Jury Trial

Maryland voters will decide at the polls Tuesday whether to amend the state constitution to limit the right to a jury trial in civil lawsuits. Only disputes involving more than $10,000 would be tried before a jury if the measure passes.A second ballot amendment, described as a "housekeeping measure," authorizes the assignment of retired circuit court judges in Montgomery and Harford counties to perform the functions of Orphans' Court judges.Maryland's Constitution gives citizens the right to a jury trial in Circuit Court in any civil case that involves a claim of more than $5,000.

A Baltimore Circuit Court jury should decide whether the accounting firm hired to revive Maryland-based retailer Merry-Go-Round Enterprises Inc. instead caused its collapse, a U.S. bankruptcy judge ruled yesterday.Rather than decide the $4 billion fraud, negligence and malpractice case against Ernst & Young International Inc., Judge E. Stephen Derby said he will send it back to Circuit Court, where it was filed in December by the failed retailer's bankruptcy trustee, Deborah Hunt Devan.A motion by Ernst & Young transferred the lawsuit to bankruptcy court, where Merry-Go-Round is going through a liquidation process.

A state judge railed against high-profile defense lawyer William H. Murphy Jr. yesterday after the Baltimore attorney, charged with resisting arrest and trespassing, did not arrive on time for a 9 a.m. date in District Court in Glen Burnie.Judge Ben C. Clyburn told Murphy's attorney, Kenneth W. Ravenell, as he stood alone at the defendant's table more than an hour after the case was set to begin, that there was no excuse for Murphy's behavior."We are not here to accommodate Mr. Murphy," he said.

Aubrey L. Linton, the former top public safety adviser to Anne Arundel County Executive John G. Gary, will plead guilty Monday to one count of felony bigamy to avoid an embarrassing trial and jail time, according to sources familiar with the case.Negotiations this week between Linton's attorney, Donald Lindner, and Anne Arundel prosecutors will head off a jury trial scheduled to begin Feb. 4. The plea agreement is to be outlined at 10 a.m. Monday in Anne Arundel Circuit Court.Bigamy carries a maximum prison sentence of nine years, but sources familiar with the negotiations said the former Prince George's County paramedic will be placed on probation and pay an undetermined fine.

The first case in an investigation of Howard County massage parlors was resolved in court yesterday, but a lawyer for two women charged with performing illegal sex acts in a related case has asked for a jury trial to scrutinize police conduct in the seven-month probe.Jem Soon Price, 42, of Fulton agreed in District Court to forfeit her license to work as a massage technician for one year.In exchange, the court placed her case on its inactive docket. The misdemeanor charge against her could be dropped in a year.

I HAVE COVERED nearly every high-profile trial in this nation, including the speedy acquittals and speedy convictions of many famous defendants, but never have I seen anything like what the O.J. Simpson jury did last week.It's not what the Simpson jury said; it was how the jury said it.''Not guilty, not guilty'' were their verdicts and it was their right to bring them. But did they have the right to ignore the time-worn judicial admonition? In fairness to both sides, do not deliberate, do not make up your minds, do not discuss the evidence until you get the case.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court -- stepping into the field of patent law, where it seldom ventures -- agreed yesterday to decide whether inventors have a right to a jury trial when their patents are challenged in court.An special federal appeals court, the only one at its level with power to decide patent cases, ruled in January that the holder of a patent has a constitutional right to have a jury decide the validity of the patent.A patent gives an inventor the exclusive use to an invention or to the right to let others use it for a fee.The scope of the right to jury trial in patent cases has been unclear for decades.

NOW THAT the O.J. Simpson criminal trial is over, and the various participants are busily working with their ghost writers and preparing for big-money book tours, we are left to grapple with a very serious question: Did the predominantly black jury in this criminal trial of the century acquit Mr. Simpson on the basis of his race?If, as some suggest, the remarkably brief deliberations of the jury were controlled by racial biases, the implications for a society aspiring to race-neutrality are surely unhappy.

An Edgewater lawyer filed suit yesterday to change Anne Arundel County's highly touted one-day jury trial system, alleging that it places an unfair burden on criminal defendants.Harvey S. Wasserman alleges that an administrative regulation put into effect in 1992 as part of the one-day jury system prohibits District Court defendants from requesting jury trials before their trial dates.The suit says the regulation forces defendants and their witnesses to go to a District Court to ask for a jury trial, then to a Circuit Court on the same day.The suit names Judge Robert F. Sweeney, chief judge of the Maryland District Court, as a defendant.

A man called a "monster" by the state's attorney has failed to persuade a Carroll judge to grant him a new trial on child sexual abuse charges.In a written order filed late Friday, Carroll Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. said he disagreed with the 44-year-old Westminster man's claim that his defense attorney's incompetence made his 1993 jury trial unfair.The man -- whose name is being withheld to protect the privacy of his three young victims -- said Edward T. Barry, then Carroll assistant public defender, failed to properly file a motion requesting that the case be broken into three trials, one for each of the accusers.

