Contempt Of Court

The man listed as Maryland's most-wanted deadbeat dad had his bail increased to $48,135 -- the amount he is alleged to owe in child support for his five children -- during a Howard Circuit Court hearing yesterday.Charles Anthony Farace, 43, of Woodlawn had been held on $30,000 bail since his arrest two weeks ago on charges that he violated a Howard County court order requiring him to pay child support.Maryland child support enforcement officials had listed Mr. Farace as the state's most-wanted deadbeat dad before his arrest.

A key witness in the case against Travers and Tremayne Johnson, who are accused of burning a pit bull puppy named Phoenix, abruptly refused to testify Tuesday, causing a judge to sentence her to six months in jail. Tiera Goodman, 25, of the 800 block of Braddish Ave. witnessed Phoenix as she was fatally burned in 2009 and testified during the first trial that she saw the 20-year-old Johnson twins running from the scene. The case is being retried after the previous trial ended in a hung jury.

Longtime Roman Catholic peace activist Philip Berrigan was sentenced to five years in prison for contempt of court yesterday because he wouldn't apologize for a remark he made to a Howard County District Court judge.Mr. Berrigan, 68, a former Josephite priest and a leader in the peace movement since the Vietnam War, had accompanied eight of his colleagues to the Ellicott City courthouse for their trial on charges of trespassing at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Columbia.Mr. Berrigan was immediately taken into custody and was being held at the Howard County Detention Center last night in Jessup.

LONDON After an overnight flight, I woke up to the sound of police sirens and a pop-pop-popping outside the Kentish Town apartment where I'm staying. Gunfire? Nope. It was Guy Fawkes Night in the UK, marking the downfall of a plot to destroy the Houses of Parliament in 1605. The fireworks celebrations will last all weekend. I haven't hit the streets, but in chatting with reporters at The Independent, I'm already hearing about some pretty significant differences in how crime is covered.

About 25 cheering supporters were on hand at the county district courthouse Friday to welcome peace activist Philip Berrigan back to freedom and to criticize the judge who jailed him last week.The 68-year-old former Josephite priest had served one night in jail after a county judge handed him a five-year sentence Thursday for contempt of court.District Judge James N. Vaughan sentenced Berrigan after he refused to apologize for calling the judge's courtroom a "disgrace" and comparing it with Nazi Germany.

Longtime Roman Catholic peace activist Philip Berrigan has been sentenced to five years in prison for contempt of court because he wouldn't apologize for a remark he made to a Howard County District Court judge.Mr. Berrigan, 68, a former Josephite priest and a leader in the peace movement since the Vietnam War, had accompanied eight of his colleagues to an Ellicott City courthouse for their trial yesterday on charges of trespassing at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Columbia.The charges against the protesters, from the Baltimore Emergency Response Network, stemmed from a Dec. 5 protest at the lab.Group members have been convicted several times for protesting at the lab.The group admitted entering the grounds of the lab to protest development of nuclear weapons systems.

A juror who went out for lunch and never came back spent Monday and early yesterday in the Howard County Detention Center and was ordered to pay $240 by a circuit judge.On Monday, Judge James B. Dudley found that Deanna Gutierrez of east Columbia was in contempt of court. Gutierrez was released from the detention center about 9: 30 a.m. yesterday."By not returning, she caused not only an entire jury panel to waste a day [but] I had a victim of a very violent rape who had to work herself up to testify and she has to do that all over again," said Assistant State's Attorney Sue Ellen Hantman.

Already under indictment in California on corruption charges, Annapolis lobbyist Ira C. Cooke was found in contempt of court yesterday in his divorce case and ordered to pay within the next 30 days more than $34,000 in past-due support and alimony payments. Baltimore County Circuit Judge Patrick Cavanaugh found Cooke in contempt after a one-hour hearing, during which the lobbyist pleaded that he was virtually penniless and barely able "to keep the lights on" for his dwindling law and lobbying practice.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's legal team argued yesterday that he should have to pay $33,737, at most, for contempt of court in the Paula Corbin Jones case -- less than 7 percent of the amount that her lawyers have demanded.Clinton's lawyers said he should be required to pay only $12,316 -- less than 3 cents for each dollar sought. As calculated by the president's lawyers, the lower amount is how much Jones' side was forced to spend as a result of Clinton's contempt of court.The amount might be pushed as high as $33,737, the president's lawyers said, if the Jones lawyers' claims are interpreted more liberally.

