Other than saying that the sudden change was “in accordance with state law,” the department did not explain on Tuesday why the officer’s status had switched, nearly two weeks after he was placed into a paid administrative role pending tandem investigations.

Maryland’s laws on officer discipline spell out certain conditions for wheich an officer can be suspended without pay. Among them is being charged with a violent crime. Other misdemeanor charges can trigger a suspension without pay as well, if they involve “dishonesty, fraud, theft, or misrepresentation,” or are committed in the performance of the officer’s police duties.

Another provision states that pending an investigation and any disciplinary proceedings, a police chief can suspend an officer with or without pay if they find doing so “is in the best interest of the public.” Those emergency suspensions can last only 30 days. The law also requires police chiefs to terminate the employment of any officer who is convicted of a felony, and allows them to fire officers convicted of certain misdemeanors.

Baltimore Police posted some of the laws governing suspensions and pay on social media in the wake of Parks’ suspension, following online outrage that he was still being paid.

“It may very well have been that [Police Commissioner Richard Worley], after reviewing the preliminary internal affairs investigation, believed that he [Parks] should be separated from the department,” said Anne Arundel County attorney Peter O’Neill, who has defended multiple first responders in criminal cases.

“It may very well have been that, and I don’t have any evidence to support this, but that [Worley] has been in contact with” city prosecutors, who may have indicated that they’re presenting the case for indictment, he said.

There were no open criminal cases filed under Parks’ name as of Tuesday afternoon.

As the video spread across social media last month, Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates vowed a “thorough and comprehensive” investigation by his office, which he said wouldn’t call Parks as a witness in other cases in the meantime. Bates’ office did not return a request for comment about Parks on Tuesday.

O’Neill, who had seen the video of Parks, said prosecutors “could certainly argue” that the act of driving a vehicle toward a person constitutes first-degree assault, a felony, if the evidence proves they had intent to cause serious bodily injury. He said “countless defendants,” like when suspects fleeing police direct their vehicle toward an officer on foot, are charged with first-degree assault under those circumstances.

“We see that constantly,”  he said.

The video recorded last month in Central Park Heights shows a group of young men speaking with Parks, with one of them stating that the officer had “no reason to stop” another. Parks, a five-year veteran of the police department, proceeds to calmly enter his car as one of the men starts to walk away down an alley.

Parks’ vehicle then turns onto the alley and accelerates, nearly striking the man as they both continue into a grassy area.

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The chase continues as Parks drives erratically through the area’s streets and sidewalks before the police vehicle is seen speeding down a dirt road and disappearing off camera. A loud crash is heard, and Parks’ vehicle is seen at a standstill atop a chain-link fence in a backyard.

The video of the chase quickly went viral, prompting Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott to call it “deeply concerning” and Worley to say it was  “not only disturbing, but alarming.”

Have a news tip? Contact Dan Belson at dbelson@baltsun.com, on X as @DanBelson_ or on Signal as @danbels.62. 

Prosecutors characterized Jennifer Tinker’s crimes as an “embezzlement spree” that funded ritzy hotel stays in Las Vegas, floor tickets to Taylor Swift and Luke Bryan performances, a vacation at Disney’s Caribbean Beach resort, five vehicles and $167,000 in Amazon purchases.

In addition to sentencing her to five years and 10 months behind bars, a federal judge ordered Tinker, 42, to pay back nearly $1.2 million in restitution.

Prosecutors said she stole from the real estate firm between 2020 and 2023 while working as its market center administrator. Investigators also discovered that, after the firm uncovered the fraud and fired Tinker, she was hired as an office manager and bookkeeper at a nonprofit and embezzled an additional $100,000.

Investigators did not name the real estate agency or the nonprofit in court records. However, archives of the Keller Williams Realty Centre in Columbia website and its social media pages refer to Tinker as its market center administrator in the years leading up to her firing.

Tinker did not inform the nonprofit that she had been fired from her job at the real estate firm for embezzling funds, according to a revised plea agreement she signed earlier this year.

Tinker pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud for embezzling funds from the real estate company’s escrow, commission and operating accounts. But in February, a judge ordered Tinker to be detained after prosecutors said that she continued to steal funds from her new employer while awaiting trial, including a wire transfer on the same day as her guilty plea. She pleaded guilty to wire fraud for a second time in June.

Tinker’s defense attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Anjali Biala, did not return requests for comment on Monday and Tuesday.

