May 13, 2008
Victims fund assists felons
City's cycle of crime among young men: perpetrators one day, victims the next
Deandra M. Gaskins, previously convicted of drug dealing, got $42,000 to treat injuries to his left hand in a drive-by shooting. Gaskins did not wish to have his face photographed. (Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum / March 13, 2008)
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Deandra M. Gaskins once pointed a handgun at the face of a woman leaving a corner store and demanded money, saying, "Kick it out." The armed robber is also a convicted car thief and drug dealer who has been arrested at least eight times on Baltimore's streets.
In May 2005, less than two weeks after he was charged with selling heroin out of a gas station, Gaskins was wounded in a drive-by shooting in South Baltimore.
When thousands of dollars in hospital bills came in, he turned to the state for help. And he got it.
The Maryland Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund, created 40 years ago to assist victims of crime, paid more than $42,000.
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Nearly $1.8 million from the fund has been awarded to drug dealers, violent offenders and other criminals since 2003, according to a Sun analysis of thousands of records obtained through the Maryland Public Information Act. In Baltimore alone, awards went to at least 147 convicted felons like Gaskins.
Awards helped bury a carjacker, a Bloods gang member who was shot to death by a fellow Blood, and a drug dealer killed after a dispute at a strip club. Even prisoners have been helped: A sex offender was compensated for medical bills after being assaulted in prison, and burial expenses were paid to the families of two convicted murderers.
In Florida, Ohio and at least six other states, felons are restricted or banned from receiving money from victim compensation funds. Maryland's approach is more forgiving.
"If someone with an extensive criminal background who has changed their life and is moving on and they happened to be the innocent victim of a crime, why shouldn't that person be compensated?" said Sandy A. Roberts, chairman of the board that administers the fund. "The issue is whether they were involved in a crime at the time they were injured, not their background."
Police and investigators for the fund suspect that some applicants are street criminals who were hurt or killed by assailants looking to settle a score. But a 2002 ruling by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals made clear that a denial by the board must rest on supporting evidence, such as a gun or drugs, that a victim was participating in a crime when injured.
"Some of these guys, I don't want to pay them, but the law prevents me from denying it," said Robin Woolford, the board's executive director, who oversees claims investigations.
Presented with The Sun's findings, some members of the compensation board, which is appointed by the governor, said state law needed to be reviewed.
"The whole intention is to help people who are the innocent victims of crime or their families," said John W. Derr, a former state senator from Frederick who serves on the board. If funds are going to violent criminals, he said, "I think we've got to take a serious look at that. And there is a problem."
The analysis focused on those convicted in the city, where nearly half of the board's claims originate; had it included other parts of Maryland, the number would have been greater.
The numbers reflect a grim reality in Baltimore, where young men often exist in a cycle of violence in which they are variously perpetrators and victims.
"There is a lot of fluidity between being a victim and being a criminal," said Lisa C. Newmark, co-author of an Urban Institute case study on Maryland's compensation program several years ago. "It's not necessarily two distinct, separate groups of people."
Most of the compensation money, up to a maximum of $45,000 per victim, is used to pay victims' funeral expenses and medical bills that are not covered by insurance or government assistance. Some goes directly to victims in the form of lost wages. A twice-convicted cocaine dealer, for instance, was paid more than $11,800 in lost wages after being wounded in a drive-by shooting.
In 1968, Maryland became one of the first states to create a victim compensation program. The idea: A government is responsible for protecting its citizens and should compensate victims when it fails to do so. Every state now has a program.
In Maryland, the number of claims has risen in recent years, partly because of outreach efforts by fund administrators. Last year, the Maryland program paid out $5.84 million on 824 claims. That compares with $4.37 million paid on 669 claims in 2003, when the board began keeping computer records.
Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun
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