Wednesday, July 22, 2009
MARYLAND
Prince George's Council Approves Furlough Plan
The Prince George's County Council approved a plan Tuesday to furlough all county workers for 10 days for the second straight year, after delaying the measure for several weeks amid criticism from public safety unions that it would endanger residents by taking emergency responders off the street.
The furloughs were included in the county budget this year to help close a $113 million budget gap. Council member Samuel H. Dean (D-Mitchellville) proposed an amendment Tuesday that requires workers to take a minimum of three furlough days in the first three quarters and for the county to analyze revenue streams quarterly to see if the full 10 days are necessary. The plan was approved with the amendment.
Jonathan R. Seeman, the county's management and budget director, said County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) would have to introduce a new measure to reduce the number of furlough days before the council could approve such an adjustment.
-- Jonathan Mummolo
Montgomery Council Names Planning Nominee
Marye Wells-Harley of Silver Spring was nominated Tuesday to a four-year term on the Montgomery County Planning Board. Wells-Harley, 66, is the former parks and recreation director for Prince George's County. If her appointment is approved by Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), she would be the first African American woman to serve on Montgomery's five-member planning board.
Wells-Harley was selected from a pool of 18 applicants for the part-time post, which pays $30,000 annually. She succeeds John Robinson, who served two terms and was ineligible for reappointment.
-- Miranda S. Spivack
1 Dead, 1 Critically Injured in Damascus Collision
A man was killed and a woman was critically injured in Damascus on Tuesday when a landscaping truck driven by the woman slammed into a van in oncoming traffic, Montgomery County police said.
Authorities did not immediately identify either driver. The accident in the 28900 block of Kemptown Road occurred shortly after 4 p.m., after the truck left the eastbound lanes and then swerved across the road into the westbound lane and hit the Chevy Astro van, police said.
The woman was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where she was listed in critical condition, police said.
It was not clear what caused the truck to leave the road, authorities said.
-- Clarence Williams
Trial of Prince George's Officer Is Suspended
The trial of a Prince George's County police officer who was issued a speeding citation after he collided with a car driven by a University of Maryland student -- a crash that killed the student -- was suspended Tuesday when prosecutors and the defense attorney sparred over whether Cpl. Mario Chavez had been properly identified as the defendant.
Chavez, 31, exercised his option not to appear Tuesday for the trial in District Court in Upper Marlboro. When prosecutors tried to introduce into evidence a civil deposition to help identify Chavez as the driver who collided with Brian Gray, 20, in December 2007, defense attorney Eric Gibson objected.
Gibson told District Court Judge Robert W. Heffron Jr. that prosecutors could not use the document to identify Chavez as the driver. Gibson said prosecutors could have issued a summons for Chavez to appear in court but failed to do so.
Heffron suspended the trial until Aug. 17 and directed Gibson and prosecutors to file papers arguing whether Chavez can be compelled to show up for court so state witnesses can identify him. Chavez was suspended earlier this year for an unrelated incident, authorities said.
-- Ruben Castaneda
Charles Woman Accused of Killing Husband
A Charles County woman shot and killed her husband Monday after a domestic dispute in their home, authorities said Tuesday.
Janet Cabezas, 51, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her husband, Steven Cabezas, 54, authorities said. A relative of the couple called police Tuesday just after 8 p.m. to report the shooting in the 1600 block of Marshall Hall Road in Bryans Road, authorities said.
Police declined to say what sparked the dispute, but they said Janet Cabezas relayed an account of what happened to the relative and stayed in the home until emergency responders arrived. Steven Cabezas was pronounced dead at the scene with a gunshot wound to the upper body, authorities said.
-- Matt Zapotosky
VIRGINIA
Legislative Session Sought After Lab Ruling
The association of Virginia's state prosecutors is calling on legislators and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) to convene a special session of the General Assembly to amend the state's laws in response to a recent Supreme Court opinion that ruled that lab analysts or technicians must testify in court if their drug or alcohol reports are to be admitted as evidence.
The board of the Commonwealth's Attorneys Services Council of Virginia issued its recommendation late last week in response to the Supreme Court's decision in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts. Defense lawyers immediately began citing the ruling in seeking witnesses to testify about blood alcohol content certificates or drug analyses, and some judges in Northern Virginia have begun throwing out cases when prosecutors have failed to present their technical witnesses.
A special legislative session can be called by the governor or by two-thirds of the members of the General Assembly.
-- Tom Jackman
Two Charged in Fatal Shooting in Loudoun
A 19-year-old man who was killed at a house party in Loudoun County early Sunday was identified as Bryan Vidarte of Centreville, police said Tuesday.
Investigators have arrested Guillermo A. Alvarado, 20, of Berryville, Va., and Rasheed L. Nurse, 26, of Herndon and charged them with second-degree murder.
The shooting happened about 3 a.m. outside a house on Tappahannock Place near Lowes Island Boulevard in Sterling. Alvarado and Nurse apparently got into an altercation with Vidarte, and Nurse pulled out a gun and shot him, police said.
-- Allison Klein
THE DISTRICT
Columbia Heights Parking to Be Discussed
The D.C. Department of Transportation will hold a public hearing Wednesday to discuss the progress of a pilot parking program in Columbia Heights.
The meeting will take place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Kelsey Temple Church of God, 1435 Park Rd. NW.
Topics to be discussed will include updates on curbside parking, the turnover rate of metered parking spaces and other modes of reducing congestion in the neighborhood.
For more information, contact Damon Harvey at 202-671-0493 or Damon.Harvey@dc.gov.
-- Martin Ricard
Medical Examiners Unsure on Causes of Death
Two D.C. medical examiners who performed autopsies on Banita Jacks's daughters told a D.C. Superior Court judge Tuesday that the girls' bodies were too badly decomposed to determine what caused their deaths.
They said they still were confident that the girls were slain.
The medical examiners said the three youngest girls, Aja Fogle, 5, N'Kiah Fogle, 6, and Tatianna Jacks, 11, had marks on their necks suggesting that the girls had been strangled. But they could not say definitively that strangulation was the cause of death.
On Monday, another D.C. medical examiner said he was 50 percent sure that the oldest sister, Brittany Jacks, 16, died from three stab wounds found to her abdomen but added that Brittany's body was also too decomposed to be definite about the cause of death.
The medical examiners said they attributed the deaths to homicides based on the marks on the bodies, as well as other factors such as how the bodies were found in Jacks's Southeast Washington rowhouse Jan. 9, 2008.
Jacks -- who on Monday started limping into court with a wooden cane -- is charged with 12 counts, including first-degree premeditated murder, in connection with the deaths of her four daughters.
She faces life in prison without parole.
-- Keith L. Alexander
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