While TBD Justice was at Other Larimer's wedding this weekend, one of the victims in the Lululemon murder became the suspect. Charged in connection with the death of Jayna Murray is 28-year-old Brittany Norwood, who is being held without bond. But you probably knew that already.
Your Tuesday Blotter Blotter continues after the jump.
Kellie Bedient spent only about a year playing high school soccer with Brittany Norwood, the 28-year-old woman now accused of the brutal murder of a co-worker. Bedient says she doesn't remember much about Norwood, who went on to play soccer in college, but called her arrest heartbreaking.
"I don't remember anything about her except that she was smiley and nice," Bedient wrote in a Facebook message. "but a lot can change in a person in 16 years."
It's Thursday, you guys! This is actually TBD Justice's Friday because she is going to Other Larimer's wedding in Real America this weekend. There will be no Blotter Blotter on Friday. Our apologies.
Thursday's edition starts after the jump.
TBD Justice will admit the last few weeks have been a turbluent time in her life. The frosty bite of February gave way to the slightly improved chill of March. The TIME changed. Oh, and like half her coworkers left.
Through it all, though, there has been one constant: Albert Haynesworth.
Did you hear the news about Haynesworth? No? That's because there is no news in the Haynesworth sexual abuse case, which first surfaced last month.
In case you need a refresher, Haynesworth was accused of inappropriately touching a waitress during an early morning incident at the W Hotel. Well, OK, a police report didn't include his name, but sources had confirmed to NBC4 that he was the suspect. Fast forward a few weeks, and here we are, with the allegations still looming and no arrest.
TBD has diligently checked in with the U.S. Attorney’s Office almost daily to make sure no formal charges have been filed yet. The lack of charges is not an indication of Haynesworth's guilt or innocence. It just means this is an ongoing matter.
Authorities in Montgomery County say they are searching for two teenage girls who haven't been seen for days.
Nabintu Mulegwa and Katelynn Crevoisier were last seen Sunday night, according to a news release. Mulegwa, 12, and Crevoisier, 15, didn't return to their White Oak homes that evening.
Mulegwa is 5 feet 5 inches tall. She has red highlights in her black hair and has brown eyes. Crevoisier is 5 feet 7 inches tall, and has blonde hair and hazel eyes. She has one mole behind her right ear and another on her lip.
Pictures of Crevoisier and Mulegwa are below.
Mulegwa
Crevoisier
Happy Wednesday, Washington. Did you see the photos from MPD's new evidence warehouse yet? Don't miss the one with the candy!
Your Blotter Blotter begins after the jump.
As it turns out, cattle rustling might be alive and well in Virginia, where 16 cows went missing from a Bedford County stockyard. The cows — beef cows, milk cows, and a calf — went missing over the weekend, reports the Washington Post.
Authorities are investigating. TBD has left a message with a deputy in Bedford County and will update this post if we hear back.
If the cows were stolen, though, it wouldn't exactly be that outrageous. Cattle rustling (or as I like to call it, cattle rustlin') apparently survived the Wild West era and became one of those Great Recession crimes you hear about these days, like stealing urns for copper.
A 2009 New York Times story found dozens of cows had been reported stolen in Missouri. Two hundred cows were stolen from an auction market in South Dakota, and cattle theft was also reportedly on the rise in Wyoming.
“It’s a big spike,” Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott told the Times. “Usually we’ll go a year or two with no thefts, but it’s really picked up. In these economic times people are taking desperate measures, whether it’s stealing, or whether they’re trying to come up with money through insurance fraud.”
More examples of cattle crime are after the jump.
The Metropolitan Police Department will soon be opening it's new evidence warehouse, a 30,000-square-foot facility that is supposed to revolutionize the art of keeping stuff in boxes.
Think Flintstones to Jestons here. Goodbye, old-school ledgers, hello bar codes. Adios, poor work conditions for employees. Goodbye, concerns about missing evidence. Well, the jury's still out on that last one we guess, but MPD is hopeful this new system and new building are a step in the right direction.
"Look at it," D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier says. "It's almost impossible to lose track of items now, once they get to work here."
Police allowed TBD Justice and her media friends to tour the warehouse Tuesday. Here's what we found.
Jack Johnson was in court today, Washington!
No, not singer/songwriter Jack Johnson! That guy's still singing/songwriting. This was our old friend from Prince George's County, who told his wife to stuff thousands of dollars in her bra. Still funny.
ANYWAY. On to the Tuesday Blotter Blotter, after the jump.
