MARYLAND BRIEFING

ANNAPOLIS

Two Are Elected to City Council

Two Democrats prevailed in a special election to fill open seats on the Annapolis City Council.

In Ward 4, in western Annapolis, Democrat Sheila M. Finlayson defeated Republican James M. Conley on Tuesday by 247 to 212 votes. Democrat Ross Arnett was the winner in Ward 8, which includes Eastport, over Republican Frank B. Bradley by 507 to 444 votes.

Absentee ballots will be counted today, but Finlayson and Arnett are assured of victory, with only 15 absentees to be counted in Ward 4 and 39 in Ward 8, said Regina C. Watkins-Eldridge, the city election administrator.

Finlayson has been a teacher in the Anne Arundel public school system for 33 years and served a four-year term as president of the county's teachers association. Arnett runs a consulting company after retiring as a senior executive at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The candidates ran for the seats vacated by Joshua J. Cohen, a Democrat who resigned from his Ward 8 post after winning a County Council seat in November, and Wayne M. Taylor, the former Democratic alderman in Ward 4, who became director of the Anne Arundel County Department of Aging and Disabilities.

-- Raymond McCaffrey

CRIME

Sentences in Prostitution Ring

A 65-year-old Gaithersburg woman who pleaded guilty to transporting prostitutes to Maryland with her children and other relatives was sentenced yesterday to 15 months in prison.

According to a plea agreement presented at U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Olinda Aparicio conspired with her daughters Elsy Aparicio and Dorinalda Aparicio, her son Eliazor Aparicio, her sister Rosibel Aparicio Jandres and her brother-in-law Manuel Jandres to transport hundreds of women from New York and New Jersey to Maryland for work as prostitutes.