The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • A11

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2013 THE BALTIMORE SUN 11 Md victim talks at sentencing for hospital tech HEPATITIS From page 1 life. "I always thought that when I saw medical scrubs and medical ID, a hospital ID, that they were there to comfort me when I was sick, but Kwiatkowsld fooled me," the 66-year-old Vietnam War veteran and Baltimore native said in an interview shordy after walking out of the court room. "I served in Vietnam, served my country, gave back only to be injured by friendly fire, and he was the friendly fire," Nelson said. Rod J. Rosenstein, the U.S.

attorney for Maryland, had said AMY DAVISBALTIMORE SUN PHOTO The North Avenue Gateway apartments, which opened this fall, were full within a month and have a waiting list of 95 people. New North Ave. apartments thrive "I took enough inventory to know that this is where I wanted to be." "All neighborhoods go through change," Stovall added. "I'm going to look at what's going on now. I wasn't here 20 years ago, but I want to see where this is going to go." Pittman still vividly recalls the night in 1991 when 6-year-old Tiffany was killed.

He said the new housing development, complete with a playground, represents a significant improvement from that time. The girl lived in one of the rowhouses that was demolished years ago on the site of the apartments, he said. "When I went upstairs, I was surprised, because the apartment was so nice and I was thinking, 'This is where she he said. Pittman said he is pushing for the city to clear a nearby park and include North Avenue in its Main Streets program, which would make the corridor eligible for help, such as micro business loans. "It definitely helps to grow a healthier community," District 7 city Councilman Nick Mosby said of the apartments, adding that more in the way of jobs and education will be needed to turn the area around.

"There are so many positive by-products when you eliminate blight, but that's not the entire equation. This project is a great project, but it's really just a drop in the bucket." Malik Jordan, a Rosemont-Walbrook resident who drafted a community development plan in 2008 and now works for Woda, said he believes the neighborhood is changing, although more work is needed. "I think as folks become more alert to this community development area you're seeing resident pride and a greater sense of community," he said. "The same way it got here is the same way it's going to leave incrementally. But you've got to take the first step and this is one giant first step." nshermanbaltsun.com most of the block's properties together, asked for proposals to redevelop the area The Woda Group, one of two companies to submit an offer, received the award in 2010.

The roughly $15 million project, which started construction in July, opened this fall with the help of $10.5 million from the state in federally authorized low-income housing tax credits and roughly $L9 million in state loans through the Department of Housing and Community Development's rental housing funds program, Bell said. The city also forgave $L5 million in items such as back taxes and liens on the properties, he said. "There are certainly sections of the city where we would not support this type of development because we don't think there is a market yet," said Peter Engel, Baltimore Housing's deputy commissioner for project finance and development. "The fact that it leases up quickly shows that the area does have demand, still does have a market." Gateway's 64 apartments, which rent for $500 to $680 per month, are reserved for households with incomes at or below 60 percent of the Baltimore City area median income, or about $36,000 for an individual or $41100 for two people. At Gateway, which was full within a month and has 95 people on the waiting list, the average income is 45 percent below the median.

Bell said Woda relies on a strong property-management company to maintain the property, located about a mile away from the section of Ruxton Avenue where police indicted nine on drug conspiracy charges in September. Tenants also go through credit and background checks as part of their application. Stovall, who has an 8-year-old son, said she did her own research, driving to the apartments at night and sitting in her car to see if she felt safe. "I'm neighborhood conscious," she said. APARTM NTS, From page 1 more rundown apartments runs about the same as newer units, but older ones often cost more for utilities, Bell said.

"There are people that come who are turned away from here and are sad they missed the opportunity" said Kelly Stovall, 43, who moved into the apartments about two months ago from East Baltimore in search of a shorter commute to her pharmacy classes at Baltimore City Community College. "Word of mouth travels. I see that if you had another building there'd still be people trying to get in." Those involved in the 3000 W. North Ave. project hope that demand for Gateway units also will help build a stronger housing market in the area, which has active churches and is just blocks away from redevelopment occurring around the Cop-pin State University campus.

The Woda Group also plans to build another set of apartments across the street from the North Avenue Gateway development. "If you go up that way, you will find a stable neighborhood," said Bell of Woda, gesturing north. "If you look this way, it looks like hell. So what are doing? We're just trying to push it down this way." The 3000 block of West North located in an area where 20 percent of the housing units are vacant, has been a longtime target for redevelopment In 2003, city crews razed five homes on the block, and for years, members of the North Avenue and Hilton Street Business and Community Task Force tried and failed to find a company willing to build housing there. "It just didn't happen," said Herman Pittman, the organization's 90-year-old founder, who has headed the task force off and on for about 25 years.