Have a news tip? Contact Dan Belson at dbelson@baltsun.com, on X as @DanBelson_ or on Signal as @danbels.62.

The basis for the cyberstalking, online coercion and sexual exploitation charges against Erik Lee Madison, 20, are laid out in a disturbing, 49-page affidavit unsealed Friday in Maryland’s federal district court. An FBI agent concluded in it that Madison was behind a Roblox profile giving gruesome orders to minors he met online. The profile told minors to perform sex acts on camera, cut themselves and use their blood to write on a wall. It also ordered one teenager to kill her sister’s dog, but she refused to do so.

Sometimes the young victims would be rewarded with in-game currency if they followed orders, the FBI wrote, but they also were subject to threats if they didn’t comply. One teen said the user associated with the profile, whom authorities identified as Madison, and his online associates threatened to “swat” her home, harm her family and friends, or send her explicit images to them if she didn’t follow the orders exactly.

In another instance, authorities say Madison wrote to a 14-year-old girl from his Discord account: “im going to make sure your mom knows what you do … b— if you don’t start slitting your thighs i promise.”

Federal agents raided Madison’s residence on Thursday, writing in their affidavit that they searched his phone and located papers with statements like “Horror House Leo Heil Satan” written on them. Madison’s federal charges were filed the next day.

He is in federal custody pending a detention hearing slated for this week, and did not have a defense attorney listed in court records. Two family members listed as sharing his Halethorpe address did not return requests for comment Monday afternoon.

Madison had been visited by the FBI before, as well as Baltimore County Police — though he was a minor at the time, the affidavit says. The FBI wrote that he was charged as a juvenile in 2022 with animal abuse and possession of child pornography after a county police report says he posted a video online “of him sexually abusing his dog.”

Madison, the FBI wrote, told minors online that his name was “Leo” and that he was associated with the online group 764, a loosely connected organization known for extorting minors into producing sexual and self-mutilation content that is shared between members. The FBI says that the group often encourages victims to “fansign” by cutting specific numbers, letters, symbols or names onto their body.

The online group’s founder, who has described himself as a “cult leader,” was sentenced in 2023 to 80 years in prison, while the Department of Justice has brought charges against several people they have described as the group leaders. The Justice Department has described 764 as an “online terror network” and charged at least one alleged leader with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

Have a news tip? Contact Dan Belson at dbelson@baltsun.com, on X as @DanBelson_ or on Signal as @danbels.62.

“He never claimed credit, but trust and believe, he was a major part of why murders plummeted in Baltimore,” City Council President Zeke Cohen said, calling Mr. Barksdale a “quiet warrior.”

He died Thursday, at the age of 53. A cause of death was not disclosed. Mr. Barksdale had long struggled with heart issues, and his retirement from the police department was preceded by a lengthy period of medical leave.

A former acting police commissioner, the West Baltimore native was credited with driving down city gun violence from both the police department and City Hall. Under Mr. Barksdale’s steering of police strategy from 2007 to 2012, Baltimore saw violent crime statistics drop, with the city’s annual homicide count dipping in 2011 below the 200 mark for the first time in decades. Returning to city government in 2022 as deputy mayor for public safety, historic reductions in violence followed.

“It hit me that day that [violence] can happen to nice people, to a good guy,” he said in a 2002 interview.

“I just ignore the naysayers and stay focused,” he told the publication.

A homegrown leader, Mr. Barksdale was well regarded by the top brass and the department’s rank and file. He kept a low profile for most of his public career, preferring to work behind the scenes, though police union leaders publicly praised him for creating specialized drug and gun units and standing up for officers.

“God bless Deputy Mayor Anthony Barksdale,” Robert F. Cherry, the outspoken former president of the city’s Fraternal Order of Police lodge, said Thursday on the social media platform X. He said the department “is a better agency because of his leadership.”

Though credited for decreasing gun violence, the plainclothes violent-crime units that Barksdale had shaped drew criticism for their aggressive tactics. Some members ended up on the department’s infamous Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF), an elite plainclothes unit that went rogue and became the center of a corruption scandal that saw several officers convicted of racketeering charges.

Insisting that plainclothes units helped drive down crime, Mr. Barksdale, who had retired several years prior to the GTTF scandal, stressed that oversight was key to keeping members in line.

“It doesn’t work when you’re weak,” Mr. Barksdale said in an interview at the time. “It can be nasty in that room, but there has to be accountability.”

Former Baltimore Police Maj. Neill Franklin, who met Mr. Barksdale, described his former colleague as an accepting leader who strived for input from others, including from his subordinates, and was willing to try anything to benefit the community.

