Judge Smith

Gov. William Donald Schaefer agreed yesterday to appoint to the Baltimore Circuit Court a black candidate who appeared on the verge of knocking off one of three Schaefer-appointed white incumbent judges in the November general election.If it becomes official, the appointment of District Judge Paul A. Smith would end a campaign many feared would be politically divisive and would split Baltimore's electorate along racial lines. There are two vacancies on the court.Governor Schaefer declined to speak with reporters about his decision.

Circuit Judge James T. Smith Jr. said yesterday that he will step down from the bench next month and all but announced his candidacy for Baltimore County executive. Although Smith has been quietly discussing a run for months with potential supporters, ethics rules prevented him from openly campaigning or securing commitments for donations while he was trying cases. Smith is on vacation until Sept. 6, the day he will officially resign, and he has no more cases to decide before then. While on vacation, he will shore up support, financial and otherwise, and make an announcement early next month, he said.

DEVELOPER Nicholas Mangione has begun bulldozing Baltimore County's historic Hayfields Farm, and there is nothing to be done but exhort Circuit Court Judge James T. Smith to rule on the myriad appeals of this project quickly.Otherwise, Hayfields will be either a construction site or a golf course by the time a decision is made. Legally, Mr. Mangione would have to restore the property to its prior condition if the courts rule against him, but once the topsoil is destroyed it will be impossible to return this land to its current fertile agricultural state.

NEW YORK -- Smith Barney Inc.'s settlement of a class-action lTC sex discrimination case was rejected yesterday by a federal judge, who called the company's plan to expand the role of women insufficient."

Judge Paul A. Smith, the District Court judge appointed last week to the Baltimore Circuit Court, was sworn in to his new position yesterday -- two weeks before his formal swearing-in.However, Judge Smith, whose strong showing in last month's primary election led to his appointment, did not take a seat on the Circuit Court bench.That will not happen until Oct. 24, the day after the Circuit Court holds a ceremonial swearing-in for him.Until then, Judge Smith will continue his duties on the city's District Court, according to Joseph H. H. Kaplan, administrative judge of the Circuit Court.

Judge Donald M. Smith, one of only three jurists to sit on the state's District Court since its inception 24 years ago, is expected to retire May 1 from the Carroll seat he has held since 1971.His retirement will create the county's first judicial opening since 1990, when then-Circuit Judge Donald J. Gilmore retired and District Judge Francis M. Arnold was elevated to fill the vacancy.District Judge Joann Ellinghaus-Jones was appointed to fill Judge Arnold's spot in 1991.Judge Robert F. Sweeney, the chief judge of Maryland's District Court, said Judge Smith notified him of his plans several weeks ago. It was not clear yesterday when Gov. Parris N. Glendening would name a successor.

Paul A. Smith, the District Court judge whose strong showing in September's primary proved he could unseat one of three incumbent Baltimore Circuit Court judges in the general election, accepted yesterday the appointment to the Circuit Court that was offered Thursday by Gov. William Donald Schaefer under pressure from Baltimore's black political leadership.The appointment brings to an end a campaign Judge Smith launched several months ago that sought to capitalize on the frustrations of large numbers of black Baltimore voters who felt Mr. Schaefer had failed to appoint enough blacks to the Baltimore Circuit Court.

When Carroll County residents heard that Charles Bernard Thomas Jr. had been arrested for the savage stabbing of his girlfriend last Tuesday, a week after being released from the detention center on an unsecured bond on earlier assault charges, they immediately blamed District Court Judge Donald M. Smith. This was another example of a lenient judiciary "coddling" criminals, they said.They were wrong.As reported by The Sun's Darren Allen last week, court transcripts show that at the March 20 bail review, prosecutors failed to inform Judge Smith of Mr. Thomas' 30-year criminal record -- which included convictions for manslaughter, burglary and grand theft.

Thursday night, Oct. 4, was long and hard for Judge Paul A. Smith.The Baltimore District Court judge and Circuit Court judge candidate had already made a strong showing in the September primary and now had to decide whether to finish the race, or accept Gov. William Donald Schaefer's offer of an appointment to the Circuit Court."

After he won a place on the general election ballot by coming in third in the five-candidate Democratic primary for the Circuit Court of Baltimore City, Paul Smith said, "I don't think I'll have any trouble raising some more money."No matter how you slice it, what that really means is now that he has a good chance to become a Circuit Court judge, people who expect to have business before the court want to get on his good side.What a sad commentary on the way we choose judges for this court.

DEVELOPER Nicholas Mangione has begun bulldozing Baltimore County's historic Hayfields Farm, and there is nothing to be done but exhort Circuit Court Judge James T. Smith to rule on the myriad appeals of this project quickly.Otherwise, Hayfields will be either a construction site or a golf course by the time a decision is made. Legally, Mr. Mangione would have to restore the property to its prior condition if the courts rule against him, but once the topsoil is destroyed it will be impossible to return this land to its current fertile agricultural state.

