george nilson

Bernard C. “Jack” Young became the 51st mayor of Baltimore on Thursday, his new role made official by Catherine Pugh’s resignation.

By Ian Duncan

May 2, 2019

Baltimore City solicitor Andre Davis said it is “possible” that Mayor Catherine Pugh may resign Thursday.

Baltimore’s delegation to the Maryland House of Delegates has unanimously voted to endorse a bill that would give the city full control of its police department — a change City Council members have sought for years. The city police department was established in the 19th century as a state agency.

By Luke Broadwater

Mar 8, 2019

The day after Darryl De Sousa resigned as Baltimore police commissioner in the midst of a federal tax investigation, Mayor Catherine Pugh said she "owned" the selection of him and defended his record fighting crime.

U.S. District Judge George L. Russell III is presiding over a suit merchants filed against Baltimore for damages to their businesses in the 2015 Freddie Gray riot. In a historical twist — or perhaps conflict of interest? — his father was city solicitor who in 1968 argued the city wasn't liable.

By Jean Marbella

Apr 27, 2018

Baltimore City Councilman Ryan Dorsey has submitted legislation to make the city’s inspector general independent from the mayor's office to try to alleviate concerns that the current system protects high-ranking administration officials. 

By Luke Broadwater

Mar 19, 2018

The family of Korryn Gaines on Friday won a $37 million verdict against Baltimore County police — one of the largest jury decisions against law enforcement officers in Maryland history.  But will they actually see the money? 

Just days into the job, Isabel Cumming, Baltimore’s new inspector general, says she plans to reinvigorate the office.

By Luke Broadwater

Feb 13, 2018

No, Fraternal Order of Police, Baltimore didn't change its policy on paying punitive damages in civil suits against cops, and thanks for dredging this issue up at a particularly inopportune time.

A group of five Baltimore police officers could have to personally pay out $40,000 for a jury verdict that found they acted maliciously in the course of an arrest, a development that prompted a warning from the officers' union.

Mayor Catherine Pugh is expected to soon announce the hiring of a new inspector general soon to fill the position that has been vacant for more than a year.

By Yvonne Wenger

Dec 27, 2017

Deputy City Solicitor David Ralph to leave Pugh administration

By Luke Broadwater

Sep 19, 2017

Whether it's legal or not, Baltimore's practice of requiring police brutality victims to agree to gag orders as a condition of a settlement is a terrible idea.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh said Wednesday she is hiring federal Judge Andre M. Davis to become the city's top lawyer.

There is an ongoing public discussion of the nature of the Baltimore Police Department's status as a governmental agency — both historically and going forward. I write in the hope of shedding some useful light on this seemingly mundane but substantively important question.

Baltimore's long-serving city solicitor, who was fired by the city's outgoing mayor, offers words of advice to the incoming one.

A month after being revealed, the aerial surveillance program that Baltimore Police Department officials have repeatedly insisted was never secret remains heavily shrouded from the public.

By Kevin Rector

Sep 23, 2016

Key members of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration learned about city police's air surveillance program only as a business magazine published an extensive report, or in the days surrounding the article's release.

By Yvonne Wenger

Sep 9, 2016

Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis "apologized profusely" at a meeting with Rep. Elijah Cummings for failing to disclose a secret aerial surveillance program that has been operating for months above Baltimore, Cummings said Friday.

By Kevin Rector

Sep 2, 2016

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake fired City Solicitor George A. Nilson on Aug. 19. The mayor did not discuss the termination with Mr. Nilson. Nor did she explain her actions to the public. In a stunning show of cowardice, she delegated that messy business to a subordinate. Thus ended — without justification because there is none — nearly a decade of Mr. Nilson's exemplary service to the city. The episode should not pass, however, without public recognition of the accomplishments of

Baltimore officials are studying record retention policies in city government and considering possible changes.

By Luke Broadwater

Jul 16, 2016

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland is challenging a lawsuit brought by the Baltimore police union to block a civilian review board from examining police disciplinary records.

By Jessica Anderson

Jul 14, 2016

Baltimore's Board of Estimates on Wednesday approved a $150,000 payment to settle a lawsuit alleging police brutality.

By Luke Broadwater

Jul 13, 2016

In pretrial motions in the trial of Lt. Brian Rice, prosecutors were dealt a blow

Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby instantly became one of the most controversial figures in America — lauded as a hero by the left and decried as a demagogue by the right — when she brought charges against six police officers in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray. More than a year later, her repute is even more debatable.

By Luke Broadwater

Jul 3, 2016

When the Baltimore school board revealed this month that it had secretly hired a new CEO, city and state officials were incensed that the panel had circumvented a process that would have given them and the public a say. But they have little recourse beyond airing their grievances.

