THE GAZETTE
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Man convicted of trying to kill son over land spat ‘This is for you,’ father alleged to have said before firing two shots
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BY ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH STAFF WRITER
A Pennsylvania man has been convicted of attempted first-degree murder for trying to kill his son over a land dispute in Silver Spring. On Thursday, a Montgomery County jury also found 80-yearold James Russell Lewis guilty of first-degree assault, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony or crime of violence, and burglary. The most serious of the charges carries a penalty of up to life in prison. Lewis faces sentencing Feb. 11. According to prosecutors, Lewis, of Zion Church Road in Robertsdale, Penn., was consumed with anger when his mother gave four acres and a house on Ednor Road in Silver Spring to her grandson instead of to him. In 2012, the house and land were valued at $378,000, according to county land records. Lewis listened from his wheelchair in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Jan. 8 as his son, Russell “Rusty” Eugene
Lewis, 58, testified against him. Russell testified that his father had anticipated that the land would be passed on to him. When Russell told his father about receiving the land instead, his father was “lost for words,” he testified. In an argument several weeks later, James Lewis drove to Silver Spring to talk about the land with his son. At one point while the two talked in Russell’s driveway, James Lewis put a gun he had with him on his truck’s console. Russell Lewis said in court that his father told him “I needed to fear him, because I didn’t have a clue what he was capable of.” He dismissed the conversation as “idle threats,” he said, and traveled to St. Louis for his job as a union insulator. During that time, according to prosecutors, James Lewis repeatedly called Russell’s aunt, who lived in the house’s basement, trying to find out if his son had returned home. On Sept. 20, 2011, James Lewis, who was 78 at the time, went to his son’s home shortly after learning he had returned from St. Louis, prosecutors said. He took careful steps to cover his tracks, including masking
the license plates of his pickup truck with red plastic and parking out of sight of the house at a nearby church, according to the prosecution. Then, he threaded his way through a wooded area and walked to the house, using a key to let himself in. According to witnesses at trial, he did not have permission to be in the house. James Lewis took off his shoes and tiptoed upstairs, then stood at the foot of the couch where his son was sleeping, and pointed a gun at him, prosecutors said. Russell Lewis woke up to hear his father say “this is for you,” before shooting at his head twice as he lay on the couch, he said. Russell survived the shooting because, as he was waking up, he flung an arm across his face, intercepting a bullet headed straight for his forehead, prosecutors said. Russell said he wrestled his father to the ground, took the gun, left the house, and called police. Doctors removed the bullet lodged in his arm. The other had grazed his skull and hit a pillow on the bed. James Lewis pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder in May 2012, but court records show the plea was vacated last March,
online court records show. James Lewis’s attorney, Ronald Gottlieb, argued that police did not perform crucial tests that might have helped his client and prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that James Lewis was the shooter. He said evidence that would have corroborated Russell Lewis’s testimony — like blood on the bed on which he had been sleeping — was never found. Prosecutors argued that James Lewis further implicated himself by telling contradictory stories about what happened. According to Koch, Lewis said he wanted to talk to his son about the land and he took the gun with him because he was afraid there would be a fight while they talked. Gottlieb said the difference in stories was explained by the fact that James Lewis was “pummelled” by his son in the incident and might not have remembered exactly what happened. When asked during the trial why he had a gun with him, James Lewis said he had $1,800 in his truck. He planned to talk to his son and tell him he was going to contest the deed’s transfer. sjbsmith@gazette.net
Md. federal prosecutor collected $143M in fiscal 2013 $130 million came from settlement with genericdrug manufacturer
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BY ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH STAFF WRITER
Maryland’s federal prosecutors recovered more than $143 million in civil and criminal collections in the last fiscal year, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office. The number is much higher than fiscal 2012, when the office took in about $24.7 million in civil and criminal collections. Much of the money in last year’s collections came from
part of a $500 million settlement the Department of Justice made with a drug manufacturing company in May 2013. In that case, the U.S. subsidiary of India-based Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., a maker of generic drugs, pleaded guilty to making drugs that were adulterated, meaning they had not been manufactured, processed or packaged according to regulations. Ranbaxy USA — Ranbaxy’s U.S. subsidiary — agreed to pay a $130 million criminal fine and forfeit another $20 million. It also agreed to pay an additional $350 million to the federal government and to the 50 states participating in the agreement. It was the largest false claims
case ever prosecuted in Maryland, Rod J. Rosenstein, the U.S. attorney in Maryland, said. Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Maryland, said in an interview that the company has paid $130 million so far. About $6 million of the more than $137 million collected in criminal actions was restitution for federal agencies and for victims. The other $131 million came from criminal fines and other criminal collections, according to data from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Maryland. U.S. prosecutors also collected nearly $6 million in civil actions. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said the overall
total of fines and fees came from a variety of cases. The office provided two examples involving Montgomery County. In April 2013, Gurpreet Singh Kohli of Potomac had to pay a $30,000 fine and spend six months of home confinement after pleading guilty to lying to investigators during his background investigation for a security clearance. In the last fiscal year, the state collected $10,000 from Gaithersburg resident Andrew Liang, who had to pay the fine as part of his sentencing in 2011 after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography. His sentence included a year in prison and five years of probation.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014 g
