BALTIMORE CITY: — Egg farm faces criminal complaint
DeCoster Farms of Millington faces a criminal complaint for allegedly selling eggs in violation of a salmonella quarantine order, officials said yesterday.
Eggs from birds quarantined Jan. 3, 1991, were sold to Slavin's Market in Cecilton in September and to the Cecil County Detention Center in December, according to a complaint filed in Cecil District Court.
Eggs were also sold to two other businesses in Maryland -- in Galena and Ocean City -- but were not cited in the charging document.
The birds were quarantined when Department of Agriculture officials determined that an infectious strain of salmonella, salmonella enteritidis, was present in a 370,000-bird flock kept in four chicken houses at DeCoster Farms' plant in Kent County, court documents indicate.
According to the quarantine order, eggs from the birds were not to be sold except for pasteurization.
Thomas Filbert, assistant attorney general for the Department of Agriculture, said he was not aware of any illnesses resulting from the sale of the eggs in the county.
The alleged violations were discovered during routine inspections by county health or state agricultural inspectors, Mr. Filbert said.
The penalty for conviction in the case is a fine up to $500 or three months in jail per violation.
* A pregnant woman was killed in a collision involving a car and a truck near Bethesda last night, Montgomery County police said.
Police identified the woman as Elizabeth Williams, 36, of the 400 block of Southampton Drive in Silver Spring. Mrs. Williams, four months pregnant, was pronounced dead at Bethesda's Suburban Hospital, police said.
Her husband, George Williams, 39, who had been driving the car, was listed in serious but stable condition last night at Suburban Hospital.
Mr. Williams had been driving south on Old Georgetown Road at 6 p.m. when he attempted to make a left-hand turn onto Interstate 270 and collided with the northbound truck, police said.
The truck driver, Marty Milligan, 26, of Canonsburg, Pa., received minor injuries but was not taken to a hospital.
Police said the accident remained under investigation.
* Members of the Baltimore Area Ford Dealers Association will give a Chesapeake Bay license plate to all customers who buy a Ford car or truck between now and the end of July.
The dealers have guaranteed that the Chesapeake Bay Trust will receive at least $20,000 for programs to preserve the bay, Bob Bell, chairman of the association, said at a news conference with Gov. William Donald Schaefer yesterday. Contributions will be even higher if the dealers sell more than 2,000 cars and trucks.
The bay plates cost $20 more than regular plates, with $10 going to the trust and $10 to the Motor Vehicle Administration to pay the extra cost of making the plates.
The association includes dealers in Baltimore City and in Caroline, Kent, Cecil, Carroll, Harford, Howard and Baltimore counties.
Since the bay plates went on the market in 1991, Marylanders have bought more than 360,000 of them, generating more than $3.6 million that the trust has used for community and volunteer programs to protect and restore the bay.
A 29-year-old Southwest Baltimore man has been charged with killing 13-year-old Antwan "Troy" Stewart, the seventh-grader found shot to death Saturday, in what police believe may have been a drug-related murder.
Kevin Felipa, of the 500 block of S. Beechfield Ave., was arrested Sunday night and charged with first-degree murder after an interview at police headquarters, said Agent Doug Price, a police spokesman.
Mr. Felipa had gone to talk with homicide detectives after learning that they wanted to question him and others seen in the area of the shooting, Agent Price said.
"They still don't know his connection with the boy," Agent Price said. "All we know is that after the homicide, witnesses mentioned his name as somebody who was in the area."
Police believe the motive for the crime was in some way drug-related because officers found several empty plastic bags -- typically used by drug dealers to package cocaine -- on the boy's body.
Mr. Felipa was being held without bail last night pending a bail review hearing. He also was charged with a felony handgun violation.
Baltimore County:
A live grenade that apparently had been brought back from the Korean War as a souvenir was removed from the basement of a Woodlawn home last night by the Baltimore County police bomb squad.
The grenade was discovered at 5:05 p.m. by a woman visiting her deceased mother's home in the 3300 block of Ripple Road, police said.
She notified police, who discovered that the grenade was live. It was removed from the home and will either be detonated in a safe place or disarmed, police said.
Police said it appeared that the grenade had been stored in the basement of the home for decades, but they did not know who brought it from Korea.
* More than $12,000 in pledges to help fight AIDS was raised over the weekend when 85 swimmers braved the chilly Gunpowder River during the Maryland Swim for Life.
Held at the Gunpowder Falls State Park Saturday, the event included competitive and non-competitive swimming. Winners of the two-mile swim were Steven Anderson and Josephine Bowdler, while Phil Saims and Marcia Smith captured the one-mile competition.
The swim was held to increase awareness of how to prevent acquired immune deficiency syndrome, which is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and to raise money for the People with AIDS Coalition. The group "is the only AIDS service organization in Maryland made up entirely of people who are living with HIV," said the group's chairman, Bill Lowry.
The top pledge collector was Dr. Konstantinos Dritsas, chief of surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital, who won a lunch with Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke as the top prize. Dr. Dritsas is in his early 60s and completed the two-mile swim in water that was in the low 70s.
Each swimmer had to gather a minimum of $50 in pledges to participate, said Joseph Stewart, coordinator of the event.
Lawyer denies spanking his client
George J. Goldsborough, an Easton lawyer, has denied spanking a female client, but admitted to consentual spanking of a co-worker.
He issued the denial Friday in response to misconduct charges filed against him by the Attorney Grievance Commission in Annapolis. Mr. Goldsborough also sought to have records in the case sealed and asked the judge to hold private hearings.
Mr. Goldsborough's lawyer, William Franch, argued that the sensitive nature of the complaint invades his client's constitutional right to privacy.
According to the complaint filed against Mr. Goldsborough, the lawyer told one client she had been a bad girl, pulled her over his knee and spanked her while at her house on business. The client told the commission that a second spanking occurred at Mr. Goldsborough's office.
Mr. Goldsborough admitted he went to the woman's house to investigate a case, but said he did not enter the house. He also denied that the second spanking occurred.
Mr. Goldsborough did admit to spanking an office worker, but not against her will. The worker complained to the grievance commission that she was told to quit her job by Mr. Goldsborough's wife, who also referred her to counseling, which was paid for by Mrs. Goldsborough.
Mr. Goldsborough said the woman resigned voluntarily and saw a psychologist at the invitation of his wife.