District Court

It takes incredible courage for a victim of domestic violence to apply for a protective order. Victims must make their way to the courthouse, often while they are still experiencing the effects of their abuse. At the courthouse, they must write a description of how they were abused, and then describe their abuse again to a judge, often in front of a courtroom filled with strangers. If the judge determines that there has been abuse, the judge will issue a temporary protective order that must be served by a law enforcement officer on the alleged abuser.

The Harford County executive heads the executive branch of the county's government. Elected every four years, the county executive leads a Cabinet composed of directors, departments and agencies, including Public Works, Treasury, Planning and Zoning, Community Services, Economic Development, and Parks and Recreation. The seven-member Harford County Council operates as the legislative branch. Six council members are elected every four years, one from each of the county's six voting districts.

A new audit shows some prisoners at the state's Central Booking and Intake Center still wait hours more than they should for bail to be set and says the situation may continue unless changes are made in the way court commissioners see prisoners.A report of the audit, finished last month, found most of the $56 million center's functions working well -- but says the court commissioners often could not keep up with the flow of suspects and that at certain times of day some commissioners saw no one. The audit also notes police need more training on the booking system, and court commissioners need a better way to tell officers they are ready to see more prisoners.

Counselors and psychologists will be on hand at Mount Hebron High School in Ellicott City on Monday as students return for the first school day since two classmates were charged with killing well-known Howard County blogger Dennis Lane. The county school system will provide the support for students and staff who may be upset over the slaying Friday and the first-degree murder and conspiracy charges against Jason Anthony Bulmer, 19, and Morgan Lane Arnold, Lane's 14-year-old daughter.

Joseph Michael O'Ferrall Sr., former chief administrator for the Prince George's County District Court and later a security officer for the National Security Agency, died of a heart attack Friday at his Catonsville home. He was 66. Mr. O'Ferrall was born in Baltimore and raised in the Ten Hills area. He was a 1956 graduate of St. Joseph's High School in Bardstown, Ky., and earned his bachelor's degree in 1960 and a law degree in 1963 -- both from the University of Baltimore. He began his career in the courts in 1961 as a clerk of the old Municipal Court of Baltimore City.

At 10 a.m. on a recent weekday, roughly a half-dozen District Court commissioners were individually processing 120 arrestees at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center, and making big decisions about whether to set bail or release the accused with instructions to come to court when called. They work out of tiny concrete cells in the detention center, similar to those packed with waiting prisoners. For protection, they have a window partition between them and the defendant, who is locked in during the proceeding.

The case that led the Court of Appeals to conclude that indigent defendants arrested in Maryland should have the right to counsel when they appear before a district court commissioner put the state Office of the Public Defender in an awkward position. On principle, it agreed; the initial phase of the criminal justice process is crucial to determining the liberty of a person who is arrested, and without the benefit of counsel, far more people than necessary wound up confined to jail while awaiting trial because of excessive bail requirements.

The John R. Hargrove Sr. building of Baltimore's district court closed shortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday because of a nearby water main break that left the facility without water. It's unclear when the building,  on the 700 block of E. Patapsco Ave.,  will reopen and resume hearing cases. Bail reviews were transferred to the Borgerding district court location at 5800 Wabash Ave, and other cases were postponed, said judiciary spokeswoman Terri Bolling. The water main break occurred on the 3600 block of Brooklyn Ave., Bolling said.

  Gov. Martin O'Malley has appointed Brian David Green to the district court for Carroll County. Green has served as attorney with the Office of the Public Defender in Carroll County for the past 23 years, according to a press release from the governor's office. An adjunct professor for the Criminal Practice Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law, Green has also worked for the Shemer Bar Review since 1999, according to the release. He began his legal career as an assistant state's attorney in Baltimore City from 1987-1990.

The Annapolis District Court building closed at noon Thursday due to a lack of heat, and the building is expected to reopen Friday morning. Officials said the courthouse, on Rowe Boulevard at Taylor Avenue, was having mechanical problems. Repairs were expected to be completed Thursday, said judiciary spokeswoman Angelita Plemmer. The problem affected only the District Court building in Annapolis. The other District Court in Anne Arundel County, located in Glen Burnie, remained open, officials said.

