Settlement

Farmville, Va. -- Two misdemeanor charges against Todd Bozeman were dismissed yesterday after the Morgan State men's basketball coach reached a financial settlement with a manager of a nearby restaurant and issued a courtroom apology. "Your honor, I would like to apologize to Mulligan's [restaurant]," Bozeman said in a brief proceeding that followed negotiation of an undisclosed settlement with Stephanie J. Schreck. Afterward, Bozeman declined to comment. "It was all about a misunderstanding about a sandwich [order]

WITH THE JUSTICE Department preparing a federal lawsuit to recover the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses paid by federal programs, the tobacco industry faces the possibility of paying billions more in damages -- in addition to the $246 billion it has agreed to pay over 25 years to settle claims by all 50 states. The lawsuit, which President Clinton announced in his State of the Union address Tuesday, also could force further restrictions on advertising and federal regulation of nicotine.

Two months after the Village of Dorsey's Search received more than $100,000 from an insurance company to cover money that a former manager is accused of embezzling, the ex-manager and the insurance company have reached a settlement.The amount of the settlement could not be determined.A Howard County grand jury indicted Anne S. Darrin, 49, in May. She is charged with stealing more than $70,000 from the village between 1994 and 1998, prosecutors said.In February 1998, Darrin and her husband filed for bankruptcy protection in U.S. District Court.

The public was to get its first chance to comment last night in Annapolis on a settlement backed by the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. to deregulate the electric industry in Maryland.A second hearing will be held tonight at 7 o'clock in Baltimore at the War Memorial Building at 101 N. Gay St. The last hearing is set for 7 p.m. Thursday at the Harford County Multi-Purpose Building at 2 S. Bond St. in Bel Air.Along with BGE representatives, officials from the People's Counsel's office, which supports the settlement, are expected to attend the hearings.

After a weekend to think about a federal judge's finding that Microsoft Corp. is a monopoly, analysts said yesterday that any settlement between the software colossus and the federal government might still be far away.Investors were surprisingly hospitable toward Microsoft shares, which were widely expected to take a beating in the wake of Friday's decision. The company's stock fell 1.78 percent, slipping $1.625 to close at $89.9375."I thought the stock would have gone down further than it has," said Paul J. Dravis of Banc of America Securities LLC in San Francisco.

WASHINGTON -- Scuttling a $1.5 billion deal to settle thousands of asbestos cases, the Supreme Court limited the authority of federal judges yesterday to accept such deals that have been put together on the theory that not enough money is available to pay every claim.For the second time in two years, the court thwarted efforts by attorneys and judges to settle masses of claims for injuries and deaths from asbestos exposure.As it did in 1997, the court suggested that Congress should write a law to deal with "the elephantine mass of asbestos cases" clogging the nation's courts.

WASHINGTON -- A government investigation of the movie studio and theater industry focuses on possible violations of a 51-year-old antitrust settlement that restricts the way films are distributed, sources familiar with the case said yesterday.Late last week, the Justice Department sent information demands to the nation's top film distributors -- including Walt Disney Co., Viacom Inc.'s Paramount and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. -- as well as Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp. and possibly other theater chains, the sources said.

PRINCE FREDERICK -- Southern Maryland tobacco farmers are eyeing a sizable slice of the state's $4.2 billion settlement with cigarette manufacturers to help preserve an industry dating back to shortly after the first settlers arrived on the Ark and the Dove at St. Clement's Island in 1634.About 500 growers from the state's five tobacco-producing counties packed into the meeting hall at the Calvert County Fairgrounds Monday night and voted overwhelmingly in favor of a plan to have the state compensate them for any financial losses resulting from a decline in leaf sales linked to the settlement.

Three days of public testimony on the proposal endorsed by the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. to deregulate Maryland's electric industry ended yesterday, but the parties could not agree on how much leeway the Public Service Commission has in deciding the case.The settlement, negotiated by BGE and 11 other parties in June but strongly opposed by a group of potential competitors to the company, includes a clause that voids the agreement if the five-member commission votes to change it.But the Mid-Atlantic Power Supply Association (MAPSA)

Maryland officials will have until Nov. 20 to decide whether to sign on to a tobacco settlement negotiated by eight other states or take a chance on going to trial in April, Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. said last night.The settlement announcement, scheduled for noon Friday, is likely to set off a rushed weeklong debate among state officials and public health experts on the merits of the deal, negotiated largely in secret.According to several sources, the proposed settlement would ban cigarette billboards, prohibit cigarette brand names on other merchandise, restrict other advertising and set up a $1.45 billion foundation to pay for anti-smoking campaigns and health research.

