Lawyer

Maria Cristina Gutierrez, a criminal defense lawyer known in Maryland's legal community for her passionate and pugnacious style, died of a heart attack yesterday at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson. The 52-year-old woman's ailment was exacerbated by multiple sclerosis. Throughout the 1990s, Ms. Gutierrez argued cases with a tenacity that earned the respect of her peers. Upon graduating from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 1980, she began her career as an assistant public defender in Baltimore.

As his second trial for the murder of 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes approaches, Michael Maurice Johnson took the witness stand Tuesday and testified that his former attorney told him he had to talk to police — bad advice his new lawyers say helped get him convicted. "He didn't give me an option," said Johnson, 30, his voice scratchy over the courtroom speakers. A Baltimore jury found Johnson guilty of second degree murder last year, but the verdict was overturned after a judge ruled that prosecutors withheld information about a key witness in the case.

M. Cristina Gutierrez, one of the Baltimore area's most ferocious criminal defense lawyers, has agreed to her own disbarment, marking the end of an accomplished law career. The state Court of Appeals ordered her "disbarred by consent" May 24, after Gutierrez agreed to resign rather than fight complaints filed against her with the state Attorney Grievance Commission, which investigates allegations of wrongdoing by lawyers. Reached by telephone yesterday at her home in Towson, Gutierrez, 50, said she suffers from multiple sclerosis.

Peter Ginsberg, the attorney for ex-Ravens running back Ray Rice, praised former U.S. District Court Judge Barbara S. Jones, the hearing officer for Rice's appeal of an indefinite NFL suspension. Jones was appointed Thursday by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in consultation with NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith to hear the appeal of Rice. Rice's two-game suspension was increased to an indefinite ban on Sept. 8 after a video surfaced of him punching his then-fiancee in a casino elevator.

Clearly, neither defense attorney Joe Amendola, who has represented Jerry Sandusky in the Penn State sexual abuse trial, nor anyone close to him has ever been a victim of sexual child abuse ("Sandusky's wife: Accuser conniving," June 20). Whether or not the charges against Mr. Sandusky prove to be true, this case needs to be handled with the utmost professionalism. Mr. Amendola's remarks including "stay tuned," and "it's like a soap [opera]," etc., show a complete lack of understanding of the seriousness of cases like this one. It is one thing to believe in your client.

Marvin C. "Mike" Wahl, a retired labor lawyer and labor arbitrator, died Oct. 29 at Sinai Hospital of complications from a stroke. He was 97. The son of Austria-Hungary immigrants, Mr. Wahl was born and raised in Jersey City, N.J., where he graduated in 1932 from Lincoln High School. After earning a bachelor's degree in 1936 from Syracuse University, he entered Cornell University Law School, where he earned his law degree in 1938. Mr. Wahl, who was known as "Mike," began his legal career at Nordlinger, Reigelman and Cooper in New York City, where he met and fell in love with another lawyer, Blanche Genauer.

David M.F. Lambert Sr., a retired lawyer who had once been an FBI agent, died April 4 of a heart attack at his Crumpton home. He was 87. The son of an Episcopal minister and a homemaker, Mr. Lambert was born in Hartford, Conn., and raised in Cambridge and in a home on Southway in Guilford. He attended Gilman School and left his senior year to enlist in the Army Air Forces in 1943. Trained as a pilot, he flew missions in the Far East. After the end of World War II, he earned a bachelor's degree from Trinity College in Hartford and a law degree from Cornell University in 1953.

Donald C. Hubbard Sr., a retired director of human resources who was also a labor lawyer, died Sunday of Alzheimer's disease at Rutherford House, an Annapolis hospice. He was 84. The son of a pharmacist and a homemaker, Donald Creel Hubbard Sr. was born and raised in Jackson, Miss., and graduated from Woodward Academy in College Park, Ga. From 1942 to 1943, he served in the merchant marine and then enlisted in the Marine Corps. He served in the South Pacific until being discharged in 1945 with the rank of lieutenant.

Mary Love Mezzanotte, a registered nurse who later became a lawyer, died Thursdayof liver cancer at her West Friendship home. She was 56. The daughter of a career naval officer and a homemaker, Mary Love Green was born in the Canal Zone in Panama and because of her father's work, was raised at Navy installations in California, Virginia and Florida. After graduating from Lorraine High School in Upper Marlboro, she earned her nursing degree in 1978 from the University of Maryland.

