Garbis

The White House nominated Rockville attorney Roger W. Titus yesterday to fill the latest vacancy on Maryland's federal bench. Titus, 61, was nominated to fill a vacancy created by U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis' decision to retire to senior status in Baltimore. Titus is expected to be based in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, joining three sitting judges. District Judge Peter J. Messitte, who works from the Greenbelt courthouse, praised the nomination last night, calling Titus a "first-class appointment and just a great guy."

A federal judge last week threw out a Baltimore security guard's copyright infringement case against National Football League Properties, saying there was no evidence the NFL had licensed the use of the Ravens logo he'd designed to a software company. Frederick E. Bouchat has been credited with designing the Ravens' first logo, known as the "Flying B logo," and is awaiting compensation. In this most recent case, Bouchat claimed he wasn't getting credit for the use of the logo in some Madden NFL video games.

A federal judge called city and state school officials into court yesterday to express his concerns that Baltimore's special education students won't receive the services they need amid leadership changes in the school system. City schools Chief Executive Officer Bonnie S. Copeland is stepping down this week, and most top administrative positions overseeing special education are vacant or filled with interim replacements. School system and state officials told the judge they will work together to ensure that services are provided.

Ruth Garbis, a homemaker who enjoyed writing poetry, died July 18 of heart failure at Stella Maris Hospice. She was 91. Born Ruth Rochkind in Baltimore, the daughter of a Russian immigrant father and Baltimore-born mother, she spent her early years on West North Avenue. During the Depression, she moved with her family to Richmond, Va., and worked in her parents' grocery store and luncheonette. It was while living in Richmond that Mrs. Garbis developed her lifelong commitment to civil rights, when she gave up her seat on a streetcar to an elderly African-American woman, engendering the wrath of the motorman.

A federal judge who in November vacated the death sentence of convicted killer Tyrone Delano Gilliam Jr. has overturned his own order, again putting the wheels in motion for the execution.Gilliam was sentenced to death in 1989 by a Baltimore County judge for the murder of Christine J. Doerfler, 21, a hardware store clerk who was kidnapped and shot in the back of the head in a robbery that netted $3.Judge Marvin J. Garbis said in his November decision that Gilliam's attorney, Donald Daneman, provided inadequate defense work.

A federal judge last week threw out a Baltimore security guard's copyright infringement case against National Football League Properties, saying there was no evidence the NFL had licensed the use of the Ravens logo he'd designed to a software company. Frederick E. Bouchat has been credited with designing the Ravens' first logo, known as the "Flying B logo," and is awaiting compensation. In this most recent case, Bouchat claimed he wasn't getting credit for the use of the logo in some Madden NFL video games.

Morris Garbis, a Baltimore landlord who for decades has been described as one of the city's most flagrant and frequent violators of the housing code, was placed on probation yesterday for operating as a real estate broker without a license.Mr. Garbis, 77, was ordered to refund more than $7,000 in sales deposits he collected on houses he showed to potential buyers -- sometimes without the homeowner's knowledge.The six houses, located throughout the city, were advertised for sale by Mr. Garbis' Preston Mortgage Service Co., said Gary Honick, a prosecutor in the economic crimes unit of the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office.

After decades of brushing against the law as one of the city's most frequent violators of the housing code, longtime Baltimore landlord Morris Garbis, at the age of 78, was sentenced to prison for the first time yesterday.Garbis -- who was described as a "slumlord" in headlines as much as 30 years ago and is still said to owe the city thousands of dollars in fines -- was ordered to serve a year in prison for brokering real estate without a license. In several instances cited by prosecutor Gary Honick, Garbis kept money for down payments on sales that were never completed.

Baltimore school system officials appealed yesterday a federal judge's order giving the state control over a significant portion of the system's operations because of its failings in special education. The system is appealing the order, filed Aug. 12 by U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Garbis authorized the state to send managers to oversee eight school system departments that affect special education, including finance, instruction and human resources.

