Circuit Judge

In Maryland this primary season, the nastiest race is the Howard County Circuit Court judges' contest -- a normally genteel affair that this year involves the court's first female and black jurists, a caldron of party politics and xenophobia.So vitriolic is the campaign leading to the March 5 primary that some judicial observers refer to it as a good reason to consider abolishing judicial elections.The race -- pitting the county's first black Circuit judge and first female Circuit judge against three formidable challengers -- has shaken the normally reserved courthouse crowd and split the county's bar associations down the middle.

Howard County Circuit Court Judge James B. Dudley has announced he is retiring Jan. 7. Dudley, 67, has been on the Howard Circuit Court bench since 1989. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. will choose his successor. Born in Escanaba, Mich., Dudley graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1965. He worked as a probation officer before becoming a prosecutor for seven years in the Baltimore state's attorney's office, where he later was chief of the trial division. He then went into private practice.

Former Police Commissioner Kevin P. Clark lost his lawsuit against Mayor Martin O'Malley yesterday, derailing the fired commander's attempt to collect $120 million and return to his job. City Circuit Judge Albert J. Matricciani Jr. issued a declaratory judgment in favor of the city, potentially ending the messy legal battle between the one-time crime-fighting allies. Clark could appeal the ruling but has not decided on a course of action, his attorney said yesterday. O'Malley dismissed Clark on Nov. 10, saying that allegations of domestic abuse, although unsubstantiated, had eroded the commissioner's ability to lead.

Noting approaching Baltimore city elections and the need for a definitive statewide ruling, the state prosecutor is appealing a circuit judge's decision striking down the ban on Election Day "walk-around" money. State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli filed formal notice yesterday in Prince George's Circuit Court to appeal the April 24 decision by Judge Richard H. Sothoron Jr., who declared unconstitutional a state law barring the payment of Election Day workers. "We need a statewide opinion," said Montanarelli, noting that technically Sothoron's ruling applies only to Prince George's county.

Dick Gelfman, one of Baltimore's most prominent television journalists, has emerged in recent months as the media guru of his wife's campaign for Howard County Circuit judge -- using equipment and services rented from his employer, WJZ-TV, to help make her campaign ads.The practice raises ethical issues for Gelfman and the station, which permitted the rental for campaign use.It also calls into question the accuracy of a campaign financial disclosure report...

An Anne Arundel County Circuit judge has refused to shorten the two consecutive life terms of a convicted double-murderer, saying that despite testimony about Larry Michael Bratt's accomplishments in prison, "It would defy common sense and logic for Mr. Bratt to have any part of his sentence reduced."Judge Clayton Greene Jr. said Bratt's bid to shorten his prison stay for ordering the Dec. 19, 1981, slayings of John and Donna Carback in their Pasadena home "shows that he has chutzpah.""He's criticizing him for asking for what he is entitled to ask for?

Ascension Lutheran plans discussion of media, societyAscension Lutheran Church, 7601 York Road in Towson, will sponsor a panel examining the relationship between media and society from 2 p.m. to 4: 30 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $8.Information: 825-1725.Circuit judge to speak at brotherhood breakfastBaltimore Circuit Judge Robert I. H. Hammerman will speak at a Brotherhood Focus breakfast at 10 a.m. Sunday at Har Sinai Congregation, 6300 Park Heights Ave.Information: 484-5188.Pub Date: 2/07/97

The hearing was coming to a close when a man, ordered to pay $795 a month in child support, allegedly knocked the mother of his children to the floor and kicked her until she was unconscious.It was one in a growing number of violent incidents occurring during divorce, child support and custody proceedings.Judges and sheriffs in the Baltimore area say they are afraid courtrooms are becoming time bombs."Someone's going to die, and it could be me or some other innocent person on our staff," said Baltimore City Circuit Judge Albert J. Matricciani Jr., who oversees the city's family court division.

A change in attorneys has postponed the first-degree murder and kidnapping trial of a Baltimore County man accused of killing a 74-year-old North Baltimore woman.Abras Morrison, 20, was to be the first of two defendants to stand trial in the August murder and kidnapping of Margaret Cullen, whose beaten, stabbed and decomposed body was found dumped near a Hampstead cornfield.Morrison and his friend and co-defendant, Troy Dominic Shellington, are in the Baltimore City Detention Center on $1 million full bond.

An Anne Arundel circuit judge has postponed ruling on the insanity plea of a Bowie man charged in the 1995 shooting death of a Gambrills service station manager.Blake Allen Ohman, 38, who lived with his mother in the 3000 block of Tanbark Lane, is charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Patrick William Clements Dec. 21, 1995.Clements, of the 1600 block of Midland Road, Edgewater, was shot to death at the Exxon station at Route 3 and Waugh Chapel Road.Ohman entered an insanity plea yesterday before Judge Clayton Greene Jr. after psychiatrists at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center determined that he lacked the mental capacity to intentionally commit murder.