District Judge

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.

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.

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.

Anne Arundel County District Judge J. Michael Wachs was appointed this week by Gov. Martin O'Malley to serve on the county Circuit Court bench, filling the vacancy created this year by the retirement of Judge Joseph P. Manck. "In this case, the governor hit a home run," said Circuit Court Judge William C. Mulford II. "Mike brings a lot of experience to the job, both public and private. He's from the community. He went to Annapolis High School. He lives in Severna Park. He's just going to be fantastic."

Two judges widely heralded for pioneering Anne Arundel County District Court programs are retiring in the span of a month. Administrative Judge James W. "Jack" Dryden will step down July 31, a week after his 60th birthday, while Judge Vincent A. Mulieri, who turns 69 today, retired June 30. Their vacancies on the nine-judge court are unlikely to be filled soon, as Gov. Martin O'Malley has not created any of the county panels needed to screen judicial replacements....

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.

Four-year-old Jack O'Malley was walking straight toward the barrier of ferns that decorated the edge of the raised podium where his father would deliver his inaugural address. But before he reached the stage's perilous perimeter, Jack's mother gently reeled him in. She tucked the boy under her coat - with only his head poking out, he resembled a baby marsupial - and then stifled a giggle. No one was the wiser. The state of the youngest member of Maryland's first family was secure. Catherine Curran O'Malley has grown accustomed to just such moments.

A federal judge in Baltimore struck down yesterday a pioneering state law that sought to require Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to boost spending for employee health care, saying the legislation violated a federal law that promotes uniform treatment of employers. The ruling is expected to ripple across the country as the nation's largest retailer battles other states and localities considering similar legislation. In Maryland, the issue could galvanize both political parties during the coming elections.