The state's highest court suspended a Baltimore County judge yesterday for making profane and uncivil comments from the bench, issuing the harshest punishment for a Maryland judge in more than two decades and, observers said, sending a message to judges to watch their behavior.
The Court of Appeals found that District Judge Bruce S. Lamdin violated the state's judicial code of conduct. It accepted a judicial commission's recommendation that the judge be suspended for 30 days without pay.
Lamdin, 60, tossed profanities at defendants from the bench, joked that Circuit Court judges spend afternoons drinking rather than working and chastised a woman accused of prostitution by telling her, "Business must be good. ... If I released you, you'd be scratching that itch tonight."
To a man accused of speeding on Interstate 83, he asked, "What's the big rush to get back to Pennsylvania? It's an ugly state." When a woman left his courtroom with a crying baby he pointed out that confiscated cell phones are placed in plastic bags to be sent to Annapolis and added: "Maybe we ought to do the same thing with children except poke holes in the bag."
His comments included disparaging remarks about drug treatment programs and the Baltimore City criminal justice system. He said that one defendant couldn't seem to keep from stepping in "a pile of [expletive]." He used a slang term for oral sex while sentencing a woman on prostitution charges.
The Court of Appeals, in a 24-page opinion, said the conduct "was prejudicial to the administration of justice, manifested bias toward many groups, and lacked dignity, courtesy, and patience."
The court added: "Even if the comments were delivered in a joking manner, it is difficult to imagine a context in which such remarks would be appropriate or consistent with behavior that promotes public confidence in the impartiality and integrity of the Judiciary."
An investigation into Lamdin's conduct began when a Reisterstown man filed a complaint about the judge's handling of traffic cases. The Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities ordered audio recordings of nine months of hearings from Lamdin's courtroom.
Gary J. Kolb, an attorney and executive secretary of the commission, said his colleagues were pleased with the court's decision.
"It's a wake-up call for judges on how they should act," Kolb said. "The opinion will be important for them to review. And of course the public will feel good that the court feels like this is an important issue."
