Special Appeals

Retired Court of Special Appeals Judge Ridgely P. Melvin Jr., who was on the judicial panel that recommended the disbarment of former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, died Saturday of heart failure at his Annapolis home. He was 82.In November 1974, Gov. Marvin Mandel elevated Judge Melvin from Anne Arundel County Circuit Court to the Court of Special Appeals, the state court that is second to the Court of Appeals in legal authority in Maryland.Colleagues described Judge Melvin as a moderate.

An attorney for former Anne Arundel County Councilman Daryl D. Jones has filed a notice of appeal in county Circuit Court, in an effort to overturn a judge's recent ruling that the County Council acted properly when it removed Jones from his seat. A judge ruled last week that Jones, who began serving a five-month federal prison term in January for failing to file his income taxes, was required to live in his district during the full duration of his term in office. Jones' attorney Linda M. Schuett had argued that Jones, a Severn Democrat who was re-elected in 2010, was permanently domiciled in his district despite his imprisonment.

An unsuccessful City Council candidate appealed to Maryland's second-highest court this week in a lawsuit alleging that Councilwoman Paula Johnson Branch should not have been allowed to run in November's election because of missing campaign finance reports. Glenn L. Ross, the Green Party candidate who lost to Branch, is asking the Maryland Court of Special Appeals to overturn a decision made in the case last week by Circuit Judge Joseph P. McCurdy Jr. On Thursday, McCurdy granted Branch's motion to dismiss Ross' case on grounds that he missed deadlines for objecting to the ballot.

A Maryland appeals court has ruled that the state violated the rights of two men who were found incompetent to stand trial and were then held in state institutions beyond the legal time limit without going through proceedings for commitment to a mental hospital. In a case that state officials say would affect a small number of people now in state hospitals and community treatment, the Court of Special Appeals ruled Wednesday in favor of the men, who have been indicted and re-indicted on the same charges in Harford and Baltimore counties.

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals upheld yesterday the conviction of Jane F. DeCosta, the Timonium teen-ager found guilty of being an accessory after the fact to the 1995 murder of a Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital counselor.The appellate court did not agree with any of the five arguments against DeCosta's January conviction in Baltimore County Circuit Court. She was acquitted of more serious charges in the death of Sharon Edwards, 26.Judge Barbara Kerr Howe imposed a five-year sentence, suspending all but the 15 months DeCosta spent in jail after her arrest, on the condition that DeCosta enter a locked mental health facility.

Maryland's second-highest court has ruled that Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration was within its rights to fire a holdover patronage employee from former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s term. Monday's ruling - the latest in a long-running legal saga surrounding state personnel practices - was in the case of Gregory Maddalone, who was fired shortly after O'Malley, a Democrat, came into office in 2007 after defeating Ehrlich, a Republican. Maddalone, a former ice dancer, was a central figure in an investigation by Democratic lawmakers who accused the Ehrlich administration of firing longtime state employees for political reasons and hiring "loyalists" to replace them.

The state's second-highest court has overturned a $4 million verdict by a Baltimore County jury last year, which found that a defectively designed steering column on a Nissan pickup truck caused the death of a Carroll County man who died in a 1994 crash.The Court of Special Appeals ruled yesterday that evidence presented by lawyers for the family of crash victim Donald A. Nave failed to prove the design defect.The family's lawyers presented testimony during the trial showing that the steering column should have collapsed like a telescope on impact during the accident, but instead severed Nave's aorta, killing him instantly.

Bruce C. Bereano, one of Annapolis' top lobbyists, will appeal to Maryland's highest court to overturn a suspension of his lobbying license, his attorney said yesterday. The Court of Special Appeals issued an amended ruling yesterday, reiterating its November decision that upheld Ethics Commission sanctions against the lobbyist for entering into a contract that paid him in part based on his success at securing government work for a client. Bereano is fighting a 10-month suspension of his lobbying license and a $5,000 fine.

Deborah Sweet Byrnes, a civil trial lawyer from Towson, was named yesterday to a seat on the Court of Special Appeals, the state's second-highest court.Gov. Parris N. Glendening also appointed James A. Kenney III, a St. Mary's County attorney, to a seat on the 13-judge court.Byrnes, 44, has been a litigator with the firm of Whiteford, Taylor & Preston since 1980. She has mainly worked on the defense side of civil cases, often on behalf of doctors and hospitals. She became a partner in the firm in 1989.

Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr., who presided over some of the most important trials in the county's history, was elevated to the Court of Special Appeals yesterday by Gov. Parris N. Glendening.Thieme, 65, of Pasadena, was appointed despite acknowledging during Republican candidate Ellen R. Sauerbrey's suit to overturn the outcome of the 1994 gubernatorial election that he did not vote for the man who has just promoted him.Thieme said that he recalled making the comment -- which was reported in news accounts -- but that he did not think about its effect on his chances when he applied for a judgeship on the state's second-highest court this year.

The state's second-highest court has overturned a murder conviction for a man who police say participated in a drug deal that ended in gunfire, which killed a Baltimore County grandmother hit by a stray bullet. Donald S. Kohler did not shoot Shirley Worcester, 58, outside her Middle River home in January 2009. Police said Kohler had cheated a dealer out of four pounds of marijuana by handing over fake money and was running away when the dealer shooting at him hit the victim instead.

For the third time in a dozen years, a Baltimore jury has convicted Tony Williams in the 1998 shooting death of his fiancee, finding him guilty of first-degree murder and using a handgun in a crime of violence. But no one can say yet whether the ruling, handed down Tuesday, will stick. Two earlier convictions - along with two life sentences - were overturned by state appellate courts, which found that prosecutors and police withheld significant information during separate trials conducted eight years apart.

Judge John J. Bishop Jr., former member of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals who earlier had served in the state Senate for 14 years, died Monday of complications from Alzheimer's disease at his home in the Loch Hill section of Baltimore County. Judge Bishop was 83. "He was an extremely honest individual, and there was never anything phony about Jack Bishop. He was very conscientious, so it was easy for me to appoint him in 1981 to the Court of Special Appeals," said former Gov. Harry R. Hughes.

Justice has eluded Ronnell Doughty, perhaps even failed him. Hospitalized as a toddler with serious lead poisoning, he's never learned to read well, dropped out of school and has a hard time controlling his temper — tragic but all-too-common outcomes of this urban health scourge. But Doughty, now 21, has been repeatedly denied a shot at compensation for the lasting injury done him two decades ago. His family says in court papers that two lawyers mishandled the lawsuit on his behalf against the landlords of the East Baltimore rowhouse where he allegedly ingested toxic lead from flaking paint.

Opponents of a large supermarket at a proposed Turf Valley shopping center in Ellicott City lost another court challenge in their two-year effort to revive a petition drive that sought to put the project's zoning approval on a Howard County election ballot. The 4th U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., upheld Monday an earlier U.S. District Court dismissal of a constitutional argument brought by Paul Kendall. The appeals court ruled there are no federal constitutional issues involved in the case.

Maryland's highest court ruled Thursday in favor of an Orthodox Jewish plaintiff who missed part of a medical malpractice trial because it was scheduled during a two-day Jewish holiday. He will now be a allowed a retrial in the case. The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that the trial court "abused its discretion by denying plaintiff's motions to suspend trial for two days," according to the opinion issued this week. The top court's narrow ruling says that excluding Alexander Neustadter from his own trial was prejudicial.

With time running out before the first golfers tee off at Hayfields Country Club, opponents of the project go to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals today to keep the beloved Hunt Valley farm from becoming a golf course and housing development.A lawyer for the Valleys Planning Council, an influential land preservation group, will argue that Baltimore County erred in granting permission for the country club and adjacent housing development by failing to consider the harm the project would cause to the environment, agricultural resources and the county's history.

MARYLAND'S Court of Special Appeals today weighs the legality of a referendum question for the general election ballot in Harford County. We agree with Harford Circuit Judge William O. Carr, who last week ruled that the question would improperly take the power to legislate out of the hands of council members Harford countians will elect Nov. 3.Judge Carr's ruling was appealed to the judicial panel in Annapolis, which must determine whether the question merits...

When a police detective tells a suspect that their conversation "is between you and me, bud," it needs to stay that way, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled Monday, overturning a murder conviction in Baltimore County. The judges ruled unanimously that Christian Darrell Lee's admission that he shot and killed a man during a home invasion in North Point in 2006 should not have been used at his trial, at which he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life plus 110 years in prison.