Courtroom

Within a half-hour of her arrival on the TV set, Kerri O'Dair was transformed from casually clad college student to the picture of a young lawyer, dressed in pearls, a black suit and high heels. While a stylist applied makeup, the 18-year-old studied her notes and prepared for her appearance on "School Court TV. " O'Dair, a student at the Community College of Baltimore County's Dundalk campus, plays the prosecutor in the latest episode of the courtroom drama, which airs this weekend on cable television at Comcast 45.2 or Fios 45.6.

Even by the admittedly low standards of such affairs, this was a college reunion filled with more than the usual awkwardness and the sense of an unrecoverable time. When last they were together in May 2010, George Huguely, his fellow University of Virginia lacrosse teammates and the other friends, apartment mates and acquaintances in his small orbit were weeks from the end of a college year and, for some, graduation. But on Wednesday, they were thrown together in a courtroom, where Huguely sat at the defense table, charged with murder, and his former classmates were called to the witness stand to testify against him. Some did so more reluctantly than others; at least one spoke with hostility toward his former friend.

Two supporters of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning were barred Monday from the accused WikiLeaker's preliminary military hearing at Fort Meade. The American Civil Liberties Union, meanwhile, said it would appear in federal court Tuesday to challenge the government's "suspicionless search and seizure" of a computer owned by another Manning supporter. Former Lt. Dan Choi, who attended the Article 32 hearing on Saturday and Sunday, tweeted that he was "pressing charges" after he was barred from entering Monday.

Two supporters of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning were barred Monday from the accused WikiLeaker's preliminary military hearing at Fort Meade. The American Civil Liberties Union, meanwhile, said it would appear in federal court Tuesday to challenge the government's "suspicionless search and seizure" of a computer owned by another Manning supporter. Former Lt. Dan Choi, who attended the Article 32 hearing on Saturday and Sunday, tweeted that he was "pressing charges" after he was barred from entering Monday.

Weeks after his office and home were raided by federal agents, attorney Stanley Needleman is in trouble again — this time for allegedly stealing a judicial clerk's school textbook from a Baltimore County courtroom. Needleman, 68, has been charged with one count of theft under $100 after police say a check of court surveillance cameras showed him on May 9 flipping through the textbook, "Understanding White Collar Crime," walking away with it and resuming his spot behind the defense table to represent a client.

A state judicial disciplinary panel issued a stinging public reprimand yesterday to a Montgomery County judge for refusing to evacuate his courtroom during a courthouse fire in 1992.But the Commission on Judicial Disabilities held off on deciding whether to punish District Judge Henry J. Monahan on charges that he had sex with a prostitute in his chambers in 1994.Judge Monahan's decision not to evacuate his second-floor courtroom in Rockville on Sept. 24, 1992, was "unjustified, unreasonable," violated fire codes and "could have posed a danger to the welfare and safety of everyone in his courtroom," the panel said in a reprimand issued yesterday.

The General Assembly may soon lift the ban on cameras in Maryland's criminal courts, at last allowing television's all-seeing eye to scan the occasional scenes of high drama there as in the criminal courtrooms of all but three other states.Maybe this is progress. And maybe it isn't.Putting TV cameras in Maryland's criminal courts would push ever closer to extinction one of the few exemplars of refinement in such proceedings: the courtroom artist.Cameras were not always banned from courtrooms of Maryland or elsewhere.

Washington. -- An angry Judge Lance Ito has called a hearing for November 7 to determine whether he should throw television cameras out of the courtroom during the double-murder trial of O.J. Simpson.Despite the clamorous pile of mail inspired by a few grandstanding print journalists, Judge Ito ought to forget the idea of imposing a television blackout for these reasons:1) The cameras in the courtroom are in no way responsible for the outrageous and erroneous television and newspaper stories that have irritated Judge Ito, Mr. Simpson's defense lawyers and in some cases the prosecution.

"You, I beg,hold back your scorn.For man needs helpfrom every creature born."-- Bertolt BrechtAfter all the bad things had been said, Mary, the woman in the cheap blue dress, swore she'd tell the truth. She slid into the witness chair and tugged on her hem.The prosecutor had just finished reading a statement of facts about Mary's behavior on the night of July 24 at her rowhouse on South Pulaski. Not a pretty picture.This Mary, stocky and round-faced, had allegedly attacked a man named Smith with a baseball bat. When cops came to her door, she screamed and tried to punch one of them.

