Judge Kane

Today marks the end of an era as Howard County Circuit Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr. retires after 23 years on the bench and chief judge since last year. "I just thought it was time to do it," said Kane, 66, adding that he wants to travel and spend more time with his grandchildren. But Kane won't be absent from the courthouse. He will come back on a regular basis as a settlement conference judge. Other retired judges - including Howard Circuit Court Judge James B. Dudley, who retired in January - will step in to help oversee cases, said Judge Diane O. Leasure, the county's administrative circuit judge.

Minutes after a Frederick chemist was convicted of trying to poison a former co-worker with mercury, he turned to his lawyer and told him he had taken cyanide. Stunned, lawyer Dino Flores approached Howard County Circuit Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr. and told him what happened. Always calm, Kane handled the situation with aplomb. Kane quickly had deputies take the chemist out of the courtroom to a back hallway, where the chemist went into convulsions. The chemist died a day later. "I don't know how anybody could have handled it, and [Kane]

Vernon Lee Clark of Elkridge appeared in court yesterday to get a new sentence for his murder conviction, but he left the courtroom with the same one he got in 1991.At a Howard Circuit Court hearing, Clark, 39, again was sentenced to life plus 28 years in prison for the 1989 murder and rape of Kathleen Patricia Gouldin, a 23-year-old Elkridge woman who was a popular bar manager at a Baltimore nightclub.The case was sent back to Circuit Court for a second sentencing hearing after the state Court of Special Appeals ruled last year that a judge could have considered sentencing Clark to life in prison without parole, the penalty originally sought by county prosecutors.

Today marks the end of an era as Howard County Circuit Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr. retires after 23 years on the bench and chief judge since last year. "I just thought it was time to do it," said Kane, 66, adding that he wants to travel and spend more time with his grandchildren. But Kane won't be absent from the courthouse. He will come back on a regular basis as a settlement conference judge. Other retired judges - including Howard Circuit Court Judge James B. Dudley, who retired in January - will step in to help oversee cases, said Judge Diane O. Leasure, the county's administrative circuit judge.

A Marriottsville man serving a five-year prison sentence for causing his wife to fall from a ladder to her death in 1992 lost his bid in Howard Circuit Court yesterday for a reduced sentence.John Carroll Calhoun, 53, asked Judge Raymond Kane Jr. for a shorter sentence so he could help raise his two children, who are in temporary custody of a Mount Airy couple.Calhoun was sentenced to 10 years in prison -- with half of the term suspended -- after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter in June 1993.

A Marriottsville man serving a five-year prison sentence for causing his wife to fall from a ladder to her death in 1992 lost his bid in Howard Circuit Court yesterday for a reduced sentence.John Carroll Calhoun, 53, asked Judge Raymond Kane Jr. for a shorter sentence so he could help rear his two children, who are in temporary custody of a Mount Airy couple.Calhoun was sentenced to 10 years in prison -- with half of the term suspended -- after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter in June 1993.

A man who represented himself and was convicted in September of murdering his girlfriend lost a bid for another trial in Howard Circuit Court yesterday.Marvin Philander Smith of Baltimore cited his lack of knowledge in practicing law and understanding courtroom procedures as one of several reasons why he should be given a new trial.But Judge Raymond Kane Jr. didn't buy Smith's argument. He denied Smith's request for another trial and scheduled his sentencing hearing for Dec. 20."I'm satisfied it was appropriate for Mr. Smith to proceed with the trial without counsel," Judge Kane said.

A Howard County public defender pursued several unusual legal strategies in Howard Circuit Court yesterday in the case of a man accused of robbing an Ellicott City bank last winter.Deputy Public Defender Louis Willemin wanted a courtroom line-up, requested a judge to remove himself from the case and asked for the charges against 30-year-old Henry Darnell Johnson Jr. of Baltimore to be dismissed. And all that courtroom action occurred before the trial even started.Mr. Willemin wanted the courtroom lineup to require witnesses to identify the robber.

Howard Circuit Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr. was recognized last week by the Maryland State Bar Association for being an even-handed and cool-headed jurist.Kane, 59, won the association's first Judge Anselm Sodaro Judicial Civility Award. Kane will receive a plaque at the bar association's annual meeting in Ocean City June 13."Judge Kane is really the epitome of judicial temperament, civility, respect and courtesy," said Janet Eveleth, spokeswoman for the state bar association. "These are qualities we would like to promote in all judges and attorneys."

Howard County prosecutors say they will appeal the three-year prison sentence of a former Marine convicted in a murder-for-hire scheme that targeted a 17-year-old Columbia girl who accused him of rape.James Alexander Page Jr. was sentenced yesterday by Howard Circuit Court Judge Raymond Kane Jr. for one count each of solicitation to commit murder and obstruction of justice."I respect Judge Kane," said Senior Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Murtha. "The state believes the law is contrary to what the court ruled."

