On this Take Your Child to Work Day, I remember the time in August 2008 when my daughter — a fan of the televison show Law & Order — tagged along as I covered a double-murder trial in Montgomery County.

I told her not to expect there to be a lead male prosecutor and a female assistant sitting “second chair,” a staple of the long-running NBC show. 

I also warned her that gruesome pictures of the crime scene would not be introduced into evidence, as occurs often on the program. After all – as I was told in law school – the prejudicial effect of such photographs on the defendant outweighs their probative value for the jury.

But when we entered the courtroom, there was Montgomery County State’s Attorney John J. McCarthy at the prosecution table sitting with his female assistant, Kathy Knight. And during the trial, the prosecutors successfully introduced into evidence bloody pictures from the 2002 slayings of Gregory Russell, 47, and his 9-year-old daughter Erika Smith at the father’s Silver Spring home.

My credibility now destroyed, what happened next was only fitting.

During a break in the trial, McCarthy came over and introduced himself to my daughter. She politely responded, “Hello, Mr. McCoy.”

[For those of you who may have been in a coma for the past 16 years, or without a TV, the chief prosecutor on Law & Order is Jack McCoy, played by Sam Waterston.]

As for the trial, defendant Anthony Q. Kelly was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

For extra credit, name the movie that co-starred Waterston and someone who was famously acquitted of a double murder. The answer is here.

What a terrible coincidence.

The Washington Post had a story over the weekend about a retired Montgomery County District Court judge who was hit and badly injured last year by an allegedly drunken driver. The twist: 12 years ago, Judge Edwin Collier presided over an earlier drunken-driving case for the driver, Rene Fernandez, and let him off with a suspended sentence.

Collier and his wife were seriously hurt in the crash last August:

Ellen Collier, who is now 82, suffered a compound leg fracture, fractured ribs, a fractured hip and neck injuries, [the Colliers' lawyer John] Kudel said. She has had five operations, including one to fuse vertebrae in her neck, and must use a walker. Edwin Collier, now 86 and who as a retired judge was brought back to hear cases as recently as last year, suffered a broken leg and fractured ribs. He must use a cane.

The diminished mobility forced the couple to move to a retirement community from their home in Bethesda. “Their whole life has changed irreparably,” he said.

Back in 1998, Fernandez came before Collier for the second of two drunken-driving charges in three months. He pleaded guilty; Collier sentenced him to 60 days in jail but suspended the sentence. “The sentence handed down by Collier in 1998 didn’t deviate from standard sentences in the county at the time, according to veteran Montgomery lawyers,” the Post’s Dan Morse writes.

HT: ABA Journal.

Certain people would have no problem being snow-bound for a couple days at the Bethesda home featured Friday in a fabulous Washington Post story. The Tone Drive mansion has hosted several BDSM parties the past few months.

(“BDSM”, as the story notes, stands for “bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism and masochism.” If you want to find out more, I suggest using your home computer, not your work one.)

The story is about how one of the home’s renters received a written warning from Montgomery County zoning officials because he has been charging admission to the parties, commercial activity largely prohibited in residential areas.

The zoning issue alone would have been enough for me to blog about this story. But then there’s this gem of a quote about the type of people who attend the parties:

“An amazing cross-section of humanity,” says Susan Wright, founder of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. “Men, women, transgender, heterosexuals, gays, bisexuals. Every ethnicity. White-collar and blue-collar. It’s really very, very diverse — though we do have an unusually high percentage of lawyers. I don’t know why.”

Sounds like I have a story to work on after I dig out of the snow.

Fifty-five years of marriage is darned impressive.

So if Ed and Harriet Neufeld of Aspen Hill have found a fun date activity that gets them out of the house together, more power to them.

That said, their hobby is a little… weird.

As the Gazette tells us, the Neufelds, who are retired, go to the Montgomery County Circuit Court weekly to watch cases. “It’s better than television, I’ll tell you that much,” Ed Neufeld told the newspaper.

Really?

The Neufelds must either a) have a really low threshold for what’s entertaining or b) be particularly adept at picking exciting cases to watch. Newspaper reporters tend to cover only the most high-profile court cases, and even those are sometimes incredibly dull. (I imagine that the proceedings at which the sketch above was made, on the other hand, were fascinating.)

HT: ABA Journal.

They didn’t set out to hang out their shingles — at least, not yet — but the economy made it the most attractive option for these new solo practitioners. Read The Accidental Solo, this related story on setting up shop, and these tips on running your own practice.

The University of Maryland law school’s Appellate and Post-Conviction Advocacy Clinic highlights its summer wins and is taking a setback in stride, as one of its recent clients got arrested on a charge similar to the one the clinic helped get expunged.

Topping the news are stories about the firing of Public Defender Nancy Forster and a citation against a Charles County judge for letting the air out of a court worker’s tire. In Legal Briefs, Chief Judge Bell sends another letter – this time, seeking Social Security numbers for the Client Protection Fund.

In Verdicts & Settlements, a Baltimore jury awards more than $1 million to the children of a young woman who died after surgery to resolve her blood clots. And, in Unbillable Hours, meet a Montgomery County lawyer who coaches high school football players in more ways than one.

PLUS: On the Move; columns by Legal Aid’s Joe Surkiewicz and Dolan Media’s Justin Rebello; and our weekly Law Digest, featuring eight opinions by the 4th Circuit.

A Rockville special-education attorney, advocate and mother is lauding the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision Monday that parents may be reimbursed for sending their youngster to private school without first trying a public-school curriculum they believe would not meet their child’s special-ed needs.

