According to the City’s Crime Summary at http://www.gaithersburgmd.gov/crime/, City Police officers arrested two Hispanic men in conjunction with a strong-arm robbery on New Year’s Eve:
Strong Arm Robbery
Sunday, December 31, 2006
A male stopped a city officer at the city police station and advised that he was beaten and robbed behind Diamond Drugs in Olde Towne. A lookout was initiated for 2 Hispanic males, one with a shaved head and the other in all dark clothing. Officers stopped two suspects matching that discription on Brookes Ave and Rt 355. A show-up was conducted and the victim positively identified the two individuals. They were taken into custody and transported to CPU for Strong Arm Robbery. The victim, who had a swollen lip and lacerations about his face, was treated at the scene by F/R and transported to Shady Grove Hosp. Def. #1 CASTILLO, Mauricio A. H/M 09-23-86 No fixed address
Def. #2 GRANADOS, Jaime H/M 09-29-79 No fixed address
According to my interpretation of the sometimes-cryptic court records, Mr. Castillo and Mr. Granados both have extensive police records. Just this year, Mr. Castillo appears to have spent the months of April, July, September and October in jail (*) for charges including theft, assault, resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer, DUI, CDS (controlled dangerous substances), various alcohol violations, and disorderly conduct. Most of the charges were either dropped or suspended, although he did plead guilty to the DUI (for which he received a $1000 fine and a year in jail, both suspended with probation), and disorderly conduct, for which he received a month in jail, which worked out to time served. As of November 17, there were charges pending for trespassing and an open container violation, and an FTA (”failure to appear”) warrant had been issued on December 28.
Mr. Granados has also been in and out of jail at least since July of 2005. Charges have included assault, resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer, trespassing, disorderly conduct and various alcohol violations. On June 23 of 2006, he was arrested for trespassing. In July, an FTA warrant was issued, and he was picked up on August 23. He sat in jail until September 25, when charges were dropped and he was released. About three weeks later, on October 10, he was charged with 2nd degree assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. This time, bail was set at $17,500 and he sat in jail until December 21. He plead guilty to the 2nd degree assault, received a year in jail, was given credit for 43 days served and probation for the remaining 321 days of his sentence, and then released. Yesterday’s arrest came just ten days after he started this probation.
Update: The court records for the arrest of Mr. Castillo are now up. He was charged with robbery, second degree assault, and theft of less than $500. Bail was set at $30,000. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 26. There does not yet appear to be any new record for Mr. Granados.
Update 2: I found a previous incident report for Mr. Castillo on the Montgomery County website:
On 08-30-06 at 6:10 p.m. a loss prevention officer from the Rugged Warehouse located at 230 N. Frederick Avenue contacted police in reference to a shoplifting that had just occurred. The loss prevention officer chased two male subjects who had conspired to steal clothing from the store. A police officer located and arrested one subject for the shoplifting. He was later identified as 23-year-old Rodrigo Turcios of the unit block of N. Summit Drive in Gaithersburg. The security guard continued to follow the second suspect, 19-year-old Mauricio Adalberto Castillo of unknown address. Castillo attacked the security officer with a box cutter, but was disarmed. He then began to run. Police caught up to him, but he resisted arrest, kicking and punching three officers who tried to take him into custody. The officers managed to subdue Castillo, and he was processed and charged with Theft < $500, Common Law Conspiracy to Commit Theft, 1st Degree Assault, two counts of 2nd Degree Assault, 2nd Degree Assault against a Law Enforcement Officer, and three counts of Resisting Arrest.
According to the court records, Mr. Castillo spent the following two months — September and October — in Jail. The disposition of all the charges listed above is “Nolle Prosequi” — they all were dropped. It was during this time he was in jail, however, that he appears to have plead guilty to DUI — one of a pile of traffic charges from March 10, 2006 — for which he received the $1000 fine and one year jail sentence mentioned above. It is unclear if this plea was somehow connected to the Rugged Warehouse charges having been dropped.
