County Circuit Court

Judge Edward Dorsey Ellis Rollins Jr., who served for 19 years on the Cecil County Circuit Court, died Thursday after a yearlong struggle with lung cancer. He was 73. Born in Baltimore and raised in Elkton, he was a 1950 graduate of Archmere Academy near Wilmington, Del. He attended Loyola College and earned a law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1956. Mr. Rollins met his wife, Mary Lois Lee Rollins, on a blind date while he was in law school and she was a nurse in Baltimore.

Some courtrooms will soon be wireless in Baltimore County Circuit Court. Sixteen wireless access points will be installed in courtrooms and the State's Attorney's Office, allowing prosecutors to access Wi-Fi, reducing costs and improving efficiency, county officials said Monday. "Providing this real-time access to court-related documents reduces the costs of duplicative and unnecessary printing and significantly saves support staff time, enabling them to focus on higher priority tasks," County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said in a statement released Monday.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening yesterday appointed the first woman and the first African-American in Anne Arundel County history to fill two vacancies on the Circuit Court.Clayton Greene Jr., a 44-year-old administrative judge of Anne Arundel County District Court, will replace Judge H. Chester Goudy Jr., who stepped down Aug. 1.Pamela Lee North, a former public defender now in private practice, will fill the vacancy left by Judge Warren B. Duckett Jr., who is retiring at the end of the month.

Michael E. Loney, a retired Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge recalled for his moderate temperament, died of congestive heart failure Oct. 5 at his Arnold home. He was 73. "He was a gentleman and a gentle man," said a friend, Judge Nancy Davis-Loomis, administrative judge of the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. "He loved the law, and he loved helping people in his private life and on the bench. He was always fair and always of moderate temperament. " Judge Davis-Loomis said, "He was the kind of judge you hope you get. " Born in Baltimore and raised on Monastery Avenue in Irvington, he was the son of a homemaker and a hardware salesman.

Marvin J. Land, a former Baltimore County Circuit Court judge and retired lawyer, died Sunday of cardiovascular disease at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The longtime Pikesville resident was 72. Judge Land was born in Baltimore and raised on East Barney Street, where his parents owned a grocery store. He was a 1953 graduate of City College. "While attending law school, Marvin worked as a butcher in his family's store," said his wife of 50 years, the former Ina Segal. When his father died, he ran the store while studying law at the University of Baltimore.

The five candidates running for the three seats open on the Baltimore County Circuit Court this fall are emphasizing the same theme: experience. But beyond that - and the fact that they all have law degrees - they couldn't be more different. There is Allan P. Feigelson, 56, of Owings Mills, whose office is in the Laurel area of Prince George's County and whose practice has been limited chiefly to banking and real estate cases. He is little-known among Baltimore County's legal establishment but is emphasizing his 29 years as a lawyer.

Around the Towson Court House, Judge Dana Levitz has carved out a reputation as a tough, fair-minded jurist, a big man with a bigger voice.Few know of his second career: travel consultant.Next month, Judge Levitz and his wife, Dale, will lead a group of 44 judges, lawyers and others with ties to the legal community on a one-day theater excursion to Manhattan. Over four years, the couple has played host to about a half-dozen such trips, including a week-long cruise.For each itinerary, Judge Levitz and his wife pick trip dates.

Surrounded by dogwood trees and flowers, a rose-covered trellis and a white faux-marble fountain, a young couple stood poised for marriage.But this wasn't a lavish park, banquet hall or chapel setting. It was inside the tiny Baltimore County Circuit Court wedding room in Towson, where the flowers and trees are artificial, but the marriages very real and usually take less than 15 minutes.About 6,000 weddings take place annually in courthouses around metropolitan Baltimore. The most popular times are Friday afternoons, summer months and Valentine's Day. And for some, court clerks say, Maryland is seen as an attractive place because it does not require the blood tests mandated elsewhere, including Pennsylvania.

A headline in Friday's Howard County edition of The Sun stated incorrectly that lawyers were offering opinions on who should fill a county District Court judgeship. The recommendations were for a county Circuit Court judgeship.The Sun regrets the error.

Gov. William Donald Schaefer has named Robert E. Cadigan to a judgeship on the Baltimore County Circuit Court.Mr. Cadigan, 58, of Pinehurst is head of the general litigation section at the Baltimore firm Smith Somerville & Case. He succeeds Judge Leonard S. Jacobson, who took early retirement in February to work in the county's settlement court.Mr. Cadigan has been a trial attorney, largely in the area of civil litigation, for 32 years.Mr. Schaefer also named Durke G. Thompson of Potomac, 51, to the Montgomery County Circuit Court bench.

