Three Annapolis officers acquitted in arrest suit

A federal jury found Wednesday that three Annapolis police officers did not violate a Prince George’s County man’s rights when they detained him during an investigation in 2014. After a little more than three hours of deliberation and two weeks of testimony, the jury rejected claims that the officers kicked Towhee Sparrow in the head and used a racial slur while they were searching for a suspect in an armed assault. Sparrow claimed in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court that Sgt. Christopher Kintop, Officer Ralph DeFranco and former officer Robert Reese II, now a Harford County sheriff ’s deputy, violated his Fourth Amendment rights and used excessive force in detaining him on June 5, 2014. He said he suffered brain damage and other injuries. Attorneys for Sparrow and the city declined to comment immediately after the verdict. Police say that Sparrow was not the man they were seeking on June 5, 2014 after receiving a report from a couple who was threatened at gunpoint by a man on a dirt bike at a shopping center on Bay Ridge Road. Witnesses testified during the two-week trial that they told officers the man who threatened them was a Hispanic or Asian teenager. Sparrow is black and the officers who arrested him are white. Reese detained Sparrow at gunpoint after seeing him ride on what he thought was a dirt bike in a nearby community. During the trial, the city defended its actions, saying Sparrow was detained as part of an active investigation. The officers maintained throughout the case there was no intent to harm Sparrow and that he was detained lawfully. ported record warmth. Two states, meanwhile, got record precipitation: Florida and Maryland. An average of 7.68 inches of rain fell in May across Maryland, nearly 4 inches more than normal. The last time statewide precipitation surpassed 7 inches in May was in 1989. The statewide rainfall average was slightly less than the 8.17 inches at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. That total made last month Baltimore’s third-wettest May on record. The state average takes into account many areas that got more extreme precipitation than BWI, Baltimore’s point of record. The National Weather Service estimates a widespread 10 to 15 inches of rain fell across Central Maryland in May, and that more than 15 inches fell in some parts of northeastern Howard County and southern Carroll County. More than 10 inches reportedly fell in Catonsville during major flooding May 27, and more than 8 inches fell in Ellicott City. The wet streak that continued into last weekend has already made it likely that June precipitation will also end up above normal. Less than a week into the month, 2.77 inches of rain have fallen at BWI.

Biden to headline Md. Democratic event

Former Vice President Joe Biden is scheduled to give the keynote speech at a Maryland Democratic Party unity event late this month after the state’s primary. The party said Wednesday that the post-primary celebration will be at Camden Yards in Baltimore on June 30. The Democratic nominees for governor and U.S. Senate also are slated to speak at the event. The party says it will serve as “the marquee fundraising event for the year.” Last month, the state party announced it had raised more than $500,000 between Jan. 11 and May 15, and had more than $1 million cash on hand. Maryland's primary is June 26.