Panel upholds move to bar 2 on council from charter vote
The Anne Arundel County Ethics Commission has upheld its decision to bar two council members from voting on a proposed county charter amendment that would allow binding arbitration during labor contract negotiations.
Council members Cathleen M. Vitale and Daniel E. Klosterman Jr., who are related to county firefighters, were the focus of the decision, released yesterday. Vitale had requested the opinion in anticipation of a council vote on a resolution to place the issue on the November ballot.
After the ethics commission initially barred her and Klosterman from voting on the matter, Klosterman and unions representing county police officers and firefighters appealed. Yesterday, the commission upheld its earlier ruling.
The Fire Department is one of several public safety employee groups lobbying for binding arbitration. Both Vitale and Klosterman have argued that they should be allowed to participate in the vote because voters would make the final decision.
@SUBHEDAnnapolis man, 61, killed when his truck hits tree
A 61-year-old Annapolis man was killed after he drove off a road near his house and hit a tree, Anne Arundel County police said yesterday.
James Sidney Bates, of the 1800 block of Pleasant Plains Road, had been northbound on the street he lived on about 5 p.m. Tuesday when he lost control of the Nissan pickup truck he was driving, according to police reports. The truck careened off one tree and hit another head-on, police said.
Bates died at the scene of the crash. He was not wearing a seatbelt and police said there was no evidence he had tried to brake to avoid the collision.
@SUBHEDMan pleads no contest to officer assault charge
A Glen Burnie man has pleaded no contest to a charge of assaulting a county police officer and a second assault charged against him has been dismissed, ending a case in which the man contended he was wrongly arrested and injured by the officer.
Wayne A. Grogan, 28, had been charged with misdemeanor assault on Officer Michael Haviland. After Grogan entered his no-contest plea Tuesday, Circuit Judge Vincent J. Femia made no finding, ending the case.
The judge then dismissed a second misdemeanor assault charge against Grogan that alleged he had assaulted a woman near Dietrich's Tavern on Furnace Branch Road, according to Anne Arundel County Circuit Court records.
Grogan had claimed that Haviland beat him when arresting him Aug. 25, 2000, but investigations by the county police and the county state's attorney's office found no wrongdoing by the officer. Grogan initially was charged with attempted armed robbery and four other charges. Some of those charges were dropped before the case went to District Court, where he was convicted of two assault charges.