A Rockville woman who lost her exotic pet monkey and fought for almost eight months to get him back won in court today.

Armani, who has been living (at his “mother’s” expense) at a zoo in Thurmont will return home to Montgomery County, a juge ruled this afternoon.

The story, from the AP:

Circuit Court Judge Terrence McGann ruled that the board shouldn’t have heard the case while Elyse Gazewitz was facing criminal charges for possessing the animal. The state later dropped the charge, which McGann ruled ought to have triggered Armani’s release.

McGann ordered police to reimburse thousands of dollars Gazewitz paid a zoo in Thurmont, where the monkey has lived since he was seized.

WaPo quotes the judge as saying, “”I don’t know if Armani celebrates Christmas … But if he does, he should be extra happy.”

Note: Capuchin monkey pictured above is not Armani. But he appears to be sharing (or shrieking) in joy.

JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor

Baltimore lawyer William H. “Billy” Murphy Jr. is no stranger to cameras: he has stood in front of them after defending boxing promoter Don King in federal court in Manhattan in 1998 and after winning a $276 million verdict against what was then First Union National Bank in 2002.

But more recently, Murphy seems to have taken a jurist admirer’s words to heart.

“He’s got a flair,” retired Baltimore City Circuit Judge Edgar P. Silver said in a 2002 Daily Record article on Murphy. “He could’ve been a Hollywood actor.”

Murphy will play, essentially, himself in the upcoming final season of HBO’s Baltimore-based series, “The Wire,” The Baltimore Sun reports.

And as soon as the Washington-based nonprofit Flex Your Rights Foundation raises enough money to complete the project, Murphy will narrate its next public awareness video: “Street Law: How to Deal with Police & Racial Profiling.”

Any other lawyers or judges out there who are ready for their close-ups?

BRENDAN KEARNEY, Legal Affairs Writer

Our sister blog, DC Dicta, has this post on what it’s calling the Supreme Court’s “busiest (and newsiest) decision day yet” – the three decisions extending sentencing judges’ discretion to deviate from the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines under Booker.

Elsewhere, DC Dicta notes that today’s non-argument meeting was the last of the year for the Supremes, who will meet on Jan. 7.

BARBARA GRZINCIC, Managing Editor / Law

Here’s an instructive anecdote about two lawyers talking capital gains and child support over coffee. The upshot: judges must consider recent capital gains in any requested recalculation of child support but are not required to then factor them into a revised support amount.

A bit about blog law on a law blog: The Volokh Conspiracy speculates about the differing levels of protection various media may have against charges that they – Canada’s McClean’s magazine, in this case – are publishing hate speech.

Today from the Supreme Court: Below-guidelines sentencing is OK in certain cases. Most notably for cities like Baltimore, judges can consider the disparity in prescribed punishment for crack cocaine vs. powder cocaine crimes.

BRENDAN KEARNEY, Legal Affairs Writer

I used to hate football. I used to loathe Sundays when the television was commandeered for hours on end of what appeared to be mere chest-thumping male chauvinism.

Then, one day, I decided to stop ignoring it and to start asking questions. And as it turns out, men really love to talk about football.

What does it mean to be “2nd and 2”?
Do you need both feet in for a catch to count?
What is a safety?
Why did the ref stop the play with a flag?
What makes the special teams “special”?

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