A.F. James MacArthur in his online radio studio, from which he held an hours-long broadcast ‘debate’ early this month with Baltimore Police negotiator Lt. Jason Yerg.

FAMILY SUSPECTS MacARTHUR’S INCARCERATION
MAY BE RETALIATION FOR CRITICISM OF POLICE

Gadfly journalist appeared regularly at city crime scenes,
frequently lambasted  law enforcement officials’ actions

REPORTED TO BE ‘LUCID AND CALM’
 
By Alan Z. Forman
 
The family of controversial blogger A.F. James MacArthur, who held nearly 100 Baltimore Police Department SWAT and tactical team officers at bay for more than five hours two weeks ago before surrendering peacefully, is concerned that their relative’s continued incarceration may be retaliation for his habit of observing city police at crime scenes and regularly criticizing their activities.

MacArthur was arrested at 11 p.m. Dec. 1, ending an hours-long telephone “debate” with a police negotiator broadcast in real time on his website, BaltimoreSpectator.com, and has since been denied bail and even visitors in the 17-day period following.

In an email to Voice of Baltimore, his sister, who is a legislative analyst for the Montgomery County Council, expressed concern that “no one has been able to see him yet, not even Jill Carter,” his attorney.

However, Baltimore Sun Crime Reporter Justin Fenton informs VoB via email that “Jill Carter met with him last week. She told me he was ‘lucid and calm,’” Fenton said.

Last week, Carter — a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, representing the state’s 41st Legislative District — filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus after MacArthur was denied bail, despite having never been charged with a violent offense.

“As of last week,” his sister, Jean C. Arthur, told VoB “there was no hearing set for her [Carter’s] motion and she believes at this point that it probably will not happen until the January hearing,” which has been set for the end of the first week of the new year.

MAIN CONCERN IS TO GET HIM ‘THE HELP HE NEEDS’

“I know he has been for a psych evaluation but I believe that to be somewhat routine,” Arthur added.

Sources in the prosecutor’s office have told Voice of Baltimore their main concern is “to get him evaluated so he can get the help he needs,” an opinion apparently based on MacArthur’s allegedly erratic behavior.

In the days and hours leading up to his standoff with police, he posted what the cops considered threatening messages on Facebook and his Twitter feed, including his online website, which featured streaming audio in real time, leading authorities to consider him a threat to public safety and causing them to use his tweets to obtain a search warrant for his home — possibly a groundbreaking example of police use of social media to fight crime, begging the question of whether Twitter and Facebook messages represent public or private communication.

“I would not be surprised that they would try to declare him incompetent,” Arthur said in her email, “since I believe the police are rather intimidated by him.

“Also, I think they don’t like the fact that they don’t intimidate him,” she declared, adding: “he speaks out against them and so they will do whatever they can to silence him.”

POLICE NOT EASILY INTIMIDATED

Prosecution sources, who were not willing to speak on the record because the case is pending, told Voice of Baltimore that that is not the reality at all, that the police are not easily intimidated — or even bothered — by a blogger who intrudes on crime scenes or who criticizes their activities.

Still they used his allegedly threatening tweets to obtain a search warrant to flip his home, where they found a sawed-off shotgun in violation of his probation on two previous gun charges.

MacArthur says the weapon was “planted,” that it looks very much like a gun the police confiscated from him several years ago.

A cab driver by trade, he is charged with “illegal possession” of “a regulated firearm after being convicted of a disqualifying crime, to wit: deadly weapon/conceal, a violation classified as a misdemeanor in the state, that carries a statutory penalty of more than two years”; and “rifle/shotgun: unregistered,” that he “did possess a short-barrelled (sic.) rifle/shotgun, against the Peace, Government, and Dignity of the State.”

Each of the charges carries a maximum penalty of five years and/or a financial penalty of $10,000 for the first charge and $5,000 for the second.

“Even accused murderers get out on bail,” noted one courthouse observer. MacArthur won’t have another hearing until January.

STATE’S ATTORNEY HAS CIRCUIT COURT OPTION

To date, he has been charged in Baltimore City District Court; however the State’s Attorney’s Office has the option of charging the case in Circuit Court, which could carry stiffer penalties if convicted.

As best that VoB can determine, no decision has been made on whether to upgrade to Circuit Court. An email to the city state’s attorney’s spokesman asking if that question has been resolved went unanswered as of press time.

MacArthur has what a pretrial services official described as an extensive criminal history, including convictions in Maryland as well as arrests in California, all on gun charges, no violence.

He has in addition been previously committed for a competency examination following alleged threats made several years ago against a public official who asked VoB not to mention her by name. She did not take his threats seriously, she said, and had not requested that he be committed, although he apparently blamed her for it.

At two bail review hearings last week he was first released on his own recognizance, then immediately re-arrested and denied bail by a second judge, who refused a public defender’s request for a 24-hour delay to allow him to obtain private counsel in the person of Delegate Carter.

NOT IN CITY JAIL, IN CENTRAL BOOKING

Regarding visitors:  After being assured that MacArthur was being held in City Jail, Voice of Baltimore waited in line, outside, for more than an hour Saturday afternoon to see him, only to be told he was not in City Jail at all, he was still in Central Booking, which allows visitors on Sundays only.

So VoB returned early Sunday afternoon and found the door to Central Booking locked.

A guard explained that because “a large number” of potential visitors had shown up, “the watch captain decided to cut off visiting hours early.”

VoB had been told to arrive anytime between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. but that early afternoon was best. The door was locked for the day shortly after 1:30 p.m.

“Come back next Sunday,” the guard said, as if she knew MacArthur would spend at least another week or more in Central Booking.

“You can probably see him then.”
 
alforman@voiceofbaltimore.org
 
CHECK OUT VoB’S PREVIOUS COVERAGE OF JAMES MacARTHUR’S SATURDAY NIGHT STANDOFF WITH POLICE  (click here)

AND CATCH VOICE OF BALTIMORE TUESDAY DECEMBER 18th AT 5:30 P.M. ON THE MARC STEINER SHOW — WEAA-RADIO 88.9-FM;  PODCAST AVAILABLE FOLLOWING THE SHOW  (click here)