Three Howard County missionaries who won a new trial after pleading guilty to smuggling youngsters into the United States to work in menial jobs were sentenced a second time in federal court in Baltimore yesterday - and got stiffer terms. U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis more than doubled the sentences he imposed in 1999 on Joyce E. Perdue and Robert C. Hendricks, and added three months to Elizabeth Brown's prison term. Garbis said the evidence he heard during the trial in December showed that the missionaries exploited the children they brought from Estonia under the pretense of giving them religious training.

At one point in court yesterday, a federal judge pleaded for a small sign that the government would try to improve the way minorities from Baltimore receive information about publicly subsidized housing available outside the city. A lawyer for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - during a remedy phase of a trial on whether residents of the city's public housing communities have suffered discrimination - argued that the agency had done enough. U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis ruled last year that HUD had violated fair-housing laws for decades.

A federal judge called city and state school officials into court yesterday to express his concerns that Baltimore's special education students won't receive the services they need amid leadership changes in the school system. City schools Chief Executive Officer Bonnie S. Copeland is stepping down this week, and most top administrative positions overseeing special education are vacant or filled with interim replacements. School system and state officials told the judge they will work together to ensure that services are provided.

Creating thousands of new opportunities for Baltimore public housing families to live in well-off suburbs was necessary to make "real progress" in overcoming decades of government policies that segregated residents in poor, minority areas of the city, a lawyer for the tenants told a federal judge yesterday. In his opening statement in the remedy phase of a public housing desegregation case, attorney Peter Buscemi said a proposal requiring the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide 6,750 special housing vouchers and new and rehabilitated units over 10 years would give public housing families a "better chance at life."

An angry federal judge told the Baltimore school system yesterday that it must pay the salaries of eight state managers running its special-education program, along with the cost of reforms the managers deem necessary. U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis, who oversees a 21-year- old special-education lawsuit, criticized the school system as he handed the state another victory in a struggle for control over the city schools. Speaking sternly, Garbis told Douglas Nazarian, a lawyer for the school system, that state officials are "taking over a failed enterprise, and they're there to tell you what to do."

Kehinde Akintola Oladapo used to lug bags for Southwest Airlines in Maryland. For years, he also stole the mail. And that was only the beginning. The former baggage handler from Nigeria forwarded the stolen mail taken from airplanes to thieves in New York, who then robbed 1,500 people of an estimated $21 million in what prosecutors called one of the largest identity theft cases busted in Maryland. Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis sentenced Oladapo, 48, of Lanham to 14 years in prison for purloining letters shipped through Baltimore-Washington International Airport and allowing others to use the personal financial information inside to tap bank accounts and set up false credit.

Baltimore school system officials appealed yesterday a federal judge's order giving the state control over a significant portion of the system's operations because of its failings in special education. The system is appealing the order, filed Aug. 12 by U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Garbis authorized the state to send managers to oversee eight school system departments that affect special education, including finance, instruction and human resources.

Under pressure from a federal judge who has threatened to hold them in contempt, Baltimore school officials have made "substantial strides" to bring the district's special education computer system up to good working condition, according to a new report by a court liaison. The system tracks information on the thousands of city children who receive special education services. As a result of a lawsuit filed 18 years ago, the school district is required to ensure that the system is functioning properly.

In a case pitting architectural aesthetics against handicapped accessibility, a federal judge has ruled that Bank of America is not legally required to add a wheelchair ramp or make other structural changes to one of Baltimore's most prominent buildings. Judge Marvin J. Garbis said that costly renovations needed to provide better accommodations for handicapped people at the 1929 art deco skyscraper at 10 Light St. would amount to "aesthetic destruction." He ruled that the historic building, while lacking in handicapped accessibility options, meets Americans with Disabilities Act minimum requirements.

Days after a federal judge lashed out at Baltimore schools chief executive Bonnie S. Copeland, the Baltimore school board has voted to renew Copeland's contract. The school system declined to provide The Sun with a copy of the contract yesterday. School board Chairman Brian Morris said Copeland's "base salary" of $192,000 a year will remain the same. Morris said the contract will keep Copeland at the helm of the 86,000-student district through June 2008. Asked whether Copeland had received a bonus, Morris said he did not have a copy of the contract, but school system attorney Anthony J. Trotta could provide one. Reached last night, Trotta said he, too, did not have a copy.