“He was always willing to look at something from a different perspective,” Mr. Franklin said.

When Mr. Bealefeld retired in 2012, Barksdale took over as acting commissioner. While many at the time saw Mr. Barksdale as a shoo-in for the police commissioner role, then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake ultimately appointed former Oakland Police Department Chief Anthony W. Batts.

Mr. Barksdale went on medical leave before Mr. Batts assumed his post and remained on leave until retiring from the department in 2014.

Tonight, I’m heartbroken to announce the passing of Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Anthony Barksdale.

Tony was a true public servant, a good man, and my brother in the work to build a safer Baltimore. His legacy and impact will forever live on. pic.twitter.com/Cz9yCv3ZBx

— Brandon M. Scott (@MayorBMScott) November 7, 2025

The following year, Ms. Rawlings-Blake fired Mr. Batts amid a severe spike in violent crime in the tumultuous months that followed Freddie Gray’s death in police custody.

“His guidance helped shape my career and he continued to serve our city with unwavering dedication,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said of Mr. Barksdale in a statement Thursday. “Baltimore is better because of him, and his impact will be felt for generations to come.”

After departing the police department, Mr. Barksdale served as Horseshoe Casino’s director of security, senior vice president of Assured Protection and contributed analysis on national law enforcement for CNN.

“Things were supposed to get better under the consent decree, right? Wrong!” wrote Mr. Barksdale in a September 2018 Tweet.

He also sharply criticized then-Police Commissioner Michael Harrison during a 2020 interview on FOX45, where the former deputy commissioner said he had “no faith in the current commissioner.”

In 2022, Mr. Scott appointed Mr. Barksdale to the position of deputy mayor of public safety, overseeing operations at the city’s police department, fire department and the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. He publicly apologized to Harrison, who left the department in 2023.

“[We] lost a good one. He made the city a safer place,” said Del. Caylin Young, who worked with Mr. Barksdale on the Police Accountability Board.

“Baltimore is better because a boy from West Baltimore made it his mission to make it safer,” Mr. Scott said in his statement.

Have a news tip? Contact Mathew Schumer at mschumer@baltsun.com, 443-890-7423 and on X as @mmmschumer.

Michael Harris, 50, who is serving time at the Roxbury Correctional Institution in Hagerstown for an unrelated case, was indicted last week on charges stemming from a woman’s report in June 2000 that she had been forced into a car at gunpoint, driven away and raped.

Harris is represented by the Office of the Public Defender, which did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Baltimore Police said in 2000 that a man told officers that he and his girlfriend had just left dinner at a Harford Road restaurant when they were both robbed by two masked suspects. One of them stole the man’s Acura, while the other ordered the woman into a Nissan and drove off, he said, according to charging documents.

Police found the woman early that morning near Baltimore City College, where she said the suspect threatened to kill her if she did not follow his commands. She told police he ordered her to undress and forced sexual intercourse. After the attack, the suspect made her get out of the vehicle and drove off, according to police.

Authorities spotted the stolen Acura in East Baltimore days later and, after a four-mile pursuit that ended in Baltimore County, arrested two brothers, ages 22 and 16. Neither was charged with rape. A police spokesperson said at the time that rape charges had not been filed “pending further investigation.” The older brother ultimately pleaded guilty to armed carjacking, first-degree assault and weapons charges; the younger brother’s charges were placed on the inactive docket.

The woman underwent a sexual assault medical forensic examination shortly after the attack. A DNA database search in January resulted in a “high stringency match” between Harris’ DNA and a forensic specimen linked to the rape case, charging documents say.

Detectives interviewed the woman again this year, though she was unable to pick Harris out of a six-person photo lineup, police wrote.

Harris has been incarcerated on various charges for more than a decade, court and prison records show. He was accused of first-degree rape in 2009 in connection with an attack less than two weeks before the Northeast Baltimore abduction. He later pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in that case and received a 25-year sentence, with 15 years suspended, according to court records.

In the new case, Harris is charged with first- and second-degree rape, sodomy, multiple sex offenses, kidnapping, first- and second-degree assault and handgun use in a crime of violence. He is scheduled for an initial appearance in Baltimore Circuit Court next month.

Have a news tip? Contact Dan Belson at dbelson@baltsun.com, on X as @DanBelson_ or on Signal as @danbels.62.

