Statute

Leaders in the House of Delegates pledged Tuesday to re-examine Maryland's anti-gang statute to address concerns of prosecutors who complained at a legislative briefing that the current law is nearly unusable. Although the Gang Prosecution Act took effect two years ago, prosecutors have employed it only a handful of times, gaining one conviction. The law allows judges to add prison time if a person convicted of certain crimes was part of a gang at the time. Prosecutors and police want state lawmakers to define "gang," expand the base of crimes that trigger the anti-gang statute and require judges to impose the added prison time consecutively to other sentences.

The man accused of fatally shooting a Towson gas station owner in a murder-for-hire scheme is due in court this week - the first trial under Maryland's revamped death penalty law, legal experts say. And the trial of Walter P. Bishop Jr., scheduled to begin Tuesday with jury selection in Harford County Circuit Court, could eventually test Maryland's definition of a capital case, as his lawyers argue that police improperly obtained a crucial piece...

CHICAGO - The release last week of an Oregon lawyer held two weeks by federal authorities without being charged with a crime has raised new questions about the controversial statute used to detain him. The Justice Department has portrayed the material witness statute as a powerful tool in the war against terrorism, giving authorities the right to jail suspects who they say might otherwise flee the country and allowing investigators valuable time to...

The myths, misinformation and misleading rhetoric directed at Arizona's new immigration law are overwhelming. The Arizona law is nothing more than a duplication of portions of the existing federal Immigration Act, which has been in power for many years. However, that power has not been executed by numerous presidents, both Democrat and Republican. As a result, the states have had to enact their own legislation in order to protect citizens from the burdens created by illegal aliens. The federal Immigration Act has been challenged numerous times and found to be constitutionally sound.

Attorneys for Edward T. Norris say public corruption charges against the former Baltimore police commissioner should be dismissed because the statute they are based on is too broad, arguing in recent court filings the same issue that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to take up next week in a case from Minnesota. Norris is accused of misappropriating more than $20,000 from an off-the-books expense account to pay for lavish meals and gifts and to finance extramarital affairs while he headed the city Police Department.

As soon as Maryland's Gang Prosecution Act went into effect in 2007, prosecutors in Harford County tested it, filing charges against a group that had stabbed and beaten a man. But when prosecutors couldn't show how the attack had furthered a criminal conspiracy, as required under the new law, the judge balked. They had to drop the gang charges and move forward with simple assault. "It's a very unworkable statute. ... Most prosecutors haven't really bothered to do anything with it," said Harford County State's Attorney Joseph I. Cassilly, who contends that the law is watered-down and useless.

Legal rulings coming soon from the U.S. Supreme Court could cut to the heart of a federal probe into a powerful Maryland state senator and affect the years-old convictions of top state lobbyists. If the court overturns a federal mail fraud statute often used in public corruption cases, investigations under way in Maryland and across the country could be tossed, and previous convictions could be overturned. Many legal observers who watch the court closely believe that, at the very least, new limits on how the law may be used are forthcoming.

Authorities investigating a Maryland anti-crime agency overseen by Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend are evaluating whether criminal charges could be brought under a broadly drawn law designed to protect the vast sums of money distributed each year through federal programs, sources and legal experts said. The statute has been widely successful in public corruption cases in other states. It makes it illegal for an agent or employee of a local agency that receives U.S. dollars to use the money for any purpose other than for what it was intended.

W hen a leading debt collections law firm that had been accused of breaking consumer protection laws collapsed in Maryland last week, debtors searched for answers about what Mann Bracken LLP's demise would mean for them. The episode was a stark reminder: You need to know your rights in case a creditor or debt collector comes calling. While federal and state laws offer a range of consumer protections, thousands of people complain each year that debt collectors ignore these laws.

Aggressive driving is the No. 1 concern of Maryland motorists, according to AAA. So after last week's column about how many traffic tickets were being given out for various violations in Maryland, Mike Agetstine of Pikesville wanted to know how many were being issued for that offense. Not many. Like about a dozen other states, Maryland has an aggressive-driving statute - passed by the General Assembly in 2001. According to law enforcement officers, it's been a bust - and the numbers bear them out. In 2006, police statewide gave out 935 tickets for the offense - compared with 5,693 for the more tried-and-true charge of reckless driving.

