Disciplinary body recommends removal of Anne Arundel Judge Marc Knapp

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Investigative counsel for the Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities, which disciplines judges, on Thursday recommended that Anne Arundel County Orphans’ Court Judge Marc Knapp be removed from office.

In his closing argument at Knapp’s final hearing before the commission, held Thursday at Howard County Circuit Court, deputy assistant investigative counsel Derek Bayne said Knapp’s behavior in a long conflict with fellow judge Vickie Gipson was “antisocial,” “unacceptable” and “intransigent.”

Bayne argued that from the spring of 2023 through at least half of 2024, Knapp discriminated against Gipson, a Black woman, based on her race and gender, and violated a number of other rules governing judges’ conduct.

“The overarching theme of that tenure, unfortunately, is: Judge Knapp’s way or the highway,” Bayne said. Knapp had used the same phrase to describe Gipson’s leadership as chief judge.

Bayne added that he believed the evidence showed Knapp had committed a crime by recording people without their consent.

Evidence — including police body-cam footage, testimony from their former colleague on the court and Knapp himself — showed Gipson and Knapp unable to communicate productively or to deescalate arguments. Those disagreements sometimes became public when other people, including employees of the county Register of Wills, heard them shouting at each other.

Orphans’ courts handle disputes regarding estates and trusts. The judges are elected and not required to have a law degree. Not all Maryland jurisdictions have orphans’ courts. The controversy between Knapp and Gipson has led some to question whether the state should get rid of orphans’ courts.

In his closing remarks, Knapp expressed some regret that his conflict with Gipson got out of hand — including calling some of his conduct “ridiculous” — but he did not apologize.

“I’m going to do my absolute damndest to make sure that things don’t devolve like that” in the future, he said.

He argued that Gipson was only “nominally” the chief judge, and said her writing was often “word salad.”

“She does not have leadership skills,” he said. “I’ve got leadership skills.”

William Brennan, Knapp’s lawyer, asked that he be ordered to attend implicit bias training, but he argued Knapp has conducted himself well and gotten work done in the past year, and should not be removed.

“He wants to help the people of Anne Arundel County,” Brennan said.

Brennan argued that Gipson escalated the conflict by obtaining a temporary peace order and calling the police when Knapp was working in the courtroom, rather than in the judges’ chambers, where an armed guard was present.

“Who brought the public light on this?” Brennan asked. “Who got the peace order? Who called the cops? Judge Gipson.”

Knapp, 81, testified for several hours on Wednesday and Thursday, portraying himself as detail-oriented, if a bit blunt in his disagreements with Gipson. He attempted to show that his long career in banking and finance led him to expect a certain quality of work on the Orphans’ Court; when he saw that Gipson’s writing was not to his liking, he appointed himself her “editor.”

“Part of my task from the very beginning was to sort of act as her editor,” he said Wednesday afternoon, saying he could help her write things that were “readable in the English language.”

“I may not be able to draft the next great American novel, but I think I can draft a declarative sentence.”

He often disagreed with Gipson’s rulings, and he questioned her authority as chief judge, believing they were co-equals, with the “chief” title conferring only administrative obligations.

He also said that while he often became angry at Gipson, he never would have physically hurt her, and noted that he was over 80 years old and needed support to stand.

Commission Chair Anne Albright set a Nov. 14 for the parties to submit proposed findings of fact and conclusion of law. Gipson is also facing sanctions by the commission. She is scheduled for a hearing Dec. 5.