The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 24

Maryland Page 4b Thursday, September 27, 2001 The Sun Teacher sentenced in sex abuse case Teacher, from Page 1b Inmate accepts term of 15 years in 1978 murder Agreement averts retrial after his '97 conviction was reversed on appeal By Joan Jacobson "As parents, we expect to be able to send our kids to school to be educated and to be safe not to become the target or love object of a teacher," the prosecutor said. "I'm having a hard time being able to chalk this up to some aberrational behavior. Maybe if it was one boy she had some emotional attachment to, It would be a different story." Instead, Gilmore said, Merson groomed several boys to be sexual partners, starting out with flirtatious notes and hugs that culminated in sex at the school, in cars, at her home and at another residence. It was Merson not the boy who initiated the relationships, the prosecutor said. She developed and distributed nude photos of herself, wore provocative clothing to school, and pursued the boys despite their attempts to avoid her, Gilmore said.

She warned them not to tell anyone of her advances, Gilmore told the court. Most disturbing, the prosecutor said, was Merson's statement to police regarding the youngest boy with whom she had sexual contact. "She said, 'I can't believe he'd do this to and essentially described a forcible encounter and lays this at the feet of a 15-year-old boy," Gilmore said. "When confronted again by investigators, she comes clean" and acknowledged that she wanted to have sex with the boy. In sentencing Merson to a five- year prison term and suspending all but 18 months of it, the Judge emphasized that Merson rather than her family or her upbringing was responsible for her behavior.

"As we grow older, we tend to look back fondly upon that period of our lives when we were adolescents," Beck said. "We hope for our children that they'll have fond memories not affected by people taking advantage of them and making adults out of them before their time. "Crimes were committed," the judge said. "It's interesting to know why some think they were committed. But it's also irrelevant to me.

I believe some punishment should be exacted." Merson apologized yesterday in court to the boys and their families, who did not attend the hearing, and through Gilmore declined to comment on the sentencing. Merson also apologized to her family, her estranged husband and his family, the community, and the students and staff members of Key High School. Merson will be able to serve her time in the Carroll County Detention Center on work release. She also will be permitted to leave once a week for sessions with her psychiatrist and for 2 hours every Sunday to attend Mass at St. Stephen's Reformed Episcopal Church in Eldersburg.

Bennett said he does not intend to appeal the sentence. 8UN STAFF want to tear this woman down any further. I urge the mercy of the court. Just to get another pound of flesh out of her with Incarceration Is just not appropriate." The psychiatrist Merson has been seeing weekly since her arrest, Dr. Gary W.

Nyman, concurred. He testified that Merson's sexual contact with the nine boys was "an aberration" and that she has the emotional maturity of a 16- or 17-year-old. He suggested that an overly protective family and a sheltered childhood left her vulnerable and fragile. An "ugly duckling reaction" and a desire to relive her I teen-age years in a more satisfying way led her to give in to her temptations, Nyman testified. ,1 Merson told police during her first interrogation in May that she considered herself ugly as a teen-1 ager and that braces, glasses and her hairstyle made her unattrac-.

tive to the kinds of boys popular athletes with whom she initiated sexual contact at Key High School. "Now I can be attractive to them," she told investigators, according to a police report from the interview. "I'll tell you the truth. When I went to Key High School for the Job, I told myself, 'Don't work at a high school. It will just be too For Gilmore, that statement was proof that Merson knew what she was doing.

I s. -V--" L. Ji tl- V. 'tA- V- 1 AMY OA VIS SUN STAFF Historic: Officials in Laurel ponder the fate of the Harrison-Beard building, a masonry structure built in 1890. The tornado left it roofless.

Governor says Md. likely to qualify for federal aid Grand Opening Celebration Thursday, Sept.27th to Sunday, OctJth Damage.from Page 1b 2476 CHURCHV1LLE ROAD BELAIR I IT 11 rt William R. Isaacs, a career criminal who has served prison time for loan sharking and witness tampering, pleaded guilty yesterday to the murder of a Towson construction worker found beaten and drowned In Gunpowder Falls in 1978. Isaacs was convicted In 1997 of second-degree murder In the killing of Mark Schwandtner. But the conviction was reversed on appeal after a Judge failed to share with lawyers in the case a note he had received from jurors.

