerman is the vice president of market intelligence for OAG Aviation Solutions, which provides airline companies around the world with market and travel analysis. The 41-year-old from Alexandria is often quoted in company releases such as one sent Monday describing worldwide growth in airline capacity. Hours after the press release went out, Beckerman allegedly drove to a Dunkin' Donuts in Alexandria to meet the teenage girl he thought he had been talking to...

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Town's ex-police chief accused of selling stolen department gun

The former police chief of an inside-the-Beltway Prince George's County township has been accused of selling a stolen department handgun from the back of his police cruiser, authorities said. David A. Eichelberger Jr. was fired from his position as head of the Morningside Police Department on Oct. 2, after news reports surfaced that he was under investigation for allegedly selling a handgun stolen from the town's arsenal. On Tuesday, a county grand jury handed up a five-count indictment against the 30-year-old, formally accusing him of selling the police department's stolen Glock 27 from the back of his police cruiser to a town resident. "It is our duty as law enforcement officials...

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P.G. police point to youth outreach as cause of lower crime

The Prince George's County Police Department is highlighting its youth outreach efforts to show the link between the county's dropping number of homicides and its increased involvement with the community. The county is on pace to record a homicide level not seen since the late 1990s when the county's population and police force were much smaller. On Saturday, police department and county officials recognized the efforts of community outreach leaders and the county's teens who have played pivotal roles in cleaning up their communities. The event highlighted the various activities available to the county's youth that are designed to get them involved in the community and give them an...

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Bank robbery suspect once tried to flee scene on Metro train

Authorities say they are unsure of how Quenten Terrell Sims has allegedly fled four bank robberies in Arlington and Fairfax over the past six weeks, but apparently he has devised a better plan than the one that failed in February 1998. Less than 20 minutes after he robbed a Virginia Commerce Bank on Feb. 17, 1998, Sims was arrested by police as he waited for a train at Metro's Clarendon stop, news reports said at the time. Another rider overhead Sims talking about the cash he had in his bag and alerted police. Back then, he went by the name Prince Khalil Shabazz. He admitted to the crime in June 1998 and was released from prison in 2006. He's still on probation, records show. His...

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The Blotter

Man who killed for love set to die by electric chair Former Army counterintelligence worker Larry Bill Elliott is set to die in Virginia's electric chair for gunning down a Woodbridge couple in an effort to win the heart of a former stripper who became an escort. In January 2001, Elliott gunned down 30-year-old Robert Finch and 25-year-old Dana Thrall in their Woodbridge home. Months earlier, the 60-year-old Anne Arundel County man met Rebecca Gragg on the Internet after she placed an ad looking for a "sugar daddy." Prosecutors said he became obsessed with Gragg and spent about $450,000 on her in 18 months. She was involved in a bitter custody battle with Finch. Elliott, prosecutors said,...

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Police search for sexual assault suspect

Loudoun County sheriff's deputies are searching for a man they say sexually assaulted his 21-year-old friend. Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for 22-year-old Mitchell Edward Arterberry III, saying he sexually assaulted a 21-year-old woman earlier this year in Sterling. Arterberry lives in Sterling, but is known to frequently travel to the District. Anyone with information should call the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office at 703-777-0475, or Crime Solvers at 703-777-1919. -- Freeman...

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Man accused of trying to carjack 64-year-old's car

Arlington County police have charged a 37-year-old Hyattsville man with attempting to carjack a 64-year-old man. Stefen Jerome Farmer was taken into custody Friday two days after he allegedly tried to steal a 64-year-old man's car in a parking lot on the 2400 block of South Glebe Road, police said. Farmer allegedly implied he had a weapon and demanded the man's keys around 9 a.m. Wednesday, police said. The two men struggled and Farmer then fled in the car he drove to the parking lot. The victim was not seriously injured. - Freeman...

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Drug trafficker with world-wide record to stay in D.C.'s jail

A federal judge has ordered a cocaine trafficker accused of running drugs from Colombia and Mexico to the United States and Europe for more than 20 years to remain in D.C.'s jail despite efforts by his attorneys to have him released for medical reasons. Gregory Joel Sitzmann was indicted on drug trafficking charges in August 2008. At the time, he was transferred to D.C. from a French jail. In 2004, he was convicted of trying to carry 18 pounds of cocaine from France to Italy. The drugs were hidden in leather cases and an altered compartment in his car's gas tank. According to prosecutors, that was a smuggling method employed by Sitzmann and his co-conspirators as they carried cocaine...

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The Blotter

Former tech office worker guilty in kickback scheme A former employee in the District's technology office pleaded guilty to his role in a kickback scheme that robbed the city of $500,000. Farrukh Awan admitted he conspired with technology office manager Yussef Acar to direct contracts to a government contractor in exchange for kickbacks. He faces up to 2 1/2 years in prison when he's sentenced in February. He's the third person to plead guilty to the conspiracy. Fairfax County officer shoots man to death A traffic stop turned deadly when a Fairfax County police officer opened fire and killed a man on Route 1, police said. Officers had responded to a report of a larceny in progress...

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Missing Va. Tech student spotted hitchhiking, police say

Virginia State Police say a Virginia Tech student who went missing last month was spotted hitchhiking after she left a Metallica concert. Authorities have been searching for 20-year-old Morgan Dana Harrington since she disappeared following the Charlottesville concert Oct. 17. The student was separated from friends when she left the concert to smoke a cigarette and was denied re-entry. She told them she would try to find a way home in a voice mail message. On Friday police said they believed Harrington was spotted hitchhiking near the concert. - Freeman...

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D.C. to check immigration status of jail inmates

The D.C. police department is joining a federal program that allows law enforcement agencies to check the immigration status of every person booked into jail, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday. The move brings an end to the District's long-standing practice of not checking the immigration status of prisoners as they were processed. Called Secure Communities, the program is run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "Secure Communities provides our local partners with an effective tool to identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens who pose a threat to public safety," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a news release. Since its debut in October...

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Potomac mosque among Muslim property seized by feds

Federal authorities want to seize a Potomac mosque and two Prince William County properties owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization they say funnels cash to a bank that helps fund Iran's nuclear program. According to court documents filed Thursday, authorities want to take control of a 36-story New York City office tower, four mosques, including the one in Potomac, and two properties in Prince William County owned by the Alavi Foundation. Prosecutors say the foundation is a front for the Iranian government-owned Bank Melli. The United States, the European Union and Australia have leveled sanctions against companies affiliated with Melli because of its role in supplying cash for Iran's...

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Guilty plea expected in $16M fraud that ripped off philanthropist

The owner of a Northern Virginia coffee bean roasting company is scheduled to plead guilty to stealing $16 million through a variety of schemes, including a Ponzi scheme that caught a well-known Washington philanthropist in its net. Among the schemes Hanif Hassan Moledina is expected to plead guilty to is using his company Bean East Corp. to run a $7 million Ponzi scheme that stole $3 million from philanthropist George F. Kettle. A month before his death in April, Kettle, who helped fund education programs for underprivileged children, won a $3 million lawsuit against Moledina. According to court documents, Moledina convinced Kettle and other investors that his coffee company had a...

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Convicted bank robber accused of returning to old turf in N.W.

A convicted bank robber is accused of returning to his turf twice in the past two months, ripping off a total of $4,500 from two banks in Northwest Washington. Lawrence E. Thomas was convicted of robbing the United Bank at 1667 K St. NW, in 1999. Now, the FBI said in court documents, he's accused of robbing one bank across the street from the United Bank and another around the corner. On Sept. 28 the FBI says Thomas walked into the Presidential Bank at 1660 K St. NW, approached the teller and passed a note demanding $2,800. The teller handed over only $1,500, but Thomas allegedly accepted it and walked out of the bank. On Oct. 20, Thomas entered the Colombo Bank at 1660 L St. and...

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Man accused of infecting Fannie Mae's computers hired by tech company

A former Fannie Mae contract worker accused of leaving behind a virus designed to wipe out the mortgage giant's computer network has been hired by Sun Microsystems, court documents said. Rajendrasinh Makwana has been out on bail since February, when he was indicted on computer intrusion charges. Late last month, his attorneys asked for and received permission from a federal judge in Maryland for Makwana to move to Wauwatosa, Wis., for a job on a Sun Microsystems' project with General Electric. Makwana, an Indian citizen, was in the United States on an H-1B visa sponsored by New Jersey-based Marlabs, the company's director told The Examiner. He now works for Sun Microsystems,...

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Crime history Sunday school teacher murders entire family

On this day, Nov. 9, 1971, Sunday school teacher John Emil List murdered his entire family in their New Jersey home. The strict disciplinarian planned the slaughter for weeks. He canceled newspaper, milk and mail delivery and called the school his three children attended telling them they would be out of class visiting a sick relative. It was all a guise to give himself a head start after he shot his mother, wife and three children to death. The bodies weren't found for days and by then List was gone. It took authorities 18 years to track him down and they did so only after an early episode of America's Most Wanted aired the grisly tale in May 1989. List was convicted of five...

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The Blotter: Liquor store owner shot to death in Northwest

Liquor store owner shot to death in Northwest The 51-year-old owner of La Casa De Morata liquor store on the 5400 block of Georgia Avenue was shot dead Saturday night during an armed robbery. Two suspects, one of whom was armed with a handgun, robbed the store, shooting and killing Rufina Hernandez of Hyattsville as they grabbed cash from the register, police said. Anyone with information is asked to call D.C. police at 202-727-9099. Police continue search for warranted rapist Arlington County police are searching for a 30-year-old man they say raped a 13-year-old girl. Efna Cruz Nunez has been on the run since police said they issued an arrest warrant for him on Aug. 29. Police...

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Police search for armed robbery suspect

Prince George's County police are searching for an armed robbery suspect who knocked off an Exxon gas station and are asking for the public's help. According to police, the man walked into the station on the 7600 block of Crain Highway in Upper Marlboro a little before 9 p.m. on Oct. 31. He asked for a cigar. When the attendant turned to retrieve the stogie, the suspect pulled out a handgun and demanded cash. The attendant complied and the suspect ran off with an undetermined amount of money, police said. No one was injured. The suspect is black and 25 to 27 years old, police said. He's about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs about 190 pounds. Anyone with information should call Crime...

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Reported rapes skyrocket in Prince William County

Reported rapes in Prince William County are on pace to double in number compared with any of the past five years, driven by increasing reports of fathers, uncles and friends raping daughters, nieces or acquaintances. There were 45 rapes in the Virginia county during the first nine months of 2009 compared with just 17 over the same period in 2008, police records show. The September cutoff for the official rape statistics means they do not include Halloween's double rape at gunpoint of two teenage girls behind a shopping center in Dale City. Authorities said the majority of the rapes reported this year have little in common with the stranger rape on Halloween night. In most cases,...

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DOD intelligence analyst ordered to pay $1,000 fine for breaching classified program

A Fort Belvoir-based analyst for a Department of Defense intelligence agency was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine for compromising a computer program being used in a joint FBI-U.S. Army terrorist investigation. Brian Keith Montgomery, an analyst for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, used his top-secret clearance to gain access to a computer program he was not cleared to view, he admitted in his guilty plea. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency provides mapping information to the military's intelligence community. Montgomery's actions "significantly compromised the federal investigation," prosecutors said in court documents. "Numerous resources were expended attempting...

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Getty ear arrives with ransom demand

On this day, Nov. 8, in 1973, the ear belonging to the kidnapped grandson of an American-born billionaire was delivered to an Italian newspaper with a ransom note asking for $3.2 million. Jean Paul Getty III had been kidnapped in July while in Rome. His father was sent a ransom note demanding $17 million, but because the teenager was so rebellious, his family believed it was an attempt to extract cash from his rich grandfather and the ransom went unpaid. The second note was delayed by an Italian postal strike. When it finally arrived, Jean Paul Getty II asked his father for the money, but the billionaire refused. Finally, on Nov. 8, 1973, the envelope with the ear and lock of...

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Feds target cocaine trafficking ring in Maryland

A Texas man has been accused of trafficking more than 50 pounds of cocainefrom Arizona and Colorado to Maryland, the second member of a national drug organization busted in the Washington area within the past year, court documents reveal. Ricardo Avila was taken into custody late last week on cocaine trafficking charges, court records show. He's accused of making trips from Colorado and Surprise, Ariz., to Maryland with a car carrier trailer packed with as much as 50 pounds of cocaine. The drugs, court documents said, had been smuggled into the United States from Mexico. Last year, federal authorities began an investigation into the unnamed drug organization Avila allegedly works...

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$36K reward offered for information on Bethesda shooter

Montgomery County Crime Solvers has raised $36,000 for a reward for any information leading to the arrest of a suspect who shot an International Monetary Fund employee multiple times in his Bethesda garage. Police also have released pictures of the mask the shooter used to cover his face. It was found near Ashoka Mody's house on the 6800 block of Millwood Road. On Oct. 8, Mody pulled into his garage, and had not yet exited his car when the shooter opened fire, police said. Mody, 54, still is recovering from his wounds. The shooter was spotted running from the scene, police said. Soon after, a dark-colored car was seen driving on Millwood Road in the dark with its lights off....

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P.G. firefighters arrested on arson charges

Two Prince George's County volunteer firefighters have been arrested and charged with breaking into a Riverdale home and setting fire to it, authorities said. Investigators continue a wide-reaching probe into what they called a firefighter arson ring. Jerome Engle and James Martinez were indicted on arson and burglary charges, and taken into custody Thursday. The 46-year-old Engle is a firefighter with the Riverdale Volunteer Fire Department. Martinez, 24, is a professional firefighter with the Montgomery County Fire Department, but also volunteers with Riverdale. Both men have been suspended since April when the department began the arson investigation. According to authorities, Engle...

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Ex-owner of accounting firm gets 3 years for tax fraud

The former owner of an accounting firm with offices in the District, Maryland and Virginia will spend the next three years in prison after filing tax returns seeking more than $500,000 in fraudulent refunds for his clients. According to the Internal Revenue Service, the clients of Henderson Joseph's Triad Business Services who could not back up the deductions on their tax returns have agreed to return the cash plus interest after the clients lost lawsuits filed in civil court. Joseph directed employees at Triad's three offices in D.C., Baltimore and Richmond to inflate or fabricate the deductions in thousands of clients' individual tax returns, the 54-year-old admitted in his guilty...

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Police: Teens ended lives in suicide pact

Two Prince William County teens ended their lives in a suicide pact, police said Tuesday. Desiree Patrick and Quirinius Williams were found dead in their Triangle home Monday evening by Patrick's father, Prince William County police said. The 17-year-old Patrick and 18-year-old Williams both died from gunshot wounds in what police described as a suicide pact. Their bodies were found in Patrick's bedroom. Both were students at Forest Park High School, which was closed Tuesday for Election Day. The school counseling center was open, however, to address the needs of grieving students, officials said. An autodialer also sent out a message to parents Tuesday morning, and a letter is being sent...

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The Blotter

Cleveland Cavaliers guard indicted on gun charges Cleveland Cavaliers guard Delonte West has been indicted on concealed weapons charges stemming from a September traffic stop during which police said they found a shotgun hidden in a guitar case strapped across his back and other guns in his possession. West faced a league suspension for the weapons charges, which a Prince George's County grand jury formally filed against him Tuesday afternoon. Police said West was speeding on his three-wheeled motorcycle Sept. 17 when he cut off a K-9 officer on the Capital Beltway. After he was pulled over, a search revealed the shotgun in the guitar case, a loaded 9 mm in his pants pocket and a...

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Ivey looks to higher office, but won't confirm congressional run

Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn Ivey wants a higher office, but won't confirm media reports that he is considering running against Rep. Donna Edwards for Congress. "I'm not going to run for re-election [for state's attorney] and I'm not looking to go into the Obama administration," Ivey said. "But there's a range of possibilities beyond those two." Ivey's supporters have called on him to run for the county executive seat being vacated by Jack Johnson next year because of term limits, and now some are getting behind Ivey to run against Edwards. "The speculation is very flattering," Ivey said. Ivey has been the state's attorney since 2002, but he also is a former...

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Halloween is over, but scary mask used in bank robbery anyway

Someone forgot to tell a Montgomery County bank robber that Halloween is over. A man wearing a black and white skeleton mask and armed with a handgun robbed a SunTrust Bank at 8510 Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase Monday morning, police said. It was the fourth time in recent weeks that bank robbers in the Washington region hid behind Halloween-style masks to hide their identities. The other robberies occurred in Northern Virginia, where authorities say two men are responsible for knocking off two Wachovia Banks -- one in Burke, one in Alexandria. A third man is believed to have operated on his own in Sterling. Montgomery County police are reaching out to police in Virginia to see if...

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Police: Unlicensed driver ran down dog-walking 81-year-old

A student driver has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after police say she jumped a curb and killed an 81-year-old man while he was walking his dog. Oneyda Boquin was driving without a driver's license in a parking lot on the 2800 block of South Fort Scott Drive in Arlington last month when she allegedly slammed into Marco Amoni, Arlington County police said. The 21-year-old Alexandria woman was held without bail Friday. According to police, Boquin was learning to drive the car without the guidance of a licensed driving instructor at the time of the Oct. 10 accident. - Freeman...

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The Blotter

University of Maryland student sexually assaulted A 21-year-old University of Maryland student was sexually assaulted while in her off-campus apartment early Sunday morning, police said. A man climbed into the girl's bed in her home on the 7500 block of Dickinson Avenue and sexually assaulted her, police said. The attacker ran off when she screamed. The suspect is a Middle Eastern or Hispanic man with a small build. Anyone with information is asked to call Prince George's County police at 301-772-4908. Suspicious substance at World Bank A package containing a suspicious substance was found in the World Bank's mailroom Monday afternoon, authorities said. A small portion...

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Cavaliers guard indicted on weapons charges

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Delonte West has been indicted on concealed weapons charges stemming from a September traffic stop during which police say they found a shotgun hidden in a guitar case strapped across his back and other guns in his possession. The Brandywine native returned to the basketball court Saturday night after a tumultuous offseason delayed his return. On top of his Sept. 17 arrest in Prince George's County on concealed weapons charges, West also has been battling bipolar disorder. Last week, as he missed the Cavaliers' first three games, his wife filed a domestic violence report against him. Now, West faces a league suspension for the weapons charges, which a...

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Stupid Crimes

Marked Men Anybody can use a ski mask as a disguise to pull off a heist. But two Iowa men took it a step further and painted their faces with a Sharpie marker before trying to rob an apartment. When police captured Matthew McNelly and Joey Miller, they were in blackface. Police weren't sure why McNelly and Miller went with the raccoon look, but guessed that they may have been trying to scare the apartment's occupant. Keeping it in the Klan Yelling racial slurs and death threats at a traffic cop is not the best way to talk your way out of a ticket. That's what one 44-year-old woman in Florida did after being stopped for making an illegal left turn. Police said Julie Hubbard of...

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The Blotter

Police investigate rape of housekeeper Montgomery County police are investigating the rape of a housekeeper at a Motel 6 near Gaithersburg. Police said the woman was cleaning a room at the hotel Thursday morning when she heard the door slam and saw a man inside the room with her. The man sexually assaulted her and fled. He was driving a green, four-door car. Thieves seeking gold in homes Police said burglars are going into homes during the day seeking gold. The crew hit four Fairfax County homes on Tuesday: the 5300 block of Poplar Valley Court, the 12700 block of Lady Summerset Lane, the 9300 block of Cumbria Valley Drive, and the 8400 block of White Haven Circle. The thieves...

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Ten-year sentence for man who sold more than 400 pounds of ecstasy

A Maryland man who distributed more than 400 pounds of Ecstasy after exchanging cocaine for the drug in Canada was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday. From September 2006 through August 2007, 33-year-old Bum Gu Kim and other members of his ring would buy cocaine from a source in Arizona and drive it up to Buffalo, N.Y., where they crossed the border into Canada, Kim admitted. While in Canada, they would exchange the cocaine for Ecstasy and bring it back to Maryland, where they sold it wholesale to area drug dealers. The cocaine was allegedly purchased from Leonardo Aldana, an Arizona man who is currently awaiting sentencing after being convicted of distributing cocaine and...

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Feds: Md. scientist turned over classified info to Israeli company

A Maryland scientist charged with passing documents to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer is also believed to have given classified information to a company owned by the Israeli government, prosecutors said. Stewart Nozette was held without bail Thursday after a federal judge concluded there was no way to ensure Nozette would not flee the country. During a six-week period that ended earlier this month, Nozette allegedly provided U.S. military secrets to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer for $11,000. Nozette held top-secret clearance for more than 20 years and helped develop the anti-missile program known as Star Wars. On...

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Man enslaved young girls in Maryland hotels, sold them for sex, police say

A New York man enslaved young girls in Maryland hotel rooms and sold their bodies for sex on a prostitution track in Northeast Washington, prosecutors said in court documents. "While slavery was abolished in the United States in 1863, [Jermaine Moore] has continued to fuel the modern day version of slavery in the form of human trafficking of minors for commercial sexual exploitation," Assistant U.S. Attorney Karla-Dee Clark wrote in court documents. Moore "treated these victims as property, a mere commodity, to which he gave no respect," she wrote. Moore, 37, faces up to life in prison when he's sentenced Thursday, although prosecutors have asked that he receive 17 years. Moore...

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Stay clear of the tricks and keep Halloween a treat

Neighborhood streets will be populated by costumed children this weekend, threatening a trick if a treat isn't provided. And although trees may be in danger of receiving a heavy dose of toilet paper, the police are concerned that tricks far more dangerous might be lurking for the kids. Here are some tips compiled from Washington area police departments on staying safe this Halloween. 1. Only beg for candy in neighborhoods and at homes known to your family. The Montgomery County police advise parents that taking children to unknown apartment complexes or neighborhoods simply because there are not a lot of homes in their own area is not safe and should not be done. 2. That said,...

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Md. scientist accused of spying eligible for death penalty

A Maryland scientist is eligible for the death penalty because the information he's accused of providing an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli spy was so damaging to U.S. security, although prosecutors say he will likely only face up to life in prison. Stewart Nozette, who was taken into custody on espionage charges last week, was allowed to keep his passport and travel the world despite his pleading guilty to fraud in an unrelated case and an ongoing federal espionage investigation. The 52-year-old Chevy Chase scientist is accused of accepting $11,000 for providing military technology secrets to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer. On Tuesday,...

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Scientist accused of espionage kept passport after guilty plea

A Maryland scientist accused of attempted espionage was allowed to keep his passport and travel the world so he could help authorities with an ongoing government corruption investigation, court documents show. Stewart Nozette also pleaded guilty to overbilling NASA and other agencies, yet continued to have access to "secure government facilities," including NASA headquarters in Washington, prosecutors wrote. In January, Nozette admitted to overbilling the government $265,205 for work he and an employee did for NASA and the Department of Defense from 2000 to 2006, according to recently unsealed court documents. The 52-year-old Chevy Chase scientist, who worked on missile...

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Halloween masks all the rage for bank robbers

A bank robber in Loudoun County got into the Halloween spirit early when he slipped on a spooky mask, pulled out a handgun and demanded cash from tellers at a BB&T Bank, authorities said. "This time of year Halloween masks are more prevalent in bank robberies," said Loudoun County Sheriff's Office spokesman Kraig Troxell. Earlier this month, two masked men robbed a Wachovia bank in Alexandria and another in Burke. During the Alexandria robbery, one man dressed as a construction worker, wearing a yellow hard hat and an orange vest. The latest masked caper took place around 9 a.m. Monday when the robber entered the bank on the 20920 block of Davenport Drive in Sterling, Troxell...

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Gangs flee N.Va.for havens in Md., D.C., report says

Crackdowns on illegal immigrants and other law enforcement efforts are driving gangs out of Northern Virginia and into Maryland and the District, a report released Monday concluded. "Many gang members from Northern Virginia are moving or driving to Prince George's and other Maryland counties, into the District of Columbia or further south and west into Virginia to avoid dealing with police departments that are unrelenting in their efforts to keep gangs under control," authorities wrote in the Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force report. The report said the task force's success is the result of Virginia law enforcement's use of anti-gang policing measures, including the...

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Va. rape suspect tracked down in Alabama

The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force tracked a man accused of a raping a 13-year-old family member in Manassas to Alabama, where he was taken into custody, Prince William County police said. Police started an investigation into 32-year-old Arturo Lopez Velasquez on Wednesday after receiving a complaint that he had raped the 13-year-old girl within the last year, police said. Marshals tracked Velasquez down in Alabama on Thursday, and police say the accused rapist turned himself in to local authorities. Velasquez has been charged with two counts of rape and is being held in Alabama awaiting extradition to Virginia, police said. - Freeman...

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Crime History - Teens kills himself to Ozzy Osbourne song

On this day, Oct. 26, in 1984, a California teen shot and killed himself while listening to an Ozzy Osbourne song about suicide, causing his parents to sue the heavy metal singer because they believed his music had driven their son to end his life. John McCollum had been listening to Osbourne's song "Suicide Solution" when he shot himself while in his bed in Indio, Calif. In the lawsuit, the 19-year-old's parents claimed there were hidden lyrics that urged listeners to "get the gun and try it, shoot, shoot." In a response, Osbourne said there were no hidden lyrics and it was actually a song meant to steer listeners away from suicide. A California court dismissed the lawsuit in 1988,...

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Two Va. men ran 'getting granny' scheme, feds say

Federal prosecutors have accused two Virginia men of swindling elderly women in Vienna and Fairfax by charging them for home repairs that were not needed and never performed. According to court documents, Donald Norcross and Donald Ray Best Jr. called it "getting granny" or "granny ripping." In this case, authorities say, Norcross and Best convinced at least two women -- ages 77 and 86 -- that they needed sewage and electrical work done on their home and charged them more than $20,000. They sometimes posed as employees of utility companies; the work was neither needed nor performed. On Jan. 19, Norcross and Best allegedly told a 77-year-old woman in Fairfax that they needed to...

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The Blotter: Man tries to abduct woman in Garret Park

Fairfax parents killed in crash A four-car piled up on the Fairfax County Parkway killed two parents and injured three of their children, Fairfax County police said. The children were treated and released from the hospital soon after the Saturday evening crash, police said. The names of the parents have not been released. The family was headed north in a Honda Pilot near Rolling Road when a Toyota Corolla heading in the same direction crashed into them, sending both cars into the southbound lanes, police said. The two vehicles then rammed into another car and a truck. No one in the other vehicles suffered serious injuries. D.C. police officer shoots and kills man Police say a...

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Crime History: Mother lies to cover up murdering her kids

On this day, Oct. 25, in 1994, a South Carolina mother told police she was carjacked and her attacker took her car with her two young children inside. For the next nine days, police searched for Susan Smith's 3-year-old and 1-year-old sons, but found no trace of them or the car. The search ended when Smith admitted to driving her Mazda into a lake and drowning her children. Smith was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. She and her husband had an on-and-off relationship and at the time of the murders she was dating a man who did not want children. It's believed she drowned the kids in the hope that she could be with her new beau. Smith buckled and confessed under the...

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Caring for Fairfax's victims for 20 years

Carroll Ann Ellis heads the Fairfax County Police Department's victim services unit, where she has been working for the past 20 years. The unit provides a variety of resources and services to crime victims, helping find their way through the complexities of the judicial system and providing counseling for those who need it. What role does victim services play in the larger realm of law enforcement? We are police personnel. We don't carry guns, be we're on call and have county vehicles so we can get to any crime scene in a heartbeat. We are at homicides, bank robberies, burglaries, almost every crime scene and make ourselves available to the victims. We really are part of the police...

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Police search for bank robbery suspect

Fairfax County police are searching for a 43-year-old man they say robbed a TD Bank earlier this month. Quenten Sims, of no fixed address, has been accused of passing a note demanding cash to a teller on the morning of Oct. 10 at the branch at 6615 Richmond Highway in Alexandria. The 21-year-old female teller handed over an undisclosed amount of cash, and police say Sims drove off in a dark-colored sport utility vehicle. Anyone with information about his whereabouts should call Crime Solvers at 866-411-TIPS (8477). -- Freeman...

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Judge: Pimp was child prostitute's foster father

A Temple Hills man accused of selling young girls for sex was the foster father for one of the girls who worked for him since she was 12 years old, authorities said. The girl, referred to only as "S.H." in court documents, also was raped by Shelby Lewis, a D.C. detective testified in Washington's federal court. She was one of several girls Lewis is accused of trafficking from Maryland to D.C.'s popular prostitution track at 14th and K streets Northwest. Lewis was arrested in May. On Thursday, a federal judge held the 42-year-old Lewis without bail, in part because Lewis' "role as a foster care provider to S.H. while also acting as her 'pimp' militate against pretrial release" U.S....

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The Blotter

Maryland man gets prison time for hiding ties to Saddam Mouyad Mahmoud Darwish was sentenced to 15 months in prison for not including his employment with an Iraqi government office in immigration papers, prosecutors said. Darwish was an accountant and driver for the Iraqi Interests Section located inside the Algerian Embassy in the District between 2000 and 2003, authorities said. But on immigration documents he claimed to only work for Saubhe Jassim Al-Dellemy, at Al-Dellemy's Gourmet Shish Kebab in Laurel. Darwish's job with Iraq was discovered following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, when U.S. soldiers found documents relating to Darwish in Iraq, prosecutors said. Ex-State...

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Another guilty plea expected in D.C. tech office kickback scheme

A former employee in the District's technology office is expected to plead guilty to receiving kickbacks in return for hiring employees from a contracting company he once worked for, court documents indicate. Farrukh Awan has been negotiating a plea deal since early September, court records show. He has now been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Awan is charged by information, a court procedure that typically means the defendant plans to plead guilty. His attorney, Robert Bonsib, declined to comment Thursday. Last spring, Awan and his boss, Yusuf Acar, were fired after federal authorities accused them of asking government contractor Sushil Bansal for cash so they would...

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Md. scientist indicted on espionage charge

A Maryland scientist who once worked in the White House was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday, accusing him of attempting to provide Israel classified information on satellites and early warning defense systems. Stewart Nozette was taken into custody Monday after authorities say he provided an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli spy with some of the nation's most guarded secrets for $11,000. The Chevy Chase resident held top secret clearance for 20 years as he helped develop satellite and other advanced technology for the U.S. military. According to the indictment, Nozette provided the undercover agent with information on "satellites, early warning systems, means of...

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Was he making coffee naked or exposing himself?

Man claims he didn't know mother, child were in his yard Erick WilliamsonA 29-year-old Springfield man has been charged with indecent exposure after a mother and son claimed he stood naked in his doorway and then moved in front of an open window as they walked down a path leading to an elementary school. But Erick Williamson tells WTTG Fox 5 that he was making coffee at the time and the mother and her 7-year-old son cut through his yard. He claims he didn't know they were there. Police say they've received additional reports regarding Williamson's nudity and they're distributing a flier in the neighborhood around the 8700 block of Arley Drive, where Williamson lives with...

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D.C. police kill 19-year-old man

D.C. police officers shot and killed a teenager in Northeast Washington early Wednesday, police said. At about 5:20 a.m., police were responding to a call of an unwanted guest on the 900 block of 21st Street when they were confronted by a man with a gun, a spokeswoman said. The two officers were "in imminent fear" for their lives and the lives of others and fired their service weapons, Officer Helen Andrews said. The teen, identified as 19-year-old James Broadus Miller, was pronounced dead at a hospital. The officers were placed on administrative leave with pay in accordance with departmental protocol, Andrews said. -- Scott...

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Source: NASA investigation opened doors to espionage probe

The espionage investigation of the Maryland scientist charged with attempting to pass the nation's most guarded secrets to Israel was triggered by a NASA inspector general probe into Stewart Nozette's technology company, a source with knowledge of the investigation said. Nozette was taken into custody Monday after he accepted $11,000 from an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer in return for classified information on U.S. satellite systems and nuclear weaponry, according to federal authorities. Nozette, a former White House employee, worked on the U.S. government's Star Wars missile shield program. The 52-year-old was held without bail in D.C.'s federal court Tuesday....

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Criminal database breach disrupted DEA investigation

A Maryland woman pleaded guilty to illegally accessing a Drug Enforcement Administration database of open cases and passed information she found there on to her lover and his drug-dealing friend, disrupting a federal investigation. Tanya Perry was a data entry contract employee for the DEA, court documents said. In that role, she had access to the Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Information System, a national database of open drug investigations. In 2004 and 2005, the 30-year-old Waldorf resident accessed the database and provided details of a DEA investigation into her boyfriend and his friend Jesse Johnson, she admitted Tuesday as part of her guilty plea. In August 2004, Johnson told...

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Defense official wants his espionage conviction tossed

Attorneys for a Department of Defense official convicted of espionage say in court documents that testimony regarding James Fondren's relationship with a Chinese spy should not have been admitted at trial and Fondren should be acquitted or granted a new trial. Last month, a federal jury determined that the former deputy director of the Washington Liaison Office for the U.S. Pacific Command illegally passed classified defense publications to the sole client of a contracting business Fondren created. Prosecutors say Fondren's client, Tai Shen Kuo, eventually told Fondren that he was turning the documents over to Taiwanese generals, when in reality Kuo was handing them to Lin Hong, a...

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Armed men terrorize bank employees, customers

Fairfax County police say two masked men have terrorized two Wachovia banks, and they're concerned the violent duo could become more dangerous. The two robbers most recently stuck up a Wachovia Bank in Burke, sticking their handguns in employees' faces as they divided the group in half and demanded access to the vault, police said. One customer was inside when the robbers charged into the bank at 8900 Burke Lake Road around 10 a.m. Wednesday, sources said. Another customer entered the bank in the middle of the robbery and was ordered face down onto the floor. Some of the employees were forced into a side room near the front of the bank, police said, and were guarded by one of the...

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The Blotter

Va Tech student missing after concert Police are looking for a Virginia Tech student who has been missing since Saturday. Morgan Dana Harrington, 20, was last seen at a Metallica concert in Charlottesville. Police said Harrington was wearing a black T-shirt with "Pantera" across the front, a black miniskirt, black tights and black knee-high boots. She has long blond hair, blue eyes and is 5-foot-6 and weights 120 pounds. Police: Woman lights boyfriend on fire A 29-year-old Falls Church woman has been accused of dowsing her boyfriend with rubbing alcohol and setting him on fire, Fairfax County police said. Ingrid Herrera was arguing with her boyfriend when she lit him on fire early...

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Md. scientist of accused of trying to sell U.S. military secrets

A Maryland scientist who once worked at the White House and had top secret clearance with the U.S. military has been accused of trying to sell U.S. nuclear weaponry, military spacecraft and satellite secrets to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli spy, prosecutors said. Stewart David Nozette, 52, was taken into custody Monday at his Chevy Chase home. Over the last several weeks, authorities say Nozette accepted $11,000 in exchange for U.S. military secrets that he provided to the undercover agent from memory. For nearly 20 years Nozette had access to some of the country's best kept secrets, but he lost his security clearance soon after a NASA inspector general began an investigation into...

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Police search for Fairfax bank robbery suspect

Fairfax County police are searching for a bank robber who knocked off a United Bank in the Fair Lakes Shopping Center. According to police, the suspect approached a 53-year-old female teller Tuesday afternoon and demanded cash. He did not appear to be armed and the teller handed over an undisclosed amount of cash. The robber ran off, headed toward the Best Buy store, police said. Police described the suspect as white and his 20s. He's about 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs around 180 pounds. Anyone with information should call Crime Solvers at 866-411-TIPS (8477). -- Freeman...

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Metro transit officer helped provide security for Dirty Money,Kevin Money:39970347:39970347:Kevin Money0 summit

Lt. Greg Hanna has been with the Metro Transit Police Department for 15 years and recently headed a contingent of MTPD officers who went to Pittsburgh as extra security for the Group of 20 world leaders summit. Hanna also brought with him his knowledge of special event security. He wrote the department's security plan for President Obama's inauguration. What role did you and the other MTPD officers play in Pittsburgh? We were deployed as part of a mobile rapid deployment team. Our mission was to deploy to any protest hot spot where civil disobedience was a possibility. When we were not needed for that, we were linked with city officers who were responsible for securing PNC Park...

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The Blotter

Woman pleads guilty to mailing threatening 'voodoo' letters A 31-year-old Upper Marlboro woman pleaded guilty to sending letters threatening to inflict physical harm on a woman and her daughter through voodoo curses and spells, prosecutors said. Lakeisha Jones sent a package to the victims that contained a dead mouse and letters titled "Black Curse" and "Voodoo Spell" that described physical harm Jones would inflict on them. One letter described lewd sexual acts to be performed on the woman's child and contained a hand-drawn depiction of the child being shot. Man stabbed at Wheaton Metro A robbery turned bloody outside a the Wheaton Metro station when a man was stabbed by one of three...

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N.Va. woman accused of $50M mortgage scam caught in Turkey

A Loudoun County woman accused of running a $50 million mortgage fraud scheme was caught in Turkey, having fled the United States in July after she was indicted by a grand jury, authorities said Thursday. Diane Atari is accused of inflating clients' credit scores by falsifying their incomes and other financial records, causing her clients to go into foreclosure, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office said. She's charged with making false statements to obtain credit and money laundering. Officials said they notified Interpol when Atari left the U.S. in July, and the international police agency tracked her down in Turkey. Atari is being held in a Turkish prison awaiting extradition to the...

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Another massage parlor in Dupont spot

A massage parlor is again open for business at the same Dupont Circle location that has housed previous "spas" that were raided and shut down by the city, which claimed they were brothels. DuPont Circle Therapy Men's Spa is now open on the fourth floor of 1333 Connecticut Ave., a commercial retail space that has been targeted since spring 2008 when D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles sued to close Supra Spa, citing police raids and prostitution-related arrests. In November 2008, Kawk agreed to shut down the spa. But property owner George Thanos signed a new lease a month later with a new owner, who opened VIP Therapy, according to court documents. That new lease was signed as Thanos...

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The Blotter: Man gets 6 months in beating death

Man sentenced to six months in beating death A 19-year-old man was sentenced to six months in jail for throwing a punch at a gay man that resulted in his death. Robert Hannah pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault for punching Tony Hunter in September 2007 outside a gay club in the District. Hannah claimed Hunter had inappropriately touched him. The punch knocked Hunter to the ground and his head slammed into the sidewalk. Beltway chase ends in arrest A North Carolina man was taken into custody after he led police on a high-speed chase that started in Maryland and went around the Capital Beltway into Virginia, ending after the man allegedly rammed a Virginia State Police cruiser,...

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Monster the barking dog saves family from fire

A dog's loud barking awakened eight members of a Beltsville family just in time for them to escape their burning home, a Prince George's County fire department spokesman said. Monster, a 6-year-old Doberman pinscher, was in the backyard of the two-story house at 4600 Naples Ave. when he started barking and pounced on a sliding glass door to wake up the family around 6 a.m. Tuesday, the spokesman said. The fire burned through the roof and caused $250,000 damage to the single-family home, which did not have sprinklers. Inside were three adults and five children, authorities said. Typically, there are nine children in the house. One firefighter suffered a minor burn while fighting...

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The Blotter: Mother gets 13 years in prison for leaving baby to die

A District woman was sentenced to 13 years in prison for putting her baby in a plastic bag and leaving it to die behind a Langley Park auto repair shop, Prince George's County prosecutors said. Wendy Villatoro gave birth to her baby girl in a wooded area near the repair shop, wrapped the baby in a pink blanket and then discarded her in plastic bag, she admitted. The baby was found alive on Oct. 12, 2008, but later died at a hospital. Protesters try to plant hemp on DEA's front lawn Six members of a group protesting laws that make it illegal to grow hemp were charged with trespassing after they attempted to plant hemp seeds on the front lawn of the Drug Enforcement Administration's...

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Army major in Arlington accused of producing child porn

A U.S. Army major has been accused of videotaping and photographing himself raping an infant boy and disseminating the images on the Internet, federal prosecutors said. Daniel A. Woolverton was taken into custody Wednesday after the FBI said it found child pornography on an file sharing Web site and then traced the images to a computer in the 34-year-old's home in Arlington. When investigators searched Woolverton's home following the Army trial lawyer's arrest, they found a memory card with images of man having sex with an infant boy, prosecutors said. In those videos and pictures, a man wearing a wristwatch that matched Woolverton's could also be seen raping the infant, charging...

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Trucker delivered marijuana to Washington, cash to suppliers

A long-haul trucker based in Arlington has pleaded guilty to using his truck to traffic up to three tons of marijuana into the Washington area as a part of a Virginia-based $25 million drug ring, court documents said. Mark Cabey faces up to life in prison when he's sentenced Friday in Alexandria's federal court. He is one of eight defendants convicted in the drug ring that was taken down by the Drug Enforcement Administration in 2003 and 2004, court records show. Cabey's attorney did not return calls Monday for comment. Cabey was implicated as a member of the ring by three of the convicted members and charged earlier this year. The group got its start shipping truckloads of...

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Lone robber nabs cash, sprints off in track suit

Fairfax County police are searching for a lone bank robber who was dressed for a quick getaway when he left a TD Bank in Alexandria with a bag of cash. It was around 10:30 a.m. Saturday when the man entered the bank at 6615 Richmond Highway wearing a black and white track suit, police said. He passed a note to a 21-year-old female teller who handed over an undisclosed amount of cash. The man ran out of the bank and took off in a dark-colored sport utility vehicle, heading north on Richmond Highway. Police described the robber as a black man in his late 20s to early 30s. He is about 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighs about 210 pounds. The robber has an athletic build, was clean shaven and...

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Fairfax police search for home invasion suspect

Fairfax County police are searching for a 20-year-old man suspected of being one of three men who attacked a Herndon couple in their home. Police already have taken 18-year-old Rolando Miranda-Perez and 22-year-old Noe Eli Alvarado-Chopin into custody for allegedly beating and cutting the 62-year-old man and his 60-year-old wife early Wednesday morning. Now, police are looking for Raul Antonio Aleman Argueta, who they say played a role in the attack, which happened while the couple were asleep in their house on the 12900 block of Cinnamon Oaks Court. Argueta is believed to have lived at 13357 Parcher Ave. in Herndon with Alvarado-Chopin. Anyone with information on the case should...

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The Blotter: Man walking dog killed by novice driver

Man, 81, killed by novice driver An 81-year-old man was walking his dog when a truck driven by a woman who was learning to drive jumped an embankment and hit him, Arlington County police said. Marco Amoni died from the injuries caused by the Saturday evening accident, police said. After hitting Amoni, the truck slammed into a house, but no one else was injured. The driver and her teacher remained at the scene, but have not been charged. The dog survived. Police continue to investigate. Elderly man rescued from N.W. blaze A man believed to be about 70 years old was pulled from a burning building in Northwest Washington on Monday morning, the D.C. fire department said. Officials have...

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Man accused of threatening to blow up Metro trains

District police say a Bangladeshi man threatened to blow up Metro trains as he paced back and forth outside the Friendship Heights stop on the Red Line. The threats caused authorities to evacuate the Chevy Chase Pavilion mall, but did not disrupt train service during the busy evening commute Tuesday. Ahamed Pinto Ali was taken into custody around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday after mall security guards told police they saw Ali walking back and forth in the malland near the Friendship Heights Metro station entrance saying, "I'm not scared to die," "I will kill people," and "I will blow people up and the Metro," according to charging documents filed in the...

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Crime History: Inmates rebel over conditions at D.C. Jail

On this day, Oct. 11, in 1972, 50 inmates at the D.C. Jail seized control of a cellblock and held 11 jail officials hostage, demanding improved jail conditions. The D.C. rebellion lasted 24 hours and ended when a federal judge stepped in and guaranteed the prisoners' demands for better conditions and speedier trial processes would be met. The hostages, including the jail's director, were released after the judge promised that none of the inmates would be charged for their actions. No one was seriously injured during the takeover. The daylong revolt grabbed the city's attention as a slew of negotiators, including then school board President Marion Barry, stepped in and attempted to...

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Past experience comes into play for Fairfax information officer

Officer Don Gotthardt has been a patrol officer, worked on a mountain bike patrol unit, and has rode with a motor squad during his 29 years of police work. Now, he brings all his experiences to the table as a public information officer in Fairfax County. What drew you to police work? I've always had a desire to help people and to serve the public, and give back. I've just found it easy to talk to people and easy to relate to people. I've been told that I'm easy to talk to and a good listener, so I've just kind of focused in on those skills and abilities and tried to put them to good use. Who do you work with as a PIO? I'll talk to anybody from the citizens all over the county to...

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One suspect behind string of D.C. crimes

District police say a man has been conducting a personal crime spree since the beginning of September, robbing a gas station and six taxi drivers. In three of the taxi driver robberies, the robber also made off with the vehicles, police said. He held up one gas station late last month with a knife and carjacked a taxi driver with a gun. But, police said, the thief only implied he had a weapon in the other robberies. Anyone with information should call 202-727-9099. -- Freeman...

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The Blotter: IMF employee shot in Bethesda

Man shot in Bethesda A 53-year-old man was shot by a masked suspect as he pulled into his garage in Bethesda, Montgomery County police said. Neighbors identified the man as Ashoka Mody, an employee of the International Monetary Fund. Police say the gunman was hiding in the garage when Mody arrived home Thursday evening. Mody is in critical condition. Police would not say where in his body he was struck. Police are trying to determine a motive and the identity of the suspect. Anyone with information should call Montgomery County police at 240-773-5070. Girl, 17, killed in Northeast A 17-year-old girl was shot in the head and killed in Northeast Washington during an exchange of...

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Man accused of killing pregnant girl, 17, over stolen drugs

Prince George's County police say McDonald Abraham III killed pregnant 17-year-old Stacey Seaton with a single gunshot to the back of her head because he believed she stole drugs and cash from his Bowie apartment. Seaton was found shot in the midafternoon of June 1, 2005, two days after learning she was pregnant. She was rushed from a wooded area a block from her Bowie home to a hospital where she died. For the last four years thousands of dollars in reward money have been offered to help find her killer. On Thursday, police charged Abraham with first-degree murder, based on findings by the county's cold case squad, which had renewed its focus on the case earlier this year....

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Feds: Taxi bribery schemer planned to kill informant

A key member of the D.C. taxi industry group charged with conspiring to bribe public officials was planning to kill a confidential informant and destroy evidence, prosecutors said in court documents made public Wednesday. On Sept. 24, D.C. Councilman Jim Graham's chief of staff, Ted Loza, was charged with accepting a $1,500 bribe from a member of the taxi industry. The next day, media reports named Abdulaziz Kamus as the informant who wore a wire as he allegedly passed the cash to Loza, part of a scheme in which members of the taxi industry are accused of funneling as much as $350,000 to a D.C. official turned FBI informant. Prosecutors say that after learning of Kamus' role in...

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Parents led police to their bank robbing, ex-executive son

A 35-year-old former business executive who robbed two Washington-area banks was sentenced to four years in prison Tuesday, several months after Bruce W. Higgins Jr.'s parents identified their son from surveillance footage and helped police track him down. "We watched his face being broadcasted on the local news and we helped authorities to identify and capture him," Higgins' mother, Mary Higgins, wrote in a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. By then, Higgins had fallen off the radar, his cocaine addiction leading him into Washington's underworld. When he was arrested in early March, Higgins "was staying in a 'crack house' in northeast Washington, robbing...

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Fairfax County police planner wins international award

The man who helps keep the Fairfax County Police Department strategies and operations on target was recognized as the "Planner of Year" by an international professional association. John Kapinos came to Fairfax County in 2005 as the department's first strategic planner, after serving 25 years with the Montgomery County police. Over the past four years, he has developed tools used to identify the county's crime fighting strengths and weaknesses. In a quickly urbanizing area, that means paying close attention to developing crime trends and shoring up soft spots in enforcement areas. In 2006, when robberies spiked, Kapinos worked with other officials to develop a strike force that slowed...