It takes incredible courage for a victim of domestic violence to apply for a protective order. Victims must make their way to the courthouse, often while they are still experiencing the effects of their abuse. At the courthouse, they must write a description of how they were abused, and then describe their abuse again to a judge, often in front of a courtroom filled with strangers. If the judge determines that there has been abuse, the judge will issue a temporary protective order that must be served by a law enforcement officer on the alleged abuser.

A Baltimore County police officer was arrested on a warrant Thursday and charged with malfeasance in office, though details on what led to his arrest were not immediately available. Aaron Pross, 29, a county policeman hired in 2007, posted bond and was released Thursday, according to court records. Attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful, and he had no attorney listed in court records. Lt. Rob McCullough, a spokesman for the department, said Pross' police powers have been suspended.

Carroll County Circuit and District court buildings will be closed all day Tuesday as the county sheriff's office investigates a bomb threat made to Circuit Court, police said in a statement. Earlier on Tuesday, the court buildings were evacuated and traffic within the immediate area detoured. Officials said that at approximately 8:30 a.m., Circuit Court received an anonymous call claiming that an explosive device had been left in one off the buildings. Circuit and District courts were evacuated and traffic around Court Street and Greenwood Avenue, as well as alley ways, was detoured as law enforcement inspected the buildings.

July 6, 1943 Robert Mack Bell born in Rocky Mount, N.C.; family moves to Baltimore about 11/2 years later. June 17, 1960 Bell and 11 students try to get seated at Hooper's Restaurant at Charles and Fayette streets in Baltimore. A hostess says the restaurant policy is not to "serve Negroes," and they sit down nonetheless, prompting a call to police that leads to their arrest and conviction for trespassing. Case becomes known as Bell v. Maryland because Bell's name came first alphabetically.

A Middle River family who alleges a Baltimore County officer used excessive force with a Taser has a second chance in court after the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday partially reversed an earlier decision to throw out their federal suit. Ryan Meyers' family sued after the 40-year-old died when Baltimore County police responded to his home for a domestic violence call in 2007. Three officers entered the home and one tasered Meyers 10 times because police said he refused to listen to the officers and drop a baseball bat. But Meyers' family said he fell to the ground and was no longer resisting arrest when the officer continued to taser him unnecessarily.

Howard Gary Bass, whose career as a Baltimore District Court judge spanned nearly three decades and who was known as something of a judicial free spirit for his application of humor to the law, died Tuesday afternoon at Good Samaritan Hospital after being stricken with a heart attack at his Homeland residence. Judge Bass was 70. On the day of his death, lawyers, judges and colleagues from across the state were preparing to honor him at a retirement dinner that evening at Sammy's Trattoria in downtown Baltimore.

The message from last fall's election results was unmistakeably loud and clear: Americans are tired of the usual politics that makes ill use of public dollars. This point was made with particular force by the nation's more conservative communities, one of which would certainly be Dundalk.We wonder, then, how the residents of that east Baltimore County community feel about the proposal by their state delegates to continue the wasteful expense of tax dollars on the shabby and unnecessary District Court in Dundalk.

Seven candidates have been recommended as "most fully qualified" for an appointment to the Harford County District Court. Their names have been forwarded to Gov. Martin O'Malley, who will appoint one of them to fill a vacancy left by Judge Angela M. Eaves, who was elevated to the Harford County Circuit Court. Harford County's Judicial Nominating Commission recommended: Yolanda Lauranzon Curtin, Theodore Mark Hart, Susan Hower Hazlett, Charles Edward Kearney Jr., Melissa Lazarich Lambert, Carl Ridgeley Schlaich and Roger Joseph Sullivan.

  Gov. Martin O'Malley has appointed Brian David Green to the district court for Carroll County. Green has served as attorney with the Office of the Public Defender in Carroll County for the past 23 years, according to a press release from the governor's office. An adjunct professor for the Criminal Practice Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law, Green has also worked for the Shemer Bar Review since 1999, according to the release. He began his legal career as an assistant state's attorney in Baltimore City from 1987-1990.

Judge S. Ann Brobst, who during her three-decade career as an assistant state's attorney earned a reputation for being a tough but fair prosecutor that led to her to appointment in 2009 to the Baltimore County Circuit Court, died Monday evening of pancreatic cancer at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. She was 59 and lived in Towson. Judge Brobst was "a tireless advocate for justice. She was adamant about evidence being properly presented to the court and that the right person was charged," said District Judge Leo Ryan, who had worked with Judge Brobst in the state's attorney's office.