Anthony Graber is facing felony charges today. His crime? Recording a traffic stop with a video camera — supposedly prohibited in Maryland under an archaic "anti-wiretapping" statute that is well past due for a revisit by the General Assembly. Mr. Graber was riding his motorcycle on I-95 in Maryland, speeding and popping wheelies and recording the experience with a helmet cam. An unmarked car cut him off as he slowed for traffic, and a man in a sweatshirt and jeans jumped out with a gun in his hand.

Legal rulings coming soon from the U.S. Supreme Court could cut to the heart of a federal probe into a powerful Maryland state senator and affect the years-old convictions of top state lobbyists. If the court overturns a federal mail fraud statute often used in public corruption cases, investigations under way in Maryland and across the country could be tossed, and previous convictions could be overturned. Many legal observers who watch the court closely believe that, at the very least, new limits on how the law may be used are forthcoming.

Baltimore's top cop has made no secret he wants to rid the city's mean streets of "bad guys with guns." He's railed against "morons" who pack heat, complained that the courts catapult criminals from handcuffs to freedom and grumbled about the failures of ordinary citizens to take responsibility for the safety of their city. Now, lawmakers in Annapolis — despite lobbying by the city's chief prosecutor, police commissioner and mayor — managed, with just 15 minutes to spare on the last day of the legislative session, to shelve a bill to toughen Maryland's gun laws.

Prosecutors and police officers from across the state pleaded with legislators Tuesday for tougher anti-gang laws, saying they want to define who is a "gang member" and broaden the number of crimes that trigger longer prison sentences. Law enforcement groups told the House Judiciary Committtee that the Maryland Gang Prevention Act, enacted two years ago to stiffen penalties for gang members, isn't working because it fails to define "gang member," doesn't include enough gang-related crimes and carries no mandatory prison time.

W hen a leading debt collections law firm that had been accused of breaking consumer protection laws collapsed in Maryland last week, debtors searched for answers about what Mann Bracken LLP's demise would mean for them. The episode was a stark reminder: You need to know your rights in case a creditor or debt collector comes calling. While federal and state laws offer a range of consumer protections, thousands of people complain each year that debt collectors ignore these laws.

Sometimes it pays to be stubborn. For more than 33 years, Joseph and Shirley Poteet ignored annual Columbia Association bills and later threats of possible foreclosure for not paying the community's unofficial property tax fees that accumulated to more than $45,000. Now, a Circuit Court judge has thrown out the homeowners' association claim as too old to be enforced. But the Columbia Association is stubborn, too, and though the organization didn't sue the couple until 2008 - two years after they sold their property to a developer for $1.5 million and retired to Salisbury - the association's lawyers are appealing.

A former Baltimore County man was convicted yesterday on charges that he traveled to Carroll County last year intending to have sex with a person he thought was a 13-year-old girl he had met on the Internet. Instead of meeting young "lisalee," Robert Michael Rysak, 42, was met at a Finksburg fast-food restaurant by a state trooper from Maryland Internet task force. He was charged with using a computer for child pornography and with attempted second-degree sexual assault. In January, Rysak's lawyer challenged the two charges, arguing that the computer statute did not cover conversations and that a sexual assault was impossible without a victim.

Dajuan A. Marshall does not deny being a member of the Spyder gang, a Bloods sect, according to his defense attorney. But that doesn't mean the 27-year-old man should, if convicted of shooting a rival gang member several times in the head, serve an additional 10 years to 30 years in prison because of the company he keeps, his lawyer contends. The city State's Attorney's Office is targeting Marshall in its first use of the 2007 Maryland Gang Prosecution Act, which allows for enhanced penalties if authorities can prove an underlying crime, such as murder, contributed to a criminal conspiracy, such as being a member of a gang.

Judges will have broader authority to take guns away from the subjects of domestic violence orders starting today, under a pair of laws that are among several new statutes officials hope will make the state safer. Dozens of laws approved by the General Assembly and signed by the governor earlier this year take effect today. The new laws also include sweeping environmental policy changes and an increase in weekly unemployment benefits to a maximum of $410 starting next week. Many of the public safety measures are aimed at drivers.