MARYLAND BRIEFING
MARYLAND BRIEFING
Tuesday, November 14, 2006; Page B04
ELECTION SUIT
Late Absentee Ballots Will Not Be Counted
The Maryland Court of Appeals rejected a request yesterday that absentee ballots postmarked on Election Day be counted, even though Maryland voters were supposed to have them postmarked by midnight on the eve of the Nov. 7 election.
The ruling came in a brief order issued just hours after the seven appeals court judges heard arguments in a suit filed by civil rights groups. Reasons for the decision will be given in a written opinion to be filed later.
The suit alleged that because some ballots were not put in the mail to voters until the Saturday before the Tuesday election, they arrived too late for many voters to get them postmarked by midnight Monday.
Election board officials said that at least 154,000 absentee ballots were returned to election boards on time. Most of those have been counted, although a final round will be tabulated beginning Friday.
A few legislative races are close enough that the outcome could depend on the final tally of provisional and absentee ballots.
-- Associated Press
GAITHERSBURG
Man Is Charged in Weekend Stabbing
A 31-year-old Gaithersburg man was charged with attempted murder and assault in the stabbing of a man Sunday night, Gaithersburg police said.
Julio C. Ramirez was arrested after officers responded to the 600 block of South Frederick Avenue about 8:30 p.m. and found a man bleeding from stab wounds in the legs, police spokesman Rudy Wagner said.
According to a charging document, Ramirez had been drinking at a house that night with Francisco Diaz and other men. An argument between the two men became physical, and Diaz was stabbed with a 10-inch kitchen knife, police said.
Wagner said police do not believe the stabbing was gang-related.
-- Ernesto Londoño
PROSTITUTION RING
Mother, Daughter Plead Guilty in Scheme
A Gaithersburg woman and her daughter have pleaded guilty to conspiring to transport hundreds of women to work as prostitutes at clandestine brothels in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said yesterday.
Olinda Aparicio, 65, entered her plea yesterday before U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. Her daughter, Elsy Aparicio, 30, who also pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money, entered her plea Nov. 3.
The pair were among eight people indicted last year for allegedly running a network of brothels in apartments that catered to recent immigrants from Latin America and were staffed mainly by prostitutes brought from New York and New Jersey for week-long stints.
The others indicted in the case are to be tried next month. The Aparicios are scheduled to be sentenced in January.
-- Ernesto Londoño