Are you going out on St. Patrick’s Day? Please don't drive. Just ... don't.
If you must, though, you should know that a DUI checkpoint will be in place in College Park on Thursday, according to a news release. You've been warned.
Here's some other ways to get home, in case you find yourself in need of a safe ride:
• Sober Ride: 1-800-200-TAXI (8294)
• Nite Ride: 301-405-NITE (6483)
• University of Maryland police escort (walking version): 301-405-3555
Former Prince George's County executive Jack Johnson is due in court Tuesday, where he's scheduled to be arraigned on federal charges.
We're sure you all remember Johnson's memorable exchange with his wife, Leslie, during their arrest, but in case you've forgotten the other details of this case, a refresher is after the jump.
OK. Brian Christopher Head can blame part of his arrest on himself. After all, authorities say, he was the one who struck a car with his Ford truck and rammed it into a utility pole.
But Head also allegedly backed into another vehicle, which happened to be an unmarked police car. That's just bad luck.
Happy Monday, Washington. Who wants to give your TBD Justice reporter a ticket to the Mizzou game this week? No one? FINE.
On to Blotter Blotter, after the jump.
Happy Thursday, Washington. Did y'all see that that Snoop from "The Wire" was arrested in a Baltimore drug bust?
Your Thursday Blotter Blotter begins after the jump.
First, Sulaimon Brown lost his job. Now, he says, he's lost his bike.
Brown, the former mayoral candidate and current mayoral pain in the ass, says his black Trek bicycle was stolen from a downtown bike rack when he was meeting with the FBI earlier this week. The lock that had secured the bike is also missing, Brown says.
"I was on my way to the appointment and I locked my bike on one of those little metal things on the street, across the street," Brown says, "and when I came out the bike was gone."
Forget stealing cars. A suspect in Northern Virginia was only targeting wheels.
Prince William County police say they are searching for the person or persons who made off with 36 tires and 36 chrome rims from vehicles parked on a GMC dealership lot in Manassas.
The theft happened sometime between Sunday evening and Monday morning, when it was reported.
The rims and wheels were worth about $45,000.
It's Wednesday, Washington. Did you bring your rain boots to work? TBD sure did! On to the Blotter Blotter, after the jump.
Court documents have been released for two of the three Metropolitan Police Department officers accused of trying to receive stolen goods. The three officers were arrested earlier this week following an internal sting.
The documents are posted after the jump, but here's some highlights:
• Remember all those stolen iPhones? Officer Guillermo Ortiz apparently does. He allegedly tried to buy one, along with a television, in January. Ortiz was on duty, in uniform, when one deal went down. He's caught on tape moving a television into his MARKED POLICE CRUISER.
• Officer Dioni Fernandez rides around in a blue PT Cruiser. He allegedly wanted stolen iPads. Again, he rides around in a blue PT Cruiser.
We'll update this post with documents for the third accused officer, Silvestre Bonilla, when we receive them. ABC7's Gail Huff is at the suspects' court appearances this afternoon. She'll have more on the case tonight.
UPDATE: Gail Huff reports that Bonilla and Ortiz were both released on personal recognizance.
UPDATE PART 2: Huff reports that the third officer, Fernandez, has just appeared in court. Same result. More on ABC7 tonight.
Miami-Dade County prosecutors are calling a 2009 police-involved shooting of a Virginia man justified, saying that the officer could have mistaken the beer bottle stuffed down the man's pants for a weapon.
You can read the closeout memo on the Miami New Times website. In the memo, the State Attorney's Office notes that Husien Shehada didn't raise his arms at Miami Beach officers' commands, and his brother, Samer, carried a coat hanger that some thought was a gun.
The case was notable not just because it the incident involved an unarmed tourist leaving a South Beach club, but also because the officer who fired the fatal shots was involved in another shooting days later and then arrested for running a marijuana grow house. That officer, Adam Tavss, is no longer on the force.
Make sure to read the New Times' story on the shooting from 2009, which includes Samer's account of the incident.
"I watched blood pouring out of my brother's mouth, and I knew he was dead," Samer Shehada told the New Times. "I started praying and I was really confused. Why would the police just shoot my brother like that?"
Sorta makes MPD's problems look like small potatoes, right?
Hey, you guys, did you miss the Blotter Blotter on Monday? We sure did! We were out reporting and stuff yesterday so we kinda skipped one of these. Our apologies.
Your Tuesday edition starts after the jump.
Sarah Larimer Reporter
- @slarimer
