MARYLAND BRIEFING

Friday, September 5, 2008

STATE GOVERNMENT

At Hearing, Lawmakers Question Medevac Spending

A legislative panel yesterday questioned whether Maryland taxpayers are getting their money's worth from the state's police helicopter fleet, which transports 4,500 patients a year to trauma centers that release half of them within 24 hours.

The data on patient releases suggest that many of the flights -- at a cost of about $4,000 each -- are not needed, members of the General Assembly's Joint Committee on Health Care Delivery and Financing said at a hearing.

But Robert R. Bass, chief of the state's emergency medical response program, said recent changes have reduced the number of unnecessary medevac rides. Patients within a 30-minute drive of a trauma center must now be transported by ambulance in most cases, Bass said.

Dan K. Morhaim (D-Baltimore County), the committee co-chairman, nonetheless urged Bass to find more savings in the program.

-- Lisa Rein

ANNE ARUNDEL

Oxygen Depletion Blamed For Dead Fish in Creek

More than 100,000 small fish died in a creek off the South River near Annapolis on Monday, apparently after they became trapped in a shallow cove and ran out of oxygen, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Department spokeswoman Dawn Stoltzfus said yesterday that the fish, juveniles of a species called menhaden, died in a cove of Aberdeen Creek. She said it appeared that oxygen in the cove water was depleted at low tide, both by the fish and by moderate levels of algae.

The fish, between three and four inches long, were unable to find their way back out of the cove's narrow entrance, she said.

-- David A. Fahrenthold

FEDERAL COURTS

Man Gets 32-Year Term In Rockville Bank Holdup

A man who was convicted with two others of robbing a Rockville bank last year was sentenced yesterday to 32 years in prison, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Richol Griner, 31, was the last of the three defendants to be sentenced in the case, which was tried in federal court in Greenbelt in June. In sentencing Griner, U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte found that under federal guidelines, previous convictions for assault and other offenses provided for a longer prison term, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Last week, Giovanni Bell, 45, was sentenced to life without parole, and Jude Eligwe, 23, who was an employee at the bank, was sentenced to four years in prison.

The robbery occurred Feb. 19, 2007, at a Commerce Bank branch on East Gude Drive.

-- Henri E. Cauvin

CHARLES COUNTY

Judge Grants New Trial In Fatal Shooting of Girl, 13

A Charles County Circuit Court judge granted a new trial yesterday to a Waldorf man convicted in the death of a 13-year-old girl who was fatally shot while riding in her mother's ice cream truck.

Kevin M. Warren, 22, was convicted in May of first-degree murder in the death of Briona Porter in Waldorf in June 2007. At what was to be his sentencing, Judge Amy J. Bragunier ordered a new trial, saying defense attorneys were not properly notified that a key witnesses, Tanya Butler, would identify their client as the shooter.

Defense attorneys said they were not told the substance of her expected testimony until after opening arguments. Deputy State's Attorney Anthony Covington argued that he notified defense attorneys of Butler's intentions as soon as he found out about them.

Covington said that under a court ruling, prosecutors were not allowed to elicit the identification. But defense attorneys eventually pushed Butler into identifying Warren during a harsh cross-examination, Covington said.

Warren's new trial is scheduled to begin in February.

-- Matt Zapotosky

ST. MARY'S COUNTY

Sheriff's Deputy Is Fired Over Drunken Assault

A St. Mary's County sheriff's deputy convicted of assault and drunken driving last month was fired from the department yesterday, police said.

Authorities said David Goff, 33, was drunk and off duty in May when he pulled over a Lexington Park ATV driver and repeatedly hit the man. Last month, Goff was sentenced to two days in jail, court records show.

The man Goff was accused of attacking, Shane R. Weasenforth, was initially charged with second-degree assault and resisting arrest. Those charges have been dropped, said St. Mary's Sheriff Timothy K. Cameron. He said other deputies had acted properly in charging Weasenforth based on statements by Goff.

-- Matt Zapotosky