On the Record

By: Caryn Tamber

Since I cover primarily the business of law, I don’t often have occasion to go to Maryland’s district courthouses to look at case files. But yesterday, I got to take a field trip to the Towson district court to check out some documents. I had quite a list, and the very nice file clerks who helped me gently told me that I was limited to looking at five files per day.

Five per day? Who instituted this rule? I understand that the clerks are probably overworked, but this policy makes a total mockery of the presumption that court records are open.

It also stifles a free press. Let’s say that I was going to the courthouse yesterday because I had heard that one judge was giving far more lenient sentences to repeat DUI offenders than his colleagues. (I wasn’t. But that would be an interesting story.) Let’s say I wanted to look at 20 of the alleged softie judge’s cases and 20 each from three of his colleagues, for comparison purposes. That would be 80 cases, and I’d have to come to the courthouse on 16 separate days to get them all.

Maybe that’s the point.

And don’t get me started on the forms I had to fill out for each file I wanted to see. If court records are supposed to be open, why do I have to disclose my name and address and provide my drivers license? At no circuit courthouse I have visited have I been asked to fill out or hand over anything. Nor has anyone ever limited the number of cases I can see per day. What gives?

By: Danny Jacobs

The surviving horses that were taken from Hilton and Donna Silver are well on their way to recovery,  a Baltimore County animal control official said Wednesday.

“They are doing phenomenal,” said Brooke Birman-Vrany, assistant director at Days End Farm Horse Rescue in Woodbine, which has housed the horses since April.

Birman-Vrany’s testimony was blocked by the judge after the Silvers pleaded guilty Tuesday to neglecting their stable of three. District Court Judge Robert J. Steinberg ruled that she would essentially be giving a victim impact statement on behalf of the horses, one of whom had to be euthanized.

Reached Wednesday, Birman-Vrany said the two surviving Arabians are exiting the “critical care stage” of their training program, with physical rehab that includes round-the-clock care and a strict feeding plan. They are now entering the “maintenance” stage of the program to re-learn how to handle a rider and generally be a horse for a new owner.

Birman-Vrany estimated the horses would be adopted by this time next year, based on the average horse’s stay at Days End Farm Horse Rescue.

The nonprofit organization currently cares for nearly 60 horses, almost all taken in through animal control offices around Maryland. The organization also in some cases takes in horses private owners can no longer care for, which is a growing problem in the current economy; Birman-Vrany said her office receives three calls a day from private owners.

“We’ve had a real increase in horse issues,” she said.

Birman-Vrany praised the work of Baltimore County prosecutors and animal control officers in the Silvers’ case, saying it has a set a precedent for horse neglect cases.

“I was very grateful for everyone who stood up for these horses’ welfare,” she said.

Note: Photo at top left is file art.

By: Caryn Tamber

Happy Monday!

• Page Croyder observes “serious traffic court” in Baltimore City for a day. The former prosecutor-turned-gadfly is not impressed at the sentences imposed.
• The Washington Post writes about how the new death penalty restrictions could affect defendants already charged with murder. The story also raises the possibility of the governor using the new evidence requirements to commute the sentences of people already on death row.
• Benjamin Polakoff reviews construction contracts in the Baltimore-D.C. area.
• Over the weekend, The Sun had this compelling account of the Carl Lackl murder-for-hire plot. My one nit-picky criticism: why is murder mastermind Patrick Byers’ mother “hooked on heroin, an addict like her six siblings,” while victim Lackl was “struggling with a heroin addiction”? Do you see the difference in language? I think it’s a little heavy-handed and unnecessary, given how good the writer is elsewhere in the story at portraying her subjects.
• The balance of power in big law firms has shifted back to management, writes the National Law Journal.

By: jackie.sauter

Even an imminent nine-year federal prison sentence for a multi-part, multi-million-dollar fraud scheme cannot extinguish the entrepreneurial spirit in Alan Fabian.

The Hunt Valley consultant, certified public accountant and major Republican Party donor is spending this weekend in sunny Orlando, Fla., at the National Association of Realtors Conference/Expo. He’s there to market a Web application developed by his latest business, 4th Sector Ventures LLC, which was formed a year ago — after his August 2007 indictment but before his May guilty plea.

I can’t speak for Fabian’s company, but I do know that so-called fourth sector organizations are generally socially responsible for-profits and that Fabian invented learning software at his since-bankrupted nonprofit in downtown Baltimore, the Centre for Management and Technology.

The Orlando trip, and a long Thanksgiving weekend with his family and friends at his soon-to-be forfeited North Carolina beach house, come courtesy of U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake, who sentenced Fabian two weeks ago.

Blake granted the unopposed motion for modification of release conditions on Wednesday. Fabian’s movements have been limited since his indictment and were further curtailed when he pled guilty.

Blake’s predecessor as presider, U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett, had been less willing to make exceptions for Fabian: Bennett denied an August request for a two-week family beach vacation to North Carolina even though neither Fabian’s pretrial services officer nor federal prosecutors objected to the idea.

BRENDAN KEARNEY, Legal Affairs Writer 

By: jackie.sauter

The Trial Courts Judicial Nominating Commission in Western Maryland has forwarded to the governor the names of all four applicants for the long-vacant Garrett County District Court seat, a Maryland judiciary spokesman said today.

That means the commission thought the applicants — Leonard J. Eiswert, Linda Sue Sherbin, Raymond G. Strubin and Daryl T. Walters — were all qualified for the judgeship. Strubin’s and Walters’ names had already been sent to the governor in an earlier round of applications and vetting.

The ball in now in Gov. O’Malley’s hands. His chief legal counsel said in July that O’Malley would move quickly to pick a judge. The Garrett seat has been empty since Judge Ralph Burnett died 16 months ago.

Also, I should correct the record. Last week, I blogged that Aug. 29 was the deadline for new applications for the seat. The deadline was actually July 29.

CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer

By: admin

Sometimes judges mercifully take the edge off their legalese-heavy opinions by employing literary devices.

A federal judge in Washington grabbed headlines last month with his penchant for rhyme. In an opinion in May, Court of Appeals Judge Glenn T. Harrell opened with an allusion to Julius Caesar’s account of his formative military campaign through Central Europe. And retired Court of Special Appeals Judge Charles E. Moylan Jr. rarely pens an opinion without some dramatic turns of phrase or esoteric references.

Apparently keen to flex his facility with literary devices, U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus took advantage of the transportation subject matter in the case of Beckham v. National Railroad Passenger Corp., et al. to explain his ruling in an opinion last week.

The case involves a commuter’s racial discrimination claims against Amtrak and the Maryland Transit Administration for a series of hostile interactions with a conductor on the MARC Penn line two years ago.

“Much like that train, this case has traveled from the District of Columbia to Maryland following the granting of MTA’s motion to transfer the case to this Court,” Titus begins rather innocently.

“When this case pulled into Greenbelt from the District of Columbia, MTA immediately sought to disembark from the case based in part on its purported Eleventh Amendment immunity …,” Titus continues. “Plaintiff, however, contends that MTA should have raised its immunity argument before buying its ticket and catching the train to this Court.”

Titus dismissed all claims against the MTA except one, concluding, “[n]evertheless, MTA cannot exit the train just yet, as the Court declines to award it summary judgment as to Plaintiff’s Count V claims.”

Are you “all aboard” with injecting a bit of levity into the disposition of motions or did Titus’ train run away?

BRENDAN KEARNEY, Legal Affairs Writer