District Court Judge

Judge Fred E. Waldrop, who served on the District Court bench in Baltimore County from its establishment in 1971 until his retirement in 1984, died of cancer Monday at his home on Drawbridge Court in Catonsville. He was 63.Services for Judge Waldrop will be held at 1 p.m. tomorrow at the Leroy M. and Russell C. Witzke funeral establishment, 1630 Edmondson Ave., Catonsville.He retired on medical disability after tests showed that damage from an apparent cerebral hemorrhage in 1981, for which he was hospitalized several months, and the pressures of his work could combine to endanger his health.

Saying that "those who made the laws have an obligation to obey them," a District Court judge in Annapolis sentenced state Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr. on Tuesday to 30 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to operating a boat while under the influence. Dwyer, 55, a Republican from Pasadena, immediately filed an appeal. The sentence stems from a powerboat collision last summer on the Magothy River involving Dwyer's boat, the Legislator, and another vessel. Several people were injured in the crash, and toxicology tests showed that Dwyer had a blood alcohol level of 0.24 percent, three times the legal limit for being under the influence.

Alexandra N. "Sandy" Williams, a Baltimore County assistant state's attorney for 15 years, has been named to the District Court bench by Gov. William Donald Schaefer.Mrs. Williams will succeed John C. Coolahan, who retired from Baltimore County District Court in May to seek the Democratic nomination for county executive in the Sept. 13 primary.Mrs. Williams, 38, a graduate of Denison University in Ohio, earned her law degree from the University of Baltimore Law School. She became an assistant state's attorney in 1979, and was promoted to District Court division chief in 1990.

  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.

A Baltimore County judge has agreed to a five-day unpaid suspension, admitting that he was wrong to summarily find 28 people in contempt for courtroom disruptions — including two dozen fined and threatened with jail time after their cellphones sounded in his courtroom. District Judge Norman Stone III also will be on administrative probation for two years. Maryland's top court signed off late Friday on the agreement between Stone, 54, and the Commission on Judicial Disabilities.

Saying that "those who made the laws have an obligation to obey them," a District Court judge in Annapolis sentenced state Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr. on Tuesday to 30 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to operating a boat while under the influence. Dwyer, 55, a Republican from Pasadena, immediately filed an appeal. The sentence stems from a powerboat collision last summer on the Magothy River involving Dwyer's boat, the Legislator, and another vessel. Several people were injured in the crash, and toxicology tests showed that Dwyer had a blood alcohol level of 0.24 percent, three times the legal limit for being under the influence.

Annapolis District Court Judge Martha F. Rasin has been named administrative judge for District 7, which includes the Annapolis and Glen Burnie courts, effective Oct. 30.Robert F. Sweeney, chief judge of the District Court system, announced the appointment yesterday. Judge Rasin succeeds Judge Clayton Greene Jr., who was appointed Thursday to the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court by Gov. Parris N. Glendening.Judge Rasin has been a District Court judge for six years. She was chairman of the District Court Judicial Education Committee and a member of an ad hoc committee to implement changes in Maryland's domestic laws.

President Bush is likely to choose a nominee to the Supreme Court early this week. Here are names of some of the individuals the president reportedly has reviewed with his advisers (names marked by [*] were "finalists" for the last Supreme Court vacancy a year ago):U.S. Circuit Court judgesFerdinand F. Fernandez, 53, Hispanic-American, from Pomona, ACalif., serving on court in San Francisco; former U.S. DistrictCourt judge and state judge.Emilio M. Garza, 42, Hispanic-American, from San Antonio, Texas, on court in New Orleans; former U.S. District Court judge.

A Baltimore District Court judge yesterday ordered the parent company of Parks Sausage to pay $16,250 to the company's former president for consulting services.District Court Judge H. Gary Bass ruled that the payment was required by a consulting agreement between Parks LLC, the parent company, and Reginald Haysbert, the former president.Haysbert and his father, former company Chairman Raymond V. Haysbert, sold the bankrupt company last year to a group led by former football star Franco Harris.

City Councilman Timothy D. Murphy, D-6th, chairman of the Taxation and Finance Committee, has applied for a vacancy on the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City.Murphy is among 25 people who are seeking to fill the seat left vacant when Judge Paul A. Smith was appointed to the Baltimore City Circuit Court in October.A lawyer for 13 years and a councilman for eight, Murphy said he long has had an interest in being a District Court judge."There comes a time when you explore new opportunities," said Murphy.

