Tag: maryland

Maryland Supreme Court Limits Testimony on Bullet-Matching Evidence

The Maryland Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that firearms experts will no longer be able to testify that a bullet was fired from a particular gun. The decision is likely the first by a state supreme court to undercut the widespread forensic discipline of firearms identification, which is used in criminal cases across the country.

In a 4–3 decision first reported by The Baltimore Sun, the Maryland Supreme Court overturned the murder conviction of Kobina Ebo Abruquah after finding that a firearm expert’s trial testimony linking Abruquah’s gun to bullets found at a crime scene wasn’t backed up by reliable science. In the majority opinion, Maryland Supreme Court Chief Justice Matthew J. Fader wrote that “firearms identification has not been shown to reach reliable results linking a particular unknown bullet to a particular known firearm.”

The ruling is a major victory for defense groups like the Innocence Project, which works to overturn wrongful convictions and limit what it calls faulty forensic science in courtrooms. It’s also not the only one: Radley Balko recently reported at The Watch on a similar ruling from a Cook County circuit judge in Illinois.

But Tuesday’s ruling is the first by a state supreme court limiting such testimony that Tania Brief, a senior staff attorney at the Innocence Project, which filed an amicus brief in the case, is aware of.

“One of the tensions in our work is that the law is always playing catch-up with the current scientific understanding,” Brief says. “And this is a real step forward in the law catching up with what the current scientific understanding is.”

Forensic firearms identification includes well-established uses such as determining caliber and other general characteristics, but examiners are also frequently called on to testify whether a particular bullet was fired from a particular gun. A gun’s firing pin and the grooves on the inside of a gun barrel leave marks on cartridge casings when a bullet is fired, so a firearm examiner compares crime scene bullets to samples fired from the suspect gun and looks for matching patterns under a microscope.

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REPORT DETAILS ‘STAGGERING’ CHURCH SEX ABUSE IN MARYLAND

More than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused over 600 children and often escaped accountability, according to a long-awaited state report released Wednesday that revealed the scope of abuse spanning 80 years and accused church leaders of decades of coverups.

The report paints a damning picture of the archdiocese, which is the oldest Roman Catholic diocese in the country and spans much of Maryland. Some parishes, schools and congregations had more than one abuser at the same time — including St. Mark Parish in Catonsville, which had 11 abusers living and working there between 1964 and 2004. One deacon admitted to molesting over 100 children. Another priest was allowed to feign hepatitis treatment and make other excuses to avoid facing abuse allegations.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office released the findings of their yearslong investigation during Holy Week — considered the most sacred time of year in Christianity ahead of Easter Sunday — and said the number of victims is likely far higher. The report was redacted to protect confidential grand jury materials, meaning the identities of some accused clergy were removed.

“The staggering pervasiveness of the abuse itself underscores the culpability of the Church hierarchy,” the report said. “The sheer number of abusers and victims, the depravity of the abusers’ conduct, and the frequency with which known abusers were given the opportunity to continue preying upon children are astonishing.”

Disclosure of the redacted findings marks a significant development in an ongoing legal battle over their release and adds to growing evidence from parishes across the country as numerous similar revelations have rocked the Catholic Church in recent years.

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Mayor of College Park arrested, charged with 56 counts of child pornography

The mayor of a College Park was arrested Thursday morning on dozens of child pornography counts hours after he resigned from office.

Patrick Wojahn, 47, faces 56 counts of possession and distribution of child porn, the Prince George’s County Police Department said in a statement Thursday morning. Police searched his College Park home Tuesday and seized cell phones as well as a storage device, tablet and computer.

County officials said the department started investigating after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children notified them on Feb. 17 that a social media account had distributed suspected child pornography. Detectives traced the account to Wojahn, authorities said.

Wojahn submitted his resignation after business hours on Wednesday, city officials said in a statement Thursday. He was serving his second term as mayor of College Park, which includes the University of Maryland campus, after winning election in 2015. He previously served eight years as a city councilman.

“Mr. Wojahn resigned his position yesterday and has been cooperating fully with law enforcement,” his attorney David Moyse said via email Thursday. “While too early to comment on the allegations, we will continue to cooperate as the process unfolds.”

In his resignation letter, which the city released, Wojahn said he plans to “deal with my own mental health” and asked residents to keep his family in their prayers.

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Maryland school district unveils LGBTQ propaganda targeting toddlers with highly sexual concepts

The largest school system in Maryland has unveiled a new book list loaded with LGBT-activist propaganda aimed at elementary schools and tailored to children as young as 4. The objective of the sexual content is to “reduce stigmatization and marginalization of transgender and gender nonconforming students.”

What are the details?

Fox News Digital reported that a recent Montgomery County Public Schools PowerPoint presentation referenced a set of activist books that will be distributed to classrooms, from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The books seek to undermine the concept of a gender binary at an early age and immerse children in the vernacular of LGBT activists, teaching toddlers words like “drag queen” and “intersex.”

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As Left and Right Argue Over their ‘Waves’, the Legal Weed ‘Green Wave’ Continues Despite Federal Prohibition

Voters in two more states approved ballot measures legalizing marijuana on Tuesday despite the ongoing federal prohibition of cannabis, continuing a 50-year history of efforts by the state to nullify the feds, cities to nullify the state – and individuals to nullify them all.

Maryland and Missouri both passed ballot measures legalizing marijuana for individuals 21 and over. That brings the total number of states that have legalized recreational marijuana to 21.

The movement to take down marijuana prohibition started in the 1970s accelerated after California legalized cannabis for medical use in 1996. Since then, states have advanced the issue every year. This happened in spite of a 2005 Supreme Court opinion supporting federal prohibition, at least 12 years of relentless year-to-year increase in spending and enforcement efforts by the federal government through three presidential administrations, and ongoing, complete prohibition at the federal level.

