A man who ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Prince George’s County Council in 2010 pleaded guilty Wednesday to using campaign money on personal expenses such as gas, groceries and auto repairs, authorities said.

Darrell Miller, 47, the former mayor of Capitol Heights, was fined $2,000 and sentenced to 300 hours of community service as part of the plea agreement, in which he admitted violating election law during his 2010 council run, according to a news release from the Office of the Maryland State Prosecutor. He was also sentenced to two years of supervised probation, according to the release.

According to the state prosecutor’s office, Miller violated two facets of election law during his campaign between July 1, 2010, and November 15, 2010. First, Miller served as chairman of his own election committee and paid out money from the committee’s account, “Friends of Darrell A. Miller.” An election committee chairman who is also running for office is expressly prohibited from disbursing money, as that function is usually reserved for the committee’s treasurer, said Deputy State Prosecutor Mike McDonough.

The owner of several Prince George’s County liquor stores has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for his role in a corruption scheme that involved former county executive Jack Johnson.

Fifty-two-year-old Amrik Melhi was sentenced Tuesday to three years and 10 months in prison. He pleaded guilty in June to conspiring to transport and distribute untaxed alcoholic beverages.

For 14 years, police hunted for a man they dubbed the East Coast Rapist.

The man attacked women in Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maryland, including some in Prince George’s County.

It was an anonymous tip to the Prince George’s County Crime Solvers that led to an arrest earlier this year.

Crime Solvers coordinator Zel Windsor said that the tip led officers to Aaron Thomas, who they believed to be in Connecticut. Calls were made, and officers in New Haven arrested the truck driver in March.

Former Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson was sentenced Tuesday to more than seven years in prison for extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from developers and accepting assorted gifts during a tenure that prosecutors say was rife with greed, corruption and an unchecked pay-to-play culture.

The investigation into Johnson, who led Prince George’s County from 2002 until 2010, came to light more than a year ago when federal authorities tapping his phone heard him directing his wife to flush down the toilet an illicit $100,000 check from a developer and to stuff nearly $80,000 in cash in her undergarments. The orders came as FBI agents tried to get into the couple’s home after witnessing Johnson accepting $15,000 in cash from a developer.

FBI surveillance video showing former Prince George's County Executive Jack B.Johnson accepting a bribe from a local real estate developer

Hundreds of people wanted for crimes were arrested recently in Prince George's County thanks to a grant, and the county sheriff hopes to continue the effort.

"We're asking all of these partners, what more can you do, absent overtime, to help us continue this," says Prince George's County Sheriff Melvin High.

He also wants to make changes within his department.

"Part of what we're doing in the Sheriff's office is looking at our resources, saying where can we pull to focus on this as a priority issue, so that we can increase the number of staff assigned to this particular function," High says.

The arrests came during a warrant initiative in Prince George's County, paid for with a $250,000 federal Byrne Justice Assistance Grant through the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention

Two Prince George’s County police officers have been indicted on charges of assault and misconduct stemming from a March 2010 street celebration that turned violent.

Prosecutors allege that Special Operations Division officers Reginald Baker and James Harrison assaulted University of Maryland, College Park, student John McKenna of Kensington during a celebration in College Park after the Maryland men’s basketball team defeated rival Duke University on March 3.

Video released after the incident shows McKenna being beaten by three officers.

The federal government imposed a $1.7 million penalty on the school system Monday for a "willful violation'' of labor laws after concluding that it should have paid $4.2 million in processing and payment fees for 1,044 teachers who received temporary work visas, known as H-1Bs. Individual teachers paid those expenses, which exceeded $5,000, out of their own pocket.

On Tuesday, school officials expanded their defense, saying they didn't encourage teachers to make those payments — and didn't know teachers made them.

The vast majority of the county's foreign teachers are from the Philippines. Many paid an agency to prepare and present their portfolios to the school district, and those processing fees were folded into the agency's services, unbeknownst to the school district, Prince George's officials said.

For the third time, Prince George's Council member Leslie Johnson (D-Mitchellville) has asked a judge to delay a scheduled preliminary hearing on federal evidence tampering charges, saying she needs more time to investigate the allegations.

"Although Ms. Johnson continues to diligently investigate the pending allegations, she still needs more time to conclude that investigation and prepare her defense," defense attorneys Shawn M. Wright and Hardy Vieux wrote in court papers filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt. Johnson requested a delay of the hearing, and "possible indictment."

The federal government said Tuesday it has fined Cignet Health of Prince George's County, Md., $4.3 million for violating 41 patients' privacy rights by denying them access to their medical records.

The Department of Health and Human Services said it was the first time it imposed a fine for violations of the privacy rule of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The department's Office for Civil Rights found that Cignet violated the patients' rights after they requested access to their medical records between September 2008 and October 2009. The 41 patients filed individual complaints with the civil rights office, according to an HHS statement.