Sewage backs up into Baltimore homes more than a dozen times a day, on average. Repairs to fix the sewage system are expected to extend another decade.

By Scott Dance

May 14, 2016

Baltimore's top lawyer said Wednesday the city is in the process of turning over the final documents to the Department of Justice as it nears the end oaf civil rights investigation into investigation into the pattern and practices of the Baltimore Police Department.

By Luke Broadwater

May 11, 2016

Baltimore's spending board on Wednesday agreed to pay $30,000 to settle a lawsuit involving a woman who was injured in an accident caused by a police officer speeding to the scene of a potential shooting.

By Luke Broadwater

May 11, 2016

The State Department of Assessments and Taxation estimates that there are more than 400 properties that straddle the city line, incurring property taxes in two jurisdictions and receiving what residents describe as sometimes haphazard delivery of public services.

By Natalie Sherman

May 8, 2016

A federal judge accepted an offer by Baltimore City to pay $200,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a police trainee who was accidentally shot during a 2013 training exercise, citing a state law that caps such payments at that amount. But the trainee rejected the settlement as inadequate and plans to appeal.

By Kevin Rector

Apr 15, 2016

About 20 families will share in a $1.2 million settlement after Baltimore's spending panel signed off Wednesday on an agreement with CSX over the East 26th Street collapse in 2014.

By Yvonne Wenger

Jan 27, 2016

Baltimore's spending panel agreed Wednesday to buy body cameras for more than 2,500 police officers, but the Rawlings-Blake administration said the price — expected to be in the millions of dollars — will not be made public for at least a week.

By Yvonne Wenger

Jan 20, 2016

Baltimore officials agreed Wednesday to spend $30,000 to upgrade its controversial cellphone tracking technology.

By Yvonne Wenger

Jan 20, 2016

Baltimore prosecutors are reviewing open cases involving a city police officer amid questions about his credibility, as more than 20 defense lawyers have joined forces in a rare effort to obtain his internal-affairs records.

By Alison Knezevich

Jan 10, 2016

The family of a man who was shot by a Baltimore police officer in February says the police department treated him so poorly while he was recovering in the hospital that he committed suicide rather than return for more treatment.

By Kevin Rector

Dec 28, 2015

If the DOJ investigation into the Baltimore Police Department finds that there is a pattern or practice of civil rights violations then it is prudent for a local government to retain the services of a lawyer or other expert with experience in negotiating consent decrees with the DOJ. It is incongruous, however, for the city to hire outside counsel to defend its interests during an investigation that the city requested.

Leaders of Baltimore's City Council say they plan to block Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's proposal to pay $2 million to outside lawyers to represent the city during a federal investigation of the police department.

By Luke Broadwater

Dec 10, 2015

City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young was the lone member of Baltimore's spending board to vote Wednesday against the Rawlings-Blake administration's decision to pay outside legal counsel $2 million for representation in the federal probe of the Police Department.

By Yvonne Wenger

Dec 9, 2015

William C. Stifler III, a retired lawyer who had been chief real estate solicitor for the city of Baltimore, died of complications of dementia. He was 74.

By Frederick N. Rasmussen

Nov 30, 2015

Baltimore's government is in line to recoup only "pennies on the dollar" from Sparrows Point's $7.3 million overdue water bill, officials say.

By Luke Broadwater

Oct 27, 2015

At the time of Freddie Gray's death last spring, the Baltimore Police Department had been waging a nearly three-year campaign urging officers to use seat belts for detainees transported in police vans, newly obtained documents show.

By Luke Broadwater

Oct 17, 2015

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake plans to offer interim police commissioner Kevin Davis a contract with a significant severance package if he's approved as Baltimore's next permanent police chief. Under the terms of the deal, Davis would be paid $200,000 annually though June 30 of 2020. He would be eligible to receive 75 percent of one year's salary — at least $150,000 — if a new mayor should fire him without cause.

By Luke Broadwater

Oct 13, 2015

Baltimore's spending panel voted unanimously Wednesday to pay a woman $95,000 to settle her lawsuit that included allegations that she was subjected to a "rough ride" in a police van in 2012.

By Luke Broadwater

Oct 7, 2015

As attorneys argue in court Thursday over moving the Freddie Gray case out of Baltimore, the tensions driving the discussion will be on full display outside, with traffic diverted and police staging around protesters calling for justice.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration plans to pay Freddie Gray's family $6.4 million as a settlement for civil claims in his arrest and death — an extraordinary payment in a lawsuit against city police.

A Queen Anne's County woman has accepted $20,000 to end a lawsuit in which she alleged that a Baltimore police horse maimed her disabled daughter's hand.

By Mark Puente

Aug 13, 2015