MARYLAND BRIEFING

BALTIMORE COUNTY

Council Member Indicted on Theft Charges

Baltimore County Council member Kenneth N. Oliver was indicted yesterday on felony theft charges involving the personal use of campaign funds, the state prosecutor's office said.

Oliver, a 63-year-old Randallstown Democrat elected to the council in 2002, wrote two checks for $2,000, one to his wife and another to himself, from his campaign account, according to the indictment announced by State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh. If convicted of the two felony theft charges, Oliver could face 15 years in prison and a fine of as much as $25,000.

A Baltimore County grand jury also indicted Oliver on six counts alleging that he violated other election laws requiring submission of receipts and keeping separate account books for petty cash. The maximum penalty for those charges is one year in prison and fines of as much as $25,000 for each violation.

Oliver did not respond to calls for comment yesterday. In a letter last February to the State Board of Elections, Oliver said the money was a loan that had been repaid and apologized for his "poor choice in handling a family emergency."

He said he was "unaware of the possibility of committing a campaign finance violation." He did not elaborate in the letter on the nature of the family emergency, and he declined to respond to news reports at the time that the state prosecutor would be asked to review the apparent campaign finance violations.

Oliver, a former head of the county Planning Board, is the first African American to serve on the Baltimore County Council.

-- Baltimore Sun

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY

Fort Meade Testing Commuter Shuttle Service

Fort Meade expects to begin in February testing a shuttle van service between the post and the MARC train stations in Savage and Odenton. Officials hope to eventually expand the service to carry perhaps thousands of commuters.

Fort Meade is expected to get 5,000 more workers under base realignment in 2011. Jobs from the Defense Information Systems Agency in Arlington County are being moved to Fort Meade, and many of the workers will probably commute from Northern Virginia. Officials are encouraging commuters to avoid clogged roads and take public transit instead.

-- Associated Press