The Baltimore Sun du lieu suivant : Baltimore, Maryland • Page T8

8 BaltimoreMessenger baltimoremessenger.com NEWS Attorney Josh Felsen told the jury was brutal, senseless Wagner was sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison. girlfriend and cohort in the Pitcairn robbery, Lavelva Merritt, 25, testified against Wagner and received a sentence of 30 years in prison, with half of that time suspended. Both drew additional time for violation of probation. Their cases played out as the Charles Village community took a tougher stance against crime in general. Resident Stephen Gewirtz, a retired Morgan State University math professor, was a constant presence in courtrooms throughout the year, tracking and writing email blast reports about court cases involving Charles Village area crimes, as part of Court Watch, a local initiative that grew out of community frustration over the Pitcairn killing.

And the community remained vigilant about crime, as typified by a well-attended meeting with Northern District police Dec. 13 about the issue of transgender prostitution in south Charles Village. The good news, police said at that meeting, is that overall year-to-date crime has dropped significantly in Charles Village. The class of public schools The Mount Washington School had another grade A year. Margaret May, 34, of Medfield, a fifth-grade reading teacher, was named the top teacher in a surprise ceremony May 9 in her classroom.

Andres Alonso, the public school chief executive officer, brought her a bouquet of roses. was definitely said May, whose students scored 100 percent on state-mandated reading tests the past three years. nice to be But, she said, to be nominated for my school was an In March, David Conn, a parent who led the successful effort to expand the school, received the state Department of Involvement award for Baltimore City. In September 2010, the school was expanded to an elementary and middle school, adding the nearby former Shrine of the Sacred Heart School building and an International Baccalaureate Program for middle-schoolers. The awards for May and Conn continued a hot streak for the school, which in December 2010 won state blue-ribbon status.

school just keeps getting more and more May said. is really excited. a Conaway off City Council Seventh District City Councilwoman Belinda Conaway, who represented the Hampden area, was beaten decisively by newcomer Nick Mosby, an electrical engineer from Reservoir Hill, in the Democratic primary in September. The race was marked by support for a controversial planned shopping center in Remington to be co- anchored by Walmart and by allegations that Conaway lived outside the district. defeat was a blow to a big Baltimore political family.

Her father is City Clerk of Circuit Court Frank Conaway. Her mother, Mary Conaway, is city register of wills and her brother, Frank Conaway is a state delegate. Before a pre-primary candidates forum at the Roosevelt Recreation Center in Hampden, controversial blogger Adam Meister held a sign outside the center that supported Mosby over Conaway. Conaway sued Meister earlier this year after he accused her in an online blog of not living in the district, as required by law. She later dropped the lawsuit.

Conaway angered many Hampden-area residents and merchants by supporting plans for 25th Street Station, a big-box shopping center at 25th and Howard streets, on the site of Anderson Automotive, which was moving to Hunt Valley. defeat should come as a warning to other city council opined the blog Mob- town Shank. you bring a Wal-Mart into a community that need or want one, there may be a price to be paid and that price could be your political FILE PHOTO Principal Sue Torr talks to a fourth grade class at Mt. Washington Elementary School in January, after it was named a blue-ribbon school. PHOTO BY GENE SWEENEY BALTIMORE SUN Councilwoman Belinda Conaway goes door to door in a write-in campaign to win back her seat in the November general election, after losing to Nick Mosby in the Democratic primary in September.

North top stories of 2011 continuedfromPage7.