Metro Briefs

DISTRICT

Judge won’t stop teacher layoffs

A Superior Court judge has declined to halt the layoffs of D.C. school teachers announced earlier this year.

Judge Judith Bartnoff issued her ruling on Tuesday. The Washington Teachers’ Union asked the judge to stop the layoffs while the union challenges the personnel moves in court.

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee laid off about 400 D.C. public school employees after the school year started. She said she was responding to budget cuts, a statement that the union challenged.

Suspect arrested in 1997 slaying

Metropolitan police have arrested a suspect in the Jan. 21, 1997, slaying of a woman in her apartment in the Adams Morgan neighborhood.

Frederick Edward Morton, 57, was charged Tuesday with first-degree felony murder in the strangulation of Sharon Moskowitz, 25. Morton was brought to Washington on Monday from a federal prison in Allenwood, Pa.

Police released surveillance video last month that had been enhanced with new technology from the Secret Service. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said witnesses quickly came forward.

Moskowitz, who was from Connecticut, was killed just inside the front door of the house in the 1900 block of Biltmore Street in Northwest Washington, where she rented a third-floor apartment.

MARYLAND

BALTIMORE

Jury recesses in Dixon trial

Jurors in the theft trial of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon recessed Tuesday after a fourth day without a verdict.

After spending 25 1/2 hours deliberating over four days, the jury had returned to work Tuesday morning. The jury received the case about midday Thursday. It was to resume deliberations Wednesday morning.

Story Continues →