Stephen Janis and Luke Broadwater, The Examiner
2008-06-03 07:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

For the second time this year, a Baltimore City Department of Public Works employee has been arrested while on the job.

Melvin Talbot, 44, a maintenance worker in the city’s wastewater division, was charged May 22 with drug possession after police observed a multiple-person drug deal occurring on the 700 block of Pulaski Highway around 6 p.m., charging documents state.

The officer noticed Talbot place a “small object” in his hand during the “group hit,” a drug purchase in which multiple people participate to create “confusion” as to who is selling and buying the drugs, police said.

The officer said he stopped Talbot and searched him, discovering a black topped vial containing a brown substance believed to be heroin.

Talbot was in possession of a set of keys to a city-owned truck with placards in the bed parked on the block. The vehicle was then towed.

Talbot did not return phone calls for comment. Kurt Kocher, spokesman for the Public Works Department, declined comment.

Talbot is the second Public Works employee to be arrested while on the job this year.

A Baltimore City worker allegedly stole $296 from a pedestrian and fled the scene in his Public Works vehicle in February, police said.

Public Works employee Charles Payne, 51, of the 1400 block of Limit Avenue, was arrested on charges of robbery, theft and second-degree assault. Payne is still awaiting trial.

The city has recently received complaints of city employees purchasing drugs on the job.

Sources close to the administration said workers at the city’s North Avenue school headquarters complained that city employees were purchasing drugs behind the building. Surveillance photos were taken of employees making the alleged purchases, but it is unclear whether any charges resulted from that investigation.

“We get calls all the time from people saying they see a city worker purchasing drugs, but you don’t know if it’s true or false,” said City Councilman Jack “Bernard” Young. “It concerns me. But I look at it as a health problem. I think we need to make sure employees get treatment.”

sjanis@baltimoreexaminer.com

lbroadwater@baltimoreexaminer.com