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FBI: Cocaine supply from Mexico to Virginia briefly disrupted

Cocaine supply lines running from Mexico to Virginia were briefly disrupted by a series of law enforcement crackdowns in Tijuana, according to an FBI recorded conversation between an alleged Virginia dealer and his supplier in Mexico. In late June, a wire tap recorded Apolinar Lopez Hernandez talking from his home in Virginia to his unnamed drug supplier in a small border town near Tijuana, the FBI said in documents filed in Alexandria's federal court. During the call, Hernandez told the supplier that there was no cocaine available for him to sell. "I'm taking a break because there is nothing," Hernandez reportedly said. Hernandez has been charged with conspiring to sell more than one...

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Police: Bank robber considered armed and dangerous

Arlington County police are urging anyone with knowledge of a bank robber's identity to "exercise extreme caution" if they come across the armed and dangerous man. Police say the man marched into a Wachovia Bank on the 900 block of South George Mason Drive. He pulled out a handgun and jumped over the teller counter, where he grabbed an unknown quantity of cash. Such hostile takeovers of a bank are relatively rare, authorities say, and those who perpetrate them have the potential to become increasingly violent. The thief in the Sept. 28 robbery was wearing a dark-colored head covering, green camouflage pants and tan work boots, police said. He was carrying a black book bag and a...

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Police: Silver Spring bank robber flees in cab, dropped off at home

This bank robbery suspect needed a better escape plan. Montgomery County police say a bank robbery suspect fled the crime scene in a cab and had the driver drop him off at home, where police found him soon after. Mohammad Reza Johnson was taken into custody at his home on the 700 block of Sligo Avenue in Silver Spring on Monday afternoon, police said. It was the same place where he had the cab driver drop him off after police say Johnson robbed an Eagle Bank by passing a note implying he was armed and demanding cash. The driver, police said, was unaware that his fare had just robbed a bank. Witnesses saw the robbery suspect flee in a green cab, authorities said. When police caught up...

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HIV misdiagnosis case could lead to more medical lawsuits

A three-judge D.C. Court of Appeals panel decision denying a District man the right to sue a clinic that misdiagnosed him as having HIV could open the doors for future success in suing doctors for emotional distress. For nearly 20 years the D.C. Court of Appeals has slapped down lawsuits seeking payments for emotional distress when a patient has been misdiagnosed for a life-threatening disease, citing a court ruling that a patient must be in a "zone of physical danger" in order to claim negligence. Late last week, a three-judge panel once again invoked the precedent and denied Terry Hedgepeth the right to sue the Whitman-Walker Clinic. In 2001, the clinic told Hedgepeth he was...

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Feds: Federal building guards didn't get required training

A private contractor has been accused of falsely certifying security company guards in lifesaving techniques before they were then sent to protect Department of Homeland Security and Department of Veterans Affairs buildings in Washington. Douglas E. Brown was an authorized provider of cardiopulmonary resuscitation training for the American Red Cross. According to an indictment filed in the District's federal court, Brown claimed to have trained at least 10 Blackhawk Inc. security guards in the life-saving procedures they were contractually required to know. In reality, the indictment says, Brown was submitting false training information to the Red Cross, causing the nonprofit to issue...

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Feds: Special-ed law firm employee stole $1.3M

A former payroll director has been accused of stealing nearly $1.3 million from a District law firm that makes its bank suing the city over special education. Tamika Beasley allegedly made false entries into the payroll records of James E. Brown and Associates to hide the cash she was skimming from bank accounts, according to court documents filed in the District’s federal court. She has been charged by information, a legal procedure that means she’s likely to plead guilty. James E. Brown said in a statement to The Examiner that Beasley drew on the firm’s line of credit to inflate her pay in a “scheme that defied two in-depth [Internal Revenue Service] audits,...

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Feds: Special-ed law firm employee stole $1.3M

A former payroll director has been accused of stealing nearly $1.3 million from a District law firm that makes its bank suing the city over special education. Tamika Beasley allegedly made false entries into the payroll records of James E. Brown and Associates to hide the cash she was skimming from bank accounts, according to court documents filed in the District's federal court. She has been charged by information, a legal procedure that means she's likely to plead guilty. James E. Brown said in a statement to The Examiner that Beasley drew on the firm's line of credit to inflate her pay in a "scheme that defied two in-depth [Internal Revenue Service] audits, annual bank inquiries,...

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A local drug dealer's quick rise

John Pollard wasn't flashy. He ran a construction business and drove a beat-up pickup truck. But over the course of 12 years, he sent $20 million in drug money to his supplier, Reuben F. Lopez, in Arizona. Pollard got his start with a Jamaican drug dealing ring in the District. It was through them that he met Lopez in the late 1990s. Lopez had been dealing since 1994, after a Jamaican he met while working for the U.S. Postal Service in Tucson introduced him to drug traffickers in Mexico. By the late 1990s, Lopez had grown tired of the late payments from the Jamaicans in Washington and Pollard stuck his neck out, promising timely cash deliveries if Lopez worked only with him. On the...

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Area's top drug kingpin busted after betrayal

The drug kingpin who federal law enforcement officials said supplied more cocaine and marijuana to the D.C. area than anyone in history is awaiting sentencing in a Maryland jail, arrested after being betrayed by his local distributor The Drug Enforcement Administration says it has dismanlted the vast network operated by Reuben F. Lopez who packed tractor-trailers with hundreds of pounds of cocaine and thousands of pounds of marijuana and then sent them to Washington, Cleveland, Detroit, Atlanta and Maine. At the height of the 12-year operation, Lopez was responsible for delivering about 110 pounds of high-quality cocaine and 2,000 pounds of marijuana each month to Washington. While in...

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Feds: Army private used Craigslist to entice and sell prostitutes

An Army private stationed at Fort Meade has been accused of running a sex trafficking business out of an off-base apartment that used Craigslist to entice at least one underage girl into prostitution. Pfc. Craig Allen Corey II and three other men from Ohio allegedly brought from Ohio to Maryland the women they later sold for sex, according to the indictment unsealed Tuesday. Among those brought east from the Midwest was a 16-year-old girl, prosecutors said. The sex business run from the 23-year-old's off-base apartment in Millersville "used Craigslist and other web-based services to persuade, encourage, entice and recruit females to serve as prostitutes and promote their prostitution...

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Crime Solvers -- decades of tips for cash

Since the late 1970s, Crime Solvers has helped bring criminals to justice by gathering tips from the public and turning the information over to police. Each police jurisdiction has a liaison officer who takes the tips and relays them to detectives in the field. Officer Shelley Broderick plays that role in Fairfax County. There seem to be Crime Solvers groups for every jurisdiction, but there's only one number. How does it work? We have created the National Capital Area Crime Solvers, which is an umbrella organization that handles all the calls from tipsters in the region. Because the region is so transient and each county has its own Crime Solvers board, we thought it would be easier...

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Police: Old Town serial burglar caught

Alexandria police say they have caught a serial burglar who has been targeting homes in Old Town over the last few months. Ralph L. Fowler, of no fixed address, was taken into custody Friday on the 600 block of South Alfred Street, police said. After identifying Fowler as the key suspect in the series of burglaries, police say they obtained 23 warrants for his arrest. Eight of those warrants for the 61-year-old man were for grand larceny with intent to sell. Fowler is being held at the Alexandria jail without bail. - Freeman...

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Gas leak at P.G. strip mall causes evacuation

Prince George's County fire officials say a gas leak has forced the evacuation of a Forestville shopping center that was the scene of a May gas explosion that injured nine firefighters. Fire officials say the leak was reported about 1 p.m. Sunday at the Penn Mar Shopping Center. Firefighters have evacuated the dozens of commercial establishments at the shopping center and shut off electricity and natural gas. No injuries have been reported. The May explosion destroyed several stores at the shopping center. -- The Associated...

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The Blotter: Seafood wholesaler headed to prison for illegal rockfish scheme

Seafood wholesaler headed to prison for illegal rockfish scheme The owner of Golden Eye Seafood was sentenced to one year and six months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to illegally harvest rockfish from the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River, prosecutors said. Robert Lumpkins recorded low weights for the stripped bass, commonly known as rockfish, so fisherman could pull more of the fish from the water, he admitted. It was the wholesaler's job to check the fish and weigh them. His actions, prosecutors said, threatened the fish populations in local waterways. Bank employee pleads guilty to mortgage fraud scheme A 37-year-old District Heights resident used her position at an...

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DOD intelligence analyst admits to breaching classified program

A Department of Defense intelligence analyst has pleaded guilty to compromising a computer program that was being used in a joint FBI-U.S. Army terrorist investigation while working at Fort Belvoir. Brian Keith Montgomery was an analyst for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency when he disregarded a warning message and opened a program that could have "jeopardized an ongoing investigation," he admitted. The Bethesda-based National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency was created in 1996 to better provide the intelligence community with mapping information. In 1999, the highly secretive agency was blamed for providing incorrect maps to NATO war planners that critics said led to the...

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Crime History: Spaghetti House siege

On this day, Sept. 28, in 1975, three armed men set off to rob the Spaghetti House restaurant in Knightsbridge, London, kicking off what would become a six-day siege. Nine staff members were at the Knightsbridge restaurant that evening collecting the weeks' £13,000 of revenue when the gunmen, lead by Nigerian Franklin Davies, forced them into a storage room where they were held hostage. One man managed to escape and alerted police. Authorities then ambushed the building where the armed men refused to release anyone for two days, after which they set free two ill hostages in exchange for coffee and cigarettes. Once it became clear to the robbers that British authorities would not...

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Police: MS-13 member murdered pimp who refused extortion

Alexandria police have accused an alleged MS-13 gang member of gunning down a pimp for refusing to be extorted by the gang, court documents said. Claros Luna was found shot to death in the driver's seat of a silver 2002 Honda Accord on the evening of July 29, police said. According to court documents filed in Alexandria's federal court, he was lured to the 700 block of Manor Road in Alexandria by MS-13 gang members who planned to demand he pay "rent" for running prostitutes on their turf. Authorities say Eris Ramon Arguera placed a call to Luna earlier in the day and the two arranged for Luna to bring a prostitute from his home in Prince George's County to Alexandria. When they...

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Crime history: Warren Commission concludes Oswald killed Kennedy

On this day, Sept. 27, in 1964, the Warren Commission released its report concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole gunman in the assassination of President Kennedy. The commission presented President Johnson its 888-page report 45 years ago, more than 10 months after Kennedy's death. The commission was named after Chief Justice Earl Warren, who headed the group established by Johnson. The commission faced much criticism for the methods it used to investigate Kennedy's death: It barred the public from attending almost all of its hearings, and the full commission was present during the testimony of only one of 94 witnesses. The report's findings remain in dispute to this...

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Md. man sentenced for ordering custom-made child porn

A 30-year old Greenbelt man was sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison for ordering custom-made child pornography over the Internet. Jonathan Clark was caught by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's undercover Internet operation in 2007, when he requested from investigators posing as porn distributors a custom-made video of two girls, ages 8 and 11, getting sexually assaulted. He also ordered a premade movie in which a 7-year-old girl was raped. Law enforcement agents delivered the two DVDs to Clark's parents' residence, as requested. Agents then searched both Clark's and his parents' homes, uncovering more than 4,000 images and videos on Clark's computer documenting the sexual...

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The Blotter: Teen accused of sexually assaulting girl at school

Teen accused of sexually assaulting girl at school A 19-year-old student at Forest Park High School in Woodbridge has been accused of sexually assaulting another student in a school hallway, Prince William County police said. Lavone Richardson-Crosby allegedly grabbed the 18-year-old girl and forced her to touch him in an inappropriate spot, police said. He is being held without bond. The victim was not physically injured during the assault, police said. Riverdale rapist sentenced to 32 years in prison A 25-year-old man who raped a 57-year-old woman at gunpoint was sentenced to 32 years in prison, Prince George's County prosecutors said. Rafael Gonzalez Castro grabbed the woman in...

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Feds, police bust Fairfax County mortgage fraud ring

Federal and Fairfax County authorities have accused 20 people of running a mortgage fraud scheme involving 200 expensive homes that were sold to straw buyers with fake financial documents then leased or sold to illegal immigrants. The homes purchased illegally had a net value of more than $100 million, law enforcement officials said. In what authorities described as the largest fraud investigation in Fairfax County history, real estate agents and mortgage brokers conspired to inflate incomes and bank accounts of fraudulent home buyers. Those buyers, including eight illegal immigrants, then purchased multiple homes, according to an indictment filed in Alexandria's federal court....

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Former police chief speaks at jail, media barred

Alexandria's former police chief, David Baker, whose 40-year career came to a halt when he was arrested on a drunken driving charge, was the first speaker in a lecture series at Alexandria's jail designed to "motivate and inspire" inmates, officials said. The Alexandria sheriff's office invited the media to Thursday's event, but reporters who arrived were turned away at the door. Alexandria Sheriff Dana Lawhorne chose to bar the media at the request of Baker, Undersheriff Tony Davis said. Instead, the sheriff's office sent out a news release. According to the release, Baker spoke about how people create their own circumstances and are responsible for the choices they make. Baker...

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Feds: Terrorism suspects had maps of Quantico

Feds: Terrorism suspects had maps of Quantico Two North Carolina men accused of plotting to kill U.S. military personnel had maps of Virginia's Marine base at Quantico, federal prosecutors said. An indictment of Daniel Patrick Boyd and Hysen Sherifi said the two had specific targets in mind including Quantico. They and other suspects involved in the plot were allegedly training to gun down military personnel with armor-piercing bullets in the weeks leading up to their July arrest. Police make arrest in Safeway robberies D.C. police arrested a man suspected in connection with two robberies at a grocery store. Forty-eight-year-old Quinton Raymond Jones, of the District, was charged with...

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Two Quantico Marines received pounds of heroin in the mail

Two women have pleaded guilty to receiving pounds of heroin in the mail for $1,500 a package while they were active duty Marines stationed at Quantico. Maurissa Sanchez and Amanda Hall, both 24-year-old lance corporals, were discharged earlier this year after investigators learned of their roles in the heroin importation scheme, court documents filed in Alexandria's federal court said. Each received packages believed to hold more than two pounds of heroin before the scheme was disrupted by police in Peru, who intercepted a third package destined for Sanchez's home in Stafford. Both women were approached by a third, unnamed Marine who offered them the cash in exchange for receiving...

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Bethesda teen pleads guilty to stockpiling weapons

A Bethesda teenager pleaded guilty to possessing a destructive device after police found a stockpile of weapons in his bedroom last year. Collin McKenzie-Gude, 19, had assault weapons, armor-piercing bullets and more than 50 pounds of chemicals that could be used to make bombs. He also had a fake CIA badge and a map of presidential resort Camp David. Police found the weapons while searching his home after he attempted to steal a car from a 78-year-old man. In court Wednesday, McKenzie-Gude admitted that he was knowledgeable about how to make explosive devices and shape charges -- a method of building bombs so they can cut through hard objects like steel, prosecutors said....

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The Blotter: Two charged in Va. woman's murder

Two charged in Va. woman's murder Two men have been accused of stabbing a 22-year-old woman to death and leaving her body in the passenger seat of her car in Reston, Fairfax County police said. Michael Thomas was taken into custody Monday at his Bladensburg home. Marcus Williams was caught Tuesday in Michigan. Police say they killed Erika Yancey, of Herndon, in November 2008. Police: Md. woman punched teen in face A 40-year-old woman has been accused of punching a 16-year-old boy in the face because she believed he was part of a fight involving her daughter, the Frederick County Sheriff's Office said. Alice Frishkorn has been charged with second-degree assault from the Sept. 1...

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Montgomery Co. police start online crime reporting system

The Montgomery County Police Department has started an Internet-based program designed to handle the filing of certain crime reports by county residents. AT A GLANCE Requirements for filing online crime reports: » The incident is not an emergency. » It occurred within Montgomery County. » There are no known suspects. » It did not occur on a state highway. » The value of property stolen is less than $10,000. » The complaint contains a valid e-mail address. The system, called CopLogic, is already used by Arlington County police and other police departments around the country to "streamline the public's ability to receive information and...

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Parked cars in Potomac targeted

Thieves are targeting cars parked near the C & O Canal in Potomac, stealing wallets and purses and using the credit cards to run up charges at pharmacies and grocery stores, Montgomery County Council Vice President Roger Berliner said. The thieves typically strike during the day in parking lots along the 10800 block of MacArthur Boulevard, he said. The car owners are typically walking or kayaking at the time. Most of the thefts, which started in March, have been between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Berliner said. Police have identified a suspect who uses the credit cards at CVS pharmacies and Giant grocery stores in Virginia and Maryland. The suspect is in his early 30s and has a...

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Authorities hunt for bank-robbing partners

Federal and local authorities are searching for a bank-robbing duo: the woman who cases a bank and the man who robs it. According to law enforcement officials, the thin, blond-haired, tanned woman enters a bank and gets a blank bank deposit slip. Then, while ostensibly filling the slip out, she looks around the bank and leaves without making a transaction. Soon after, authorities say, a man enters the bank, approaches a teller and slides a note written on a deposit slip demanding cash. He has a cloth draped over one hand and implies he has a gun. After obtaining the cash, the male suspect walks out of the bank and flees the area in a pickup truck driven by the woman. The two are...

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Heroin dealer linked to ring that stuffed zucchinis with cocaine

An Oxon Hill man sentenced to 15 years in prison for selling about four pounds of heroin in the Washington area had ties to an alleged Dominican Republic drug lord who was recently accused of stuffing 60 pounds of cocaine into zucchinis. According to court records, 54-year-old Ronnie Rogers met Guillermo Minier while in a New Jersey prison. It was Minier -- nicknamed Tony Montana after the drug lord main character played by Al Pacino in the 1983 movie "Scarface" -- whose drug ring provided Rogers with the heroin. Rogers reportedly told authorities that he picked up the drugs on visits to New York City and brought them to Washington. Minier was accused late last month by Dominican...

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FBI begins probe into federal stimulus fraud

The FBI has begun a wide-ranging probe into fraud and corruption stemming from the $787 billion stimulus package pushed by President Obama earlier this year. "Experience tells us that there's a good chance that some of the money could end up in the hands of a few unscrupulous government officials and others seeking to line their own pockets," the agency said in a statement Thursday. As a result: "The FBI and the Department of Justice are working now -- in concert with our federal, state, and local partners including the inspector general community -- to get out in front of possible fraud and corruption associated with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," the...

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Man, 84, attacked in Alexandria supermarket parking lot

A 30-year-old Alexandria man has been accused of attacking an 84-year-old as the elderly man finished loading groceries into his car, Fairfax County police said. Isaac Gray turned himself into authorities hours after the Wednesday morning attack outside the Shoppers Food Warehouse at 7660 Richmond Highway, police said. According to authorities, the 84-year-old had just sat in down in the driver's seat when Gray jumped in the back seat, grabbed him around the neck and demanded cash. When the elderly man bit the suspect, police say Gray punched him several times in the face and then ran off. The victim was not treated for his injuries, police said. -- Freeman...

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Feds: Former D.C. cop part of drug, gambling operation

Federal prosecutors say a former District police officer and 11 others were part of a criminal ring that flooded Southern Maryland with cocaine for the past three years. Darrell Alphonso Carter hasn't been a police officer for more than a decade. During some of the time since leaving the force, prosecutors say he ran a gambling operation in St. Mary's County that catered to the drug dealers he also did business with. The gambling was high stakes, with as much as $80,000 bandied about. Carter's attorney did not return calls for comment Wednesday. Carter was arrested and has been released, but remains on 24-hour surveillance via an electronic monitor, court records said. "It was a...

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Fairfax neighborhood program organizes to the max

Some neighborhood watch programs are just getting started and have yet to create an organized structure. Others are set up with a focus on bringing a community together, with less attention paid to the details of policing. Led by Beth Velkoff, the neighborhood watch program in Fairfax Station's 500-home Barrington Community is a prime example of an organized group that coordinates regular patrols. How is it structured? Barrington is divided into 12 zones covering about 40 homes. The zones are headed by a block captain who coordinates with 10 patrollers. Each zone is assigned one month a year to patrol the entire community. What does the coordinator do? The coordinator is a liaison...

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Teacher accused of filming sex with student

Scott Howe A 33-year-old Virginia teacher is accused of filming himself engaged in sexual activities with a 15-year-old male student while in their middle school, according to court documents filed in Alexandria's federal court. Authorities first went to Scott Christopher Howe's home after his landlord called police claiming Howe was growing marijuana on the back deck. When Howe came home, he allowed police to search his home, documents said. In his bedroom, authorities found a computer and a video camera, and they started asking Howe questions about contraband on his computer, charging documents said. Howe told the Fauquier County sheriff's deputies that on the computer and camera were...

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Ticketed drivers head to court to fight speed camera fines

Stefano Fina is facing seven speeding tickets issued by a camera he didn't know was catching him as he broke the speed limit near his unpaid internship in Germantown. Now, the Frederick resident is facing a $280 fine, plus more than $70 in court costs, he estimated. "I feel like it's a scam," Fina said after District Court Judge William G. Simmons knocked $10 off each of the $40 tickets. "Most people don't get seven," Simmons said. Fina said he stopped speeding after he received the first wave of citations in the mail. "If I had been pulled over by a cop, I would have stopped speeding there right away," he said. Fina was among about 30 drivers who...

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D.C. teacher pleads guilty to having sex with student, 14

A teacher at a District charter school has pleaded to sexually abusing a 14-year-old student. Ricardo Antonio Cuaderes was immediately sentenced to nine years in prison with all but one-and-a-half years suspended by a Howard County judge for bringing the boy to his Ellicott City home for sex. Cuaderes turns 44 on Tuesday. According to charging documents, Cuaderes met the teenage boy at the beginning of the 2008 school year at Young America Works. At the time, Cuaderes was filling in for one of the 14-year-old's teachers. Even after that teacher returned, however, Cuaderes and the student continued to meet in Cuaderes' classroom at the end of the day. At some point, the two began...

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Silver Spring bank robber hopes for luck of the Irish

He walked into a Chevy Chase Bank in Silver Spring, his white Notre Dame hat tipped low over his head concealing his eyes from the security camera. The mustached man stepped up to a teller's counter and passed a note demanding cash, police said. The camera picked up the bright-green lettering on his hat and locks of hair billowing out the cap's sides and back. It was a little after 4 p.m. Sept. 1, close to closing time, when the man ran out with the cash in hand. Police said they're uncertain of the robber's race -- he was either a dark-skinned white male or Hispanic. He's about 6 feet tall and weighs about 200 pounds. Authorities noted that robbing banks, even with just a note,...

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The Blotter: Man arrested in P.G. school break-ins

Man arrested in P.G. school break-ins A tip to Crime Solvers led Prince George's County police to a 33-year-old man now charged with breaking into seven county schools 11 times and stealing coins from vending machines, police said. Charles Clayton, Jr. was taken into custody Friday and police say he later confessed to the break-ins, which started Aug. 17 and ended Sept. 9. Police: District officer found dead linked to pizza shop killing A District police officer who hanged himself in his mother's house is believed to have had a relationship with a woman accused of murdering a pizza shop owner in Northeast, police said. Detective Terrence Green was found dead in the Prince...

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DOD intelligence analyst accused of breaching classified program

An employee of a Department of Defense intelligence agency has been accused of compromising a computer program that was being used in a joint FBI-U.S. Army terrorist investigation while working at Fort Belvoir. Brian Keith Montgomery was an analyst for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency when he used his top-secret clearance to gain access to a computer program he was not cleared to view, charging documents filed in Alexandria's federal court said. Court records did not list an attorney for Montgomery. Based in Bethesda, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, originally called the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, was created in 1996 to better provide the...

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Two D.C. shootings leave teen, man dead

A 16-year-old boy and a 32-year-old man were shot and killed in two separate incidents in Northeast over the weekend. Police say they found teen Antonio Ward suffering from a gunshot wound on the 5000 block of Just Street on Saturday night. The Southeast resident died at the scene, police said. Two other gunshot victims at the scene were taken to the hospital and are expected to recover. The second victim, Bowie resident Jason Liser, was gunned down on the 4000 block of Minnesota Avenue early Sunday morning. Liser was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. Anyone with information about the incidents should call 202-727-9099. Police are offering up to...

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Crime History

On this day, Sept. 14, in 1901 President McKinley died from wounds caused by an assassin's bullet that went through his stomach and lodged in his back eight days earlier. McKinley's death was followed by the elevation of then Vice President Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency. McKinley was in Buffalo, N.Y., delivering a speech on tariffs and foreign trade when he was shot by anarchist Leon Frank Czolgosz. On the second day of McKinley's visit, Czolgosz approached the president with a revolver hidden in a handkerchief. His first shot grazed McKinley's shoulder, but the second ripped through the president's stomach. Czolgosz was later convicted and executed by electric chair. -...

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Crime History: Man shoots 20 at Canadian college

On this day, Sept. 13, in 2006, a 25-year-old gunman opened fire at Dawson College in downtown Montreal, killing one and wounding 19 before turning the weapon on himself. Kimveer Gill, a native Canadian, began his shooting spree at 12:41 in the afternoon outside the school's main entrance and proceeded toward the cafeteria where students were eating lunch. Gill, who was carrying three firearms, killed an 18-year-old woman and injured 19 people. He then shot himself in the head after being cornered and shot in the arm by police. The tragedy marked the fourth deadly school shooting in Canadian history. -- Violeta...

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Md. mother accused of murder pleads guilty to child abuse

A Maryland mother accused of murdering her two adopted daughters and then traipsing across the state with their bodies in a freezer has pleaded guilty to abusing her third adopted daughter. Renee Bowman entered the plea in Calvert County, where the discovery of the surviving daughter covered in mud and blood by a neighbor led police to the freezer and the bodies the 44-year-old allegedly kept in her home. Authorities believe, however, that she killed the two girls while she was living in Rockville, and she has been charged with murder in Montgomery County. Bowman faces up to 25 years for the child abuse. - Freeman...

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The Blotter

Girl, 17, attacked in Vienna The teenage girl was attacked as she sat on the front steps of her apartment on the 2500 block of Chain Bridge Road, police said. The attacker, who police do believe to be the same man attacking women near Fair Oaks Mall, walked into the building early Friday morning. When he came out a short time later, he grabbed the girl from behind. The victim broke free and the man ran off. The attacker is a Hispanic male in his late 20s. He is about 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs about 170 pounds. He was wearing shorts and a purple, polo-style shirt. Anyone with information should call 866-411-TIPS(8477). Md. mortgage fraud conspiracy leader gets 6 1/2 years...

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Coast Guard exercise on Potomac sparks panic

A Coast Guard training exercise on the Potomac River caused a panic Friday morning after CNN broadcast the details without first checking to see whether the scenario was real. The media reports that shots had been fired on the Potomac sent law enforcement and federal agencies scrambling. The Federal Aviation Administration briefly shut down flights at Reagan National Airport, the FBI sent agents to the river, as did District police. The confusion started when CNN first reported that shots had been fired by the Coast Guard at a suspect vessel between the Memorial and 14th Street bridges, not far from the Pentagon where President Barack Obama and hundreds of others were gathered to...

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Crime History: The French Blue diamond

On this day, Sept. 11, in 1792, the French Blue diamond, eventually cut to be the Hope Diamond, was stolen along with other French crown jewels. A group of bandits broke into the royal storeroom while King Louis XVI was under lock and key during the early stages of the French Revolution. The French Blue diamond was a 67-carat stone cut in 1678 at the orders of Louis XIV. The Hope Diamond was cut down to 45.52 carats and currently resides at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History on the National Mall. The Hope Diamond gained its name when it appeared in the 1839 catalog of Henry Philip Hope's gem collection. For the next 100 years, the diamond was passed down through the Hope family...

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Burglar targets Prince George's schools' vending machines

A late-night burglar has targeted vending machines' coin deposit boxes at seven Prince George's County schools, police said. The burglar has entered the seven schools 11 times by breaking a window. He first cropped up Aug. 17, when he broke in Crossland High School. He hit Crossland again on Sept. and most recently busted into the Surrattsville High School bus area Sept. 9. Friendly High School is his favorite target, police said. He has smashed into vending machines there four times between Aug. 22 and 27. The 40- to 45-year-old burglar is white and has a thick mustache and beard. He carries a pickax or crowbar. Anyone with information in the case should call Crime Solvers at...

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Police: Man attacking women near Fair Oaks becoming more violent

Fairfax County police worry a man attacking women walking alone in the dark just north of Fair Oaks Mall is becoming more violent. The attacker has gone from assaulting with just his hands to wielding a knife, and investigators say the quick escalation is a dangerous sign of what might come. In this week's two known attacks, the man approached women and tried to talk to them, police said, but neither victim understood Spanish and both ignored him. But as they walked by him, the attacker grabbed the women from behind and forced them to the ground. Both women were able to fend off the 5-foot-3-inch, 130-pound man. However, after his failed attempt Sunday night, the man brought a...

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The Blotter

Police: Man arrives at Obama speech with gun in car A Falls Church man was taken into custody outside the U.S. Capitol during President Obama's speech after police found a shotgun in his car, authorities said. Joshua Bowman drove up to a security checkpoint near the Cannon House Office Building on Wednesday night and told U.S. Capitol Police officers he wanted to park. The timing of the request raised an officer's suspicion and led to a search of the 28-year-old's car, a police spokeswoman said. Inside they found an unregistered shotgun and ammunition. Clinton man gets 17 years for 3 bank robberies Dewayne A. Edwards stole more than $84,000 from three banks in Northwest D.C. and...

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Feds: Granny drug dealer turned Va. ring into 'big-time'

A Virginia grandmother has been accused of being the primary distributor and sometimes financier of a drug distribution ring that sold more than 20,000 pills of powerful narcotics and left one woman dead. Donna George sold methadone and OxyContin in front of her "young grandchildren" and cared for her co-conspirator's children in exchange for pills, according to testimony in court documents. The 46-year-old's attorney declined to comment. George is the fourth person to be busted in the ring that authorities say sold more than $500,000 in narcotics between February 2007 and September 2007, court records show. According to prosecutors, even after the three others were arrested, George...

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P.G. man indicted in child sex trafficking case

A Temple Hills man has been charged with selling girls as young as 11 for sex on the District's popular prostitution track at 14th and K streets NW. Shelby Lewis was indicted on five counts of child sex trafficking. Authorities say the 42-year-old has been running his pimping operation since 2006. He was taken into custody after District police arrested two of his alleged victims - ages 14 and 16 - while they walked the prostitution track in May. The two girls pointed to Lewis as their pimp. The charges come as anti-human-trafficking groups plan to post advertisements on Metro buses, shelters and train stations designed to fight what they call modern day slavery as part of D.C....

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Feds say they've busted major Internet music piracy group

Federal authorities have busted a major Internet music piracy group that ripped off thousands of songs from popular artists such as Jay-Z, Eminem and U2, according to an indictment. Among those charged was Adil R. Cassim, the alleged leader of the group known as Rabid Neurosis. He and others conspired to copy and release songs, often before the production companies had put them on the market, the indictment said. The stolen songs were held on computer servers and garnered the group a reputation that enabled it to trade music with other piracy groups that had massive libraries, authorities said. The indictment was unsealed in Alexandria's federal court Wednesday, the same day...

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Doctors' receptionist guilty in $2.1M ID theft ring

A former receptionist for two medical doctors in downtown Washington has pleaded guilty to stealing the personal information of 37 patients as part of her role in a $2.1 million identity theft ring that included Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke among its victims. Makieta Leake worked for Drs. Stanley Lugerner and Marc Shepard from January 2008 through that December, court documents filed in Alexandria's federal court said. During that time, prosecutors say, the 36-year-old Maryland woman's co-conspirators used the patients' information she sold them to steal $849,197. Calls to the doctors' office at 2021 K St. NW, were not returned Tuesday. The nationwide conspiracy often...

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Reston gang crackdown a success, police say

For the past four weeks, a 12-member Fairfax County police team roved the Reston area, netting 42 arrests as it cracked down on gang activity, police said. Dubbed "Operation Summer Heat," the campaign targeted gang activities and filed criminal charges from larceny to prostitution to participation in gang activity. Much of the task force's attention was focused on Reston's trails and pathways, sending plainclothed officers to often patrol the area on bicycles. In one instance, "there was an attempted malicious wounding, but Summer Heat officers were nearby and quickly intervened to protect the victim and arrest the suspect," Lt. T.J. Rogers said. But traditional police work was...

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The 3-minute interview: Helen and John Taylor

Last month, this Australian couple crushed their own fuel efficiency record when they ended their 9,505-mile trip across the United States in Ashburn, driving a Volkswagen Jetta and getting a world record 67.9 miles per gallon. Just last year, they made the same drive and set a record with 58.8 mpg. The difference, they said, was better weather and their tires. The feat was recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records. What made you try this again? Helen: We were challenged by Goodyear to use their new Fuel Max tires and took them up on it. The tires made a big difference, but there were others as well. John: We had fewer head winds, and we weren't pounded as much by rain. How...

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Crime History: California woman sentenced to death in slaying

On this date, Aug. 30, in 1989, Cynthia Coffman became the first woman sentenced to death after California reinstated capital punishment in 1977. Coffman and her husband James Marlow, who also received a death sentence, were convicted of killing Corinna Novis in Redlands, Calif. According to media reports, authorities believe the couple raped and robbed at least three other women before killing them, although the two have been convicted only of killing two women. Novis disappeared after using an ATM on Nov. 7, 1986 and her body eventually was found. Her checkbook was found four days later in a garbage bin, along with papers containing Marlow's and Coffman's names. Meanwhile, on...

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Sheriff's spokesman: Judy Miller organized Alexandria jail library

Harry Covert is the voice of the Alexandria sheriff's department, a job that grants him access to the city's jail and the high-profile inmates who are sometimes kept inside awaiting trial at the nearby federal court. He came to the job after years of being a bail bondsman and briefly a magistrate. Before that, he was reporter. Which of the high-profile inmates stands out the most? I'd have to say (former New York Times reporter) Judith Miller. She was not only a great reporter, but also a great inmate. She was a dignified lady. She helped install a computer New York Times donated to the library. She also organized the library. Being in jail is never pleasant, but can be acceptable....

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Man who killed pregnant woman gets 40 years in prison

A 49-year-old man was sentenced to 40 years in prison for killing a 21-year-old pregnant woman and leaving her body behind a public swimming pool in Laurel, prosecutors said. A passerby found Christen Hawkins' body in a wooded area behind the Laurel Municipal Swimming Pool in May 2008. Hawkins was stabbed 25 times. Two days later, Robert Headley was stopped for a traffic violation while driving her car in Frederick. When questioned, Headley told police a man he didn't know had given him the keys to the car while at a bar the day Hawkins was killed, Prince George's County prosecutors said. But blood found on Headley's shirt matched DNA samples from Hawkins. Headley pleaded...

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Two charged with stealing $120,000 in money orders

A former Woodbridge-area post office supervisor and his bowling buddy have been accused of stealing about $120,000 in money orders from the U.S. Postal Service, court documents said. Jimmie L. Chatmon was a supervisor at various Woodbridge post offices from August 2004 through May 2008. His friend Philander Y. Jordan, whom Chatmon met in the mid-1990s through bowling, is currently serving time for an involuntary manslaughter conviction in the Prince William County jail. In April 2008, Jordan, who is originally from North Carolina, was driving with a blood-alcohol content of nearly twice the legal limit when he slammed into another car on Interstate 95, killing the other driver. One...

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Financial analyst pleads guilty to stealing $500k from patent office

WE HAVE A PIC OF REID A former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office employee has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $500,000 with the help of a Fort Washington-area clergyman. Karen L. Parish was a patent office financial analyst. Michael Reid, who pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy earlier this month, runs a company, Redeemed Music House LLC, that works with churches to develop their musician staffing, sound and management. He also is the minister of music at the Ark Safety Christian Church. Parish, a 39-year-old Woodbridge resident, managed accounts in which patent office customers deposited funds used to pay expenses that later could be drawn down to pay applications'...

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The Blotter

Former Georgia cop gets 15 years for drug trafficking in Va. A 44-year-old Gwynn Oak man whose lawyer said he was a former police officer from Georgia was sentenced to 15 years in prison after Fairfax police found a cache of drugs in his car. Federal prosecutors said Gregory McGhee also was an ordained minister. According to court documents, McGhee was on his way from Atlanta to Washington when he was pulled over in April. Inside his car, police found 1.5 pounds of methamphetamine, a gallon jug of the substance commonly known as the date rape drug and a loaded handgun, all in a bag with "Police" on the side. Armored car robber gets 32 years in prison Carlic Darnell Brown, 26, was...

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Fed chairman victim of nationwide identity theft ring

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke fell victim to a nationwide identity theft ring after his wife's purse was snatched from the back of her chair while she sat in a D.C. Starbucks, court documents show. The purse held her Social Security card and checkbook. The alleged thief, who has been charged with being part of a ring that has stolen more than $2.1 million, used the information to cash $12,500 in checks from the Bernankes' bank account. "Identity theft is a serious crime that affects millions of Americans each year," Bernanke said in a statement to Newsweek, which first reported the chairman's link to the ring. "Our family was but one of 500 separate instances traced to...

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Two Va. Tech students found slain in forest near school

Two Virginia Tech students were found slain at a Jefferson National Forest campground Thursday, authorities said. The park is a popular hangout for students from the campus that's still recovering from the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history two years ago and a beheading at a campus cafe earlier this year. The bodies of 19-year-old David Lee Metzler, of Lynchburg, and Heidi Lynn Childs, 18, of Forest, were discovered by a passerby, police said. Both appear to have been shot, Metzler inside a car in the parking area of Caldwell Fields and Childs just outside the car. The campground is about 15 miles from the campus. No suspect has been identified. Both students were...

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Former cop caught with meth in 'police' bag by Fairfax officers

A former Georgia police officer was caught by Fairfax County police carrying more than a pound of methamphetamine, a gallon jug of the substance commonly known as the date rape drug and a loaded handgun in a bag with "Police" on the side, court documents said. Gregory McGhee has pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute the 1.5 pounds of meth and faces up to life in prison when he's sentenced Friday in Alexandria's federal court. His attorney has requested McGhee be placed in a drug and alcohol treatment program near Washington so he can be close to home with his family. On April 11, McGhee was pulled over by Fairfax County police on Interstate 95 as he returned from a...

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Mail carrier steals golf survey from mail, gets job at course

Golf has been both William Seville's downfall and his savior. In March, the Ashburn-based mail carrier stole an erroneously addressed golf survey, filled it out and mailed it in, delivering evidence of his crime into the hands of the inspector general agent who created the survey. He has since pleaded guilty to embezzling five inspector-general created parcels -- including the golf survey -- and resigned from his U.S. Postal Service job as part of his plea agreement. Now, Seville works for Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, "performing a variety of functions in the day-to-day operations of the golf course," his attorney wrote in court documents filed in Alexandria's...

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FBI: Task force cutting down D.C. carjackings

Carjackings are on the decline in the District, running at about 200 this year compared with the approximately 600 in all of 2008, the FBI said, crediting a joint police FBI task force for the success. The task force has been a "tremendous asset in fighting violent crime across the region," said Joseph Persichini Jr., FBI assistant director for the Washington field office. He credited the task force and other recent initiatives, including a joint FBI and Prince George's police squad that can operate across jurisdictional boundaries, with the dropping rate of violent crimes. Launched in January, the carjacking task force combines one District police sergeant and five detectives...

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Man charged in stabbing of woman, 2-year-old girl

Fairfax County police have charged a 42-year-old man with stabbing a 68-year-old woman and a 2-year-old girl. According to police, Jose Argueta ran with the knife in his hand from the apartment building on the 3400 block of Glen Carlyn Drive after he stabbed the woman and child Tuesday He knocked loudly on a door in a nearby building, police said, and a 55-year-old man answered to reportedly find Argueta still wielding the knife. The man told police Argueta forced himself inside his apartment where the two struggled. The 55-year-old subdued Argueta and waited for police. The woman and child are in serious, but stable condition at Inova Fairfax Hospital, police said. Investigators...

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The Blotter

Prince William man shot, stabbed during robbery A 47-year-old Prince William man was shot and stabbed while walking with two other men near a Woodbridge apartment complex, police said. The man is in stable condition, and the other men, ages 29 and 26, were unharmed. The three were walking between Marumsco Plaza and the Bayview Apartments late Sunday night when they were approached by three men who robbed them. The robbers opened fire before fleeing. The robbers are described as black men in their 20s. Anyone with information should call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477). Cigarette trafficker pleads guilty Bing Feng Mai pleaded guilty to buying more than $2 million in contraband...

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Alexandria appoints city's first black police chief

Earl Cook officially became Alexandria's first black police chief Tuesday, a job he acquired in the wake of former Chief David Baker's resignation following his July arrest on a drunken-driving charge. Cook has been the city's acting police chief since Baker smashed into another car in Arlington. Baker has pleaded guilty to being intoxicated while behind the wheel. Cook has been with the department since 1979, a city spokesman said. In a recent interview, Cook told The Examiner he chose a law enforcement career because "it's a job where you can make a tangible difference in someone's life. Sometimes it's subtle, sometimes it's dramatic, but you can help." In 1971, Cook was a...

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Md. group provides training to police, neighborhood watch

At a time when a so-called police training program in Montgomery County is the subject of a fraud investigation, there are some law enforcement and community safety training programs that clearly provide a legitimate service. One of those is the Maryland Crime Prevention Association Inc. Since 1983, the group of law enforcement officials from around the state has run seminars on community policing. It has also worked to inform citizen groups -- like neighborhood watch organizations -- of how to prevent crime in their neighborhoods. In recent years, the group, headed by Baltimore police Maj. Ronald Schwartz, has added homeland security training to its curriculum and sends out security...

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Army officer charged in $4M government contract scheme

It was Dejuan Fountain's job to protect U.S. Army communication systems. But prosecutors say he instead used his knowledge of military communications to steal $4 million from companies that handle payments for federal contract accounts. Fountain, an Army officer in Georgia, and two Washington-area civilians represented themselves as a communications company with multimillion-dollar military contracts, according to an indictment filed Monday in Maryland's federal court. They then persuaded two companies -- one of them in Bethesda — that hand out the dollars for federal contracts to provide partial advance payments on their allegedly fake contracts. Laurel resident Rafael Simmons is...

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Posing as customer, suspect robs three Prince George's banks

Some bank robbers pull guns from waistbands as they announce their intentions, sending fear through customers and employees alike. That sort of ruckus just isn't this suspect's style. At least three times this month, police say he's entered Prince George's County banks like any other customer. He calmly waits in line, at times holding a cell phone to his ear, and then passes a handwritten a note to a teller. But the note is not a deposit or withdrawal slip; it's a demand for cash and he quickly leaves the bank with what police say has been an undetermined amount of cash. All three robberies took place between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., generally the busiest time of day for bank heists...

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Parole officer works with former inmates, police

The federal Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency overseas a standing population of 16,000 on probation or parole. And it's Tom Williams' job to help them integrate into the community. But as an associate director of community supervision services, Williams also must work closely with law enforcement to track down the one-third who end up back behind bars. Before coming to D.C. 10 years ago, you were the director of Maryland's parole and probation. Why did you make the move? The main reason was the amount of resources available. A lot of states have tight budgets. ... In D.C. there was an opportunity for more resources and an opportunity to help reduce crime in violent...

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Police bust Manassas counterfeit bag store

A sign at Luxury Fashion Accessories at the Manassas Mall told customers the bags labeled with names like Coach and Chanel were fake, but that didn't keep police from busting the store owner. Taoufik Lamharhar was charged Thursday with copyright infringement. The 35-year-old Manassas man is facing up to five years in prison. Prince William County police estimated they seized $53,000 worth of counterfeit goods in the form of hundreds of purses, earrings, sunglasses, scarves, wallets and necklaces. Police said the store crossed a legal line when it slapped the brand-name labels onto the fake items. Virginia law prohibits using such labels without the consent of the copyright holder...

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$240K to be paid back by Washington-area ATM skimmer

A Hyattsville man has been ordered to pay back the $240,000 he stole by skimming personal information from more than 150 victims as they used Washington-area automated-teller-machines. Konstantin Sintsev, 24, will also spend more than four years in prison for the scheme he ran with Latvian immigrant, Vitalijs Balsevics, a judge in Alexandria's federal court ruled Tuesday. Balsevics, 26, was in the country legally but will now be sent back to Latvia for violating his visa, court documents show. He will be deported after serving a 3-and-a-half-year prison term. Both men pleaded guilty to targeting Chevy Chase Bank ATMs in six locations in Maryland and Virginia Between April 2008...

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Prince William teacher accused of molesting student

A Prince William County teacher turned himself in after being accused of molesting a 15-year-old male student and sending inappropriate text messages to a second student, police said. Shannon Arnold Patterson was placed on administrative leave without pay last week after school officials became aware of the charges pending against him, a school spokesman said. The 32-year-old is a language teacher at Beville Middle School, where police say both of the boys are students. Patterson is accused of inappropriately touching one boy between November 2008 and July 2009 while off school grounds, police said. The text messages were allegedly sent to the second 15-year-old male student during the...

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Crime History: Officer gunned down in Savannah; controversy continues

On this day, Aug. 19, in 1989, off-duty Savannah, Ga., police officer Mark MacPhail was shot and killed. A controversy still exists today over who killed him. In 1991, Troy Anthony Davis was sentenced to death for killing MacPhail, but he continues to claim his innocence. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a federal district court in Georgia to rule on whether new evidence "that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis'] innocence." On the night of his death, MacPhail was working as a security guard at a Burger King. According to some witnesses, a homeless man was being harassed by Sylvester Coles, when MacPhail responded to the...

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Minister pleads guilty to stealing $500K from U.S. patent office

A Fort Washington-area clergyman has pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal nearly $500,000 from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Michael H. Reid is the minister of music at the Ark of Safety Christian Church, the church confirmed. He also runs a company, Redeemed Music House LLC, that works with churches to develop their musician staffing, sound and management. Neither Reid nor his attorney Jason Levine returned calls for comment. Reid coordinated with a patent office employee, referred to as "K.L.P." in court documents, to have $451,252 transmitted from patent office accounts to a Redeemed Music House bank account, he admitted. A patent office spokeswoman declined to...

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Firefighter: 16-year-old tried to save struck pedestrian

Lt. Darryl Robb has been with the Montgomery County fire department for 12 years. It's a profession he came to in his mid-20s, first working as a paramedic for a hospital and then as a paramedic/firefighter for the county. On Friday he saw a 16-year-old passerby attempt to breathe life into a man struck and killed by a car on Colesville Road near the Beltway overpass. What happened? The 16-year-old did not see the pedestrian get hit, but saw him in the road. He ran out and began CPR on his own. We showed up and took the patient away. We reached out to him, and it turned out he had some training and knew people in the service. He's apparently thinking about a career in...

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THE BLOTTER

Fairfax County wrestling coach caught in online sex sting A 26-year-old assistant wrestling coach has been accused of soliciting sex from a sheriff's deputy posing online as a 14-year-old girl, authorities said, Between July 10 and 14, Gary Anthony Debrielle had a series of online conversations with a Spotsylvania County sheriff's deputy posing as a 14-year-old girl that "turned sexual in nature," a sheriff's office spokeswoman said. Police traced his screen name to Debrielle's Chantilly home, learned he was a part-time wrestling coach at Woodson High School and arrested him. Employee found dead in pizza parlor District authorities say the body of a man who died of...

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Crime History: BTK Killer sentenced to 175 years in prison

On this day, Aug. 18, in 2005, Dennis Rader — better known as the BTK Killer — was sentenced to 175 years in prison before the possibility of parole. Between 1974 and 1991 Rader murdered 10 people in Sedgwick County near Wichita, Kan. The serial killer acquired the nickname BTK for his modus operandi: It stands for "bind, torture and kill." He was known for sending boastful letters to police and media during his murderous reign. He stopped communicating in the early 1990s. But in 2004, Rader started sending letters to police, taking credit for a murder that authorities had not previously linked to the BTK killer. Police continued to exchange letters with Rader and...