The seizures followed a “months-long investigation into illegal drug sales” launched due to a 311 complaint, Baltimore Police said in a news release. They also came as city lawmakers seek to crack down on the proliferation of smoke and vape shops with a package of zoning and lighting bills.

Police said they seized the cannabis, as well as 205 THC vapes and $63,500 in cash, from Pulaski Convenient on North Bouldin Street and EMonument Convenience on East Monument Street.

Police arrested three people: a 22-year-old, a 33-year-old and a 37-year-old. Court records showed that two of them were charged with felony and misdemeanor drug possession and distribution offenses. The third person’s case was not available in court records.

Though cannabis is legal for adult use in Maryland, products and sales are limited by the state’s strict licensing system. Neither of the convenience stores is licensed by the Maryland Cannabis Administration.

The Baltimore City Council is currently reviewing legislation that would restrict smoke shops — defined as any business that dedicates at least 10% of its floor area to tobacco or cannabis products — from opening in residential neighborhoods, close to community sites where there are often children present, or near an existing smoke shop.

Have a news tip? Contact Dan Belson at dbelson@baltsun.com, on X as @DanBelson_ or on Signal as @danbels.62.

“I think you might need to go there,” she said, according to a transcript of the call. She told the operator that she recognized the man, identifying him as Bryan Cherry — a man whom Baltimore Police had been trying to find for the past two weeks.

The police department’s warrant team had been trying to arrest Cherry, 37, in connection with a stabbing at a nearby hospital that wounded a medical student. But Cherry’s arrest shortly after the Oldtown killing, which left 38-year-old Sierra Johnson dead, would also lead to Baltimore County investigators tying him to the deaths of a grandmother and granddaughter in Middle River.

Jury selection began Wednesday in Cherry’s trial on murder charges for the killing of Johnson, who police found dead in the Abbott Court residence on July 14, 2024, from what the medical examiner’s office would call “blunt force head injuries.” The trial is Cherry’s second this year — in June, a jury found him guilty of attempted first-degree murder in connection with the June 26, 2024, hospital stabbing. Cherry was sentenced in September to life, suspended down to 40 years in prison for the stabbing, though he filed an appeal last month.

On Monday, Cherry pleaded not guilty to the charges of first-degree murder and a misdemeanor weapons offense connected to Johnson’s killing. He was clad in a black suit on Wednesday afternoon as a clerk called jurors before Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams, who will oversee the trial. Cherry is being represented by Gregg Fischer, the felony chief of the Office of the Public Defender’s Baltimore division.

The trial, Cherry’s second this year, is planned to be followed with a third trial for the July 6, 2024, killing of Iona Sellers, 75, and Autumn Harvey, 29, at a Middle River home. The grandmother and granddaughter were found dead in the Taos Circle home with “blunt-force trauma to their upper bodies,” according to police.

Baltimore County Police noted in arrest documents that Cherry was seen on video surveillance later that day using Sellers’ credit card at a pharmacy. They wrote that he picked up a prescription for a female “associate” with Johnson’s address, just about a week before Cherry is accused of killing her.

When city police knocked on Johnson’s door in response to the 911 call, witnesses said somebody was “jumping out the rear window” of the unit, detectives wrote in charging documents. Authorities forced their way into the building, finding Johnson “half dressed” and unresponsive on a couch. Other responding officers found Cherry while canvassing the area and placed him under arrest.

Cherry’s second murder trial, stemming from the deaths of Sellers and Harvey, is scheduled to begin in March.

Have a news tip? Contact Dan Belson at dbelson@baltsun.com, on X as @DanBelson_ or on Signal as @danbels.62.

Increases in shoplifting and larceny from vehicles this year have prompted Baltimore Police to change how they address petty theft, with the department performing more outreach at the most targeted brick-and-mortar stores and neighborhoods. So far, their efforts seem to be cooling down the surge.

Violent crime had decreased across all police districts so far this year compared to the same point last year, according to Baltimore Police data. Property crimes also decreased everywhere — except for the city’s Southeast Police District, which had a jump largely driven by thefts from vehicles and shoplifting offenses. Those two categories of crime have been the only major offenses to increase citywide since last year.

Thefts from vehicles have increased only slightly citywide, but by 25% in the Southeast District, which includes retail-heavy neighborhoods like Fells Point, Canton and Brewers Hill. Shoplifting offenses have jumped by 53% since last year in the district, according to police data. Reports of shoplifting on the 3500 block of Boston Street, where The Shops at Canton Crossing is located, increased by over 71% from last year to this year. The shopping center is anchored by the city’s only remaining Target location, while the block includes a 7-Eleven store across the street.

