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Plea deal ends Md. deaf school aide’s sex assault case

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (AP) — A former Maryland School for the Deaf aide is free from prison after striking a plea deal in a sex assault case.

Clarence Taylor, 41, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Ellicott City to three counts of fourth-degree sex offense. He was sentenced to the time he has already served since he was convicted in 2013 of molesting two female students. Taylor had been acquitted of molesting another girl and the jury had deadlocked on four other cases.

His convictions were overturned earlier this year by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals because Taylor, who is deaf, wasn’t allowed to question an American Sign Language interpreter who assisted police.

He worked at the school’s Columbia campus.

Taylor was placed on five years’ supervised probation and must register as a sex offender.

Ellicott City flood alert sounds, Howard County works to reduce chronic devastation

For the first time, early warning sirens sounded in historic Ellicott City on Monday evening, triggered by a flash flood warning from the National Weather Service. Despite almost two inches of rain in a one hour period, no serious damage was sustained in Maryland's flood-prone tourist destination, which suffered devastating floods in 2016 and 2018.
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