The new criminal indictments hand- ed up Wednesday against Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon guarantee one thing: The legal questions that have been hanging over the mayor for the past three years will not be settled by September, when a jury trial on the original charges was scheduled. A longer legal proceeding could also vastly increase the cost of the mayor's defense, and questions about whether Dixon or the taxpayers will pay for her top-flight lawyers remain unanswered. The nine new charges, which include perjury for allegedly failing to report gifts on city ethics forms and theft for allegedly stealing gift cards intended for needy families, will trigger a new round of discovery, new motions to dismiss and likely new legal squabbles between the mayor's attorneys and the state prosecutor's office.

Christopher Nieto believes in Baltimore. His car has been broken into four times. They took his iPod, his Discman and the empty plastic suction cup that held his navigational device. They even stripped the rubber off his wiper blades. His former house in Pigtown was burglarized three times. They took two television sets, his suits, watches and two laptop computers. "I have absolutely nothing left of value anymore," he says. "I'm down to a pretty skeletal home life." Christopher Nieto also believes in his job. He is a public defender.

Man, 25, pleads guilty to 2005 murder of woman A 25-year-old Baltimore man pleaded guilty yesterday to murdering a woman with whom he had unprotected sex after someone falsely told him that she had HIV. As part of a plea agreement, Brandon Chambers of the 1300 block of W. North Ave. will be sentenced in February to 25 years in prison, plus five years of probation, in the 2005 shooting of Shanika Pretlow. If Chambers violates probation, a judge could imprison him for life. "I don't understand why this happened; I truly don't think she deserved this," the victim's mother, Justine McBeth, told Baltimore Circuit Judge John C. Themelis.

I take issue with several points in Melissa Harris' article on misdemeanor jury trials ("Requests for jury trials swamping city courts," Oct.10). Ms. Harris refers to "the glut of drug possession, misdemeanor assault and theft cases being resolved in courtrooms designed to hear rapes, murders and robberies." But these courtrooms were not designed for felonies. They were designed for Marylanders to assert their constitutional right to a jury trial. The article repeatedly describes these crimes as minor without noting that many of them carry penalties as serious as some felonies.

Experienced Baltimore defense attorneys are increasingly requesting jury trials in minor cases, flooding the city's already overwhelmed courts and frequently securing more lenient plea deals from prosecutors. Between 35 and 65 misdemeanor cases are transferred daily from District Court to Circuit Court at the request of defendants or their attorneys. The requests consume three of the 11 courtrooms reserved for all criminal jury trials in the city, forcing delays - sometimes for months - in more serious cases.

The state Senate failed twice yesterday to pass a bill calling for a constitutional amendment that would raise the minimum amount of damages sought in order to convene a jury trial in a civil lawsuit. Under current law, people suing or being sued for $10,000 or more in District Court can request a jury trial in the Circuit division. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Norman R. Stone Jr., a Baltimore County Democrat, would have raised that minimum to $15,000. Supporters of the legislation argued that raising the minimum - last adjusted a decade ago - would reflect inflation and that the measure would prevent deep-pocketed insurance companies from dragging out lawsuits in prolonged Circuit Court proceedings.

11 officeholders supporting Rawlings-Blake Four Baltimore state senators and seven delegates yesterday announced their support for City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake in her bid to win a full term in the position. Endorsing Rawlings-Blake were Sen. Lisa A. Gladden, Sen. Verna L. Jones, Sen. Catherine E. Pugh, Sen. Nathaniel J. McFadden. Del. Talmadge Branch, Del. Peter A. Hammen, Del. Carolyn J. Krysiak, Del. Maggie McIntosh, Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg, Del. Shawn Z. Tarrant and Del. Barbara A. Robinson.

Stockton, Calif. -- Former Blast coach Tim Wittman yesterday pleaded no contest to two counts of misdemeanor battery, almost six months after allegedly attacking two game officials after a Major Indoor Soccer League game. Wittman was sentenced to three years of informal probation by District Court Judge Bernhard Gerber and 240 hours of community service that must be served by March 1. Wittman will be allowed to perform the community service in Maryland. Wittman appeared in court with attorney Harry Hudson and avoided a jury trial with his plea, according to Keith McIntosh, deputy district attorney for San Joaquin County.

In a court appearance that lasted less than five minutes, the trial of a former University of Maryland Baltimore County assistant professor accused of working as a prostitute out of her suburban Ellicott City home was delayed for the second time when she asked for a jury trial. Brandy M. Britton, 42, of Shirley Meadows Court, who was to have faced trial in Howard County District Court, now is set for trial in county Circuit Court on Oct. 24 on four prostitution charges, each of which carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $500 fine.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Five homemade bombs and a bank robbery left 24 people dead in Baghdad yesterday as the level of violence here remained undiminished despite a buildup of U.S. and Iraqi troops meant to restore a sense of order. The increased U.S. and Iraqi army patrols in Baghdad yesterday seemed to have little effect on the daily violence. At 10:50 a.m., two explosions in a market in central Baghdad killed 10 people and wounded 69 others, an Interior Ministry official said. Minutes later, in the Adhamiya section of the city, gunmen burst into the Rashid Bank, killed three guards and two bank employees and stole 7 million Iraqi dinars, or about $5,000, the official said.