Almost half of the reported shoplifting offenses in the Southeast District involved convenience stores, while the second-largest location was wholesale or discount stores, according to the city’s National Incident Based Reporting System data.

Police spokesperson Lindsey Eldridge said the Southeast District “has seen a combination of opportunistic thefts, repeat offenders and incidents involving young people” over the past year. She noted that the trend was not isolated to Baltimore, as the pattern is associated with economic conditions, as well as “the ease of reselling stolen goods.” Inflation and tariffs have driven up grocery prices in the Baltimore area over the past year, with meats and eggs rising 11% from last summer to this August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The problems with petty theft in the Southeast have contributed to a 3% increase in shoplifting reports across the city. Police Commissioner Richard Worley noted those increases during a Thursday consent decree hearing, telling U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar that the department was working to increase business checks and community awareness in response to the thefts.

“We’re starting to change things up a little bit,” he said.

So far, it seems to be working. Eldridge noted that the department has made progress on shoplifting this year — at the start of this summer, those reports had more than doubled in the Southeast District since the same point last year. They’ve dropped since then, according to police data.

The drop came alongside a surge of charges — arrests for larceny increased by 31% in the Southeast District alone since last year and 7% citywide. Eldridge said the department has directed patrols and enforcement in “high-impact” business corridors. The department’s Neighborhood Coordination Officers are giving special attention to businesses most affected by shoplifting, and providing “target hardening” tips to store owners and employees, she said.

Meanwhile, the department is focused on identifying repeat offenders, while collaborating with the Department of Juvenile Services and community partners to “address underlying causes and reduce recidivism among youth.”

Beth Hawks, owner of Zelda Zen in Fells Point, said her boutique — which sells jewelry and greeting cards, among other items — has benefited from networking with other local mom-and-pop businesses. Exchanging surveillance footage and other information with neighbors to keep watch for thieves has “absolutely” helped drive down the problem for small shops like hers, she said.

“We go to court,” she said. “It’s not fun, but it helps fix the problem.” But the difference between mom-and-pop shops and corporate businesses, which are less inclined to work with neighboring stores, is “night and day,” she said.

“These big businesses can eat the loss,” she said. “They really need to work with everybody.”

In court for a quarterly oversight hearing on reforming past unconstitutional policing practices, Worley noted a delicate balance with handling low-level crimes like theft. He said that while “all kinds of credit is due” to his officers for decreases in violent crime, “the reality probably is” that focusing on lower-level nuisance offenses is where tensions between communities and police arise.

He said that better training and supervision will help the department “thread this needle of putting pressure back against that sort of criminal activity without antagonizing the very people that you’re assigned to protect.”

Steve Earley contributed to this story. Have a news tip? Contact Dan Belson at dbelson@baltsun.com, on X as @DanBelson_ or on Signal as @danbels.62. 

At a news conference announcing an indictment alleging that a prisoner faked a ballistics report to exonerate himself of a murder conviction, Bates said Tuesday that leadership under “the previous administration” was making “decisions that were not consistent, we believe, with the law” in vetting cases. But he defended the longtime chief of his office’s Conviction Integrity Unit, Lauren Lipscomb, who built the program.

Mosby, whom Bates did not directly name, did not return a request for comment.

During a Monday interview with The Baltimore Sun, Bates said he is “protective” of the integrity unit, which reviews post-trial claims alleging unfair or unjust outcomes. He pointed to prior cases where courts found that criminal defendants had tampered with witnesses or fabricated police documents while seeking exoneration and compensation benefits.

In 2021, a federal judge tossed out a wrongful arrest lawsuit filed by Baltimore resident Tony DeWitt after finding that he had fabricated a police document and paid witnesses to deceive a Baltimore Circuit Court judge into granting his post-conviction petition and releasing him from prison. DeWitt had been convicted of murder for a 2002 shooting that killed a 16-year-old girl and wounded another man.

“I think that, wrongfully, there was some blame that went on members of the unit, I think that really needed to rest on the shoulders of the former head of the office,” said Bates, who unseated Mosby in the 2022 Democratic primary race.

Bates said during the Monday interview that he believes Lipscomb, who is now running for Baltimore County state’s attorney, has been “blamed for things that were not her responsibility, but were made to look like it was her responsibility.”

