By: Brendan Kearney
A pending motion to unseal more of the corruption case against former state Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell Sr. and his wife, Mary Pat, comes at a curious time (even aside from how it fits in with the movant-intervenor William C. Bond’s pro se litigation schedule).
As Bond seeks to know why Gerard P. Martin and Joshua R. Treem switched clients in the Bromwell case and why the presiding judge disqualified them on the eve of trial, those same two lawyers are in the thick of defending the latest high-profile political corruption case: the state prosecutor’s investigation of a prominent Baltimore developer’s influence at City Hall.
Treem represents Baltimore City Councilwoman Helen L. Holton, who has been indicted for allegedly taking a bribe, in the form of a political poll, from developer Ronald H. Lipscomb. Lipscomb, who also faces a bribery count, is represented by Martin. Lipscomb’s trial is scheduled for June; Holton’s is slated for October. (Mayor Sheila A. Dixon has also been indicted and is supposed to stand trial after Labor Day.)
Now, there’s no reason to believe history will repeat itself here. The Bromwell episode is but one in Martin’s and Treem’s long careers defending big cases, and the Bromwells’ status as husband-and-wife co-defendants is quite different from Holton’s and Lipcomb’s relationship as alleged partners in a bribe.
It just provides some curious context for the April 23 motions hearing (to dismiss the indictments) in the case and the trials later this year.
By: Danny Jacobs
Eric Daxon stood outside the Old Courthouse in Towson on Monday night handing out tangerine-colored fliers. He offered them to many citizens heading inside for the County Council’s public hearing on a proposed zoning change that would allow Glen Arm dairy farmer Bobby Prigel to operate a creamery on his property.
The fliers advertised “Prigel Farm Fest 2009,” a legal defense fundraiser to be held Memorial Day weekend on the Prigel farm. A Facebook group for the event currently has 162 members. Daxon, in an interview Wednesday, said his goal is to raise $50,000, or half of Prigel’s legal expenses. (Creamery opponents filed a lawsuit in Baltimore County Circuit Court that was dismissed last month but might still be appealed, and an appeal of county zoning officials’ decision to allow the creamery has been postponed pending the County Council’s decision.) Three people have called Daxon since Monday night about making donations, he said.
Daxon said he spoke to Prigel about holding the fundraiser, which includes a pig roast and live music, and Prigel welcomed the idea. Daxon organized the event because he lives in nearby Sparks and runs his own business like Prigel, in Daxon’s case home theater installation and computer repair.
“He did everything right,” Daxon said of Prigel. “I don’t understand how you can get all the permits and all of the approvals [needed] and not open the creamery.”
By: Brendan Kearney
Before the pretrial motions hearing began Thursday in the City Hall corruption probe cases, State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh joked with the assembled press corps about the defendants’ horde of attorneys and his office’s meager resources.
“Look at how many lawyers they have,” he said. “This is our entire office.” (The entire legal staff anyway; the office’s investigators were not present.)
Dixon’s defense lawyer, Arnold M. Weiner, saw the situation differently.
“It’s hard to feel sympathy for a prosecutor who conducts a multi-year investigation with a full staff of investigators and assistants and who comes into court with four of them and then complains he doesn’t have the resources to do the case that he’s brought,” Weiner said.
So, where do your sympathies lie?
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