He said plans typically fell apart when developers failed to secure the financing. In 2009, the city, which had bundled Smuggling suspect deployed in Afghanistan Kwiatkowski's actions Nelson in Maryland would be considered in his sentencing in New Hampshire, where he was accused of stealing syringes full of the painkiller fentanyl at Exeter Hospital in 2012, according to court documents. On Monday, Rosenstein said the 39-year sentence likely brings Kwiatkowski's court appearances to an end. "In theory, he could still be prosecuted on state charges, but it's unlikely because this is going to guarantee that he's going to spend nearly the rest of his life, if not the rest of his life, in federal prison," Rosenstein said. Rosenstein said he hopes Kwiatkowski's victims see the sentence as an assurance that Kwiatkowski won't harm any more patients.

"The harm that he did to the victims can't be compensated, no matter what sentence he receives, but I think it did offer them some reassurances," he said. After revelations of Kwiatkowski's actions, Maryland officials launched an investigation, which determined a sys-temwide breakdown led to Kwiatkowski's ability to inject himself with stolen narcotics in this state. Hospitals here offered free hepatitis testing to more than 1,750 patients. Nationally, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended about 12,000 people be tested for the potentially deadly virus, according to court documents.

Kwiatkowski, a Michigan native, worked at the Baltimore VA Medical Center from May to November 2008, Southern Maryland Hospital between December 2008 and February 2009, Johns Hopkins Hospital between July 2009 and January 2010, and Maryland General Hospital from January to March 2010. Dr. Lucy Wilson, chief of the state health department's epidemiology center who helped investigate Kwiatkowski's actions in Maryland, said there were "missed opportunities that could have stopped" him from diverting the drugs. The investigation found problems with how staffing agencies screen applicants and a culture that makes staff wary of reporting peers. At one Maryland hospital, staff suspected Kwiatkowski of stealing fentanyl from a cardiac catheter lab, but a manager later gave Kwiatkowski a satisfactory review to a staffing agency inquiring about his time there.

Government regulators also relied on applicants to self-report criminal history instead of verifying worker backgrounds, the study found. Kwiatkowsld had failed to disclose a DWI arrest and other disciplinary actions, according to the report. At the time he was working in Maryland, he had been caught with fentanyl syringes at work at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. But he didn't tell Maryland officials about that or a 2005 DUI arrest, and a background check wasn't completed. "We found there wasn't one single overarching issue, but really it was instead multiple systemwide vulnerabilities in multiple arenas," Wilson said at the time.

Linwood Nelson who traveled to Concord and provided an impact statement of his own, said Kwiatkowski's sentencing "doesn't repair anything." "Hopefully, it's a hindrance and is something that rings out to all the other people who are doing it, if there are any," he said. His father is now afraid of close contact with loved ones, including his 19-month-old granddaughter. "He's hesitant to show affection to family members because he's worried that it may end up affecting a family member inadvertendy," the younger Nelson said. Hepatitis which attacks the liver, is transmitted by blood, usually through transfusions or intravenous drug use. The older Nelson, who underwent a kidney stone removal and lung scan at Baltimore VA Medical Center in 2008, told the court that doctors said hepatitis will eventually prevent his body from producing enzymes that clot blood.

Two weeks ago, he said, he had to have a tooth removed and instead decided to have all of his teeth taken out at once, to pre-empt future complications because hepatitis could reduce his ability to heal quickly from minor surgeries. "Today gave some closure, to know that he cannot infect another victim, whether it be a veteran or otherwise," Nelson said. "Like I told him, if I'm the veteran that he got to, and he isn't able to infect another one, then I'll carry it." Reuters contributed to this article. krectorbaltsun.com twitter.com rectorsun charged with a civilian crime back home, according to Greg T. Rinckey, an attorney who specializes in military cases.

He said the military will have to weigh the importance of Jones' mission with the need to bring him home. "If he's in a mission-critical job, they're going to let him finish the convoy," Rinckey said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert R. Harding didn't have a timetable for Jones' return.

In a memo last week to the judge handling the case, he wrote that he did not want to wait for Jones' return to carry on with the case. "Although we have started the process to get him back here, we do not have an idea when that will happen," Harding wrote. "We do not think it wise to wait for Mr. Jones to get here." The FBI and the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on what steps they are taking to secure Jones' arrest, and U.S.

officials in Afghanistan did not respond to emailed questions. But Rinckey said prosecutors would SUSPECT, From page 1 month in base salary and other pay, according to a military spokesman. As a corrections officer, he made about $3,750 a month. The 1229th Transportation Company, in which Jones holds the rank of staff sergeant, deployed to Afghanistan in mid-October, following a round of training at Fort Hood in Texas. He had been promoted in August and has been in the military since 199L Jones' National Guard company is tasked with ferrying supplies through dangerous territory in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.

Lt. Col. Charles S. Kohler, a Maryland National Guard spokesman, said the military was "surprised" by the charges. He did not have specifics about how officials would handle die case.

