Gelfman

On March 11, 2003, LENA A. GELFMAN (nee August), beloved wife of the late Harold Gelfman, loving mother of Richard Gelfman of Columbia, MD. and Arnold Gelfman of Wayside, NJ, devoted mother-in-law of Lenore Gelfman and Margo Gelfman, dear sister of Sari Merrill and Dr. George August. Loving grandmother of four. Service and Interment will be held in Northhampton, MA. In lieu of flowers contributions may be directed to the charity of donors choice. 14

Lenore R. Gelfman has been named administrative judge for the Howard County Circuit Court, succeeding Diane O. Leasure, who announced her retirement, effective Nov. 4, 2011. "Judge Gelfman has a long and impressive record of service," said Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert M. Bell, who made the appointment. "She is a thoughtful and distinguished jurist, whose leadership skills are exemplary. " Gelfman received her Juris Doctor from the University of Baltimore in 1973 and began her legal career as an assistant state's attorney in Baltimore City.

Dick Gelfman, one of Baltimore's most prominent television journalists, has emerged in recent months as the media guru of his wife's campaign for Howard County Circuit judge -- using equipment and services rented from his employer, WJZ-TV, to help make her campaign ads.The practice raises ethical issues for Gelfman and the station, which permitted the rental for campaign use. It also calls into question the accuracy of a campaign financial disclosure report...

A 24-year-old Columbia man was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in the Howard County detention center for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Elijah Jackson of the 5200 block of Rivendell Lane was running away from police after a fight outside a house party last June when 23 packets of crack cocaine and one packet of powdered cocaine fell out of his hat, prosecutors said. They had asked Circuit Judge Lenore R. Gelfman to sentence Jackson to three years in prison, but Gelfman opted to send him to the detention center out of concern for his safety.

A Howard County Circuit judge threw out criminal charges yesterday against a Columbia man accused of wielding an assault rifle in the robbery of a Wilde Lake supermarket early last year. Judge Lenore R. Gelfman ruled that evidence presented didn't support continuing the trial. She then acquitted Armistead D. Myers, 26, of armed robbery, robbery, assault and other charges in the hold-up Jan. 12, 1999, of the Giant Food store in the 10400 block of Twin Rivers Road. Prosecutors had finished presenting their case when Gelfman ruled on a defense request to dismiss the charges against Myers.

A 42-year-old Parkville man who was illiterate faced a petty theft charge. He got probation before judgment, which allows him to clear his record, but only if he tries to learn how to read.A 19-year-old from Halethorpe told the judge he couldn't work as a roofer anymore because of an ankle injury. He also got probation before judgment, on a marijuana charge, on the condition that he get vocational training to find another line of work.This unusual brand of justice is being dispensed by Howard County District Judge Lenore R. Gelfman, who was appointed to the bench in August 1989.

Family members of Howard Circuit Judge Lenore R. Gelfman and her husband, WJZ-TV consumer affairs reporter Richard D. "Dick" Gelfman, released a statement yesterday thanking emergency personnel for their care and well-wishers for their support in the wake of an accident Sunday night that claimed the life of an 18-year-old Baltimore woman. "Our entire family feels very fortunate and we want to express our gratitude to the neighbors and passers-by who assisted on the scene and saved our parents' lives," Hillary Gelfman, 27, the couple's oldest daughter, said in a prepared statement.

A new cable TV commercial launched by the sitting judges' campaign depicts the likely front-runner in the Howard County Circuit Court race, District Judge Lenore R. Gelfman, as a lenient judge and a hypocrite, and the challengers promptly labeled the ad misleading.The 30-second spot -- which will run 122 times from late last week through Sunday on Comcast cable stations CNN, TNT, Discovery and A&E -- tries to poke holes in the challengers' tough-on-crime campaign theme by charging that:Gelfman is one of District Court's strongest proponents of criminal rehabilitation.

Two leading challengers in the primary race for the Howard County Circuit Court bench are defying the president of the county's bar association by continuing to air cable TV commercials that may wrongly imply they have the bar's official support.About 30 supporters of the two challengers, District Judge Lenore R. Gelfman and attorney Jonathan Scott Smith, called a news conference yesterday to denounce the bar president's move against the TV ads as inappropriate.Illustrating how divisive the judges race has been for the local legal community, those who showed up at the news conference to oppose the bar association president, Fred Howard Silverstein, included six former bar presidents and two current executive board members.