The youth, whose name has not been released because of his juvenile status, was arraigned July 28, at which point the state's attorney's office requested the court waive the boy's juvenile status and try him as an adult given the nature of the crime. Conflicting schedules, witness availability and the sheer complexity of the case stretched what Nichols said would normally be a weeklong process into a six-month-long affair.

The youth, who has been present in court but has not spoken, would be the youngest-ever juvenile charged as an adult in the county. Previously the youngest juvenile to face adult charges was 14 at the time of the crime, according to the county state's attorney's office.

Former Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson was indicted on Monday in federal court in Maryland on eight charges, including bribery, witness and evidence tampering and aiding and abetting.

Johnson, 61, a former prosecutor who was the county's top elected official from 2002 to 2010, is accused of playing a key role in a conspiracy that reaches deep into the ranks of power players in the tight-knit government and business communities.

Attorneys for Prince George's County on Monday settled a lawsuit brought by Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo that accused deputies from a county sheriff's SWAT unit of storming into his home without a proper warrant the day they shot his family's two dogs and held him at gunpoint.

The civil trial was scheduled to begin Monday in Circuit Court in Upper Marlboro.

Calvo said he could not comment on the amount or other details of the settlement, which are being worked out.

However, he did say that the settlement will include reforms in the way county law enforcement officers conduct such operations. The reforms will involve such issues as how and when SWAT teams are deployed and the humane treatment of pets.

Angela Alsobrooks heard a consistent message as she crossed Prince George's County during her campaign for the state's attorney's office: We want you to deal with violent offenders, but what we really care about are car break-ins, vandalism and burglaries.

Now Alsobrooks, who is to be sworn into the post Monday, says she will increase the office's emphasis on such crimes, which affect thousands of residents for whom gangs, the drug trade and violent crime may seem distant.

Bland became upset, Short said, because he started the 6:30 p.m. commission meeting while she was still in her office. "She grabbed me by my collar, screaming, yelling, cursing," Short said. "She was telling me, 'You're crazy,' 'How dare you start a meeting without me?,' 'Who do you think you are?'" Short filed a charge 11 days later.

Cameras did not show evidence of an assault, Korionoff said. "It, in conjunction with the witness statements, led us to believe the case could not be proved in court beyond the reasonable doubt," he said.

Short said Tuesday night that he understood the rationale behind the decision. "I told the truth," he said. "At least there was an attempt to serve justice."

Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker wants an independent audit of the Department of Housing and Community Development.

The housing department has been at the center of a corruption investigation in Prince George's County, ever since the FBI arrested former County Executive Jack Johnson on charges he accepted bribes in exchange for housing contracts. Baker didn't reference the scandal Monday when he announced that the Virginia Tech Center for Housing Research would audit the department. The examination will cost the county around 65-thousand-dollars and should be finished by this May.

A dozen current and former Prince George's County Public School employees recently filed a multi-million lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the school system and the Prince George's County Educator's Association, alleging racial discrimination at work.

The $50 million mass action lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt Nov. 22 by 12 former and current county school teachers and secretaries against the Prince George's County Educator's Association and Prince George's County Public Schools.

The lawsuit alleges that Largo High School Principal Angelique Simpson-Marcus, a black woman who took the job in 2007, has targeted white teachers because of their race and in an effort to force the white teachers out of the school and black teachers and employees who stood up for them.

The vast number of candidates in Prince George's Democratic primary vying for county executive, County Council, sheriff, state's attorney, school board and the General Assembly is enough to confuse even a well-informed voter. But a flier circulating last week suggesting that candidates were backing people they are actually opposing has caused a county judge to step in.

A federal grand jury has indicted a Maryland state senator on charges of bribery, conspiracy, mail fraud and extortion in connection with a scheme involving Shoppers Food Warehouse.

State Sen. Ulysses S. Currie, 73, of Forestville, was indicted Wednesday on 18 criminal counts charging that he and executives of Shoppers took part in a scheme in which Currie was paid by the company in exchange for using his official position to influence matters that benefited the supermarket chain and its executives.

Hotten becomes first African-American woman on Maryland appellate court

For the first time in history, an African-American woman is serving on the bench in a Maryland appellate court.

In Annapolis Tuesday, Gov. Martin O'Malley delivered the oath of office to Prince George's County Judge Michele Hotten.

Hotten was an associate judge for Prince George's County Circuit court for 15 years. She now sits on the Maryland Court of Special Appeals -- the state's second-highest court.

A Prince George's County judge Friday ordered Sheriff Michael Jackson to remove a reprimand given to the sheriff's union president for speaking out about alleged embezzlement within the union from former union leaders.

