Preliminary Hearing

Lawyers for 17-year-old sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo failed in a Virginia courtroom yesterday in their bid for a psychiatrist and other experts to help them prepare for Malvo's preliminary hearing on capital murder charges. "We are not certain what makes Mr. Malvo tick at this time. So that is why we need a psychiatrist," defense lawyer Michael S. Arif told Fairfax County Juvenile Court Judge Kimberly J. Daniel as he asked for experts in four areas. But she disagreed, siding with prosecutors who said it would be precedent-setting and too early in what is expected to be a lengthy court process for the state to provide funds for experts in psychiatry, DNA, fingerprinting and ballistics.

An Anne Arundel County grand jury indicted an Annapolis teen-ager yesterday on a charge of murder in a Sept. 19 fatal shooting and carjacking in the state capital's historic district. Annapolis High School student Leeander Jerome Blake, 17, of the 1300 block of Tyler Ave. in the Robinwood public housing complex is accused of killing Straughan Lee Griffin, 51, a video projection company owner, during a failed armed robbery. Prosecutors moved quickly to obtain an indictment, bypassing a preliminary hearing that could have been held within 15 days of Blake's bail hearing Monday.

A complex domestic violence case brought against a Howard County police corporal by his estranged wife is budding into a feud between the Police Department and the Carroll County state's attorney's office, which was specially appointed to prosecute the charges. During a heated preliminary hearing Friday, Carroll County prosecutors said the Howard County Police Department was biased in its investigation of Cpl. Michael K. Williams, who is accused of threatening his estranged wife with a gun. The felony assault charge alleges that the corporal pointed a gun at Elizabeth Williams on Oct. 20 and demanded she drop another set of charges she filed against him in September.

A federal judge in Baltimore heard a long day of arguments yesterday on a controversial $1 billion-plus proposed settlement of private class action lawsuits claiming that Microsoft Corp. overcharged its customers. And some drama erupted in the courtroom late in the day when an economist representing Microsoft said a mathematical error caused him to gravely underestimate the amount of a potential trial award. Under the terms of the proposed settlement, the software giant would pay for computers, software and computer training and support in more than 15,000 schools for underprivileged students.

YORK, Pa. - Mayor Charlie Robertson and five other white men accused in the 1969 shooting death of a black minister's daughter will stand trial on murder charges, a county judge ruled yesterday. Judge Emanuel A. Cassimatis scheduled arraignment hearings for Robertson and the others for July 23. Defense attorneys said they expect the trial to begin in late fall or early winter. Three additional defendants have agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges and testify for the prosecution. Lawyers said the judge's decision did not surprise them, given the low threshold of evidence prosecutors are required to produce at a preliminary hearing.

YORK, Pa. - Two men testified in Mayor Charlie Robertson's defense yesterday, saying that he couldn't have given white gang members the ammunition they allegedly used during fatal 1969 race riots because he didn't have that type of bullets. John H. Blokzeyl, Robertson's former next-door neighbor, and retired York police officer James P. Brown took the stand yesterday morning just before both sides wrapped up testimony in the preliminary hearings for Robertson and eight others charged in the shooting death of Lillie Belle Allen.

Docking pilots, the shipping industry and state officials agreed yesterday to negotiate a time frame for the parties either to reach a settlement or proceed with a full hearing on the pilots' controversial rate increases. Port business leaders and lawmakers have criticized the docking pilots for increasing their rates by 50 percent just before Oct. 1, when a law that regulated the amount they could charge ship companies took effect. Yesterday, at the Public Service Commission's first preliminary hearing on the issue, Chief Hearing Examiner Andrew P. Mosier Jr. allowed two parties -the Maryland Port Administration and the Maryland Maritime Association - to join the state inquiry, bringing the total number to five.

NEW YORK -- Kofi Apea Orleans-Lindsay, the man arrested earlier this week in Brooklyn in the killing of a Maryland state trooper, was ordered yesterday to return to Washington to face a newly filed federal murder charge - a charge that carries the possibility of a death sentence. Orleans-Lindsay, the target of a two-week manhunt that covered a large swath of the mid-Atlantic region before his arrest, sat silent but attentive as he was arraigned yesterday on the new charge. He was presented with the federal charge at a hearing to determine whether authorities arrested the right man early Monday on a warrant issued by a Washington judge in the killing of Cpl. Edward M. Toatley on Oct. 30. "There is probable cause to believe we have one and the same person," said U.S District Magistrate Judge A. Simon Chrein, who cleared the way for Orleans-Lindsay to be taken to Washington.

The 36-year-old man charged with leading police on a chase from Baltimore to Cecil County in a stolen truck Monday is declaring that he is incompetent to stand trial, according to documents filed by his lawyer. Gregory Michael Wallace's attorney, Assistant Public Defender John P. Whelan, has filed a motion in Cecil County District Court to compel a psychiatric exam for his client. A ruling has not been made on that request. Whelan also filed paperwork Thursday saying Wallace is not criminally responsible for his actions, setting the stage for an insanity defense if a judge should rule that the suspect can understand the legal charges filed against him and can stand trial.