Courthouse

Parts of Charles County's Zekiah Swamp are every bit as inhospitable as the name suggests, choked with tick-infested woods and boot-sucking wetlands. But as archaeologists are discovering to their delight, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries Zekiah was a growth center for the young Maryland colony. The site of a 1674 courthouse was found last summer. Excavations this month have uncovered what might be traces of the "summer house" that Gov. Charles Calvert built to dodge his political enemies.

After jurors filed into a room behind the third-floor courtroom Thursday to begin deliberations in an assault case, Judge William C. Mulford II took his books and headed down a back staircase to his chambers one flight down. As the 11th judge in a 10-courtroom courthouse, he is a nomad of sorts, navigating the rabbit warren of hidden corridors and stairwells in the Anne Arundel County Courthouse, hearing cases wherever a courtroom is available. Since his job was created 14 months ago, Mulford has joined the other sitting judges and a parade of retired judges in a game of musical courtrooms that has sometimes forced hearings to be delayed for lack of a place to hold them.

Waving `Respect our Safety' signs and relaying horror stories involving a ruptured sewer pipe, about 40 protesters gathered yesterday outside the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse and called for a new building to house the city Circuit Court. It was a familiar cry for the courthouse workers, who have complained for many years about rodent infestation, plumbing problems and poor air quality in both Baltimore Circuit Court buildings, which sit on opposite sides of the 100 block of N. Calvert St. They say those conditions have led to skin rashes, allergic reactions, migraine headaches and possibly cancer for some workers.

On the steps of a downtown courthouse yesterday, under gray skies and a morning chill that had yet to burn off, Yvonne Palmer's house was sold. She wasn't even there as an auctioneer, in the rapid-fire delivery of his trade, rattled off the legal description of the property and the terms of the sale. About a dozen potential bidders listened, affecting the kind of desultory, I-could-take-it-or-leave-it air that you see at any auction, whether at Sotheby's or outside a courthouse. It's an odd little sidewalk drama - an alfresco auction is a strange thing to pass as you enter the courthouse for jury duty or make your way to the corner hot dog vendor for lunch - but one that is on the rise nationwide.

Youth exhibit -- The Anne Arundel County Circuit Courthouse is exhibiting Insights: The Identity Project through August at 7 Church Circle, Annapolis. The photographs and writings are by participants from the Juvenile Treatment Court, which treats substance abusers. 410-222-1901.

On the morning of May 15, I got up at 6 a.m. to attend to a task for which I had volunteered. Earlier that week, the sheriff had asked at a staff meeting for a volunteer to put the flags at the courthouse at half-staff in observance of Law Enforcement Memorial Day.Not overly enthused about getting up at the early hour required to fulfill that task, but aware that no one else in the room lived as close to the building, I volunteered.I threw on some clothes and quietly made my way out of the bedroom.

Nowhere in the 1824 Anne Arundel Court House now being refurbished is the weight of history more apparent than in the cavernous upstairs courtroom and its gallery, where black residents say Jim Crow laws once segregated them.The upstairs courtroom was created in an early 1890s overhaul of the courthouse, which is the third oldest in Maryland. The building is being renovated as part of a $2.5 million project to turn it into a museum and gateway to the new Circuit Court building next door."I went up there as a lad to watch the trials," said George Phelps Jr., 72, who grew up on nearby South Street.

Pacing outside Dundalk District Court, the woman with iridescent hair and pink pedal-pushers gloats over beating a charge of assaulting a male acquaintance during a little east-side saloon misunderstanding."

Describing him as a "cold-blooded, calculated murderer," a Baltimore County Circuit Court judge sentenced Edward E. McCorkle yesterday to life without the possibility of parole for killing a man who was to testify against McCorkle on charges of attempted murder."

Three weeks ago, the crisis in Baltimore's courts put Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend in the real estate business -- scouring downtown for temporary courtrooms so cases could be heard outside the filled-to-the-rim courthouse.But yesterday, she stopped looking: Court officials found space within their own buildings.Joseph H. H. Kaplan, administrative judge of Baltimore Circuit Court, said the prospect of transporting jurors, files and clerks to conference rooms in state office buildings on West Preston Street made him look in every corner of his courthouses.

For years, most of the wall space in the Anne Arundel County Courthouse library that wasn't behind bookcases was bare and white. But the walls have been spruced up recently with law prints and art of the state's capital city, giving patrons of the small public library something decorative to look at. Most recently, Judge Michael E. Loney donated a series of 19th-century French law prints from his chambers. They had been given to him by H. Chester Goudy, a retired Circuit Court judge and his former law partner.