In a civil case filed against Jackson, the sheriff's office and Assistant Chief Sheriff Paul Drula, union president Robert Cease alleged he has been threatened with reprimands and termination for publicizing an audit that resulted in the indictment of two former union leaders who are high-ranking members of the sheriff's agency.

Circuit Court Judge William Cave ordered the sheriff's office to remove a reprimand Cease received from the office after he began speaking out about the audit findings.

Cat-lovers want Prince George's County to clarify its law that prohibits Good Samaritans from feeding feral cats, or taking them to a vet, unless they take out ownership licenses for the kitties. Prince George's Feral Friends claims county law "penalizes Good Samaritans for rendering aid to free-roaming cats and promotes unnecessary government expenditure."
The county ordinance claims that anyone who feeds a feral cat for "an undetermined period of time, usually 30 days or longer," becomes the cat's owner. If the cat is returned to where it was found, the new owner can be fined for "failing the duties of animal ownership."
Feral Friends says its members have been fined for "providing emergency medical care, rabies vaccine and spay/neuter surgery," to feral cats for which they have "not obtained licensure."

A Prince George's County grand jury on Tuesday indicted two District men on charges they stole more than $19,000 worth of copper wire from Amtrak.

The indictments were announced by State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey during a press conference outside the Amtrak station in New Carrollton.

Authorities said the thefts occurred between November 2009 and this March.

A Prince George's County Circuit Court judge ruled last month that legislation that banned the sale of single cigars, requiring stores to sell them in packages of at least five, was constitutional.

The reach of Monday's gun-control ruling by the Supreme Court will get an early test case in Maryland.

By a 5-4 vote, the justices said the constitutional right to keep and bear arms limits the states' ability to enact gun-control laws....

Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey said he, too, awaits the Court of Appeals' rulings on gun possession cases following what he called the Supreme Court's unclear opinion.

"There's definitely a right [to keep and bear arms] but the scope of it will be determined over time," Ivey said. "The open question for Maryland is going to be how broadly or narrowly will that [right] be interpreted."

The Court of Special Appeals of Maryland has ruled in favor of a Prince George's environmental group that challenged a decision by the county's Planning Board to allow a subdivision to be built in the rural part of the county.

Judge James A. Kenny III ruled that Accokeek, Mattawoman, Piscataway Creeks Communities and Kelly Canavan have standing to file a petition for judicial review. Kenny wrote the opinion, which was filed June 24, for the three-member panel.

In Prince George's Circuit Court, the Planning Board argued that since Canavan did not attend the hearing when the board approved the Estates at Pleasant Valley, she could not file the petition.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled Wednesday that Prince George's County's furlough plan is constitutional, reversing an earlier federal court decision.

A Camp Springs attorney who was involved in a Lanham-based mortgage fraud scheme was disbarred in Maryland on Friday by the Maryland Court of Appeals.

Richard Wayne Allison II, 39, is serving 18 months in prison after he pleaded guilty Sept. 3, 2008, to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. He was sentenced Sept. 14 for his involvement in the scheme, which allegedly duped homeowners facing foreclosure by promising to help them keep their homes and repair their damaged credit.

Randy McRae, the man accused of stealing thousands in federal dollars given to Prince George's County for affordable housing projects, has been arrested, said Sgt. Yakeisha Hines, spokeswoman for the Prince George's sheriff's office.

Hines said she did not know the details of the arrest, but a source close to the investigation said McRae was located by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development investigators Thursday at his residence in Prince George's....

McRae's attorney, Ronan J. Gulstone, said he filed court papers Friday indicating that McRae would plead not guilty, and added that allegations that McRae was avoiding authorities were false.

"Mr. McRae ... is eagerly awaiting the opportunity for all of the facts to come out at trial," Gulstone said. "Unfortunately, we're in the position of having to respond to fallacious allegations by unnamed sources, allegations that Mr. McRae was on the run and/or in hiding, and/or cowering are simply false. ... Mr. McRae denies all of the allegations and he's awaiting his chance to have all of the real facts in this case come out."

A former Hyattsville police lieutenant and a current officer said Tuesday at a news conference that they were suspended and one forced to retire early because they were outspoken about alleged impropriety in the department.

Appearing outside the Hyattsville police station with leaders from the NAACP and Casa de Maryland, retired Lt. Gary Blakes and officer Barbara Smith said that they were punished for decrying racism and sexism in the department and that they have filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Beleaguered by existing noise and air pollution, residents of Cedar Heights, Cheverly and Fairmount Heights plan to appeal a Prince George's County Circuit Court decision that paves the way for building a new concrete batching plant in a nearby industrial park.