A Baltimore County judge has agreed to a five-day unpaid suspension, admitting that he was wrong to summarily find 28 people in contempt for courtroom disruptions — including two dozen fined and threatened with jail time after their cellphones sounded in his courtroom. District Judge Norman Stone III also will be on administrative probation for two years. Maryland's top court signed off late Friday on the agreement between Stone, 54, and the Commission on Judicial Disabilities.

A District Court judge threw out this week the September 2009 disorderly conduct charge against Kelli Oliver, daughter of Baltimore County Councilman Kenneth N. Oliver, but she and the councilman's granddaughter will stand trial on other charges stemming from a traffic stop in which the two are accused of arguing with a county police officer. In dismissing the disorderly conduct charge, Judge Dorothy Wilson said that "the elements of disorderly conduct did not exist" at the time Kelli Oliver was arrested.

Werner G. Schoeler, a retired Baltimore County District Court judge and a coin collector, died Friday of sepsis at Summit Park Health and Rehabilitation Center in Catonsville. The longtime Catonsville resident was 78. Judge Schoeler was born in Baltimore and raised on Harlem Avenue. He was a 1948 graduate of Polytechnic Institute and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland in College Park. While studying at the University of Maryland and for his law degree, which he earned from the University of Baltimore in 1953, Judge Schoeler worked at United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. Judge Schoeler met his future law partner, Roland Bounds, while working at USF&G, and after passing the Maryland Bar in 1954, he established a general law practice at the Charing Cross Shopping Center.

Robert Numsen Lucke Sr., a retired Anne Arundel County District Court judge and former longtime Severna Park resident, died Tuesday of heart failure at Peartree House, a Pasadena assisted-living facility. He was 84. Judge Lucke was born in Washington and moved with his family to Howard Park in 1928. They moved to Round Bay in 1939. After graduating from Annapolis High School in 1943, Judge Lucke enlisted in the Army and served with an infantry unit in Europe until being seriously wounded.

After being sworn in, the newest addition to the Harford County District Court bench fidgeted with the zipper of her new judge's robe. A smiling Judge Susan Hower Hazlett tugged on the obstinate zipper, then shrugged and said, "I don't know how to do this." In front of friends, colleagues and the local legal community in a packed County Council chambers, the former Baltimore County prosecutor was sworn in as the newest Harford County District Court judge. After thanking her family, mentors and friends, she vowed to be "guided with decency and integrity."

Gov. Martin O'Malley appointed a prosecutor and public defender yesterday as District Court judges in Baltimore. Videtta A. Brown is chief of the domestic violence division of the city state's attorney's office and has been a city prosecutor since 1989. Leon R. Cooper has been an assistant public defender since 1999. From 1987 to 1996, Cooper was a city prosecutor. The appointments are subject to state Senate approval. District Court judges serve 10-year terms.

Pamila Junette Brown was sworn in as Howard County's newest District Court judge yesterday in a ceremony filled with personal tributes to a woman described as a leader who knows how to juggle multiple responsibilities while projecting "unwavering optimism and radiance." Brown, 47, an assistant attorney general who had been on Gov. Parris N. Glendening's short list for previous appointments, is stepping into the judicial slot - and into the former chambers - of District Court Chief Judge James N. Vaughan, whose promotion created a vacancy last fall.

A Cumberland County (Maine) District Court judge yesterday approved an agreement that will dismiss disorderly conduct charges against Maryland basketball player Nik Caner-Medley if the junior forward meets certain conditions, said assistant district attorney Tracy Bardwell. Caner-Medley, 21, who was arrested on July 23 after an altercation in the bar district of his hometown of Portland, Maine, agreed to pay court costs of $200 and perform two 11-day sessions of community service at a camp for disabled children and adults.

Judge Sol J. Friedman, a retired Baltimore District Court judge and former member of the House of Delegates, died of heart failure Thursday at Atrium Village in Owings Mills. He was 89. A protege of James H. "Jack" Pollack, the erstwhile political boss of West and Northwest Baltimore, he was elected to the House of Delegates five times before he became a judge. In 1973, his old friend, then-Gov. Marvin Mandel, appointed him to the bench. Judge Friedman presided over a highly publicized peeping Tom case in 1975, and in 1979 he joined District Judge Jerome Robinson in ruling that Baltimore's blue laws were unconstitutional.

Essom V. Ricks Jr., a retired Anne Arundel County District Court judge who pressed for renovation of the old Wiley H. Bates High School, died of cancer Thursday at Anne Arundel Medical Center. The Annapolis resident was 60. Born in Annapolis, he was a 1964 graduate of Bates and member of its precision marching band, and had been a Boy Scout. He earned a bachelor's degree at what is now Morgan State University, where he joined the Reserve Officers Training Corps. He served in an Army artillery repair crew in Vietnam and attained the rank of sergeant.