“At the end of the day, what people don’t realize is that the head of the office is the one who makes a lot of these calls in terms of, ‘Hey, we’re going to move in this direction,’ “he said. “And they sometimes even override the work of the experts who are doing that work in terms of what they can and should and shouldn’t do.”

Bates’ comments came alongside an indictment against Brandon Grimes, who was convicted in 2008 of killing Baltimore Police Detective Troy Lamont Chesley Sr. the previous year. Prosecutors say Grimes, 40, filed a fake ballistics report in court while seeking a judge to find him innocent. He also is accused of using the document in an attempt to defraud the state of over $1.4 million, which would be his compensation for 16 years of incarceration under Maryland’s Walter Lomax Act.

Grimes did not have an attorney listed in court records for the case, where he is charged with identity fraud, obstruction of justice, attempted felony theft and evidence tampering. The Office of the Public Defender did not return a request for comment.

Baltimore Police Deputy Commissioner Kevin Jones described the case during Tuesday’s news conference as “egregious,” calling it an “effort to deceive the justice system and discredit the dedicated investigators who solved this case 17 years ago.”

Jones noted that he served with Chesley in the Northern District’s operations unit, and that the detective’s picture has been hanging on his office wall ever since his death at age 34. He said Chesley’s “jokes will always have a special place in my heart.”

“We have not forgotten his sacrifice.”

Have a news tip? Contact Dan Belson at dbelson@baltsun.com, on X as @DanBelson_ or on Signal as @danbels.62.

Lisa Lea, 57, is now set to be sentenced on Jan. 30. County prosecutors stated at Tuesday’s plea hearing that they would seek the maximum sentence of 60 years, though suspended down to 24 years of jail time.

A county judge also ruled that Lea may remain on home detention as she awaits sentencing on the six counts.

Prosecutors asked for Robinson to remand Lea back to jail pending her sentencing, noting she now has a “significant sentence over her head” and could pose a flight risk. Defense attorneys noted, though, that there have been no issues during the two years she’s spent on house arrest.

“She’s done everything that’s been asked of her,” Assistant Public Defender Amy Stone said during Tuesday’s hearing.

Lea, who was slated to face trial this week, was charged after the March 22, 2023, crash along with Melachi Brown, another motorist who ultimately received an 18-month jail sentence.

Tuesday’s hearing drew a packed courtroom as Robinson asked Lea a set of questions required when a defendant pleads guilty. Lea became emotional when asked if she understood what a jury would have to find to convict her of manslaughter.

“Yes, sir,” she responded as her voice began to break.

Maryland State Police and Baltimore County prosecutors say that both Lea and Brown were driving at over 100 mph in the work zone on the Baltimore Beltway, near the Dogwood Road overpass, at the time of the crash. Lea’s vehicle struck Brown’s when Lea changed lanes, causing Lea’s Acura TLX to be flung into the worksite.

Baltimore County Assistant State’s Attorney Felise Kelly said Tuesday that Lea had been traveling home after visiting a dispensary in Baltimore City. A dashcam caught her and Brown’s vehicles speeding and weaving between lanes shortly before the crash.

Kelly noted that Lea’s blood had tested positive for THC, the psychoactive component in cannabis, and that she also used a prescription muscle relaxer the morning of the crash. A National Transportation Safety Board report on the crash noted that it was unclear if Lea was impaired by cannabis at the time, concluding that it was “generally plausible” that either drug could impair her driving ability. With the plea, prosecutors dropped a spate of traffic charges against Lea, including driving while impaired by drugs.

All six workers on the site died at the scene of the crash on March 22, 2023. Maryland State Police identified them as Rolando Ruiz, 46, of Laurel; Carlos Orlando Villatoro Escobar, 43, and his brother, Jose Armando Escobar, 52; Mahlon Simmons III, 31, and his father, Mahlon Simmons II, 52; and Sybil Lee DiMaggio, 46. DiMaggio was an inspector working for KCI Technologies, while the other five worked for Concrete General, a construction firm contracted by the state for a project intended to reduce beltway congestion.

The crash prompted changes in the state’s work zone safety policies, a federal investigation and a lawsuit alleging that the work zone was unsafe.

Maryland Occupational Safety and Health also investigated the crash, ultimately issuing citations against the State Highway Administration and Concrete General for signage violations that weren’t related to the collision. A separate review of highway administration records by The Baltimore Sun found that there had been several crashes at the Woodlawn job site prior to the collision that killed six workers.

Have a news tip? Contact Dan Belson at dbelson@baltsun.com, on X as @DanBelson_ or on Signal as @danbels.62.