Baltimore Countyprosecutors recently issued subpoenas for two city officers to testify against a man who allegedly confessed to other crimes while under investigation related to an armed home invasion rape in Roland Park.
Chaz Ricks, 21, was initially charged, then exonerated, in the high-profile case, but not before he allegedly boasted to city detectives that he committed a similar crime in Baltimore County.
“When interviewed by city detectives, he started bragging about what he did out here,” said Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey.
Prosecutors have asked Detective Sarah Connolly and Officer Keith Merryman to testify at Ricks? July 24 trial where he?ll face charges that he robbed and committed a sex offense against a woman in Nottingham in 2006.
On March 8, the woman entered her apartment, when two men approached her and one said: “Open the door, b—-,” charging documents state.
One of the men struck the woman in the head with a gun, cutting her, according to the police report.
While one man stole $684 worth of items from the house, including cell phones and shoes, the other man tried to force the woman into a sexual act, police said.
When she refused, the man asked her, “Do you want to die, b—-?” and struck her with the revolver, according to police.
He forced her to strip naked and get on the floor, where he used a toilet plunger to violate the woman, police said.
A Baltimore County grand jury indicted Ricks in the crime last year, but prosecutors were forced to drop the charges, because the case relied on the uncorroborated statement of a co-defendant.
That all changed when Ricks was arrested in August in connection with the Roland Park rape case and spoke to police.
Ricks? statement to city police gave prosecutors enough evidence to pursue the Baltimore County case again, said John Cox, an assistant state?s attorney.
Ricks? attorney, Lawrence Rosenberg, did not respond to a reporter?s phone call by press time.
Ricks was cleared of the Roland Park rape case when DNA evidence implicated another man, Roger Ervin, 46, in that crime.
Ervin?s trial is scheduled for Sept. 10 in Baltimore City.