Crime is hardly a menace in Ellicott City's Bethgate neighborhood, with its well-groomed lawns and sturdy brick homes miles from inner-city violence.But Jonathan Scott Smith -- who alone among the candidates for Howard County Circuit judge has shown the kind of political instincts handlers can't teach -- simply counted the burglar alarms as he canvassed the neighborhood last Sunday afternoon.He knew these were his people, or potentially so."You know what I like about what you said on TV?" said Harold Kirkwood, a retired highway engineer whose Postwick Road home hasn't been robbed in 25 years but who tracks crime by listening to his police scanner.

A Halethorpe man, accused of killing two Carroll County men over a $225 drug debt and burying them in his basement in 1994, was convicted on two counts of murder in Carroll County Circuit Court yesterday.Matt Green, 25, showed no emotion as the jury foreman announced the verdicts after nearly 10 hours of deliberation, ending a trial that began April 15.Baltimore County Circuit Judge James T. Smith, who had shifted the case to Westminster because of defense concerns over pretrial publicity, ordered Green transferred to the Baltimore County Detention Center to await sentencing in Towson May 7.Green, who also was convicted on charges of kidnapping and the use of a handgun to commit murder, told Judge Smith in a firm voice that he wanted the judge -- not the jury -- to decide his sentence: life in prison, life in prison without parole, or death.

Because of an editing error, yesterday's editions of The Sun for Howard County incorrectly referred to Columbia attorney Jonathan Scott Smith as a judge. He is running for a seat on the Howard Circuit Court bench.* The Sun regrets the error.The Circuit Court judges' race in Howard County has become so political so fast that longtime political observers are unsure how the electorate will respond.Practices that in past years might have seemed tawdry for sitting or would-be judges -- sign-waving at intersections, high // powered television commercials, party endorsements and the raising and spending of huge amounts of money -- are de rigueur this year.

A former Baltimore County police officer whose drinking and speeding killed a fellow officer in October was fined $1,000, ordered to perform community service and confined to Baltimore County's new drunken driving treatment center yesterday.Warren W. McNicholas Jr. was sentenced to 33 days in the new jail for his conviction in March for homicide by automobile while under the influence of alcohol, speeding and other traffic offenses in a nonjury trial before Circuit Judge James T. Smith Jr.Officer Scott Michael Kern, 23, was killed in the Oct. 7 accident, which occurred about 1 a.m. in the 4600 block of Ridge Road in Fullerton.

A former Baltimore County police officer whose drinking and speeding killed a fellow officer in October was fined $1,000, ordered to perform community service and confined to Baltimore County's new drunken driving treatment center yesterday.Warren W. McNicholas Jr. was sentenced to 33 days in the new jail for his conviction in March for homicide by automobile while under the influence of alcohol, speeding and other traffic offenses in a nonjury trial before Circuit Judge James T. Smith Jr.Officer Scott Michael Kern, 23, was killed in the Oct. 7 accident, which occurred about 1 a.m. in the 4600 block of Ridge Road in Fullerton.

Carroll District Judge Donald M. Smith was not told about the extensive criminal record of a man accused of attacking a Westminster woman when he released the man on unsecured bond, according to a tape recording of the court hearing.Judge Smith released the suspect, Charles Bernard Thomas Jr., 48, March 20 on charges that he had kidnapped and sexually assaulted a woman in January.Police are now seeking Mr. Thomas because, they charge, he stabbed the woman and stole her car early Tuesday.Carroll prosecutors have said publicly that it was "unfortunate" that Judge Smith lowered Mr. Thomas' bail from $30,000 to $5,000 and made it unsecured, which meant that Mr. Thomas was freed without having to post cash or collateral.

Throughout the primary season, the race for three judgeships on the Baltimore Circuit Court bench was pretty much a low-profile campaign, with the incumbent judges and their challengers running campaigns that took a back seat to other races in the city.But now, with the other races in heavily Democratic Baltimore all but decided in the primary, the contest among three sitting judges from Circuit Court and one challenging judge from the the District Court is shaping up to be the only real contest of the Nov. 6 general election in Baltimore.

Carroll prosecutors are seeking to revoke the unsecured bond of a Westminster man -- who last month was accused of attacking a woman less than a week after a Carroll judge allowed him out of jail -- until he can be tried on charges that he tried to rape and kidnapped the same woman in January.The bond revocation motion, filed late Tuesday, is moot at the moment, however, because the suspect -- Charles Bernard Thomas Jr. -- has been missing since March 28."We are actively investigating his whereabouts, but, at this time, we haven't found him," said Deputy State's Attorney Marcie S. Wogan.

When Carroll County residents heard that Charles Bernard Thomas Jr. had been arrested for the savage stabbing of his girlfriend last Tuesday, a week after being released from the detention center on an unsecured bond on earlier assault charges, they immediately blamed District Court Judge Donald M. Smith. This was another example of a lenient judiciary "coddling" criminals, they said.They were wrong.As reported by The Sun's Darren Allen last week, court transcripts show that at the March 20 bail review, prosecutors failed to inform Judge Smith of Mr. Thomas' 30-year criminal record -- which included convictions for manslaughter, burglary and grand theft.