Two and a half decades after he graduated from law school and hung out a shingle, Clarke F. Ahlers is challenging two sitting judges in Howard County, creating what will be at least a three-way contest for the Circuit Court bench. Ahlers filed candidacy paperwork Tuesday. Administrative Judge Lenore R. Gelfman, who is completing a 15-year term, and Judge William V. Tucker, who was sworn in Dec. 29, filed Thursday, according to the State Board of Elections. Candidates must file by Jan. 11. The Columbia lawyer said he thought he'd make a good judge after handling different types of cases — most of his work is criminal defense and representation of law enforcement officers in various circumstances, though he does some civil cases.

George Bacon Rasin Jr., former Kent County Circuit Court judge who led a movement to modernize juvenile justice in Maryland, died of congestive heart failure Friday at the Edenwald Retirement Community in Towson. He was 94. "Judge Rasin was widely known and respected for his integrity, knowledge of the law and absolute fairness," said retired Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge John Fader, who was a friend. "He was a man who ran a very tight ship. " Born in Worton in Kent County, he was a 1937 graduate of Washington College and earned his law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law. After enlisting in the Army in September 1941, he was assigned as a special agent to the Counter-Intelligence Corps in the Division of Military Intelligence.

Lenore R. Gelfman has been named administrative judge for the Howard County Circuit Court, succeeding Diane O. Leasure, who announced her retirement, effective Nov. 4, 2011. "Judge Gelfman has a long and impressive record of service," said Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert M. Bell, who made the appointment. "She is a thoughtful and distinguished jurist, whose leadership skills are exemplary. " Gelfman received her Juris Doctor from the University of Baltimore in 1973 and began her legal career as an assistant state's attorney in Baltimore City.

Republican challenger Alison L. Asti captured a seat on the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court last week, booting out one of two recent gubernatorial appointees. Asti will take the place of Ronald H. Jarashow. She joins Democrat Laura S. Kiessling, who ran as a team with Jarashow, in winning a 15-year term as a judge. "My message was about the importance of an independent judiciary," Asti said. She said she tried to keep her message positive and focused on presenting herself to voters.

A 37-year-old man took the witness stand Thursday to deny charges that he had sexually abused his own son. The boy, now 8, testified a day earlier in Baltimore County Circuit Court that his father had sought certain acts as "punishment" when the boy misbehaved. Prosecutors say the abuse took place between August 2008 and June 2009, and led to an indictment against the suspect after the boy told his mother about the allegations. The man was charged with sexual abuse of a minor, assault and two sexual-offense counts.

A 27-year-old Gaithersburg man who prosecutors say met a 13-year-old girl through the Internet and had sex with her in 2007 averted a trial by pleading guilty Thursday to second-degree rape. Bradford Lee Atkins Jr., who had been arrested at least twice before for sex offenses and on another occasion for gun violations, is to be sentenced on Feb. 4 by Baltimore County Circuit Judge Mickey J. Norman. The judge had begun picking a jury Wednesday and was scheduled to continue the process Thursday when Atkins chose to accept a plea deal on a single count.

Howard County Circuit Court was evacuated for about an hour yesterday morning when an air conditioner started smoking. The machine malfunctioned shortly before 10 a.m. and people were ushered out while firefighters searched for the source of the smoke, according to the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services. People were allowed back into court about 11 a.m.

Well-known Columbia psychologist Dennis M. Harrison, 43, lost court appeals last week to block the revocation of his state license for unethical conduct.After the state Board of Examiners of Psychologists revoked Harrison's license Monday, Harrison's attorney attempted to have the order blocked and the file sealed in Howard County Circuit Court Monday afternoon.Circuit Court Judge J. Thomas Nissel refused to seal the file. A full hearing to determine whether the revocation order should be blocked is scheduled for Tuesday in Howard County Circuit Court.

Judge Robert E. Cahill Sr., a retired Baltimore County Circuit Court judge who had been a highly regarded trial lawyer, died yesterday of gallbladder cancer at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The longtime Riderwood resident, who had lived in Mays Chapel for the past five years, was 77. Judge Cahill, the son of a bar owner and a homemaker, was born in St. Louis and raised on Lake Avenue. After graduating from Loyola High School in 1949, he earned a bachelor's degree in accounting in 1953 from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.