J. Patricia Wilson Smoot, Nominee for Commissioner, United States Parole Commission, Department of Justice
J. Patricia Wilson Smoot has served as the Deputy State's Attorney for Prince George's County, Maryland since 2002. Outside of being an adviser to the State's Attorney, she is responsible for overseeing the Sex Offense and Child Abuse Unit, the Domestic Violence Unit, the Juvenile Division, and the District Court Division. From 1994 to 2002, Ms. Smoot was an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia where she served as a line assistant before she became Deputy Chief of the Misdemeanor Trial Division and next Director of Professional Development. She has served on a number of boards and committees including the National Black Prosecutors Association, Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Abuse, Prince George's County Criminal Justice Coordination Council, and the Prince George's County Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team.

Prince George's County lost its bid to not pay nearly $7 million to a man who spent eight months in prison after being wrongly accused of raping and killing his wife.

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals upheld the award, confirming an earlier ruling that the Prince George's County Police Department has shown of pattern of "unconstitutional police conduct."

Keith Longtin's wife was raped and stabbed to death while jogging near her Laurel home more than 10 years ago. Prince George's County police suspected that Longtin was the murderer and subjected him to 38 hours of questioning with only 50 minutes of sleep while shoving pictures of his dead wife in front of him and reading Bible verses to coax him into confessing, court records show.

The Montgomery and Prince George's chapters of the NAACP have asked the U.S. Department of Justice to launch an investigation into the Hyattsville police Department, alleging it discriminated against six African American officers.

June White Dillard, president of the Prince George's County's chapter of the NAACP, said the organization submitted documentation to the civil rights division of the Justice Department that shows a double standard exists in the 42-member police department. At a news conference at NAACP offices in Largo, she said African American officers have been subject to sexual harassment, wrongful terminations and a hostile work environment.

State prosecutors will push for strengthened anti-gang legislation in Annapolis this spring in hopes of garnering more convictions of gang-related crimes — and helping to combat growing numbers of Maryland youth participating in gangs and at younger ages....

In July, his client 16-year-old Edgar Garcia of Germantown, pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder after he and a 16-year-old friend from Gaithersburg stabbed another teen nearly 50 times and left him in a park in 2008. The victim, a fellow member of the Vampire Bloods street gang, was attempting to leave the group for another faction of the Bloods gang, prosecutors said. Garcia said at sentencing that he joined the Vampire Bloods while attending Neelsview Middle School.

"Kids who were white were calling him racial epithets and beating him up and the only people who stood up for him were members of the black community and ultimately gangs," said Malouf. "For him at least, it was: 'These guys are friends.'"

If a gang leader encouraging 11, 12 and 13-year olds to participate in criminal gang activity had been a child predator manipulating sexual activity, his client would be considered too young to make his own decision, Malouf told the judge. The gang leader would have been charged with a felony.

Forget swine flu. There's a new pig going viral, and her name is Gwendolyn.

The potbellied pig, about 20 years old, has been a welcome resident of Berwyn Heights nearly her entire life, says her owner, Pat Brown. But after Prince George's County inspected Brown's house recently, it was determined that the porker violated the zoning code and had to go.

Swine, hog, boar, sow, bacon factory, porker and hog are all words to describe a pig. But Pat Brown of Prince George's County Maryland calls her pig Gwendolyn. More importantly to Pat, Gwendolyn is a member of her family.

Pat got Gwendolyn the pot belly pig in 1990 as a pet for her children. Well, the children are grown and moved out of the house, but Gwendolyn is still with Pat, living out the last months of her very long piggy life.

But all of a sudden the long arm of the law -- or at least the PG County zoning board -- reached out, not to pet Gwendolyn but to throw her out. It seems that after 20 years the Board didn't think it was a good idea for a pig to mingle with people.

A federal grand jury indicted two Marylanders on a dozen counts of wire fraud and identity theft this month in a 2008 scheme that used Baltimore properties to swindle a Beltsville lender out of more than $664,000, authorities said.

Cameroon native Dema Daiga, who lives in College Park, and Oluseun Oshosanya, 28, of Laurel appeared separately Monday in U.S. District Court. Bond was set at $2 million for Daiga, 28, entered the country after being granted asylum and is charged with committing the bulk of the scheme. A detention hearing was scheduled for Wednesday for Oshosanya, a dual citizen of Nigeria who is charged with six of the 12 counts his co-defendant faces.

U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus sentenced the president of the Metropolitan Money Store, Joy Jackson, age 41, of Fort Washington, Maryland, today to 151 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme that falsely promised to help homeowners facing foreclosure keep their homes and repair their damaged credit, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. Judge Titus also entered a judgement ordering Jackson to pay restitution of $16,880,884.86 and to forfeit three residential properties in Oxon Hill, Capitol Heights and Laurel, Maryland and three vehicles.

The former police chief of the Prince George's County town of Morningside was indicted Tuesday on charges related to selling a stolen handgun, authorities said.

A county grand jury returned a five-count indictment against David A. Eichelberger Jr., 30, of Accokeek. Among the charges are possession of a stolen firearm and sale of a stolen firearm.