Yesterday, instead of going to trial 4 a second time, Isaacs accepted a plea agreement from the Baltimore County state's attorney's office. The agreement calls for a 15-year sentence, beginning with the date of his first conviction. Isaac's lawyer, Clarke Ahlers, said his client would likely be paroled "in the near future." Isaacs, 48, entered an Alford plea, which means he did not admit guilt but agreed there is enough evidence to convict him. An admitted loan shark and bookmaker who spent most of the last decade in federal and state prisons, he has been in the Baltimore County Detention Center awaiting retrial since August of last year. Isaacs showed no emotion when prosecutor James O.

Gentry Jr. recited the details surrounding the beating of Schwandtner, 22, on a railroad trestle above Gunpowder Falls at the Baltimore County-Harford County line June 10, 1978. Police were not able to establish a motive in the killing. Gentry noted that the government's key witness in Isaacs' 1997 trial was Isaacs' former friend and partner, Charles Wilhelm, who became a paid FBI informant. Wilhelm testified that Isaacs admitted to the murder the morning after it happened.

During the first trial, Isaacs told the jury, "I had nothing to do with anybody being killed, nothing," according to the court transcript. After yesterday's hearing, Isaacs' lawyer took an unusual step to distance his client from the crime, handing a reporter a "defendant's press release" that stated, "Mr. Isaacs denies that he is guilty of any offense in the 1978 death of Mark Schwandtner." Ahlers wrote that Isaacs took the Alford plea to take advantage of the prosecutor's offer of a 15-year sentence. If Isaacs had been convicted of second-degree murder by a judge or jury, he could have faced a 30-year sentence. Ahlers' press release attacked the FBI for failing to give him access to records that might show Wilhelm was lying.

"What all of this means is thatfr Mr. Isaacs elected to go to trial, he would be forced to defend against a case accusing him of a crime 23 years ago without any understanding of what evidence the FBI has that Wilhelm Is not telling the truth and that others may have committed this offense," the press release says. Two other men, John S. Deny and Ronald G. Rogers, are awaiting trial in Schwandtner's killing.

'rf Colombian During Our Grand Opening rr my A CUP lorreet IDE! Checkout Our MM Gas Prices Fill Up '2 Uter wi Tax A Deposit where applicable REClMR SIZE CANDY dry Ice to keep their refrigerators cool, said company spokeswoman Makini Street. Even those seriously injured by the funnel cloud said yesterday they were feeling better. "I'm one of the most fortunate people around," said Brian Fu-selier, 36, the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute's information technology coordinator. When the tornado leveled the institute's temporary home on the College Park campus, Fuselier was hit in the back by a bookcase which fractured three vertebrae, cracked a rib and injured his lung. His spleen was removed Monday night, but Fuselier is expected to make a full recovery.

Officials in Laurel were pondering the fate of the now roofless and crumbling Harrison-Beard building, a masonry structure built in 1890 that is particularly important for the links to the past it provides for the city. "This has more history than any other building in this town," said Gayle Snyder, chairwoman of the Historic District Commission. "It's really the cornerstone of Laurel." Harrison-Beard was slated for demolition yesterday morning, according to Laurel City Police spokesman Jim Collins, but worries that a decision to tear it down was being made too quickly kept It standing for at least one more day. "As long as everyone believes that they truly did explore all other options, we'll just have to let It go," said Marlene Frazier, president of the Laurel Historical Society. Mayor Frank P.

Casula and the City Council will make the final decision on the building's fate, Collins said. Casula was out of his office yesterday on personal business, his assistant said. In Laurel, the tornado left no one seriously injured. But the storm claimed the lives of two University of Maryland students, Colleen and Erin Marlatt, and left one person in serious condition at Prince George's Hospital Center. complex off University Boulevard needs an estimated $1.5 million in repairs, Its owner, Ambling said yesterday.

