A local judge’s death and more legal foreclosure news topped this week’s headlines. Here are this week’s top five most read staff stories in law on The Daily Record’s website:

1. Friends eulogize Judge Prevas

Friends, courthouse colleagues and family of late Baltimore Judge John N. Prevas remembered the longtime jurist Tuesday as a hard worker and keen legal mind whose gruffness on the bench was complemented by a pleasant demeanor outside the courtroom.

“Basically, for as stern as he was and proper on the bench, he was a real teddy bear,” said Antonia “Toni” Keane, his widow.

2. State’s attorney candidate’s partner sentenced

Daniel J. Brown received a far harsher sentence than expected last week on charges stemming from his relationship with John A. Mattingly Jr., a candidate for St. Mary’s County state’s attorney.

Brown, who was hoping for a six-month sentence with work-release privileges, instead drew a 10-year prison term with all but two years suspended for the misdemeanor of conspiring to unlawfully affix a public seal to a deed. He will serve an additional six months in jail for conspiring to influence a witness to a 2007 shooting incident involving one of Mattingly’s clients.

3. ESPN Zone workers file WARN Act suit

Five Baltimore residents who lost their jobs when the downtown ESPN Zone closed in June sued The Walt Disney Co. on Monday in federal court, claiming a law governing plant closings entitles each of them to 60 days’ pay in addition to the severance they received.

To publicize the case, the three cooks, a hostess and a busser marched between the still-vacant Inner Harbor restaurant space and the U.S. District Court along with other low-wage restaurant workers associated with United Workers, an advocacy group.

4. Maryland lawyers attend foreclosure training

Attorneys being trained Wednesday to handle foreclosure cases in Maryland learned more than just the basics of representing delinquent homeowners.

During the seven-hour foreclosure prevention session, one instructor advised the trainees how to determine if attorneys for the lenders have not signed foreclosure affidavits that purportedly contain their signatures.

5. Nick’s Amusements faces money-laundering charge

Federal prosecutors have charged Nick’s Amusements Inc. of Baltimore County with laundering $35,000 in illegal gambling proceeds.

The criminal charge comes just three months after prosecutors settled a civil forfeiture action against the company and its owner, John Zorzit, for $1 million.

Juan Williams told colorful stories about Thurgood Marshall and the importance of pro bono work Tuesday night at Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service’s annual awards reception.

He also addressed what would otherwise have become the elephant in the room.

“I’ve been through some rough water the last few days,” Williams said at the outset of his 20-minute remarks.

Williams was referring, of course, to his highly-publicized dismissal from NPR for comments he made on Fox News Channel and subsequent hiring by the cable network. Williams’ speech, at the University of Maryland School of Law, was scheduled prior to the controversy.

Williams, a journalist and author, said people have been asking him how he’s doing, a question he is not sure how to answer. He imagined Mary Todd Lincoln’s response to being asked “How’s the play?” upon leaving Ford’s Theater.

“It feels like, I’m not even sure what’s going on, what hit me,” he said. “But I know I just got rolled over.”

(My tweets last night about this led to some chatter; being there, I can say he was not comparing the two events but referring to the out-of-body experience he’s having.)

Following the reception at the University of Maryland School of Law, Williams answered reporters’ questions. Below are some of the highlights. I apologize for the video and sound quality, but equipment issues forced me to shoot with my phone. I’ll be back later this week with more about the MVLS event itself.

Tonight I’ll be attending Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service’s pro bono recognition reception at the University of Maryland School of Law. The event will honor lawyers and law firms for their pro bono service, including three lawyers who have taken at least one case a year from MVLS for the last 10 years.

Oh, and the keynote speaker is Juan Williams. Yes, that Juan Williams. It should be noted Williams was scheduled to speak at the MVLS event way before the whole NPR kerfuffle, and he is still going to talk about volunteerism. Whether he will address his own situation is not known; I’ve been told there is going to be no formal Q&A session, and it’s possible he won’t be taking  questions at all.

But that will not stop me from Tweeting live from Westminster Hall tonight. You can follow me here. I’ll have a full report of the event tomorrow.

Anything you’d like me to ask Mr. Williams?

When I heard last night that Baltimore City Circuit Chief Judge John N. Prevas had died from a heart attack apparently suffered while at the downtown courthouse, I thought, among other things, of a passage in a recent City Paper cover story written by one of Prevas’ former law clerks.

Hal Riedl’s story was about a repeat violent offender Prevas had sentenced in 1987, who recently went away again for a sex offense. In bringing the reader into the present day after recounting the history, Riedl wrote these unfortunately prescient lines about his former boss:

“His health has been poor for years, and I’m trying to persuade him to retire. I know very well that won’t happen — one day he’ll simply keel over in court.”

I’m working on Prevas’ obituary today and I hope to speak to Riedl, who I first met while we watched the Sheila Dixon trial together and most recently saw at Gregg Bernstein’s post-election press conference. Others with memories of Judge Prevas are welcome to call me at 443-524-8156 or leave them in the comments section of this blog.