Attorney General John Ashcroft had a choice: He could send them to be tried in Maryland, where most of the murders took place but where the death penalty was on hold because of the specter of racial unfairness. Or he could send them across the Potomac River to Virginia, the site of three of the killings and where death sentences are carried out swiftly.

Ashcroft chose Virginia.

The Prince George's County jail, plagued in recent years by allegations of corruption, incompetence and brutality, has entered into a partnership with a nonprofit group to improve management practices and develop a model for independent oversight of the Upper Marlboro facility, officials said yesterday.

County officials have entered into an agreement with the Vera Institute of Justice, which works with government agencies to improve criminal justice and public safety services. The collaboration comes at no cost to the county, officials said.

A Prince George's County jury on Thursday acquitted the mayor of Fairmount Heights of impersonating a police officer and illegally transporting a firearm.

After a two-day trial, the jury deliberated for 3 1/2 hours before acquitting Nathaniel R. Mines Jr., 40.

Mines was on the Fairmount Heights Town Council when he was arrested in February at a Knights of Columbus Hall where he was working security. Prosecutors said Mines told county police he was a member of the Fairmount Heights police force and had a gun and police lights in his car, according to evidence.

A suburban mayor whose black Labrador retrievers were gunned down by a SWAT team in an errant raid said Monday that he is suing Prince George's County because its law enforcement agencies are incapable of policing themselves and need outside oversight.

Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo said in his lawsuit that the county police and sheriff's office frequently break the law by having SWAT teams enter innocent people's houses without a proper warrant and "randomly and routinely" kill family pets.

He is asking a judge to order the county to change its policies because the county's leaders have shown "they lack the will and credibility to do so," Calvo said.

Prosecutor Glenn F. Ivey's handling of the case involving the death of a 19-year-old inmate accused of killing a police officer last year could cost him crucial votes if he pursues a run for county executive next year, residents, civic activists and political insiders say....

Ivey said that he did not have enough evidence to charge anyone in White's death and that he supported a request by the county branch of the NAACP for the Justice Department to take over the case.

The Prince George's County branch of the NAACP will ask the U.S. Department of Justice to take over the investigation into whether a 19-year-old inmate was killed by guards at the county jail.

NAACP officials cited media reports that the county's top prosecutor will not ask the second grand jury convened in the case to issue an indictment against the guards.

Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey (D) said Monday he will take his lead from the justice department if officials decide to pursue the case.

Wilbur Ballesteros, age 33, of Lanham, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme that falsely promised to help homeowners facing foreclosure keep their homes and repair their damaged credit, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein....

Ballesteros faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine for the conspiracy. U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus scheduled sentencing for December 7, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. As part of his plea, Ballesteros has agreed to pay restitution for the full amount of the victims' losses.

Ballesteros is the ninth defendant to plead guilty in the Metropolitan Money Store mortgage fraud scheme. Eight other defendants have pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and are facing a maximum sentencing of 30 years in prison....

Unwilling to test the depth of public displeasure, not to mention the government's evidence, Jackson, Fordham and many other defendants in Maryland's biggest mortgage fraud cases have been making deals of a different sort.

Last month, Fordham pleaded guilty in federal court, days after his wife had done the same. Each admitted playing a key role in the multimillion-dollar fraud carried out under the banner of the Metropolitan Money Store. Each avoided a trial before peers undoubtedly familiar with the troubles besetting homeowners....

Just last week, the Justice Department announced federal charges against five people in what prosecutors say was a $70 million mortgage fraud Ponzi scheme that had at least a thousand victims, many in Prince George's County, which has been hit hard by foreclosures and fraud. A day after the Justice Department announced the charges, one of the defendants, Carole Nelson, was in court pleading guilty to money laundering.

Maryland's transgender residents are worried the legislature will adjourn for the second year in a row without taking action on a bill that would prohibit discrimination against them.

...Prince George's County resident Alynna Lunaris, 38, says she's one of the people the measure would help. Lunaris says she lost her job as an animal control officer and has been unable to find work since transitioning from presenting herself as a man three years ago.

According to police, Sean Sykes and an accomplice stabbed a man in Prince George's County last month and then threatened to kill a witness who saw them dragging the victim out of an apartment building. Sykes was arrested, charged with second-degree murder and held on $1.5 million bond....

In setting bond, judges are supposed to consider the safety of the community and whether the defendant is likely to flee. About a dozen friends and relatives were in court to support Sykes on Thursday; El-Amin said he was convinced that Sykes was neither a danger nor a flight risk.

"I take the presumption of innocence very seriously," El-Amin said. "I read between the lines and listen to the voices."

A Lanham man was sentenced today to life in prison plus 20 years in the 2007 slaying of a woman who was struck by a stray bullet in her Prince George's County home.