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D.C. police capture cross-dresser accused of stealing $2K dress

The verdict is in: Montgomery County police say it was a man dressed as a woman who sprayed a Saks Fifth Avenue security guard with pepper spray to get away with a Chanel dress. Jonathan Bradley was also dressed as a woman when he was pulled over in a routine traffic stop by District police Thursday and arrested on a warrant for theft and assault from Montgomery County. The 20-year-old is accused of stealing the $2,000 dress from the Chevy Chase store the evening of July 30. The security guard was attempting to stop him from leaving when Bradley allegedly sprayed the guard with pepper spray. Police were initially unsure of the suspect's gender, noting the broad shoulders and tall...

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Traffic stop leads authorities to six pounds of marijuana

Authorities say a pound of marijuana was found inside Andrew Kugler's car when he ran a red light and an additional five pounds were found in his College Park home, the same house where police discovered 50 pounds of pot two years ago. The 33-year-old College Park man was pulled over Aug. 3 after blowing through a red light to turn right from University Boulevard onto Metzerott Road, a few blocks from the University of Maryland on a route Kugler might travel to his home at 9130 Bridgewater St., court records show. Attorney information for Kugler was not listed in court records. Kugler was on probation for the two-year-old arrest when he was pulled over. In 2007, Kugler nearly lost the...

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The Police Blotter

Prince George's home-builder gets 12 years Leon Coleman promised 11 would-be-homeowners he would build their $1 million homes in the Kings Grant Subdivision, but instead he kept the cash for himself. On Monday, a Prince George's County judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison and ordered him to pay five of the victims $100,000 each, prosecutors said. He's already required to pay all the money back after losing a 2005 civil suit. The loans for the houses he never built went into foreclosure. One dead, one injured in College Park stabbing Prince George's County police said one man was killed and another injured in an apparent domestic dispute. The 19-year-old injured man is...

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FBI: Bank robberies double in Virginia

Bank robberies in Virginia have nearly doubled in the first six months of this year over the same period in 2008, likely the result of an expanding bank presence in Northern Virginia and a number of heists believed to be committed by serial robbers, the FBI said. Between Jan. 1 and June 30, 60 banks were robbed in Virginia, 27 more than in the first half of 2008, when 33 banks were hit, FBI statistics released Monday show. The number of bank robberies in the District fell from 13 in 2008 to six in 2009 during that same period and rose only slightly in Maryland from 71 in 2008 to 76 in 2009. Joseph Persichini Jr., FBI assistant director for the Washington field office, said the jump in...

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Alleged music pirate charged with copyright conspiracy

An alleged member of a high-profile music piracy group known for illegally copying and then pre-releasing albums to the public has been charged with conspiracy to commit copyright infringement. Patrick L. Saunders, known by the screen name "Daliveone," is accused of being a member of "Rabid Neurosis." Known commonly by its tag "RNS," the piracy group stopped identifying itself with illegally copied music in 2007 after MTV News listed it as the source of an Eminem album released a week earlier than scheduled by producers. RNS is believed to have released its first ripped-off album -- Metallica's "Ride the Lightning" -- in 1996, according to news...

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Woman, 63, charged with murder

A 63-year-old woman has been accused of shooting to death a 34-year-old man in her Centreville apartment. According to Fairfax County police, Maria De Las Mercedes Tizon was arguing with the man in her apartment on the 14000 block of Climbing Rose Way on Saturday night. When the argument escalated, police say Tizon shot the man in the upper body. He was taken to Inova Fair Oaks Hospital and pronounced dead. Police have not yet released the man's name because they are still trying to reach next of kin. Detectives believe he and Tizon knew each other and that the situation was limited to the apartment where the argument took place. Anyone with information should call Crime Solvers at...

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The Blotter

Manassas domestic dispute turns deadly Prince William County police are searching for a 21-year-old Manassas man accused of killing the 34-year-old husband of his ex-girlfriend. Police say Deonte Donnell Robertson was arguing with his 23-year-old ex-girlfriend when her husband, Sergio Alfonso, attempted to intervene. At that point, police say Robertson attacked Alfonso and beat him to death with a blunt object. Anyone with information about Robertson's whereabouts should call Prince William County police at 703-792-6500. D.C. police investigate teen shootings in Southeast A total of seven teens were shot when an argument broke out following a block party in Southeast...

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The 3-Minute Interview: Ray Lian

Ray Lian is an organizer of D.C. Stop Modern Slavery Now, a community group that fights human trafficking by raising awareness. On Sept. 26, the group is holding an anti-child-trafficking walk in the District, the culmination of three years of effort on Lian's part, among others, in bringing together the various non-governmental groups in the area the fight the modern-day slave trade. For information about the walk, visit stopmodernslavery.org. How did you first become involved with fighting human trafficking? When I first learned about human trafficking I became fascinated with it. I was surprised to learn that slavery still existed. I started attending Stop Modern Slavery Now group...

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Cold case -Search for ex-soldier’s killer continues in Va.

The reward for capturing the killers of an Iraq war veteran has long since doubled, but there are still no answers as to who gunned down Paul Zeller. The 24-year-old had just stopped at a Harris Teeter in Pentagon City and was continuing his midnight walk home from work when he was shot at close range. Police have not yet developed a motive for the June 30, 2006, killing, though they say it’s not believed to have been a robbery. Zeller served in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division as a mortarman and was honorably discharged in 2004. On the night of his death, he was heading home from College Park Honda, where he often worked the late shift, according to a Web site his mother,...

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Crime history - Jew lynched in Ga. after death sentence commuted

On this day, Aug. 17, in 1915, Leo Max Frank became the only known Jew to be lynched on American soil. The lynching took place soon after the governor of Georgia commuted Frank’s death sentence to life in prison. Frank had been convicted of murdering 13-year-old Mary Phagan, an employee of the Atlanta pencil factory he managed. After his death sentence was commuted, a group of prominent Atlanta citizens believed to include a senator’s son, a former governor and high-profile attorneys kidnapped Frank from prison and lynched him. They called themselves the “Knights of Mary Phagan.” Frank’s trial received heavy attention from the media. Historians believe...

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Woman, 63, charged with murder in Centreville

A 63-year-old woman has been accused of shooting to death a 34-year-old man in her Centreville apartment. According to Fairfax County police, Maria De Las Mercedes Tizon was arguing with the man in her apartment on the 14000 block of Climbing Rose Way on Saturday night. When the argument escalated, police say Tizon shot the man in the upper body. He was taken to Inova Fair Oaks Hospital and pronounced dead. Police have not yet released the man’s name because they are still trying to reach next of kin. Detectives believe he and Tizon knew each other and that the situation was limited to the apartment where the argument took place. Anyone with information should call Crime...

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The Blotter

Md. man gets 6 months in prison for mortgage fraud Oyekunle Ikudayisi, of White Plains, was sentenced to six months in prison after three properties his co-conspirators acquired by lying on mortgage documents went into foreclosure, causing $812,000 in damages, prosecutors said. Ikudayisi, 41, was a licensed real estate agent and was involved in a scheme to buy properties around the Washington area by inflating income on loan applications. Man shot and killed in Temple Hills Donte Kearney, 21, was shot and killed in Temple Hills, Prince George's County police said. Officers responding to the 4100 block of 21st Avenue late Thursday night for a report of a shooting and found the...

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Prince George's high school teacher accused of having sex with student

A Prince George's County high school teacher has been accused of having sex with a 16-year-old female student at his Alexandria home, court documents said. Mark Allen Jackson, born in 1966, is an ROTC instructor at Charles Herbert Flowers High School in Springdale. According to charging documents filed in Alexandria's federal court, Jackson developed a "father-figure and friend" relationship with a 16-year-old student in one of his classes in September 2008. Their sexual relationship began in December when he started picking her up from her home in Maryland and taking her to his home in Alexandria. No attorney information was listed for Jackson in court records. Attempts to...

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Sergent helps new Prince George's police property crime unit meet quick success

Prince George's County police Sgt. Jimmy Simms has been on the job for the past 13 years and now heads a recently formed property crimes investigative unit. The unit is stationed in District 1 -- which covers College Park, New Carrollton and Riverdale -- and has quickly found success. How does the unit differ from how things worked previously? We're a proactive investigative unit that not only responds to crimes that have happened, but also goes out and conducts surveillance. Previously, detectives covered the area and took a wide variety of cases: homicides, property theft, robberies. This group pulls detectives into a group and covers only property crime. Do property crimes...

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Crime History: S.C. Rep. strikes, kills motorcyclist with car

On this day, Aug. 16, in 2008, South Dakota Rep. Bill Janklow struck and killed a motorcyclist with his Cadillac Seville on a rural stretch of road in his home state. The crash led the Republican former governor to resign. He was later convicted of manslaughter charges. Janklow broke his hand and had a concussion after hitting the motorcycle while driving around 70 mph in a 55-mph zone. During trial, Janklow's attorney argued that the congressman low blood sugar and was confused at the time of the accident. Janklow is also known for pardoning his son-in-law for marijuana possession and driving while intoxicated at the end of his fourth term as governor. Today, he is a lawyer and...

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Ex-Alexandria police chief pleads guilty to DUI

Former Alexandria police Chief David Baker pleaded guilty to drunken driving charges and was sentenced to five days in jail. Baker was arrested last month after he crashed into another car in Arlington while driving a city-owned vehicle. Three days later, he announced his retirement under mounting pressure. Charging documents said Baker had a 0.19 -- more than twice the legal limit -- two hours after he was taken into custody. On Friday, Baker admitted to having a blood-alcohol level between 0.15 and 0.20. In a statement filed in court, Baker apologized for letting down that police department that he served for 19 years, adding "I offer no excuses for my bad decisions and behavior...

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Stupid crimes

Woman's stolen goods hawked at neighbor's yard sale Strolling down a street in Severn, Md., a woman came across a neighbor's yard sale. As she glanced at the items, she realized something was amiss -- the goods were hers. Days before, she had called Anne Arundel County police, telling them her house and shed had been burglarized and a "significant amount" of property had been stolen. It was only two days later that she found the stolen items at a yard sale just a few houses down the road. Police recovered about $25,000 of her property, and her 46-year-old neighbor was arrested. This wouldn't be smart at any job interview, but the police? A 21-year-old man was interviewing...

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Federal judge slams feds for not charging illegal immigrants' employers

A federal judge in Alexandria gave no prison time to a man convicted of harboring illegal immigrants for profit, saying prosecutors should have targeted the wealthy families in McLean and Potomac who employed the illegals he provided. "This is why we have problems with illegal immigrants in this country," said U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee. "There is unequal enforcement of the laws, particularly when it comes to employers." Prosecutors had argued that Soripada Lubis of Falls Church should face nearly five years in prison for harboring the 20 women who lived with him over eight years and not letting them leave. In court documents and in arguments made in court...

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Police search for Glenmont bank robbery suspects

Montgomery County police are searching for two suspects who robbed a Chevy Chase bank in Glenmont on Thursday morning. One robber entered the bank, implied he had a gun and demanded cash, while the other waited outside, police said. The two then ran through the rear of the strip mall at 2315 Randolph Road and got away with an undisclosed amount of cash. No one was injured. The thief who entered the bank was black, in his late 20s and about 5 feet 10 inches tall. He was wearing a white T-shirt, black pants and had a white T-shirt wrapped around his head. The robber outside was also black and around the same age. He was wearing a white tank top and blue pants. Anyone with information...

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Crime History: Terrorist Carlos the Jackal captured in Sudan

On this day, Aug. 14, in 1994, terrorist Illich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal, was captured in Sudan by French intelligence agents. Sanchez was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and was believed to behind several terrorist attacks between 1973 and 1992, including in 1974 when he held a French ambassador and 10 others hostage at The Hague. He was demanding that a fellow terrorist be released by French authorities. But he repeatedly escaped authorities' grasp until the French agents tracked him down in Sudan. With no extradition treaty in place with the African country, the agents sedated Ramirez Sanchez and kidnapped him. Sudan later...

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Wanted: illegal immigrant with a taste for drugs and machine guns

U.S. marshals are searching for an illegal immigrant from Jamaica who is wanted for multiple drug violations and weapons charges across the Washington area, including carrying a machine gun in Prince George's County. Floyd Damien Lenn has three outstanding felony warrants. In Maryland, he's wanted for violating the conditions of federal probation after being convicted of illegally carrying guns. Lenn also failed to appear in court in Montgomery County to face drug trafficking charges in 2008. He was last arrested in Prince George's County for being in possession of a machine gun, but was released and disappeared, authorities said. Lenn has lived on Tahona Drive in Silver Spring and on...

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CRIME HISTORY

On this day, Aug. 13, in 1792, the French king who supported the American Revolution 16 years earlier was arrested by a mob of French peasants for treason. The arrest of Louis XVI came in the midst of the French Revolution in which peasants overthrew the monarchy and created a republic eventually led by Napoleon. The king was executed by guillotine in January 1793. The guillotine later became a symbol of a string of executions during the Reign of Terror, which started nine months after the king lost his head to the sharp falling blade. That same type of blade beheaded the king's wife, Marie Atoinette, in September 1793. Antoinette has become famous for allegedly saying "let them...

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Va. title agent charged in $7M mortgage fraud scheme

A 43-year-old Alexandria title agent has been accused of being member of a scheme to fraudulently buy 25 properties in Maryland, D.C. and Virginia, federal prosecutors in Maryland said. The homes later went into foreclosure, causing $7 million in losses to lenders. Jay Leonard also is charged with soliciting $10 million from investors for a resort and spa in Virginia that he and co-conspirators falsely claimed they were developing, according to an indictment filed in Maryland's federal court Wednesday. About $478,000 from that scheme were transferred directly into Leonard's bank account, prosecutors said. On Monday, Osman Al-Bari, 35, pleaded guilty to running the scheme....

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5 injured, 1 dead in 4 District shootings

Five people were injured and one man was killed in four separate shootings in the District on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, District police said. The shootings are not likely linked, police said. Around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, a man was killed by a bullet to the head on the 3000 block of 24th Street SE, police said. Another man was shot in the leg in the same incident. He's expected to recover. Two hours earlier, another man was in critical condition after he was shot on the 1800 block of Birney Place SE, police said. Another victim in the same shooting suffered non-life-threatening wounds. At some point in the night -- police are unsure of exactly when -- another...

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THE BLOTTER

Takoma Park man sentenced in foreclosure scheme Earnest Lewis, 52, was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for defrauding homeowners who were heading into foreclosure, prosecutors said. Lewis earned $2.2 million in the scheme, which targeted the vulnerable homeowners in television advertisements promising to improve their credit and save their homes if they signed their title over to MKL Associates, court documents said. Lewis and his co-conspirators promised that his good credit would make it possible to for the homeowners to refinance. They could remain in their homes while this happened by paying rent. Instead, the conspirators kept all the cash and many of the homes went into...

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Feds expand in Maryland to capture more illegal immigrants

The Montgomery County jail has turned over 325 suspected illegal immigrants to federal authorities so far this year, already a nearly 20 percent jump over all of 2008 when the detention center held 274 inmates on federal immigration warrants, jail director Arthur Wallenstein told The Examiner. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the jump is the result of more agents being assigned to work with Maryland jails as part of a nationwide push to capture illegal immigrants. Wallenstein said the jail has not changed its policies and continues to send a weekly list of inmates to ICE so the agency can check immigration records. "We have assigned more agents and assets to coordinate with...

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Firefighter captain in N.Va. is single mom, too

Prince William County fire department Cpt. Kim Pumphrey is the department's highest-ranking woman working in the field as the head of one of the county's busiest engine companies. She has been professionally fighting fires in Prince William for more than 18 years but started as a volunteer in Madison, Va., when she was 16. As a single mother, she's not only a role model for her crew members, but also her daughter. What got you involved with firefighting at such a young age? My family. My father was a firefighter in Fairfax County, retired from there as a captain and then became chief of the Albemarle County fire department. When my dad came home, I was always interested in what calls...

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Hooters Girls sue restaurant for minimum wage violations

More than a dozen former and current "Hooters Girls" from the District, Maryland and South Carolina have sued the chicken wing giant for violating minimum wage laws. The lawsuit filed in the District's federal court late last week, claims the company counted the girls' tips toward the minimum wage and then violated the law by requiring them to pay the company for their uniforms, among other allegations. The scheme "essentially amounted to kickbacks," to Hooters, said Heidi Burakiewicz, the attorney for the 13 Hooters waitresses. Hooters did not respond to requests for comment. The waitresses were required to buy their shirts, shorts, aprons, socks, shoes and pins...

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Police: Internet chats lead man to sex with 14-year-old girl

A 23-year-old Springfield man has been accused of having sex with a 14-year-old Montgomery County girl he met on the Internet, Fairfax County police said. Stephann Kamau allegedly met the girl online in mid-July, police said. They chatted for about a week and then agreed to meet in person. On July 28, police say Kamau drove to Maryland, picked the girl up and took her back to his Springfield home where he had sex with her. The girl's mother woke up, discovered her daughter was missing and called the police. The girl returned several hours later. Kamau was arrested Wednesday, police said Monday. Detectives are concerned Kamau may have had similar contact with other underage girls....

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Bank robbed twice this year, once by man dressed as woman

A Maryland BB&T Bank robbed late last week was also hit earlier this year by a man in women's clothing. On Thursday morning, the BB&T at 10579 Theodore Green Blvd. in White Plains was robbed by a man who implied he had a weapon, demanded cash and then ran from the area after a teller filled a bag with money, police said. The suspect was white and in his late 40s to early 50s, police said. He had a mustache and glasses. In January, a man wearing a long blond wig with a red hat passed a teller a note demanding a large amount of cash, authorities said. A teller complied, and the robber ran out. That robber was also white and around the same age as Thursday's robber. However, the...

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Fairfax Police: Robberies in McLean, Reston and Fair Oaks are linked

Fairfax County police say at least 16 of a rash of burglaries committed in McLean, Reston and Fair Oaks police districts between January and the end of July are likely linked. The thieves, police said, are targeting neighborhoods with significant Middle Eastern and Asian populations. They’re stealing electronics, passports and jewelry. In nearly every case, houses have been broken into during the day. Several of the homes had religious ornaments displayed outside, police said. A sample of the most recent break-ins: » July 28: 12900 block of Wood Crescent Circle, Herndon » June 29: 10600 block of Chamberlain Drive, Vienna » June 25: 5100 block of Whisper Willow...

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THE BLOTTER

Pr. George's police search for armed robber Prince George's County police are searching for a man armed with a handgun who has robbed four Greenbelt and Beltsville stores in the middle of the day. The most recent robbery was Friday, when the man robbed a Shell gas station and fled in a dark-colored Lincoln Navigator, police said. The man first appeared July 17, when he robbed a Greenbelt Kmart. He popped up again last week, striking a BP gas station in Beltsville on Tuesday, a Greenbelt Extra Fuel Wednesday and the Shell on Friday. The robber is between 27 and 35 years old and of average height. He's black and wears a white Gucci hat. Anyone with information should call Prince...

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Fifth passport peeker charged

A former State Department employee has become the fifth person charged witih illegally accessing the confidential passport information of elected officials and celebrities. Karal Busch has been charged with the unauthorized access of passport files related to "various celebrities and their families, actors, professional athletes, musicians, models and other individuals identified in the press," court documents filed in the District's federal court said. No attorney information for Busch was listed in court records. Among the "individuals identified in the press" were then presidential candidates John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The Justice Department...

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Ex-kebab cook admits lying about ties to Hussein

A former cook at a Laurel shish kebab shop has pleaded guilty to lying about his ties to Saddam Hussein's government on immigration forms, federal prosecutors in Maryland said. Mouyad Mahmoud Darwish, 48, was born in a Iraq, but became a Canadian citizen in 1994, according to court documents. That was six years before he moved to the United States to work as an accountant and driver for the Iraqi Interests Section, a quasi-Iraqi embassy housed in the Algerian Embassy in the years before the United States toppled Hussein's regime. Darwish's job at the section was arranged by 68-year-old Saubhe Jassim Al-Dellemy, the owner of Gourmet Shish Kebab in Laurel, prosecutors said. Al-Dellemy is...

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CRIME HISTORY

On this day, Aug. 9, in 1969, Charles Manson and his "Family" murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in her California home, hoping to inspire the racial war that Manson named Helter Skelter after the Beatles song. Manson believed The Beatles' "White Album" held a secret message predicting the slaughter of whites at the hands of blacks. At the end of the racial war, he and his Family of young followers would rise to power after hiding out in a secret city hidden in the desert. By August 1969, however, Manson had become frustrated that Helter Skelter had not yet started and began convincing the members of the Family that they had to help it along by...

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Former Biden aide picked for Alexandria U.S. attorney job

A former aide to Vice President Joe Biden has been nominated to fill the high-profile role of U.S. attorney of Alexandria's federal court, the White House said. Neil MacBride, 43, is currently an associate deputy attorney general. He left the role of Biden's chief counsel in 2005, when the vice president was still a senator, to work for a trade organization that lobbies for Microsoft, IBM and other computer giants. He left the trade organization earlier this year to take the job in the attorney general's office. If he gets the nod from the Senate, MacBride will take over the U.S.. attorney's office at a time when the Obama administration is considering bringing accused terrorists from...

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Ex-kebab cook admits lying about ties to Hussein

A former cook at a Laurel shish kebab shop has pleaded guilty to lying about his ties to Saddam Hussein’s government on immigration forms, federal prosecutors in Maryland said. Mouyad Mahmoud Darwish, 48, was born in a Iraq, but became a Canadian citizen in 1994, according to court documents. That was six years before he moved to the United States to work as an accountant and driver for the Iraqi Interests Section, a quasi-Iraqi embassy housed in the Algerian Embassy in the years before the United States toppled Hussein’s regime. Darwish’s job at the section was arranged by 68-year-old Saubhe Jassim Al-Dellemy, the owner of Gourmet Shish Kebab in Laurel, prosecutors...

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Alleged serial burglar caught in Fairfax County

Fairfax County police say they’ve charged a 44-year-old Kingstowne man with a half-dozen burglaries. Clifford Sewell, 44, was first arrested in July after police said they linked him to stolen property found at a pawn shop. On Thursday, police said they’ve linked him to five other Kingstowne-area burglaries that took place during the first half of July and they believe he may be responsible for others. Among the items taken from the six homes were watches and rings, police said. Anyone with information should call Crime Solvers at 866-411-TIPS (8477)....

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11 illegal immigrants found in van on I-95 in Maryland

Authorities discovered 11 illegal immigrants traveling from Houston in a van pulled over for speeding by Maryland State Police on Interstate 95, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman confirmed. The group of illegal immigrants, which included two minors -- one from Guatemala, the other from Mexico -- had "visible cuts and scrapes, poor hygiene, dirty clothing and limited belongings,Ó an ICE agent wrote in a sworn statement filed in Maryland's federal court. Their appearance, the agent wrote, was "consistent with individuals who enter the U.S. illegally by walking through the desert along the U.S./Mexico border.Ó ICE spokeswoman Gillian Brigham said...

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THE BLOTTER

PW police: Tasering was lawful An internal review by Prince William County police has determined that police acted appropriately when they Tasered a 54-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman during a backyard baptismal party. Police said Thursday that officers were accosted by family members when they tried to arrest a "highly intoxicatedÓ Edgar Rodriguez at his Manassas home. Leticia Elias was also arrested and Tasered when she reportedly put herself between officers and Rodriguez. Dozing truck driver hits woman in crosswalk A woman was hit by a truck Thursday morning while crossing K Street Northwest, heading south on 15th Street. The woman crossed the street...

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Two wanted in Sears armed robbery

Montgomery County police have released surveillance photos of two men suspected of robbing the White Oak Sears at knifepoint. The two men each picked up a pair of boots and fled the store during the June 24 robbery, police said. When store security attempted to stop them, one suspect displayed a knife and the two fled on foot toward the Chevy Chase Bank on New Hampshire Avenue. Both suspects are Hispanic and around 30 years old. The armed suspect was about 6 feet fall, with a shaven head and mustache. The other was about 5 feet 10 inches tall with a mustache and goatee. Anyone with information should call Montgomery County police at 240-773-5100. -- Freeman...

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Shooter in Gaithersburg murder sentenced to life without parole

The Landover man convicted by a jury of shooting a 25-year-old Gaithersburg woman to death and then leaving her body behind a trash bin has been sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus 20 years. Shawn Henderson, 25, was supposed to be in prison serving out a 10-year sentence for a 1999 armed robbery when he killed Lindsay Harvey in April 2008 for the $40 in her wallet, court documents said. Instead, he was released three years early in November 2006 and was in the midst of a three-year parole when Harvey was murdered, the Department of Corrections said. Harvey's murder made national news when her body was found behind a trash container less than 100 yards from her apartment on...

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Pr. George's program keeps youth off the streets

It started last summer as a pilot project with 7,000 12- to 24-year-olds in Prince George's County Councilman Tony Knotts' District 8 spending their free time off the streets in safe havens. Knotts' project, Safe Summer, went countywide this summer, and as of the end of last month, more than 13,000 residents had joined the after-hours get-togethers, said a Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission spokesman. The programs run from 10 p.m. to midnight Monday through Saturday and provide safe places for the county's youth to hang out with friends, explore new recreational activities and learn about making their communities safer. There are steel drum workshops, movies, sports...

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Feds call for summit to combat texting drivers

A rash of fatal crashes involving texting drivers has led federal officials to call a national summit of transportation authorities, safety advocates and law enforcement officials to recommend ways to combat the problem. "The public is sick and tired of people being distracted and causing accidents," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood while announcing the summit Tuesday. "We all know texting while driving is dangerous and we are going to do something about it so that responsible drivers don't have to worry about it when they or a loved one get on the road." LaHood was spurred to action by cases like that in June involving a 17-year-old driver in Illinois who...

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Police, FBI continue search for Hoodie Bandit

Fairfax County police and the FBI are still searching for a serial bank robber known for wearing a hooded sweatshirt and vaulting teller counters. Police believe the Hoodie Bandit is responsible for eight robberies since November: six in Reston, one in Chantilly and one in Fairfax. His targets are most often BB&T Banks, and he comes armed with a handgun. His last known robbery was in March, when he jumped a teller counter at the United Bank at 13060 Fair Lakes Blvd. in Fairfax, police said. At the time, authorities said they were concerned the suspect was acting more aggressively. He spent five minutes inside the bank. After jumping the counter and demanding employees fill a bag...

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iPhone apps help users track sex offenders

Popular programs aimed at parents Two popular iPhone applications that help users find sex offenders who live near the park they're planning to visit for a family picnic may provide a sense of security, but they don't necessarily keep users safe, officials said. A Florida company introduced Thursday the second of two iPhone applications in recent months that map sex offender information already available through police-run Web sites. Sex Offenders Search achieved instant popularity, climbing into the Top 10 list of downloads for the iPhone by Sunday, creator Roberto Franceschetti said. It costs $1.99, a dollar more than Offender Locator, which debuted in June and has also been in the...

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British man accused of biggest military hack ever will be tried in U.S.

A British man accused of masterminding what prosecutors labeled the biggest military computer hack of all time is expected to be sent to Alexandria's federal court for trial, having lost his battle against being sent to the United States. British prosecutors have chosen not to move forward with a case against Gary McKinnon if he were to stay in his London-area home. McKinnon lost his fight against extradition late last week when Britain's High Court found it reasonable to send the 43-year-old across the Atlantic. He has lost similar battles in other courts, and this was likely his last chance to prevent it. He faces up to 70 years in prison in the United States. According to U.S....

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Uncle, nephew accused of robbing four banks

A 44-year-old District man and his 25-year-old nephew from Clinton have been accused of robbing four banks in the D.C. suburbs over the past year, along with a Dunkin Donuts location. Investigators were led to Reginald Arnold Waddell and his nephew Jurome Riley Proctor by fingerprints they left behind in and around the Arlington Dunkin' Donuts, which they allegedly robbed May 18, according to court documents filed in Alexandria's federal court. Waddell's print was found on a used car at a lot across the street from the Dunkin' Donuts, an FBI agent wrote in a sworn statement. Waddell touched the car while describing to a mechanic problems with his own car. Proctor's print was found...

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Uncle, nephew accused of robbing four banks

A 44-year-old District man and his 25-year-old nephew from Clinton have been accused of robbing four banks in the D.C. suburbs over the past year, along with a Dunkin' Donuts location. Investigators were led to Reginald Arnold Waddell and his nephew Jurome Riley Proctor by fingerprints they left behind in and around the Arlington Dunkin’ Donuts, which they allegedly robbed May 18, according to court documents filed in Alexandria’s federal court. Waddell’s print was found on a used car at a lot across the street from the Dunkin’ Donuts, an FBI agent wrote in a sworn statement. Waddell touched the car while describing to a mechanic problems with his own...

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Man accused of assaulting woman who died later

A 30-year-old Silver Spring man has been charged with assaulting a 23-year-old woman just a few hours before she was found dead in their home, Montgomery County police said. About 3 a.m. Monday, Angel Sandoval-Cruz was arguing with Mayra Martinez-Hernandez in their home on the 8800 block of Garland Avenue when he grabbed a knife and threatened her, police said. The two resolved the dispute between themselves and did not call police. About three hours later, police were called to check on Martinez-Hernandez's welfare, only to find her dead inside. There was no apparent cause of death, and preliminary results from the medical examiner have been inconclusive. Sandoval-Cruz is being held...

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Police bust up backyard party, Taser young woman

Prince William County police are investigating whether officers used unnecessary force when they Tasered and arrested a 55-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman at a baptismal party in Manassas. A little before 8 p.m. Sunday, Prince William County police said they arrived at the home of Edgar A. Rodriguez on the 9600 block of Lafayette Avenue to investigate a noise complaint. Rodriguez was hosting a party in his backyard. Police said they found him "highly intoxicated" and he refused several requests from officers to turn down the loud music. "Rodriguez began to act disorderly and refused to identify himself to officers," said police spokeswoman Officer Erika...

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Police bust up backyard party, Taser young woman

Prince William County police are investigating whether officers used unnecessary force when they Tasered and arrested a 55-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman at a baptismal party in Manassas. A little before 8 p.m. Sunday, Prince William County police said they arrived at the home of Edgar A. Rodriguez on the 9600 block of Lafayette Avenue to investigate a noise complaint. Rodriguez was hosting a party in his backyard. Police said they found him “highly intoxicated” and he refused several requests from officers to turn down the loud music. “Rodriguez began to act disorderly and refused to identify himself to officers,” said police spokeswoman Officer Erika...

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Alleged Holocaust museum shooter could face death penalty

A federal grand jury included charges in an indictment filed Wednesday that could earn the death penalty for an 89-year-old white supremacist accused in the fatal shooting of a security guard at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The seven-count indictment includes four charges that could mean the death penalty for James von Brunn, as well as bringing hate crimes charges against him. Authorities say von Brunn shot and killed guard Stephen T. Johns as Johns held the door to the museum open for the elderly man. Other guards returned fire, hitting von Brunn in the face in the June 10 shootout. Von Brunn survived and remains hospitalized. Von Brunn is a known white supremacist...

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Alexandria police chief steps down, days after DUI arrest

Alexandria Police Chief David P. Baker has retired from his job of nearly 20 years, just days after being charged with driving under the influence. According to court records, Baker registered a 0.19 on a breath test — more than twice the legal limit — about two hours after being involved in a car crash in Arlington late Saturday night. Baker, 58, became police chief in September 2006, after about 16 years as the department’s chief administrative officer. On Tuesday, he submitted the following letter to Alexandria City officials marking the end of his career: My Friends, It is with a great deal of humility and remorse that I announce my retirement from the...

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Crime history - Adam John Walsh, 6, abducted from a mall

On this day, July 27, in 1981, six-year-old Adam John Walsh was abducted from a mall in Hollywood, Fla., and eventually murdered. His father, John Walsh, later became a victims’ rights activist and eventually the host of “America’s Most Wanted.” In December 2008, Hollywood police claimed to have solved the case and it was closed. They blamed dead convicted killer Ottis Toole for the crime, citing a “vast amount” of circumstantial evidence against him. Toole at one point had confessed to killing Adam only to recant after police couldn’t find the boy’s body where Toole claimed it would be. Toole died in prison in 1996 from...

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Lorton woman charged with robbing bank

A 45-year-old Lorton woman has been charged with robbing a Woodbridge bank, and police said they believe she may be the same woman who recently ripped off two banks in Fairfax. Cynthia Crawford was arrested Friday morning, not long after police say she walked into a SunTrust Bank, implied she had a gun and displayed a note demanding cash. A bank employee took down her license plate number and she was pulled over about 30 minutes later driving north on Interstate 395. Crawford’s picture is very similar to that of a woman captured by surveillance cameras in Fairfax, police said. That woman robbed a SunTrust Bank in Alexandria on July 15, and a Wachovia in Lorton on June 25. Lone...

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South African developer's son accused of fraud

The son of a prominent South African developer has been accused of swindling four Virginia investors of $450,000 in two separate schemes, according to an indictment filed in Alexandria's federal court. Ibn Muquaddin Shafi, of Herndon, allegedly ran the scheme through his company Yasik Group LLC. His father, Connie Mack McKithen heads the board of directors for http://www.notaegroup.com/default.asp Notae Resorts, a development group that in 2004 partnered with Marriott Hotels and Resorts to develop 17 resorts in South Africa, according to Notae's Web site. According to an indictment filed Thursday, in November 2004 Shafi convinced three people to invest $300,000 in a development project...

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4 killed in copter crash were returning from charity event

The four people killed in a helicopter that crashed onto Interstate 70 in Frederick County were on their way back from Hagerstown, where they had been giving helicopter rides to children during a charity event, authorities said. Three of the victims worked for Advanced Helicopter Concepts, and the fourth was a friend of theirs, said a spokeswoman for the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash. The helicopter slammed into the highway Thursday night and was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived around 10:30 p.m. Witnesses saw the helicopter flying low when it hit power lines before it went down, authorities said. Investigators are unsure of...

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THE BLOTTER

Last member of heroin ring sentenced A 20-year-old Centreville man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for providing the heroin that killed his 19-year-old girlfriend, prosecutors said. Skylar Schnippel was the last of 16 defendants to be sentenced in the suburban heroin ring busted last fall. Despite her overdosing three previous times, Schnippel supplied Alicia Lannes the heroin that led to a fatal overdose. The 20-year sentence was the minimum the judge could impose. Man exposes himself to woman, 50, in Springfield A 50-year-old woman was walking her dog at Lake Mercer Park in Springfield when a man pulled up on a bicycle and started masturbating in front her, Fairfax...

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Lawyer gets 3-year suspension for not reporting manslaughter conviction

A District lawyer has been suspended from practicing for three years for failing to notify bar officials that he was convicted of manslaughter by a Jamaican court, the District's court of appeals ruled Thursday. Patrick E. Bailey was reprimanded for the same offense in 2005 by the Virginia bar and has already served suspension in the commonwealth, court documents said. Attempts to contact Bailey were unsuccessful. According to court documents, Bailey was arrested in January 1997 in Jamaica for a slaying while on leave from the Marines. A court in Kingston found him guilty of manslaughter and he was sentenced to two years hard labor. When he applied to enter the Virginia bar, he...

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CRIME HISTORY: Supreme Court orders Nixon to release tapes

On this day, July 24, in 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered President Richard Nixon to release tape recordings of conversations he held as part of the Congress' Watergate investigation. The tapes were subpoenaed after Congress learned Nixon had a voice-activated recording system in the Oval Office and an office he frequently used at the Executive Office Building across the street from the White House. Nixon at first refused to turn them over, declaring executive privilege. But after the Supreme Court ruling, he had no choice, and he released the tapes to investigators July 30. Among the tapes released was one that became known as the "smoking gun" tape, on which Nixon is...

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Clerk accused of stealing $145K from Washington YMCA

A member of a popular Washington-area band and former clerk in the finance office of the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington is expected to plead guilty to stealing nearly $145,000 by cashing 33 checks he took from the nonprofit human services organization, court records show. Eric Sean Curry Jr. is a member of Uncalled4 -- a 10-member band that plays at Washington-area clubs -- and used a network of 14 friends to cash the YMCA checks he issued, court documents filed in the District's federal court said. After cashing the checks, Curry's friends would send him a cut. He allegedly ran the scheme from February 2007 to December 2007. Calls to Curry's attorney on Thursday were not returned. He...

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THE BLOTTER

Silver Spring man get 14 years for date rape drug A 41-year-old man was sentenced to 14 years in prison for possessing 23 gallons of a date rape drug in his Silver Spring home, prosecutors said. Steven Hess' home was raided in January 2007 after Montgomery County police received reports of people coming in and out his house "at all hours of the day and night," federal prosecutors in Maryland said. Inside authorities found 23 gallons of 1,4-butanediol dyed blue in plastic drinking bottles for distribution. The drug is similar to GHB, which is commonly known as the date rape drug. Second guilty plea in bank robbery that led to chase, gunfire A Silver Spring man pleaded...

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STUPID CRIMES

Note to burglars: Hide your facial tattoos It wasn't difficult for the victims of a Tampa, Fla., home invasion to identify the burglar. He was the only suspect with the state of Florida tattooed on his face. That and the words "Crazy Cracker" written on his head. The victims identified Sean Roberts through photos. Roberts and a woman entered the home and threatened the residents, and took prescription drugs, a DVD player, a CD player and $120 in cash. If the Florida tattoo wasn't evidence enough, Roberts is also known as "Crazy Cracker." We sense a theme here A man described by Utah authorities as Salt Lake County's Public Enemy No. 1 was arrested when he came into a courthouse...

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Waitress who stole credit cards now a server at Harry's Tap Room

A waitress who pleaded guilty to stealing customers' credit card information is now working at Harry's Tap Room in Arlington and training other servers for the job, according to court records. Lavelle Denise Payne, 41, pleaded guilty to stealing the credit card numbers from 701 Restaurant customers. She was fired by 701 after her March arrest and was hired by Harry's Tap Room at 2800 Clarendon Blvd. on April 23, according to a letter sent to a federal judge from Harry's general manger, John Cosgrove. Payne was one of several servers at Washington-area high-end restaurants who stole credit card numbers from customers and sold them to the scheme's three ringleaders for $20 each. The...

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Teen charged in attempted armed robbery

Prince William County police say a teenager who allegedly tried to rob a convenience store at gunpoint was caught after he fired a gun during an argument with another teen. Aaron Dass, 18, is accused of attempting to rob the store on the 1400 block of Bayside Avenue in Woodbridge on July 16. Police said no one was injured when Dass fired a shot into a plate glass window as he fled without grabbing cash. Later that day, a group of teens were arguing over two girls when Dass fired the same gun, police said. Two of the teens involved in the dispute were detained and told police it was Dass who had the gun. He was later developed as the suspect in the attempted robbery, police said. --...

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Sheriffs association promotes neighborhood watch

Sheriff Aaron D. Kennard is the executive director of the Alexandria-based National Sheriffs' Association, the group tasked by President George W. Bush to promote neighborhood watch programs across the country. Kennard moved to Virginia after landing the executive director job and retiring as the sheriff of Salt Lake County, Utah. Today he is scheduled to testify at a congressional hearing regarding the role sheriff's departments play in homeland security. What role does the association play in promoting neighborhood watch programs? We work with police departments and sheriff's offices across the country to help the establish neighborhood watch programs by providing training, showing...

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Police search for suit-wearing bank robber

The FBI has released surveillance photos of a suit-wearing man who robbed a District bank. According to D.C. police, the suspect entered the United Bank on the 1600 block of K Street NW about 10 a.m. July 14. He passed a note to a teller demanding cash. He implied he had a gun, and the teller turned over an undisclosed amount of cash. The suspect ran out of the bank and was last seen walking north on the 1000 block of 17th Street NW, police said. The suspect is described as a black man in his late 30s or early 40s. He had a full beard. He's about 6 feet tall and weighs between 180 and 195 pounds. He was wearing a black suit and a black Kangol-style hat, police said. Officials said...

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Police say mother's boyfriend raped 11-year-old girl

A 21-year-old man from Manassas has been charged with rape and forcible sodomy after his girlfriend found her daughter in the man's bedroom, Prince William County police said. Dario Galdamez Rivas lived with the mother and daughter in a town house on West Point Court in Manassas, police said. On Friday, the mother became suspicious after finding her 11-year-old daughter in Rivas' bedroom and called police. A police spokeswoman said she could not reveal details regarding the circumstances in which the girl was found in the bedroom. Police described Rivas as the mother's roommate. Further investigation revealed on two separate occasions, police said, Rivas and the victim had inappropriate...

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Waitress who stole credit card numbers now a Cosi cashier

A 28-year-old waitress who pleaded guilty to stealing the credit card numbers of about 30 M&S Grill customers in the District is now working as a cashier at a Cosi in Arlington. Simone Folk was scheduled to be sentenced Friday. The single mother of two was fired from M&S Grill in March after the restaurant learned of her role in a large-scale credit card skimming scheme involving serving staff at Washington-area restaurants. The three leaders of the scheme, all of whom have pleaded guilty, paid the waiters and waitresses $20 for each credit card number and then ran up a $750,000 tab at stores like Gucci and Barney's of New York. Folk obtained about $560 for running customer's...

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THE BLOTTER

Man killed by police on Capitol Hill identified U.S. Park Police identified 27-year-old Kellen Anthony White, of Brandywine, as the man they shot and killed near the Capitol Wednesday evening. Court records show White was on probation after pleading guilty to drug possession charges in August. In March 2008, he was accused of assaulting a police officer in Prince George's County, but those charges were dropped. On Wednesday, police say they tried to pull White over near Union Station, but he fled, striking two officers. When he finally came to a stop at New Jersey Avenue Southwest, police say he pulled out a gun and officers opened fire and killed him. Police: Suspect in Falls...

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FBI: Alexandria man threatens to kill S.C. judges

A 51-year-old Alexandria man accused of threatening to kill white judges in South Carolina believed the judges were part of a Confederate conspiracy to prevent him, a West Point graduate, from obtaining justice in a lawsuit he filed against the state, court documents show. Stephen H. Rosenberg, who is white, was arrested at his Arlington home Wednesday night after being charged with sending threatening letters to judges designed, in part, to intimidate them into backing his lawsuit, the FBI said. The charges stem from an April 6 e-mail sent to South Carolina U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Perry Jr., according to the indictment filed July 7. It was the same day Rosenberg's father, a U.S....

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Police union chief ordered to turn in badge

The District police department has pulled the badge and gun of police union chief Kristopher Baumann while in the midst of a labor-management struggle, saying the Fraternal Order of Police head failed to complete annual mandatory training, officials confirmed to The Examiner.

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Alexandria man accused of threatening to kill white judges in S. Carolina

A 51-year-old Alexandria man has been charged with sending numerous e-mails threatening to kill white judges in South Carolina where he has filed a civil suit against the United States, the FBI said Thursday. Stephen H. Rosenberg was taken into custody Wednesday and charged with transmitting across state lines threats to kill the judges as well as making threats designed to influence or intimidate a federal judge hearing his civil case. The FBI said Rosenberg, who is white, appeared in front of a federal judge in South Carolina on May 11 and since that time has sent "numerous e-mail transmissions to the same judge, including an April 6, 2009 transmission which contained a threat to...

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Feds: Pimp lured teen from group home, offered her on Craigslist

A teenage girl arrested for prostitution in an Alexandria hotel told authorities her pimp took her from a group home in Chicago, gave her marijuana and later took her on a prostituting road trip from Chicago to Philadelphia, and then to the District. He used Craigslist to advertise the girl along the way. The alleged pimp, Freddie B. Wright, was arrested late last week in Chicago, court records show. He has been charged with bringing someone across state lines for the purpose of prostitution. Andrea Powell, executive director of FAIRFund, an anti-human-trafficking group, said the case is similar to instances of human trafficking in which young people are lured by pimps who pretend to...

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THE BLOTTER

Long standoff ends with gunman's death A 24-hour standoff came to an end when police entered a Falls Church home and found the alleged gunman dead inside, Fairfax County police said. The man, who was not immediately identified, had run inside the house around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday after police say he shot and seriously injured a 36-year-old woman. When police entered the house on Lisle Avenue around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, they found the suspect dead and a woman and child unharmed. Police did not immediately say if the suspect killed himself. Two sentenced for Internet drug distribution scheme A 50-year-old woman and a 51-year-old man, both of Miami, were ordered to forfeit $1.5 million...

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Mark Brady: the voice of P.G. County fire department

When a fire rages in Prince George's County or a strip mall is leveled by a natural gas explosion, Mark Brady is the voice that spreads the word from the scene, to the media and on to the public. For the last 13 years, Brady has served as the county's fire department spokesman and in September he will celebrate his 30th year as a Prince George's County employee. How did you become the spokesman? When I first started working for the county, I was a 911 call taker. I was there for a couple of years and then became a fire department dispatcher. When you work in the department's communication center, you get a grasp of everything that's going, the equipment that's being used and the...

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Murderer who also shot pregnant woman gets 80 years

It started as a drug deal gone bad. It ended with one man dead and a pregnant woman shot in the leg in Temple Hills. On Tuesday, Gerald Edward Anderson, 25, of Marlow Heights, was sentenced to 80 years in prison for killing 23-year-old Gary Randall. The pregnant woman, Randall's girlfriend, survived the May 22, 2008, shooting and carried her baby to term, Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn Ivey said. Today, the baby is healthy and happy, he said. "Mr. Anderson was not someone who was interested in mediating this disagreement," Ivey said. "Thank God he stopped himself and didn't kill a woman and her unborn child." According to prosecutors, Anderson...

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THE BLOTTER

Man in black suit robs D.C. bank A bearded man in a black suit and golf hat robbed a downtown D.C. bank Tuesday morning. At 10 a.m., the man walked into the United Bank on the 1600 block of K Street Northwest and passed a note demanding cash. He took the money and was last seen walking north on the 1000 block of 17th Street NW. The robber was described as a black male, in his late 30s or early 40s, with a full beard. He was about 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds. Police are offering a reward of up to $10,000. Anyone who has information regarding this case is asked to call police at 202-727-9099. Violent crime drops in Prince George's County Violent crime in Prince George's County has dropped...

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District Council aide dead in apparent drowning

An aide for District Councilman Jack Evans died in an apparent drowning in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Evans said Tuesday morning. Baltimore Police have not officially identified the body, which was found floating in the harbor, but Evans confirmed that it was 30-year-old Desi Deschaine.

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ATF seizes 12 million counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes made in China

Federal authorities seized 12 million counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes made in China from a Springfield storage unit, the largest bogus cigarette bust in the region's history, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesman told The Examiner. Agents came across the 60,000 packs of smokes July 2 after they arrested Bing Feng Mai who had agreed to trade the counterfeit cigarettes for untaxed cigarettes with an undercover ATF agent, court documents filed in Alexandria's federal court said. By then, the undercover agent had sold Mai $2 million of untaxed cigarettes over a period of four months, an ATF agent wrote in a sworn statement. As taxes on cigarettes have climbed in...

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Second suspect charged in Va. jewelry store heist

A second suspect has been charged in connection with the attempted robbery of a Leesburg jewelry store that turned in an hourslong police standoff. Donald L. Blount, 44, was arrested late Sunday night, although police did not say what role Blount played in the attempted robbery of the Other Kind of Jewelry Store. Blount's alleged co-conspirator, 49-year-old William Spencer, was arrested Friday night after police said he took an elderly couple hostage in his attempt to flee authorities. A SWAT team surrounded the house on the 700 block of Valley View Avenue, and Spencer surrendered around 10 p.m. -- soon after releasing a female hostage. A male victim was found inside with minor injuries....

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Ex-business executive admits robbing two SunTrust banks

A former business executive has pleaded guilty to robbing two Washington area banks earlier this year. Bruce W. Higgins, 34, was fired from his job as vice president of business development at a Fairfax County consulting company in 2007, the company's chief executive officer told The Examiner. According to documents filed in the District's federal court, Higgins was a frequent customer at a SunTrust Bank at 410 Rhode Island Ave. NE., which made it easy for bank employees to identify Higgins after he robbed it Feb. 24. At about 10:30 a.m. that day, Higgins entered the bank in the same dark-colored suit he had worn two weeks earlier as a customer, documents said. But this time, he...

