A digest of Baltimore news from local sources.
From The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore City to Pay $60,000 Settlement to Women Who Recorded Arrest
"Baltimore's spending panel is expected to approve $135,000 Wednesday to settle two police misconduct lawsuits, including one involving a woman who claims police deleted a video she recorded during a 2014 arrest.
"Kianga Mwamba sued the Police Department for an alleged assault and illegal arrest after she used her cell phone to record the incident that the then-commissioner later denounced, saying the language used by one of the officers involved was "offensive and unacceptable." The city is poised to pay her $60,000.
"The settlement comes as Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced Tuesday that Taser International was selected to provide body cameras to the city's nearly 3,000 officers beginning this year. Rawlings-Blake controls the five-member Board of Estimates that is expected to authorize the settlement.
"The board also will vote whether to pay Leonard Key $75,000 in an alleged excessive force case. Key was treated for a fractured left ankle that requires physical therapy, ongoing medical treatment and surgery following an encounter with police.
"The city has agreed to pay about $13 million since 2011 in settlements and court judgments for lawsuits alleging brutality and other police misconduct. Last week, the board approved a $145,000 settlement in a wrongful-death lawsuit.
"In Mwamba's case, an officer used a stun gun "to subdue and arrest" her after she allegedly used her car to hit an officer while recording an arrest of a man on Harford Road in March 2014. The Law Department recommended the city settle the case due to conflicting accounts as to whether Mwamba struck the officer or if she was punched several times during the arrest.
"Mwamba has said her recording appeared to be deleted from her phone before she was bailed out of jail a day later. A back-up copy was still stored on the cloud."
From the Washington Post: Freddie Gray Case: Will Officer Porter be Forced to Testify Against All His Co-Defendants?
"Attorneys will meet Wednesday afternoon to debate whether a Baltimore police officer awaiting trial in Freddie Gray’s death should be forced to testify against all five of his colleagues who are also charged in the case instead of only two, as prosecutors had previously stated.
"The hearing comes as a Maryland appeals court decides whether Officer William G. Porter’s constitutional rights would be violated if he were to take the witness stand against van driver Caesar Goodson Jr., who faces the most serious charge of second-degree depraved-heart murder in the case.
"Prosecutors have said that Porter, whose first trial ended with a deadlocked jury in December, is a key witness against Goodson Jr. and Sgt. Alicia White. But last week, the state filed papers indicating that they may also use Porter as a witness against three other officers involved in Gray’s arrest: Edward Nero, Garrett Miller and Brian Rice.
"Wednesday’s hearing is expected to address concerns that attorneys for White, Nero, Miller and Rice have against compelling Porter to testify in their cases."
From City Paper: Counter-Protest Held for Lee-Jackson Ceremony, but No Confederate Groups Show Up
"A group of about 50 protesters, some affiliated with Quaker organizations and some with the Baltimore Bloc, stood near the base of the Lee and Jackson Monument in Wyman Park, ready to protest a ceremony held by Confederate legacy groups to honor the same generals depicted in the statue.
"About a dozen people stood with signs across the street from the park as part of a silent vigil Quaker groups have held annually since 2013. Signs noted Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first celebrated as a federal holiday in 1986, and how commemorations for Lee and Jackson in Wyman Park began the very next year.
"The rest of the people were closer to the generals on horseback, claiming the space before anyone else could.
"Several protesters confirmed that a couple showed up around 10:30 a.m. to lay a wreath at the site. Protesters formed a human wall near the statue and continually knocked the wreath over after the man and woman placed it. A dialogue took place, but then the couple decided to leave.
"Video played for City Paper showed that the man tried to swing the wreath at a protester filming the man as he walked back to his car.
"But the large group of people affiliated with the Sons of Confederate Veterans or United Daughters of the Confederacy, who have in years past come to the monument dressed in reproduction Confederate uniforms to sing songs and say prayers for Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, did not show up, as was expected.
"'I really anticipated that they would come, even though they didn't have anything on their website,' said Ann Kehinde, a member of Stony Run Friends who has lived across from the monument since 1994 and said the Confederate groups typically show up on the Saturday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day."