District Judge

The Senate voted overwhelmingly Friday to approve the appointment of Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller's son to become an Anne Arundel County District Court judge, a selection that prompted an outcry when first recommended two years ago. Sen. Andrew Harris, who frequently spars with the Senate president, requested that the vote on Thomas V. Mike Miller III be taken separately from a larger package of executive nominations. Harris, a Republican who is running for Congress, did not vote on the measure, which passed 42-0.

Ellen Lipton Hollander, a veteran Maryland state court judge, and James K. Bredar, a federal magistrate judge, have been nominated by President Barack Obama for U.S. District Court judgeships, the White House announced Wednesday. Hollander, 60, has been a member of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals since 1994. Before that, she served five years as a Baltimore Circuit Court judge. She would fill the seat that opened up last year when U.S. Judge Andre Davis, a Democratic nominee, moved to the federal appeals court.

District Judge Robert N. Dugan knows that history is not on his side. Dugan is running for circuit judge in Baltimore County, where a sitting judge hasn't lost since 1938. "I have no illusions, this is an uphill fight," Dugan said. He is one of three judges running for two seats. His opponents, Judge Alexander Wright Jr. and Judge Kathleen Cox, were appointed in recent years by Gov. Parris N. Glendening. Wright became the first African-American on the county's 16-member Circuit Court when he was sworn in to a judgeship created by the General Assembly in June 1998.

A Baltimore County judge was reassigned Wednesday after he officiated a marriage between a man being prosecuted for domestic violence and the alleged victim — an action that led to the man's acquittal. Baltimore County District Judge G. Darrell Russell Jr. took the unusual step last week of allowing the defendant to leave court to obtain a marriage license and married the couple later in his chambers. About 20 minutes later, his new wife invoked marital privilege, so she would not be required to testify against her husband.

Although District Judge Donald M. Smith won't retire until May 1, Carroll's legal community already is speculating about who will replace him.The field apparently is as diverse as the county's 100-member bar, and includes lawyers and former prosecutors who tried unsuccessfully to win the seat when it opened in 1991. Joann Ellinghaus-Jones was tapped then by Gov. William Donald Schaefer to replace District Judge Francis M. Arnold. Judge Arnold took the Circuit Court seat vacated by Donald J. Gilmore.

Prominent Baltimore defense attorney Richard D. Bennett, who has served as Maryland's chief federal prosecutor and headed the state's Republican Party, is scheduled to be sworn in today as the state's newest federal judge. Bennett's appointment is the latest in a series of changes to Maryland's federal bench. Former Baltimore Circuit Judge William D. Quarles was sworn in in March and has begun overseeing criminal and civil cases in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Another judicial vacancy is expected next month, when U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis, 66, retires to senior status after more than 13 years as a federal judge.

JUDGES ACCUSED of crimes deserve the same treatment as other defendants. When Anne Arundel District Judge Vincent A. Mulieri refused to shelve misdemeanor sex charges against Prince George's Circuit Judge Larnzell Martin Jr., he apparently treated Judge Martin unlike other defendants, including a school principal and a Navy spokesman who had been accused of the same crime for the first time.Assistant State's Attorney Sue-Ellen Hantman, brought in from Howard County as prosecutor to avoid appearances of a conflict, said she had never had a judge reject a request to set aside, or "stet," a case in 18 years.

Quach Tom, 65, a Vietnamese who parachuted into North Vietnam as a commando for the CIA, evaded capture for three months and survived almost 19 years of harsh imprisonment as a spy, died Wednesday at Columbia Northlake Regional Medical Center in Chamblee, Ga. Mr. Quach, who died of lymphoma, according to his lawyer, John C. Mattes, had spent a year in the United States.James Noel Jr., 87, a U.S. District judge whose 1976 ruling allowed a predominantly white school district to be carved from the Houston school system, died Friday.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening could give Anne Arundel County its first black and first female Circuit Court judges this fall.The Trial Courts Judicial Nominating Commission included a black district judge and two female lawyers among its six nominees for two Circuit Court vacancies yesterday. Two other nominees are also district judges, but it is unusual for a governor to rob the lower court for Circuit Court appointments."He could write history. If you were the governor and you had a chance to write history in Anne Arundel County, what would you do?"

Three county attorneys, a district judge and the Juvenile Court master are hoping to fill the vacant spot on the Carroll Circuit Court created by the September retirement of Judge Donald J. Gilmore.Attorneys James A. Gede, Charles M. Preston and Marc G. Rasinsky, Administrative District Judge Francis M. Arnold and Juvenile Master Peter M. Tabatsko have submitted applications for the second vacancy on the circuit bench in little more than a year.From the pool of five applicants, a gubernatorial judicial nominating commission will select a group of candidates for the $89,000-a-year job, then forward their names to Gov. William Donald Schaefer.

The Senate voted overwhelmingly Friday to approve the appointment of Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller's son to become an Anne Arundel County District Court judge, a selection that prompted an outcry when first recommended two years ago. Sen. Andrew Harris, who frequently spars with the Senate president, requested that the vote on Thomas V. Mike Miller III be taken separately from a larger package of executive nominations. Harris, a Republican who is running for Congress, did not vote on the measure, which passed 42-0.

An 85-year-old rabbi well-known in the Baltimore area's Jewish community has been found guilty of sexually molesting a woman. Rabbi Jacob Aaron Max, who turned 85 Tuesday, is rabbi emeritus and founder of Pikesville's Liberty Jewish Center, also known as the Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah Hebrew Congregation. He had pleaded not guilty in Baltimore County District Court to the two counts on which he was convicted, a fourth-degree sex offense and second-degree assault. The rabbi fondled the 44-year-old woman's breasts on two occasions minutes apart and murmured that he was "being bad" and was a "bad rabbi" for doing so, according to court documents.

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."

Another member of a judicial nominating commission has pledged to resign over the panel's nomination of the son of Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and others for District Court judgeships after they had been rejected. Attorney Eileen E. Powers said yesterday that she plans to submit her formal resignation letter next week to Gov. Martin O'Malley with Paula J. Peters, who said Thursday that she would resign after serving more than two decades on the panel. While Peters said she was disturbed by political meddling on behalf of Thomas V. Miller III, the powerful Democrat's son, Powers said she decided to resign because she believed that the process was flawed.

The 11 applicants for the new Howard County District Court judgeship have many similarities - all have been practicing attorneys for at least 12 years, many have worked for the state's attorney's office, nine have applied to become a district judge before, and all recognize that the county's courts are overloaded.They welcome the judgeship designed to deal with that problem, even if they disagree about who should fill it."The backlog [of cases] is incredible," said one appilcant, Pamila Junette Brown, who has been counsel to the state Department of General Services since 1990.

Does anyone else find it hard to believe that this is 1991 and Carroll County does not have a female judge?Not on the Circuit Court bench. Not on the District Court bench.Are none of the female lawyers in the county qualified to become a jurist?Hardly.Are none of them interested in administering justice?Hard to believe.But the fact is that until last month, no female attorneys had submitted their names for vacancies on either of Carroll's benches. And, certainly, they've had several opportunities in recent years:* In 1989, a third circuit judgeship was created.

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.

A Harford County District Court judge who sentenced an Elkton woman to jail two weeks ago ruled yesterday that the original sentence should stand. On April 8, Judge Mimi R. Cooper sentenced Kerri J. King, 35, to one year in jail for driving on a suspended license in Harford County. King, who has also been charged in a New Year's Eve hit-and-run accident that killed a Maryland Transportation Authority Police officer in Baltimore, was to receive credit for time spent in the Baltimore detention center on the Harford traffic offense.