Appeals

Howard County Police Chief Wayne Livesay has appealed a federal judge's ruling to allow a lawsuit to proceed that claims a female officer was sexually harassed while working in the Police Department. The appeal, which will be heard by the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, was filed Friday, according to Livesay's spokeswoman, Sherry Llewellyn. In a suit filed in U.S. District Court in October, Officer Susan Ensko claimed the department tolerated a sexually charged culture that included pornography displayed on work computers, sexual insults and harassment for women who complained.

Velleggia's Restaurant is appealing a Maryland Commission on Human Relations' Appeals Board ruling that the Little Italy establishment discriminated against the disabled.The ruling stems from a complaint made to the commission in August 1996 by a patron in a wheelchair who could not use the restaurant's main entrance, which has only steps.The commission investigated and ruled that Velleggia's was discriminating against people with disabilities by not making a reasonable accommodation for those in wheelchairs.

Maryland's highest court has dismissed charges against a man arrested for loitering and drug violations in a "drug-free zone" in Baltimore but delayed a decision on whether the city's zones are constitutional.The Maryland Court of Appeals' decision on Wednesday came two days after the high court upheld a separate state law setting up drug-free zones within 1,000 feet of schools in Maryland.Baltimore's ordinance provides for misdemeanor penalties against anyone loitering to sell narcotics in areas designated as drug-free zones.

The Howard County Board of Appeals last night gave final approval for a proposed rock quarry in Jessup, but not without one more bit of controversy.The unanimous vote allows developer Kingdon Gould Jr., a North Laurel resident and a Washington parking lot magnate, to establish a quarry to mine a crystalline rock called Baltimore gabbro on a 546-acre wooded site east of Interstate 95, west of U.S. 1 and south of Route 175.But the board also made several changes...

Maryland's highest court agreed yesterday to hear an appeal of a Montgomery County judge's decision to return a toddler to his mother, who admitted killing her infant daughter in 1992.The Court of Appeals set oral arguments for December in the emotionally charged case that has rallied adoption advocates.Attorneys for Latrena Pixley, whose prospects of regaining her 2-year-old son within weeks were tugged away by yesterday's decision, could not be reached. She had won in the Montgomery County Circuit Court, which refused to end her parental rights in favor of an adoption.

Anne Arundel County is appealing a court decision that could cost it $600,000 in back pay for 67 clerical and blue-collar employees whose bosses in 1996 asked them to work longer hours without an increase in pay.Circuit Judge Eugene M. Lerner gave newly elected County Executive Janet S. Owens her first problem when he ruled Jan. 4 that the county owed money to workers in two employee unions, Locals 582 and 2563 of the American Federation of State, County...

Anne Arundel County prosecutors are appealing a federal judge's ruling that a man convicted of savagely beating an Annapolis restaurant owner did not receive a fair trial.The decision to ask the conservative 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the case came two days before the deadline and five days after a local judge angrily refused to accept a plea that would have set Brady G. Spicer, 42, free.Spicer was convicted of assault with intent to murder in the February 1990 attack on Francis "Bones" Denvir, then part owner of Armadillo's at the City Dock, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled Monday that a man convicted of child sex abuse did not have to register as a sex offender because it would violate the state constitution's provisions against retroactive punishments. The ruling was split, with a plurality of three of the court's seven judges agreeing on one interpretation of the law, while others had different opinions and one dissented from the opinion. The man, identified only as John Doe in his appeal, was convicted in 2006 of child sex abuse stemming from an incident in the early 1980s when he was a middle school teacher in Washington County and the 13-year-old child was his student, according to the ruling.

WASHINGTON -- A divided Supreme Court, taking a new step to cut off multiple appeals of criminal convictions, ruled yesterday that most inmates will have to press all their challenges the first time they come to federal court, or forfeit them.The 6-3 ruling, in a Georgia death row case, could reduce the number of attempts by inmates under death sentence across the country to overturn their convictions and sentences.It affects as well inmates serving time in state prisons for all kinds of crimes, whenever they might complain to federal courts about the constitutionality of their guilty verdicts or their sentences.

Complaining that managed care has turned into "mangled care," a parade of health care providers went to Annapolis yesterday to urge legislators to create a better way for patients to appeal when their health maintenance organizations deny coverage.Physicians, social workers, hospital officials and others marshaled outrage stories and statistics in support of a bill that would set up a streamlined appeals and grievance process to deal with complaints about HMOs.Witnesses told three House of Delegates committees that denials of claims by HMOs have grown alarmingly within the past year while successful appeals to the companies have plummeted.