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The Post's 'monumental' ethical lapse

The Washington Post's plan for lobbyist-sponsored, off-the-record meetings with high-level government officials was "an ethical lapse of monumental proportions," Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander wrote in a Post op-ed Sunday. The newspaper's publisher, Katharine Weymouth, Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli and other top editors "were all aboard a fast-moving vehicle that, over a period of months, roared through ethics stop signs and plowed into a brick wall," Alexander wrote. A Washington Post Co. spokeswoman did not return calls for comment. The ethical stumble came to light earlier this month when a Politico reporter obtained a flier advertising so-called...

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Police: Double Langley Park homicide linked to D.C. suicide

A man and a woman were stabbed to death in a Langley Park apartment, and police said they believed their killer committed suicide near Union Station soon after. Firefighters were called to the 2200 block of University Boulevard East around 11 a.m. Saturday, responding to a call of smoke spilling from a second-floor apartment, a Prince George's County police spokesman said. When firefighters opened the door, they were met by a bloody scene, authorities said. On the floor in front of the door was the murdered man, blood spilled from stab wounds. The woman was found in the living room, also badly cut and covered in blood. The stove had been left on, and smoke was streaming off food that...

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Jacks, accused of killing daughters, to stand trial today

The trial for a District mother accused of killing her four daughters, and then living with the decomposing bodies for several months, is scheduled to start today. Banita Jacks, 35, was arrested in January 2008 after U.S. marshals went to evict Jacks from her Southeast home and discovered the bodies of her children and religious rants scribbled on the walls. City officials determined that no fewer than five District agencies had come in contact with Jacks and her daughters, but failed to recognize problems, including that the girls -- ages 5 to 17 -- failed to show up at school. Jacks has waived her right to a jury trial, and the case will be decided by Judge Frederick H. Weisberg....

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The Blotter

Former Army private sentenced for having child porn A 21-year-old Lorton man who pleaded guilty to having child pornography on his digital music player while serving in the Army at Fort Knox, Ky., has been sentenced to eight years in prison. In April 2008, Pvt. Kevin Rendon's bags were searched as he left Fort Knox, having been discharged for medical reasons, prosecutors said. In his bag, officials found the child porn-containing player and arrested him. They later searched the Lorton home where he lived with his mother and found thousands of child pornographic images on his computer there. Electrical fire displaces 80 in Silver Spring An overloaded extension chord burst into...

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CRIME HISTORY: Army draft act sparks deadliest riot in U.S. history

This day, July 13, in 1863 marked the first of the three days of the New York City draft riot, widely regarded as the most violent and deadly riot in U.S. history. Tension had already been mounting in New York and elsewhere after Congress passed the nation's first conscription act, with angry rhetoric targeting a piece of the law that allowed draftees to avoid service in the Union army by paying $300. The first draft drawing in New York took place July 11, 1863, with little fanfare. But two days later, just before the second drawing, a furious company of firefighters took the streets and attacked city officials. The violence quickly spread, and the angry mob turned on black residents,...

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CRIME HISTORY - Arrest of black cabbie sparks deadly Newark riots

On this day, July 12, in 1967, the arrest of a black cab driver whose limp body was seen being carried into a police precinct across the street from a Newark, N.J., housing project sparked a weeklong riot that left 26 dead and caused millions in damage. Racial tensions were already running high in the city with the Italian- and Irish-American dominated police department that badgered black youths, when two cops arrested cabbie John W. Smith. The police claimed Smith had made an illegal pass. The officers dragged Smith, who went limp, into a police precinct and rumors spread that Smith had been killed while police custody. He was not. But the churning rumor mill sparked the riot that...

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Feds: Man granted political asylum stole cash meant for poor

A man who moved from Yemen to Arlington after being granted political asylum has been accused of stealing nearly $100,000 from federal programs for the poor. Naser Al-Maqtari came to the United States in July 1999 with his wife and child, according to court documents filed in Alexandria's federal court. It was two months before Yemen's first presidential election as a newly unified country. By 2001, documents said, Al-Maqtari added three children to his family. The federal programs he's accused of ripping off by lying about his income also base the level of assistance they provide on how many children are in a family. No lawyer was listed for Al-Maqtari in court records. Federal...

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$13M mortgage fraud schemer gets 10 years

A 39-year-old Fort Washington man who pleaded guilty to ripping off homeowners headed into foreclosure has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay back the more than $13 million he stole. Kurt Fordham created various companies through which he, his wife, Joy Jackson, and others, conducted their illicit business. Between 2004 and 2007, the couple told homeowners facing foreclosure that they would help improve their credit if they handed over titles to their homes. Once the title was in the name of their company, Metropolitan Money Store, the conspirators would bleed the home dry of any available equity. Jackson has also pleaded guilty and faces up to 30 years when she's...

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Cops: Cross-dressers steal woman’s credit card

Dressed as women, three men are accused of stealing a woman’s credit card and going on a shopping spree, Fredericksburg, Va., police said. The victim told police three women entered her business Monday afternoon. Two of them distracted her and a third grabbed her credit card, police said. Authorities caught up to the suspects after the credit card was declined at a Wa-Wa and the clerk there was able to give police a description of the car. When police arrested the three, they made two discoveries. First, the car was filled with items believed to have been bought with the victim’s card. Second, the suspects weren’t women, they were cross-dressing men, police said....

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Police: Gang members stab man to death in Silver Spring

Montgomery County police have accused seven alleged members of the Latin Kills of stabbing a man to death in Silver Spring after he cat-called to women sitting on a gang member's porch. Edwin Umana, 21, died in a hospital Wednesday night, a day after being severely beaten and stabbed, police said. He is not believed to be have a gang affiliation and the attack does not appear motivated by gang animosity. Umana was walking on the 13100 block of Matey Road on Tuesday night when he "called out to several women" sitting on a porch, police said. A man came out of the house and told Umana to leave the women alone. Umana and the man began to argue and several other men came running...

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Feds: Monitoring abusive diplomats is up to embassy chiefs

The U.S. State Department is placing the onus of monitoring the relationship between diplomats and the household workers they've often abused in the Washington area on the embassy chiefs who are known to turn a blind eye, according to a department report obtained by The Examiner. "The Department will make it clear to all Chiefs of Missions that it will ultimately look to them to ensure that the treatment accorded the domestic workers of their employees comports with contractual and other legal obligations," the report said. The department was required to issue the report on the feasibility of monitoring diplomats' employees because of a law passed in December. The law was...

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Feds: Philanthropist ripped off in $7M Ponzi scheme

Federal prosecutors have accused the owner of a Northern Virginia coffee bean roasting company of running a $7 million Ponzi scheme that ripped off friends and associates, including $3 million from a well-known Washington philanthropist. Hanif Hassan Moledina, owner of Bean East Corp., told lenders that he had a contract with Folgers to sell the coffee giant roasted beans acquired from Colombia, according to court documents filed in Alexandria’s federal court. But no contract existed, documents said, and the lie helped him obtain millions in high-interest loans. Moledina used some loans to pay back others. Eventually, the cash dried up and he could no longer pay back any loan, he...

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Teen accused of burning flag in Ocean City

An 18-year-old Ocean City woman has been accused of burning an American flag in the middle of a busy highway and causing cars to swerve as she stomped it out, Ocean City police said. Rebecca McKimmie was spotted igniting the flag with a cigarette lighter on the Route 50 bridge early Sunday morning by two Ocean City police officers, police said. McKimmie was then seen carrying the burning flag onto the highway, forcing cars to dodge her. Police said as the officers approached, McKimmie dropped the flag and began stomping out the flames. McKimmie reportedly told police she was burning the flag to make "a statement." She is charged with desecrating a flag and disturbing the peace....

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Fairfax citizens police academy wins award

A Fairfax County police program designed to help break down the love-hate relationship between residents and their police force has been recognized as the best program of its type in the country. The Fairfax County Police Citizens Police Academy brings residents into the police department where they get a firsthand look at specialty units -- SWAT, bomb squad and criminal investigations, among others -- and learn the rules and regulations police officers are required to follow. Participants receive classroom lessons followed by hands-on programs, including the investigation of mock crime scenes. They're also brought inside the county jail and they can opt for a ride-along with a county...

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Former CEO pleads guilty to bribing FDIC official

The former founder and chief executive officer of an Arlington technology firm has pleaded guilty to paying off a federal agency employee to help his company obtain $4.5 million in contracts. A niece of the unnamed Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation employee worked for Irving Gilmore Rodrigues at Avalon Technology Inc., and helped Rodrigues transfer about $134,000 to her uncle, prosecutors wrote in court documents filed in Alexandria's federal court Tuesday. Rodrigues admitted to paying only $16,134. "The payments were made to [the FDIC employee] for, and because of, official acts performed, and to be performed, by [the employee] in the award of FDIC contracts to Avalon,"...

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Human trafficking experts call for police training in D.C. bill

The District is rated as one of the top 10 locations for human trafficking in the country and several nonprofit groups told D.C. Council members that police officers should be trained to recognize human trafficking cases as the city steps up its efforts to fight it. Representatives of groups like Polaris Project, Free the Slaves and Fair Fund made their request during a public hearing on a human trafficking bill Monday. If passed in its current form, the bill would make human trafficking for the purposes of sex and labor a crime. It would allow victims to sue their pimps and require the city to keep statistics on trafficking cases. On Monday, the anti-human-trafficking groups also asked...

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Armed man robs Herndon PNC Bank

A man armed with a handgun and with his face hidden by a plastic mask robbed a Herndon PNC Bank, Fairfax County police said. Police said they did not have surveillance pictures of the Wednesday robbery, in which the man put the gun in the faces of two female tellers and demanded cash. The women complied and he quickly departed the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash. Outside, police said the suspect jumped into a newer-model, silver- or gray-colored Nissan sedan and drove away. The suspect is in his 20s, police said. He's about 5 feet 10 inches tall. He was wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt and had dark-colored pants. His face was covered with a clear plastic mask. Last year,...

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THE BLOTTER

Mother accused of killing daughters arraigned Renee Bowman, accused of killing two of three adopted daughters and stuffing their bodies in a freezer, will be transferred from Calvert County to Montgomery County to face murder charges, a judge ruled Thursday. Bowman, 44, has been held in Calvert since the discovery of the bodies in her home there last year. Authorities have determined the two girls, ages 9 and 11 at the time of the they were found, were killed in Rockville. Her attorney requested she be moved to Montgomery so he could more easily prepare for her murder trial. A judge agreed. Charging documents released Wednesday said one girl had broken bones in her hand and arms, the...

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Crime history - James brothers robbery leads to Pinkerton pursuit

On this day, July 3, in 1871, Jesse and Frank James stole $45,000 from a bank in Corydon, Iowa. The robbery by the famed duo led the bank to hire the Pinkerton Detective Agency, kicking off agency founder Allan Pinkerton’s vendetta against the James brothers that culminated with Pinkerton detectives setting fire to the James family homestead. Following the July 3 robbery, the detectives were able to track the James brothers into Missouri, where they engaged in a gunfight and wounded Frank. The duo escaped, however, and Jesse wrote a letter to the Kansas City Times proclaiming his innocence and blaming pro-Union Republicans for suggesting he was a criminal. Pinkerton and his...

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Judge, not jury, to decide Banita Jacks case

Banita Jacks, accused of killing her four daughters and leaving them to decompose in her Southeast Washington home, requested and received a bench trial Thursday over the objections of her attorneys. The trial is scheduled to begin July 13. District Superior Court Judge Frederick Weisberg questioned Jacks about the decision, but she said she fully understood the difference between a jury and bench trial. The bodies of Jacks’ daughters — ages 5 to 17 — were found in her home in January 2008 when she was served with an eviction notice. Authorities say the children were killed months earlier. Jacks has pleaded not guilty to premeditated first-degree murder. Peter...

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Female bank robbery suspect arrested in Fairfax

Fairfax County police have charged a 24-year-old Fairfax woman with robbing two area banks at gunpoint over the past month. Stephanie Marie Nightingale was taken into custody early Thursday morning, several hours after police say she robbed a Cardinal Bank in McLean. According to authorities, Nightingale entered the bank shortly after 4 p.m. She approached two female tellers, ages 20 and 42, at the counter, pulled out a handgun and demanded cash. The tellers complied and she ran out of the bank. No one required medical assistance, police said. Investigators quickly developed Nightingale as a suspect and arrested her at her home on the 4400 block of Holly Avenue in Fairfax. Police...

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Stupid Crimes

When show-and-tell goes awry An elementary school teacher in Elk Grove, Calif., might lose her job after accidentally adding footage of herself having sex to a DVD documenting the school year. The video, a copy of which was sent to each student's home, starts with a menu displaying various school trips and events. One segment shows students in a classroom sharing stories and clapping, then suddenly switches to the fifth-grade teacher in amateur porn. "It goes from my son, straight to her on the couch," one parent said. The father added he had to stay up until midnight explaining "the birds and the bees." Ninth time's the charm? While serving a three-year...

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Legal Sea Foods to leave Reagan, files lawsuit

National Airport's most popular restaurant, Legal Sea Foods, is scheduled to leave the airport in August after lease negotiations with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority failed, according to a lawsuit filed by the restaurant chain claiming the airport authority did not conduct an open bidding process for the new lease. Legal Sea Foods has asked a judge in Alexandria's federal court to prevent another concession from taking the space. The space is expected to be taken over by Sam & Harry's steakhouse, the airport authority said in June. "It's unfortunate that a lawsuit is being pursued and [Legal Sea Foods] was not able to reach a business agreement," said...

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Rockville pimp sentenced to more than three years in prison

A 43-year-old man from Rockville known as "The Colombian" has been sentenced to three years and five months in prison for bringing at least 100 women from New York and New Jersey to brothels he and others operated in Prince George's County, federal prosecutors said. Eduardo Puentes was convicted by a jury of violating the Mann Act in March following a 1 1/2-week trial. Prosecutors said Puentes and his co-conspirators brought a new batch of prostitutes from New York and New Jersey to at least five brothels, the majority of which operated in Langley Park apartments. At least a week before Puentes made his journey north, he would call the women by cell phone and arrange a meeting...

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NTSB: Part replaced before Metro crash failed

A part of the track circuit that lost contact with a Metro train moments before it slammed into an idling train last week had been replaced five days earlier and "periodically lost its ability to detect trains" after the repair, federal investigators said Wednesday. Records reviewed by the National Transportation Safety Board revealed that Metro engineers replaced part of the track circuit June 17, five days before the crash between the Takoma and Fort Totten stations that killed nine and injured more than 70 riders. It was the worst accident in Metrorail's 33-year history. The circuit, which helps keep track of trains on the rail system, is emerging as the most likely culprit...

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Three-minute interview - Don Davidson

Don Davidson has been the pastor at the First Baptist Church in Alexandria for the past four years. In that time, he has been the chaplain for a day at the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. He has also preached to a flock that’s known to be constantly in flux as government employees and military personnel shift jobs and locations. What brought you to Alexandria? I was in Danville, Virginia, for 17 years, and I thought that would be the only church I call home. The First Baptist Church in Alexandria is really the only church I would have left Danville for. It presents a challenge, and it’s intriguing. What sort of challenge? We have a constant flow of people...

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Prosecutors say wealthy residents used slave labor

Some of the Washington area's wealthiest residents hired illegal immigrant women who had been forced into what experts called human slavery by a Falls Church man, federal prosecutors said. Over the last eight years, Soripada Lubis enticed at least 20 Indonesian women away from the employers who brought them to the United States and farmed the women out as domestic servants to households in Potomac and elsewhere, according to court documents filed in Alexandria's federal court. Prosecutors say Lubis threatened the women and their families with violence if they disobeyed him, and held their passports so they couldn't flee. The list of Lubis' 50 clients divulged in court filings by...

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Communication the key for new security effort in Annandale

Laura Allen is starting a neighborhood watch program in the Park Glen Heights community in Annandale. Right now, the group is determining how best to build its member base and interact with the community. Her advice to other watch program developers: The first step is figuring out how you will communicate. Why did you decide to start a neighborhood watch program? We recently had seven or eight vehicles broken into on one night. It came up during a neighborhood meeting on commercial vehicles parking on our streets. We felt the area had been ignored for a while and we wanted to improve our communication with police, and figured one way we could do that was through a neighborhood watch...

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Police fear armed abduction in Wheaton

County police are searching for a 25-year-old woman they believe was abducted by her potentially armed and dangerous ex-boyfriend. Knight went missing from her Wheaton apartment Sunday after she called police fearing that estranged boyfriend Kareem Gaines was planning to attack her, police said. Knight called police at about 7:30 a.m. Sunday, saying she feared Gaines was in her apartment, authorities said. When officers arrived on the 11100 block of Georgia Avenue, they did not find Gaines inside, and they left. At about 2 p.m., a neighbor called police, reporting that someone fitting Gaines' description was breaking into Knight's apartment, police said. Officer arriving on the scene...

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Another lone woman robs area bank

The lone female bank robber might be incredibly rare, but Fairfax County police say two women acting separately have struck area banks in the past month. A lone woman robbed the Wachovia Bank at 8994 Lorton Station Blvd. on Thursday afternoon, police said. She approached a 22-year-old teller and passed a note implying she had a gun and demanding money. The teller complied, and the suspect ran out of the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash. Outside, the woman robber jumped into an older-model, tan- or champagne-colored Honda Accord. No one was injured. The suspect is black, in her mid 30s to early 40s and about 5 feet 4 inches tall. She was wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans, a...

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Crime history - Boston doctor found guilty of murdering wife

On this day, June 29, in 2001, a 60-year-old Boston doctor was found guilty of murdering his wife of more than 30 years. In October 1999, Dirk Greineder called police saying his 58-year-old wife, Mary, had been attacked and killed in their local park. He told officials his wife’s back was hurting so he stepped away to exercise their dog. When he returned, Greineder said he found her dead. Police said she was stabbed in the chest and nearly decapitated. They found the murder weapons in a wooded area. Friends and family told investigators the couple had been very close. But as detectives dug into Greineder’s life, they found that the doctor had been spending several hours a...

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Feds: Man with HIV planned unprotected sex with boy, age 12

Federal prosecutors have accused a reportedly HIV positive 38-year-old D.C. man of plotting to have unprotected sex with a 12-year-old boy. Undercover District detectives first started speaking to Mark S. Longo in Internet chat rooms in early June after a confidential source told investigators Longo possessed hundreds of videos of men having sex with children ranging in age from infancy to 12 years old, court records filed in the District’s federal court said. Longo’s attorney Edward Sussman did not immediately return calls for comment. On Thursday, an undercover officer told Longo via an Internet chat room that the undercover officer had an opportunity to have sex with a...

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Violent home invasion leaves two seriously injured

Prince William County police are investigating a home invasion that left two men seriously injured. According to police, two men kicked in the door to the home on the 14700 block of Elmira Court in Dale City late Friday night. They ordered the occupants to the ground and shot at two of the victims. Both victims, ages 25 and 33, were flown to a hospital with serious injuries. Their status was not immediately available Sunday. Police said it appeared the culprits and the victims knew each other. The first culprit is described as a black man with reddish hair and freckles, authorities said. The second was a black man with a goatee and sideburns. The motivation is still under...

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Pharmacist charged with defrauding authorities

A Maryland pharmacist has been charged with Medicare and Medicaid fraud nearly a year after authorities found expired and counterfeit drugs being sold in her two pharmacies, court documents show. Pamela Arrey is also suspected of sending more than $1 million to offshore accounts, documents said. According to an indictment recently filed in Maryland’s federal court, Arrey charged about $350,000 to the federal insurance programs for drugs she never dispensed. In some cases, Arrey allegedly billed the insurance programs for physician-authorized refills that the patient never requested, the indictment said. “We are going to fight these latest charges vigorously,” her...

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Crime history - New Zealand teenager beats mother to death

On this day, June 22, in 1954, Pauline Parker beat her mother to death with help from Parker’s close friend Juliet Hume. The New Zealand murder made international headlines and was later turned into the 1994 movie “Heavenly Creatures” directed by Peter Jackson. The two teenage girls developed their plan to kill Honora Parker after she conspired with Hume’s parents to separate the two girls. Both sets of parents believed the girls had grown too close and feared their relationship had become homosexual, which was considered a crime in 1950s New Zealand. With Hume set to move to South Africa and Honora Parker refusing to allow Pauline to follow her, the two girls...

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Accountant accused of role in mortgage fraud

Federal authorities have accused a Virginia accountant of writing false letters verifying the incomes of homebuyers who were caught in a mortgage fraud scheme that caused banks to lose about $3 million when their homes went into foreclosure. Maria E. Conrad would receive up to $400 each from loan officers at E-Star Lending for the letters she wrote supporting its clients’ loan applications, court documents said. In December, the owner of E-Star Lending, Gohar Mirza, was sentenced to 5 years and 3 three months in prison and ordered to pay back the $3 million he caused lenders to lose when the houses purchased by his straw buyer scheme went into foreclosure. The E-Star Lending...

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Feds: 10 pounds of meth seized at Lorton hotel

Federal agents coordinated the purchase of 10 pounds of methamphetamine at a Lorton hotel with the help of a jailhouse informant whose illegal immigrant cellmate claimed to be part of a drug trafficking organization in Mexico, court records said. On Thursday, agents arrested an Alabama woman and her accused co-conspirator at a Lorton Comfort Inn after the two attempted to sell to authorities 10 packets of meth weighing one pound apiece, according to documents filed in Alexandria’s federal court. Maria Benita Santa-Maria and Nihad Jasarevic have been charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Santa-Maria’s attorney declined to comment Friday. Jasarevic’s...

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70-year-old woman caught with pot at Dulles Airport

Whatever book 70-year-old Anna Marie Faris told federal agents she was planning to write, the research was bound to be a high time. When Customs and Border Protection officers searched Faris’ luggage Wednesday at Washington Dulles International Airport, they found about a half-pound of marijuana spread out over 86 packets taped to the pages of several Der Spiegel magazines, CBP spokesman Stephen Sapp said. Faris reportedly claimed to officers that she brought the bundle of Germany’s leading weekly newsmagazine home with her for research she was doing on a book, the spokesman said. “On the cover, she looks like any elderly traveler returning from a foreign...

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Getting Hitched: ‘Our’ plans are best

Editor’s note: The writer submitted a draft version of this story that may have passed the muster of the editor, but not that of his fiancee, who must come first and foremost. As such, he left us only with this apology letter to her. Dear Amanda, I’d like to say, outright, that I’m sorry about an earlier draft of this story. You’re right, it did cast a negative light on our wedding planning experience. For the most part it has been very positive, but as I said on the phone just moments ago, the recent changes to our plans for an extended cocktail hour seamlessly transforming into a full-blown wedding reception have left me somewhat dismayed. The earlier version...

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FBI: Child porn found on museum suspect’s computer

Child pornography was discovered on a computer belonging to the 88-year-old white supremacist accused of gunning down a guard at the Holocaust museum, the FBI said in court documents. James von Brunn remains hospitalized, but federal investigators have continued their search for details of the events leading up to the shooting death of 39-year-old Stephen Johns as he held a museum door open for his killer, officials said. FBI agents have executed a search warrant on the Annapolis apartment von Brunn shared with his son and son’s fiancé, documents filed in federal court said. Inside, FBI agents found four computers, a 30-30 rifle and the weapon’s ammunition. When...

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Mother of two girls found in freezer indicted

A Maryland woman was indicted in the slaying of two of her adopted daughters and then toting their bodies around the state in a freezer for a year, Montgomery County prosecutors said. Renee D. Bowman, 43, was indicted on six counts for allegedly killing her two daughters in Montgomery County and abusing her third. She carried the bodies in a freezer as she moved from Rockville to Charles County and then Calvert County. In September, her 7-year-old daughter escaped from a window, police said. A neighbor’s discovery of the disheveled girl sparked a police investigation that led detectives to the frozen bodies. The dead girls would have been 11 and 9 years old if they had been alive...

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Two teens charged in Woodbridge carjacking

Two teenagers have been charged in a Woodbridge carjacking, Prince William County police said. Nineteen-year-old Jothan Phillips and Tyree Harvey, 18, were arrested Sunday, two days after they’re accused of pushing a woman out of her Toyota Corolla on East Longview Drive, officials said. Police later spotted and gave chase to the Corolla in Dale City, just moments before it crashed into a white truck at the intersection of Prince William Parkway and Minnieville Road. Two men hopped out of the car and fled on foot. Officers searched the area but came up empty. Authorities said Phillips and Harvey were developed as suspects after Prince William investigators received a tip picked...

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Murder suspect on run prone to sudden, unprovoked violence

He’s known for sudden, unprovoked violence, authorities said. He’s wanted on a murder charge and believed to still be living in the Washington area. Richard Morton is one of The Examiner’s most wanted fugitives. Authorities allege he stabbed 39-year-old Rachel Culver, resulting in her death, on the steps of a domestic violence shelter in the District. After a life on the streets, Culver had begun to rejoin society during the year she lived at the House of Ruth women’s shelter. Culver took a new job, got baptized and was trying to get her three children back, authorities said. On the evening of Jan. 28, as she was returning to the shelter, Culver was stabbed,...

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Washington area's most wanted list

Craig John Oliver Oliver, 56, scammed more than $2.5 million from dozens of homeowners for unfinished and shoddy remodeling projects in suburban Maryland and in Northern Virginia. Oliver had already spent 10 years in prison for securities rip-offs when he was convicted again for fraud in 2005, but before his sentencing, the Fairfax remodeler skipped town with his wife, Jennifer. He was sentenced in absentia to 20 years. In July, when “America’s Most Wanted” aired a segment on Oliver, his new client base in Phoenix tipped off police that he was running a remodeling business under the name Danny Sullivan. But before authorities could nab him, Oliver skipped town...

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Washington area’s most wanted

Craig J. Oliver conned Maryland and Virginia homeowners out of millions of dollars. Richard Morton slashed his girlfriend’s throat outside a D.C. women’s shelter. John D. Cody is a former Army captain with a Harvard law degree wanted for questioning in a federal spy probe. History of the most wanted list The FBI has famously maintained a list of the most wanted fugitives for decades. The longest any one person has been on the roster is nearly 26 years, while the shortest is just two hours. The list was born in 1949 during a card game with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, above, and a top United Press International editor who were talking about ways to capture the...

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Neighborhood watch - Centreville group fights drugs, vandalism

Polly Herpy co-runs the Virginia Run neighborhood watch program with Fairfax County firefighter Mike Reilly. Herpy has been living in the Centreville community of 1,500 homes for 19 years and has been fighting crime with her neighbors for just as long. How did you get involved with Virginia Run’s neighborhood watch group? I was part of a similar group in Vienna before I moved here 19 years ago. When I moved here, I saw a flier saying they needed help. I went to the first meeting possible and have been a member since. It’s a necessary thing to have, especially with 1,500 homes. There’s a lot that happens, especially in the summer when the kids don’t have much to...

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Pr. William man charged with killing fellow bus driver

A bus driver was charged with murder in the slaying of a fellow bus driver, one of two men shot to death at a Prince William County commuter bus depot, police said. Forty-year-old Glenn Wade surrendered to authorities Monday evening, Prince William County police said. At this point it is unclear who killed 34-year-old William Anderson during the apparent gunfight at the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission bus depot Monday morning. Wade shared the same Woodbridge address with Anderson, authorities said. Police declined to comment on their relationship, as did a woman who answered the phone at their residence. Investigators said Wade and Darnell McPherson, the murdered...

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Household workers enslaved by diplomats not just a D.C. issue

The Washington area is not alone in its struggle to crack down on foreign diplomats who hide behind immunity while they enslave household workers, a report released by the State Department said. The annual human trafficking report released Tuesday found that France and Belgium are also among the countries trying to better handle the diplomats. France, like the United States, is considered among the top countries in fighting human trafficking, the report said. And yet, “Men, women and children continue to be trafficked for the purpose of forced labor,” the report said. “Often their ‘employers’ are diplomats who enjoy diplomatic immunity.” In Belgium,...

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Top Cop » Security guard saved ‘countless’ lives

Bouquets of flowers have piled up at the entrance to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, a small memorial to a man one of the bouquet’s inscriptions called “a righteous gentile.” The moniker has long-been used to describe the non-Jews who helped save Jewish lives during the Holocaust. As museum officials have said, Stephen T. Johns, the security guard who held the door open for his accused killer, saved “countless” lives when he took a bullet in the chest. The sound of gunfire alerted his fellow guards to danger. They fired back and hit white supremacist James von Brunn in the face, knocking the Holocaust Museum shooter backwards and out the door. Von Brunn’s...

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Prostitution cases pay lawyer’s bills

When Asian massage parlors are raided in the District, lawyer Wendell C. Robinson often gets a call. Robinson’s name turns up in court records defending six accused prostitutes arrested in the raids of four alleged brothels. “I’ve litigated against him in a couple massage parlor cases,” said Michael Sachdev of D.C.’s Attorney General’s Office. “I’ve learned that he has represented prostitutes in these types of cases as well.” Sachdev has been litigating against Robinson since the Attorney General’s Office sued Min Kwak. The suit demanded Kwak close the doors to Supra Inc., a massage parlor identified as a brothel by District...

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Hot weather brings out the flashers in Pr. William

With rising temperatures come male flashers. Over the course of two days last week, Prince William County police logged three cases of males dropping their pants and exposing their privates to two women and a teenage girl. In one of those incidents, police said, an 8-year-old girl also was victimized. “It’s hot out there,” police spokeswoman Sharon Richardson said. “I guess they’re just coming out of the woodwork.” Richardson said there is no indication the incidents are connected. The cases were in Woodbridge, Lake Ridge and Dale City; the flashers were of different races, ages and size. Prince William has a not-too-distant history with warm...

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Guard killed at Holocaust Museum; accused gunman in critical condition

A man who authorities said had ties to hate groups walked into the Holocaust Museum Wednesday afternoon and opened fire with a .22 caliber rifle, killing a security guard before he was shot by two other guards. Stephen Tyrone Johns, 39, who worked at the museum for six years, died after being taken to George Washington University Hospital. Another security guard was mildly injured by flying glass. Police sources identified the attacker as James W. von Brunn, 88, from Maryland. He has ties to white supremacist groups and was on a U.S. Secret Service watch list, sources said. He was in critical condition last night at George Washington hospital. Police said they found a notebook in von...

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First responder - Couple has served Md. firefighters for past year

For the past year, Frank and Lois Hetz Underwood have served as presidents of the Maryland State Firemen’s Association and its Ladies Auxiliary, respectively. Both are members of the Prince George’s County volunteer fire department. The MSFA represents volunteer firefighters across Maryland, promoting their interests in Annapolis and assisting departments with administration. Their one-year terms end Saturday. What did you most enjoy during your time as president? Frank: Traveling around the state meeting people from all facets of the fire service. I made many new friends. ... I also thoroughly enjoyed working hand in hand with our partners in Annapolis. Lois: Traveling...

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Ex-Pr. George’s firefighter charged with arson

A former Prince George’s County firefighter has been charged with arson for a fire set at a vacant Landover Hills home. Anthony J. Sellers was arrested in his Silver Spring home June 3 after investigators linked him to a June 2008 fire at 6701 Greenland St., a fire department spokesman said. The 26-year-old was no longer volunteering for the department when the fire was set. He “had some challenges” while at the Bladensburg station, the spokesman said. The fire Sellers is accused of setting caused $150,000 in damage and one firefighter burned his leg while battling the flames. Sellers also was charged with two other fires set in vacant buildings in Laurel and...

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Trio pleads guilty to foiled stickup of armored car

Three men who were arrested after a cell phone accidentally left in a sack of cash during an armored car robbery in Prince William County led police to them pleaded guilty in federal court. The men briefly got away with $160,000 during the April 1 robbery. But they were swiftly captured after police traced the phone, dropped by a guard during the stickup, to a home where the men were dividing the loot. Christopher Blakeney and Carlic Brown also admitted to their roles in two other armored car robberies, one on April 4, 2007, in Lorton where they lifted $80,000 from a guard and the other Feb. 1, 2008, in Fairfax where they stole $120,000. On April 1 Brown and Blakeney were joined by...

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No charges in P.G. inmate’s death

Prosecutors will bring no charges in the murder investigation of a Prince George’s County inmate who was found dead in his cell 48 hours after being accused of slaying a cop last year, county State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey said. Ivey made that decision after a second county grand jury determined that there was insufficient evidence to return a murder indictment in the death of Ronnie White, who was charged with murder last June after police say he ran down a police officer with a stolen truck. The case, including all the evidence gathered by the Maryland State Police is now being turned over to the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, where a probe into...

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First responder - Fire investigators honored in arson case

A team of Prince George’s County fire investigators has received the department’s highest award for closing a six-month investigation into a serial arsonist, a department spokesman said. Between March and August 2007, nine fires were set at the Springhill Lake apartment complex in Greenbelt. After county fire investigators determined the fires were connected, they formed a task force along with state and federal officials. The investigation eventually led to the arrest and conviction of 26-year-old Jeremiah Christopher Jones. He has been sentenced to eight years in prison for setting the fires which caused $2 million in damage. Prosecutors said Jones was trying to cause as...

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PG prosecutors lack evidence for charges in jail death

Prince George's County prosecutors have not found enough evidence to charge anyone with a crime in the controversial jail death of accused cop killer Ronnie White, sources close to the case said. Glenn Ivey, Prince George's County state's attorney, is expected to ask federal authorities for greater help in the case, which could lead to a federal civil rights investigation. Medical examiners have concluded that 19-year-old White was murdered in his solitary jail cell in June just two days after he was arrested for allegedly running down and killing police Sgt. Richard Findley with a stolen truck. Investigators have focused their attention on three corrections officers who had access to...

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Suspended Bowie doctor under investigation

A doctor who was suspended from practicing after he was found curled in the fetal position on the floor of his Bowie office is being investigated by federal authorities for allegedly prescribing “excessive amounts of controlled substances,” court documents said. Dr. Rajan Sood was suspended by the Maryland medical board Feb. 13 after officials concluded he was addicted to a variety of narcotics, according to the board’s February newsletter. The board also found Sood, a general practitioner, was writing multiple prescriptions for family members and office staff. Noreen S. Valentine, a Drug Enforcement Administration investigator, reached similar conclusions in her...

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Nutritionist charged with mortgage fraud

The owner of a Silver Spring-based nutrition company has been charged with lying on mortgage applications to obtain nearly $600,000 in loans. Olusola Idowu was convicted in July on Medicaid fraud charges after she overbilled the federal insurance program for more than $175,000. The 55-year-old owner of SSS Nutrition and Diabetic Care Services was sentenced to five years of probation and must pay back the money she stole. Idowu ran her Medicaid fraud from March 2002 through March 2006, prosecutors said. During that same time span she also used cash obtained from the fraudulent loan applications to buy a house in Hagerstown, according to an indictment filed in Maryland’s federal...

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Army investigates illicit photos from Fort Dix

The U.S. Army is investigating allegations that eight Manassas-based Virginia Army National Guard members took photos and video of 21 women in their unit while the women were showering. Army investigators say the photos were allegedly taken last fall while the 266th Military Police Company was training at New Jersey’s Fort Dix before deploying to Iraq. No charges have been filed, but a criminal investigation is under way, an Army spokesman said. Fort Dix spokeswoman Carolee Nisbet told the Associated Press that the allegations were disappointing and that most soldiers who stay at Fort Dix before being deployed “live up to the Army values.” The 266th is now serving in...

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Feds: Baltimore Bloods bust sends message

Maryland’s top federal prosecutor said he hoped a massive bust targeting the Bloods in Baltimore would scare off young men and women from joining a Washington-area chapter of the Los Angeles-based gang. Law enforcement officials have said the Bloods have made significant inroads in the Washington area over the past year. The District, historically dominated by local street gangs, is becoming increasingly organized by national gangs like the Bloods and Crips. The Bloods have already established themselves in Maryland’s Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. “We hope that teenagers who consider joining violent gangs will think twice when they learn that they...

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Ringleader of credit scheme pleads guilty

The last of three ringleaders pleaded guilty Tuesday to his role in a credit card skimming scheme that ran up a $750,000 tab on cards stolen from diners at high-end Washington-area restaurants. Joseph Bush III, along with Aaron D. Gilbert and Erick V. Burton, recruited serving staff at the District’s M&S Grill, 701 Restaurant, Clyde’s of Gallery Place and Bowie’s Carrabba’s Italian Restaurant to steal credit card numbers from diners. Gilbert and Burton have both pleaded guilty in recent weeks. The ring was busted in March after a Secret Service agent spent a year tracking complaints of fraudulent charges back to their source at the restaurants. Managers were...

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Fla. man tells police he sold steroids to Nats, Caps players

A Florida man charged with possessing a massive amount of steroids told police he sold the performance-enhancing drugs to players on the Washington Capitals hockey team and the Nationals baseball team. Richard Thomas and his wife, Sandra, were arrested Tuesday after Polk County sheriff’s deputies searched their home and found thousands of anabolic steroid pills, liquids and syringes, Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. Law enforcement officials also seized an arsenal of weapons from the Lakeland home, including the civilian version of the M-16 rifle, shotguns and “numerous” handguns. Police said they raided the house, which sits between Orlando and Tampa, after...

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Councilwoman calls for comprehensive brothel investigation

D.C. Councilwoman Muriel Bowser, D-Ward 4, called for a comprehensive investigation into the commercial-area brothels unearthed by an Examiner investigation, and also the many she believes are run in residential areas. Bowser, who has oversight of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, said Tuesday that she would meet with DCRA investigators to push them to be more aggressive in their pursuit of brothels that hide behind the facade of massage parlors. “We have to address this comprehensively,” Bowser said. “DCRA has to play a role, the police, and the Office of the Attorney General has to be active, too.” Her comments were made after an Examiner...

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Neighborhood watch 0 Local program wins two national awards

The Weems Neighborhood Watch program, previously featured in The Examiner, took home two awards from a national competition of neighborhood programs. The awards were handed out last weekend in Spokane, Wash., by a national association of cities and counties. The watch group won for its Landgreen Street cleanup in June 2008, said group coordinator Cindy Brookshire. The street was targeted by the group for cleanup following the murder of Manassas cab driver Khawaja Ahmed in February 2008. The 48-year-old was fatally shot during a botched robbery. Brookshire got involved with the Weems Neighborhood Watch program two years ago after finding “a phenomenal amount of litter” while...

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Fairfax County coach accused of child sex abuse

A Fairfax County youth baseball coach has been accused of sexually abusing a child under his supervision, Fairfax County police said. The incidents of inappropriate sexual conduct took place between March and July of 1997, when the victim was 12 years old, police said. Now 24, the victim has stepped forward, telling police he was molested by John E. Hamilton in the parking lot of Carl Sandburg Middle School and at Hamilton’s home. At the time, Hamilton was a Little League baseball coach for the Fort Hunt Youth Athletic Association. Hamilton currently has a 16-year-old foreign exchange student living with him, police said. Authorities have removed the student from his home....

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A ‘massage parlor’ folds after lawsuits

A “for lease” sign now hangs in a window at 2352 Wisconsin Ave. in Northwest. To finally kick out the alleged brothel that used to be there, it took two lawsuits by D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles and one police raid. Nickles filed the first lawsuit against what was commonly known as Venus in May 2007, demanding it shut down until it obtained a license to operate as a massage parlor. Included in the complaint was a sworn statement by a Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs investigator who said he had visited Venus on two occasions earlier that spring. On a March 30, 2007, visit he was met by a “scantily clad, young Asian female,” he wrote. She was...

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Crime History: Nichols found guilty of killing 161 people in Oklahoma City bombing

On this day, May 26, in 2004, an Oklahoma jury found Army veteran Terry Nichols guilty of killing 161 people in the Oklahoma City bombing. He previously had been convicted on federal charges for the bombing in 1997 and was already serving a life sentence when he was convicted by the state jury. In 1995, Nichols and Timothy McVeigh used hundreds of pounds of fertilizer to create a bomb that ripped the federal office building in Oklahoma City to pieces. The two had met while assigned to the Army’s 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kan. They were later linked to the Michigan Militia, a paramilitary group that denies either man was involved with the organization. During the...

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Fairfax County police say bank-robbing couple may have committed up to 8 successful heists

Authorities are trying to determine whether a bank-robbing couple ripped off multiple banks or just the one they have been accused of trying to rob last week. According to Fairfax County police, 50-year-old Zoghanno Holmes is accused of being the getaway driver for her boyfriend, 37-year-old Marlon Negassa. The two were arrested last week after two men knocked a gun from Negassa’s hand and wrestled him to the ground while he was trying to rob a BB&T Bank in Herndon, police said. Holmes was found near the bank robbery scene, and investigators determined she was driving the getaway car for Negassa, police said. After they were taken into custody, Holmes told police that they...

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Man who fled to Iran faces more charges

Federal prosecutors say a Bethesda man who fled to Iran to avoid bank fraud charges ripped off $30,000 from a U.S. bank while in Tehran. Michael Milan fled to Iran in July, just days after FBI agents informed him he was a target in a bank fraud investigation. Milan was arrested April 23 after landing at Washington Dulles International Airport. The charges were first reported by The Examiner in February. Milan was released on bail May 1. If he fails to return to court, he will forfeit a $5 million home in Bethesda and his rights to the patent for “Coollid,” an invention that quickly cools hot coffee to make it immediately drinkable, his attorneys wrote in court documents...

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Man believed to have assaulted woman in stairwell

Montgomery County police are searching for a man who they believe sexually assaulted an 18-year-old woman in a Silver Spring apartment building stairwell. The man started following the woman after she got off a Ride On bus on April 30, police said late last week. He repeatedly asked for the woman’s telephone number as he followed her into a stairwell at an apartment building at 8860 Piney Branch Road. The woman told the man she had a boyfriend and asked to be left alone, police said. The man then grabbed the woman in an inappropriate area, she screamed, and he grabbed again and then fled. The assailant is black and between 20 and 30 years old. He’s about 6 feet tall and...

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Peers support teacher, despite plea on sex charges

An elementary school art teacher has the support of his colleagues, despite pleading guilty to traveling to a Leesburg hotel to have sex with two young girls. Douglas E. Hunt faces 10 years to life in prison when he’s sentenced Friday. The support from his fellow teachers at Shepherdstown Elementary School in West Virginia came in the form of letters sent to U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis in Alexandria’s federal court. “I have never known Doug to display any questionable behavior toward children,” wrote fourth-grade teacher Susan Loeffler. “I have never had a student complain about him. ... I question the charge of ‘enticement of a minor.’...

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Pamphlet to warn potential domestic slavery victims

U.S. State Department officials have taken a big step in implementing a law designed to crack down on the foreign diplomats, many in the Washington area, who enslave members of their household staffs. On Thursday, the State Department’s ambassador for human trafficking, Lou de Baca, met with more than a dozen anti-human trafficking organizations. They were joined by Department of Justice and Homeland Security officials. The organizations and officials outlined details of a pamphlet advising members of diplomats’ household staffs of their rights. They also laid the groundwork for future collaboration on the crackdown. “Nongovernmental organizations are critically...

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Ex-CIA agent gets prison for taking credit cards

A former CIA agent has been sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay back the $107,000 he charged on credit cards he stole from the agency. Steven J. Levan spent 16 years working his way up from field agent to instructor, a position that permitted him access to secure vaults where the credit cards he stole were kept, court documents filed in Alexandria’s federal court said. His career is now over, and he’ll spend two years on supervised release after serving the sentence handed down Thursday. On top of the $107,000, Levan also has been ordered to pay back $8,244 to a Residence Inn in Vienna. Levan started living in Northern Virginia hotels after his marriage ended...

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Calif. Man admits to giving child porn to D.C. detective

A 37-year-old man pleaded guilty to trading child pornographic pictures with a District detective and offering to arrange a sex trip to Colombia for the detective from his trailer in a Los Angeles suburb, federal prosecutors said. Rafael Giraldo faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he's sentenced Sept. 10. He pleaded guilty to transporting and possessing child pornography Tuesday. In August 2007, District Detective Timothy Palchak was undercover in an Internet child porn chat room when he posted a message asking whether anyone had access to a child, court documents filed in the District¹s federal court said. A man Palchak and other investigators later learned was...

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Three-minute interview - Cindy Cavalieri

Cindy Cavalieri has been organizing fundraising events for the World Food Program in Alexandria for the past four years. In previous years, the events have involved walkathons, but this year Cavalieri found a backer: On Thursday, Chicken Out in Alexandria donated 20 percent of all sales to the program, which distributes food from countries with a surplus to countries with very little. Why have the fundraiser at a restaurant this year? People [could] just come have dinner and donate. With this economy it’s hard to ask anyone to give up money, but with this they don’t have to do anything more than just have dinner. How did you get involved with the World Food Program? About...

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Montgomery County officer jumps from planes for a good cause

Montgomery County police Officer Greg Knott jumps out of planes with a parachute with the letters C.O.P.S. emblazoned across it. He does it to raise awareness and cash for the National Organization of Concerns of Police Survivors Inc., a group that extends a helping hand to the family members left behind when a law enforcement officer dies in the line of duty. On Saturday, Knott was awarded the organization’s highest recognition for volunteers. How did you get involved with C.O.P.S.? I spent 10 years in the Army, serving in the Middle East. A year after I joined the Montgomery County police force in 1998, I met an officer on the honor guard and started learning about C.O.P.S. For...

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Two charged with using Craigslist to sell minors for sex

Two Maryland residents have been charged with using Craigslist’s erotic services section to pimp three underage girls at Baltimore-area hotels, Maryland’s U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein told The Examiner. Byron Keith Thompson and Lea Shawnay Bell are facing three counts of sex trafficking of a minor for selling sex with two 15-year-olds and a 17-year-old, according to an indictment unsealed Monday in Maryland’s federal court. Between January and April, the two repeatedly posted advertisements in Craigslist’s “Erotic Services” section, providing the girls’ sexual services for a fee, Rosenstein said. In recent months, Craigslist has come under fire...

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Police search for armed man in Wachovia heist

Fairfax County police are searching for a man who robbed a Great Falls Wachovia Bank with a handgun. Police said the man entered the bank at 750 Walker Road on Friday morning. He was wearing a rubber mask and pulled out a handgun. The robber then approached a 60-year-old female teller from Reston and demanded cash. She complied, and he fled with an undisclosed amount of cash. No one was injured. Police described the robber as black and about 5 feet 7 inches tall. He weighed about 170 pounds and was between 20 and 30 years old. Anyone with information should call Crime Solvers at 866-411-TIPS (8477). Meanwhile, a man or a group of men, wearing Chicago White Sox baseball caps appear to...

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Two U.S. soldiers plead guilty to selling supplies to Iraqi businessman

Two U.S. Army soldiers stationed in Iraq have pleaded guilty to selling surplus Department of Defense supplies to an Iraqi businessman and pocketing at least $400,000. Capt. Elbert Westley George III and Sgt. 1st Class Roy Greene Jr. abused their positions as logistics officers to obtain and sell between $400,000 and $1 million worth of equipment including trucks and generators to an unnamed Iraqi businessman, they admitted in Alexandria’s federal court. The two were stationed at Forward Operating Base Paliwoda, court documents said. Their job was to acquire the equipment necessary to keep the base running. As a result, they had an open-ended letter permitting them access to the...

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Crime history - School bombing kills 45

On this day, May 18, in 1927, an angry school board member in Bath Township, Mich., bombed the Bath Consolidated School, killing 45 people and injuring 58. Most of the victims were children ages 7 to 12. The attack was the deadliest mass murder at a school in U.S. history. School board member Andrew Kehoe spent months planting hundreds of pounds of dynamite in the school building. Kehoe blamed property taxes levied to fund the building’s construction for his own financial hardships, including the foreclosure on his farm. The morning of the bombing, Kehoe first killed his wife and set his farm on fire. As rescuers gathered at the blown-up school, he drove up and detonated a...

