Metro Briefs

DISTRICT

Permanent housing sought for homeless

The District will work to provide permanent supportive housing for shelter residents and create a fund to establish more housing for the city’s homeless, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said yesterday.

The initiatives will be directed by the Department of Human Services, which will join other city agencies to develop properties for housing with supportive services for homeless people with disabilities.

Mr. Fenty, a Democrat, said officials hope to house 400 of the longest-staying residents in the District’s shelter system over a six-month period, and the plan also will allow the consolidation of existing shelter facilities.

The $19.2 million program also will help house 80 families. Officials said the programs will decrease the District’s chronically homeless population by 23 percent and decrease family homelessness by 42 percent.

Mr. Fenty also proposed establishing a fund for such housing initiatives that will receive money from the city’s disposition of properties through lease or sale.

“The systems of the past have not brought us closer to ending this humanitarian crisis in our city,” Mr. Fenty said. “This is an exciting initiative, and we look forward to working closely with community stakeholders to make it successful.”

MARYLAND

RIVERDALE

Teen fatally stabbed near high school

A 15-year-old boy died yesterday afternoon after he was stabbed while walking home from Parkdale High School.

Prince George’s County police were called to the 6000 block of Good Luck Road at about 2:45 p.m.

Maj. Kevin Davis said a car pulled up, and a man got out and stabbed the teen during an altercation. Friends of the teen found him and called 911.

The teen, a 10th-grader, was taken to Doctors Community Hospital with a stab wound to the chest and later died.

Schools spokesman John White said the stabbing took place about a quarter-mile from the school after all students had been dismissed and all buses had left. Students who still were at the school were kept safely inside.

The school will open as scheduled today, and Mr. White said grief counselors and a crisis team will be on hand.

ANNAPOLIS

Three prison officers acquitted of assault

A jury in Anne Arundel County acquitted five state correctional officers accused of assaulting an inmate.

The verdict Tuesday night was reached after about three hours of deliberations.

The officers were charged with second-degree assault in the beating of Bradford Matthews at the now-closed Maryland House of Correction in July 2006, one day after the fatal stabbing of another officer.

Prosecutors said a homemade knife once thought to be the weapon used in the stabbing was planted on Matthews. Prosecutors argued the guards used excessive force against Matthews when he refused to comply with orders.

Defense attorneys claimed the guards used reasonable force to subdue an unruly prisoner.

CENTREVILLE

Deputy cleared in use of Taser

An internal investigation has cleared Deputy Anthony Lenzi of any wrongdoing in the use of a Taser against a Kent Island High School student, Queen Anne’s County Sheriff R.G. Hofmann said.

Sheriff Hofmann said using the Taser was within the scope of the department’s policies and procedures.

The device was used after a fight between students from rival high schools following a Feb. 17 basketball game. Deputy Lenzi used the Taser to stun Brandon Bennett, 17, despite the orders of a senior officer. Investigators concluded Deputy Lenzi did not hear the orders to stand down.

Deputy Lenzi returned to active duty Tuesday.

Sheriff Hofmann said any decision on criminal prosecution against the deputy or the student rests with State’s Attorney Frank M. Kratovil Jr.

FREDERICK

Earnhardt image stolen from store

Maryland State Police are looking for three men who stole a 5-foot cardboard cutout of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt from a convenience store.

The Wawa store was auctioning off the display to benefit Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore. The last bid was $500.

The thieves shown on video-surveillance images are three bearded men.

VIRGINIA

WISE

Guard sentenced for killing ex-inmate

A former Red Onion State Prison guard will spend more than 14 years behind bars for the fatal shooting of a former inmate.

Alice Foster, 44, of Coeburn, pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder in the March 2007 slaying of Roy Lee Gary, 39, in her home.

Authorities said the two had a relationship while Gary was at Red Onion. He was paroled in late 2005. Foster was married at the time, and her husband moved out of their Coeburn house only a few months before Gary was shot.

Foster admitted shooting Gary, but told police that he broke into her home. Authorities say evidence suggested Gary lay dead in Foster’s home several hours before she called police to report shooting an intruder.

VIRGINIA BEACH

Nurse charged in use of dead man’s card

A nurse is charged with stealing a credit card from a dead man and using it to buy a laptop computer.

Police said Matthew Wiseman, 24, is charged with one count of credit-card theft and one count of credit-card fraud. Authorities said he stole the credit card from Michael Puopolo, who was pronounced dead in the emergency room at Sentara Bayside Hospital.

When Claudia Puopolo called to cancel her husband’s credit card, she learned it had been used six hours after he died.

Surveillance footage showed a man in scrubs buying the computer. Hospital workers helped identify Mr. Wiseman, who was fired Monday, police said.

FAIRFAX

Two UVa. students plead to kidnapping

Two University of Virginia students pleaded guilty to kidnapping a 20-year-old man and demanding a $500,000 ransom.

Prosecutors said Guanyu Lu, 19, and Baichuan Shu, 20, both second-year engineering students, planned to extort money from the family of Paul Wang, who was living with his uncle in McLean.

Mr. Wang was lured from his home by a phone call from a person who said he had attended the same high school as Mr. Wang in China and was having car trouble.

He was abducted by two armed men wearing masks who kept him in a Falls Church motel for about 24 hours before authorities rescued him.

Lu and Shu each pleaded guilty to one count of abduction with intent to extort money.

NORFOLK

Charges withdrawn for cell phone photos

A prosecutor withdrew charges yesterday against a Granby High School teacher accused of using a cell phone to send photos to students that showed her in various stages of undress.

Prosecutor Jill Harris said the facts did not support the charges against Natasha Sizow, 25, a first-year social studies teacher and swimming coach.

A school official said Miss Sizow will be moved to a non-instructional position with pay for the rest of the year and won’t be returning to the classroom.

Miss Sizow was arrested in February and charged with two counts each of indecent liberties and use of a communications device to facilitate crimes against children.

From wire dispatches and staff reports