Md. Legal Briefs: November 29, 2001

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Nov 29, 2001 by Staff

Give her a chair

Jana Carey Howard, a partner with Venable, Baetjer, Howard & Civiletti LLP, has been named chair-elect of the American Bar Association's Section of Labor and Employment Law, one of the largest ABA entities with more than 22,000 members. Her one-year term will begin in August 2002. A graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law, Carey is a charter member of the American College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.

No expert allowed

Cecil County Circuit Court Judge O. Robert Lidums ruled Gregory Kirk Riley, 24, accused of being under the influence of a prescription drug when his car hit and killed a 16-year-old pedestrian last January, won't be allowed to have an expert witness testify on his behalf when his trial opens Monday in Elkton.

Realty exec indicted

Edwin J. Kirby Jr., former chief operating officer of Banker's Title Co., a Towson-based real estate settlement company, faces three criminal charges in an indictment filed in Baltimore County Circuit Court by the attorney general's office. Kirby was charged with felony theft, insurance fraud and misappropriating more than $1 million from customers between January 1997 and February 2000.

Welfare fraud admitted

Katrina R. McCoy, 30, and Karen Dailey, 38, both of Baltimore, pleaded guilty yesterday in Baltimore City Circuit Court to welfare fraud and conspiracy to commit theft. The attorney general's office charged the former city Department of Social Services employees with stealing more than $3,000 in benefits from the accounts of welfare recipients between June 1999 and April 2001.

Rough justice

A judge who shoved another justice into a table during a dispute over whether one should hire a congressman's sister-in-law was suspended yesterday by the Louisiana Supreme Court. Judge Charles R. Jones was suspended for 30 days without pay from the state's 4th Circuit Court of Appeal.

Actress sentenced

Actress Rebecca Gayheart pleaded no contest in Los Angeles to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for the death of a 9-year-old boy she struck with her car in June. The former "Beverly Hills, 90210" star wiped away tears as Superior Court Commissioner Gary Bindman sentenced her to three years of probation, suspended her license, imposed a fine and ordered her to produce a safe-driving video.