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Councilman: D.C. slaying was result of gang feud

The shooting death of a 20-year-old District man was the result of an ongoing gang feud stemming from a January homicide committed a block away, Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham told The Examiner. Marcus Robinson was found shot to death late Friday night on the 3000 block of 14th Street Northwest, within a block of the Columbia Heights Metro stop, District police said. A red Jeep Cherokee was seen fleeing the scene of what Graham called a “targeted shooting.” According to Graham, the shooting was the result of a “beef” between two Columbia Heights street gangs stemming from the slaying of Paul Dominique Jones. The 17-year-old was shot and killed on the 1300 block of...

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Fugitive of 27 years caught in wife’s Georgia home

Richard Paul Boucher escaped from a Chesapeake prison near Norfolk 27 years ago. He was caught Wednesday living what the FBI called a “modest existence” with his wife in rural Georgia. The 56-year-old had just started serving a 10-year prison sentence for an assault and burglary conviction when he attacked a prison guard and escaped in 1982. At some point, he met up with his wife, and the two lived in the Appalachian Mountains along the Tennessee border, the FBI said. A few years after his escape, Boucher fathered a daughter. The daughter, now an adult, grew up unaware her father was a wanted man. Now, Boucher is back behind bars and his wife has been charged with...

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Man hurt in stabbing sentenced for mortgage fraud

A 52-year-old Temple Hills man, who his lawyers say is suffering from major nerve damage after he was nearly stabbed to death in September, was sentenced to nearly three years for his role in a $4 million mortgage fraud scheme. Wayne A. Lee pleaded guilty in February to receiving almost $400,000 in kickbacks from sellers after he filed false mortgage loan applications so he and a family member could buy seven $570,000 homes in Woodbridge. Within a year Lee defaulted on four loans, causing more than $1 million in losses to lenders when the houses fell into foreclosure. But five months before his guilty plea, Lee was attacked in his Temple Hills home by two men he had previously paid to...

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Police: Drunk Manassas man tried to stab woman

A 45-year-old Manassas man was charged with malicious wounding and carjacking after police say he drunkenly tried to stab a woman who had climbed into her car for safety. Zepeda Gonzalez approached a 27-year-old woman and a 36-year-old man in their Manassas apartment complex parking lot late Tuesday night, Prince William County police said Friday. The man and woman told police Gonzalez appeared drunk. The woman couldn’t understand what Gonzalez said, and police say Gonzalez pulled out a knife. The woman dove into the back seat of her nearby car and locked the door. As Gonzalez took swipes at the closed car door, the man rushed to the woman’s defense, police said. But upon...

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Illegal immigrant convicted of hog-tyings, murder

A 34-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador was found guilty of murdering a 63-year-old Bethesda woman and hog-tying and robbing three other widows. A Montgomery County jury on Friday agreed with prosecutors that Jose Garcia-Perlera attacked the elderly women in their homes along the River Road corridor in Bethesda, Potomac and Chevy Chase. He beat Mary Havenstein, the woman in his last attack, to death. When Garcia-Perlera was arrested in October, his case became the first of several attacks allegedly committed by illegal immigrants in Montgomery County that got media attention. Those crimes, including the shooting death of 14-year-old Tai Lam on a county bus, eventually led...

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Top cop - Md. detective leads department in drug busts

Takoma Park police Detective Charles Hoetzel recently received his officer of the year award for 2008. Hoetzel led the department with more than 50 drug-related arrests, including one in which he seized more than 10 pounds of marijuana. The recently promoted detective works on the Takoma Park police force’s Tactical Enforcement Unit, a roving team placed in high-crime areas. How did the seizing of 10 pounds of marijuana occur? We were working in an area where we’d received a lot of complaints about drug activity. We spotted a suspicious vehicle with windows tinted beyond the legal allowance and pulled it over. We could smell marijuana in the car, and the driver consented to a...

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Arlington man facing prison for YouTube outburst

It was on YouTube that Benjamin Hornstein found he could bring his world of fantasy to life. The 37-year-old Arlington man staged online screenings portraying his daydreamed battle for the separation of church and state, and his investigation into McLean Bible Church, according to court documents filed in Alexandria’s federal court. But his fantasy was popped Jan. 19 when Hornstein posted a video of himself waving a gun. He claimed to be saving an Asian woman, who was pictured wearing a gag, from the brainwashing she’d received at the hands of a gang of Christians. Police were alerted, and Hornstein was arrested on a charge of being a felon in possession of a...

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More suspected gang members charged in slaying

Two more suspected 18th Street gang members have been charged in the stabbing death of 15-year-old Dennys Guzman-Saenz in a Gaithersburg park, Montgomery County police said. Twenty-two-year-old Francis Artiga-Cardoza, of Manassas, was arrested in Worcester, Mass., early Tuesday morning. Hours later, police arrested 17-year-old Ana Villatoro in the District. The pair, along with seven other suspected 18th Street members, are charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and armed robbery. Police say the 18th Street gang members abducted Guzman-Saenz from a Hyattsville bus stop Jan. 18., believing he was a member of arch rival gang MS-13. Guzman-Saenz was found Jan. 19 in Malcolm King...

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Official accused of leaking classified info to China

A high-ranking Department of Defense official has been accused of leaking classified information to a Chinese spy. After seven years of serving as the deputy director of U.S. Pacific Command Washington Liaison Office, James Wilbur Fondren was placed on administrative leave Feb. 11, 2008, court documents filed in Alexandria’s federal court said. On that day, FBI agents arrested Tai Shen Kuo in Fondren’s Annandale home. Kuo has pleaded guilty to selling U.S. military secrets to a Chinese official. At the time of his arrest, Kuo was accused of buying classified information from Gregg Bergerson, another DOD official. Bergerson later admitted to selling information regarding a U....

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First responder - Fire captain witnesses explosion firsthand

Capt. Grady Valencis has been with the Prince George’s County fire department for 18 years and he had never seen an explosion as large as the one that rocked a strip mall last week. On May 6, a leaking natural gas line ignited, blowing out the windows of several stores and knocking Valencis off his feet. What did you see? There was a smaller explosion first behind the stores. I walked back there and saw a gas fire had started along the roof line. I then ran back to the front to get equipment in place when I heard the ignition of the gas that had built up between the drop ceiling and the roof. I turned my head away and ducked just as the glass blew by me. What did it sound like?...

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Feds make cocaine cheese bust at Dulles airport

For the third time in recent months, federal authorities have stopped an alleged cocaine smuggler from El Salvador at a Washington-area airport. This time there was no cocaine soup, but there was cocaine cheese. Fifty-four-year-old Hector Anibal Ardon is accused of carrying 2.6 pounds of cocaine onto a TACA Airlines flight from El Salvador to Washington Dulles International Airport. Authorities said he was caught with the drugs after arriving at Dulles around 2:30 a.m. Friday. Federal agents have stopped two other alleged smugglers entering the country in this area from El Salvador. Both used the same method: hiding a total of 30 pounds of cocaine in soup packets. The drugs were...

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Salvadoran faces witnesses, DNA evidence in trial for alleged home invasions, murder

Dozens of witnesses and DNA evidence will comprise the backbone of prosecutors’ case against an illegal immigrant from El Salvador accused of murdering a 63-year-old Bethesda woman and hog-tying three other widows before burglarizing their homes. Jury selection begins Monday for the trial of 34-year-old Jose Garcia-Perlera. His arrest in October was the first in a string of a high-profile crimes allegedly committed in Montgomery County by illegal immigrants. Those crimes, which included the shooting death of a 14-year-old boy on a county bus, caused County Executive Ike Leggett to change the county’s illegal-immigrant policy. As of January, defendants accused of certain...

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Police search for culprit in armed hotel robbery

Prince George’s County police are searching for a man who robbed at gunpoint a Comfort Inn and Suites hotel in Capitol Heights. The suspect entered the hotel on the 8800 block of Hampton Mall Drive around 1:25 a.m. Wednesday and asked the clerk about getting a room for the night, but he then left without renting one, police said Friday. A short time later, the man returned. This time he was brandishing a black handgun and demanding money, police said. The clerk gave the robber an undisclosed amount of cash and he fled. Authorities described the robber as a black male around 27 years old. He’s about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs about 200 pounds. He was wearing a black...

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Police make black market bust at Fairfax strip mall

It started in May 2008 with residents at Bailey’s Crossroads’ Skyline condominiums complaining of illegal activity at a nearby shopping center. It ended Wednesday with 37 suspects charged with a variety of crimes: dealing cocaine and marijuana, selling stolen property, and money laundering, police said. Fairfax County police along with a handful of local law enforcement agencies cracked what they called an “underground criminal economy” at the Build America Shopping Center on the 3800 block of South George Mason Drive after a year of undercover operations. Those arrested were loosely connected, said Fairfax County police spokesman Officer Eddy Azcarate. There was...

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Prince George’s deputy injured in fall into ravine

A Prince George’s County sheriff’s deputy was seriously injured Thursday when he fell into a ravine in Riverdale, county authorities said. The deputy was chasing several suspects when they led him into a wooded area behind Parkdale High School on Good Luck Road, Prince George’s fire department spokesman Mark Brady said. It was in that wooded area that the deputy discovered the ravine, falling 25 feet to its bottom. He was taken to a trauma center with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, Brady said. A sheriff’s department spokesman told the Associated Press that the deputy was chasing three suspects who were believed to have broken into a nearby apartment....

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Montgomery police search for ATM scam artist

There’s a bundle of cash in the suspect’s paper bag and he needs help depositing it. But after you part ways, you discover he’s absconded with your debit card. Montgomery County police say three people — two on April 17, one on April 18 — at the Westfield Shopping Center in Wheaton have fallen prey to the con artist’s tricks. Among them was a 28-year-old man who was approached by the suspect on April 17, police said. The suspect claimed he had a bag of cash and the victim said he’d help him deposit it. They walked to a nearby bank where the suspect told the victim he’d changed his mind, but then asked the victim to show him how the...

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2 expected to plead guilty in credit card scheme

Two M&S Grill waitresses are expected to plead guilty today to their roles in a credit card skimming scheme that ran up a $750,000 tab on cards stolen from diners at Washington-area high-end restaurants, their attorneys confirmed to The Examiner. The two waitresses are accused of stealing credit card numbers and selling them to the scheme’s three ringleaders. According to court documents filed in Alexandria’s federal court, the ringleaders used the numbers provided by the two waitresses to spend $150,000 at stores like Gucci and Barney’s of New York. One of the ringleaders, Aaron Gilbert, pleaded guilty late last month. He faces up to 10 and-a-half years in prison...

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Hacker claims to hold 8M patients’ prescription records for ransom

The FBI and Virginia State Police are investigating the potential breach of more than 8 million patient’s medical prescription records after a hacker broke into a commonwealth Web site and posted a ransom note demanding $10 million for the data’s safe return. Officials at the Department of Health Professions, which oversees the potentially breached Prescription Monitoring Program, skirted questions about the hacker’s claims Tuesday. When asked whether millions of Virginians should be worried whether data regarding what prescription medications they take is secure, department Director Sandra Whitley Ryals told The Examiner: “We have no confirmation that the...

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First responders - 5 deputies awarded for saving inmates’ lives

On Sept. 4, an inmate at the Alexandria jail wrapped a T-shirt around his neck, wedged the other end between the wall and a light fixture and tried to hang himself in his jail cell, a sheriff is spokesman said. The inmate was in a private cell on the jail’s second floor after getting in a fight. Once inside, he covered the cell’s camera so deputies couldn’t see him. As a result, Deputies Gerald Resseguie and Scott Petrini conducted extra checks on the inmate. It was during one of those checks that they found the inmate hanging by his T-shirt and rushed inside. They quickly pulled the shirt from its wedge and lowered him to his bunk. He was breathing, but unconscious....

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Last conspirator in heroin ring convicted

The last conspirator in a 16-member Centreville, Va.-based heroin dealing ring that left four teens dead was found guilty Tuesday by a jury in Alexandria’s federal court. The other 15 members pleaded guilty, but 20-year-old Skylar Schnippel chose to go to trial for selling the heroin to his 19-year-old girlfriend Alicia Lannes that killed her in March 2008. According to prosecutors, Schnippel knew Lannes had overdosed in the past when he sold her the drugs. Two of the other conspirators have already been sentenced to 20 years in prison, the minimum under federal law for dealing drugs when it results in death. Schnippel likely will get more time. Defendants who plead guilty often...

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Bank robbery - Man sought in Alexandria BB&T bank heist

Authorities have released surveillance footage of a man who robbed an Alexandria BB&T Bank branch. The robber entered the branch at 233 S. Van Dorn St. around 5:20 p.m. Friday, Alexandria police said. He approached a teller, implied he had a handgun and demanded money. The robber left with an undisclosed amount of cash and fled on foot. No one was injured. He is described as a black male, about 5 feet 7 inches tall and unshaven, police said. He was wearing light-colored pants, white tennis shoes and a long, black T-shirt. He had on a dark-colored Chicago White Sox baseball cap with the word “Sox” in white lettering running vertically down the cap’s...

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Hatred for staffer called motive in bomb plot

Hatred for a guidance counselor was the driving cause behind two Montgomery County students’ plans to bomb their Silver Spring high school, prosecutors said Thursday. Eighteen-year-old Yonata Getachew and 17-year-old Anthony Torrence are accused of planning to throw a nail bomb at the school’s principal, beat a guidance counselor with a bag of nails and rocks, and then light gas fumes released from a pipe in Springbrook High School’s auditorium, court documents said. Prosecutors said Principal Michael Durso became a target for supporting the counselor’s treatment of the students. Authorities said they had been investigating a potential Columbinelike incident at...

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Teens accused of plotting MontCo high school attack denied bail

The two students accused of planning to kill their principal with a nail bomb and blow up Springbrook High School in Silver Spring were held without bail Thursday. Eighteen-year-old Yonata Getachew’s attorney, David Putzi, argued that his client should have been released on bail because accusations by police regarding a conspiracy for the attack were thin and based on statements to police made by both teens who are in school programs the developmentally disabled. Charles Lazar, the attorney for 17-year-old Anthony Torrence, said in court that he believed it was in his client's best interest that he not be released and remain in a medical unit. After the bail hearing, Lazar said he...

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2 teens charged in plot to bomb Montgomery County high school

Two juniors at Springbrook High School are accused of settings a fire at their school and conspiring to bomb it in an attempt to kill the principal and a guidance counselor, Montgomery County police said. Yonata Getachew, 18, and Anthony N. Torrence, 17, were arrested Tuesday night, police said. Charges against them include attempted first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree arson. Despite being a juvenile, Torrence is being charged as an adult. At 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, firefighters responded to the school after a report of an attempted arson in the ROTC hallway and a fire in the a boy’s locker room, police said Wednesday. The walls of the bathroom were charred, but no...

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Feds: Area firm’s mortgage scam cost investors $70M

Federal authorities say a District-based company promising to pay off the mortgages of its investors was actually a Ponzi scheme that robbed more than 1,000 homeowners of $70 million. Investigators are now trying to recover the remaining cash for the victims. Metro Dream Homes was founded by 58-year-old Andrew Hamilton Williams Jr., who used some of the $50,000 minimum payments provided by homeowners to cover the losses of an automated teller machine scheme he was ordered to shut down in 2001, according to the indictment unsealed Monday. Williams and four of his top-ranked employees were charged Monday with wire fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors want the five to turn over the $70...

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D.C.-based company took investors for $70M in mortgage scheme, prosecutors say

Federal authorities say a District-based company promising to pay off the mortgages of its investors, was actually a Ponzi scheme that robbed more than 1,000 home owners of $70 million. Metro Dream Homes was founded by Andrew Hamilton Williams Jr., who used some of the $50,000 minimum payments provided by home owners to cover the losses of an automated-teller-machine scheme he was ordered to shut down in 2001, according to the indictment unsealed Monday. Investors in Metro Dream Homes who forked over the $50,000 were told the company would pay off the their mortgages, court documents said. Instead, the cash was used to pay off the mortgages of the original investors, and often just...

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Tech firm president charged with visa fraud

The president of a Maryland technology firm has been charged with filing false visa applications that allowed at least two dozen immigrants to work in the United States, court documents said. Ahfaz Ahmed, who started Super Technologies Corp. in Jamaica, N.Y., in 1992 and later moved it to Catonsville, earned more than $125,000 from immigrants seeking visas to work legally in the United States, according to an indictment unsealed Friday in Maryland’s federal court. Ahmed and his colleague Aamir Saeed Khan, who was also charged, filed paperwork claiming the immigrants would work for their company, even though they knew they would not, court documents said. The false claims allowed...

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Former student shoots two, then self, police say

A former Hampton University student is suspected of shooting a dormitory night manager and a pizza deliveryman before shooting himself early Sunday morning at the private Hampton, Va., university, police said. All three men were hospitalized with serious injuries. Their names were not immediately released. Authorities said they believed the shooter was an 18-year-old from Richmond and a former Hampton University student. The incident took place around 1 a.m. Sunday inside an all-male freshman dormitory. A 62-year-old man injured in the shooting was the dormitory’s night manager, school officials said. According to media reports, students who live in the dormitory identified the...

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Trio from Maryland charged with receiving cocaine from Guatemala through the mail

Two men from Hyattsville and one from Rockville have been charged with receiving a total of more than six pounds of cocaine mailed from Guatemala, court documents said. All three of the packages were sent from Chiquimula, Guatemala, and were discovered by authorities on April 14 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to court documents filed in Maryland’s federal court. From there, customs officials allowed the packages to arrive at their destinations and the recipients were arrested soon after. Elvis Abelino Vasquez accepted the delivery of about 2.7 pounds of cocaine April 17 at his Rockville home, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent wrote in a sworn...

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Kellermann wanted a break before apparent suicide

Freddie Mac’s acting chief financial officer met with the human resources office and was making plans to take time off the day before authorities found him dead from an apparent suicide, an unnamed source told the Associated Press. One of the mortgage giant’s human resources officials met with David Kellermann on Tuesday and advised him to take a break because Kellermann had been working so hard, the person close to the company said. The source spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the individual wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter. Kellermann, 41, was found dead in his Vienna basement Wednesday morning. Police are awaiting a medical...

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Mentor accused of fondling girl is a convicted killer

A convicted killer placed as a mentor by a city-funded program has been arrested after authorities accused him of fondling a 15-year-old girl in a District school basement. Barry Harrison worked for the nonprofit anti-violence group Peaceoholics at Spingarn High School in Northeast, where police say the 50-year-old kissed and fondled the girl April 14. Harrison was placed with Peaceoholics by Project Empowerment, a District-funded program that helps ex-offenders find jobs, Peaceoholics officials said. Harrison has been charged with second-degree sexual abuse. Last year, he pleaded guilty to a drug charge. Harrison was released from prison in 2006 after serving time for a second-degree...

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Illegal immigrant charged with child rape had been released a year earlier after assault arrest

A year before Prince William County police say he raped an 8-year-old girl, court documents show an illegal immigrant from Honduras was released by Montgomery County police after being arrested for second-degree assault. Marcos Banegas has been on the run since Feb. 16 when Prince William County police charged him with forcible sodomy and aggravated sexual battery of a Woodbridge girl. But before moving to Prince William where police say he cut hair at a local salon, the 26-year-old was arrested by Montgomery County police. Banegas was accused of “violently” grabbing a stroller, causing the child inside to be shaken, police said in court documents. The incident allegedly...

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Most wanted - Marshals seek suspect in Montgomery rape

U.S. marshals are searching for a Chinese citizen who fled after being accused of an armed rape in Montgomery County. Ken Chong was released on $15,000 bail in 2001 and never returned to court. “Chong is charged with a very serious offense and the [U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force] wants to make sure that all fugitives are aware that we will not stop looking for them,” said task force supervisor Matthew J. Burke. Marshals believe Chong fled to China after making bail. The United States and China do not have an extradition agreement, which means Chinese officials are not required to turn over suspects in U.S. criminal cases. According to media reports, the two countries are...

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Pr. George’s firefighters risk violence to save lives

On the night of Feb. 4, four Prince George’s County firefighters found themselves in a Seat Pleasant neighborhood that seemed like a war zone. According to officials: The Rescue Squad arrived on the scene of a shooting with multiple victims down. Police secured the scene and waved rescue workers forward. A woman was on the ground in front of a house suffering from gunshot wounds. As Fire Lt. John Woods descended from his rescue truck, he saw police officers running around the house. The attacker was near and the Rescue Squad was exposed. There was no police cover, but the firefighters pulled the woman to safety anyway, taking her away in an ambulance as lifesaving treatment was...

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FBI adds U.S. citizen to most wanted terrorists list

A 31-year-old vegan computer specialist from San Francisco has become the first domestic terrorist ever placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list, officials announced in Washington. He’s third on the list, two spaces behind Osama Bin Laden and one space ahead of the man accused of bombing two U.S. embassies in Africa. Daniel Andreas San Diego hasn’t killed anyone but is accused of setting bombs at two California biotechnology companies in 2003, said Michael J. Heimbach, assistant FBI director in the counterterrorism division. San Diego is associated with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, Heimbach said. The so-called animal rights extremist group has set out to...

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Robber on the loose has worn a badge during heists

A fake security badge dangled from his neck as he passed a note to a teller at one of three TD Bank branches in Prince George’s County and Alexandria that he has robbed a total of five times. The note read: “I am armed, I will shoot to kill.” TD Banks robbed: Sept. 2 and Oct. 26, 2008: 8912 Woodyard Road, Clinton Sept 17 and Oct. 23: 8211 Annapolis Road, New Carrollton Nov. 17: 6615 Richmond Highway, Alexandria Another time, it simply read: “I have a gun,” according to law enforcement sources. The robber hasn’t been active since November, but he’s considered armed and dangerous, and officials want him off the streets. He has left the...

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Ex-Army officer charged in $40M fuel scam to be sentenced

A former U.S. Army captain arrested in July when he landed at Washington Dulles International Airport for stealing nearly $40 million in fuel has become a government witness helping investigators in a worldwide search for his co-conspirators, court documents said. Lee William Dubois is expected to be sentenced Friday. Prosecutors are arguing he should receive the maximum eight-year prison term partly because he hasn’t handed over his $450,000 in profits, according to documents filed in Alexandria’s federal court. His attorneys argue in court filings that Dubois has “worked tirelessly” to get the money released, but his Lebanon-based bank has been slow to release...

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Crime History: Sirhan Sirhan convicted

On this day, April 17, in 1969, Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. At about 12:15 a.m. on June 5, 1968, after winning the California primary, Democratic presidential candidate Kennedy was leaving a rally through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when Sirhan shot him three times at close range. Sirhan, then 24, was subdued by football player Rosey Grier, George Plimpton, Pete Hamill and Olympic gold medalist Rafer Johnson. After the assassination, the Secret Service offered protection of presidential candidates. Kennedy was buried near his brother, President John F. Kennedy, in Arlington National Cemetery. The...

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Guards among 24 charged in prison drug crimes

Federal prosecutors said they’ve busted a Maryland prison gang, charging four corrections officers and 20 gang members with conspiring to sell drugs inside prisons and on the streets of Baltimore. According to the indictment unsealed Thursday, the four guards helped the members of the Black Guerrilla Family smuggle cell phones, drugs and even seafood into eight Maryland corrections facilities. The leadership of the gang, which has established itself in prisons across the country, called themselves the “Supreme Bush,” court documents said. Using a network of smuggled cell phones and street contacts, the gang was able to spy on law enforcement officers in an effort to...

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Tax charges filed against nightclub owner

Cash allegedly skimmed by the owner of two once popular District nightclubs provided the fodder for a 22-count indictment charging Abdul Karim Khanu with tax evasion and filing false tax returns. The 41-year-old Khanu was arrested Wednesday morning at his Potomac home after the indictment was unsealed, prosecutors said. Khanu most recently owned H2O, a nightclub at 800 Water St. SW. The club closed last month, but it’s not where a federal grand jury concluded Khanu and his co-conspirators had evaded taxes by skimming cash for themselves and their employees. Instead, the indictment alleges Khanu and three unnamed conspirators lied on their tax returns after taking dollars off the...

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Neighborhood Watch - Community members help form police department

A few years ago, Bowie didn’t have a police department and John Durning and other members of the Nashua Lane community, looking to bolster the presence of law enforcement on their streets, formed a neighborhood watch. Now the city has its own force and the neighborhood watch program has local contacts with police. In December, the group swapped its county neighborhood watch signs with Bowie Police Department signs. Was there a particular event that caused you to get the neighborhood watch ball rolling? We had a couple of individuals in the neighborhood who were victims of mail fraud and break-ins. We got together and decided we needed to try to protect ourselves. How does the...

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Man accused of swallowing heroin to evade detection at BWI airport

Federal authorities say a man tried to sneak more than 2 1/2 pounds of heroin past border agents at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport by swallowing 100 packets containing the drug. Frank Aidoo, a Dutch citizen born in Ghana, was arrested Friday after arriving on a British Airways flight from London Heathrow International Airport around 6 p.m., Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Richard Federico wrote in a sworn statement filed in Maryland’s federal court. Aidoo was targeted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers because they had obtained “intelligence” that Aidoo had traveled to a New York address “utilized by...

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Defense contractor guilty but still on the job

A third man has pleaded guilty in a scheme to steer Department of Defense intelligence gathering contracts to a private company he co-owned but is still working with the federal government to train U.S. intelligence officers. Luis S. Mercado pleaded guilty Wednesday to the conspiracy and named himself as the informant who provided investigators with the details needed to form the case against James E. Wright and John D. Villanueva last fall. The three started a defense contracting company together, according to court documents filed in Alexandria’s federal court. Wright used his position as the chief of the Security and Counterintelligence Directorate for the Defense Threat...

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District Heights group keeps tabs in Pr. George’s

James Fisher coordinates the District Heights Citizens Action Patrol, the neighborhood watch program for the community in Prince George’s County. Unlike some neighborhood watch groups that only focus on crime, the District Heights group also serves as the eyes and ears for the city’s code enforcement office. What inspired you to join the group? I’ve been involved for about 10 years and the director for four years. I’ve been living in the city for more than 30 years and decided I wanted to get involved in the community. How does the group operate? We meet once a month to discuss issues in the community, and we partner with the police department and the code...

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Bank robbery - Duo’s heists may turn violent, police warn

Two men who wore hats and fake beards in armed robberies remain at large, and authorities, concerned the robbers’ takeover-style attacks could turn more violent, are pushing hard to find them. Howard County police said the two men most recently struck a Provident branch on the 10400 block of Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia. On March 6, they entered the bank, produced guns and announced a robbery. They demanded that the four bank employees give them cash, and the culprits later fled. No one was uninjured. Police said the men already had attacked in the same style Jan. 2, when they robbed the Howard Bank branch on the 6000 block of University Boulevard in Ellicott City. Both men...

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Man’s death exposes illegal online pharmacy he ran

The discovery of a man’s body surrounded by piles of controlled pharmaceuticals in a D.C. apartment in January has triggered an investigation of the illegal Internet pharmacy the man was operating. Vassilios Stassinos, 37, was found dead in Apartment 409 at 35 E St. NW by a maintenance worker Jan. 26. When police arrived to investigate Stassinos’ death as a possible homicide, they found 1,880 tablets of Vicodin, 5,490 pills of Valium, 4,770 bars of Xanax and 2,000 pills of Ritalin, among other drugs, court documents filed in the District’s federal court said. The FBI valued the drugs at more than $44,000. Other evidence found at the scene — packaging materials,...

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Man charged with killing woman, 2 children in NE

A man found inside a NE apartment where a mother and her two children were stabbed to death was charged with killing them, District police said. Joseph Randolph Mays, 44, was charged with the murders of 37-year-old Erika Peters and her two sons, who were found dead in the apartment on the 2000 block of Maryland Avenue Northeast on Saturday afternoon. Police responded to a domestic dispute call around 2:15 p.m. Saturday, only to find Peters and her two boys, one about 10 years old and the other about 12, bleeding from stab wounds. Peters and one boy were pronounced dead at the scene. The other boy died later at the hospital. A third, younger child was found unharmed. Mays, police said,...

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Postal worker charged in theft of $600K in stamps

A U.S. Postal Service worker has been charged with stealing more than $600,000 in stamps from the post office in Elkridge where he worked, federal court documents revealed. Postal inspectors were led to Marvin Foster after starting an investigation into Kyle Mathias, who allegedly was selling Forever Stamps on eBay for less than their face value, the inspectors wrote in a sworn statement. Mathias has been charged with conspiring with Foster to sell the stolen stamps. As the investigation proceeded, the inspectors learned that from at least January 2007 through December 2008, a pattern of thefts of stamps at the Elkridge Post Office had emerged, the statement said. According to the...

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Police search for would-be robber of gas station

Montgomery County police are looking for a man who tried to rob a Silver Spring gas station at gunpoint, but left empty-handed after a customer entering the store scared him off. The man entered the Chevron Gas Station at 13990 Georgia Ave. around 7:13 a.m. March 14, police said. He asked a clerk for merchandise and showed a handgun. But he left the store when a customer walked in. He was last seen walking south on Georgia Avenue. No one was injured in the incident. Police said the culprit is a black man, about 30 years old and 6 feet tall. He weighs between 180 and 200 pounds. He was wearing a black Chicago Bulls sweatshirt, and black jeans and shoes. He was carrying a black, white and...

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Man convicted of rape despite questionable DNA evidence, faces possible life sentence

Faulty DNA evidence and a victim’s testimony were enough for a District jury to convict a 47-year-old man of a Capitol Hill rape. As a previously convicted sex offender, James E. Blackmon faces up to a life in prison when he’s sentenced May 22, prosecutors said Friday after the jury’s decision. Blackmon was convicted of rape by a Connecticut court in 1991. This latest guilty verdict was the second attempt by prosecutors to put Blackmon back in jail. In March 2008, Blackmon was arrested and accused of raping a nanny in Southeast Washington. After he was released in August due to lack of evidence, Blackmon told The Examiner he was targeted because of his sex offender...

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Crime Blotter

Basketball coach sentenced for child porn A popular 54-year-old Virginia youth basketball coach has been sentenced to 5 years in prison for receiving child pornography via the Internet. Thomas “Randy” White, of Arlington, spent more than a decade training boys between 12 and 17 to play basketball as the director of NOVA United AAU basketball league. Among the dozens of boys whom White trained was former George Mason University star Lamar Butler. White was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to the charges in December. White was identified by the FBI during a national investigation of child pornography traders. He admitted to receiving several images of prepubescent boys...

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Ex-GMU player goes to bat for man in child porn case

Lamar Butler — the hero of George Mason University’s Cinderella basketball run to the 2006 NCAA Final Four — is among the more than dozen people who sent letters to a federal judge in Alexandria, asking for leniency in the sentencing of a popular Northern Virginia coach recently convicted of child pornography possession. Butler met Thomas “Randy” White in the summer of 2001. White coached Butler and other players at the NOVA United AAU Basketball youth league. Butler wrote in a letter to Judge Claude Hilton that he did not want to go home to Oxon Hill in the summer of 2004 because many of his friends had been killed in random violence, so White let Butler...

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Study: Child porn possessors likely abusers

People convicted of possessing child pornography are likely to have sexually abused many children, a study has found. The Journal of Family Violence published in December a study that examined 155 inmates convicted of child pornography possession with no indication during trial that they had inappropriately touched children. Through the course of treatment, however, 131 inmates admitted to having at least one hands-on sexual offense. Of the 155, 40 had a criminal history of abusing children before being caught with child pornography. They reported during therapy having abused an average of 19 victims each. The remaining 115 with no known history of child abuse reported abusing an...

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Feds probe doctors accused of insurance fraud

Federal authorities are investigating two Washington-area doctors suspected of charging insurance companies more than $2.3 million for services their patients did not receive, documents filed in Maryland’s federal court said. Many of the false claims used names of patients who work at the Embassy of Egypt, which provides insurance for its employees through Mid Atlantic Medical Services, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, FBI agent Marisa L. Perez wrote in a sworn statement. Perez’s statement was part of a request for warrants to search the offices of Drs. Abdul Fadul and Ali Al-Attar. The two run multiple clinics, with offices in Suitland, La Plata, Oxon Hill and Falls...

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Camelot Neighborhood Watch hits 30 years

Frank Vajda and his crew from the Camelot Neighborhood Watch program in Fairfax are celebrating their 30th year as the oldest continuously active neighborhood watch program in the country. Much has changed since 1979. Now, they use cell phones to keep in touch during patrols instead of CB radios, and e-mails instead of mailed fliers, to stay organized. But the group hasn’t strayed from its core purpose: keeping the 400-home neighborhood safe. How did you first become involved with Camelot Neighborhood Watch? I moved to Camelot in 1987 and the neighborhood watch patrol came by and asked if I wanted to get involved. But I didn’t do it right away, preferring to settle in first. ....

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DNA evidence at question in rape trial

A 26-year-old woman who was attacked in her Capitol Hill apartment last year told her assailant “Jesus loves you” before he raped her on the bed she shared with her husband of one month, a prosecutor said in the District’s Superior Court on Tuesday. Prosecutor Sharon Donovan shared the details of the rape with a jury Tuesday morning during opening arguments in her case against 47-year-old James Blackmon, a one-time convicted sex offender who stands accused of the February 2008 rape after being linked to the crime by DNA evidence. “She never identified her attacker,” Donovan said Tuesday of the victim. “But his body fluids did.” But defense...

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Bank Robbery - ‘Hoodie Bandit’ striking BB&T banks in Fairfax

He wears a black or blue hooded sweat shirt and carries a black semiautomatic handgun in hands often covered by purple latex gloves. He’s known for leaping over tellers’ counters, stuffing a bag with cash and getting away on foot. At a glance BB&T Banks suspect has robbed: Nov. 28: 2513 Fox Mill Road, Reston Dec. 10: 3360 Franklin Farm Road, Herndon Jan. 9: 11100 S. Lake Drive, Reston Jan. 31: 3360 Franklin Farm Road, Herndon Feb. 27: 6130 Redwood Square Center, Centreville He’s the Hoodie Bandit and he’s suspected of robbing four Fairfax County BB&T banks — one of them twice — since late November, the FBI said. Investigators want to...

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Man charged with robbing pharmacy of drugs

A 20-year-old Falls Church man has been charged with robbing a Fairfax pharmacy of strong morphinelike drugs at gunpoint, Fairfax police said. Police said Friday that Stephen Gavin entered the Medicine Chest Pharmacy at 6823 Old Dominion Drive the afternoon of March 5, pulled out a handgun and demanded Oxycontin and Fentanyl from the 25-year-old clerk. The clerk handed over an undisclosed amount of the drugs and Gavin fled, police said. The next day, Fairfax police learned Gavin was staying at a hotel in Arlington County. He was arrested March 6 by Arlington County police and charged with robbery, using a firearm in commission of felony and possession of firearm by a convicted...

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Doubtful DNA evidence may hamper new rape charge vs. sex offender

Prosecutors are taking their second crack at keeping behind bars a convicted sex offender facing a new rape charge, but the DNA evidence they’re using might be tainted, they said in court filings. James E. Blackmon, 47, was arrested in March 2008 for allegedly assaulting a nanny in a South Carolina Avenue home in Southeast Washington, only to be released in August after DNA evidence left at the scene didn’t match his. At the time of his release, Blackmon blamed his sex offender status — he was convicted of rape by a Connecticut court in 1991 — for the arrest. “When does a person get a chance to move on?” Blackmon said to The Examiner. A month later,...

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Registered sex offender charged with possession of child porn

A Laurel man with a history of sex offenses against minors has been charged with child pornography possession after a tip from an international police agency in Switzerland led U.S. authorities to him. Seng Foon Yeow, 61, has been on the Maryland sex offender registry since moving to the state in 2004, not long after being released from federal prison where he served time for traveling across state lines to have sex with a minor and child pornography possession. Now, he’s being held without bail after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents received a tip from Interpol in Bern, Switzerland, that someone in Maryland had downloaded child pornography from a Swiss-based Web site,...

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Police seeking 2 suspects in fraud, robbery case

Arlington County police are seeking the public’s help to identify two men suspected of fraud and robbery. The men persuaded a man to donate money to a church and drove him to the bank, but when the victim became suspicious, one of the men brandished a handgun and forced the victim to withdraw money, police said. The first man is 6 feet, 2 inches tall, black, in his 50s and has a medium build. He has a full salt-and-pepper beard and was wearing a suit, trench coat and hat. The second man is a 5 feet, 5 inches tall, black, in his early 40s and has a thin build. He was wearing a white shirt, tie, zippered jacket, brown pants and a hat. The men drove a white four-door...

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Fire commander aids in wintry Pr. George’s blaze

On March 1, Maj. Jerry LaMoria of the Prince George’s County fire department was called to command the scene outside a blazing Laurel town house. The building’s lightweight construction meant the fire was spreading quickly through the two-story house, threatening the homes on either side. The snowy night slowed the arrival of fire trucks, and the fire was well under way by the time LaMoria arrived. What did you find when you arrived? It was a difficult fire. The buildings were constructed in a lightweight style, and the adult male occupant had spent time trying to put it out before calling us. The fire started in the basement, and by the time we got there, slowed by the snow,...

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Sting nets 2 men in cocaine/cigarettes swap

Federal authorities have charged two New York City men with trading undercover agents in Fairfax County more than two pounds of cocaine for 600,000 contraband cigarettes. Between Nov. 14 and Friday, Valding Duran and Arturo Vargas allegedly bought more than 1 million untaxed cigarettes from undercover federal agents before exchanging 2.2 pounds of cocaine for 600,000 smokes, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent Don Dockendorff wrote in a sworn statement filed in Alexandria’s federal court. The bust was one of several in recent months involving the purchase of cigarettes from low-cost states like Virginia for resale in high-tax states like New...

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Police seek man who allegedly robbed teens

Prince William County police are looking for a 21-year-old man accused of robbing a group of teenage boys at gunpoint in September. Derek Shane Renforth, of Dumfries, allegedly robbed five boys between the ages of 15 and 17 at gunpoint Sept. 12 near the intersection of Timber Ridge Drive and Waterway Drive in Montclair, police said. David Moore III has also been charged and arrested in the robbery. Renforth is white, about 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds. He has blond hair and blue eyes. Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts should call 1-866-411-TIPS. Information that leads to an arrest and successful prosecution could result in a reward of up to $1,000....

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Cops use Craigslist in child sex sting

Washington-area law enforcement ran a Craigslist sting operation recently, posting advertisements in which federal agents and local police pretended to be pimps peddling children. The FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and detectives with Northern Virginia departments put up posts on Dec. 2 and Dec. 3 with titles like: “In Town for 2 Days-Mom W 2 Grls” in the “erotic services” section, and “2 nite only- fmly fun - u wn’t forget” in “casual encounters,” court documents filed in Alexandria’s federal court show. The advertisements described fathers selling their 14-year-old daughters for sex, and mothers selling their...

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Former exec accused of bank robbery caught

A former business executive accused of robbing a SunTrust Bank in Arlington last weekend was caught in the District on Tuesday and now is accused of robbing another SunTrust earlier last week, Arlington County police said. Bruce W. Higgins Jr., 34, was a vice president at Silo Smasher, a Fairfax County consulting company, until he was fired in September 2007, the company’s chief executive officer, Angela Drummond, told The Examiner on Monday. She declined to comment on why. Now, Higgins is accused of robbing a SunTrust Bank at 410 Rhode Island Ave. NE on Feb. 24 and a SunTrust branch Saturday on North Glebe Road in Arlington, police said. He was caught Tuesday in the District...

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YouTube video leads to felon’s conviction for gun possession

An Arlington man with severe mental problems pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm after investigators saw him waving a pistol around on a YouTube.com video, federal prosecutors said. Benjamin C. Hornstein, 37, filmed the video in his bedroom on North Quebec Street where he lives with his mother, he admitted Tuesday in Alexandria’s federal court. Arlington County police were tipped off to the YouTube posting Jan. 19 and searched the house, where they found the Colt 10 mm semiautomatic pistol Hornstein used in the video. It is illegal for felons to possess weapons. Hornstein was convicted in 1994 for grand larceny and burglary. In 2007, he was convicted for...

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Resident uses site to alert neighbors to crime

Angelo Rhodes, 44, moved to Hollaway Estates in Upper Marlboro two years ago, escaping the crime that surrounded his previous home in Capitol Heights. Concerned about keeping bad guys out of his new neighborhood and seeing an opportunity to advance his realty business, Rhodes began a Web site, Hollawayestates.typepad.com, designed in part to alert his neighbors about the crime he learned about through the neighborhood watch program. How did you get involved with Hollaway Estates neighborhood watch? When I was living in Capitol Heights, there were many criminal incidents. I had a corner property and a good view of the street from my windows. I often found myself calling 911. There was no...

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‘Cocaine soup’ bust made at Dulles

For the second time in a month, a man has been caught carrying more than a dozen pounds of cocaine disguised as dried soup into a Washington-area airport from El Salvador, according to federal court documents filed in Alexandria. On Saturday, Maryland resident Jorge Luis Posada Guevara was caught at Washington Dulles International Airport carrying 16 pounds of cocaine stuffed into dried soup boxes, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jerre E. Harvard III said in a sworn statement. Guevara had just arrived from El Salvador. Also charged was Hidsar Orlando Henriquez Parada, who allegedly arrived at Dulles to take the cocaine from Guevara and deliver it to a man in Wheaton, Harvard...

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Man charged with abusing child in wife’s tutoring program

A 60-year-old Silver Spring man was charged Tuesday with sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl while she was in an after-school tutoring program run by his wife out of his home, Montgomery County police said. Police said they were concerned Robert Eugene Felton Jr.’s frequent contact with minors could mean there were additional victims. The girl, now 12, reported being abused by Felton while being tutored by his wife after school through her company, the Certified Learning Centers Inc. Police said Felton abused the girl while his wife was in a different room. Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Montgomery County police at...

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The Three Minute Interview: Vicki Lambert

In 2003, Alexandria resident Vicki Lambert was watching her mother, Pearl, approach death as her liver failed due to a rare disease. After learning there were thousands ahead of her mother on the donors list, Lambert turned to an alternative solution. At the age of 32, Lambert donated 60 percent of her liver to her mother at Georgetown University Hospital. She is now the proud mother of a baby girl and is closer to her mother than ever before. Was donating such a large portion of your liver a difficult decision? No, it wasn’t difficult. My mother deserved a second chance at life. There were over 15,000 people waiting for liver donations, and I saw Mother getting ill. I prayed to...

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Ex-CIA executive sentenced to 37 months for corruption

Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, who pleaded guilty to using his position as the third-highest ranking member of the CIA to influence defense contracts for a close friend, was sentenced to three years and one month in prison Thursday. The sentence matched prosecutor’s recommendations. Foggo, who ran the CIA’s daily operations as executive director between 2004 and 2006, deserved to be freed due to his patriotism and because he didn’t receive “a single dollar” for directing contracts to his long-time friend Brent Wilkes, Foggo attorney Mark MacDougall said. Foggo went on $30,000 trips to Hawaii and Scotland paid for by Wilkes. The two dined at high-end...

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Ex-CIA official Foggo gets 3 years for steering defense contracts

Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, who pleaded guilty to using his position as the third-highest ranking member of the CIA to influence defense contracts for a close friend, was sentenced to three years and one month in prison Thursday. The sentence matched prosecutor’s recommendations. In court Thursday, Foggo’s attorneys contended that his entire sentence be served on probation, an argument the judge did not accept. Foggo, who ran the CIA’s daily operations as executive director between 2004 and 2006, deserved to be freed due to his patriotism and because he didn’t receive “a single dollar” for directing contracts to his long-time friend Brent Wilkes,...

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Prince George’s police execute warrants on Mexican cartel

Prince George’s County police executed 14 search warrants Wednesday as part of a national raid aimed at breaking the back of a Mexican drug cartel, federal and local authorities said. Called “Operation Xcellerator,” and run by the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and local law enforcement agencies in Maryland, California and Minnesota, the raids targeted members of the Sinaloa Cartel, a major Mexican drug trafficking organization. The 21-month-long investigation resulted in 755 arrests and the seizing of $59 million, more than 26,000 pounds of cocaine, 16,000 pounds of marijuana, 1.3 million Ecstasy pills, 1,200 pounds of methamphetamine, more than 17 pounds...

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Police seek Taser robber who hit two businesses

Montgomery County police are searching for a man who used a Taser to rob two Silver Spring businesses. The robber hit Nancy’s Nails at 1608 Elton Road on Feb. 6. He cropped up again Feb. 18 at the Excel Gas Station at 13455 New Hampshire Ave. No one was injured in either incident. Police did not disclose how much cash the robber stole before he fled on foot. Detectives said he may be working with an accomplice, but they have no description of a second robber. The man who showed the Taser, however, is black, in his 20s or 30s and about 6 feet fall. He weighs about 155 pounds. Anyone with information should call Montgomery police at...

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FBI points to man held on gun charges as suspect in armored car robbery

A Maryland man held on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm also is suspected of being one of the gunmen in the December shootout and robbery of $245,000 from an armored truck in Laurel, the FBI confirmed. Derrick Simmons was indicted on the gun charge Jan. 5 after Laurel police discovered a pistol in his Greenbelt home Dec. 4, the day after authorities suspect he and others robbed the armored truck outside a Bank of America. The suspects exchanged gunfire with guards as they fled in Simmons’ black Chevrolet Suburban, police said. The sport utility vehicle’s back window was blown out by the gunfire. According to a sworn statement by FBI agent James Mollica...

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Arrest imminent in Levy murder case

District police are close to announcing an arrest in the 2001 slaying of 24-year-old intern Chandra Levy, sources confirmed Saturday. A source close to the Chandra Levy case said investigators are preparing an arrest warrant for 27-year-old Ingmar Guandique, an immigrant from El Salvador currently serving time for attacking two women in Rock Creek Park the same year Levy disappeared while jogging in the park. Guandique first emerged as a possible suspect in media reports in May 2002, soon after Levy’s body was found by a man walking his dog in the park. He was a suspect in a series of attacks on young women in Rock Creek Park along the path Levy typically followed on her routine...

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Ex-CIA exec faces sentencing for fraud

Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, the highest-ranking member of a federal intelligence or law enforcement agency convicted of a federal crime, is expected to be sentenced in Alexandria’s federal court today, where federal secrets could be made public. Foggo, 53, admitted in September that he used his position as the third-highest-ranking member of the CIA to steer government contracts to his good friend Brent R. Wilkes. In return, Wilkes offered Foggo a job with his company upon leaving government service, sent Foggo and his family on a $30,000 vacation and took Foggo out to high-priced dinners in the Washington area. Foggo was the CIA’s executive director from November 2004...

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Pr. William police worry rape suspect might flee

Prince William County police said Tuesday that they were worried an illegal immigrant from Honduras accused of raping an 8-year-old girl would flee the country before they could take him into custody. Marcos Danilo Reyes Banegas, 25, has been charged with rape, forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual battery and indecent liberties for the alleged Monday incident in Woodbridge. Banegas has ties to Woodbridge, Alexandria and Gaithersburg. He’s 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 154 pounds. He was driving a 2004 Pontiac Grand Am sedan with Maryland license plate 2DWK45, police said. Anyone with information should call Prince William police at 703-670-3700 or...

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Fairfax man’s quest for cocaine runs through Texas, Mexico, papers allege

When Fairfax resident Greg Carper’s North Carolina cocaine source dried up, he sought help from his cousin Darron Broadus Jr., of Woodbridge, recently unsealed court documents said. Broadus, 40, a longtime drug abuser, later admitted to authorities that he turned to his father, Darron Broadus Sr., who connected him with Antonio Zamarron, a Mexican citizen living in Texas who had “well-connected relatives” in his home country. What the men didn’t know was that a fifth man who joined their drug-dealing conspiracy in June 2007 was a Drug Enforcement Agency informant, according to court documents unsealed last week in Alexandria’s federal court. The informant, who...

