• Sebastian Montes writes, Slayings spur look at added powers:

    In the wake of public outcry over three recent homicides allegedly committed by illegal immigrants, Montgomery County State’s Attorney John J. McCarthy, the county police chief and other county leaders are looking closely at stricter guidelines for handling suspects of serious crimes who are in the country illegally.

  • Joe Beck writes, Boy, 16, charged with driving SUV into officer:

    The 16-year-old Clarksburg boy charged as an adult with first-degree assault after striking a police officer with his sports utility vehicle last week abandoned the vehicle after the incident and told his mother it had a flat tire, according to police charging documents filed in court.

    The off-duty county officer who was directing traffic outside a church service on Nov. 26 fired his gun at Joseph W. Nelson, who was driving erratically in the parking lot, after he didn’t heed two calls to stop and hit the officer.

  • Sebastian Montes writes, County, four officers sued for $6.4M after alleged beating:

    The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt in April, stems from an October 2006 incident in which Melissa Dent of Lea Pond Place, a 40-year-old mother of two, says that three or four officers kicked, beat and stunned her with a Taser in her living room after she was handcuffed.

    The officers — Adam Siegelbaum, Kimberly Wilson, John Mullaney and Jennifer Phoenix — have been sued for $1.5 million each. Siegelbaum is the officer accused of hitting a man with a bottle in the Nov. 15 incident at Bailey’s Bar & Grille in Germantown, according to a police report.

  • Meghan Tierney writes, Teen gets community service for role in death:

    A Gaithersburg teen pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment for his role in the death of a man who was beaten, left lying in the road and then fatally struck by a car in January.

    The teen was charged as a juvenile and sentenced to community service in connection with the death of Manuel Antonio Ramirez-Gavarete, 38, of Gaithersburg. The teen, now 18, was 17 at the time, according to Assistant State’s Attorney George Simms.

  • Sebastian Montes writes, Man found dead six days after he was reported missing:

    After a six-day search by county police, a 58-year-old Gaithersburg man who had threatened suicide was found dead Nov. 26 on Fieldcrest Road, barely more than a mile from his home, according to county police.

    A woman walking her dog just before 9 a.m. found Timothy Houston Neal’s body on the ground next to his 1988 Chevrolet Blazer, which had been pulled off Fieldcrest Road about a half-mile east of Woodfield Road, according to a Montgomery County Police statement.

  • Joe Beck writes, Man convicted in shooting that paralyzed drug dealer:

    A Gaithersburg man faces more than 100 years in prison after a jury convicted him in a shooting that left a Germantown man paralyzed from the waist down during a home invasion robbery.

    Court documents say three Gaithersburg men, including Arthur A. Phillips, 28, were looking for cocaine when they entered the Crystal Rock Drive apartment on Sept. 28, 2007, and accosted three victims.

  • Amber Parcher writes, Three suspected illegal immigrants charged in death of Wheaton woman, 83:

    The three Wheaton residents charged in connection with the death of an 83-year-old woman last week are suspected illegal immigrants, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said today.

    ICE officials filed detainers this week for Jose Antonio Alvarado, 37, his wife, Ana Lilian Rodas, 33, and his cousin, Ramon Alberto Alvarado, 32, all of the 12300 block of Downer Drive in Wheaton.