As the The Daily Record’s city courts reporter, I’m quite familiar with the rigors (and failings) of courthouse security. I’ve had to empty my pockets and remove my belt countless times and, occasionally, I’ve had to run back to the office or to my car to drop off whatever prohibited electronic device I happened to be carrying. So I understand the hassle. But hassle isn’t usually grounds for a successful federal civil rights lawsuit, as a federal judge reminded an aggrieved Prince Frederick man earlier this month.

According to Harold Hodge Jr.’s suit, the trouble began on April 9 when he attempted to enter the Calvert County government building that hosts the district court. A guard manning the metal detector told Hodge to remove his belt and leave his cell phone outside. Hodge protested, citing the 1968 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Terry v. Ohio, but eventually complied with both requests. A similar series of events played out on several other occasions at the district court building and at the circuit court nearby before Hodge eventually filed suit on Aug. 30.

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Two items of interest from the November Issue of the ABA Journal (at least to me):

• The cover story is about how a 33-year-old solo practitioner in Cleveland named David Mills will be arguing his first case before the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 1. The story provides a blueprint of sorts for building an appellate law practice. To say Mills was a longshot is putting it kindly:

“His law office is located in a spare bedroom in his apartment. He has no staff, except for his part-time paralegal, Elisabeth, who goes by another title: Mom. His client, for payment, offered him the title of her Jeep and made him an afghan.”

• Some people aspire to have buildings named after them. Me, I’d rather follow the lead of Bruce Freitag, who had a portable toilet named after him. Freitag served as longtime counsel for Porta-John Industries; the Freitag Comfort Station has hardwood floors, a skylight, working sink and ceramic toilet that flushes. The company’s CEO said they named it after the “classiest guy” they knew.

Another Monday on the books. Here’s some light reading to start off your week in the legal know.

• One newly divorced couple says that just because the marriage didn’t go on forever, doesn’t mean it was a failure.
• There’s a time and place for sarcasm. It’s probably not a good idea in the courtroom.
• Strong face = strong profits.
• Tribune Company creditors have been given the go-ahead to sue Sam Zell.
• Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) is looking into articles of impeachment against Chief Justice Roberts for the harm done in the Citizens United decision.
• Carolyn Elefant revels in the beauty of the retainer letter.
  
• Would you like fries with that? Connecticut law firm opens an office with a drive-thru window.

Here’s a look at the Top 5 law stories from The Daily Record’s staff this week.

1. Cardiologist sues St. Joseph Medical for fraud – by Danny Jacobs

Stephen L. Snyder might normally be one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers suing the former St. Joseph Medical Center cardiologist accused of implanting unnecessary stents in hundreds of patients.

But on Thursday, he filed a $60 million lawsuit on behalf of Dr. Mark G. Midei, accusing the hospital of pursing “an epic campaign of corporate deception, trickery and fraud” resulting in his “complete destruction.”

2. Maryland Court of Appeals adopts new foreclosure rule – by Steve Lash

Maryland’s highest court on Tuesday approved an emergency rule designed to identify and weed out irregularities in the mortgage foreclosure process.

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As you might imagine, we’ve been talking an awful lot about the recent foreclosure kerfuffle here at The Daily Record — wondering where the story might go, who it might affect next and what the implications are for the lawyers who let their notaries sign affidavits for them.

At our weekly law staff meeting Wednesday morning, I mentioned that if high schools kept parent signatures on file, I might have gotten into a lot of trouble back then.

Chalk it up to teenagers being teenagers, but I was chronically late and I occasionally signed my mom’s name to notes excusing me from being tardy. (Forget dad’s signature, I could never replicate his scribbled mess.)

Mom even authorized it at times when I was running out the door for school the day after being home sick and she was running out to work. Guess we both have the late gene.

OK, so I signed an absence note once or twice my senior year for a cut day with my girlfriends, but it never got worse than that. Certainly not on the same level as signing an affidavit — sworn testimony — for someone else.

Most lawyers I’ve talked to think the affidavit situation is totally inexcusable, but is there ever an occasion where authorizing someone else to sign for you would be acceptable?

I wrote last week about the defamation lawsuit Rick Reinhardt filed Julie Ensor, his rival for clerk of the Baltimore County Circuit Court. The article prompted some online discussion, and the big question was one my editor posed when I initially told her about the story: Can a person be sued for defamation based on something he or she tells a police officer?

The short answer – yes. A divided Court of Appeals ruled in 1993 that statements to police are not afforded absolute privilege, meaning they are not immune from defamation lawsuits. (The case is Caldor v. Bowden if you’re scoring at home.)

Robin Leone, a media law lawyer with Saul Ewing LLP in Baltimore, said Reinhardt’s bigger challenge will be proving he was defamed. (Full disclosure: Leone has represented The Daily Record in a First Amendment matter.) Reinhardt has to show Ensor’s statement was false and that she intended to harm him when talking to police.

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