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Court documents say father, son fled to Iran after FBI disrupted plans to swindle banks

A father and son, whose plans to swindle $5.5 million from Washington area banks were disrupted by an FBI raid on their Potomac business, escaped arrest by fleeing to Iran, federal prosecutors said in court documents. The son, Dustin Milan, returned to the United States Jan. 9, but only after checking with a bail bondsman that there were no outstanding warrants for his arrest, FBI agent Spencer Brooks wrote in a sworn statement filed in Alexandria’s federal court. He remains at-large and an arrest warrant was issued for him Monday. Milan’s father, Michael, is believed to be living in Tehran. A warrant for his arrest was also issued Monday. The plan, which they developed in the...

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Md. employee gets 10 years for taking medical funds

A former Maryland employee convicted of stealing $1.7 million from a state program that helps low-income residents pay for critical medical treatment was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday, Attorney General Douglas Gansler said. Donna McRae Lam, 51, will also have to pay back $1.5 million. She pleaded guilty in October. Between 1997 and 2007, Lam, a claims processor for the Maryland Kidney Disease Program, created 917 fake claims for payment. She and her husband opened numerous bank accounts and post office boxes to collect the state checks that were issued for the claims. The couple spent the stolen cash on real estate, cars, jewelry and gifts. The kidney program helps...

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Prosecutors say trio’s scheme led to $18M in fraudulent loans

Federal prosecutors in Maryland now say a massive Washington area mortgage scheme caused banks to issue $18 million in fraudulent loans, according to an indictment unveiled Tuesday accusing the scheme’s third leader and bank employee for their roles. On Tuesday, The Examiner reported that one member of the scheme, Bethesda resident Sabrina Weinberg, filed fraudulent loan applications to receive $4.6 million in mortgages, which she used to buy seven properties in the region. Weinberg pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges in November. But Tuesday’s indictment widens the scope of the scheme. Authorities say the conspirators ripped off area banks for at least $18 million as...

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16 students arrested after fight at Cardozo High

Sixteen teenagers were arrested and 18 students were injured after a fight broke out at Cardozo High School on Tuesday morning, D.C. police said. Officers responded to the Columbia Heights school at about 11:30 a.m., and the school was put on lockdown soon thereafter. The fight stemmed from an earlier incident in which a female student’s hair weave was pulled out, police said. Police said 13 students were treated for minor injuries and five students were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. The school went on lockdown at 12:15 p.m. and authorities remained on the scene for hours trying to piece together the events that led to the fight. The students arrested have...

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Pr. George’s firefighter saves man from frigid water

It was just a little after midnight Feb. 1 when off-duty Prince George’s County firefighter Rachel Edney heard a woman crying out for help as she ran along a dock on South River in Anne Arundel County. The woman’s husband had fallen into the frigid water. Edney, 23, came to the 61-year-old man’s rescue. What happened next? The man was holding onto the piling, and it was clear he couldn’t pull himself out. I jumped into the water, grabbed both his legs and held him above the water. I then helped him swim to a boat at the end of the dock, and other people helped pull him out of the water. It must have been cold. It was really cold. At first I didn’t really...

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Federal oversight could be ending for Prince George’s police

Prince George’s County police are expected to announce today the end of federal oversight just hours before Roberto Hylton is sworn in as the county’s new police chief, sources said. Since 2004, the U.S. Department of Justice has been keeping an eye on the department after a series of violent police encounters raised concerns about Prince George’s police using excessive force. A similar agreement between the county and the federal government regarding the use of overly violent canines came to an end in March. But while changes within the department have been made to meet the standards established by the Justice Department, including the addition of video cameras in...

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High-level official gets probation for lying on financial forms

A former high-level official a the National Library of Medicine was sentenced Monday to one year probation and ordered to perform 160 hours of community service for lying on his financial disclosure forms. Jack W. Snyder, 57, of Potomac, was also ordered to pay a $200,000 fine. On disclosure forms, Snyder denied he had received income from a private consulting business, when he actually had earned about $162,234 from the outside job. Snyder also used government computers and his time on the job to prepare expert reports and invoices for his consulting business. Between 2003 and 2005 Snyder earned a total of $468,810 from his federal job and $589,450 from his private...

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1 convicted, 2 charged in $5 million false mortgage document scheme

Federal authorities say they’ve broken a nearly $5 million real estate scheme in which several suspects allegedly filed false mortgage documents so they could buy about 25 properties in the Washington area, only to let many slip into foreclosure. So far, at least one member of the scheme, Sabrina Weinberg of Bethesda, has pleaded guilty to mail fraud for buying seven properties between February and October 2006. Weinberg bought the homes using $4.6 million in mortgage loans obtained by filing fraudulent loan applications, court documents filed in Maryland’s federal court said. At least two other suspects, Terrence White and Timothy Reed, have been charged with mail fraud...

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Robbers target Navy Federal Credit Union branches

A third bank robber is now targeting Navy Federal Credit Union in the Washington area, although his attempt was thwarted by a courageous teller, the FBI said Monday. There have been a series of robberies at Navy Federal Credit Union since September 2007 conducted by two unconnected thieves. A third robber surfaced Jan. 30 when he robbed a credit union at 2450 Crystal Drive in Arlington, the FBI said. The robber entered the bank at about 2:40 p.m. and waited in line to see a teller. When he approached a bank teller he handed over a note in which he threatened to kill the teller if money wasn’t handed over immediately, the FBI said. The teller refused to turn over the cash, and...

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Carjacking suspect nabbed at Reagan National Airport

A 29-year-old District man charged in a 2007 Woodbridge carjacking was captured at Ronald Reagan National Airport late last month, Prince William County police said Friday. On July 28, 2007, Edgar Aguilar and another man allegedly threatened a 39-year-old Woodbridge man who was sitting in a truck outside a convenience store on the 13400 block of Jefferson Davis Highway. The two suspects, who had a gun, forced their way into the truck and then drove away, police said. Aguilar and the second, unidentified suspect then released the man but took his truck. The Ford F150 was found in Woodbridge soon after, but the man’s music equipment was missing. Prince William County police...

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Previously deported illegal immigrant released by Prince George’s police

Prince George’s County police released a previously deported illegal immigrant with a violent criminal history on his own recognizance in September after charging him with assault and disturbing the peace, federal officials said in court documents. Federal authorities were led to Diego Zacarias Vasquez’s Mount Rainier home after receiving a tip from a source in Fairfax County that Vasquez was in the country illegally, according to a sworn statement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Yusuf Adeen. Vasquez was arrested Thursday on charges of illegal re-entry and is being held without bail. The Guatemalan native is believed to be a member of the violent street gang...

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Woman steals $1M from illegal immigrants seeking legal help, documents charge

A Falls Church woman has been indicted for allegedly stealing more than $1 million from illegal immigrants who went to her for help in obtaining working papers. Shahrzad Soleimanlou, 59, allegedly told several illegal immigrants that money was a necessary part of establishing legal residency in the United States and had them repeatedly mail and wire funds to her between June 2000 and December 2005, said the indictment, which was filed Thursday in Alexandria’s federal court. Immigration lawyers said showing financial viability is part of the green card application process, but giving the money to an attorney is not. Instead, applicants need a sponsor who can prove they can pay the...

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Alexandria officer promoted to undersheriff

Tony Davis is Alexandria’s new undersheriff, a promotion he received Jan. 13. As second in command to Sheriff Dana Lawhorne, Davis is tasked with overseeing Alexandria’s jail, which houses between 400 and 550 inmates, about a third of whom are federal prisoners awaiting trial in federal court in Alexandria. Davis came to the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office in 1987, after spending six years with the Arlington County Sheriff’s Office. You’ve already been working in the detention center. Have you come across any interesting inmates? We housed [former FBI agent] Robert Hanssen, who spied on the Russians, and Zacarias Moussaoui [the only person convicted for playing a...

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Police aim to identify man whose body was left on I-270

Montgomery County police are trying to determine the identity of a murdered man whose body was left on an Interstate 270 onramp in Germantown. A driver discovered the body around 4 a.m. Thursday on the edge of the ramp from eastbound Father Hurley Boulevard to southbound I-270, police said. The man suffered trauma to his body and his death is being investigated as a homicide, police said. The man is believed to be Hispanic in his late 30s or early 40s. He’s 6 feet tall and weighs 260 pounds. He has short dark hair and was wearing a brown leather waist-length jacket and bluejeans with embroidered designs on the rear pockets. He had brown ankle-high cowboy style boots and a brown...

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Judge holds CIA agent without bail on fears the man might sell secrets

A CIA agent accused of putting more than $100,000 in personal charges on stolen agency credit cards is being held without bail because a federal judge fears he might sell state secrets to cover financial losses, court documents said. Steven J. Levan, 48, of Arlington, is expected to enter a plea today in Alexandria’s federal court. He is charged with fraud after allegedly stealing several credit cards that belonged to the CIA and other agencies and charging about $107,000, court documents said. The CIA has paid the 16-year veteran’s charges “in order to maintain the means by which the agency protects the identity of certain of its employees,” a U.S. Postal...

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Feds target BWI international cocaine ring

Federal prosecutors are accusing a Salvadoran man of trying to sneak more than 14 pounds of cocaine disguised as dried soup through Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. The bust is another blow to Maryland cocaine dealers who rely on the state’s only international airport to restock their dwindling supplies, said Maryland’s U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein. “Cocaine is not grown in Maryland, it’s coming through in planes, trains, automobiles and ships,” Rosenstein said. “We often have people attempting to smuggle drugs through BWI and [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is vigilant about monitoring the airport to identify...

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Worker indicted in Fannie Mae virus case was on visa

A Fannie Mae contract worker accused of leaving behind a virus designed to wipe out the mortgage giant’s computer network was in the United States on a special work visa, his former employer, Marlabs, said Tuesday. Rajendrasinh Makwana, an Indian citizen, worked for New Jersey-based Marlabs for three years before the company fired him and had his H-1B visa revoked after learning of the charges pending against him, Marlabs’ director, Anand Vasudevan, told The Examiner. Makwana was indicted last week after federal investigators linked a virus on Fannie Mae’s servers to a computer only Makwana had access to, court documents said. The virus was allegedly left by Makwana on...

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Dumfries man accused of raping female roommate

A 27-year-old Dumfries man has been accused of raping his roommate while she was sleeping, Prince William County police said Monday. Jairo Avila-Nicolas has been charged with rape and forcible sodomy in connection with the alleged attack on his roommate late Sunday in their home on the 2900 block of Wetherburn Court, police said. Avila-Nicolas fled the home just before officers arrived, police said. A description of him was broadcast and a police sergeant working nearby spotted Avila-Nicolas walking north on Jefferson Davis Highway and took him into custody. Avila-Nicolas is being held without bail and has a court date scheduled for March 4. The woman was treated at a local hospital,...

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Woman faces 3rd deportation since June

A Guatemalan woman caught by Virginia State Police as she fled a van fire in Fairfax County last week is now facing her third deportation since June, according to court documents. Veronica Garcia, 24, was among several people who fled from a burning van Jan. 26 at the interchange of Interstate 66 and the Capital Beltway in Fairfax. She was stopped by Virginia State Police and turned over to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, according to a sworn statement by an ICE agent filed in Alexandria’s U.S. District Court. Fairfax and state police both called ICE agent Brendan Shelley the day of the fire, telling him they had a report of several Hispanic individuals...

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Bank robber has to ask for bag for loot

A man who robbed a Reston BB&T bank at gunpoint recently wasn’t prepared to carry off the cash he obtained from tellers’ drawers and had to ask the teller for a bag. The man entered the BB&T at 11100 South Lakes Drive, shortly before 6 p.m. on Jan. 12, went straight to the teller counter and vaulted it, the FBI said. He pulled out a black semiautomatic handgun and told a 52-year-old Ashburn woman working as a teller to open the drawers. The thief started stuffing cash from two tellers’ drawers in his pockets, but then, when his pockets couldn’t carry any more, he asked for a bag, the FBI said. The teller handed him a white plastic bag, the robber finished...

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Man granted new trial in 2003 child molestation case

A man convicted of molesting his girlfriend’s daughter will get a new trial because he wasn’t allowed to introduce evidence that the alleged victim had fabricated similar accusations when she was younger. Henry Obiazor was convicted of two counts of misdemeanor sex abuse and one count of simple assault stemming from a pre-Christmas 2003 incident in which he allegedly fondled his girlfriend’s 12-year-old daughter. A three-judge panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that Obiazor deserves a new trial because trial Judge Zinora Mitchell-Rankin excluded “evidence of other false claims of abuse, and under the circumstances of this case, the error was not harmless...

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Transit captain helped train inauguration crew

Capt. Dave Webb oversees the Metro Transit Police Department’s special operations division. In his 24 years with the department, no day saw a larger crowd use the system than President Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration. On that day, it was training Webb helped provide that helped a Houston transit police officer hired to help Metro handle the crush of passengers save the life of a woman who fell onto the tracks. How does the work of transit police differ from that of other law enforcement agencies? We go to the same police training academy in Northern Virginia that Arlington and Alexandria send their officers to, but then we also have to get certified in the District and Maryland....

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Former Boxer aide pleads guilty to child porn possession

A former high-level aide to Calif. Sen. Barbara Boxer pleaded guilty Thursday to possessing child pornography and faces up to 20 years in prison. Jeff P. Rosato, 32, of Arlington, worked for the three-term Democrat from February 2005 through August 2007, rising from legislative assistant to senior policy adviser. In October 2007, Rosato moved to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, for which Boxer is chairwoman. He was fired from his committee post as senior policy adviser in November after Boxer learned of the charges. In Alexandria’s U.S. District Court on Thursday, Rosato’s attorney, Patrick Anderson, argued Rosato should remain out of jail until he’s...

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Ex-Fannie Mae worker charged with planting computer virus

A fired Fannie Mae contract employee allegedly placed a virus in the mortgage giant’s software that could have shut the company down for at least a week and caused millions of dollars in damage, prosecutors say. Rajendrasinh Makwana, an Indian citizen, was indicted Tuesday on computer intrusion charges. The former Gaithersburg resident is out on $100,000 bail, court documents said. Makwana was fired from his contract position at Fannie Mae on Oct. 24 for changing computer settings without permission from his supervisor, FBI agent Jessica Nye wrote in a sworn statement. He had worked at Fannie Mae for three years as a computer engineer at the Urbana offices, where he had full access...

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3 Minute Interview-Miller-Muro

Layli Miller-Muro started the Tahirih Justice Center in Falls Church when she was fresh out of law school. The nonprofit organization fights gender-based violence, rescuing women who have been trafficked and fighting for their rights. Tahirih does this through litigation, public policy advocacy and education. How did you become interested in fighting human trafficking? While I was in law school, I had the experience of representing a young woman who became the first woman in the United States to be granted asylum because of female genital mutilation. We wrote a book together about her life, “Do They Hear You When You Cry,” and I used a portion of the proceeds to start the...

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Firefighter rescues 12-year-old boy from fire

Three fires were burning simultaneously in Northwest Washington last week. An elderly woman had already been killed in her blazing row house when Lt. Joseph Rainwater and a crew of firefighters stormed into the home on the 2200 block of North Capitol Street. Inside, Rainwater found the woman’s 12-year-old grandson clinging to life. He pulled the boy out of the flames and to safety. How did the rescue play out? I pulled up on the scene and an elderly gentlemen was at the front door, trying to get back. He had a telephone in his hand and was calling 911. We pulled him back and tried to get inside, but the blaze was too intense and the heat beat us back. Engine 12 arrived, hooked up...

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FBI seeks 2 in heists of Navy credit union branches

The FBI is searching for two men who have separately targeted area Navy Federal Credit Union branches. The suspect who most recently cropped up hit a credit union branch at 6225 Brandon Ave. in Springfield on Jan. 15, while sporting dreadlocks, and a yellow, orange and red striped “Rastafarian” style hat, the FBI said. The suspect calmly waited in line and approached the next available teller, the FBI said. He passed the teller a note demanding cash and directed the teller to fill a bag with dollars. He then walked out, bag in hand, and was seen leaving the area on foot. He did not display a weapon. He’s a black man standing between 6 feet and 6-feet-2. He weighs...

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MS-13 gang leader charged with shooting two men in Reston

A Washington-area gang leader has been charged for his alleged role in the October shooting of two men in Reston, federal court documents said. Dennis L. Gil Bernardez, aka “Dopre” and “Pando,” was charged Friday with committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering after being identified by one of the Reston victims from a photo array, according to documents filed in Alexandria’s U.S. District Court. Bernardez runs the MS-13 group Normandie Locos Salvatrucha, which controls the notoriously violent gang’s turf in the District and Prince George’s County, an FBI agent wrote in a sworn statement. But Bernardez was recently sent to Fairfax County by...

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Accused child molester kills self before expected guilty plea

A 40-year-old Springfield man committed suicide in the Alexandria jail just hours before he was expected to plead guilty to filming a 15-year-old girl as he sexually abused her, an Alexandria sheriff’s spokesman said Monday. Don Douglas, known as “Uncle Donte” to the victim and her several siblings, had convinced the girl to mix sleeping pills into her parents’ drinks so she could sneak out earlier in the evening to see him, according to documents filed in Alexandria’s U.S. District Court. Family members told investigators that Douglas had become a close confidant and they viewed him as their pastor, although he was not formally linked to any church. Douglas...

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Fredericksburg man charged in Mexican drug lord’s cocaine scheme

A Fredricksburg man has been charged with conspiracy to import cocaine for his alleged role in a Mexican drug lord’s trafficking scheme, according to documents filed in federal court in Alexandria. Thomas Earl Breeden Jr. allegedly admitted to his role in the scheme to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, describing scenes that seem like fodder for a Hollywood screenplay. Breeden’s account, according to the court documents: In September 2007, four months after leaving his Nissan Murano in Acapulco, Mexico, to be picked up by a man known as “El Presidente,” Breeden returned to Acapulco carrying the title and Virginia license plates for an Isuzu...

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Top Cop - Detective Crystal Nosal

Detective Crystal Nosal is the voice of the Arlington County Police Department, where she has worked since 2000. Her career started in patrol and she spent five years on the road. In 2005, she was promoted to corporal and became a crime scene agent, asssisting road officers by photographing and collecting evidence at crime scenes. She moved to public relations in March 2007. What brought you to media relations? I think the timing was right. One of the reasons I had stayed in patrol was to work in the evening because it used to work out best for my family. I enjoy speaking to people in the community, and this assignment is a great venue for that. This position also involves our legislative...

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Anti-abortion activists march at Mall on Roe v. Wade anniversary

Thousands of anti-abortion protesters denouncing the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision on its 36th anniversary flooded the National Mall. The annual March for Life started with prayer services in the Verizon Center, then moved to a noontime rally on the Mall and concluded with a march to the Supreme Court. The crowd of protesters, which stretched for about a quarter-mile on the Mall in front of the Capitol, invoked the rhetoric used by President Obama in his inauguration speech two days earlier. “We hope and pray that when President Obama talks about equality, that he includes the life of an unborn child,” said Sister Sharon Santos, who came from Trenton, N.J., by...

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15-year-old Hyattsville boy found stabbed to death

A 15-year-old Hyattsville boy was found stabbed to death in Gaithersburg, and Montgomery County police are trying to determine where the initial assault occurred. Dennis Alfredo Guzman-Saenz, a Prince George’s County high school student, was last seen by his family Sunday afternoon when he left their apartment on the 8100 block of 14th Avenue to catch the bus to a local mall, said family friend Pola Mejia, who was interpreting for Guzman-Seanz’s Spanish-speaking sister. His body was found by a man collecting trash around 7:30 a.m. Monday at the edge of a stream in Malcolm King Park, Montgomery County police said. Mejia said the family didn’t know why he would have been...

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Life lost as firefighters battle morning blazes

A woman was killed and a 14-year-old boy is in critical condition, victims of one of three fires that burned Wednesday morning in Northwest Washington. The first fire, which killed the woman, started around 7:20 a.m. on the 2200 block of North Capitol Street, said District fire department spokesman Alan Etter. Firefighters arrived to find smoke billowing from a two-story rowhouse. An elderly man who had escaped the blaze told firefighters there were two people trapped, Etter said. The man was taken to the hospital for mild smoke inhalation. Firefighters knocked down the door and came across a 14-year-old boy in cardiac arrest, Etter said. He was pulled from the burning house and his...

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Police searching for final suspect in home invasion

Police are searching for one of three men who they say broke into a Dumfries home, where one of them was shot by the 47-year-old woman who lived there. Steven A. Terrentine, 24, of no fixed address, was shot by the woman who had gone into her basement around 10 a.m. Jan. 14, responding to an alarm going off, police said. The woman spotted three men in her basement. When she confronted them, two of the men ran away, but Terrentine turned and approached her, police said. She fired and seriously wounded him. He fled, only to be stopped by an officer responding to the alarm, police said. Kyle D. Winston, 26, of no fixed address was arrested in Anne Arundel County on Tuesday. Police are...

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Victim has acquired little of $1M awarded in enslavement lawsuit

Nearly a year after a Tanzanian woman won more than $1 million from her former boss, a Tanzanian diplomat, after charging he enslaved her in his Bethesda home, she has received only a small amount of the money awarded. In May 2007, Zipora Mazengo sued Alan S. Mzengi and his wife, Stella, for forcing her to work 16-hour days for little to no pay from June 2000 until she fled in August 2004. In the months that followed, Mzengi repeatedly missed court dates, court documents filed in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia show. Mzengi’s lawyer, Samuel Omwenga, later wrote that Mzengi was advised by other attorneys that he didn’t have to respond to the lawsuit because...

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Neighborhood watch

Manassas Crime Prevention Officer Scott Stallard has breathed new life into the city’s neighborhood watch program. Since he took the reins five years ago, the city has started five watch programs. What role do you play in organizing neighborhood watch programs? My role is to set up neighborhood watch programs in certain neighborhoods and then provide training. When I became the crime prevention officer, I started working with local newspapers to make people aware of what neighborhood watch is and what steps they could take to start one. It worked, and now we have five active groups. Do you target specific neighborhoods? There have been a couple of areas I have focused on that have...

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Police search for Landover man missing since Sunday

Prince George’s County police are asking for the public’s help in the search for an 87-year-old Landover man who hasn’t been heard from since Sunday afternoon. Wiley Barnes, of the 7100 block of Mahogany Drive in Landover, left his house around 3 p.m. Sunday to go to the grocery store, but he did not return. He suffers from Alzheimer’s and dementia and is currently under a doctor’s care and in need of medication. He is a black, about 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs about 130 pounds. Barnes’s hair is white, and he has a mole on his right cheek. He may be wearing a green army fatigue jacket, black leather hat and gray wool pants. Barnes was last seen...

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Two men hold up Wachovia in Northwest

It was a violent start to the new year for employees of a District Wachovia bank. On Jan. 6 around 11:05 a.m., two men brandishing semiautomatic handguns stormed into the Wachovia at 4302 Connecticut Ave. NW, the FBI said. They ordered the employees to the back of the bank. One of the gunmen, a black man weighing about 160 pounds and about 5 feet 7 inches tall, ordered several tellers to the bank’s cash vault through his black ski mask, the FBI said. He pistol-whipped one of the tellers several times in the head. The robber was wearing a black hooded coat and bluejeans. Meanwhile, the second robber, a larger man, weighing between 220 and 240 pounds and standing about 5 feet 6...

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Lack of late-night chaos surprises some D.C. revelers

There were the wild predictions of 5 million people, which ramped up fears that drinking hours extended into the wee morning hours would result in a Mardi Gras atmosphere; inauguration revelers, drunk on long drinking hours and wide-eyed hope, would turn violent and clash with police. But apparently nobody told the partiers. As one bouncer at a Dupont Circle club pointed out, the extra number of drinking establishments with longer drinking hours spread the crowds out. Instead of long lines teeming with the intoxicated, those seeking a late-night binge had other options. There were more people out and about, the bouncer noted, citing the heavy traffic along Connecticut Avenue, but they...

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An evolving crowd soaks up extended bar hours

It’s a little after 1 a.m. Monday morning. It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the nation’s first black president is going to be sworn in about 37 hours from now. The Saturday night-sized crowd rolling up and down U Street is a mix of stumbling college students, tourists dressed in skimpy skirts and high heels, and a scattering of tuxedoes and fur coats making their way from the higher-class balls to the all-hours bars. The party is heading into phase two. There are aging parents escorted by their middle-aged children hailing cabs, clearing the area as the heavy drinking crowd takes over. Within 45 minutes, the crowd has changed. “Barack Obama is about to be...

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Boxer aide expected to plead in child porn possession case

A former high-level aide to California Sen. Barbara Boxer is expected to plead guilty to possessing child pornography, according to court records filed Friday in Alexandria’s U.S. District Court. Jeff P. Rosato, 32, of Arlington, worked for the three-term Democrat from February 2005 through August 2007, rising though the ranks from legislative assistant to senior policy advisor, Senate records show. In October 2007, he was moved to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, for which Boxer is the chairwoman. He was fired from that committee post as senior policy adviser and counsel in November after Boxer learned of the child pornography charges pending against him. On...

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Man is charged with impersonating a U.S. Marshal at headquarters

A District man was charged Friday with impersonating a U.S. Marshal after he was caught trying to buy insignia clothing at the agency’s Arlington headquarters while wearing a U.S. Marshal Service hat and jacket, court documents said. On Thursday, Kenneth Irving Brown, 58, was caught trying to buy marshals hats at the Ship’s Hatch, a store at the marshals headquarters that sells Navy and Marshals Service items, according to a sworn statement by Deputy Peter Marketos. Only Navy or marshals employees can purchase items from the store. It wasn’t the first time Brown had visited the store, and he was wearing a brown U.S. Marshals jacket and a green knit U.S. Marshals hat at...

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Convicted murderer who escaped prison still on run

A man convicted of murder in Prince George’s County continues to evade police after he escaped from a Hagerstown prison Saturday morning. Kanderlario Garcia-Ramos, 23, surmounted the 18-foot barbed wire fence at the medium-security men’s prison, a state police spokesman said. Garcia-Ramos is not believed to be armed, but he could be dangerous, the spokesman said. Motorists should be wary of hitchhikers. In December 2007, Garcia-Ramos was convicted of murdering his former boss, Fernando Monge. According to court documents, Monge was stabbed during a robbery just weeks after Garcia-Ramos had been fired. Video footage caught Garcia-Ramos in the store just as he was about to...

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Insurance agent charged with wire, mail fraud in $1.5M mortgage scheme

An Alexandria insurance agent has been charged with wire and mail fraud in connection with a scheme that raised at least $1.5 million in mortgage loans and caused at least $390,000 in losses when the homes went into foreclosure, federal court document show. Between May and December 2005, Allstate agent Godwin Asifo enlisted at least three people as straw buyers, promising them he’d be able to sell the homes they purchased within six months, court documents filed in the Alexandria U.S. District Court said. Their credit, he told them, would be boosted and they’d have cash for down payments on future homes. Asifo, documents said, would then insure the properties so he could...

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Pr. George’s officer finished 40th year of service

Sgt. Gregory Walters has just completed his 40th year with the Prince George’s County Police Department. He has seen the county’s population boom and technological advances change police work. Walters has played many roles in his 40 years and currently heads the department’s automotive services division. What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in the past 40 years? When I first came on the job in January 1969, we had all-black vehicles. The lights were in one big bubble at the top. The siren, instead of being a loudspeaker mounted with the lights, was on the front fender. It sounded like the old sirens on firetrucks that needed a crank, but it was powered by...

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Police recognize man reporting robbery as suspect in another case

An 18-year-old Lorton man was reporting a robbery when Prince William County police realized he matched the description of a suspect in a sexual battery case and promptly took him into custody, police said Thursday. Joshua David Zemaitis reported to police that he had his cell phone and personal documents stolen by a group of men while he walking behind Prince William Square shopping center. But as he was giving police a report, they recognized him as the suspect in a Jan. 12 incident in which police said he groped a 37-year-old Woodbridge woman. The woman was walking on the 14000 block of Kramer Place in Woodbridge when a man approached her from behind and asked for directions. The...

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Woman, boyfriend found dead in their gated community home

A 36-year-old woman and her 40-year-old boyfriend have been found dead in their Upper Marlboro gated community home. Police said Thursday that Seth Aidoo was stabbed, and Eunice Baah, whom neighbors said was about three months pregnant, was shot in the head. Police could not confirm Baah’s pregnancy and are awaiting the results of an autopsy. The couple’s bodies were found around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday after a family member, who usually hears from Baah daily, became worried about their welfare and called police. The couple was last heard from on Monday and police are trying to determine when they might have been killed. They were last seen at a family gathering Saturday...

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Man charged with slaying Silver Spring store owner

A 43-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the May shooting death of a Silver Spring store owner. Julio Nelson Paredes, of no fixed address, already is in federal custody after he and three other men were linked to a series of armed robberies in Maryland between May and August. The group, federal authorities said, targeted Hispanic retailers, many of whom handled international cash transfers. Jorge Villatoro owned one of those stores, Variedades Jenny, on the 600 block of University Boulevard East, until he was allegedly murdered with Paredes’ shotgun. After the shooting, Paredes and an unidentified culprit fled to a nearby 7-Eleven where they...

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Adoptive mother charged with neglect after missing daughter found dead

The adoptive mother of a 13-year-old developmentally disabled girl whose body was found in Woodbridge has been charged with child neglect and filing a false police report, Prince William County police said. Police said it’s likely Alfreedia Gregg-Glover, 45, of Manassas, will be charged with other crimes as the investigation develops. Police are unsure when Gregg-Glover adopted Alexis. Gregg-Glover reported her daughter, Alexis Glover, missing on Jan. 7, after she said the girl disappeared from her side in the Manassas Central Library parking lot. Police found the girl’s Global Positioning System bracelet nearby. Glover had run away several times before and police had equipped...

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Law pushes to track workers brought to U.S. by diplomats

A new law will push the State Department to crack down on foreign diplomats who bring household workers into the United States, many in the Washington region, and then treat them as slaves. The rule requires the State Department to track the workers diplomats bring to the U.S. If cases of abuse emerge, State Department officials can revoke a country’s right to the visas that allow diplomats to import household staff. “The law will make sure diplomatic immunity does not become diplomatic impunity,” said Ambassador-at-large Mark Lagon, director of the office to monitor and combat human trafficking at the State Department. The human trafficking bill gathered congressional...

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Gang member who killed teen outside school gets 30 years

The gang member who stabbed a 15-year-old to death outside Parkdale High School in April pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Tuesday and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Eighteen-year-old Rony Antonio Izaguirre-Henriquez got out of a gold Honda and approached Guillermo Medina and two of his friends as they were walking outside Parkdale the afternoon of April 2. Izaguirre-Henriquez, a member of MS-13, asked Medina “who he was repping,” a demand to know to which gang Medina belonged, said a spokesman for Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey. Medina, a member of a rival gang, the Brown Pride Locos, said he didn’t want any trouble....

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Neighborhood Watch — Cindy Brookshire

Cindy Brookshire has been a member of the Weems Neighborhood Watch in Manassas for more than two years. In that time, she has found ways to expand the watch program from a crime-reporting entity to one that also cleans up the neighborhood and brings the community together. How did you get involved with neighborhood watch? I would often walk my dog and see a lot of trash on Weems Road. There was a phenomenal amount of litter. So I called the Manassas neighborhood services coordinator, Kisha Wilson Sogunro, and she put me in touch with the then-1-year-old Weems Neighborhood Watch group. There were about 50 or 60 people involved then. There’s 94 members now. How has the group...

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Man charged with sexually abusing autistic boy

A 61-year-old Silver Spring man has been charged with sexually abusing an 11-year-old autistic boy, Montgomery County police said Monday. Abdul Mohamed Kudsy, of the 3200 block of Hewitt Avenue, was hired by the 11-year-old’s family through Children Achieving Maximum Potential, a Rockville business that provides help to autistic children, police said. Kudsy cared for the boy during various social situations, police said. On Dec. 29, police started investigating allegations that Kudsy had abused the 11-year-old. Detectives learned Kudsy had inappropriate contact with the boy, including one occasion when he took photographs of the 11-year-old while the boy was partially clothed, police...

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FBI seeking female bank robber in Chevy Chase

FBI agents are searching for a rare form of bank robber: A lone woman who ripped off an Arlington County Chevy Chase Bank last month. In 2006, the most recent year for which the FBI has a full statistics, only 6 percent of the nearly 9,000 bank robberies in the United States were committed by women. And FBI officials said, even when women do rob banks, it’s rarely alone, although there are no statistics separating women who act alone or with a counterpart. But around 9:40 a.m. on Dec. 20, a lone woman entered a Chevy Chase Bank on the 2100 block of Crystal Drive. She handed a bank teller a note demanding money. As the teller handed the woman stacks of cash, she thumbed through each...

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U.S. urges Russia to sign adoption treaty

The U.S. State Department is seeking a treaty on adoption with Russia, reacting to a threat from Moscow earlier this month not to permit children to be adopted into the United States in response to the death of a Russian infant in Virginia. The dispute over adoptions has become heated since a Fairfax County judge acquitted Miles Harrison, 49, of involuntary manslaughter charges in December. The Purcellville father discovered his Russian-born adopted infant son dead in his car after leaving him there for more than nine hours on a hot July day. Russian news outlets have been aggressively covering the story of Chase Harrison’s death, raising questions about adoption policies and at...

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Man charged in mall shooting was on probation

The 19-year-old who ordered fellow Bloods gang members to open fire at a group of MS-13 gang members outside a Wheaton mall last month was on probation stemming from a 2006 incident in which he beat a man with a pipe, police said. Anthony D. Taylor, of the District, pleaded guilty in September 2007 to assaulting a man in a Brentwood park along with three other Bloods members in December 2006, court records show. According to charging documents, the victim was driven by an acquaintance and two other Bloods to a park, where they met Taylor. They tied the man up and beat him. Taylor used a pipe, another man hit him with a shotgun and a third sliced him with a knife. The victim eventually...

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Neighbors asked to help search for runaway

The search for a missing developmentally disabled Manassas girl expanded Thursday as it headed into its second day, Prince William County police said. Thirteen-year-old Alexis Glover was with her mother, Alfreedia Glover, in the Central Library parking lot at 8601 Mathis Ave. around noon Wednesday when she slipped away, police said. Alexis is emotionally and mentally disabled, and has medical issues. Wednesday’s heavy rain followed by Thursday’s cold temperatures have sent an increasing number of police and search-and-rescue workers into the areas surrounding the library and her home on the 8300 block of Sunset Drive. So far, members of the search party include Prince William...

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Outraged Russians consider cutting off U.S. adoptions

Russian officials are considering stopping adoptions to the United States after a Purcellville, Va., father who left his Russian-born adopted son in a sweltering car to die was acquitted last month, U.S. adoption officials confirmed. The story of Miles Harrison, 49, whose adopted 21-month-old son Chase, born Dmitry Yakolev, died in a hot car in July has made national news in Russia. Harrison forgot to drop Chase at day care and went straight to work, leaving him in the car for nine hours. Russians were outraged after a Fairfax jury acquitted Harrison of involuntary manslaughter charges last month, saying the tragedy was enough punishment. Last week, the mounting pressure caused outcry...

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3 Minute Interview-McGann

Laura McGann is the managing editor of The Washington Independent, a year-old nonprofit Washington-based Web site providing original content on a wide array of national topics. The Web-only product is funded by the Center for Independent Media, a nonprofit media group set up to meld blog technology with the standards of professional journalism. For her part, McGann helped get the fledging Independent off the ground and continues to manage its daily activity. Why did you chose to work for an upstart Web-based news agency? It’s great to work with people that hold some optimism about the future of journalism. The Washington Independent is a nonprofit site experimenting with the best...

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Police urge caution after woman raped at home

A Temple Hills woman was raped in her apartment, and Prince George’s County police are urging women to take precautions. The woman was returning to her apartment on the 2500 block of Southern Avenue about 4:10 p.m. Sunday when the culprit approached her from behind and forced the victim into her apartment. The assailant pulled out a handgun and demanded money. The woman complied. Once the cash was handed over, the suspect raped the woman and fled. The culprit is a black man in his 20s, about 6 feet tall with braids, and weighs between 140 and 160 pounds. He was wearing a black hat with blue trim, a black jacket and black sneakers. Police are urging women to pay close attention to...

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Fairfax police bust cigarette bootlegging ring

Fairfax County police and federal agents have busted a large-scale, million-dollar cigarette bootlegging ring with ties to New York City and China, federal court records show. It’s the fourth such scheme to be uncovered in recent months as federal authorities working closely with Fairfax County police have sought to dam a steady stream of black-market cigarettes traveling from Virginia to the New York City area. Contraband cigarettes have become big business for organized crime as taxes on smokes in states including New York, New Jersey and Michigan have climbed, but remained steady in states such as Virginia, federal authorities say. In the latest bust, federal authorities...

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Police seek public help in Prince William heist

Prince William County police and the FBI are seeking the public’s assistance in finding a man who robbed a Wachovia bank on Christmas Eve. The man walked into the Wachovia at 13891 Jefferson Davis Highway in Woodbridge shortly after 11 a.m. He approached a teller, demanded cash and left without displaying a weapon, police said. The suspect, according to police, is a white man between 46 and 51 years old. He about 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs about 140 pounds. He was wearing a tan jacket with a hood and dark-colored pants. Meanwhile, media reports indicate that there was a national surge in bank robberies in 2008. Although the FBI has not released its official statistics, local...

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Man charged with Social Security fraud

A Nicaraguan-born man living in Woodbridge has been charged with Social Security fraud after federal officials discovered he allegedly had two Social Security numbers that he used to dodge $70,000 in child support payments owed to Maryland women. In July 2005, Anthony Fife applied for a permanent resident card from the Department of Homeland Security. When officials examined his picture and other personal information, they discovered it matched that of Anthony Edward Daniels, court documents said. Further investigation revealed that in 1975 Fife applied for and received a Social Security number under the name Anthony Edward Daniels. But in 1989, while in the midst of a four-year custody...

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Five of 11 plead guilty to massive scam uncovered

Five of the 11 people suspected of operating a more than $60 million bank fraud scam have pleaded guilty. The scam was uncovered when the conspirators swindled Sen. Strom Thurmond's former chief of staff. Of the five, three have fingered Tobechi Onwuhara, 29, as the conspiracy's ringleader. In October, President George Bush labeled Onwuhara as one of the FBI's most wanted and Onwuhara's picture was pasted on the FBI's Web site just under Osama Bin Laden. Among those who pleaded guilty and fingered Onwuhara was his girlfriend Precious Matthews, who, according to court documents, collected nearly $1 million between June 2007 and July 2008 from the scheme. Among that cash was $110,000...

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Man charged with brutal Christmas Eve beating

The 28-year-old man charged with brutally beating a 69-year-old man in a College Park church parking lot Christmas Eve was wanted by Howard County police on possession of burglary tools charges, court records show. Shanon Washington, of Capitol Heights, was charged with attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault and robbery after Prince George’s County police said he likely used a baseball bat to nearly beat Wayne Williams to death Dec. 24. Williams is expected to recover from the injuries. Police said Washington attacked Williams after Williams dropped his wife off for choir practice at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church late that night. While his wife was preparing for...

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Top cop

In 2001, civil rights lawyer Philip Eure began the District of Columbia’s Office of Police Complaints at the request of the mayor and a five-member oversight board. Today, he’s the independent oversight agency’s executive director and was recently elected as the president of the National Police Oversight Organization. For Eure, the agency and his job isn’t just about ferreting out bad police officers, but also maintaining the public’s trust in the department. How did you become interested in police oversight? A growing movement in the civil rights profession has focused on police department accountability. As a Department of Justice employee, I was already...

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Man charged with spate of home burglaries

A 23-year-old Woodbridge man has been charged with 18 counts of burglary stemming from a recent series of home thefts, Prince William County police said Monday. Adrian D. Taylor has also been charged with nine counts of grand larceny, four counts of petty larceny and one count of selling stolen property. He was taken into custody Dec. 24, soon after police alleged he broke into the last house he targeted. The thefts started Nov. 14. By the time detectives found Taylor walking near the 1300 block of Columbia Road, where a house had just been burglarized, they had already developed him as the suspect and had a warrant for his arrest, police said. After arresting him, police searched the...

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D.C. woman accused of murder in daughter’s death

A District woman found naked in the streets Friday morning has been charged with felony murder in connection with the stabbing death of her 7-year-old daughter, police said Monday. Carlese Hall, 29, flagged down police sitting in a cruiser at the intersection of 13th and Congress streets SE around 5:30 a.m. Friday, police said. She was naked and bleeding as she directed the officers to a home on the 3300 block of 11th Place. When the officers arrived, they found the house on fire and a young girl in a second-floor room, bleeding from apparent stab wounds and not breathing. The fire was put out quickly, and none of the injuries the girl suffered appeared related to the blaze, police...

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Man who robbed Germantown bank caught on camera

A man wearing a Baltimore Ravens hat and hooded sweatshirt robbed a Germantown SunTrust Bank on Monday morning. The suspect, a white man between 25 and 30 years old who was about 6 feet tall and 180 pounds, made off with an undetermined amount of cash. But bank cameras got a mostly clear image of his face, leaving investigators hopeful of a quick arrest. Meanwhile on Monday, a clear photo helped Montgomery County detectives track down 44-year-old Mark Andrew Dawson of Germantown, who they say robbed a Bank of America in Germantown on Dec. 20 without covering his face either. The image, police said, led to Dawson’s arrest. Although authorities say security and surveillance...

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Woman charged in boyfriend’s stabbing death

A 58-year-old District woman has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the stabbing death of her boyfriend during a Capital Heights party early Saturday morning. Linda Slye, of Southeast, was at a party with her boyfriend on the 1500 block of Karen Boulevard when the two began to argue, Prince George’s County police said. The two had been drinking, and during the argument Slye allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed her boyfriend in the upper body, police said. Other party attendees watched as Slye carried her boyfriend from the party, but they thought nothing of it, assuming he was just too drunk to walk on his own, police said. Slye, police said, drove the...

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Arrests made in alleged kidnapping, bank robbery scheme

A District man and a Silver Spring man have been charged for their alleged roles in a kidnapping and bank robbery scheme that stretched from Friday night through Saturday, Maryland State Police said Sunday. Friday evening, Yohannes Surafel, 24, of the District, and Yosef Tadele, 23, of Silver Spring, followed a SunTrust Bank employee from a Silver Spring branch to her Clinton home, police said. As the woman made her way inside the house around 7:30 p.m., police said the two men attacked her. They tied up the woman and her husband with electric cords and held them and their two sons, ages 8 and 11, all night, police said. Saturday morning, police said Surafel forced all four family members...

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Detective speaks out about double murder he helped solve

Prince William County Detective Liam Burke was the lead investigator in the search for a suspect who allegedly killed a 39-year-old Dale City mother and her 19-year-old son earlier this month. Detectives worked around the clock to track down the killer, suspected to be a 17-year-old who lived nearby. It was information from a county resident, Burke said, that helped lead police to the teenage suspect. Since then, there have been two other arrests in the crime. What was the linchpin to the investigation? The main tip came from a citizen. It shows how important it is for citizens to cooperate and give as much information as they can. I spent hours with the woman showing her yearbook...

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Girl stabbed to death in burning SE apartment

A young girl was stabbed to death, and a woman, possibly her mother, was injured in an incident in Southeast Washington. District police said they were flagged down by an injured, naked woman near 13th Street and Congress Place SE around 6:30 a.m. Friday. The woman sent the officers to an apartment on the 3300 block of 11th Place, where they discovered a fire. Inside the apartment, they found a girl, possibly 8 or 9 years old, suffering from apparent stab wounds, police said. Officials could not say whether the girl and woman were related, but they believe they might be mother and daughter. The girl died in a hospital shortly before 10 a.m. Police were unsure of the woman’s...

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Homeland Security employee gets prison, deportation for child porn

A computer contractor for the Department of Homeland Security has been sentenced to more than six years in prison followed by deportation for being one of the nation’s most prolific disseminators of child pornography, federal authorities said. Peter W. North, 54, was arrested in August after FBI agents discovered 80 gigabytes — the equivalent of 25,000 pictures or 250 hours of video — of child pornography in an external hard drive taken from his Alexandria home. At the time, the British-born North was a contractor for IBM providing information technology services to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol in Vienna. Since then, “Mr. North has lost his job, his security...

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Cops accused of Toys for Tots thefts ‘tarnished’ police’s image, official says

The four District of Columbia police officers reportedly caught on tape stealing from Toys for Tots “tarnished” the department’s image, a police official said. Police confirmed that the four officers had been put on desk jobs as internal affairs investigates them for stealing toys. Officials said if the officers did take the toys intended for the city’s youth, they will be prosecuted. On Christmas Day, the department’s community outreach director, Yvonne Smith, fired off a message to an e-mail network for residents of the Southeast D.C. neighborhood where the thefts allegedly occurred. Smith wrote that she’d hoped to see Christmastime news coverage...

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Man beaten after dropping wife at choir practice

A 69-year-old man was severely beaten outside a College Park church after dropping his wife off for midnight Mass choir practice on Christmas Eve, police and church officials said. The man, identified as Wayne Williams by a fellow parishioner, was in critical condition and was not conscious when Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl visited his bedside Thursday afternoon, archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Gibbs said. Police said he was found in a parking lot on the 4900 block of Berwyn Road around 11:15 p.m. His upper body was badly beaten, and he was taken to an area hospital. Gibbs said he had dropped his wife off for choir practice at the Holy Redeemer Church and was parking the car when he was...

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Three hurt in Wheaton shooting as gang crime continues to spike

A gang-related shooting outside a Wheaton mall Tuesday night was part of a rising tide of gang violence sweeping across Montgomery County, police said. As of October, gang-related crime was up 29 percent over the same period in 2007, including a jump from zero homicides last year to three this year, according to a report released by the Montgomery County police. Police spokesman Lt. Paul Starks told The Examiner on Wednesday that police have improved their monitoring of gang activity and crime, causing part of the spike. But, Starks added, “I think there is an increase. There could be an increase in gang membership and gang activity.” In response, Starks said, officers...

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Pharmacist pleads guilty in prescription drug ring

A Silver Spring pharmacist has pleaded guilty to illegally selling a powerful pain medication and then lying to a federal grand jury when he said his co-conspirators beat him after he tried to end the deal. In October 2007, less than two years after receiving his doctorate in pharmacology from Howard University, Vidhyanand Mahase was approached by Ronald Makell at the Silver Spring Safeway. Mahase earned $98,000 a year as a pharmacist there, according to federal court documents. Makell tried to fill a prescription for oxycodone, and when Mahase recognized it as a fake, Makell put his brother-in-law, David L. Chappell, on the phone, documents said. Chappell offered Mahase $100 to...

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Driver: ‘Please pray with me’

A wave of muddy water rushed down River Road at Silvia Saldana as she drove her white Subaru up the steep hill just past Seven Locks Road. Saldana’s life flashed before her eyes as the wall of water, sprung forth from a busted water main, slammed into her car. She called her husband. “Please pray with me,” she told him. “If I don’t speak to you again, you’ll know why.” Saldana’s Subaru was one of eight trapped as River Road turned into churning white water. Saldana was toward the bottom of the hill and was rescued by firefighters who ran a heavy truck against the rapid flow. Others farther upstream were saved by a Maryland State Police...

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Iraqi owner of restaurant pleads guilty to spying

An Iraqi man who ran a Maryland shish kebab restaurant pleaded guilty Monday to working as a spy for Saddam Hussein’s government and the Ba’ath Party for more than 15 years. According to court documents, Saubhe Jassim Al-Dellemy, 67, used a restaurant he owned in Maryland as well as his relationship with Iraqi officials working out of a small office in the Algerian Embassy to inform Hussein’s government of United States-based opposition parties and military operations, and to recruit spies. Federal investigators linked Al-Dellemy to the code name “Adam” used by Iraqi intelligence officers in documents found by the U.S. in the wake of the 2003...

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17-year-old charged with killing woman, teen son

A 17-year-old boy was charged late Sunday in the shooting deaths of a Dale City mother and her teenage son, Price William County police said Monday. Also charged was 22-year-old Jacqueline Munoz, the 17-year-old’s girlfriend, who allegedly tried to cover up the shooting deaths of Jean C. Smith, 39, and James M. Smith. The bodies of the mother and her 19-year-old son were found Friday in their home on the 13600 block of Langford Court, police said. Police did not release the 17-year-old’s name because he has been charged as a minor with first-degree murder, burglary and robbery. But prosecutors said they will seek to have him tried as an adult. Police said Munoz attempted to...

