White supremacist held without bond in Tuesday’s attack at Fort Armistead Park
A white supremacist accused of beating a 76-year-old black fisherman goes by the nickname “Hitler” and has a tattoo of the Nazi leader on his stomach that also reads “He lives,” according to police and court records.
Court documents released Wednesday show that the victim, James Privott, suffered a fractured eye socket and lost two teeth in the South Baltimore attack, which suspect Calvin E. Lockner told police “wouldn’t have happened if he was a white man.”
Lockner, who faces 19 criminal charges including attempted first-degree murder, was ordered held without bond as new details about his criminal past emerged. The registered sex offender told police this week that he was a member of two hate groups, including the Aryan Brotherhood, and was arrested in May after his wife told police that he bit her face during an argument about black people.
In 2000, he was indicted in separate incidents with raping a 4-year-old girl and raping and attempting to kill a 39-year-old woman. He pleaded not criminally responsible by reason of insanity to the crimes.
Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon spoke out against this week’s crime at a City Hall news conference Wednesday attended by civil rights, faith leaders and some City Council members.
“We all have to speak out and speak up and say this is not acceptable in our communities,” Dixon said. “We must stand together in opposing this kind of act.”
Gov. Martin O’Malley in a statement called the assault a “vicious, hateful and cowardly attack.”
In a brief telephone interview, a relative said Privott, a retired state employee, remained hospitalized and was doing “quite well.” Son-in-law Jack Foster said the family, which includes black and white members, has been shaken by the incident and did not want to stoke tensions by speaking out.
“These people have done something that has very much rocked the family,” Foster said. “But we don’t hold grudges, and we’re just sorry that it happened.”
Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said Privott, a resident of Windsor Mill in Baltimore County, was “targeted” by several men as he packed up his vehicle after fishing with his wife at Fort Armistead Park about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday. One of the men kicked him to the ground and started punching him in the face, using a racial slur and saying, “I’ll get you,” while another man struck him with a baseball bat.
Dixon said she’s been in touch with Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold about “partnering” with the county to provide more lighting and security at the city-owned Fort Armistead Park, which sits under the Key Bridge.
Privott’s attackers took his wallet and drove away in Privott’s Chevy Tahoe, which was equipped with an antitheft device that police used to track the vehicle.
“We started tracking the vehicle very, very quickly,” Bealefeld said.
Police found it in the 5100 block of Erdman Ave. Bealefeld said the men bailed out of the vehicle and that it crashed and overturned, but Lockner was tracked down with the help of a witness. Two other suspects were being sought, and Bealefeld said police have received anonymous tips about their identities.
Lockner was charged in 1999 after a 4-year-old girl who was living in the same house demonstrated with dolls how she had been sexually abused. She said the abuse by Lockner had occurred on four occasions, according to records.
He was arrested in 2000, as detectives were investigating separate allegations of rape. A woman told police she met Lockner on the street, who led her into a wooded area where he raped her and struck her with a flashlight. Detectives wrote in charging documents that Lockner gave a taped statement corroborating the woman’s story and saying he left her for dead.
The cases involving the woman and the girl were indicted jointly. Lockner pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree sex offense and was sentenced to 20 years in prison with all but eight years suspended.
Margaret T. Burns, a spokeswoman for Baltimore State’s Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy, said the girl’s mother did not feel her daughter could go through with a trial, and a judge ordered that those charges be placed on the inactive docket.
In May, Lockner was charged with second-degree assault after his wife said he bit and punched her in the face after they got into an argument over “black people” who were “bothering her.” But those charges were dropped in July after the woman recanted.
Baltimore Sun reporters Annie Linskey and Tricia Bishop contributed to this article.