Close up, Michael Jackson seemed fragile, his face a ghostly white, his eyes invariably shielded behind dark glasses, even indoors. When he spoke, the sound was an almost breathless whisper. Occasionally, some of us who were writing about his 2005 trial in Santa Maria, Calif., on charges of child molestation would relieve the tedium of endless testimony by ruminating on what color lipstick Jackson had chosen to wear that day - peach, perhaps, or was it orange? What struck me most was that regardless of how salacious or crude the testimony details, or how embarrassing they might appear to be, Jackson remained absolutely expressionless, his body immobile in his chair a few feet from us. For Jackson, once a pop star of sensational talent, the trial in Santa Barbara County Superior Court was undoubtedly the lowest point of a long career.

Parts of Charles County's Zekiah Swamp are every bit as inhospitable as the name suggests, choked with tick-infested woods and boot-sucking wetlands. But as archaeologists are discovering to their delight, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries Zekiah was a growth center for the young Maryland colony. The site of a 1674 courthouse was found last summer. Excavations this month have uncovered what might be traces of the "summer house" that Gov. Charles Calvert built to dodge his political enemies.

He's been a fixture around the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court House for 4 1/2 years, roaming its corridors, courtrooms, offices and parking garage, searching for explosives - though some would say he's really been looking for snacks. But this past week was the last one on the job for Levi, a black Labrador retriever and one of two bomb-sniffing dogs in the county Sheriff's Office. Levi, starting to gray around the muzzle, retired at the age of 9. "He's getting too old, a lot of aches and pains," said Deputy Sheriff Harry L. Neisser, a department spokesman.

Long-stalled efforts to renovate and expand Baltimore's outdated courthouses began again this month after city officials asked the Maryland Stadium Authority to do a formal study of the project. The city and courts have set aside $700,000 for the feasibility study, which must be approved by two General Assembly committees before it can begin, said George Nilson, the city's solicitor. It would be the second study in five years. The first elaborated on previous reports and identified eight sites where a third courthouse to handle criminal cases could be built.

Car hits Israeli soldiers, injuring 13; driver shot JERUSALEM: A driver plowed a BMW into a group of soldiers at a busy intersection near Jerusalem's Old City late yesterday, injuring 13 of them before he was shot to death, Israeli police and the rescue service said. Jerusalem police commander Ilan Franco said a soldier in the group killed the driver, who was not immediately identified. Franco said he was a Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem who apparently acted alone. Israel TV said the car was registered to a resident of Jabel Mukaber, an Arab village inside the city limits.

In Baltimore's Monument Square, home to America's first public war memorial and the city's dual courthouses, stood a stump of a tribute. To commemorate the court's clerks, three attempts have been made to plant a ceremonial tree. But in their undignified lives, the cherry trees on Calvert Street near Lexington have been backed over, denied water and split like a wishbone, their leafless trunks left for dead. "The Clerks' Tree" had become perhaps the saddest tree in downtown Baltimore.

Gun found as woman enters courthouse An Odenton woman was arrested after a handgun was found when she entered the Anne Arundel County Circuit Courthouse, the sheriff's office said yesterday. When Della Jackson entered the courthouse on Church Circle about 2:10 p.m. Wednesday, the X-ray machine showed a gun inside her purse. A deputy seized an unloaded .38-caliber revolver but saw no ammunition. Jackson told deputies that she had gone to the courthouse to get a business license and was on her way to pick up her children and go to target practice.

Carol Oppenheimer describes the garden in front of the old courthouse building in Towson as "magical," so visually arresting that the first time she saw it she nearly caused a car accident swerving to see it closer. To Elyssa Baxter, it's the antithesis of the grass and concrete expanses that ordinarily fill public outdoor spaces. And it reminds Holly Sefter of the lush public squares that have made Savannah, Ga., famous. But a consultant is recommending that changes be made to the favorite spot of many Towson gardeners, residents and county workers - just a year after a team of planners recommended that the garden be plowed over.

Two politically touchy Howard County issues left hanging last spring are overdue for a return to public discussion. First, November will be a year since a citizens task force delivered a report with more than a dozen suggestions for ways to provide more affordable housing for limited-income working families. Impatient County Council members vowed in June to come up with some solutions if the Ulman administration doesn't -- and it appears legislation is headed for introduction next month.