In California, individual and local action started long before the passage of Prop. 215 legalizing medical marijuana in 1996. Other states followed their lead. Many states started with modest medical programs and then expanded them over the years.

We’ve seen the same progression when it comes to adult-use marijuana.

Each year, new state laws and the loosening of old laws help expand the market, and each expansion further nullifies the unconstitutional federal ban in practice and effect. With state and local actions accounting for as much as 99 percent of all enforcement efforts according to the FBI, the feds rely heavily on state and local help to fight the “drug war.” That help has rapidly evaporated in the last few years with marijuana legalization and decriminalization.

As marijuana becomes more accepted and more states, localities, and individuals simply ignore the federal prohibition, the feds become less able to enforce their unconstitutional laws. After more than two decades of state, local and individual resistance and nullification, the federal government’s unconstitutional prohibition of cannabis is beginning to come apart at the seams.

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Maryland Parents Shocked to Learn Children Were Given Race and Gender Scorecards to Calculate Privilege

A mother in Carroll County, Md., reported that students, including her daughter, were recently given race and gender privilege scorecards to complete as part of their preparation for an upcoming reading assignment in English class. Accompanying the scorecards were other media elaborating on the concept of privilege.

When the daughter questioned her teacher on what privilege has to do with learning English, expressing concerns that the material seemed “racist towards whites” and that it “portrayed the police in a negative light,” the teacher reacted by saying it was actually good to have those feelings and that the purpose of the lesson is to foster uncomfortable conversations.  

The girl’s mother sees things differently, calling such topics in the classroom “absolutely appalling.” She continued: “They’re teaching our kids to view and treat people based on their skin color, rather than treating each other as individuals. How this belongs in an English class is beyond me.”

The Concerned Parents of Carroll County Maryland, a local group organized to remove political indoctrination in schools and promote common-sense COVID policies, were originally sent the classroom documents. The group has received similar reports from many students and parents throughout their community’s school system. 

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Maryland Public School Teacher Asked 14-Year-Olds to Take ‘White Privilege Test’

An English teacher in Montgomery County Public Schools — the largest school district in Maryland — told students to take a “white privilege test” before reading a book that addresses themes of racism and police brutality.

Ninth-grade English students at Sherwood High School were given pre-reading questions for the book “All American Boys” on Monday, Nov. 8, according to a file reviewed by the Daily Caller. The questions linked directly to a Vox article titled “what it means to be anti-racist” and a test called the “white privilege test.” The Vox article promoted the work of “anti-racist” scholar and author Ibram X. Kendi.

The “white privilege test” was adapted by “research on white privilege” from anti-racist activist Peggy McIntosh, according to the test. Students were told to answer “yes or no” to 25 statements.

Statements of white privilege include, “I can go shopping alone and be sure that I won’t be followed or harassed,” “In the history I have studied, my ancestors are given a lot of attention and credit,” and “I never feel out of place, outnumbered, unheard, feared, or hated in my clubs and activities. Instead, I feel tied in and welcomed,” among others.

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University of Maryland divides its freshman class into whites and Asians and ‘students of color, minus Asian’

Here’s an interesting screengrab from the University of Maryland breaking down freshman admissions and enrollment by race. The best part is they only needed two categories to do it: you have your students of color (minus Asian) and then white students, including Asians.

It’s a weird phenomenon that we’re sure isn’t limited to the University of Maryland. We told you about San Francisco school board vice president Alison Collins, who is black, tweeting that Asian American students, teachers, and parents are “house n****rs” who use “white supremacist thinking” to assimilate and get ahead. You see, Asian Americans are “white adjacent.”

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Maryland school system tells students ‘systemic racism’ is a pandemic in ‘psychoeducational lessons’

The most populous county in Maryland has implemented “psychoeducational lessons” that tell students there is a “dual pandemic” involving COVID-19 and “systemic racism,” according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch.

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) promoted materials like “Antiracist Baby” by Ibram X. Kendi in a PowerPoint obtained by Judicial Watch. The PowerPoint links to an audio reading of the book, which says “Babies are taught to be racist or antiracist, there’s no neutrality.”

Teacher notes in the PowerPoint said the book “is the perfect gift for readers of all ages dedicated to forming a just society,” even babies and toddlers.

Fox News first reported on the Judicial Watch documents Thursday.

“This material details how extremist race politics and CRT are being used to target children for political ends,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement on the documents, Fox News reported. “Politics should immediately be removed from the curriculum of Montgomery County Schools. These CRT-laden teachings have no place in any American classroom.”

Critical Race Theory (CRT) holds that America is fundamentally racist, yet it teaches people to view every social interaction and person in terms of race. Its adherents pursue “antiracism” through the end of merit, objective truth and the adoption of race-based policies.

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Maryland Judge Dies of Apparent Suicide Before He Could Be Arrested on Charges of Child Sexual Exploitation

A Maryland state judge died by apparent suicide on Sept. 10 shortly before he was set to be arrested at his home on federal charges of sexual exploitation of a child, officials said.

Caroline County Circuit Judge Jonathan Newell, 50, was pronounced dead at 6:43 a.m. Friday morning, the Department of Justice said in a statement.

FBI agents had visited Newell’s residence to arrest him on a federal criminal complaint filed on Sept. 9, 2021. When they arrived, they found him “suffering from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound,” the statement said.

Maryland State Police will lead the investigation into the apparent suicide.

Newell was facing one federal charge of sexual exploitation of a child, according to court records unsealed Friday (pdf).

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