An article in yesterday's Howard County edition of The Sun incorrectly characterized the campaign contributions of Columbia attorney Vincent M. Guida and of the law firm of Lloyd, Kane, Wieder and Willis. Mr. Guida gave $155 to the campaign of District Judge Lenore R. Gelfman and Columbia attorney Jonathan Scott Smith. The law firm of Lloyd et. al. gave Judge Gelfman and Mr. Smith $810.The Sun regrets the error.When it comes to financial support, District Judge Lenore R. Gelfman and Columbia attorney Jonathan Scott Smith are well positioned in Tuesday's primary vote for two Howard County Circuit Court judgeships.

The Howard County Board of Education has until Jan. 3 to decide whether to appeal a recent decision by a Circuit Court judge in a discrimination lawsuit won by a former Centennial High School English teacher. In the decision, Judge Lenore R. Gelfman upheld the jury's verdict in the case but reduced the amount awarded to Michelle Maupin by $62,000 because of an error that improperly awarded damages for the same acts based on both state and federal statutes. "It was an impermissible double recovery," said Maupin's lawyer, Mike Coyle.

A Howard County judge sentenced an 18-year-old Columbia man to 15 years in prison for the shooting of a 4-year-old boy who was hit by a stray bullet this year and for an unrelated sexual offense involving a 13-year-old acquaintance. Tion Jamaar Bell pleaded guilty to first-degree assault, a handgun charge and a fourth-degree sex offense.

A Howard County judge threw out yesterday several statements made to police by an 18-year-old accused of firing a bullet that hit a 4-year-old boy in the head as the toddler played in his bedroom in Columbia. During a two-day hearing, defense attorney Joe Murtha argued that two Howard County detectives improperly interrogated Tion Jamaar Bell of Flowerstock Row in Columbia and illegally seized DNA and his clothing after arresting him on an unrelated warrant. Circuit Judge Lenore R. Gelfman deemed some of Bell's statements to police on the night of the Jan. 20 shooting inadmissible because police did not read Bell his Miranda rights.

During a videotaped, six-hour interview with police detectives, a Columbia woman confessed to strangling her friend and fellow Loyola College doctoral student in March after a night of drinking and an argument in her car. Melissa Burch Harton, 25, told police that after she and Natasha Bacchus argued about how Harton's parents didn't like Bacchus, they started hitting each other and then Harton choked her friend for "one time, for a length of time."...

A 42-year-old Columbia man who shot his half-brother after he heard him disrespect their mother was sentenced yesterday to a year in prison. Despite a mental health report that said Martin K. Sierrah is "an otherwise passive individual," Howard Circuit Judge Lenore R. Gelfman noted that alcohol was involved and said she was "not comfortable" releasing him from jail immediately, as his lawyer asked. "We certainly don't want Mr. Sierrah to hurt someone else," she said before imposing a four-year sentence for the first-degree assault, with all but one year suspended, and two years' supervised probation.

A longtime Howard County schoolteacher who sexually abused a close relative in the 1980s was sentenced yesterday to three years' probation in a case that was first reported to authorities more than a decade ago - but never pursued in court. Despite William Emil Becker's admission to police in 1990 that he molested the girl, no charges were filed then, and school authorities apparently were not told about the allegations, prosecutors said. The case resurfaced last year when the victim, now 29 and also a teacher in the Howard County school system, sought counseling and was encouraged to contact the state's attorney's office.

A group of high-powered Howard lawyers yesterday lashed out at the leading two Circuit Court challengers, calling their campaign tactics "shameful" and saying the newly appointed judges have broad support among county lawyers.In the most recent skirmish in Howard County's battle of the bench, a dozen lawyers appeared at a news conference in Columbia to lend "high-road support" to Circuit Judges Donna Hill Staton and Diane O. Leasure, who were appointed last fall and must stand for election for 15-year terms in the March 5 primary.

The governor will choose one of four finalists recommended by the county's Judicial Nominating Commission to fill the seat being vacated by county Circuit Court Judge J. Thomas Nissel.The 13-member commission has selected local attorney Lewis S. Nippard, Circuit Court master of chancery Bernard A. Raum, deputy state attorney general Dennis M. Sweeney and county public defender Louis P. Willemin from a list of nine candidates seeking the judgeship.The Circuit Court seat became available when Administrative Circuit Court Judge Nissel announced in October that he would step down Dec. 31.Circuit Court Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr. has been appointed administrative judge of the Circuit Court to replace Nissel, a 10-year veteran of the bench.

A longtime Howard County schoolteacher who sexually abused a close relative in the 1980s was sentenced yesterday to three years' probation in a case that was first reported to authorities more than a decade ago - but never pursued in court. Despite William Emil Becker's admission to police in 1990 that he molested the girl, no charges were filed then, and school authorities apparently were not told about the allegations, prosecutors said. The case resurfaced last year when the victim, now 29 and also a teacher in the Howard County school system, sought counseling and was encouraged to contact the state's attorney's office.