Man gets two years for hit-and-run
A Columbia, Md., man received a two-year sentence Monday for a hit-and-run accident that killed a Gaithersburg teenager last summer. Brian Schwartz will serve one year in a detention center with one year of his sentence suspended, according to media reports. Schwartz was driving his BMW 5-series car when he struck 17-year-old Esai Lopez, who was crossing the street with two friends when the accident happened. Witnesses told police Schwartz fled the scene of the crash. His vehicle was found in a Greenbelt parking garage. – Kathleen Miller
Police impersonator nabbed after stopping cop
Fairfax County police arrested a 19-year-old after he pulled over an off-duty police officer. Steven Rivas, of Annandale, reportedly used a blue flashing light in his 2004 Ford Explorer to pull over the officer driving past Woodburn Elementary School. After the real officer asked for the man’s badge, he drove away.
Rivas was arrested after the officer called in the vehicle’s license plates and officers responded to the registered address. – Dan Genz
MVA employee sentenced for making fake IDs
An overly hospitable former employee of Maryland’s Motor Vehicle Administration was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court to 40 months in prison for producing and selling more than 150 fake identification documents, many to illegal immigrants. James Edwin Harrell, 51, of Beltsville, “sold his government job at the MVA for profit,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. – Leah Fabel
Fire displaces 20 residents
A two-alarm apartment fire left 20 Fairfax County residents without a home early Monday morning, according to the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department. The fire, which was ruled accidental, dealt $750,000 in damage to the building in Centreville, but caused no injuries. It began from discarded fireplace ashes on a balcony and was brought under control about 40 minutes after firefighters arrived on the scene at 12:30 a.m. The Red Cross is assisting the displaced residents. –William C. Flook
