Chief Judge

Judge Joseph H.H. Kaplan has been on the city Circuit Court bench since 1977; Judge Clifton J. Gordy since 1985. Both planned to retire within a year. But Kaplan, Baltimore's longest-serving and perhaps most prolific judge, disclosed yesterday that he will step down from the bench a few months early so that Gordy, his friend and colleague, can briefly serve as chief judge -- a ceremonial title given to the judge with the most seniority. "This is one of the most gracious things I've ever seen or heard of one colleague doing for another," Gordy said.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Saddam Hussein took the witness stand at his trial for the first time yesterday and openly incited insurgents to continue resisting the U.S. military presence in Iraq, prompting the chief judge to close the session to journalists and the public. Rather than answer capital charges that he orchestrated the torture and killing of Shiite Muslims in the 1980s, the deposed president delivered a rambling 49-minute harangue, his longest and most inflammatory of the five-month-old trial.

BAGHDAD, IRAQ -- Saddam Hussein's trial is to resume under a new chief judge today after the first presiding judge resigned and his initial replacement was accused of having belonged to the deposed dictator's Baath Party. One of Hussein's lawyers said the defense team would use the turnover in the trial panel's leadership to accuse Iraqi and U.S. officials of interference and to seek a new delay in the proceedings, which have been in recess for the past month. Meanwhile in central Baghdad, gunmen wearing uniforms of a Shiite-led security force swept into a Sunni Arab neighborhood before dawn yesterday, killing three men and speeding away with more than 20 others, police and witnesses said.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Saddam Hussein returned to court yesterday and quickly seized the floor by lecturing the chief judge about American military guards, calling them "occupiers and invaders" and demanding that the judge admonish them. Hussein's outburst came as the Iraqi High Tribunal, after a 40-day recess, resumed the trial of the former Iraqi ruler and seven others for crimes against humanity, then once again adjourned for a week to allow two defendants time to meet with new lawyers. Dressed in black trousers and a gray jacket with a white handkerchief in the breast pocket, the 68-year-old former president was the last defendant to enter the chamber.

William B. Bryant, 94, the first African-American to serve as chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, died Sunday in Washington. Friday, President Bush signed legislation to name a new $110 million, nine-courtroom addition to the federal courthouse in Judge Bryant's honor - a measure introduced by Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's delegate to the House of Representatives, along with legislation to name a federal building in Detroit for Rosa Parks. Judge Bryant, who continued hearing cases as a senior judge until recently, was nominated to the federal bench by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 after distinguishing himself in private practice and as a federal prosecutor in Washington.

Kings have coronations. Presidents have inaugurations. And, as seen yesterday afternoon in the federal court in downtown Baltimore, U.S. attorneys have investitures. Amid pomp, circumstance and a healthy dose of humor from a bench filled with 13 judges, Rod J. Rosenstein formally, and quite possibly officially, became the state's top federal prosecutor. That's because Chief Judge Benson E. Legg jokingly admitted that the oath of office he administered about a month ago to the former Justice Department official came without knowing the script.

Meyer M. Cardin, a former judge of the old Supreme Bench of Baltimore City and patriarch of a family of lawyers including Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, died of cancer yesterday at his Park Heights Avenue home. He would have celebrated his 98th birthday tomorrow. "They don't make judges like that anymore. He loved people and the law, and he had lots of wisdom, which he loved to share," Maryland Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert M. Bell said yesterday. "He came from a different era, when the law was a lot less complex.

Maryland judges will get raises ranging from $15,000 to $30,000 over the next four years under a pay plan that took effect after the state Senate and House of Delegates failed to reach agreement on an alternative by yesterday's deadline. The Maryland Judicial Compensation Commission, a group appointed by the governor, legislature and state bar association, recommended the raises, which by law become final unless the legislature agrees to change them. Both the House and Senate approved plans that would have given the judges smaller raises, ranging from $10,000 to $15,000 through 2009.

Dulany Foster, former chief judge of the old Supreme Bench of Baltimore City who also served as administrative judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit of Maryland, died Wednesday of heart failure at Carroll Hospital Center in Westminster. The Guilford resident was 88. Even though he had retired from the bench in 1975, Judge Foster remained a popular and highly regarded figure in legal, cultural and social circles. "He served well and for a long time, and his death marks the loss of an important figure from the judiciary of the 1950s and 1960s," said Judge Joseph H.H. Kaplan, chief judge of the Circuit Court of Baltimore City.

Howard County Circuit Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr. has announced he is retiring June 1, leaving a second vacancy on the five-member bench this year. Kane, 66, has served as a Howard Circuit Court judge for 22 years and has been the chief judge of the bench since 2004. "I have mixed emotions," Kane said yesterday. "I enjoy what I'm doing; I've always enjoyed being a judge. I find its challenges rewarding, but I think it's time for me to step down and pursue some other interests." Kane said he wants to spend more time with his three grandchildren and travel.