Acquittal

Bel Air lawyer Stuart L. Alison came to his own defense Thursday, winning his acquittal on a drunken driving charge by arguing that the 1989 state police Trooper of the Year didn't follow proper procedures in the arrest.This was the second time Alison has been charged with driving while intoxicated. In the first incident, in 1986, he was convicted.Alison had requested that Thursday's trial in Harford District Court be postponed when his attorney, Lawrence P. Pinno Jr. of Bel Air, couldn't appear for the trial.

A longtime county pediatrician said he felt like he had "a ton of bricks lifted off his shoulders" last week when a Carroll jury ruled hewas not negligent in his care of a baby boy who died at Carroll County General Hospital.Dr. Karl Green, the first staff pediatrician at the hospital, said he is relieved that the trial is over, though he said it didn't disrupt his medical practice."My patients' parents stood by me," Green said, standing on the steps of the courthouse after the verdict was announced.

The ordered and regimented routine of life behind bars has yet to leave Bernard L. Ward Jr., newly free after spending five years in prison for a murder that a jury decided 10 days ago he did not commit.When he wakes up each morning, Mr. Ward thinks he's still in his cell at the Maryland Correctional Institute in Jessup. He forgets that the bathroom is down the hall and that it isn't "lights out" at 10 o'clock each night.He stacked his belongings from prison in one corner of the basement of the Dundalk rowhouse he now shares with his fiancee -- as if storage space were still a precious commodity.

A Baltimore Circuit Court jury deliberated just 40 minutes yesterday before finding state Del. Tony E. Fulton innocent of stealing money during his 1990 re-election campaign.Mr. Fulton was acquitted of two counts of felony theft and misdemeanor misconduct. Had he been convicted, Mr. Fulton would have faced up to 30 years in jail and expulsion from office."It was obvious that the charges were bogus, and given the fact that the jury only stayed out a half-hour or so, it seems they were convinced, too," said an elated Mr. Fulton after the verdict.

A spray-paint artist arrested last year was found not guilty Friday of peddling without a permit at Baltimore's Inner Harbor, a ruling that left the defendant without an opportunity to argue the free-speech issues he says are at the heart of the case. District Judge George M. Lipman said prosecutors failed to prove their allegations because police officers never saw Mark Chase sell his paintings. In effect, the judge ruled the officers arrested the artist too soon, while he was setting up and before he had made a sale.

The jury in Baltimore Police Officer Edward T. Gorwell II's manslaughter trial was leaning toward acquittal when a judge declared a mistrial yesterday, jurors said.Baltimore Circuit Judge Ellen M. Heller's decision to abort the trial of a police officer charged in the shooting death of a 14-year-old boy capped an extraordinary series of events both in and out of the courtroom.First, juror Malcolm Boykin took the witness stand to explain why he failed to show up Friday, interrupting the jury's deliberations on a verdict and ultimately leading to yesterday's mistrial.

A former Carroll assistant state's attorney who represented man charged with his fourth drunken-driving offense had helped to prepare the case against him, according to court records.David M. Littrell, who was asked to resign from the prosecutor's office on July 31, took on Timothy R. Angles as a client last month. Mr. Angles, who already had three drunken-driving convictions on his record, faced his fourth charge stemming from a one-car accident in January in which two people were injured.

Despite the acquittal of one of three men charged with raping a Baltimore County woman in March, the county prosecutor will try the two remaining defendants in Harford Circuit Court.A jury of eight women and four men found Andre S. Whims not guilty Sept.7 of 13 charges relating to the alleged attack, which police said occurred in the back of a white Lincoln limousine that traveled and was parked in Harford.Whims and two of his friends were accused of zapping a 25-year-old woman with an electric "stun gun" and forcing her to have sex with them on March 29.Assistant State's Attorney Mark A. Nelson said he will pursue convictions of the two remaining defendants -- Michael A. Bruno, 32, of Glenarm, Baltimore County, and Robert W. Ambrose, 23, of Joppatowne.

A Baltimore County judge declared a mistrial yesterday after a jury failed to reach a verdict in the case of a Baltimore police officer charged with the beating of a Dundalk youth after a snowball-throwing incident last February.The jury did acquit Nicholas Pelekakis, 38, of committing battery on another youth in the fracas, while a battery charge involving a third youth was dismissed during by Circuit Judge Robert E. Cahill Jr.A juror said afterward that the panel had deadlocked 8-4 in favor of conviction on the most serious charge of battery -- that he broke the nose of Douglas E. Cloude 17.Officer Pelekakis is also involved in civil litigation surrounding the fatal shooting of a young carjacking suspect in the city last March.

A Baltimore jury acquitted a 22-year-old man yesterday in a case that exemplifies how extreme witness problems can undermine murder prosecutions in the city. Keko O. Worrell of the 1300 block of N. Caroline St. was on trial in the killing last August of Michael Lockett, 16, who was shot three times in the back in an East Baltimore parking lot as he was riding a bicycle. City prosecutor Gerald Volatile began the trial Tuesday with three witnesses - two of whom had been arrested for being uncooperative and were under court supervision.