Two of eight buildings in the complex were ready for students to return to last night, and two more will be reopened this weekend, Cathcart said. The other four will be closed for repairs for another few weeks. Some residents of those buildings returned to their apartments with escorts yesterday to retrieve belongings. Classes resumed at the University of Maryland, College Park, where workers have managed to clear most of the debris and fallen trees that littered the northern end of the campus. As expected, College Park suffered extensive traffic tie-ups yesterday morning because of the closing of University Boulevard (Route 193), where downed power lines and trees still blocked the road.

By late afternoon yesterday, three of four lanes on Route 1 near the campus had been reopened, according to David Buck, a spokesman with the Maryland highway department. University Boulevard was open later in the day, Buck said. The UMCP parking lot where as many as 600 cars were damaged in the storm was mostly cleared yesterday, with the most severely damaged cars moved to the rear, Cathcart said. "We had cots set up in the recreation center and the student union, but none of them were used, so It looks like most people were able to find friends and bunk up with them," said Cathcart. A BGE spokeswoman said power was restored late Tuesday to all customers affected by the storm.

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West Nile virus strikes first horses in Maryland ry Reg. Price $1.49 MS i Pta Chips 3 5.5 oz. BAG Horses, from Page 1b ENTER TO WIN A BIKE. GAS GRILLE AND OTHER GREAT PRIZES i "1 I Give-Away Drawing Celebrate With Us Balloons for kids TteeGlfts Saturday, Sept 29th to 2p.m. NAME 9 ADDRESS more than 45,000 horses are beloved pets.

"When those people experience a loss," says Steele, of Shamrock Farm, "that's part of the family." Maryland's weather provides one defense against a major outbreak, officials say. The peak of the equine West Nile season is mid-September to mid-October. But In Maryland, that's when mosquito reproduction declines. The first freeze, usually in late October, should kill off any remaining mosquitoes. Another defense is the new equine West Nile vaccine that the USDA approved Aug.

1. (A human vaccine has not been'developed.) At Manor Equine Hospital In Monkton, veterinarian Dr. Amy C. Polkes and her colleagues have run through their initial supply of 200 doses and ordered 500 more. Fort Dodge Animal Health, maker of the vaccine, has shipped 35,000 doses to Maryland, said spokeswoman Laura Primm.

clude a wobbly gait, stumbling or a droopy lip. The West Nile virus has infected 113 horses in the United States this year, according to the USDA. The majority of cases 88 have occurred in Florida. Twenty-six of the infected animals died or had to be destroyed. Although an equine West Nile epidemic like the one seen In Florida is considered unlikely, any new disease that can kill a horse potentially could have devastating economic consequences.

"Some of the horses I have, they can't be replaced," says Mike Pons, business manager of his family's Country Life Farm near Bel Air. Among the 50 horses on Pons' farm are animals such as Allen's Prospect, Maryland's top sire. The stallion commands a stud fee of $12,500 and breeds with 100 mares a year. But the consequences of a major outbreak are not only economic. The majority of the gate's I bred In Monkton, and a thoroughbred yearling in Chesapeake City.

State officials are awaiting final confirmation of the diagnosis from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And they say they wouldn't be surprised if more West Nile cases turn up this year. "It's here to stay and spreading widely geographically," said Dr. Roger E.

Olson, the state veterinarian. West Nile is transmitted from birds to people and horses by the bite of mosquitoes. There Is no evidence the virus can spread from horse to horse or horse to human. The virus is most likely to sicken older animals, but young horses can die from West Nile too, said Dr. Randall L.

Crom of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The disease becomes a threat to horses when the virus -moves Into the brain, causing it or the spinal cord to swelL Symptoms in TELE Deposl In entry box at Xlramart NoPirdiase Necessary 2476 CHURCHVILLE ROAD BELAIR 1.