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Laurel firefighter helps save 5-year-old boy

On Dec. 15, Laurel volunteer firefighter Ken Wilson was on his way home to Maryland when he heard a call on his emergency radio for a child not breathing in a car located along his route. The 5-year-old boy, it turned out, had a seat belt wrapped around his neck. When Wilson spotted the car and a Maryland state trooper on Interstate 95 near the Capital Beltway juncture, he pulled over and helped save the 5-year-old boy’s life. How did it play out? When I saw the car, I realized the initial call had provided the wrong location, so I called the right location in as I pulled over. I told the trooper I am an EMT and offered to help. The trooper said he had already loosened the seat...

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3 Minute Interview-Johnson

For the past four years, 16-year-old Andre Johnson has been volunteering for the D.C. Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, raising awareness among his peers of steps they can take to avoid pregnancy. During that time, he has spoken before the D.C. Council on the program’s success and also the challenges he and other members of his community face every day. Now, this junior at McKinley Technical High School is going to Disney World as part of Disney’s Dreamer Academy, a leadership program for high school students. How did you first become involved with the D.C. Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy? I was involved in another youth program, and a member of the campaign told us about...

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Trial begins Monday for father accused of leaving baby to die in heat

The trial of a Purcellville father accused of leaving his infant adopted son to die in the back of a sweltering sport utility vehicle is scheduled to start Monday. On July 8, Miles Harrison, 49, went flying from his work desk around 5 p.m., ran into the parking lot, threw open the car door and tried to revive his son, Chase. Co-workers and later emergency responders joined him, but Chase was already dead. That evening at the hospital, a Fairfax County detective and hospital employees overheard Harrison calling out with remorse, court documents said. “I want my son. I left my son, I left him in the car. Look at what I did. I left him in the car,” Harrison could be heard saying....

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Case of strangled inmate goes to 2nd grand jury

As the investigation into the death of an accused police killer found strangled in his jail cell heads to a second grand jury, a community hangs by an increasingly thin thread, activists said. On Thursday, the clock expired on the Prince George’s County grand jury called to review the investigation into 19-year-old Ronnie White’s death, a law enforcement source close to the investigation said. The source spoke anonymously because grand jury proceedings are secret. White was found with two broken bones in his neck less than 48 hours after he was arrested for running down police Cpl. Richard Findley with a stolen truck. Typically, when a grand jury ends without filing charges,...

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Hillcrest Dennis & Gloria Logan

Dennis and Gloria Logan have lived in Hillcrest, a Southeast Washington neighborhood, since 1965. In the mid-1980s they started the community’s neighborhood watch program, which they ran for more than 20 years before stepping aside to let fresh blood take the reins in the form of retired District police officer David Kirkpatrick. What inspired you to start a neighborhood watch? Dennis: I retired in the mid-1980s from being deputy chief of the District’s fire department. It was a job where I was always looking after the welfare of people and recognized the importance of keeping people safe. I wanted to continue to be in a position to protect people and help them live decent...

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Police kill armed robbery suspect during foot chase

A bank robbery suspect was shot to death by Fairfax County police Wednesday after police said he raised a gun. Police said the man walked into a BB&T Bank on the 6200 block of Old Dominion Road in McLean around 11:30 a.m., pulled out a gun and demanded cash. He fled in a car with an undisclosed amount of cash, crashed into another vehicle in Arlington and then took off on foot, police said. People who live in the area called police to report the suspicious character. Police caught up to the suspect near the intersection of North 36th and Harrison streets in Arlington. Police said he would not put down his gun and when he raised it, three Fairfax police officers opened fire. Nearby...

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Teen killed in six-car pileup on Rockville Pike

An 18-year-old Gaithersburg woman was killed in a six-car crash on Rockville Pike near White Flint Mall, Montgomery County police said. Ngoc Xuan Thi Lai died at the scene Tuesday night after an out-of-control Honda Civic landed on top of her white 1995 Toyota Camry, police said. Lai was a June graduate of Watkins Mill High School, Montgomery County school spokeswoman Kate Harrison said. “There were quite a few people there who knew her well and a team of counselors was dispatched to the school Wednesday.” Jeffrey Priscillano Nunez, 27, of Rockville, was driving the 2002 Honda Civic that was traveling north on Rockville Pike around 8 p.m. Tuesday when, for unconfirmed...

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Health disaster preparedness mixed in D.C. area, report says

If a biological weapon detonates in the Washington region, Maryland will be the least capable of reacting, a report released Tuesday said. Virginia, however, is one of the most prepared states and the District falls in the middle, said the sixth annual report from Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit that studies the country’s readiness for public health disasters. Each state is rated on a list of 10 indicators. Virginia has scored a perfect 10 the last two years. But the District fell from eight to seven and Maryland from eight to five, placing the state among the lowest in the nation. The indicators change from year to year because information made available by...

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81-year-old man kills wife, son, self in peaceful Fairfax neighborhood

An 81-year-old Vienna man shot his wife and 53-year-old son Tuesday before turning the gun on himself, Fairfax County police said. Police said they were called to the home of Thomas K. Appleberry Sr. at 9622 Cinnamon Creek Drive around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday after a family member reported seeing a dead body inside. When police arrived, they found the bodies of Appleberry, his wife, 81-year-old Rachel Appleberry, and their son, Thomas K. Appleberry Jr., who lived with them. All had been shot in their upper bodies, police said. The deaths, police said, were the result of “some sort of domestic situation.” Neighbor Larry Wentz said the circumstances “came as a surprise. I...

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N.Y. congressman gets 5 days in jail for drunken driving

A judge in Alexandria on Monday sentenced disgraced New York Rep. Vito Fossella to five days in jail for drunken driving. The May 1 arrest of the Republican from Staten Island led to revelations that he had fathered a child in an extramarital affair. In October, he was convicted of drunken driving. Fossella was ordered to report to jail Dec. 19, but his lawyers said they planned to appeal the sentence, which could delay its start date. Fossella was arrested after he ran a red light, and police said he was found with a 0.17 blood alcohol content. Under Virginia law, anyone caught driving with a 0.15 or higher must serve five days behind bars. On Monday, his attorneys argued to no avail...

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Police say homeowner knew shooting victim

An argument inside an upper-class Arlington home early Monday ended with one man shot to death, Arlington police said. Police were called by the man who lives in the house on the 2100 block of South Arlington Ridge Road just before 4 a.m. Monday for a reported shooting, department spokeswoman Detective Crystal Nosal said. The man said he had shot someone and when police arrived, the victim was already dead. The suspected shooter was held, but not charged, as was a woman who also was found inside the home. Nosal said the shooter knew the woman and the victim, and the two had come over to the home sometime Sunday night or early Monday morning. It’s unclear what happened before the...

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Robber brought a note for teller and a bag to fill

The FBI is looking for a man who calmly robbed an Alexandria TD Bank last month. The man entered the bank at 6615 Richmond Highway around 8:30 a.m. Nov. 17, approached a teller and passed a note demanding cash along with a light green plastic bag with unknown writing on it. The teller complied, filled the plastic bag with cash and handed it back to the suspect. But, the suspect noticed the teller had left out a strapped stack of $20 bills and demanded that also. The suspect then took the bag, left the bank and got into the driver’s side of a silver Dodge Caravan. The suspect is described as black, about 5-foot-10 or 5-11. He weighs more than 200 pounds and has a muscular...

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Contractor rescues 6 people trapped by flames

A quick-thinking workman helped rescue halfdozen people from a Saturday morning fire that displaced 12 families from a Silver Spring apartment complex, Montgomery County officials said. The Red Cross is helping the families, who lived in the White Oak Gardens apartments on Lockwood Drive, a county fire spokesman said. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, though it is believed to have started in a ground-floor kitchen. A cable contractor working nearby saw the flames and heard screams coming from the building. He then used his ladder to rescue six people from the building before the more than 80 firefighters from Montgomery and Prince George’s counties arrived around...

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Illegal immigrant charged with holding teen against her will

A man in the United States illegally has been charged with transporting a 15-year-old Woodbridge girl from Virginia to Maryland where he held her against her will for several months and had sex with her, federal authorities said. Rosendo Manfredis Carranza, 28, was indicted Thursday and faces up to life in prison. After his 2006 arrest in Maryland, he was extradited to Texas, where he was wanted on charges of sexually assaulting a child in a separate incident. He was recently returned to Virginia to face the latest charges, prosecutors said. According to a sworn statement by an FBI agent, by the time the 15-year-old girl was reunited with her family, she was hardly recognizable to her...

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N.Va. basketball coach pleads guilty to child porn

The longtime coach and director of a Northern Virginia youth basketball league pleaded guilty Thursday to receiving child pornography via the Internet. Thomas “Randy” White, 53, of Arlington, was the director and a coach for the NOVA United AAU basketball league for more than a decade. Calls to the basketball program were not immediately returned Thursday. White was identified by the FBI as one of several people suspected of trading child pornography over the Internet during a 2007 national investigation. He has pleaded guilty to downloading numerous pornographic images in March and April 2007. In February, investigators seized a computer from White’s home and found...

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Police: Navy woman killed in Alexandria apartment

A 24-year-old Navy yeoman was violently killed in her Alexandria apartment, Alexandria police said late Wednesday. Police were called to check on Juantissa Hill on Tuesday and found her body around 2:30 p.m. in her apartment in the sprawling complex on the 300 block of South Van Dorn Street. Her death was ruled a homicide by a medical examiner Wednesday. Police would only say that Hill was violently killed and that they are searching for her car, a gray or silver 2006 Nissan Altima four-door with tinted windows and Michigan license plate BDE-4058. Calls Thursday to a police spokeswoman were not answered. According to Hill’s MySpace.com page, she lived in Mississippi until she was...

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Alexandria man charged with swindling through mortgages

An Alexandria man has been charged with wire fraud after federal authorities say he was caught swindling $1 million through a mortgage scheme as the housing market busted. Virginia businessman Jean Youseff Agbey created a fake construction company, Advanced Renovation and Construction, to obtain loans on eight Florida condominiums, according to court documents. Those eight loans, which he received from two banks, were structured so he could line his pockets with $125,000 from each, court records said. Agbey then used the $1 million to buy a home in Alexandria. Agbey has a tangled history of international legal battles, according to court records. He filed suit in Fairfax County in the...

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3 suspects in Wheaton slaying are illegal aliens, official says

The three people accused of murdering and then burning the body of an 83-year-old Wheaton woman last week are illegal immigrants, a Montgomery County jail official said Wednesday. Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents issued warrants for Ramon Alvarado, Jose Alvarado and Ana Rodas on Wednesday afternoon, jail director Arthur Wallenstein said. Wallenstein said that half of the 16 jail inmates accused of murder are illegal immigrants. Cousins Jose and Ramon Alvarado were in jail in connection with the beating death of Lila Meizel. Police say the cousins lighted the woman’s body on fire to cover up a check fraud scheme. Rodas allegedly helped the two kill Meizel. Both...

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Suspect in Md. woman’s slaying previously charged with fraud

One of the people accused of murdering an 83-year-old Wheaton woman and then burning her body to cover up a check fraud scheme has a history of writing bad checks, court documents show. On Nov. 26, Jose Alvarado, his wife, Ana Lilian Rodas, and his cousin Ramon Alvarado allegedly beat Lila Meizell to death in her home, then spread gasoline on her body and lighted a match, Montgomery County police said in court documents. Jose Alvarado, 37, had done yard work for Meizell, and she paid him for the labor with a $75 check on Nov. 19. But before cashing it, authorities said, Alvarado added two zeroes and withdrew the $7,500 from his account as soon as the check cleared. This isn’t the...

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D.C. Police seek suspect in abduction, rape

District of Columbia police are searching for a man who abducted a woman in Northeast early Sunday morning, then robbed and raped her. Police said the man ordered the woman into his black Dodge Charger at gunpoint on the 1600 block of Maryland Avenue NE and then drove to Prince George’s County, where he tried to get money from her bank account. The man then took the woman to a wooded area in Maryland and raped her. The suspect is black, about 23 years old, about 5 feet 6 and weighs about 120 pounds. He has a medium complexion, goatee and Mohawk hairstyle. He was wearing a blue Trek jacket with “Puerto Rico” written on the front in white letters and blue jeans with white...

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3 Minute Interview-Wexler

Richard Wexler is the executive director of the National Coalition For Child Protection Reform, a nonprofit that works for systemic reform in the child welfare system. A former journalist, Wexler applies his reporting skills to his advocacy work, issuing in-depth papers arguing in favor of the organization’s primary mission: To reduce the number of children who are taken from their families when the government misinterprets family poverty for neglect. How did you become involved with child welfare reform? In 1976 I was a journalism student and I was working on a story that involved a young woman who had been in nine foster homes since she was 9 years old. ... We talked for 2 1/2...

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Deported illegal immigrant returns to U.S., arrested for assaulting 2 men

An illegal immigrant who was deported in 2007 after serving time for an attempted-rape conviction in Nebraska returned to the United States earlier this year only to assault two men in Alexandria on separate occasions. Jolman Antonio Garcia, 30, of Esperanza, Honduras, was placed in federal custody on Nov. 12, two weeks after he was sentenced to nearly two years in prison by an Alexandria judge. According to a sworn statement by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, Garcia snuck across the U.S.-Mexican border near Douglas, Ariz., in mid-April, a little more than a year after he was deported from Hastings, Neb. In 2005, Garcia was convicted of attempting to have sex with someone...

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Police arrest man in slaying of upper Northwest couple

Suspect had connection to popular pair, cops say District of Columbia police charged a 28-year-old District Heights man with felony murder Tuesday in connection with the brutal slaying of a community-conscious couple in Northwest over the weekend. Peiro Fuentes Hernandez, was taken into custody after he was identified as a suspect during a 12-hour period Tuesday, Inspector Rodney Parks said. Police officials said Tuesday the crime was not random and the motive was “strictly robbery.” They said there was a connection between Hernandez and Michael, 68, and Virginia Spevak, 67, who were found dead in their Chevy Chase home Saturday, but would not elaborate. Parks said the...

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Prince George’s ex-schools chief given 6-year term for corruption

A former Prince George’s County schools superintendent convicted on public corruption charges was sentenced to six years in federal prison Tuesday. The six years were less than half the 15 years prosecutors wanted, but federal authorities still hailed as a victory Andre J. Hornsby’s July conviction on six of the 22 counts against him. Hornsby, 55, was convicted of fraud, evidence tampering and obstructing justice. It was the second time the case was tried; a jury late last year couldn’t reach a verdict. “Mr. Hornsby exploited his position... for his own personal financial gain which came at the expense of the children he was entrusted to serve,” said Amy Jo...

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District police search for two suspects

It was Nov. 14 and the PNC Bank on the 300 block of 12th Street in Southeast had been open for about 30 minutes when two men entered, one of whom pulled out a black revolver. The armed robber’s face was covered by a black mask. As soon as he drew the weapon, he stuck it into the security guard’s side, and ordered him to turn and face the bank’s interior. The second robber, whose face was hidden behind a black ski mask, approached the tellers and demanded cash. The tellers complied and the man returned to his partner at the door. The two then backed out of the bank together with an undisclosed amount of cash. They both wore light gray hooded sweatshirts and...

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Forced labor operation busted

Man allegedly confiscated the women’s passports and threatened to kill their families if they left For the past seven years, federal authorities say, a Falls Church man forced almost a dozen female illegal immigrants from Indonesia into a form of slavery, selling their services as housekeepers to Montgomery County families. Soripada Lubis has been charged with conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants. He has been released on bail and ordered to stay at his Roosevelt Avenue home with his wife and children. It’s in that home, a federal agent said in a sworn statement, that Lubis kept between seven and 11 women at a time, sometimes sleeping two to a bed. He allegedly held the...

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Special visas available to illegals aiding investigation

Federal authorities won’t say what will happen to the illegal immigrant women who aided the investigation into Soripada Lubis, but under federal law, they could receive a special visa allowing them to live in the United States legally. First signed in 2000, the the Trafficking Victims Protection Act allows victims of human trafficking who help federal authorities prosecute the perpetrators to obtain a T visa. The visa allows the victims to live in the United States for three years and provides a path to citizenship. Each year, the government makes 5,000 available, although only a few more than 1,000 have been granted. To qualify for the visas, the victims must meet four...

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Ex-federal official charged with understating income

The former associate director of the National Library of Medicine has been charged with making a fraudulent statement on his financial disclosure form by not admitting he earned $165,234 from a side consulting business in 2005, court documents said. Jack W. Snyder no longer works for the federal agency, a spokeswoman said, declining to comment further. The library falls under the Department of Health and Human Services’ jurisdiction. Efforts to reach Snyder for comment were unsuccessful. Snyder has held a number of positions in corporate, government and academics during his more than 20 years as a physician and attorney. He is a past president of the American College of Legal...

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Pr. George’s police make 4 arrests in 5 murders

Prince George’s County police said Thursday that they have made four arrests related to five murders from the past two weeks. The closed cases come after a spike in homicides in early November and represent half the homicides in Prince George’s so far this month. Jacob L. Brooks, 19, of Landover, was charged with murder in connection with the Nov. 3 shooting death of Daryl T. Clark, 36, of Landover. Damien Von Wheeler, 23, of Bowie, was charged with murder in the Nov. 9 shooting death of Deangelo Kevin Alston, 19, of Landover. Darrell Raynard McCarty, 19, of Suitland, faces two murder charges in connection with the Nov. 7 shooting deaths of Mario N. Shepard, 26, of...

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Bank robbery leads to car chase, fatal gunfight in Burtonsville

A bank robbery suspect was killed Thursday after a holdup in Howard County led to a four-county police chase that ended in a gunbattle on the streets of Burtonsville. The dead man was thought to have had two accomplices, but Montgomery County police ended their search Thursday afternoon with one suspect in custody and the other believed to have made it out of the area. About 9:15 a.m. Thursday, two or three persons entered a Bank of America on Ten Oaks Road in Clarksville, tried to rob it and shot an employee in the hand. As of Thursday evening, police could not say whether all the robbers were armed or if they left the bank with any cash. Police said the trio took off in a truck that...

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Two brothers, third man die of stab wounds following altercation in home

Three men died of stab wounds in a quiet Fairfax neighborhood late Wednesday, including one man who ran from a house calling for help, then collapsed on a neighbor’s front stoop. The man who left the house on the 5500 block of Moultrie Road in Annandale had been stabbed in his upper torso, witnesses said. He muttered the name “Andy” and said, “I’m going to die” as he slipped away, said Carol Green, who had come running from a friend’s home to where the man lay bleeding. Police would only say that the stabbing deaths were the result of a fight. Killed were Terence Strope, 38, his brother, Ryan Strope, 26, and a third man, Andres Yelicie, 26,...

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Man charged with killing wife in house fire

A 36-year-old Woodbridge man was charged Tuesday with homicide and arson after police say he lighted a fire that killed his wife. Prince William County police said Mario Jennings Jr. and his wife, Graciela Marandino, 31, were fighting when she was knocked unconscious early Monday morning or late Sunday night. Jennings then set fires in two locations in their town house on the 15200 block of Valley Stream Drive, police said. Firefighters arrived at the fire at 12:47 a.m. Monday and later found Marandino dead inside. A medical examiner ruled that she died from smoke inhalation. Jennings was taken to a hospital for burns, but has recovered. He was being held Wednesday without bail. If...

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DNA found on abandoned disguise leads to charges in bank robbery

Federal authorities have charged Dewayne Anthony Edwards with armed bank robbery after they detected his DNA on a fake beard left near a stolen car containing ink-dyed cash. FBI officials believe Edwards has robbed multiple banks in the District of Columbia with a female accomplice, but she remains at large. Edwards has been charged with two robberies, an Adams National Bank robbery on April 7 and the Sept. 29 robbery of a National Capital Bank. Edwards was arrested Friday and is being held without bail. The woman, according to court documents, joined Edwards on the April 7 gig. The two entered the bank around 11:15 a.m. Edwards, wearing a fake beard, pointed a handgun at an assistant...

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2 suspects, getaway driver sought in District bank heist

The FBI is looking for three men who ripped off a PNC Bank in Southeast Washington in September, first targeting the tellers’ cash drawers and then snagging money from a teller who was loading an automated teller machine. According to the FBI, the first suspect, an unshaven black man with stocky build, bulging stomach and about 5 feet 10 inches tall, walked into the bank around 1:30 p.m. Sept. 18 and then left after taking a look around. He returned a few minutes later with a bald black male who has a thin build, is between 5-feet-6 and 5-feet-11 and was wearing long pants and sneakers. The second suspect stood as a lookout at the door while the first man ordered the bank manager...

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Police aim to determine if shootings are related

District of Columbia police are trying to determine if two Sunday morning shootings in Southeast, one of which was fatal, are linked. The shootings happened two blocks from each other, police said. Around 4:30 a.m., officers responded to gunshots on the 700 block of Atlantic Street. When they arrived, police said, they saw several suspects running from the scene and guns were left in the street. Soon after, a man suffering gunshot wounds arrived at Greater Southeast Hospital. The man is in stable condition after undergoing surgery. Then, around 9:45 a.m., a black man was fatally shot on the 500 block of Foxhall Place. Police were unsure how long the body had been there and an autopsy is...

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Officers forced to kill suspects twice over weekend, police say

Twice this weekend, area police said they were forced to kill armed suspects who were preparing to fire at police, highlighting what authorities said is an ominous trend in which police are targeted by gunmen willing to shoot it out. Saturday afternoon, a Fairfax County police officer shot and killed a man outside Maggiano’s Little Italy Italian restaurant in Tysons Corner. Police said the man, a former employee at the restaurant, refused to put down a gun that he pointed at the officer. Friday night, a Seat Pleasant officer shot and killed a carjacking suspect after police say the suspect pulled out a handgun during a traffic stop. It marked the ninth time this year a police...

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Virginia man indicted for possession child porn

A Fairfax Station man was indicted Thursday on possession of child pornography after federal agents seized two computers from his residence containing over 9,000 images of child porn and other materials. According to the documents filed in federal court in Alexandria, federal agents were investigating a criminal organization suspected of operating commercial child pornography Web sites. In June 2007 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents identified Leland Fitzpatrick, 64, has having paid $79.95 for access to a Russian-based child porn site. Two months later, a search warrant executed in Fitzpatrick's home led to the discovery of 3,658 pictures and 125 movies of child pornography on...

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Customs seizes collagen from Dulles passenger

Area residents may have to find another source for removing unwanted wrinkles after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized a shipment of collagen at Washington Dulles International Airport. When officers searched the bags of a woman who arrived on a 10 a.m. Korean Airlines flight Thursday, they discovered 59 hypodermic needles and a jar containing about 10 fluid ounces of collagen, a CBP spokesman said Friday. The woman told the officers she intended to disperse the animal protein for cosmetic purposes, the spokesman said. “CBP officers and agriculture specialists at Dulles have seized some rather interesting items over the years, but I think this collagen is a first...

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Police have no motive in Hill staffer’s death

On June 1, 1981, a well-known Capitol Hill staffer for two decades was found beaten to death in his Northeast apartment. More than 27 years later, police still don’t have a motive for the killing and no arrests have been made in the case. A roommate discovered Raymond N. Nelson’s body around 7:30 a.m. in their 701 Quincy St. home. Police said at the time that Nelson, 59, was killed by blunt force to his head. Nelson became a Senate staffer in 1961 after leaving the Providence Journal, where he was the bureau chief in the Rhode Island newspaper’s largest suburban bureau. Sen. Claiborne Pell hired Nelson as his administrative assistant. In 1974, Nelson joined the staff...

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Immigrant arrested in connection with local drug distribution ring

An illegal immigrant living in Prince William County known as “Mexicano” has been arrested on charges of running a cocaine and marijuana distribution ring in the Dale City area, according to documents filed in federal court in Alexandria. David Gutierrez Sandoval, 31, reportedly told law enforcement officers that he was smuggled across the United States-Mexico border about a year before Prince William police took him into custody Oct. 7, documents said. Law enforcement officials were led to Sandoval after a Prince William resident who was buying cocaine and marijuana from him was arrested and turned Sandoval in as the supplier, records said. The buyer was caught last spring...

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3 Minute Interview- Peter Eyre

Peter Eyre first came to the Washington area as an intern for the Cato Institute, and he’s now the “crasher-in-chief” of Bureaucrash, a Libertarian-minded organization that spreads its political leanings by interrupting protests that favor what the group sees as big government action. Bureaucrash, which is now part of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, runs a social networking site that’s designed to bring together Libertarians from all over the world. Is being based in Washington important for Bureaucrash? We’ve been involved in getting our message out at protests internationally, but in the past few years we have become more D.C.-centric, and that was...

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Man pleads guilty to $33M mortgage fraud scheme

A Fairfax City businessman pleaded guilty Thursday to a $33 million mortgage fraud scheme that prosecutors called one of the largest of its kind during the national decline of the housing market. Vijay Taneja, 47, created fake mortgage loans through his company Financial Mortgage Inc. and then sold those loans to banks as long-term investments. Taneja would work with another group of financial institutions, known as “warehouse lenders,” to temporarily fund the mortgages before they were sold. By the time FMI filed for bankruptcy this June, the scheme started in 2001 caused $33 million in losses to four financial institutions: First Tennessee Bank, Franklin Bank, Wells Fargo...

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Marshals search for man with ties to D.C. gang

U.S. marshals are searching for a 31-year-old man whom they say is armed and dangerous, and has ties to a District of Columbia gang. Omar Garris has long been surrounded by violence, law enforcement officials said. His father is in prison, serving a sentence for a murder conviction in the District from the early 1980s. Garris has a brother who was murdered in 2007. Garris is wanted by Prince George’s County on two attempted murder chargers and a parole violation stemming from a weapons possession conviction. Garris has previously been charged with murder, attempted murder and distribution of narcotics. He is a member of the District’s 1-7 Crew, which is known for its violence...

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Federal, local authorities bust marijuana ring

Federal and local authorities say they have busted a large-scale marijuana distribution ring, charging two Waldorf men with distributing more than 45 pounds of marijuana across the Washington region. According to documents filed at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, officers searching the home the men shared in Waldorf on Nov. 5 discovered $100,000 in cash stored in a small safe, a backpack and a shoebox. Hidden in various locations, including the attic and closets, officials found two fully automatic assault rifles, seven handguns, a shotgun and a magazine containing hollow-point bullets. The investigation started on Sept. 24, when two Montgomery County detectives met with an...

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Ex-aide to Calif. senator charged with child porn

A former high-level aide to California Sen. Barbara Boxer was charged with possession of child pornography in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia late last week after investigators found hundreds of images on his home computer. Jeff P. Rosato, 32, of Arlington, worked for the three-term Democrat from February 2005 through August 2007, rising through the ranks from legislative assistant to senior policy adviser, Senate records show. In October 2007, Rosato moved to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, for which Boxer is the chairwoman. He was fired from his committee post as senior policy adviser and counsel Friday, Boxer's spokeswoman said. “On Friday, the...

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Records: Scheme to smuggle guns, visas uncovered

An FBI informant helped agents uncover a visa fraud and gun smuggling scheme run by two Annandale men, one of whom told the informant he could sell him a missile that “can reach the Pentagon,” according to a sworn statement unsealed Monday. The investigation started when the informant met with Amjad Hamed, a Jordanian native and legal U.S. resident since 1978, in Hamed’s Annandale home in April 2006, the affidavit said. Hamed reportedly asked the informant to obtain visas for six associates who wanted to immigrate to the U.S. from Jordan and the West Bank. Hamed reportedly told the informant that three of the of the six passports and visas were for people who had been...

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Illegal immigrant shooter recently cited for carrying a concealed weapon

Just weeks before police say an illegal immigrant and alleged MS-13 gang member shot and killed a 14-year-old Silver Spring boy, the 20-year-old man was charged with concealing a dangerous weapon by a Montgomery County police officer, court records show. The citation was issued on Oct. 3, a little less than a month before police say Hector Hernandez — an El Salvadoran illegal immigrant living in Takoma Park — opened fire on a Montgomery County bus, killing Tai Lam and wounding two other teens, ages 14 and 15. Hernandez was with four or five other alleged gang members when he got on the bus in Silver Spring, police said. Other arrests are likely. The two groups got into an...

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Arlington police captain says lock up valuables

Arlington County police Captain Brian Berke command‚s the county‚s second district, which spans from Court House through Rosslyn and into Crystal City. There‚s little violent crime in the area, but the many businesses and cars parked in garages are easy targets for thieves. His advice: keep your belonging locked up and an eye out for suspicious people. What inspired you to become a police officer? I was in my junior year of high school and was thinking about going to college at Virginia Tech to study forestry. But between my junior and senior year I changed course after working with the school resource officers and thought being a police officer should be my future. I...

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Two men sought in restaurant robbery spree

Two Hispanic men searching for cash picked two burrito shops, among other restaurants, as their targets, Montgomery County police said. One of the two men — both between 20 and 25 years old — walked into a Pizza Hut at 8607 16th St. in Silver Spring at 6:53 p.m. last Sunday, pulled out a handgun and demanded cash. He fled in an SUV driven by the second suspect. At 8 p.m., they did the same thing at a Chipotle at 13501 Connecticut Ave. in Aspen Hill. They popped up again 24 minutes later a Lia’s Restaurant at 4445 Willard Avenue in Chevy Chase, where one suspect robbed a 23-year-old man at gunpoint. At 8:37 p.m. they were holding up another Chipotle at 4471 Willard...

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Spree nets D.C. men lengthy sentences

Two District of Columbia men have been dealt lengthy prison sentences for stealing more than $200,000 in a string of violent, armed bank robberies across Northern Virginia. According to documents filed in federal court in Alexandria, 23-year-old Amobi Agu and 24-year-old Carlton Coltrane, both of Southeast, would escape from the banks they robbed in a white Dodge Ram with alloy rims. On Dec. 29, a red-ink dye pack stored among the cash they took from an Alexandria BB&T Bank exploded while they were sitting in the truck. Later that day, Abu went to Marlboro Heights to get the ink cleaned out of the truck. An employee at the car-cleaning business later informed a District...

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Silver Spring man accused of stalking 15-year-old girl

A 41-year-old Silver Spring man was charged with false imprisonment and harassment after Montgomery County police said he stalked a 15-year-old girl Silver Spring girl. Jose Cabrera, of the 14400 block of Good Hope Road, first approached the girl on Oct. 30 while she was walking on the 700 block of Orchard Way in Colesville. He pulled up to her in a silver BMW convertible, asked her questions and then drove away, police said. The next day, Cabrera drove up to the girl again as she got off her school bus. He yelled at her to get in the car, and, fearing for her safety, the girl complied, police said. Cabrera gave her a cell phone and threatened her with harm if she told anyone, police said....

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Police still investigating potential hate crime

On the night of April 19, 1995, Nathaddeus Smith, 25, met a man at a bar in Mount Pleasant. The two then left the bar together. Soon after, residents along Kenyon Street could hear Smith’s cries as he was stabbed more than 50 times. Residents jammed the phone lines calling the police for help, but by the time officers arrived, Smith was dead. His body was lying between two parked cars. The silver Dodge he had borrowed from a friend was found nearby. Police said at the time that it was driven from the scene by the killer, who has never been found. In 1995 D.C. homicide Detective Mike Farish told reporters that Smith’s killing was characteristic of so-called “pickup...

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Lawyer accused of hiding dead drug dealer’s money

A Montgomery County lawyer is facing federal charges of money laundering and witness tampering after federal prosecutors said he helped conceal a dead drug dealer’s cash booty and told a client to lie about the money’s whereabouts. According to an indictment unsealed Thursday in the U.S. District of Maryland, Walter Lloyd Blair, 57, of Brookeville, met with a woman identified as “relative A” who told Blair she had been holding tens of thousands of dollars for a drug-dealing relative who was now dead. Blair, the indictment alleges, took the bundled bills and held them for the relative. Between 2003 and 2005, Blair allegedly helped the woman buy property and conceal...

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Man pleads guilty to ATM skimming

A Hyattsville man has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $200,000 from at least 77 victims across the Washington region by using an illegal device to skim bank account information from automated teller machine users. Vitalijs Balsevics, 26, was one of two men accused of the “ATM skimming” conspiracy that federal agents tracked from April until mid-September, according to federal documents filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. The other man, Konstantin Sintsev, 24, also from Hyattsville, has been charged but hasn’t entered a plea. According to a sworn statement from U.S. Secret Service agent Kathleen Cleary and...

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Charges stem from questionable building practices

The state of Maryland revoked the registration of a Prince George’s County-based developer and filed charges accusing it of accepting more than $400,000 in deposits in payments from county residents for homes it never built. Westwood Design Build Inc. didn’t start building the promised homes, failed to pay subcontractors and did not refund advance payments paid by the Prince George’s customers, Attorney General Doug Gansler said Wednesday. The company also failed to disclose to state regulators lawsuits filed against it by consumers and subcontractors concerning the company’s building practices. Maryland officials are seeking restitution and civil penalties...

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Reston man charged in the killing of D.C. cab driver

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Culprit in 2 bank heists claimed to have bombs, feds say

An August bank robbery in Montgomery County and an attempted robbery in Fairfax just 14 days later featured culprits of apparent Middle Eastern descent who claimed to be terrorists armed with bombs, federal authorities said. At about 4:15 p.m. Aug. 15, a man of apparent Middle Eastern descent waited in line at a Bank of America in Wheaton. When he reached the teller, he said he wanted to make a deposit and slipped the teller a deposit slip and a note. The note said the man was a terrorist and had a bomb attached to his body. The note also said he would detonate the bomb if the teller didn’t place money in a small black leather bag, which he handed to the teller, saying hurry...

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SWAT team fails to stop apparent suicide

A man is believed to have shot himself at a Capitol Heights Comfort Inn early Sunday morning as a Prince George’s County SWAT team waited outside the hotel, police said. Police received a call from the now-deceased man’s family around 9:40 a.m. Saturday. The family member said the man intended to harm himself and provided the room number. When police arrived, they knocked on the man’s hotel room door, but retreated when he fired a shot through the door, police said. The officers called for an emergency barricade and waited for support to arrive. The SWAT team waited outside the hotel until around 2 a.m., when they made an attempt to get into the room in which the man...

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Three teens shot, one fatally, on Montgomery bus

A late Saturday night Montgomery County bus ride turned bloody when an argument between two groups of young men ended in gunfire that killed one teenager and left two other teens seriously injured, police said. Police were called to the corner of Piney Branch Road and Arliss Street in Silver Spring around 11:08 p.m. for a shooting that had just occurred. Upon arrival, they found three teenagers suffering from gunshot wounds on a county Ride On bus. A 14-year-old boy, Tai Lam, of Silver Spring, later died of his wounds, and two other boys, ages 14 and 15, remained in serious condition Sunday. Lam was a freshmen at Blair High School. According to police, two groups, each containing three...

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Controller in medevac crash

The air traffic controller in radio contact with a doomed Maryland medevac helicopter that crashed, killing four last month, lacked the training to assist the pilot in an instrument landing, a preliminary report released Thursday found. The National Transportation Safety Board’s analysis pointed to a failed navigation system in the helicopter and the inability of ground personnel to guide them through a landing without aircraft instruments as contributing factors in the crash. The report also noted that the only rescue worker to respond to the crash in Prince George’s County had to drive more than 25 miles to get to the scene. The helicopter, which crashed 2 miles from...

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Pr. George’s opens Africa trade office

The Prince George’s County Africa Trade Office officially opened Thursday with County Executive Jack Johnson praising the role it will play in “hooking up” county businesses with entrepreneurs in Africa and fighting terrorism. “When I was in Senegal, I went to a particular town where it was great to see young children that were very excited. ... They were waving American flags and had the day off from school,” Johnson said to the various African dignitaries, elected officials and county business leaders who gathered for the ribbing cutting. “It’s this kind of activity that will help us deal with terrorism. ... We will show that we come as sisters...

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Man leads police on chase through Arlington

Authorities said a 25-year-old Temple Hills man led Virginia State Police on a wild chase Thursday morning through Arlington and Alexandria that involved the man crashing into a state police car, a Metro bus, attempting to carjack someone, and stealing two other cars. The chase, which started when state police observed a stolen pickup truck trying to back down a ramp leading to Interstate 395, ended when Gerald Lee McCall slammed a stolen car into a barrier outside Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, police said. When the troopers first approached McCall on I-395 after he attempted to back the truck up, he sped off, getting off the highway at the Shirlington Road exit. As he exited...

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Two illegal immigrants among trio arrested in bust

Three Northern Virginia men, two of whom are illegal immigrants, are behind bars after a law enforcement informant purchased more that 5 ounces of cocaine and 16 guns from them in recent months, according to court documents unsealed this week. One of the men, Luis Guzman, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, was a local business owner, court documents said. Guzman, 43, owns at least one restaurant in Manassas Park where several of the drug and gun transactions took place. The restaurant was not named in the documents. He also is listed as the director of LKG Enterprises Inc., which received its certificate of incorporation from Virginia in 2003. A spokesman for the commonwealth’s...

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Man arrested in connection to multistate drug ring

A man who was free on bail after allegedly being caught four years ago with 11 pounds of cocaine and 35 pounds of marijuana was arrested Monday in Prince William County as authorities said he continued to be part of a multistate drug distribution ring. Federal and local law enforcement on Monday said they had charged 17 people — 12 in Chicago, five in Prince William — with conspiring to distribute drugs in Northern Virginia and Illinois. Officials said the primary targets of the investigation included Demont Story, who they say transported cocaine with his uncle Dennis Story from Chicago to Prince William County. Both were among those arrested Monday in Prince William. Demont...

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Suspect wanted in Va. BB&T bank robbery

It was around 12:09 p.m. on Sept. 5 when a black male, about 6 feet tall, weighing between 200 and 225 pounds, entered the BB&T Bank located inside the Crystal Plaza Arcade in Arlington. The man, who was between 30 and 35 years old, handed a note to a teller stating that this was a robbery and demanding the teller provide him with cash. He asked the teller’s name and directed the teller not to tell anyone what happened. The suspect left the bank on foot with an undisclosed quantity of cash. He was wearing prescription glasses, a light gray T-shirt and white tennis shoes. Anyone with information should contact the FBI Washington Field Office at 202-278-2000 or the Arlington...

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Montgomery barn fire causes $500,000 damage

A fired swept through a barn in Laytonsville on Saturday, causing more than $500,000 in damage, a Montgomery County Fire Department spokesman said. About 75 firefighters were called out to fight the blaze at the intersection of Woodfield and Brink roads Saturday afternoon. One of the firefighters suffered a minor injury from a flying ember. When firefighters arrived, the barn was fully engulfed in flames. Several roads in the area were closed off. The spokesman said the 10,000-square-foot barn is on property that’s for sale and listed at $1.75 million. He said the barn was being renovated. A silo standing near the barn was saved, and firefighters also prevented the flames from...

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Former Capitol Hill aide sentenced in child porn case

A former aide for Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., was sentenced to three years in federal prison Friday for possession of child pornography, federal prosecutors said. James Michael McHaney, 28, of the District of Columbia, was arrested Nov. 30 when he met with a government informant, identified as “CW” in court records, to exchange child pornographic images and to meet at CW’s home to have sex with a 13-year-old boy. He was fired from his job as Cantwell’s scheduler when he was arrested. CW, who had previously met and exchanged pornographic images with McHaney, contacted McHaney around 12:15 p.m. Nov. 30 on America Online to set up the tryst with the 13-year-old,...

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Lanier vows crackdown on teen-friendly Chinatown clubs

District of Columbia Police Chief Cathy Lanier promised to crack down on Chinatown nightclubs catering to teenagers on Friday after residents complained of the ruckus caused by hundreds of teens spilling into the streets on weekends. The area around the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro station has seen such an overwhelming swarm of rowdy teenagers on recent Saturday nights that station employees have dubbed it “7th and Hell.” Lanier said Friday police efforts would target the teen clubs in the area, including the notorious Club Bounce, which closes at 11 and discharges large numbers of noisy teens into the streets. The crackdown comes after the Downtown Neighborhood Association,...

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2002 triple homicide happened in formerly quiet neighborhood

It was a quiet apartment complex in a peaceful neighborhood, but on May 23, 2002, three men were shot multiple times at close range. When Daniel “Ears” Dimoh, 21, Mitchell “MickMo” Johnson, 25, and Elvon “Smoke” Miller, 21, were found dead in pools of blood at a Franklin Commons apartment, neighbors were disturbed by the grotesque violence, according to reports at the time. The apartment complex at 105 Franklin St. NE, had a multicolored jungle gym out front and a learning center in a basement. It was the type of place where residents would sit out on the stoop and watch the traffic pass by. Just before the shootings, however, residents had started to...

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Fairfax cocaine dealer gets 2 years, 9 months in prison

A Fairfax County cocaine dealer and bookie was sentenced Friday to two years and nine months in federal prison and ordered to forfeit $2 million by a federal judge. Dwight F. Day, 45, of Fairfax Station, was arrested March 28 after federal and Fairfax County investigators spent nearly a year tracking his drug dealing and sports gambling operation that he ran out of his business, KMN Sheetmetal. When his home and business were searched, investigators found cocaine residue and $270,000 in cash, court records said. Law enforcement officials tracked Day’s wheeling and dealing using six unnamed informants, some of whom were friends with Day and his wife, and also known cocaine users,...

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Police: Officer who vanished while diving believed dead

The Fairfax County police officer who disappeared during a diving training exercise Tuesday is believed to be dead, police said Thursday as they continued to search for his body. Second Lt. Frank Stecco, 43, was a volunteer role-player in a helicopter water rescue exercise in a Potomac River bay when he disappeared around 2:50 p.m. Tuesday. Extensive efforts from multiple agencies, including police from across the region, the Coast Guard and the FBI, have been unable to locate him. Stecco, a 19-year veteran, was most recently assigned to the youth division. Until Thursday afternoon, police officials had believed the dry suit he was wearing could have prevented him from perishing in the...

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FBI hunting bank robbers; warns of escalating violence

After a string of brazen bank robberies, FBI agents are searching for suspects who they fear may become more violent if not apprehended soon. FBI officials say there has been a string of armed bank robberies in recent months in which the suspects have made off with large sums as they target vaults rather than just the tellers’ cash drawers. There have been more than 20 bank robberies in the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia since early August. Earlier this month, a man brandishing an assault-style rifle and another man with a silver revolver robbed a Wachovia Bank at 4302 Connecticut Ave. NW, taking cash from tellers and the vault. In April, a man and a woman wielding...

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Bank robbery myths exposed

Many people have entertained the notion that they could pull off a bank robbery and get away with a quick fortune. Countless books and movies have detailed what happens when ordinary folks decide to knock over banks. Many more works of fiction have gone into great detail on the bank robber’s craft, giving daydreamers plenty of fuel for fantasy. But FBI special agent Jeff Johannes says that much of what people believe about robbing a bank and getting away with it is pure mythology. Some prominent bank robbery myths: 1 A bank robber can keep authorities at bay by moving across jurisdictional lines. With technology changing everyday, this is no longer true. E-mails with suspect...

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3 Minute Interview-Barker

Jim Barker’s after-work passion became his full time job in 1999 when he left the world of software and started The Washington Wine Academy. Since then, 8,000 wine enthusiasts have attended the academy’s seminars, classes and wine tasting events. How did you become so interested in wine? I fell in love with wine. I started closely following Washington Post wine columnist Michael Franz to learn more about it. I realized that D.C. is the top wine consuming city in the U.S. and would be well served to have a deeper education in wine. What’s your favorite wine? It depends on what day of the week it is, what time of the day, what I’m eating. ... I’ve always...

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Opium-stuffed grill lands 2 Fairfax men in custody

Two Fairfax men are being held in federal prison without bail after British customs officials intercepted a package containing 33 pounds of opium stuffed into the legs of a barbecue grill, federal officials said in court records. The package was sent from Iran to “Mikhaila Seidow,” later identified as Mikhail Seidov, who is now behind bars with Khiabani Eskanddani, records show. The two were arrested by federal agents when they arrived to pick up the package at Dulles International Airport’s British Airways loading dock on Oct. 15. Judge Thomas Rawles Jones of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ordered the two be held without bail Tuesday. The...

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Suspect in slayings also charged with abusing survivor

The Calvert County woman suspected of killing her two adopted daughters and storing their remains in a freezer was indicted Monday on attempted murder charges for the alleged abuse of her surviving daughter, according to court records unsealed Wednesday. Renee D. Bowman, 43, was being held on child abuse charges that the grand jury stepped up to attempted murder on Monday. The new charge is related to the 8-year-old girl a neighbor found wandering the streets caked in mud and blood, records said. When police investigated how the girl came to be alone in the street in a disheveled condition, they were led to Bowman, who reportedly told detectives she had killed her other adopted daughters...

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Montgomery teen killed in Damascus car crash

The 15-year-old son of a Montgomery County police district commander was killed in a Damascus car crash Monday night, Montgomery County police said. Three other teens, including driver, Zachary Kimble, 17, were hospitalized and released. A fourth teen, Brittany Jones, 16, remained in critical condition Tuesday night. Initial reports of fiery crash on Hawkins Creamery Road said at least two of the passengers were thrown from the 2000 blue Volvo when, for unknown reason, the car left the westbound side of the road and collided with a tree. A 45-year-old Gaithersburg man who was following the Volvo as the teens were heading from a meeting of the Christian youth group YoungLife, to a Burger...

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Officer goes missing during dive team exercise

Fairfax County and agencies from across the region searched into the night for a county police officer who disappeared in Pohick Bay during a diving team training exercise Tuesday afternoon. The 15 people were part of the group that was training with a county helicopter in the bay not far from the southern edge of Fort Belvoir around 1:30 p.m. When the group wrapped up its training around 2:45, the officer was missing. A search including personnel from the Coast Guard, the District of Columbia and other agencies was immediately launched for the missing officer, whose name had not been released Tuesday night. Only four people involved in the exercise were divers, police said. The...

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Home invasion, murder suspect escaped from N.Y. police in 2000, officials say

The illegal immigrant accused of killing an elderly woman and committing a half-dozen home invasions escaped the clutches of New York City police seven years before his Montgomery County crime spree started, police said Monday. Jose Garcia-Perlera, 33, is being held without bond as police continue to investigate his alleged connection to six home invasions and numerous other thefts in Potomac and Bethesda. He was arrested Wednesday after police discovered items stolen from the homes and cars he targeted during a search of Garcia-Perlera’s Hyattsville apartment. The case broke earlier this month when a laptop stolen from a Bethesda home in August was found in a pawn shop where...

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Man indicted for allegedly hiding proceeds of house sale

A Great Falls Internet-business owner has been indicted for his role in a three-year bankruptcy fraud scheme that included his mortgage broker and the former president of the Northern Virginia Bankruptcy Bar association, federal prosecutors said Monday. Richard A. Forde, 50, faces up to 40 years in prison and a $9.7 million fine if he convicted for the scheme which he ran from December 2001 to January 2004. Forde was the president of tutornet.com. According to the indictment, Forde’s mortgage broker, David Freelander, of Virginia Beach, along with Forde’s attorney, Leslie W. Lickstein, conspired to sell Forde’s home to Alladean Allobaidy and keep millions in proceeds that...

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Woman says she was sexually assaulted in Holy Cross Hospital emergency room

A 29-year-old woman told Montgomery County police that a 40-year-old orderly at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring sexually assaulted her, police said. The woman said the assault happened Saturday night in the hospital’s emergency room while she was waiting to see a doctor. A man wearing latex gloves and scrubs touched her inappropriately. She called the police after discovering the man who had touched her was not a doctor, but rather an orderly. No charges have been filed as police continue to investigate the woman’s claim, a police spokeswoman said. The hospital also is investigating, and the orderly has been placed on administrative leave until the investigation is...

