Administrative Law Judge

Kenneth H. Moyer, a retired Social Security Administration administrative law judge, died of cancer May 29 at his Timonium home. He was 81. Mr. Moyer began his SSA career in the Office of Hearing Appeals in 1955. He retired from the agency as an administrative judge in 1981. Born and raised in Harrisburg, Pa., he earned his bachelor's degree from Lebanon Valley College. During World War II, he served with the Army Transportation Corps in Europe and the Pacific. He remained in the Army Reserve, attaining the rank of colonel.

A developer's plan for a 36-unit waterfront condominium with boat slips that has pitted neighbor against neighbor for years in Bowleys Quarters has been rejected by a Baltimore County hearing officer. In a 45-page opinion based on days of hearings, John E. Beverungen denied the Galloway Creek condominium proposed by Milton A. Rehbein III, who for decades has owned a marina at the site along Burke Road on the Bowleys Quarters peninsula. While Beverungen agreed with some of the developers' arguments, he rejected the project on grounds that it conflicts with the county master plan and neighborhood community plan, and violates a law that specifies where such projects are allowed in Bowleys Quarters.

Howard County police have charged a state administrative law judge with sexually abusing a 17-year-old foster child, who says he was molested about 30 times during the last seven years.Marvin Lee Teal, 44, of Ellicott City was arrested about 7 p.m. Thursday at his home after an investigation that began in mid-March.Mr. Teal was released on $25,000 bail yesterday afternoon. He was charged with one count of child abuse, one count of assault and battery, one count of second-degree sex offense, one count of third-degree sex offense, two counts of perverted practice and six counts of fourth-degree sex offense.

When Pamela Griffith flipped open the book in her prison cell and began to read, she felt an immediate, visceral connection in an environment where personal bonds of any type are in notoriously short supply. "It's funny. You feel a kinship in a certain way," Griffith, 53, told the other inmates participating in an unusual book club that's been running for nearly five years at the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women in Jessup. She leaned forward, and the words flew out of her: "Because her cells did what they did and the researchers did what they did, I'm sitting here today.

Charles R. Boutin, the beleaguered Public Service Commission member who resigned last month, has been tapped to be an administrative law judge with the Office of Administrative Hearings. Boutin, a Republican member of the House of Delegates between 1999 and 2005, starts work April 4, according to J. Bernard McClellan, an administrative law judge and the organization's deputy director for quality assurance. McClellan said that Boutin was selected by Chief Administrative Law Judge Thomas E. Dewberry, a former colleague of Boutin's in the House.

The Baltimore County Planning Board passed a Towson Community Plan yesterday that would place approval of development projects in the hands of two advisory panels and an administrative law judge.The 60-page plan, which was approved 14-0, spells out where and what type of buildings can be constructed and under what restrictions. It will be the focus of County Council public hearings before the council adopts a final plan by year's end.The result of two years' study and intensive lobbying by developers and community groups, the plan was modified in the past week to address developers' concerns that it largely prohibited future projects.

The board that oversees physicians in the state voted Wednesday after a lengthy hearing to continue suspending the license of a Towson psychiatrist who is accused of improper conduct with boys in his care. The Maryland Board of Physicians notified Miguel Frontera on Thursday of the continued suspension, which has been in place since early this month. The board began investigating the doctor in April after Baltimore County police passed along reports from two boys who said Frontera touched their genitals during physical exams.

James M. McIntyre, who retired about a year ago as an administrative law judge for the state and in 1976 as a major in the Baltimore County Police Department, died Wednesday of cancer at his home in Halethorpe.A Mass of Christian burial for Judge McIntyre, 62, is to be offered at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow at the Roman Catholic Church of the Ascension, Potomac and Poplar avenues in Halethorpe.When he retired after 20 years as a police officer, he was the department's legal officer with duties that included liaison to the state legislature and the state's attorney's office.

WASHINGTON -- In a move that could delay or deny benefits for tens of thousands of people, the Social Security Administration has told its judges that they should, in most cases, disregard federal court precedents if those rulings conflict with agency policies.The order, issued as the agency faces a huge backlog of disputed claims, has drawn protests from federal courts, members of Congress and agency employees.It is being compared to positions taken in the early 1980s by the Reagan administration, which said it was bound only by Supreme Court decisions and did not have to "acquiesce" in decisions of lower courts that contradicted its reading of the Social Security law.Democrats denounced the Reagan administration's practice as lawless, and the administration took a more moderate position after Congress made clear that it disapproved of the practice.

