The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • Page B1

TUESDAY 03.07.2006 baltimoresun.com maryland Woman and 2-year-old son perish in E. Oliver Street fire Witnesses say mother collapsed amid smoke, flames before she could drop child to safety VOTING BILL MAY CLEAR HOUSE REGION GIFTS FOR SICK KIDS Drive brings toy store to young patients in Baltimore hospitals. PG2B ARREST IN KILLING Man charged in shooting death outside Annapolis home. PG3B OBITUARY RAILROAD EXECUTIVE L. Byrne Waterman, a retired Chessie System railroad executive and maritime historian, dies at 85.

PG 6B "At the second she was about to drop the baby, she fell," said Tricey Carlos, 20, who was walking down the street when she saw the fire and called 911 on her cell phone. "The smoke had gotten up there," Carlos said, "but the fire hadn't gotten up there yet." Firefighters rushed to attack the blaze and went into the brick home's scorched interior with a search-and-rescue team and a water line. Five men and women had escaped by jumping from windows on the first and second floors, fire officials said. Please see FIRE, 4B BY GUS G. SENTEMENTES SUN REPORTER The woman lingered a few seconds at a second-story window of her Baltimore rowhouse, cradling her young child amid climbing flames and billowing smoke.

On the street below, bystanders called out to her to toss the child to them. But before she could act yesterday, Lisa Washington collapsed as her home on East Oliver Street burned, her child, Tyrese Jones, still in her arms, according to a witness. Measure would change Md. ballot machines Patricia Washington reacts after finding out that her sister died in a house fire that investigators say might have started on the first floor of the home. JED KIRSCHBAUM SUN PHOTOGRAPHER BY KELLY BREWINGTON SUN REPORTER A proposal to replace the state's electronic voting equipment with a system that provides paper verification could pass one chamber of the General Assembly this week, House Speaker Michael E.

Busch said yesterday. Under the plan, Maryland's Diebold machines would be shelved for this fall's primary and general elections, with an alternate system taking their place. Busch said he supports the move to a paper trail as the best way to ensure a secure election. "The fact is that the Diebold system has come under scrutiny nationally," he said. "Done with accuracy, I think the Diebold machines are the best systems in the world.

But the question here is about security." The replacement proposal also has the backing of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich who told the State Board of Elections yesterday he supports the legislation. "Maryland's lack of a paper trail means we are no longer a national leader in election systems and that our equipment is susceptible to system failures under which we would be technically unable to re-create election results because we have no paper ballots," Ehrlich said in a letter to the board. Yesterday's developments show that the long-standing worries of voting reform advocates are reaching the highest levels of state government.

Critics have long complained that the state's Diebold technology is vulnerable to hacking, and said that the system should produce a paper record that could be audited after close or contested elections. The drive to adopt a paper trail is gaining momentum after the governor chided the state elections board two weeks ago, saying he had lost faith in its ability to conduct fair and secure elections. Ehrlich continued that criticism yesterday in a letter to board Chairman Gilles W. Berger and expressed support for the House bill that would abandon the Diebold Elections System Please see VOTING, 14B 'pDK L3BHBbd PHOTOS BYALGERINAPERNASUN PHOTOGRAPHER Cultivating bookworms More than 250 schoolchildren visited the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture yesterday for Read Across America, a celebration of Dr.

Seuss' birthday. Above, children check out the Pennsylvania Avenue music exhibit as part of a scavenger hunt. Right, Franklin Square Elementary School pupils (from left) LaQueen Jones, Desire Corbett-Gaines and Najah Newkirk listen to a story with classmates. City files appeal in BDC case Grand jury decries 'arrests without merit' Lack of charges in many city cases noted; report's two dozen recommendations are short on details Officials contend agency not subject to sunshine laws BY JOHN FRITZE SUN REPORTER and training. The report gives about two dozen recommendations, but few are specific.

One example: "Improve the quality of narcotics arrests." One recommendation was to reduce "arrests without merit" an apparent reference to arrests that don't result in charges by at least 50 percent before the end of this year. Please see REPORT, 8B BY JULIE BYKOWICZ SUN REPORTER A Baltimore grand jury is calling for the number of city arrests that fail to result in criminal charges to be cut in half, saying such arrests erode public confidence in the Police Department, according to a report released "If the staggering number of arrests is to be validated, the percentage of arrests without merit must be drastically reduced," the report says. The jurors also said that frequent police stops of residents is an approach "bordering on violating a person's constitutional rights." The panel of 23 grand jurors that met from September to January was asked by a Baltimore Circuit Court judge to "address the lack of confidence that exists between many members of the public and law enforcement." The grand jury appears to have done its research by reviewing media reports and arrest statistics, as well as speaking with each other and with "several" residents, though the report does not say how many. Grand jurors talked to one person from the Police Department, the head of education Carroll Co. Marine, 20, killed in Iraq Westminster High graduate dies in noncombat vehicle accident in Al Anbar Arguing that the entity brokering Baltimore's most significant development deals is not a public institution, city officials yesterday asked Maryland's highest court to shield the agency's meetings and documents from public scrutiny.

The appeal, which could have implications for how the city pursues large-scale development projects, follows a January decision by the Court of Special Appeals that found that the Baltimore Development Corp. must conform with the state's sunshine laws. If it decides to hear the case, the Maryland Court of Appeals would wade into the largely uncharted issue of whether the state's open government laws which require agencies to hold public meetings and disclose some documents extend to nonprofits set up to perform work in government's stead. Created in 1991, the BDC has been behind many of the city's largest developments, including, most recently, the $305 million convention center hotel that is scheduled to open in 2008. It is often responsible for choosing contractors and acquiring land for those projects.

City Solicitor Ralph S. Tyler, who is representing the BDC, said the law narrowly defines a "public body" as an entity created by state statute or city ordinance and said the open meetings and public records laws apply only to those bodies. In contrast, BDC has Please see BDC, 14B jeune, N.C, before being assigned to Twentynine Palms in August 2004 as a generator mechanic. He was the middle of three children, with sisters Sarah Snyder, 22, of Hanover, and Tracie Snyder, 18, who lives with their father in York, Pa. Reached by telephone at his home last night, Albert Snyder wept.

"I just want it to be over," the father said. "And I want answers. They said he was the gunnery on top of the Humvee and the Humvee rolled. When is this senseless war going to end?" Despite his anti-war views, which Albert Snyder said he discussed with his son, he hailed him as "a hero." Please see MARINE, 7BJ At his mother's townhouse in Westminster last night, the family was still reeling from the news of his death, which was delivered to them Friday. Corporal Snyder's mother, Julie Snyder, was too grief-stricken to talk but allowed her sister, Cathy Menefee, to speak for the family.

She spoke of his keen sense of humor and an unwavering sense of responsibility, which culminated in his decision to join the military. "It's sounds so cliche, but he died doing what he wanted to do," Menefee said. "He always wanted to be a Marine." Matthew Snyder enlisted Oct. 14, 2003. He had been based at Camp Le- BY NICOLE FULLER AND GINA DAVIS SUN REPORTERS A 20-year-old Marine from Westminster was killed in a noncombat vehicle accident in Iraq on Friday just one month after arriving in the country, the Department of Defense announced yesterday.

Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, who died in Al Anbar Province, was assigned to Combat Service Support Group-l, 1st Marine Logistics Group, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Twentynine Palms, Calif. He was a 2003 graduate of Westminster High School. Lance Cpl.

Matthew A. Snyder, assigned to a Marine combat support group from Twentynine Palms, died one month after his arrival in Iraq. POLICE BLOTTER 3B LOTTERY 3B OBITUARIES 6B WEATHER 14B.