The harsh, bright light flooded the courtroom as if to banish even a shadow from lurking. The walls were white and unadorned.The Maryland flag hung from a broken pole, limply leaning in the face of the constant pain that paraded before it.From the back of the courtroom, a baby began to cry. If he had known what was about to happen, he would have cried even louder.This was not a murder trial. It was not the trial of a thief or an armed robber or any of the other vermin that prey upon decent citizens.

— The lanky Ellicott City teenager and Pakistani citizen walked into the federal courtroom here on Monday dressed in an olive drab, one-piece prison jumpsuit, his hands cuffed behind his back, and muttered barely two words during his arraignment on terrorism charges — "not guilty. " And with that, the public proceeding began for one of the country's youngest people charged with aiding a terrorist. A U.S. District Court judge ordered Mohammad Massan Khalid detained until his trial, scheduled for Dec. 13, and defense attorneys asked for a hearing next month to find an alternate holding facility for their young client.

Within a half-hour of her arrival on the TV set, Kerri O'Dair was transformed from casually clad college student to the picture of a young lawyer, dressed in pearls, a black suit and high heels. While a stylist applied makeup, the 18-year-old studied her notes and prepared for her appearance on "School Court TV. " O'Dair, a student at the Community College of Baltimore County's Dundalk campus, plays the prosecutor in the latest episode of the courtroom drama, which airs this weekend on cable television at Comcast 45.2 or Fios 45.6.

The button-down gingham shirt was accented by a maroon paisley bow tie. Her loose-fitting black jeans slightly covered her black-and-white squared leather shoes. Felicia "Snoop" Pearson's nerd-chic ensemble, accented by geeky glasses, seemed almost red-carpet-ready when she exited Baltimore Circuit Court on Monday. But "The Wire" actress' duds were more likely a calculated legal move than a fashion statement. In fact, Pearson is among a growing list of celebrities who turn to stylists or high-end designers for spiffed-up makeovers when they land in court.

July 9, 2011 Henry Ackerman had plans - big, cross country, into-the-wild plans. It was 1998, and he was 48 years old, alone, sad and somewhat peculiar. He lived with threecats and a big, sandy-colored dog in an unkempt Baltimore County apartment and worked as a child psychologist in the city school system. His beloved wife had died of leukemia four years earlier in Memphis after a long illness, and he had moved immediately afterward, first to Oregon and then to Maryland to be closer to his sister's family, acquaintances said.

Weeks after his office and home were raided by federal agents, attorney Stanley Needleman is in trouble again — this time for allegedly stealing a judicial clerk's school textbook from a Baltimore County courtroom. Needleman, 68, has been charged with one count of theft under $100 after police say a check of court surveillance cameras showed him on May 9 flipping through the textbook, "Understanding White Collar Crime," walking away with it and resuming his spot behind the defense table to represent a client.

A Baltimore teenager was convicted Tuesday of assaulting an Anne Arundel County deputy sheriff whose leg was broken in a courtroom scuffle that began when the youth refused to stop texting in the courtroom, then swore at the deputy, officials said. Demonte T. Jones, 18, was found guilty in District Court in Annapolis of second-degree assault on Deputy Brian Schwaab. A five-year prison sentence was suspended in favor of one month in jail followed by three years of probation, according to court records.

NEW YORK -- Louis Nizer, the shrewd and voluble trial lawyer who made a long career of representing famous people in famous cases and whose autobiography, "My Life in Court," was a best seller, died yesterday at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. Mr. Nizer was 92 and lived in Manhattan.The cause of death was kidney failure, said Perry Galler, the managing partner in the New York-based law firm Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim & Ballon, of which Mr. Nizer was the senior partner.Mr. Nizer founded the firm with Louis Phillips, and colleagues said yesterday that he remained active, going in to his office almost every day, until 10 days before he died.

As the clock edges toward 3 p.m. on Day 12 of a drug-conspiracy trial in a Baltimore courtroom, you can see which way some jurors are leaning. Unfortunately, it's not toward a verdict.Heads droop, eyelids flutter closed, mouths fall unprettily open. Several alternate jurors slump in the same direction, like windblown trees. Sleep has stolen upon the scene -- invited by stomachs digesting lunch, the dizzying warmth of the day and a federal agent's explanation of wiretapping technicalities.

The state's top court Thursday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit asking that a building contractor raze the luxury compound he built without permits on an island in the Magothy River. The lawsuit, filed by the Critical Area Commission in 2008, was the first filed under state environmental enforcement measures toughened by legislators only months earlier. They strengthened the law largely in response to the illegal construction on 2-acre Little Dobbins Island. The Court of Appeals said Thursday that the 2008 provisions could not be applied retroactively to the construction by Daryl C. Wagner and his company, DCW Dutchship Island LLC, that was discovered four years before the law took effect.