“I hope school districts sit up and take notice” of the decision and ensure their special-ed programs meet the students’ requirements, thus eliminating the desire of a number of parents to send their children to private school, said Lyda L. Astrove, a solo practitioner.

“The vast majority of families do start out in the public school system,” she added. Parents who opt for private school generally do so “only after years of failure and frustration” with a public school curriculum that did not meet their child’s needs, Astrove said.

The high court’s ruling permits families to avoid what they fear will be that failure and frustration by opting for private school at the outset, she added.

Under the court’s decision, parents seeking tuition reimbursement for private school must still show that the public school’s proposed curriculum would not meet their child’s needs.

Astrove’s two children have attended public and private special-ed programs in Montgomery County, and she said she has nothing but praise for the education and support the county has provided.

* Disclosure: This reporter also has two family members in Montgomery County Public Schools’ special-education program.

H. Mercedes Clemens, a certified personal massage therapist in Rockville, expected to be back at her side business of massaging horses by now.

But her efforts to end a cease-and-desist order from the Maryland Board of Chiropractic and Massage Therapy Examiners remain in legal limbo. While pre-trial hearings were scheduled to resume tomorrow in Montgomery County Circuit Court, they have been postponed — a third time — for at least a month, according to her attorney Paul Sherman.

When Clemens and the board last met in court, May 5, Judge David A. Boynton wondered aloud whether the agency, which certifies massage therapists, has the authority to regulate the massaging of horses.

Boynton postponed further hearings on the issue for a month to allow the board to reconsider its position at a May 14 meeting. The board didn’t back down, and Clemens has no intention of doing so.

Scheduling conflicts caused the June 2 hearing to be postponed until June 17. Today, that hearing was postponed as well.

Stay tuned.

Here’s the first sentence of a Montgomery County police press release I’m sorry I did not see when it was first sent out three weeks ago:

Officers… have arrested a 57-year-old man for pointing a laser pointer at a local news helicopter as it flew over [his] home this morning in Silver Spring.

Gary Wort, 57, was bothered by the noise the helicopter was making, according to police. Wort later directed the laser pointer at officers who responded to his house, police said. He was arrested and charged with one count of disorderly conduct, three counts of reckless endangerment and two counts of prohibited use of a laser pointer.

In today’s Washington Post, David A. Martella, Wort’s Rockville-based lawyer, said Wort was using the pointer as a way to shoo away the helicopter and did not think the laser “dot” would be so visible that high in the sky. Regarding the officers, Martella said Wort saw a flashlight through his window, causing him to lift up the pointer in such a way the officers thought he was pointing it at them.

Wort was holding the pointer, incidentally, for use as a play toy with his cat. Having a cat chase the laser dot is great physical and mental exercise for felines, according to cat experts. (“Cat” and “laser pointer” also makes for a fun YouTube search, but that’s another story.)

But with cats, as with humans, the cardinal rule of laser pointers is the same: never aim one at the eyes.

A lot of Montgomery County residents have fallen victim to a speeding camera in our neighborhoods. Especially the one on Wootton Parkway in Rockville.

I know this because of the neverending traffic to Steve Lash’s blog post from May, where he announced that his minivan was caught doing 36 mph in a 25 mph school zone. (He, of course, was innocent).

As a Bethesda resident, the trap that lies in wait for me is on Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase. It hasn’t snapped me up yet, but it did get my colleague, Joe Bacchus, while he was visiting his father.

Here’s the bad news I’ve procrastinated — for those of you who live, work or visit MoCo: The Rockville PD is cracking down, and fast. Fourteen new speed camera traps have been set up, and warnings will be issued through Sunday. After that, it’s an automatic fine if you’re 11 mph or more over the speed limit.

Here are the new hotspots:

1. Glenora Lane
2. Hurley Avenue
3. Gerard Street
4. Dunster Road
5. Sunrise Drive
6. Cabin John Parkway
7. W. Edmonston Drive
8. Edmonston Drive
9. Grandin Avenue
10. Broadwood Drive
11. Ardennes Avenue
12. Fallsgrove Drive
13. Mannakee Street
14. Martins Lane

View Larger Map

Note: The points are plotted only on the street the camera is located on – not at the exact location of the camera. Be careful!

JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor

What is it with Montgomery County residents and their misadventures buying used luxury cars?

First it was the case of the mongrel Mercedes.

Now it’s the Bentley Continental GT for which a Burtonsville man paid $148,195.82, only to find out it had, allegedly, been “previously repainted, and possibly previously repaired” in violation of the terms of the sale.

Emmanuel Bailey, a former Fannie Mae executive and Obama campaign contributor, knew the sleek British coupe he bought in June 2007 from a Boynton Beach, Fla. dealer was used, according to the federal lawsuit he filed last week.

But according to the purchase agreement, Bailey alleges, Exotic Motorcars and Jewelry Inc. “would repurchase the Bentley at Mr. Bailey’s option” if the car, currently at Bailey’s home, was found to have been modified.

Since less than a month after he bought the Bentley, Bailey has unsuccessfully sought a refund. He now claims $222,300 in damages under fraud and breach of contract counts.

Oh, and like Dr. Pepi Schafler, Mr. Bailey knows his way around a courthouse.

Will U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus, who also presided over the “mongrel Mercedes” case, come to Bailey’s rescue like the federal government did for his erstwhile employer or will he dismiss the suit as a frivolous squabble in these hard economic times?

BRENDAN KEARNEY, Legal Affairs Writer