"What we have to make sure to do at this point is make sure the judicial system has a chance to work through its process," he said. "I couldn't comment about what he did or does in his civilian life." It is rare for a deployed soldier to be typically contact military authorities and arrange for the soldier's arrest by military police. At that point the soldier would be detained, put on leave and flown back to the United States to be met by U.S. marshals at the airport, Rinckey added. No attorney is listed for Jones in court records, and a woman identified in court records as his fiance declined to comment on the case.

Jones is among only a handful of male officers who have been accused of corruption in the sprawling case. Twenty-three of the 27 officers charged are women, and several allegedly conceived children by inmates. Much of the discussion surrounding the scandal has focused on the youth of the 13 female officers originally charged in April, and some lawmakers have questioned the suitability of having women overseeing male inmates. Gang members used sex and romance to cement their relationships with officers, and many of the officers seemed to revel in their behind bars dalliances, according to court documents. Jones, who allegedly began working with White in 2011, is not accused of any sexual improprieties.

Instead, court documents say he used his position to help contraband pass smoothly into the jail. Inmates kept an eye out for searches by K-9 officers, according to court documents, and White sometimes got tips from corrections officers ahead of when they were scheduled. "Let everybody know K-9 in the building, yo," White told another gang member, according to an intercepted call. But as a K-9 officer himself, witnesses told authorities, Jones was subject to less scrutiny as he entered the facility, allowing him "to freely smuggle contraband into the jail," an FBI agent wrote. Jones was "very careful about his smuggling business," the agent added, making calls using a blocked number and only accepting payment in cash.

Jones met with friends and family of inmates to obtain the contraband, then hid the items in his work vest, the FBI agent wrote. According to an intercepted call summarized in court documents, White was a satisfied customer. "My homeboy Jones," he said, "he bring me all my phones." iduncanbaltsun.com twitter.comiduncan DEATH LODGE NOTICES STEEDLEY, Marie On November 28, 2013; Marie Reed Steedley. On Wednesday, friends may call VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES, 4905 York Road, from 4-8PM.

On Thursday services for Mrs. Steedley will be held at New Shiloh Baptist Church, 2100 N. Monroe Street, where the family will receive friends from with services to follow. Inquiries to (410) 433-7500. EAST STRONG, Dorothy Lee On November 29, 2013, Dorothy Lee Strong On Thursday, friends may call at VAUGHN C.

GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES, 8728 Liberty Road (Randallstown) from 5 to 8 PM. On Friday, Mrs. Strong will lie instate at the Greater New Hope Baptist Church, 2720 w. North Avenue, where the family will receive friends from 10:30 to 11 AM with services to follow. Inquiries to (410)655-0015.

ra'ndallstciwn ATKINS James H. On November 24, 2013 James H. survived by family and friends. Friends may call at the Zion Baptist Church, 1717 Broening Hwy. at Holabird on Tuesday with services following.

Interment Private. Arrangements by Carlton C. Douglass Funeral Service P.A. 410-669-1738 WEIGMAN, Bernard J. On Saturday, November 30, 2013, BERNARD J.

WEIGMAN, age 81, of Reisterstown; beloved husband of Joan Mary Weigman; devoted father of Mary Jo Stafford and her husband Michael J. Stafford, Mark R. Weigman and his wife Katherine Jane Mahon and her husband Michael John P. Weigman and his wife Rebecca dear brother of Michael F. Weigman and his wife Virginia; loving grandfather of Joe, Emily, Helen and Grace Stafford; Peter, Robert, Andrew, MaryKatherine and AnneLindle Weigman; Colin, Madeline, Hannah, Luke, Abbey, and David Mahon; Cecilia, Bernadette, John Peter and Timothy Weigman.

Also survived by many nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law. Friends may call at the family owned Peaceful Alternatives Funeral and Cremation Center, P.A. 2325 York Timonium 21093 on Tuesday, December 3 from 2-4 7-9 PM. A funeral Mass will be celebrated on Wednesday, December 4, at the St. Joseph Church, 101 Church Lane, Cockeysville beginning at 10 AM.

Interment will be held at St. Joseph Church Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Bernard's name may be made to Loyola University Maryland, 4501 N. Charles St. Baltimore, MD 21210 or Catholic Charities of Baltimore, 320 Cathedral St.

Baltimore, MD 21201. Online condolences may be sent to the family at: www.Peacefulalternatives.com SUTTLEMAN, Gene On December 1, 2013, Gene Suttleman; beloved brother of the late Paul Suttleman and Leonard Suttleman; loving uncle of Jamie Feldman and Robin Stone; dear companion of Linda Opper. Funeral services and interment will be held at Beth Tfiloh Cemetery 5800 Windsor Mill Road on Tuesday, December 3, at 2 pm. Please omit flowers. The family will be receiving at 7820 Carteret Rd, Bethesda, MD 20817, Tuesday following the funeral.

Arrangements by SOL LEVINSON INC. sollevinson.com.