MCPS teacher is arrested, charged with three counts of second-degree assault Man’s attorney calls charges ‘irresponsible’
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BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
A Briggs Chaney Middle School teacher was arrested on Jan. 8 and charged with three counts of second-degree assault involving other school employees, according to Montgomery County police. The assault charges stem from incidents of unwanted physical contact with three female coworkers at the Silver Spring school, police said. “We have three victims that have come forward,” said Cpl. Rebecca Innocenti, a spokeswoman for county police. Walter Stafon Bowman, 37, of the 4900 block of Veronica Court in Indian Head was also charged with one count of false imprisonment for allegedly holding one of the three school employees in a tight hug, Innocenti said. He was arrested around 6:20 a.m., she said. Kush Arora, Bowman’s attorney, said Bowman is “very, very frustrated” and surprised by the allegations. “Mr. Bowman told me that he considered these people friends and colleagues, and he held them in great esteem,” he said. Dana Tofig, a spokesman for Montgomery County Public Schools, said Bowman has been placed on administrative leave pending further action. He also had been placed on administrative leave earlier this school year, Tofig said. Tofig said no additional information is available because that was a personnel matter. Bowman previously worked at Needwood Academy in Rockville for a few months in 2009 and A. Mario Loiederman Middle School in Silver Spring from August 2012 to June 2013, Tofig said. One female school employee reported that Bowman assaulted her twice between Aug. 26 and Aug. 29, according to police. In the first incident, Bowman entered the employee’s office unannounced and put his hands on her shoulders. In the second incident, Bowman placed the employee in a bear hug until she was able to break free. Another female employee said she was standing in her classroom in September when Bowman approached her from behind, crouched on the floor and touched her ankle, according to police. The third employee said Bowman grabbed her from behind around the waist in September, police said. Police were speaking with school employees as part of
their investigation, Innocenti said. According to Bowman’s charging documents, police believed Bowman assaulted other people who are afraid to come forward. The three employees and the others who have not come forward “are in fear for their safety,” according to the charging documents. The employees who have come forward have felt the need for an escort to accompany them when they needed to talk to Bowman. “Having to work with (Bowman) on a daily basis, they are terrified that (Bowman) will further assault them,” the documents said. Arora called the charges irresponsible, saying he thinks county police are usually Bowman better at “making sure charges are brought when appropriate.” The county school system investigated Bowman earlier in the school year and did not find him at fault, Arora said. “This is a matter that’s already been investigated and, in my opinion, already been put to rest,” he said. A Jan. 8 letter posted to the school’s website from Principal Tamitha Campbell alerted parents of Bowman’s arrest and placement on administrative leave. “While these are only allegations at this point, I know this news is very upsetting,” Campbell said in the letter. “We have high expectations of professionalism for our staff in how they deal with our students and one another.” The school also informed parents through Connect Ed, a notification service. Detectives have been investigating Bowman since Jan. 6, when they received notice of reports that he had assaulted three female coworkers. Innocenti said someone other than a school staff person called police about Bowman. Bowman’s grandmother Jessie Guinyard — reached by The Gazette Jan. 8 at the home she lives in with Bowman — said she was unaware he had been arrested. “He always been a fine person,” she said. “He has been no more than a great person.” Guinyard said she hadn’t seen her grandson since the morning of Jan. 8, when he left around 5 a.m. to go to the school. Detectives are asking anyone else who believes Bowman assaulted them to call 4th District investigators at 240773-5530.
Lawmakers proposing limits to police spying Drones, automatic license plate readers would be regulated n
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KATE S. ALEXANDER STAFF WRITER
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Two state senators — one very liberal and the other very conservative — have joined efforts in the Maryland General Assembly to protect citizens’ privacy from police unnecessarily using technology like drones to conduct searches. Sens. Jamie B. Raskin and Christopher B. Shank, with the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union, will introduce four bills to regulate police use of drones, automatic license plate readers, email surveillance and location tracking so as to not infringe on privacy rights. “It’s getting Orwellian out there,” Raskin (D-Dist. 20) of Takoma Park told reporters Tuesday morning. Shank (R-Dist. 2) of Hagerstown called the situation a “slippery slope.” “I am not content to sit here and allow this current diminution of our privacy rights to get to a point that one
day my children or grandchildren are going to wake up and government is constantly spying on them,” he said. Maryland last amended its privacy laws in 1988, he said. Yet technology has vastly outpaced the law. Raskin said the package of privacy bills aims to create a balance between law and technology. Specifically,absentanemergency, the bills would require search warrants before looking at citizens’ emails and online data as well as before tracking someone via a cellphone. It would impose limits and regulations on aerial surveillance by drones and prevent police from keeping, for longer than 90 days without cause, the license plate and location data collected by the automatic scanners. In the House, the bills are cosponsored by Dels. Jeff Waldstreicher (D-Dist. 18) of Kensington, Alfred C. Carr Jr. (D-Dist. 18) of Kensington, Michael D. Smigiel Sr. (R-Dist. 36) of Chesapeake City and Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg (D-Dist. 41) of Baltimore. kalexander@gazette.net