Update 3: I see now why the record wasn’t showing up for Mr. Granados — this one is listed under the name “Grandos”, which is also listed as an alias in previous court records. Mr. Grandos/Granados was charged with same crimes as Mr. Castillo — robbery, second degree assault, and theft of less than $500 — but his bail was set at $50,000. Having missed this spelling of his surname, I had not previously noticed one of his other escapades. On June 14, 2006 Mr. Grandos was arrested for having stolen a credit card and theft of an amount less than $100. He was released on his own recognizance, but on June 20th an FTA warrant was issued. The warrant was served on July 6th, with bail set at $2,500. He spent the next 32 days in jail. He plead guilty to the theft charge, was given a $500 fine and a 90-day jail sentence. The fine and the 57-day balance of his jail term were suspended with probation before judgment. (from the Maryland State Courts FAQ: “This is a common resolution in many District Court trials. The defendant is found guilty or pleads guilty. However, the final entry of judgment is technically suspended. This gives the defendant an opportunity to request expungement of his record upon successful completion of the conditions or probation.”)
Update 4: Yes, the Granados/Grandos timeline is confusing. The way it appears to have gone is this:
- On June 14, 2006, Mr. Grandos is arrested for theft. He’s let go on his own recognizance.
- On June 20, 2006, an FTA warrant is issued.
- On June 23, 2006, a citation is issued for trespassing.
- On July 6, 2006, he’s picked up on the FTA warrant and put in jail.
- On August 8, 2006, he pleads guilty to the theft charge and is given the fine & 90 days and released with PBJ.
- On August 17, 2006, another FTA warrant is issued for the trespassing charge.
- On August 23, 2006, he’s picked up on the FTA and put in jail again.
- On September 25, 2006, the trespassing charges are dropped and he’s released from jail.
- On October 10, 2006, he’s arrested for assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, and put in jail again.
- On December 21, 2006, he pleads guilty on the assault charge and is given a year’s probation with credit for 43 days served.
- On December 31, 2006, he’s arrested for robbery, second degree assault, and theft of less than $500 and put in jail with bail set at $50,000.
Again, this is all based on my reading of the court records, which could be flawed.
Update 5: Sebastian Montes writes about this incident in this week’s Gazette:
The city is not attributing the crimes to day laborers.
‘‘That’s not what we’re looking at, we’re looking at whether there are criminals committing crimes,” said City Manager David B. Humpton. ‘‘Whoever they are, if they’re committing crimes, we’re going to go after them.”
Coming on the heels of a rape on East Diamond Avenue on Dec. 17, the crimes have some residents of Olde Towne worried.
‘‘You’re stupid if … rape and two armed robberies three or four blocks from your house don’t worry you,” said Dan Searles, who has lived on Walker Avenue for nine years.
Humpton said the crime rate in Olde Towne is not at the point of needing extra police attention, and that city police have not alerted him ‘‘to any major problems,” based on specific trends.
‘‘Unfortunately, you have thefts and robberies all different times of the year,” he said. ‘‘There is no indication from the police that that’s happened yet. … They caught two of the guys, what more do you want?”
Lovely. Yes, they caught the two guys. And let them go. And caught them. And let them go. And caught them. And let them go. And caught them. What more do I want? Is it that hard to figure out? Also, I note that in the Tuesday night Council meeting, Mr. Humpton pointed out, while explaining that there is crime all over Gaithersburg, that recently an officer in the City had to discharge his weapon, and it wasn’t in Olde Towne. Gosh, that makes me feel so much better. Yes, I realize that the “they” who caught them and the “they” who let them go aren’t the same, and that the latter “they” don’t report to David Humpton. But at some point the repeated downplaying of crime starts to wear pretty thin. Just because there may be no place in the city that one can safely walk around at night does not make anyone feel any less abandoned.
*The court records have several entries for a Mauricio A or Mauricio Adelberto Castillo, all with a birthdate of 09/23/1986, with two addresses in the Girard St area and one record showing his address as “unknown”. The Police report above states that Mr. Castillo has “no fixed address”. However, the court records, covering a nine-month period, variously give Mr. Castillo heights of 5′6″, 5′7″, 5′9″, 5′10″, and 6′1″, and weights ranging from 140 to 175 lb. So either there are five different Mauricio A. Castillos in Gaithersburg all sharing the same birth date, or the heights and weights are not precisely measured for the court records. Mr. Granados’ height also varies somewhat, from 5′6″ to 5′8″, with one possible typo at 4′6″ and 180lb.