The chairman of the Prince George's County liquor board appeared yesterday before a federal grand jury investigating Maryland state Sen. Ulysses S. Currie, the first public indication in months that federal authorities are continuing to probe Currie's work as a consultant for a Lanham-based grocery chain.

A Prince George's County grand jury hearing evidence in the June slaying of an inmate who was accused of killing a police officer has completed its term without issuing an indictment, prosecutors said yesterday.

State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey sought to downplay the development. He said the investigation into the death of Ronnie White, 19, is continuing and that a new grand jury has been empaneled and will hear evidence in the case.

Hundreds of police brutality protesters joined two grieving families in Langley Park, setting their sights on the Prince George's County police department.

The protesters stood in solidarity with the families of Ronnie White and Manuel Espina, who many at the protest believe were victims of police brutality.

Ronnie White's aunt says he deserved due process. "Despite what they said happened, he didn't even get his day in court so how could he be judged?"

Prince George's County officials assured Latino leaders yesterday that police will fully investigate Saturday's fatal shooting of a Langley Park man by a county police officer, as two witnesses said the off-duty officer beat the unarmed man with a baton before firing a bullet into his torso.

The eyewitness statements contradict earlier accounts provided by police. Initially, police said that Manuel de Jesus Espina reached for Officer Steven Jackson's gun. On Sunday, a media statement said that Jackson feared for his life when Espina, 43, tried to grab the baton. Jackson used pepper spray before shooting Espina, according to the statement.

The room is cramped and cold. The floor and walls are carpeted to muffle sound. A small table and two chairs are the only furnishings. There is no window, no clock, no clue to when night becomes day. After 28 hours in that interrogation room, Keith Longtin was so exhausted he wondered if he'd lost his mind....

Longtin spent the next eight months in jail, charged with the 1999 slaying of his wife while Prince George's County homicide detectives overlooked DNA evidence that would set him free. Eventually, other investigators -- not the homicide squad -- linked the DNA to a man they now say is the real killer...

Prince George's police came under federal investigation late last year when the Justice Department said it would review complaints of brutality, racial discrimination and excessive use of force. Federal authorities said the probe, which is expected to take more than a year, also would include a review of the police canine unit and of shootings of civilians by police officers. A Pattern of Complaints The methods the Prince George's detectives allegedly used in the four false-confession cases -- including lengthy interrogations, refusal to let suspects speak with lawyers, and improper threats and promises -- were similar to police tactics described by suspects and defense lawyers in dozens of other Prince George's cases reviewed by The Post. In many of the other cases, the evidence does not make clear whether the confessions extracted were false.

About 100 people gathered on a ball field in the tiny town of Berwyn Heights last night to rally in support of the town's mayor and in memory of his two dogs who were shot and killed by law enforcement officers during a drug raid last week.

Residents, many accompanied by their own dogs on leashes, recalled 7-year-old Payton and 4-year-old Chase, black Labrador retrievers, as dogs who would stop and greet them on walks.

Members of a Prince George's County Sheriff's Office SWAT team shot the dogs Tuesday while bursting into the home of Mayor Cheye Calvo. The raid, conducted jointly with county police narcotics officers, took place after officers saw Calvo bring a package containing more than 30 pounds of marijuana from his front porch into his house. They had been tracking the package since police dogs sniffed out the presence of drugs at a shipping facility in Arizona.

...What if White had been afforded a lawyer at the initial proceeding before the commissioner, as the Sixth Amendment required? He was not, of course, a candidate for immediate release on bail; still, a lawyer would have explained to the commissioner (who, in Maryland, is usually not a lawyer) that White could be lawfully detained someplace other than Prince George's County, and that the circumstances of the case demanded that he be jailed elsewhere. If a lawyer had been there to argue it, it seems inconceivable that the commissioner would not have ordered White held in some other county's jail -- which might have kept him alive to face his ultimate judgment before a court of law.

Plans are in the works to install cameras with recording capability in the Prince George's County Jail.

The jail currently has cameras in key areas that feed live video to guard stations.

But the investigation into the death of 19-year-old inmate Ronnie White has prompted jail officials to consider upgrading their camera system.

...Another innovation that addresses a different challenge in combating violence and providing seamless law enforcement support across jurisdictions is the Domestic Violence Intervention Division in the Prince George's County Maryland Sheriff's Office. They are represented here today by Sheriff Michael Jackson and the program manager, Norma Hartley.
Beginning in 2004, this division has received funding through the Department's Services, Training, Officer, Prosecutors -- or STOP -- grant program. With that help, they established a unique and successful Victim Advocate Unit, which responds around-the-clock to domestic violence 911 calls. In addition to a standard incident report, deputies in this unit who take calls are required to file a Domestic Violence Supplemental Report, which is then copied by advocates who make immediate intervention contact with victims.