Howard Circuit Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr. was recognized last week by the Maryland State Bar Association for being an even-handed and cool-headed jurist.Kane, 59, won the association's first Judge Anselm Sodaro Judicial Civility Award. Kane will receive a plaque at the bar association's annual meeting in Ocean City June 13."Judge Kane is really the epitome of judicial temperament, civility, respect and courtesy," said Janet Eveleth, spokeswoman for the state bar association. "These are qualities we would like to promote in all judges and attorneys."

Howard County Circuit Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr. will run for re-election this fall, hoping to keep the seat on the bench that he has held for the past 16 years.By law, circuit judges must run for re-election the first year after they are appointed and then every 15 years.Kane, 59, who is also the county's administrative judge, was appointed to the circuit bench under the administration of former Gov. Harry R. Hughes. Previously, Kane served five years as a District Court judge in Howard County.

CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE Raymond J. Kane Jr. reached the only possible conclusion he could in rejecting a move to void a controversial plea agreement between state prosecutors and a man who was an accomplice in the 1990 murder of state police Cpl. Theodore D. Wolf of Glen Burnie.The deal was crafted under the direction of former Howard County State's Attorney William R. Hymes. It called for Francisco Rodriguez of the Bronx to plead guilty to first-degree murder and receive a life sentence in exchange for his cooperation in the prosecution of Eric Tirado, the gunman in Corporal Wolf's murder.

AMID CRITICISM OF the minimum sentence for a Howard County man convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the 1993 chloroform death of his girlfriend, attention is again focused on the state's judicial sentencing guidelines and on their application.The case poses troubling questions for many who support the concept of sentencing guidelines and the traditional independence of the judiciary. Widespread reaction seemed a mixture of perplexity and outrage at the four-month sentence handed down last month by Circuit Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr. to Melvin R. Bowers, who admitted placing a chloroform-soaked rag over the face of his companion in bed. Victims rights advocates charged that the short jail term reflected a devaluation of human life by the court, and little example for deterrence of future such crimes.

Victims' rights groups sharply criticized the 120-day jail term given yesterday by a Howard County judge to a 52-year-old accountant in the 1993 chloroform death of his 20-year-old girlfriend.Melvin Robert Bowers, formerly of Ellicott City, could have received 10 years in prison for his Nov. 8 involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of Geneva Marie Hodge of Baltimore. She died after Bowers put a chloroform-soaked rag over her nose and mouth and fell asleep, leaving the rag in place.

A Silver Spring woman was sentenced Monday to nine years in prison for deliberately driving into a Howard County police detective who was investigating her scheme to bilk $3,000 from a Columbia finance company.Patricia Felecia Myers, 43, was given the prison term after she begged Howard Circuit Judge Raymond Kane Jr. to temper his obligation to punish her with mercy."This [incident] has destroyed me," said Myers, fighting back tears. "I've lost everything I had. . . . I lost my freedom."Myers accepted a plea agreement in April for assault with intent to maim and attempted theft for the Dec. 8 incident outside the Household Finance Center in Columbia's Town Center.

A Laurel man who maintains his innocence in the 1987 robbery and slaying of a popular 85-year-old vendor at area horse-racing tracks was sentenced to life in prison yesterday.Nuri Tuncer Icgoren, 41, was given the sentence in a Howard Circuit Court hearing for his conviction of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Raymond Jerman Sr. along U.S. 1 in North Laurel on Sept. 29, 1987.The sentence, issued by Judge Raymond Kane Jr., matches the sentence issued after Icgoren's first trial in 1988.

A man accused of robbing and murdering an armored-car guard outside a Columbia bank in January cannot be given the death penalty or life without parole because prosecutors did not tell him in person of their plans to seek those penalties, a judge ruled yesterday.Circuit Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr. said Howard County prosecutors did not go far enough when they notified the defense in writing that they planned to seek the toughest possible penalties against Tyrone Colbert, 28, of Columbia, if he is convicted.

A Silver Spring woman was sentenced Monday to nine years in prison for deliberately driving into a Howard County police detective who was investigating her scheme to bilk $3,000 from a Columbia finance company.Patricia Felecia Myers, 43, was given the prison term after she pleaded with Howard Circuit Judge Raymond Kane Jr. to temper his obligation to punish her with mercy."This [incident] has destroyed me," said Myers, fighting back tears. "I've lost everything I had. . . . I lost my freedom."

Vernon Lee Clark of Elkridge appeared in court yesterday to get a new sentence for his murder conviction, but he left the courtroom with the same one he got in 1991.At a Howard Circuit Court hearing, Clark, 39, again was sentenced to life plus 28 years in prison for the 1989 murder and rape of Kathleen Patricia Gouldin, a 23-year-old Elkridge woman who was a popular bar manager at a Baltimore nightclub.The case was sent back to Circuit Court for a second sentencing hearing after the state Court of Special Appeals ruled last year that a judge could have considered sentencing Clark to life in prison without parole, the penalty originally sought by county prosecutors.