Internet company held in contempt of court A Baltimore federal court judge yesterday held Innovative Marketing Inc., a Belize-based Internet company, in contempt of court for ignoring previous orders commanding it to shut down and hand over financial records. This month, the Federal Trade Commission sued the company, claiming it ran an illegal "scareware" operation that tricked more than a million people into spending $100 million on bogus security software by making them believe their computers were under siege from various viruses and spy programs.

Positive economic signs give market best July in 20 years Investors placed big bets over the last month that the profit machine at U.S. companies will continue to rev higher, and that the longest recession since World War II is finally easing its grip. If that turns out to be wrong, the huge gains of July means there will be an even bigger price to pay if companies don't deliver. The Dow surged 725 points, or 8.6 percent, for the month, with most of the gains arriving in bursts in the final 15 days.

Internet company held in contempt of court A Baltimore federal court judge yesterday held Innovative Marketing Inc., a Belize-based Internet company, in contempt of court for ignoring previous orders commanding it to shut down and hand over financial records. This month, the Federal Trade Commission sued the company, claiming it ran an illegal "scareware" operation that tricked more than a million people into spending $100 million on bogus security software by making them believe their computers were under siege from various viruses and spy programs.

Nearly three years after prosecutors dropped attempted-murder charges against the man accused of bringing to Randallstown High School a gun used in the shootings that left one student paralyzed and three others injured, authorities have found the witness that prosecutors said they need to bring the suspect to trial. Ronald P. Johnson Jr., 23, of Owings Mills was charged last week with obstruction of justice and criminal contempt of court for failing to show up to testify when Antonio R. Jackson was scheduled for trial, court documents show.

Two journalists could be jailed as early as this week after the U.S. Supreme Court declined yesterday to hear their appeals of a ruling finding them in contempt of court for refusing to disclose their sources. The decision could have a chilling effect on both reporters who rely on confidential sources to do their jobs and sources who come forward with sensitive information only because their identities will be protected, journalists said yesterday. Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Judith Miller of The New York Times were held in contempt of court last fall for refusing to tell a grand jury the source or sources who told them the identity of a covert CIA agent.

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge held a reporter for The New York Times in contempt of court yesterday for refusing to name her sources to prosecutors investigating the disclosure of the identity of a covert CIA agent. The reporter, Judith Miller, published no articles about the agent, Valerie Plame. Nonetheless, the judge, Thomas F. Hogan, ordered her jailed for as long as 18 months, noting that she had contemplated writing such an article and had conducted interviews for it. Hogan suspended the sanction until a planned appeal is concluded, and he released Miller on her own recognizance.

Already under indictment in California on corruption charges, Annapolis lobbyist Ira C. Cooke was found in contempt of court yesterday in his divorce case and ordered to pay within the next 30 days more than $34,000 in past-due support and alimony payments. Baltimore County Circuit Judge Patrick Cavanaugh found Cooke in contempt after a one-hour hearing, during which the lobbyist pleaded that he was virtually penniless and barely able "to keep the lights on" for his dwindling law and lobbying practice.

Noting extreme heat inside the women's jail, the Baltimore public defender's office urged a judge yesterday to release all inmates and asked that the state's top public safety official be held in contempt of court for not moving the women to "a more humane" facility. The court motion, filed in District Court in Baltimore, asks that the female inmates, if not released, be moved to a jail that "does not threaten their health" and that Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Stuart O. Simms be cited for contempt.

WASHINGTON -- Lawyers for Paula Corbin Jones are considering asking a federal judge to assess President Clinton between $350,000 and $500,000 for contempt of court in Jones' sexual-harassment lawsuit, according to a source on her legal team.While that range is only "a rough estimate," according to the source, who refused to be identified, her attorneys are discussing a sizable claim as they move toward a May 3 deadline for submitting it.An assessment anywhere close to that range would be vigorously challenged by the president's attorneys, and if the judge endorsed it, a legal fight over her authority to punish the president could be in the offing, a White House legal source indicated.

Former Washington Mayor Marion S. Barry Jr., who was held liable in civil court last year after a Baltimore-area airport custodian said Barry exposed himself to her, might be in hot water again for the incident. City lawyer Barry Glazer has asked a Baltimore Circuit Court judge to hold the former mayor in contempt of court for not cooperating in the settlement phase of the case. Judge Kaye A. Allison has scheduled a hearing for next month to decide the matter. "It's possible the judge could put him in jail if he doesn't respond," Glazer said.

A federal judge said Baltimore school leaders have made significant progress in addressing problems troubling a computer system that tracks special-education students, but warned that he was not dropping his threat to hold those officials in contempt of court. U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis said in an order issued Friday that while the district had "moved forward in systematically addressing the salient problems" with the computer system, he expressed concern that school leaders did not seriously work on the computer problems until he threatened them with contempt.