The Family Justice Center initiative started small and put a model in place for other communities to follow. It is our hope that the Prince George's County Victim Advocate Unit can also serve as a model for many more towns and counties.

Now more than ever, Robert Pettis might be one of the most unpopular men in Prince George's County.

He wears a badge and a uniform, but he is not a cop. He is an officer of the Revenue Authority, and he is on the front lines of an effort to get tough on long-ignored parking laws by writing more tickets and putting boots on the vehicles of drivers who don't pay up.

Jurors who are to decide the fate of former Prince George's County schools chief Andre J. Hornsby were virtually bombarded Tuesday with facts, figures and entreaties by attorneys for the prosecution and the defense during closing arguments in the four-week-long corruption trial.

On Tuesday, a Prince George's County grand jury took a tour of the jail where 19-year-old Ronnie White was found dead in his cell two days after being arrested and charged in the death of a police officer...

At the county jail, the jury toured the facility, including the maximum security wing where White was being held when he was found dead the morning of June 29, less than 48 hours after he was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Prince George's County police Sgt. Richard Findley. Three guards were stationed there at the time, including Officer Russell Hardesty, who was on duty in the control booth.

...The Rev. G. Randolph Gurley told the crowd of 500 at the Tabernacle Church in Laurel that White's family, his friends, the school system and the faith community all may have played a role in his troubled life. He urged White's friends to turn their lives around.

White was found strangled in his maximum security cell on June 29, a day after he was charged with first-degree murder in the hit-and-run death of Corporal Richard Findley.

Ronnie L. White, the suspect in the death of a police officer, was strangled in his jail cell in Prince George's County, Maryland, on June 29. Authorities suspect someone in a uniform did it....

``It's a department that's completely out of control,'' said Gregory Lattimer of Washington, the attorney for the family of Prince Jones, a 25-year-old college student who was shot to death by a county detective in a case of mistaken identity in 2000. ``They have a number of incidents from the bizarre to the downright incompetent.''...

Because White was accused of killing a Prince George's County officer, he shouldn't have been housed in a jail in the same county, where emotions were high, said David Rocah, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.

More than two dozen protesters gathered outside Prince George's County Correctional Center Friday morning, hoping to send a message about the death of 19-year-old accused cop killer Ronnie White while in custody.

The People's Coalition for Police Accountability says the case demonstrates the criminal justice system is broken in Prince George's County.

One of the advocates for reform is Dorothy Elliott, whose son was killed while in police custody in 1993.

Richard Scott Findley, the police officer and volunteer firefighter whose death in the line of duty jarred Prince George's County, was honored yesterday in a final salute that ended in silence with his burial atop a grassy knoll underneath a brilliant sun.

Witness Says Code Helped With Secret Cellphone Contacts

When the oldest daughter of Andre J. Hornsby showed up in Florida in summer 2006, she was, according to testimony yesterday in federal court, carrying a secret code.

Her father, who had resigned the previous year as the Prince George's County schools chief, was about to be indicted on fraud charges. He needed to contact his girlfriend, Sienna Owens, who had moved to Miami Beach and was to appear before a federal grand jury the next week, Owens testified yesterday in Hornsby's retrial in Greenbelt.

The refusal of Pr. George's corrections officers to cooperate with the investigation of an inmate's death is inexcusable.

IT IS UNSURPRISING but still infuriating that Prince George's County correctional officers have refused to cooperate with investigators looking into the death of inmate Ronnie L. White. These officers, who swore to serve the cause of justice, are preventing investigators from uncovering the circumstances of the death of Mr. White, who was strangled, according to a preliminary autopsy report. The officers, who were initially questioned by investigators because they had access to Mr. White's cell, have the right not to make self-incriminating statements. But their silence will lead many to assume the worst.

With the investigation of a detainee's homicide inside a cell in Prince George's County stretching past its fourth day, the local chapter of the NAACP criticized authorities yesterday for not suspending the nine officers who worked in the area where the death occurred.

"There are nine individuals identified and all are still employed and still on duty," said June White Dillard, the NAACP chapter president. "We feel it is imperative that they be placed on administrative leave until a complete and thorough investigation has been completed into the homicide of Ronnie White."

Accused of running down and killing a Prince George's County police officer on Friday, 19-year-old Ronnie L. White was found dead in a solitary-confinement cell on Sunday morning. The Maryland State Police were brought in as the lead agency in a criminal investigation that is being overseen by the county's top prosecutor, Glenn F. Ivey. The FBI is also involved in the case, having launched a civil rights investigation on Monday.

Public safety director threatens disciplinary action as some officers who had access to teen killed in custody refuse to talk to investigators

Prince Georges County public safety director Vernon Herron told correctional officers who had access to a 19-year-old inmate who was found strangled Sunday in his jail cell that disciplinary action will be taken against them if they do not cooperate with the investigation.

