Assistant editor, investigations and enterprise

Ruben Castaneda

Ruben Castaneda is an assistant editor with the investigations and enterprise team at The Baltimore Sun. His duties include finding investigative stories and features throughout the state. Many but not all of the stories involve the criminal justice system and policing. Castaneda has worked at The Washington Post, General Dynamics Information Technology, U.S. News & World Report, Law360 and the American University alumni association. He is the author of the 2014 nonfiction book, S Street Rising: Crack, Murder, and Redemption in D.C. His book website is sstreetrising.net. Email him at rucastaneda@baltsun.com.

Maryland Legal Aid and other groups will hold two free clinics to help eligible people expunge criminal charges from their record. Eligible persons could include people who were detained at the Central Booking jail in Baltimore.

Maryland Legal Aid to provide free criminal record expungement, resume clinics

October 30, 2025 at 5:55 p.m.

Maryland Legal Aid is partnering with other organizations to provide free expungement clinics and other services in Baltimore this Saturday and on Nov. 13.

When Baltimore documentarian Jill Yesko was 9, her mother disappeared suddenly and without explanation. A year later, Yesko's mom returned, without explanation. In her documentary "Erased," Yesko investigates the New York psychiatric facility where her mom spent the year. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff)

Baltimore documentarian investigates her mom’s yearlong vanishing in new film

October 29, 2025 at 8:43 a.m.

A Baltimore documentarian's film explores her mother's lost year in a Maryland psychiatric facility.

Jamien Palmer, left, was detained at Central Booking jail for 22 hours after a judge ordered his release. (Kenneth K. Lam/staff)

Hearing scheduled in Baltimore jail overdetention lawsuit

October 23, 2025 at 4:57 p.m.

If the case goes to trial and the plaintiffs prevail, the amount each plaintiff would receive would be set by a jury, Hansel said. A reasonable verdict would be "in...

Annapolis woman Nancy Snow disappeared in 1980. (Photo courtesy of Snow’s daughters, Stacy, Justine and Kimberly)

‘Person of interest’ breaks silence in 1980 cold case disappearance of Annapolis woman

October 24, 2025 at 12:51 p.m.

For more than four decades after Annapolis woman Nancy Snow vanished, Paul Collins —a longtime “person of interest” — stayed silent, as Dateline, newspapers, crime websites and podcasts aired and...

Attorney Cary Hansel, right, is filing a class action lawsuit on behalf of Jamien Palmer, left, and others who were detained at Central Booking jail for hours longer than they should have been after judges ordered their release. (Kenneth K. Lam/staff)

10 years lost: Baltimore jail held thousands of people past their release dates, lawsuit claims

October 14, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

A federal lawsuit claims Baltimore’s Central Booking routinely held thousands of detainees long after judges ordered their release, costing residents years of lost freedom and prompting calls for systemic reform.

Police tape at a crime scene in Baltimore. File.

University of Maryland launches violence reporting system project

October 8, 2025 at 1:29 p.m.

The University of Maryland School of Social Work (USMSSW) announced the launch of a statewide initiative that aims to help community organizations and health departments use death data to develop...

A refrigerator magnet bears the saying, “Bless this house / Oh, Lord, we pray, / Make it safe / By night and day” helps to secure the last photo of Crystol Stallings, mother posing with her son William Stallings Jr., which was taken months before his untimely March, 2021 death in Sparks. A medical examiner concluded that the exact cause of his mysterious passing was “undetermined.” (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)

Mother pushes for new law to honor her son’s ‘undetermined’ death

October 8, 2025 at 7:12 p.m.

Stallings is seeking legislation, which calls "Billy's Law," that would "require law enforcement to treat any body found outdoors in the elements as a potential crime scene until proven otherwise."

A landmark landlord case is headed to the Maryland Supreme Court
(Dreamstime/TNS)

CASA brings tenant rights battle to Maryland Supreme Court

October 3, 2025 at 5:56 a.m.

“It is a very important case for tenants who are living in properties that have dangerous conditions and the landlord is unlicensed," said Jonathan Riedel, supervising attorney at CASA.

Erica J. Suter, Director of The Innocence Project, speaks with the media after her client Adnan Syed had his conviction overturned. (Staff file)

Erica Suter: From representing Adnan Syed to leading UMD’s Innocence Project Clinic

October 10, 2025 at 10:10 a.m.

We do simulations on what your first encounter with your incarcerated client will be like, because there are things that are unique to interviewing a client who’s incarcerated.

FOP leadership calls for resignation of Aberdeen City Council member Timothy Lindecamp after "unethical conduct" during traffic stop involving his stepson.(Aberdeen Police body camera)

Police union calls for Aberdeen councilmember to resign after stepson’s traffic stop

September 29, 2025 at 6:18 p.m.

“We urge you to take this opportunity to resign in the hopes of avoiding administrative action and possible prosecution that could result in your removal from office,” the letter stated.