Law Review

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Mar 24, 2006 by Daily Record Staff

Orioles sue city, BDCover hotel fenceThe Baltimore Orioles Limited Partnership this week asked a judge to order the city and the Baltimore Development Corp. to take down a construction fence two hours before and after all baseball games.The fence was put up due to the construction of the city's $305 million convention center and hotel. But its location - blocking Eutaw Street on the north side of Oriole Park at Camden Yards - could affect the passage of 15,000 to 20,000 fans, in and out of the stadium, per game, said Alison L. Asti, the executive director of the Maryland Stadium Authority. According to the complaint filed by the Orioles, a failure to remove the fence by Opening Day on April 3 would create a “disaster waiting to happen.”

Guilty plea expectedA schizophrenic woman charged with murdering a retired psychiatric social worker in the victim's Chevy Chase home two years ago is expected to plead guilty but not criminally responsible for the crime next month. Susan L. Sachs allegedly murdered 71-year-old Joyce Hadl hours after Montgomery County police refused to remove Sachs from Hadl's home in August 2004. The victim implored police and social workers that day to have Sachs undergo an emergency psychiatric evaluation, but they refused, said John Hadl, the victim's son.

'Officer Next Door' seeks$20M after home searchIn a $20 million lawsuit, a Baltimore police officer claims at least four of his fellow officers used a search warrant obtained with a perjured affidavit to burst into his home and hold him and his wife at gunpoint.Finding no narcotics, the four defendants scouted the neighborhood for drugs and paraphernalia, and then attributed those drugs to Officer Michael Callands and his wife, the suit alleges.According to the complaint filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court, Michael and Margaret Callands moved into the Spelman Road home in Brooklyn as part of the federally funded “Officer Next Door” program, which provides financial incentives for law enforcement officers to live in high-crime areas.

Visitation fight doesn'tbelong in federal courtA mother in Israel cannot use the federal court in Maryland to pursue visitation rights with her four children in Silver Spring, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has held.The decision affirms that a judge in Greenbelt had no jurisdiction to hear Sarah A. Cantor's claims under the International Child Abduction Remedies Act. Cantor and her former husband, Andrew Cohen, agreed after their 1998 divorce that she would have custody of the girls while he would have custody of the boys. All the children, however, currently reside with their father in Maryland.In October 2004, Cantor filed a petition against Cohen seeking visitation (known as “access” under the federal law) with her two sons, and the return of and right of access to her two daughters.

Doc's legacy of litigationAn almost 50-year effort to recover the allegedly pilfered manuscripts of an internationally renowned psychiatrist, who was jailed for his theories on biological energy, was revived in a federal court last week.A trustee for the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust is suing the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health for the return of certain documents donated to NIH's National Library of Medicine. According to the suit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, several boxes of Reich's documents were taken by Aurora Karrer - Reich's girlfriend - in 1958, despite a directive in his will that the documents be put in a trust and sealed for 50 years.

Judge shouldn't raisestatute of limitationsAn Argentinian man and his Uruguayan company have won another chance to pursue fraud claims stemming from a 1997 plan to turn $450,000 into $4.5 million in under a year.A federal judge in North Carolina erred when he ruled the claims were barred by a three- year statute of limitations in 2003, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said, because the defense was never raised by any of the parties.The statute of limitations is an affirmative defense which, ordinarily, is considered waived if it is not raised by the defendant, the 4th Circuit noted in an opinion written by Judge Robert B. King.

Worm adds wordsA computer virus defaced the Web site of Baltimore's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council over the weekend, replacing agency information with a profane message about the United States government.“[Expletive] USA Government; [expletive] PoizonBOx; contact sysadmen@yahoo.com.cn,” the council's Web site -www.baltimorecitycjcc.org - proclaimed Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning. Darren O'Brien, the management information systems division chief for the Baltimore City state's attorney's office, restored the site Monday. O'Brien said the CJCC site was affected by the “Sadmind” Internet worm.

Amtrak sues over'03 tugboat collisionsTwo successive tugboat collisions with a Susquehanna River railroad bridge, on two successive days in 2003, have landed the boat owners and captains in federal court. National Railroad Passenger Corp. (Amtrak) filed suit last week against the owners and operators of the vessels Night Hawk and Sharps Island, both of which were traveling south on the river when the barges they were towing collided with a bridge owned by Amtrak. The suit seeks more than $300,000 in property damage.