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Montgomery County chief: County is changing

As the deputy director of the Montgomery County Police Department’s Major Crimes Division, Lt. Michael Mancuso is an increasingly busy man. In recent years, the county’s crime has taken on a more violent nature, and for Mancuso, that comes at a time when he’s pondering retirement. In his lengthy career, Mancuso has moved up through the ranks as he’s conquered investigations and played a role in solving others, including the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks. It has been busy for police in Montgomery County. What’s going on? In recent years, crimes have become more violent. We’re catching more repeat offenders. We recently had a homicide in Gaithersburg [the...

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Prosectuor: Official gave licenses for donuts, discounts

Donuts and cut-rate car repairs were all it took for the manager of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles office in Leesburg to threaten national security by handing out driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, federal prosecutors say. Sally Lynn Craig, 42, was fired by the DMV in June when federal officials charged her with two counts of identification fraud, said DMV spokeswoman Melanie Stokes. The department has been cracking down on fraud, and Craig’s handing out of licenses to two illegal immigrants was caught by an internal investigator, Stokes said. Craig was hired by the DMV in 1999 and promoted to manager of the Leesburg office in November 2006. Once there,...

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Suspect charged in Bethesda murder, dozens of thefts

Montgomery County police have charged Jose Juan Garcia-Perlera, 33, an illegal immigrant living in Hyattsville, with the murder of a Bethesda woman and several home invasions. Police had been searching for the man behind a half-dozen home invasions in Potomac and Bethesda for more than a year, when a detective looking for stolen goods being sold online found a computer taken from one of the homes, Montgomery County police said Friday. The computer was linked to Garcia-Perlera, a search warrant was executed at his Hyatsville apartment and police say more stolen goods were found. Using that evidence and DNA, police said they were able to link Garcia-Perlera to the home invasions and the...

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Metro supervisor who stole $560K faces sentencing

The Metro supervisor who pleaded guilty in April to stealing more than $560,000 from the transit authority is set to be sentenced today. Marcia Anderson used her role as a supervisor in the Transit Sales Office to steal money from the cash drawers of the 10 to 15 workers she supervised over a six-year period, according to her plea. Anderson would cover up the disappearing cash by replacing it with canceled Metro checks that should have been destroyed by the WMATA treasury. She also repeatedly changed balance sheets to keep her actions hidden from accountants. “Anderson’s behavior cannot be condoned or punished lightly,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Frederick Yette wrote in...

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Landover man charged with killing of cab driver

A Landover man caught breaking into a Suitland home early Thursday morning allegedly shot a District of Columbia cab driver to death only hours earlier, Prince George’s County law enforcement sources said. Christian E. Brooks, 25, was charged with first-degree murder, accused of pulling the cab driver from his taxi and shooting him to death. Police believe they found the murder weapon in Brooks’ possession when they caught him outside a home on the 3700 block of Summer Street, sources told The Examiner. Police are awaiting the outcome of ballistic tests. Police would not confirm the name of the taxi driver pending notification of his family, but co-workers at District Cab...

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Veteran pleads guilty to accepting benefits while working

An Arlington County man has pleaded guilty to swindling the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Department for more than $60,000 over a four-year period, federal court documents said. Willie Brian Williams pleaded guilty Friday after a Veterans Affairs investigator learned late last year that Williams had been employed between April 2000 and October 2004 while still collecting $61,190 in unemployment benefits from the department, court documents said. During those four years, Williams earned about $185,000 as an employee of Sterling, Va.-based ABBTECH Staffing Services, court records said. While employed by the temporary staffing firm, Williams worked as a “help desk manager”...

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Cop pleads guilty to DUI in crash of cruiser

A Montgomery County police officer has pleaded guilty to driving under the influence when he crashed his cruiser on Interstate 270 in May. John Distel, 32, a six-year police veteran, crashed his cruiser into highway barriers around 1:25 a.m. on May 9 while driving south on Interstate 270 near Montgomery Village, county police said at the time. Distel suffered minor injuries in the crash and originally told police he crashed after being struck by another vehicle. Distel said he was driving in the center lane when a silver Toyota hit the rear and then front of his 2003 Crown Ford Victoria, causing him to lose control and fly into barriers on either side of the four-lane highway, according...

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Pr. George’s top attorney arguing murder case

Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey took to the courtroom floor Tuesday, a rare step saved for the most egregious of crimes, Ivey’s spokesman Roman Korionoff said. On trial is Robert Washington Francis, 20, who, along with 21-year-old Robert Tyrone Stamp, is accused of being involved in a March 2007 drive-by shooting in which a bullet missed its intended target and killed Theodora Summers, 40, as she was getting ready for work. At the time, police said people were standing on a driveway around 5:15 p.m. on the 6700 block of 96th Avenue in Lanham when occupants in a vehicle opened fire, striking a 24-year-old man in the hip. The shots were the result of an...

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First responder - Milton Douglas

Milton Douglas District of Columbia Assistant Fire Chief Milton Douglas took over the fledgling internal affairs division for the fire department earlier this year. In his new role, Douglas, a District native, is part firefighter, part police officer. He’s charged with keeping a sometimes unruly fire department in order. Q. Why was the internal affairs division formed? A. Internal affairs is about sending a message that we’re serious about the expectation that our employees act in a professional manner. Basically, there had been complaints from different areas about the misconduct of the department’s employees and we recognized a need to combat that. ... The division...

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Man charged, another sought, in home invasion shooting

A 20-year-old Silver Spring man who allegedly invaded a Silver Spring home last week has been charged with shooting a man there. George Monsour is one of two men that Montgomery County police said chased a 24-year-old woman into her home and then proceeded to attack three male residents — ages 21, 21, and 24 — once inside. The woman was able to escape harm by retreating to her bedroom. Police say Monsour shot the 24-year-old male resident in the arm as the resident fought with Monsour’s counterpart. The other culprit is described as Hispanic, between 18 and 20 years old, about 5-foot-9 with a thin build. Anyone with information on the case should call 240-773-5100.

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Girl slashes fellow freshman at DuVal High

A fight between two teenage girls at DuVal High School in Lanham turned bloody Monday morning when one of the girls slashed another with a razor and then cut herself, Prince George’ County officials said. Two w girls, both freshmen, have been charged with assault and disruption of school activities, police said. Both girls were sent to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. No other students were involved in the scuffle. Authorities believe the razor was a box cutter, county schools spokesman John White said. Razors are banned in school buildings and the girls could face expulsion. School officials will send a letter home to parents about the incident, asking them to talk...

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Missing Persons

» Name: Shoai Hashmi » Age: 17 » Missing from: Alexandria » Race: White » Height: 5 feet 3 inches » Weight: 146 pounds » Hair: Brown » Eyes: Brown Hashmi was last seen on July 9 wearing a red T-shirt, bluejeans and white shoes. Anyone with information should call 800-637-5437. » Name: Sandra Yaneth Ascencio » Age: 14 » Missing from: Arlington County » Race: Hispanic » Height: 5 feet 3 inches » Weight: 120 pounds » Hair: Black » Eyes: Brown Sandra was last seen on March 28 wearing bluejeans, a white shirt and a black jacket. Anyone with information should call 800-637-5437.

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Sailor looked at child porn aboard ship, authorities say

A U.S. Navy petty officer first class formerly of Vienna was charged this week with receiving child pornography after federal investigators linked him to online accounts and he reportedly admitted to downloading some of the pictures while on board the destroyer USS Mason, federal court documents said. Daniel J. Sweeney, 28, was taken to the brig Wednesday from his station on the guided missile cruiser USS Anzio in Norfolk, a Navy spokesman said. Between April 2006 and early June 2007, Sweeney downloaded nearly 2,000 images of child pornography from Web sites he gained access to by paying a monthly fee, court records said. The images were discovered after federal officials searched his...

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Shooting victims included key witness in upcoming trial

One of the victims killed in a triple shooting early Tuesday morning was an important witness in an upcoming trial against one of the alleged killers of music producer “Scottie Beats,” Prince George’s County law enforcement sources told The Examiner. Bobby Ennels, 22, was set to testify against Jamaal Alexis, who allegedly gunned down Scottie Beats — real name Raymond Brown — in October 2006 outside of Brown’s Mitchellville home. Brown had chased after Alexis and others who had stolen his car. Around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, Ennels was riding near FedEx Field in Landover with a man and a woman when someone opened fire, killing Ennels, 22, of Capitol Heights,...

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Shooting leads to list of charges for group Silver Spring teens

A drug feud inspired a shooting that followed a Colesville car crash and has led to drug, weapons and accessory charges for four Silver Spring teens, Montgomery County police said Wednesday. According to police, Braxton Boyd, 19, had been feuding with the 19-year-old shooting victim for weeks when the two saw each other at a Colesville 7-Eleven on Monday morning. Around 9:55 a.m., and about a mile from the 7-Eleven, the victim plowed his 2003 Saturn Ion into a 2005 Toyota RAV4 being driven by Boyd at the intersection of Montvale Drive and Flannery Lane, police said. The victim then took off on foot, but Boyd was hot on his heels, pulled a stolen gun and fired several shots, striking the...

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Prince George’s implementing jail recommendations

Prince George’s County officials have begun to implement changes at the county jail using suggestions from an independent report the county executive requested in late July, a county spokesman said Wednesday. In July, County Executive Jack Johnson hired the American Correctional Association to review the jail, which has been under fire this year after an inmate accused of killing a police officer was strangled to death in his cell. Numerous other infractions have been recorded at the facility. The ACA submitted its final report in mid-August, said John Erzen, Johnson’s spokesman, and the officials have been implementing its suggestions. Erzen declined to go into the...

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Neighbor charged in killing of Falls Church woman

Fairfax County police said Wednesday they charged Mark Eric Lawlor, 43, with killing his neighbor Genevieve Orange in her Falls Church apartment late last month. Orange was found dead in her apartment by police who were checking her welfare at the request of a family member around 11:22 a.m. on Sept. 25. Police said she was beaten to death; her upper body showed signs of severe blunt force trauma. The 29-year-old had spent the hours before her death with friends from McLean Bible Church, according to postings on her Facebook page. Police would not say how the homicide transpired, or what led them to believe it was Lawlor. The two lived on the first floor of Prestwick Apartments on...

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Home invasions linked to slaying of Bethesda woman

Two of the six recent home invasions in Montgomery County and the District of Columbia have been linked by DNA evidence to the slaying of a Bethesda woman, Montgomery County police said Tuesday. The culprit, a light-skinned Latino man who doesn’t speak English well, has repeatedly targeted the elderly. In each case, the victims were tied up, and the homes had secluded backyards and no alarm system, police said. Police have been keeping the public informed of the investigation with near-weekly meetings since the robberies appeared to become extremely violent with the slaying of Mary Frances Haverstein in her Seven Locks Road home on Sept. 4. The culprit, police said, left behind a...

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Montgomery man charged with animal cruelty after horse found dead

A Montgomery County man has been charged with animal cruelty after police found one dead horse and several others, including a foal, in poor health on a Dickerson farm, police said Tuesday. Robert W. Curry Jr., 30, of Poolesville, kept about 30 horses on a farm on the 19100 block of Martinsburg Road. Of those, at least four were found to be malnourished, and a fifth was found dead when police visited the property on Friday, police said. When the horses were seized and examined by a veterinarian, three were determined to be in critical condition; they had grown so thin that their back, rib and hip bones were protruding and causing lameness, police said. One of the sickly horses was...

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Neighborhood Watch — Samantha Nolan

Samantha Nolan is the neighborhood watch guru of the District of Columbia. After launching the Chevy Chase neighborhood watch program in 2000, she has helped get an additional half-dozen off the ground across the District. Neighborhood watch is just as much about having extra eyes for police as it is about educating members of the public on how to protect themselves. Q: How do you view the role of neighborhood watch? A: Education is the biggest deterrent to crime. About 50 percent of crime is preventable through education. Simple things, like not leaving your purse in a shopping cart or not leaving anything of value out in the open in your car, locking your windows and having an alarm...

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Homeland Security employee expected to plead guilty to child porn charges

A computer specialist for the Department of Homeland Security is expected to plead guilty this morning to crimes that authorities say made him one of the nation’s most prolific disseminators of child pornography, a federal prosecutor told The Examiner. Peter W. North was arrested in August after a months-long investigation led FBI agents to his Alexandria home, where they allegedly discovered 80 gigabytes — the equivalent of 25,000 pictures or 250 hours of video on an iPod — of child pornography in an external hard drive, according to a sworn statement by FBI agent Chad J. Gallagher. This morning, North is expected to plead guilty to receipt of child pornography, which...

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Man in crash shoots other driver, police say

Montgomery County police said they believe a man shot after a car crash in Colesville on Monday knew his attacker. Two cars collided at the intersection of Montvale Drive and Flannery Lane at about 10 a.m., police said. The driver of a car that was carrying two other people jumped out and shot the other driver in the arm before fleeing the scene, police said. The victim was taken to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. The 19-year-old unidentified shooter was found nearby and arrested. Police said they were still looking for the gun as of Monday evening. The passengers in the shooter’s car also have been taken into custody, police said, adding that the incident does not...

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Police warn of robbers targeting Asians in area

Police in Montgomery County and the District of Columbia believe a pair of armed men may have targeted Asians in more than 10 robberies. Police believe the culprits follow their victims home from Asian businesses. In all three of the Montgomery robberies, which happened between Sept. 1 and Sept. 21 in Kensington and Wheaton, the men targeted older Asian couples. The culprits are black and in their early 20s. One is between 5’7” and 5’11” and about 145 pounds. The other is about the same height but weighs around 160 pounds. Police met with Asian community members Monday afternoon to warn them to be on the lookout. If people feel they’re being followed they...

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Adoptive mom's ex-bofriend wanted by Prince George's

The sometimes live-in boyfriend of a Calvert County mother who allegedly stuffed the bodies of two of her three adoptive daughters in a freezer is wanted on an open warrant by Prince George’s County police, The Examiner has learned. Joe C. Dickerson, 42, has met with police repeatedly this past week to discuss his relationship with Renee Bowman, 43. Last week, Calvert County sheriff’s deputies discovered the frozen remains of Bowman’s daughters — ages 9 and 11 — after her 7-year-old daughter was found wandering the streets near her Lusby home in disheveled condition. Bowman has told police that she toted the bodies for more than a year as she moved from...

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‘People are our strongest asset,’ Herndon chief says

Toussaint E. Summers Jr. has been Herndon’s police chief since 1999, after serving 23 years in the Prince William County Police Department. He brings a personality shaped by a childhood spent in a low-income, sometimes violent neighborhood, where police and residents were often at odds. What inspired you to be a police officer? I was a junior in high school in a driver’s training class when two county police officers came in to talk about safe driving. I recall sitting in the class and right then knowing what I wanted to be. I remember the uniform impressed me and the way they held themselves. ... It was something I never considered before. I grew up on a low-income...

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Sources: Accused mom details deaths of frozen girls

A Calvert County mother suspected of killing two of her three adopted daughters and putting the dead girls’ remains in a freezer has told police that one daughter died when she fell backward while being beaten and another died of starvation, sources close to the investigation said Thursday. Police said it appears Renee Bowman, 43, toted the dead girls — ages 9 and 11 — in a freezer from her home in Rockville to another in the Bryan Road area of Charles County before finally settling in Lusby, where police discovered the bodies in a block of ice Saturday. Autopsy results confirming the identities of the frozen bodies are still pending. Bowman is being held by Calvert...

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Police say children’s bodies frozen before last move

Montgomery County police took the lead Wednesday in the investigation into the suspicious deaths of two adopted daughters who were put in a freezer by their mother as the Maryland medical examiner said it could be weeks before autopsies are complete. The bodies were found frozen in Renee Bowman’s Calvert County home on Saturday, but police say their investigation has led them to believe the two girls, ages 9 and 11, were killed in Rockville last fall. Police said Bowman moved from Rockville to Lusby in November. The frozen bodies were discovered after Bowman’s 7-year-old adopted daughter was found caked in mud and wandering the streets. When Bowman was questioned, she told...

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Cops release no details in slain woman’s death

As family and friends gather for Genevieve Orange’s wake tonight, Fairfax County police remain mum on the details behind who beat the 29-year-old to death in her Falls Church apartment last week. Residents of the Prestwick apartments on Leesburg Pike told The Examiner Tuesday that despite security measures — a key card entryway, closed circuit surveillance cameras and security guards — there are frequent gaps. A rear door that provides access to a loading dock and leads into the building is typically left unlocked, and security guards are sometimes slow to respond to complaints, residents said. Calls to the building’s management company, Berkshire Property...

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Veteran firefighter saves baby and great-great-grandmother

On Sept. 19, Prince George’s County firefighter Lt. Doug Sudik, 45, found himself on the second-story of a Temple Hills home that was rapidly filling with smoke from a kitchen fire. As a 5-month-old baby and his 80-year-old great-great-grandmother struggled for air, Sudik, a nearly 20-year-veteran, found a way to save them both. What happened? We responded to the house fire on the (4100 block of) 24th Avenue and we knew there were people trapped on the second-floor. There was a kitchen fire downstairs and they couldn’t get down because the house was filled with smoke. We had two crews working through the house to find them. I found the two in a bedroom. The (great-great)...

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Police find 2 daughters in adoptive mother’s freezer

A Maryland mother was held without bail Monday after Calvert County police found two of the woman’s three adoptive daughters chopped up and stored in a freezer. The discovery was made after a neighbor found Renee Bowman’s third child, a 7-year-old girl, wandering the streets caked in mud, police said. Bowman, 43, has admitted killing the girls seven months ago, according to police. That was shortly after she moved from Rockville to Calvert County. All three of Bowman’s children were adopted while she was living in the District of Columbia, District officials said Monday. The 7-year-old who escaped Bowman by jumping out the second-story window of their home on the 700...

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3 Minute Interview-Westbrook

Zelda Westbrook, mother to cornerback Byron Westbrook of the Redskins’ practice squad and Philadelphia Eagle’s running back Brian Westbrook, is among 35 NFL moms who have joined Campbell’s Chunky Soup to fight hunger across the country. For her part, Westbrook, who lives in Fort Washington, is raising money and gathering food staples to donate to the Capital Area Food Bank. So what’s it like to be the mother of two professional football players? It’s very exciting. Right now Byron is on the practice squad and we’re looking forward to him breaking through. There’s a lot of competition when their two teams play, but I stay neutral. I want to see...

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Sheriff’s spokesman on the clock 24/7 365 days

As the spokesman for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, Kraig Troxell is often the voice of crime news in the county. For Troxell, the job is about walking the tight line between keeping the public informed and protecting certain details of a crime that, if released, could scuttle an investigation or endanger lives. How did you become interested in being a police spokesman? I have a media background. I worked on radio and television prior to coming to the Sheriff’s Office. When I was moved to post-production at WAGE 1200 AM where I had been covering local news, I found that I missed working with the community and the news aspect. When I saw the job opening for the...

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Falls Church woman found beaten to death

A 29-year-old Falls Church woman was beaten to death and discovered in her home Thursday morning, Fairfax County police said. Police called to the apartment on the 6100 block of Leesburg Pike to check on the welfare of Genevieve Paulette Orange found her dead. Police said she died from blunt force trauma to her upper body. Anyone with information on the crime should call police at 703-691-8888 or 1-888-411-TIPS.

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More indictments made in cocaine bust

A February traffic stop, and the discovery of 11 kilograms of cocaine and a loaded .40 caliber handgun inside a hidden compartment, helped lead officers to a massive cocaine distribution ring in the Washington region, federal court documents say. Between 2006 and May of this year, federal officials say at least five people in Virginia and Maryland conspired to distribute more than 150 kilograms of cocaine, which has a street value of about $3 million. So far, three of the defendants have pleaded guilty and two more were indicted Thursday on cocaine trafficking and weapons charges. According to the indictment, Abdullah Mattocks, 35, of Waldorf, Md., and Alan Marcus Royall, 28, of Clinton,...

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12-year-old Silver Spring girl missing

A 12-year-old Silver Spring girl hasn’t been seen since she got into a car near her bus stop Monday morning, Montgomery County police said. Tania Molina-Raudales left her home on the 400 block of Hampshire West Court around 7:30 a.m. and was seen, minutes later, getting into an older-model black, four-door car with an Hispanic driver, police said. Later that day, Molina-Raudales’ family received word from White Oak Middle School that she hadn’t arrived at school, police said. She hasn’t run away before, but at this time there is not evidence of foul play, police said. She is Hispanic, about 5 feet 5 inches tall, 135 pounds with brown eyes and long black hair. She...

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18-year-old indicted on seven weapons, explosives charges in Montgomery County

A Bethesda 18-year-old accused of stockpiling weapons and bomb-making materials in his parents’ home was indicted Thursday on seven weapons and explosives charges. Last month, Montgomery County police, following up on tips, searched the home where Collin McKenzie-Gude lived with his parents and discovered an arsenal of assault rifles and bomb-making chemicals. Prosecutors later disclosed that a map of the presidential getaway Camp David, a receipt for a pair of sniper glasses with a built-in range finder, a manual titled “How to Kill From a Distance of 200 Meters” and armor-piercing ammunition were also found in the house. By that time, the CIA and the FBI had become...

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Probe into death of inmate may pit Ivey versus Johnson

The investigation into the suspicious death of a Prince George’s County inmate charged with the slaying of a police officer has also exposed long-developing political rifts in the county. State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey, who was tasked with overseeing the investigation into Ronnie White’s June 29 death, is considered one of the county’s rising political stars. County Executive Jack Johnson has seen his hold on political power in the county threatened by continuing failures in the police and corrections departments. Never overt political rivals in the past, the case has put the two men on a collision course, longtime county politicos say. In the last week, Ivey has...

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Police: Man who shot officer, himself likely killed wife

Before an Arlington man shot an Alexandria police officer and then killed himself minutes later Tuesday night, he likely murdered his wife in their Columbia Pike home, Arlington County police said. Around 8 p.m. Tuesday two Alexandria officers pulled over Robert K. Hui, 22, for driving his silver Lexus sport utility vehicle erratically as he headed north on Interstate 395. One officer, a trainee, approached Hui’s driver’s side window, the other, the training supervisor, took the passenger side. As soon as the officers arrived, Hui reached across the passenger seat and fired a .45-caliber handgun through the passenger window, hitting the three-year veteran in his bulletproof...

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Corrections officers on paid leave during probe

Two Prince George’s corrections officers have been placed on paid leave after the scrutiny of their actions surrounding the death of accused police killer Ronnie White in a county jail cell has intensified, county officials said Monday. Officers Ramon Davis and Anthony McIntosh were placed on leave last week because “with the progression of the investigation, we thought it best for the public, and the Department of Corrections, to make sure those individuals were on non-duty status,” said a senior-level county official who did not want to be identified speaking about an open investigation. John Erzen, a spokesman for County Executive Jack Johnson, could not confirm the...

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Woodbridge man indicted in $700,000 IRS scam

A Woodbridge man was indicted on federal charges Thursday for allegedly swindling the Internal Revenue Service of more than $700,000 using about 200 falsified tax return forms between June 2006 and January 2007. According to court records, Kwabena Nyantaki formed two companies, Christian Assistance Foundation Inc. and Best Buy Driving, and used them as employers who paid him, under various aliases, nearly $50,000 a year. Nyantaki would then file tax returns indicating payroll taxes had been beyond his earned salary, resulting in hundreds of tax returns between $5,000 and $9,000, records said. Police say he opened bank accounts using stolen identities to deposit the cash, and then...

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Attempt to swindle Thurmond staffer uncovers $60M scheme, docs show

An attempt to swindle $280,000 from Sen. Strom Thurmond’s former chief of staff led federal investigators to uncover an international wire fraud and money laundering scheme that netted the suspects more than $60 million, federal court records unveiled last week show. When Robert Short, who now lives in Alexandria and declined to comment, went to log into his United States Senate Federal Credit Union account on Dec. 9, his password wouldn’t work, court records said. The next day he regained access, only to discover $280,000 had gone missing. Just three days earlier, the credit union had received a call from someone impersonating Short who requested $280,000 be sent from his...

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Autopsy: Accused cop killer was strangled

Accused police killer Ronnie White was murdered in his Prince George’s County solitary jail cell in June, Maryland’s chief medical examiner said in a final autopsy report Thursday. The report confirms initial findings that White, 19, was strangled in his cell with an unknown object — possibly a bedsheet, towel or arm — just two days after he was arrested for allegedly running down and killing police Sgt. Richard Findley with a stolen truck. The report also confirms, as previously reported by The Examiner, that fibers from the sheet found near White’s body match fibers found on White’s neck. Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey...

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Wounded domestic violence suspect escapes from ambulance

A handcuffed suspect on his way to Washington Hospital Center in an ambulance Monday afternoon escaped the clutches of the District of Columbia police who had arrested him, police said Wednesday. The man, who police have not yet identified, was arrested for domestic violence and needed treatment for a bloody head wound sliced open by his girlfriend’s shoe. But when the officers opened the ambulance door upon reaching the hospital, they discovered him missing and his handcuffs dangling from a gurney. Police cars had followed the ambulance and it’s believed the man escaped while the cruisers were parking and the ambulance continued to the emergency room. Police say the...

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Man murdered by heroin overdose, left in D.C., Pr. William police say

A Manassas man was murdered by a heroin overdose, his body dumped in a District of Columbia parking lot and now three people have been charged in the crime, Prince William County police said Tuesday. District police said Gregory Thorton’s body was found in the rear of 300 P St. SW, on Aug. 26 and they’re still awaiting a final ruling from the medical examiner on what killed the 41-year-old. But, court records said, a witness met with Prince William police on Friday and told them Thorton was murdered on Aug. 26 when three people intentionally overdosed him with an intravenous shot of heroin. Prince William police spokeswoman Erika Hernandez said the motive for killing Thorton...

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First Responders: Troy Gibbs

Troy Gibbs is excited. On Saturday, her efforts over the last several months will finally come to fruition with the official start of the Alexandria Fire Department’s safety battalion, and Gibbs is the acting chief. The program’s spark was cast last year following the injuries of several city firefighters and the arrival of a new chief. What role will the safety battalion play? We have been in need of more safety in the department. We’ve been very good at keeping citizens safe, but have not been doing a good of keeping our own safe. For us to do a good job all the time, we have to be able to keep ourselves safe and make sure each person goes home at the end of the day. How will...

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Another supermarket bank becomes target

The robbery of an Arlington County bank Monday morning, which caused two schools to be locked down for hours, was the third time a bank branch inside a grocery store has been targeted in recent weeks, police said. Last week, a man ripped off a Provident Bank located inside a Shoppers Food Warehouse in Alexandria, which also had been targeted by a would-be robber on Aug. 29. On Monday, Arlington County police said a man dressed in black entered the Chevy Chase Bank inside a Giant Foods store at 2901 S. Glebe Road around 10:30 a.m., implied he had a gun and made off with an undisclosed amount of money. Oakridge Elementary School and Gunston Middle School were locked down as police searched...

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Man faces murder charge in abduction after victim, cohort die in car crash

Only one of the two men suspected of abducting an Alexandria woman Saturday narrowly avoided death in a car crash and is now facing murder charges for the woman’s death in the accident. Lutchman Chandler, 19, of Woodbridge, died Monday from injuries sustained when he, Keith Baskerville, 19, of Woodbridge and their alleged victim Jean “Bobbi” Bosworth, 61, crashed into trees at the intersection of Neabsco Road and Indus Drive in Woodbridge while fleeing police, Prince William County police said. Baskerville remained in critical condition Monday and will face murder charges for killing Bosworth in the commission of a felony, prosecutors said. The two men allegedly...

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Police say they have DNA linking man to sex crime

A convicted sex offender who said he was wrongly accused of another rape because of his record has been jailed in connection with yet another sex crime, and this time police say they have DNA evidence to prove it. In March, James E. Blackmon, 47, who was convicted of rape by a Connecticut court in 1991, was charged with sexually assaulting a nanny in Southeast, only to be released in August due to lack of evidence. Blackmon told The Examiner a week ago that he was arrested and jailed for almost five months only because of his sex offender status. “When does a person get a chance to move on?” Blackmon asked. Just days after the interview, Blackmon was arrested again. The...

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Police seek man in break-in, indecent exposure

Arlington County police are searching for a man who broke into a woman’s apartment, threatened her with a knife, then fondled himself. Police said the woman was sleeping when a black man in his 30s about 5 feet 10 inches tall with a muscular build came into her apartment on the 2100 block of North 18th Street around 10 a.m. Wednesday. He woke her up and threatened her with a large knife. He wouldn’t let the woman leave the apartment, and exposed and fondled himself repeatedly, police said. The culprit then fled the apartment without taking anything and the unharmed victim called the police. Anyone with information should call Detective Michael Austin at 703-228-4241.

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Police: Group of teens targeted Hispanics

Montgomery County police said Thursday a group of five teens targeted Hispanics in at least 10 violent armed robberies between July 28 and Sept. 3 because, one suspect told investigators, he “hates Hispanic people.” Montgomery County police spokeswoman Melanie Brenner said that when detectives were interviewing one of the suspects, he said the victims — all male Hispanics — were targeted because of their race. Police are pursuing the possibility of designating the multiple armed robberies as hate crimes. Bizarrely, one of the suspects is Hispanic himself. The arrests came after police observed a sharp rise in attacks against Hispanics over the last month that,...

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Police compare footage of two bank robberies

Fairfax County police Wednesday were trying to determine if the lunch-hour robbery of a Provident Bank branch located inside a Shoppers Food Warehouse on 6228 N. Kings Highway was performed by the same man who tried to rip off the bank late last month. On Aug. 29, Provident Bank received a call around 11 a.m. with an unknown man threatening to explode a bomb inside the grocery store if cash wasn’t brought to a vehicle in the parking lot, Fairfax County police said. Police who responded found a suspicious package near an automatic teller machine located inside the grocery store and near the bank. The store was quickly evacuated, but the package turned out to be a hoax device. However,...

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Second suspect in robbery scheme turns self in

The second suspect in an embezzlement bank robbery scheme at a Fairfax County Bank of America turned himself in to police Monday. Piero Alvarado, 20, of Springfield, has been charged with grand larceny after he allegedly robbed a Bank of America at 8096 Rolling Road around 3 p.m. on Aug. 28. According to Fairfax County police, Alvarado entered the bank, handed a female teller a note announcing a bank robbery, received an undisclosed amount of cash and took off on foot. Police originally identified the teller as a victim, but further investigation revealed that Pamela Ghofrani Shadman, 20, of Springfield, was an acquaintance of Alvarado’s, police said. Shadman was charged with...

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Section of Northwest D.C. street collapses

A large section of a street in Northwest D.C. collapsed Wednesday morning, sending two city employees to the hospital for observation, said District of Columbia fire department spokesman Alan Etter. A 20-foot section of the 4300 block of Ellicott Street suddenly dropped about 2 feet around 10 a.m. while a department of transportation crew was collecting tree debris on the block. The truck slammed into the instant ledge created by the drop. It was not immediately clear what caused the ground to sink so quickly. Police and fire officials are investigating.

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Firefighter shot in NE

A District of Columbia firefighter responding to a reported heart attack in Northeast was shot in the arm Monday night, District police said. The firefighter is expected to recover from the wound he received after firefighters broke down the door to a home on the 4800 block of East Capitol Street NE and was shot by a man inside, police said. Fire and EMS crews knocked on the door, but when no one answered, they forced the door open. After a man emerged from a room and opened fire, the crews retreated and called police. At that point, the man barricaded himself inside the apartment, police said. Police were eventually able to talk him into surrendering. The wounded firefighter was taken...

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Pr. George’s to add mortgage fraud prosecutor

A $162,500 state grant received Tuesday by the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office will help hire a prosecutor designated to prosecute mortgage fraud cases in the county that tops the state in foreclosures. “We must reassure the residents of the county that we will catch and prosecute any and all criminals taking advantage of people at risk of losing their homes,” State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey said. Maryland has the third-highest number of mortgage fraud cases in the country, and Prince George’s has the highest number in the state, Ivey’s spokesman said.

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Alexandria doctor charged with sexual assault on patient

An Alexandria doctor has been charged with sexually assaulting one of his patients and Alexandria police are searching for other victims. Antonio Ramada, 48, was arrested on Aug. 27 and was charged with sodomy for allegedly sexually abusing a 32-year-old Manassas man. The patient contacted police earlier in August and reported that Ramada had “performed an act of sodomy on him” during an appointment at the doctor’s office located at 6000 Stevenson Ave., police said. Ramada is reportedly back at work at his family physician practice. He was released on bond, pending a preliminary hearing next month. Anyone with information should call Alexandria police at 703-838-4711.

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Citizens on Patrol: Sue Hotto

In 1986 Sue Hotto was among the first in Fairfax County to join Neighborhood Watch. Since then she’s delved into the voluntary police force and now serves on the county’s volunteer police service, the Citizen Advisory Committee at the Franconia District Station and is the Chief’s Advisory Council chairwoman. In recent weeks, Hotto’s neighborhood, Bren Mar Park, a small community in the Alexandria portion of Fairfax, has been the scene of two crimes: a highly publicized homicide and a stabbing. Q: Several residents said after last week’s homicide that they were concerned demographic changes were driving up crime in the area. Is that something you have witnessed?...

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The 3-Minute Interview: Owen Thomson

Last year Congress anointed September as National Bourbon Heritage Month as a monthlong celebration of the nation’s official spirit. And who better to discuss the subject than Owen Thomson, 27, the manager at the Adams Morgan bar Bourbon where 140 varieties of the liquor are sold. Let’s put an end to this, must bourbon come from Kentucky the same way Champagne must come from the Champagne Valley in France? Almost all bourbons are made in Kentucky, but under law they only have to be made in the United States. They also must be at least 51 percent corn, aged a minimum of two years in a brand new barrel and there can’t be any additives like sugar or coloring. That’s...

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Ex-congressional aide charged in Abramoff scandal

Another member of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s inner circle has been charged with conspiring to bribe congressional and executive branch officials to win favors for his clients, according to an indictment unsealed Monday. Kevin A. Ring, 37, a former congressional aide for Rep. John T. Doolittle, R-Calif., is now the center of a 10-count indictment. In a statement, Ring’s attorney, Richard A. Hibey, stood by his client’s innocence and described Ring’s Monday morning arrest at his Kensington home in front of his wife and children as a “harbinger of the overreaching that will characterize the government’s prosecution.” According to the...

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Prosecutor: Sentence guarantees murderer ‘will die in jail’

Anthony Kelly, who earlier this year was convicted of raping a grandmother and killing a 9-year-old girl during a 2002 crime spree that ran across the Washington region, was sentenced Monday to three life sentences by a Montgomery County judge. The sentence guarantees he “will die in jail, where he belongs,” Montgomery County States Attorney John McCarthy said. Earlier this year, three juries convicted Kelly, 44, of two murders and two rapes stemming from his 2002 spree after he dismissed public defenders and acted as his own attorney. Kelly had been in a mental hospital after he was deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial, but earlier this year his treatment led Circuit...

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Officials: As taxes rise, so does cigarette smuggling

The smuggling of cigarettes across state borders increasingly has become big business for organized crime, as taxes on smokes climb in states such as New York and New Jersey and remain low in others like Virginia, federal officials told The Examiner. In the last several months, federal authorities working with Fairfax County police have brought charges against three cigarette bootlegging schemes. The busted rings earned more than $13 million by carrying their cargo from Virginia to New York, New Jersey and Michigan, where they illegally sold nearly 600,000 cartons of cigarettes on the black market, court documents said. The most recent charges were filed late last week against Mark A....

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Fairfax man caught taking pictures up cheerleaders' skirts

A plain-clothed police officer at Springfield Mall observed and promptly charged a 40-year-old man for using his cell phone to take pictures of two high school cheerleaders Tuesday afternoon, Fairfax County police said. Dawit Abede of Alexandria was charged with unlawfully photographing a person under 18 years old after he was spotted by the undercover officer walking behind the teenage cheerleaders and taking pictures up their skirts, police said. The girls noticed Abede and yelled at him as he walked away from the food court. Springfield Mall management recently provided county police with storefront space in the mall. Officers have been assigned to the mall since 1996 and other...

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Slain baby’s family possibly targeted for seeing killing

A Suitland family whose 8-month-old baby was shot to death Wednesday night may have been targeted because they witnessed a homicide in the District of Columbia Sunday night, sources close to the investigation said. Anthony Maurice Savoy Jr. was in stable condition Thursday after being hit by two of the more than a dozen bullets that flew from an AK-47 assault rifle in the parking lot of an apartment complex on the 6200 block of Shadyside Avenue around 9 p.m. Wednesday, Prince George’s County police said. His son, Anthony III, was killed instantly by a bullet that struck his head. According to police and witnesses, Anthony’s father was putting him in a car seat in a blue...

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8-month old baby shot and killed in Suitland

An 8-month old baby was shot and killed in Suitland Wednesday night while the baby's 22-year-old father was placing him in a car seat outside their apartment building, Prince George's County police said. The father of Anthony Maurice Savoy III, of the 2600 block of Shadyside Avenue is in stable condition this morning, recovering from the gunshot wounds he received in what police described as a targeted shooting Thursday morning. There are no suspects at this time, although witnesses told police there may have been a four-door Chevy Impala fleeing the scene. Anthony's mother was inside the apartment building at the time of the shooting. Efforts to revive Anthony failed and he died at...

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D.C. fire captain charged with rape

A D.C. fire department captain has been charged with raping a woman in a Calvert County beach house last month. Capt. Tony Sneed, 47, was charged with second-degree rape and second-degree assault after a 23-year-old woman said the Engine Company 4 firefighter had sex with her as she dozed after drinking heavily. According to court documents, Sneed brought the woman to a Chesapeake Beach house owned by his daughter on the 8800 block of Andrews Drive Aug. 9. The woman told police she was put to bed wearing a shirt and boxer shorts, but awoke wearing only the shirt, court documents said. The missing shorts left the woman suspicious, so she went to a doctor for a rape exam, which showed she...

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Police identify suspect in Annandale slaying

Fairfax County police said Wednesday they are searching for Santos Ortez Sheffey, 49, in connection with the slaying of an Annandale woman. Sharon Harvin’s son found her stabbed to death in the kitchen of her home on the 6200 block of Indian Run Parkway late Monday night. Since then, police have recovered a car that was taken from the house and obtained an arrest warrant for Sheffey, who, county police said, has ties to Arlington, Prince William and Fairfax counties as well as the District of Columbia. Sheffey also has a criminal record. According to court records, he was convicted of assault and battery in 1994 in Arlington. On Tuesday, police said they were trying to contact...

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Annandale woman found stabbed to death at home

Fairfax County police are searching for the boyfriend and the car of a woman who was found stabbed to death in her Annandale kitchen late Monday night. Police were called to the 6200 block of Indian Run Parkway around 11:45 p.m. after Sharon Harvin’s son found her dead on her kitchen floor. Police said they believe Harvin, 46, was dead for a few hours before her son’s arrival. Neighbors said the woman lived there with her boyfriend, whom police referred to as a person of interest in the crime. Harvin’s car also went missing from her single-story home. Anyone who has seen the dark blue four-door Kia Amanti with Virginia license plate XXL-3265 should call...

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Lt. Justin Scott: Hands-on education

On Sept. 11, 2001, Arlington County firefighter Lt. Justin Scott, 30, was among the first to arrive at the Pentagon to battle the flames after an American Airlines airplane crashed into the building. At the time he was just a rookie in his fourth month on the force, and since then he’s risen through the ranks. Today, he trains cadets at the county’s academy. A plane had just crashed into the Pentagon and it was in flames, you arrived soon after? My crew was the first to pull a hose into the building that day. We had to approach it like you would any fire. It was a unique experience, to be a rookie and have that as the first big fire of your career. It leaves you wondering what...

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Montgomery police searching for robbery suspects

Montgomery County police are searching for two men who robbed a check-cashing store at gunpoint in Gaithersburg on Sunday afternoon. Around 12:45 p.m., the men entered the store in the Lake Forest Mall at 701 Russell Avenue. One of the men approached an employee, displayed a gun and demanded cash, police said. The two men left on foot with an unknown quantity of cash, police said. No one was injured. Witnesses said both men were black. The first suspect is described as 20 to 25 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall with a stocky build. He was wearing a white T-shirt, black skullcap and a bandana. The second was 20 to 25 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, with a thin build. He may have been...

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Police link suspect to two sexual assault incidents

Prince George’s County police believe the same man may be responsible for two sexual assaults early Sunday morning in Hyattsville. The first incident was around 1 a.m. Sunday when police say they were called to the 3500 block of 65th Avenue for a reported attempted break-in. A woman was in her living room when she heard a noise outside. When she investigated, police said, she saw a man exposing himself. He then tried to break in but eventually left. A little more than two hours later, and five blocks away, a woman on the 3000 block of 65th Avenue told police she awoke to find a man standing next to her bed. The man tried to sexually assault her, police said, but she was able to get...

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Ex-State Dept. worker charged with embezzlement

A former U.S. State Department employee has been charged with embezzling more than $170,000 by abusing his position as the vice president in charge of member experience at the State Department Federal Credit Union. According to court documents, Anthony C. Jones started taking unauthorized cash advances against his credit union-issued MasterCard just four months after he was hired in July 2006. Between November 2006 and September 2007, Jones submitted fraudulent paid invoices and paid for meals that he claimed were taken with employees who later told investigators they had not joined him, court documents said. Jones’ two biggest takes, according to documents, were in May and June...

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Prowler appears to have raped woman, police say

Loudoun County sheriffs believe a man who has been breaking into homes and attempting to fondle sleeping women may have escalated his attacks early Friday morning when a Sterling woman was raped at knifepoint. “This would mean a serious and sudden escalation in method and violence,” sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Kraig Troxell said. In the previous prowler cases, the suspect entered through an unlocked door or window, there was no weapon and he would run off as soon as he was confronted, Troxell said. This time, the man broke into the home, was armed with a knife and went through with the sexual assault. The suspect is large man with a foreign accent. Anyone with information...

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Hispanic couple caught scamming other Hispanics in lotto scheme

A Hispanic couple has been targeting other Hispanics in a lottery ticket scam, Arlington County police said Thursday. The couple approach Hispanics, claim to be illegal immigrants and then ask for help with cashing a winning ticket, saying they fear their illegal status will keep them from getting the cash, police said. But the couple also wants assurance that their target won’t run away with the ticket, so they ask for cash up front. On July 17, they were caught in the act on camera. After spending two hours with the victim collecting cash from an Arlington automated teller machine, the couple abandoned their female Hispanic target outside an area fast-food restaurant, Arlington...

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Prince William police find two children in boarded-up home

Prince William County police responding to a parking complaint made a frightening discovery Thursday afternoon; they found two boys locked in the vehicle owner’s home, without supervision and no exit in case of emergency. The boys, ages 4 and 5, were discovered alone in a bedroom on the 10800 block of Felicia Court in Manassas, police said. The two officers who found the boys had to force their way into the house by pulling off boards nailed to the house. They had gone to the home in search of the vehicle’s owner. The children were turned over to Child Protective Services ,and the parents, Irma Hernandez Cruz, 23, and Evelio Hernandez Cruz, 29, were arrested and charged with...

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‘Cockamamie’ stories abound behind $6.4 million seized by feds, official writes

The $6.4 million federal authorities seized was dirty and the owners were trying to get it laundered, both literally and figuratively, through the U.S. Treasury Department, authorities said in court documents released Wednesday. Federal customs agents had been tracking the cash for some time as the owners — an El Paso, Texas, family led by Franz Fehlaber — moved the decaying $100 bills in chunks of more than $100,000 across the U.S.-Mexico border, according to court documents in the forfeiture case. No one has been charged with a crime. By the time Fehlaber showed up at the Treasury Department in the spring with $6.4 million of bills bundled in two packages, he and his cohorts...

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Neighborhood Watch: Ron “Moe” Moten

Ron Moten Co-founded the District of Columbia-based Peaceoholics with Jauhar Abraham in 1997. Since then they have turned the loosely formed organization into an established nonprofit that fights crime on the street level, urging young men and women to turn away from a life of violence and become active citizens. Wahat inspired you to start Peaceoholics? I grew up on the streets in D.C. and was incarcerated in 1988 and in 1991. While I was away, my brother and one of my best friends were killed, and I decided when I got home I would make a difference. While incarcerated I earned my GED and a college degree. I came home in 1995 and have been working in the community ever since. What is...

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Police investigating rape of Rock Creek jogger

Authorities are investigating the rape of a 30-year-old woman who was jogging in Rock Creek Park on Monday evening, according to Montgomery County police. The woman was running on the Beach Drive trail under the bridge at Connecticut Avenue toward Cedar Lane between 7:45 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. when a man grabbed her, dragged her into the woods, physically assaulted her, and then raped her. After the attack, she was unable to find a passing motorist. She managed to walk home to Kensington. She sustained trauma to her face, neck and shoulders in addition to the sexual assault. The suspect is described as a dark-skinned black male, wearing a white tank top and black pants. Anyone who might have...

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Md. attorney general accuses homebuilder of deceiving buyers

A major homebuilder in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties has been charged by the Maryland attorney general with engaging in deceptive trade practices and taking advantage of consumers during the housing boom. According to charging documents obtained by The Examiner, Edward Kevin Smart, president of Rockville company Smart Development/Premiere Homes LC, included in contracts with homebuyers a clause that would allow his company to opt out of the contract after a year, which is illegal under Maryland law. Smart repeatedly used the clause to kill contracts and then used the unbuilt or partially built home to get more money from the future homeowner after the value of the home...

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Missing: Brieanna Alejandra Benson

Brieanna Alejandra Benson Birthday: Nov. 5, 1995 Missing from: Rockville Missing since: Aug. 6, 2008 Race: Black Height: 5 feet, 2 inches Weight: 105 lbs. Hair: Black Eyes: Brown Circumstances: She is classified as an endangered runaway and may be in the Germantown area. Her hair is dyed partially blond.

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Va. cops cut down on drunk driving-related deaths

A combination of Virginia State Police and Fairfax County police checkpoints and strict enforcement of drunken driving laws has helped cut deaths caused by drivers who get behind the wheel while intoxicated, police said. With nine fewer people dying in Fairfax County as a result of drunken driving so far this year and arrests on the rise, police said they will continue to conduct the 2008 Checkpoint Strikeforce Campaign, which combines law enforcement and education to raise public awareness of the dangers of driving while intoxicated. All motorists who pass through the checkpoints are stopped and checked to see if they are inebriated.

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Evidence locker — August 26

A District of Columbia police raid of a Southeast home last week yielded: Cocaine (powder): 515 grams Crack cocaine: 62 grams Heroin: 34 grams Ecstasy: 490 pills Cash: $7,773 Jewelry: valued at $80,000 Weapons: one assault rifle and two handguns During the week of Aug. 10 through 16, Prince George’s County police seized: Cocaine (powder): 144 grams Crack cocaine: 158 grams PCP: 1 ounce Weapons: 10 handguns, 1 shotgun, 2 knives Cash: $4,173 Since Prince George’s weekly roundup began in October 2006, it has reported 3,056 adult arrests and 285 juvenile arrests. Weapons reportedly recovered include 525 handguns, 104 rifles, 77 shotguns, 1 submachine gun and 1 stun gun.

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Lt. Gov. Brown leaves Dem convention after cousin is killed

Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown cut short his stay in Denver for the Democratic National Convention on Monday to be with his family after learning Sunday his cousin Catherine Brown had been shot to death by her ex-boyfriend. Montgomery County police arrived at the 9400 block of Vineyard Haven Drive in Gaithersburg around 10:30 p.m. Saturday to find Michael Keith Wilson, 44, in a garage holding a gun to Brown’s head. As officers tried to calm down Wilson, shots went off, and both Wilson and Brown, 40, were left dead. Police said Monday that forensic evidence obtained from Brown’s autopsy confirmed that Wilson shot her and that Wilson was shot multiple times by police. Two...

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Area cops missing health exams as disability payments soar

A large number of police officers across the region aren't getting physical exams, a concern to some officials a