Jacob D. "Jake" Hornstein, who practiced law in Baltimore for 67 years, died Feb. 8 at Maryland Shock Trauma Center of severe brain trauma after a fall. He was 92. "He was a fine gentleman and was well-versed in the law. He was also very bright," said Sidney Schlachman, a partner in the firm of Schlachman, Belsky & Weiner, who had known Mr. Hornstein for nearly 60 years. "He had a fine reputation with other attorneys, and anytime you can say he was a lawyer and a gentleman, that's saying something.

Dealing with police can involve a delicate balance between knowing your rights and being respectful to officers. Both are crucial, seven lawyers told a church full of Baltimore's black youths and their parents. But when in doubt, attorney Douglas B. Evans said, "you have the right to shut up. " The panel of black attorneys answered questions about police brutality and racial profiling, amid other concerns during the seminar, Conscious Operations during Police Stops, or "C.O.P.S.," at the Empowerment Temple Church on Tuesday night.

The widow of Baltimore author Tom Clancy is battling her late husband's lawyer over $6 million in taxes she says she shouldn't owe on her share of Clancy's $82 million estate, which includes a World War II tank, a $65 million stake in the Orioles and a mansion on the Chesapeake Bay. Alexandra Clancy is seeking to oust Baltimore lawyer J.W. Thompson "Topper" Webb as executor of Tom Clancy's will, accusing Webb of a mistake that adds unnecessarily to...

Attorneys for a Baltimore police officer accused of slitting the throat of a shar-pei in June took the rare step Wednesday of writing an outside-the-court letter directly to Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein, asking him to drop the case. The attorneys for Officer Jeffrey Bolger argue the case was filed prematurely amid a storm of public criticism and a pre-investigatory rush to react by police and prosecutors, and that information uncovered since clears Bolger of wrongdoing.

A law professor who is teaching Maryland's public defenders to better serve their poor clients amid "crushing" caseloads is among the winners of this year's MacArthur Foundation "genius" grants. As founder of the Atlanta-based organization Gideon's Promise, Jonathan Rapping works to train public defenders and help reform what he considers civil rights abuses in the criminal justice system. He arrived in Baltimore in May for a year-long stint at the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, his first attempt at changing a statewide system.

Defense attorney Russell A. Neverdon Sr. filed Wednesday to run as a write-in candidate for Baltimore state's attorney after a city judge issued a ruling that kept his name off the ballot. The only name that will be presented to voters in the Nov. 4 election is that of Democratic nominee Marilyn Mosby, an insurance company attorney and former prosecutor. In a video posted to his Facebook page, Neverdon urged his supporters to continue backing his candidacy. "My name will not appear on the ballot, but I am a candidate for the office," he said.

Lawyers for a Baltimore police officer said he was legally authorized to kill a shar-pei in June and was acting to protect the unborn child of a woman the dog had bitten — an argument the bite victim said she was shocked to hear. Jeffrey Bolger, a 22-year veteran, is charged with slitting the throat of the dog, named Nala. Bolger is alleged to have killed the dog even though it already had been brought under control with a dog pole. Bolger appeared in court Thursday, and his attorney entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf to two counts of animal mutilation, one of animal cruelty and one of misconduct in office.

Fed up with rodents and flooding, about half of the members of Baltimore's law department are leaving their ground-level offices at City Hall for a renovated facility in downtown Baltimore. The $306,000 cost of the renovations was approved Wednesday by the city's Board of Estimates. About 50 law department employees will move from City Hall to two floors on city-owned property at 7 E. Redwood St. "It became an environmental challenge," said City Solicitor George Nilson of the ground-level offices.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has appointed a three-member panel to distribute up to $3 million to the owners of historic properties whose tax bills in coming years will be higher than what government officials told them to expect. Retired Baltimore City Circuit Judge  John M.  Glynn, City Auditor Robert McCarty, and City Solicitor George Nilson will decide which owners will get the checks, which will cover portions of up to nine years of future tax bills. About 75 property owners submitted applications that could make them eligible to receive the checks, city officials said.