BOOTLEG DVDs, CELLPHONES CONFISCATED DURING SEARCH OF PRISON PERSONNEL

By Stephen Janis

Two corrections officers at the Baltimore County Detention Center have been fired and at least four others are facing charges for taking personal cellphones into the jail.

The charges are the result of an unprecedented search of prison personnel that occurred during shift change at the county lockup more than a week ago when roughly 80 guards from two shifts were searched by supervisors in the facility’s gymnasium. The search produced at least six personal cellphones and one personal cellphone battery and other contraband, including a hand sanitizer.

Corrections officers are not allowed to bring personal cellphones onto prison grounds.

The two corrections officers who were fired can appeal their termination to the county labor commissioner.

Baltimore County Detention Center head James P. O’Neil did not return phone calls seeking comment.

In other developments, Investigative Voice has learned that among the contraband found by county corrections officials were bootleg DVDs.

VOTE FOR RAWLINGS-BLAKE SUCCESSOR
SET FOR MONDAY COUNCIL MEETING

By Alan Z. Forman and Stephen Janis

Twelfth District City Councilman Bernard C. “Jack” Young has been getting calls and complaints from his East Baltimore constituents all day about the snow removal — or lack thereof — and he tells all of them the same thing:

“The city has been doing a great job, trying to keep this to a minimum.

“I’m getting calls, complaints that the side streets are pretty bad,” he said, acknowledging that “most of the side streets” — in his district and throughout the city as well — “have not been plowed.”

Department of Public Works officials have said it may take several days to get to side streets.

“Central Avenue, Caroline, Eager Streets, are all still pretty bad,” Young said, adding that people need to understand, “We haven’t seen a storm like this in Baltimore in a long time.”

Young is about to become the next City Council president, succeeding Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake, who became Baltimore’s 49th mayor upon former Mayor Sheila Dixon’s sentencing for misappropriation of gift cards and perjury Thursday.

CITY HALL PROTEST CANCELED

By Stephen Janis

A brutal nor’easter that dumped up to two feet of snow in some parts of Maryland has effectively shut down the state and city as emergency planning officials scrambled to clear major thoroughfares and deliver emergency services.

In a televised news conference Saturday morning Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley urged residents to stay home while road crews struggled to battle a storm that left more than 27 inches of snow in Elkridge. “We are battling Mother Nature,” the governor said from the state highway emergency command center.