City Court

Samuel Summers Field III, a Baltimore attorney and Baltimore Circuit Court auditor, died of heart failure Feb. 13 at his home in the Pinehurst neighborhood of Baltimore County. He was 77. Mr. Field, who had been a familiar figure in downtown legal circles and courthouses for more than 40 years, was born in Baltimore and raised in Govans. His grandfather, Samuel Summers Field Sr., had been a law partner of Baltimore Mayor James H. Preston and served as Baltimore city solicitor from 1911 to 1919.

I take issue with several points in Melissa Harris' article on misdemeanor jury trials ("Requests for jury trials swamping city courts," Oct.10). Ms. Harris refers to "the glut of drug possession, misdemeanor assault and theft cases being resolved in courtrooms designed to hear rapes, murders and robberies." But these courtrooms were not designed for felonies. They were designed for Marylanders to assert their constitutional right to a jury trial. The article repeatedly describes these crimes as minor without noting that many of them carry penalties as serious as some felonies.

Former Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Clark will not get his job back, a city judge has ruled. Saying Clark's case was flawed and that returning him to office would create too much chaos, Circuit Judge Carol E. Smith on Tuesday denied the former commissioner's motion for reinstatement. Clark, who says he was wrongly dismissed in 2004, is also suing the city for $120 million. The case returned to city court after the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, sided with Clark in a March ruling, saying that mayors may fire commissioners only under certain circumstances.

For the average 13-year-old, there's nothing more squirm-inducing than having a bunch of grown-ups stare at you while they pick apart your performance in school. Still, when the ordeal is over, it's nice when the adults break into a smile and reward you with a shiny new basketball, as happened a couple of times yesterday at Waverly Middle School in North Baltimore, one of seven city schools holding so-called truancy courts this year. The sessions serve as forums not just for discipline but for encouragement, career counseling and not-so-gentle nudging.

John F. Kelly, former clerk of the Baltimore City Circuit Court, died of a heart attack Thursday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Gardenville resident was 85. Born in Baltimore and raised on North Avenue, he attended the old St. Katharine of Siena Parochial School and was a 1941 Polytechnic Institute graduate. He served in the Navy during World War II. After the war he joined the Baltimore City courts system and remained with it for 36 years and worked in what is now the Mitchell Courthouse in downtown Baltimore.

The wife of a Southwest Baltimore man killed last year during their daughter's Sweet 16 party testified yesterday to hearing one of the co-defendants yell, "Show him how we do it," before gunshots rang out, according to trial testimony yesterday. Alisa Jones took the witness stand in an hourlong, emotionally wrought testimony during which she broke down in tears as she told the story of her husband's final moments. Prosecutors say the two co-defendants disrupted the party marking the birthday of Tamirra Jones by arguing with guests, and both were asked to leave.

Judge Solomon Baylor, a retired Baltimore Circuit Court judge who earlier had served on the District Court, died Saturday of complications from pneumonia at Oak Crest Village. He was 85. "He was my buddy and my mentor over the years. He was a mentor to a lot of young lawyers and was the kind of guy you could go to for real good advice," said Chief Judge Robert M. Bell of the Maryland Court of Appeals. "He was also very dedicated to the rule of law, and you couldn't sneak anything by him; and if you tried, he didn't hesitate to speak out. He was a strong, character-driven individual," he said.

As her husband was laying out his agenda yesterday in the State of the State address, Baltimore District Court Judge Catherine Curran O'Malley - Maryland's new first lady - threw out a pet project of her own: truancy. "It tugs at your heart when you see kids, who you know [that] 10 years after they drop out of school, they're going to be in your courtroom," O'Malley, 44, said during a wide-ranging interview in a sitting room in the governor's mansion. "They're going to be addicted to drugs or selling drugs or handguns.

Baltimore's elected criminal justice officials in last night's primary appeared to be keeping their jobs, with city State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy holding a comfortable lead over her opponent with more than half of the precincts reporting and the three sitting circuit judges leading their three challengers. Jessamy, 58, who has been the city's top prosecutor since 1995, faced off yesterday against Stephan W. Fogleman, 37, a local attorney and resident of Canton who said he entered the race for state's attorney because no one else did. Both are Democrats, and Jessamy, completing her second elected term, will be unopposed in the general election.