WASHINGTON - -A landmark $2.3 billion health care fraud settlement announced Wednesday involving Pfizer Inc. has put the pharmaceutical industry on notice that its widespread and potentially criminal behavior in promoting drugs for unauthorized uses won't be tolerated by the Obama administration, government officials and legal experts said. But, they added, some companies will continue to risk prosecution for such questionable practices because the fines and penalties pale in comparison to the extraordinary profits that are being made on the widespread practice of marketing drugs for "off-label" uses that have not been approved by the federal government.

Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Inc. has agreed to pay $2.75 million to settle allegations that it filed false claims to federal health benefits programs for nearly two years, the U.S. attorney for Maryland announced Tuesday. From July 2005 though February 2007, Bayview employees claimed that patients were treated for ailments they did not have, including malnutrition and acute respiratory failure, according to the settlement agreement. The claims inflated the severity of the center's case mix and, therefore, the rates at which it was reimbursed under schedules set by the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission.

The Baltimore Police Department has agreed to hire a consultant to monitor its internal disciplinary process for the next three years under the terms of a multimillion-dollar settlement in a lawsuit that alleged institutional race discrimination. Word of the settlement came Monday, as police announced that they had dismissed internal charges against about 40 officers accused of wrongdoing as a result of an unrelated audit. The move returns those officers to the streets, continuing the fallout from the April firing of the department's in-house prosecutor, whom the police union has accused of manipulating documents.

State utility regulators and union officials questioned yesterday what consumers will gain from a proposed agreement with telephone provider Verizon in settling concerns over delayed repairs as well as deregulating some services. The settlement stems from a 2007 Maryland Public Service Commission investigation into hundreds of complaints that Verizon technicians routinely missed repair appointments with customers, leaving thousands without service for more than four days. Verizon and PSC staff members structured a settlement that must be approved by the five-member commission.

The family of a naked, unarmed man who was fatally shot by an Anne Arundel rookie police officer in 2005 will be paid $90,000 by the county, according to a source familiar with the settlement agreement. Relatives of Donald E. Coates Jr., the 20-year-old Glen Burnie man who was killed, sued the county for $20 million in June, alleging that Officer Tommy Pleasant acted with "malice" and that the shooting was unjustified. "They felt that there were a number of factors in the case that indicated that Donald Coates wasn't in a position that he could have caused any harm to this officer," said James L. Rhodes, a lawyer representing the family.

About 1.1 million Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers will receive $170 credits on their September electricity bills during the coming days as part of a state settlement with Maryland's largest utility. The credits, part of a $2 billion settlement that state lawmakers approved to resolve a dispute with BGE parent Constellation Energy Group Inc., were applied Aug. 29 to utility accounts. The company's September bills reflect the credit, which will be subtracted from a customer's electricity charges.

It would be foolish to give an instant thumbs up or down on the proposed settlement announced last week between the state and Constellation Energy Group over the 1999 deregulation deal. Cursory analysis is what got ratepayers in trouble nine years ago. The proposal has far-reaching ramifications, and lawmakers will need to closely scrutinize all of it in the days ahead. But it's hard not to applaud several key elements of the arrangement that have obvious benefits to consumers - not the least of which is the one-time $170 credit that would be doled out to Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s 1.1 million customers at a cost of $187 million to the company.

Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to announce today a settlement with Constellation Energy Group, ending a bitter battle between the state and BGE's parent company and securing $187 million in one-time rebates for more than 1 million residential customers, according to state officials who have been briefed on the agreement. The rebates would amount to $170 per customer and be applied to bills by the end of the year. The settlement emerged out of dueling lawsuits filed by the state and Constellation Energy last month over credits to consumers that the General Assembly ordered in 2006.

W.R. Grace & Co. has agreed to pay 40 percent of the cost - a share estimated to be about $41 million - to clean up contamination at Baltimore's Curtis Bay, where the company extracted radioactive thorium from ore in the 1950s, according to a settlement agreement. The federal government, which employed Grace as a contractor at the time, will cover 60 percent of the bill. The work will be performed during the next five years if it's approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, which is overseeing Grace's reorganization.

Baltimore brokerage Ferris Baker Watts Inc. has offered a settlement worth more than $16 million to victims of an investment fraud that was aided by a former broker at the firm, according to court documents filed this week. The proposed settlement, which is subject to conditions, would resolve disputes with about 100 victims of the fraud, which grew out of a Ponzi scheme initiated by a former Ferris client, David A. Dadante. It would also put the century-old regional brokerage a step closer to resolving a series of lengthy federal and internal investigations that have cost several senior managers their jobs and brought unwanted scrutiny at a time when its chairman, George M. Ferris Jr., is courting potential acquirers.