MARYLAND BRIEFING

HOWARD COUNTY

Five Teens Injured After Car Strikes Tree

Five teenagers were injured, two of them critically, when the vehicle they were in ran into a tree in Ellicott City early yesterday morning.

Howard County police said the teenagers were traveling north on Gray Rock Drive at an excessive speed when, just after midnight, the 2004 Acura RSX left the road and struck a tree. Two rear-seat passengers were ejected, police said.

The two rear passengers, Charles Knode, 16, and Justin Arnold, 15, were taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where they were in critical but stable condition yesterday, police said. The driver, Nikolaus Herstein, 16, was also taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was in stable condition, authorities said. Front-seat passenger John Magwood, 16, was treated at Howard County General Hospital and released. Michael Piotrowski, 14, also a rear-seat passenger, is expected to be released tomorrow from Johns Hopkins Hospital.

No other vehicles were involved, and police said they found no evidence that alcohol was a factor.

-- Virgil Dickson

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY

Alleged Home Investment Scam Probed

Federal and state authorities are investigating an alleged foreclosure-recovery scam that stripped hundreds of home buyers of millions of dollars in equity in their homes, according to a law enforcement source and a defendant named in a class-action lawsuit.

Steve Norman, part owner of Sussex Title LLC in Rockville, which is a defendant in the lawsuit, said yesterday that his company contacted the FBI about six months ago after it found "irregularities" in paperwork from Metropolitan Money Store Corp. of Lanham, the main defendant in the suit.

Two couples from Prince George's County filed the lawsuit last month. They list Metropolitan, Sussex, Fordham and Fordham Investment Group of Lanham, and RTE Title LLC in Largo as defendants. The phones at Metropolitan and Fordham and Fordham are disconnected. Two messages were left at RTE Title yesterday, but no one returned the calls.

Norman said it is wrong to "lump Sussex with Metropolitan Money Store and Fordham and Fordham."

"I feel we are a victim here," Norman said. "We were brought these bad transactions . . . and we were taken advantage of."

Norman said Sussex is cooperating with state and federal authorities.

-- Ovetta Wiggins and Eric Rich

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Gaithersburg Crash Hurts Woman, Two Boys

A woman and two children were injured yesterday morning in a collision at Midcounty Highway and Woodfield Road in Gaithersburg, police and fire officials said.

A Mercedes driven by the mother failed to yield the right-of-way and turned in front of a van with two occupants about 8 a.m., police said. The van struck the Mercedes on the passenger side. Two boys, ages 10 and 7, were airlifted to Children's Hospital with injuries deemed serious but not life-threatening, according to county fire spokesman Pete Piringer. The mother was taken to Washington Hospital Center.

Two adults in the van were not injured, according to police spokeswoman Lucille Baur.

-- Daniel de Vise