Mark Puente
Mark Puente, an investigative reporter for The Baltimore Sun, has been nominated three times for a Pulitzer Prize. He covered St. Petersburg City Hall and real estate for the Tampa Bay Times. He previously was a crime and investigations reporter for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, where he won the Al Nakkula Award — the only national journalism award devoted to police reporting. His 2014 “Undue Force” series on allegations of police brutality in Baltimore won the Institute on Political Journalism’s Clark Mollenhoff Award for Excellence in Investigative Reporting and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism's Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award for reporting on racial or religious hatred, intolerance or discrimination in the United States. A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate, Puente grew up in Detroit and Cleveland and spent 14 years driving a tractor trailer before going to college.
Recent Articles
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Towson construction firm pays $145,000 to settle state allegations of inflating costs for MTA bus depot
J. W. Ancel Inc., a Towson-based construction firm, paid $145,000 to settle allegations that the company submitted inflated construction costs connected to a state bus depot, Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh announced Friday. J. W. Ancel was awarded a contract in 2013 to build a bus facility...
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70-year-old Baltimore woman's death ruled a homicide by narcotic poisoning; daughter believes she was drugged
After a 70-year-old Baltimore woman died in July from what police say was narcotic poisoning, relatives are still awaiting answers on whether she was drugged. When authorities found Gloria Johnson unresponsive with no signs of trauma in her home on East Preston Street in the Eastern District on...
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Baltimore Deputy Police Commissioner Bonaparte had previous tax troubles
Baltimore Deputy Police Commissioner Andre Bonaparte’s failure to file his business property tax returns for 2017 and 2018 wasn’t his first run-in with the tax authorities. On Feb. 8, 2013, the state entered a tax lien against Bonaparte and his wife for $3,421.79 for unpaid taxes, according to...
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Grant cuts by March of Dimes imperil research at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere
The March of Dimes Foundation unexpectedly cut existing grant awards, jeopardizing research into 37 medical projects across the country, including two at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. At Johns Hopkins, research into microcephaly, a birth defect that causes children to have abnormally...
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Top Baltimore police official failed to file business property taxes until he was questioned about his companies
Even as income-tax problems toppled Baltimore’s police commissioner in May, a retired officer he hired to be a deputy commissioner failed to file his business property tax returns until Wednesday, a day after The Baltimore Sun asked about the firms he owns. As of Tuesday, Deputy Police Commissioner...
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Despite the spate of viral rat videos, Baltimore likely doesn't have more vermin
When rats recently scampered through two public markets and a convenience store like shoppers browsing for green beans, it confirmed that no part of Baltimore is immune from rodents. But the rats-capades caught on video and viewed more than 500,000 times on social media come amid a declining number...
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The faces of Baltimore's unrest: Where are they now?
After Freddie Gray’s death, amid the unrest in Baltimore last year, dozens of local residents, protesters, rioters, clergy members, law enforcement officials and city leaders found themselves in the national spotlight. Many were captured in powerful photographs and videos that went viral online....
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Former Baltimore police commissioner understated Taser use to city officials
Months after asking the U.S. Department of Justice to reform the Baltimore police force, Commissioner Anthony W. Batts went before a City Council committee to detail how much force officers used during arrests. Batts told the public safety committee in January 2015 that police had logged fewer than...