The Prince George's county seat was both a memorial and a crime scene yesterday. Thin black fabric was draped from the courthouse as state and federal authorities walked through the nearby jail, trying to determine how the man accused of killing Cpl. Richard S. Findley, a county police officer, ended up dead in his jail cell this weekend.

A day after the state medical examiner ruled inmate Ronnie L. White's death a homicide by asphyxiation and strangulation, civil rights and political leaders said they were reserving judgment while the Maryland State Police and the FBI investigate.

No one at the Prince George's County Correctional Center had been suspended as of last night, though county officials said seven correctional officers and their supervisors had access to White's high-security isolation cell.

Vicki D. Duncan, a spokeswoman for the county Department of Correction, said, "The investigators don't want us to mess up anything. We're waiting to find out what they tell us so we know where to go from there."

...In Maryland's Prince George's County, a largely black suburb of Washington, leaders passed a resolution last fall affirming the county's support for workers in Tar Heel. Smithfield has a plant in Prince George's County that is unionized. Pastors say they're hoping to persuade the D.C. council to pass a resolution, too. And a local congressional candidate, Democrat Donna Edwards, whose family hails from Yanceyville, mentions the Tar Heel workers on her campaign Web site.

...Caulfield is the seventh murder defendant to be acquitted by a Prince George's jury this year. Among those acquitted was a construction worker who acted as his own attorney.

During the first three months of the year, 11 defendants in Prince George's were convicted of or pleaded guilty to charges of murder or manslaughter, Korionoff said.

Prince George's County prosecutors have dropped their case against a former school board member accused of having sex with a 15-year-old boy -- for a second time.

It's the second time charges have been dropped in the case against Nathaniel Thomas because of an error by the state's attorney's office. The case was dropped in November because an incorrect address was listed in the charge.

On Wednesday, Thomas' attorney told the judge that prosecutors hadn't presented him with investigators' notes until Tuesday night and that violated his client's rights.

A Prince George's Lawyer Died in 1993. The Battle Over His Estate Lives On.

As a judge, lawyer and businessman, Walter L. Green left a sweeping and indelible mark on the civic and legal landscapes of Prince George's County. A founder of banks and a developer of office buildings, he has been credited with helping to modernize the county's economy.

When he died in 1993 at age 88, Green left a detailed 10-page will and an estate valued at nearly $30 million. His widow, Helen G. Nassif, filed in court to collect her portion -- roughly a third -- two months later.

Recent Prosecutions by Pr. George's Reveal Flaws In How Police Charges Are Evaluated, Lawyers Say

Prince George's County prosecutors were taken by surprise this spring in at least three felony cases that were underway:

A 13-year-old girl who was asked in court to identify the man who allegedly raped her pointed to a man sitting in the spectator's gallery -- not to the University of Maryland senior who was the defendant. Charges against the student were dropped.

An assistant public defender told prosecutors that bank surveillance video of a robbery and eyewitness descriptions showed that the robber wasn't his client. The prosecutor agreed, and during a hearing, a judge acquitted the defendant, a Hyattsville man who had spent six months in jail awaiting trial.

A Germantown man accused of abduction and rape testified during his trial that he and the alleged victim had once been engaged -- a revelation to the prosecution. The jury acquitted him in less than 30 minutes.

Some defense lawyers say the cases, all of which culminated in April, illustrate a troubling pattern of police charges not being thoroughly screened before prosecutors move forward to obtain grand jury indictments.

Prince George's State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey (D) said the circumstances of those cases were very different and do not point to a systemic problem.

Ivey said that, in general, his office does a good job screening and evaluating evidence in the 7,500 felony cases that it handles annually. The office has 75 prosecutors to work on felonies and misdemeanors.

"We screen cases thoroughly," Ivey said in a statement. "We have pre-indictment review committee meetings to ensure cases with difficult legal issues are comprehensively analyzed. There are also pre-trial strategy meetings with experienced prosecutors to discuss the best approaches to use in a trial. Considering the number of cases we prosecute and the limitation of our resources, we do a remarkable job."

Sharon Taylor, a county police spokeswoman, said police and prosecutors work together to evaluate felony charges after an arrest. "Whether a case continues to move forward to indictment is heavily dependent on the state's attorney's legal assessment of whether the criteria has been met to do so."

But defense lawyer Richard A. Finci, who practices in Prince George's, Montgomery, Anne Arundel and Howard counties, said similar issues seem to be resolved more quickly in those counties.

"Thorough screening is the function that determines which cases need resources and aggressive prosecution and weeds out those that can be dropped or reduced quickly," said Finci, a past president of the Maryland Criminal Defense Attorneys' Association. "While there has been slow progress in Prince George's County, it's still a problem."

The Prince George's police public information office said the department is reviewing what "investigative procedures" occurred in the robbery and abduction cases....