Lawyers for the two jail officers facing dismissal for their roles in the Dontay Carter escape went to court yesterday to try to spread the blame for the convicted murderer's freedom flight.An assistant attorney general representing the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services replied that no matter the circumstances, the officers' failure to follow security policies led to the escape and that department policy dictates they be fired.During a hearing before a state administrative law judge, lawyers for the correctional officers, Frank Beales and Irvin Curtis, said Judge John N. Prevas, who presided over Carter's two trials in Baltimore Circuit Court, fostered a tense, hurry-up atmosphere in which the officers dared not question his decision to allow Carter to use the bathroom in the judge's chambers.

The board that oversees physicians in the state voted Wednesday after a lengthy hearing to continue suspending the license of a Towson psychiatrist who is accused of improper conduct with boys in his care. The Maryland Board of Physicians notified Miguel Frontera on Thursday of the continued suspension, which has been in place since early this month. The board began investigating the doctor in April after Baltimore County police passed along reports from two boys who said Frontera touched their genitals during physical exams.

Guy James Avery of Baltimore, a former judge for the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings, died Saturday of colitis at Union Memorial Hospital. He was 68. Mr. Avery, who was born in New York City and grew up there and in Massachusetts, served in the Marine Corps. He attended the University of Maryland, College Park, where he earned an undergraduate degree and was a member of the Delta Sigma Pi fraternity. After moving to Baltimore, he attended night school at the University of Maryland School of Law. Mr. Avery worked in the legal division of the state's Department of Social Services.

Charles R. Boutin, the beleaguered Public Service Commission member who resigned last month, has been tapped to be an administrative law judge with the Office of Administrative Hearings. Boutin, a Republican member of the House of Delegates between 1999 and 2005, starts work April 4, according to J. Bernard McClellan, an administrative law judge and the organization's deputy director for quality assurance. McClellan said that Boutin was selected by Chief Administrative Law Judge Thomas E. Dewberry, a former colleague of Boutin's in the House.

Kenneth H. Moyer, a retired Social Security Administration administrative law judge, died of cancer May 29 at his Timonium home. He was 81. Mr. Moyer began his SSA career in the Office of Hearing Appeals in 1955. He retired from the agency as an administrative judge in 1981. Born and raised in Harrisburg, Pa., he earned his bachelor's degree from Lebanon Valley College. During World War II, he served with the Army Transportation Corps in Europe and the Pacific. He remained in the Army Reserve, attaining the rank of colonel.

Anne H. Grecki, 84, McCormick office workerAnne H. Grecki, a retired office worker, died Monday of heart failure at Stella Maris Hospice. She was 84 and lived in Ellicott City.Miss Grecki worked at McCormick & Co. Inc.'s former Light Street plant from 1942 until her retirement in 1972.Born in East Baltimore, she was a graduate of Holy Rosary parochial school.A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 11: 30 a.m. today at Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church, 400 S. Chester St.She is survived by a sister, Rita Michno Barrett of Mays Chapel; and many nieces and nephews.

Marvin Lee Teal, in jail on child abuse charges and facing a five-year sentence for violating probation, asked a three-judge panel to reduce his time behind bars.Instead, they doubled it.In a rare decision, Teal, 48, a former state administrative law judge, has been ordered to serve 10 years in prison, after using a legal avenue that is the judicial system's equivalent of rolling the dice."I'm sure he's rather devastated," said Joseph Tauber, Teal's attorney, of the decision two weeks ago by three Howard County judges.

David D. Merrill, a retired state administrative law judge, died Tuesday of pneumonia at Howard County General Hospital. He was 73 and had lived in Randallstown for the past 20 years.Mr. Merrill counted former Gov. William Donald Schaefer among his friends, and they were members of the Gourd Heads Club."Their motto is: 'Big Heads Full of Brains,' " said Mr. Merrill's wife of 44 years, the former Shirley Clark."He was a very bright, young man who had a quick wit," said retired Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Mary Arabian.

A former state administrative law judge, on probation since 1995 for sexually abusing two teen-age boys in his Ellicott City apartment, was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in jail for sexually molesting a boy he met last year in the Annapolis area.Marvin Lee Teal, 46, wept and apologized to the child in Anne Arundel Circuit Court.Judge Clayton R. Greene Jr. imposed the sentence and said Teal would have to complete a treatment program for child molesters after his release.Assistant State's Attorney Cynthia M. Ferris made no sentencing recommendation but noted that the offenses violated Teal's Howard County probation and that he could be sentenced to 15 years there.