Two boys killed in car crash
Two boys were killed and their father was critically injured when the car in which he was driving them to school yesterday was involved in a three-car collision, Montgomery County police said.
John Augustine, 11, and his brother, Joseph Augustine, 12, were dead on arrival at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring following the 8 a.m. accident, police said.
Their father, Paul Augustine, 40, of Silver Spring, was in critical condition today at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, police said.
According to police, Paul Augustine was driving a Ford Taurus south on U.S. 29 when he attempted to make a left turn onto Crestmoor Drive and was struck broadside by a northbound Pontiac Firebird driven by Scott Alfredo Myers, 20, of Chantilly, Va.
The Ford spun around and crashed into an Audi, police said.
John and Joseph Augustine were in the back seat of their father's car and were not wearing seat belts, police said. John was thrown partially through a rear side window and Joseph was ejected from the car, landing about 40 feet away, police said.
Police said Myers escaped injury when the air bag in his car inflated. The driver of the Audi, Laurence Lee Olson, 49, of Silver Spring, also was not injured.
State Police at Pikesville said the fatalities brought to 184 the number of people killed on Maryland roadways so far this year, compared with 228 at the same time last year.
$5,000 for history program
BALTIMORE CITY
Thousands of Baltimore students will get a chance to learn more about Maryland history, courtesy of a $5,000 contribution from the women's committee of the Maryland Historical Society.
The contribution represents two years of funding for a program that brings 35 busloads of children each year to the society's museum and library at 201 W. Monument St.
Under the 11-year-old program, the society provides $2,500 each year for field trips. To date, the program has provided tours for more than 21,000 students.
The society's women's committee this week presented a check from its Feb. 22 fund-raiser to officials from the society and the school system.
They included Charles T. Lyle, director of the Maryland Historical Society; Judy Van Dyke, the society's director of education; Samuel L. Banks, director of instructional support for city schools; and Mary Radcliffe, of the schools' Bureau of Instruction.
Woman's survivors sue doctor
ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY
A Glen Burnie woman went into a coma and died 11 months later because a doctor misdiagnosed her illness, the woman's family charges in a lawsuit.
Gloria Johnson, 32, died in August 1987 after Dr. Ram Rastogi misdiagnosed the cause of her abdominal pain, according to the lawsuit filed by the woman's mother, Maggie Bell Davis, and 16-year-old son, Sterling.
Rastogi declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The doctor treated Johnson for nervousness, hyperacidity and constipation, but she really had a tubo-ovarian abscess and a small bowel obstruction, the lawsuit charges.
The suit was filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court because Rastogi disputed an earlier decision by a state Health Claims Arbitration Panel requiring him to pay $1.1 million, said Howard A. Janet, a lawyer for Johnson's family.
The panel consisted of a doctor, a lawyer and lay person.
The panel's chairman later reduced the award to $926,730. The family will ask for a larger award, Janet said.
Two days after Johnson saw Rastogi in September 1986, she returned, saying her pain and swelling had gotten worse, the suit says. Another doctor examined her and she had emergency surgery at North Arundel Hospital.
Doctors at North Arundel discovered the abscess had ruptured. Three days later she went into a coma, and 11 months later she died.
3rd grave-robbing arrest
Anne Arundel County police have arrested a third youth for digging up at least two graves in a Harmans cemetery for the purpose of robbing them.
The youths, 14, 15 and 16, have been charged as juveniles with removing dead bodies without authority, a misdemeanor, police
said. The grave robbing occurred last Friday and Saturday, police said.
Police arrested the two younger boys Monday and the third youth yesterday.
The first two boys were arrested after one took home a skull, alarming his mother. She then called police.
Lt. Michael Fitzgibbons of the Anne Arundel County Police Department said the robbery was an attempt to find jewelry, not bones.
After charges, the boys were released in the custody of their parents pending action by juvenile authorities.
July in England
July in England: Anne Arundel Community College is offering landscape artists the opportunity to develop their skills in England this summer.
A special landscape painting course is being offered July 1-21. Participants will stay near the medieval town of Arundel at the British campus of New England College. Painting locations will include Bosham, Arundel Castle, Swanbourne Lake and the Seven Sisters area in southern England. Day trips to galleries and museums in London are also planned.
The course may be taken for credit or non-credit. The cost, about $1,850, includes air fare, lodging, food, transportation and the day trips. Tuition and painting supplies are not included.
For more information, and a detailed itinerary, call 541-2226 or 541-2743.
Contractor sought for Hickey
BALTIMORE COUNTY
A plan to put a private contractor in charge of Maryland's largest juvenile prison, in Baltimore County, has been put on a fast track by the state Board of Public Works.
The Maryland Department of Juvenile Services got permission from the board yesterday to begin an expedited bid process to hire a private contractor to operate the troubled Charles J. Hickey School in Cub Hill.
The department expects it will have to pay a contractor about $80 million over the next five years to operate the school that houses the state's most dangerous juvenile offenders.
State officials hope a private company, which will not be bound by state regulations and state personnel policies, will be able to do a more efficient and more effective job of running the school.
About 340 juveniles are imprisoned at Hickey. It has been under scrutiny and criticism from the legislature because of escapes, assaults on staff members and the poor condition of some buildings. Critics say the school offers little in the way of education or rehabilitation for the youngsters, who spend an average of seven months there.
Alfred I. Murphy, deputy secretary of juvenile services, said it is hoped the contractor will be ready to begin operating the facility July 1.
The plan calls for the state and the contractor to jointly operate the school for two months. The state would turn over the institution to the private operator Sept. 1.
The almost 400 state employees at Hickey will lose their jobs unless they are hired by the contractor.
Should City Hall be expanded?
CARROLL COUNTY
Officials have set up a special phone line for residents to voice their opinions on a proposed expansion of Westminster City Hall.
Citizens may call City Hall at 848-9000 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Sunday to answer the following questions: Would you favor the expansion project? To pay for the project, would you favor a pay-as-you-go policy or bonding that will require up to 8 cents of the tax rate for 20 years to pay off the debt?
Councilman William F. Haifley said residents also may call his home any time of the day or night to leave their comments. His number is 848-5396.
In the proposed budget, $1.3 million has been set aside to expand city office space. Council members are awaiting the results of a $35,000 consultant's space study, but also want to gauge residents' views.
"There are options we have previously considered and will consider in the future, whether to lease, build or some other course," Haifley said. Results of the survey will be tallied Sunday evening, he said.
Young authors to sign books
Harford County
Students at Youth Benefit Elementary School in Fallston will sign and sell books they wrote and published during an "Authors' Night" program at 6 tonight at the school.
A slide-show presentation will describe various phases of the publishing venture by more than 120 third graders at the school. The project, developed by the Council on Economic Education in Maryland, was designed to teach the students about economics.
"Authors' Night" takes place in the school gym, located in the Intermediate Building. The school is on Mountain Road. For more information, call 877-7190.
Lawyers get evidence released
HOWARD COUNTY
Lawyers for one of the defendants accused of killing State Police Cpl. Theodore D. Wolf have succeeded in some of their pretrial motions to obtain police investigative evidence that they believe might implicate someone else as the chief culprit in the crime.
Lawyers for Eric Tirado, who is charged with the first-degree murder of Wolf, argued yesterday in Howard County Circuit Court that the prosecution was withholding evidence that could point to someone else as Wolf's slayer and possibly exculpate Tirado.
Prosecutors objected to attempts to obtain this evidence, arguing that the defense was on a "fishing expedition" for a pretrial glimpse of how the prosecution would argue the case.
Tirado and Francisco Rodriguez are charged with murdering Wolf in March 1990 after he stopped their car on Interstate 95 in Jessup. Prosecutors have said they would seek the death penalty for Tirado. Jury selection in the trial is scheduled to begin June 3.
One of many pieces of evidence sought by defense attorneys is a statement by a man whom the defense identifies as Rodriguez's brother, Roberto. Defense lawyers say Roberto Rodriguez had heard his brother say shortly before Wolf's slaying that he wanted to kill a police officer in Virginia.
At yesterday's hearing, the prosecution agreed to provide the defense team with part of Roberto Rodriguez's statement and give the rest to Circuit Court Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr., for private review. If Kane determines in his review that the statement tends to exonerate Tirado, he may give the balance of it to Tirado's lawyers.