The Daily Record News Summary: June 23, 2008

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Jun 23, 2008

Court affirms revival of teen's challenge to delinquency finding

A Baltimore City teenager is entitled to a new hearing and a chance to rebut the state's claim that he was in possession of a handgun, the Court of Appeals has ruled.

The high court affirmed the decision of the Court of Special Appeals Tuesday, which in September 2007 ruled that a lower court should have considered the boy's exceptions to a master's finding of delinquency.

Master Zakia Mahasa recommended in October 2006 that the gun possession charges against Marcus J. be sustained. Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge David W. Young, having rejected the exceptions as untimely filed, accepted Mahasa's recommendation, and declared him delinquent.

Young had declined to hear defense counsel's exceptions to the master's findings, stating that they did not comply with standards set out in a form order by Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Edward R. K. Hargadon. The form requires that exceptions be set forth with specificity and submitted within 10 days of the master's recommendation.

Like the Court of Special Appeals, the high court did not address the validity of the policy itself, stating in a footnote that "[t]he parties, however, have stipulated that this policy did not go into effect until after the initial hearing in this case, so we need not and will not address the policy."

Rather, the court revived Marcus J.'s challenge to a juvenile master's findings against him.

"Concomitantly, because the adjudication before a circuit court judge is the gravamen of the process, a juvenile must be entitled to elect to have a judge hear evidence, make findings and apply the law to the facts of the case, as though no proceeding had occurred, should the juvenile request a de novo hearing, after submitting appropriate exceptions," Judge Lynne A. Battaglia wrote on behalf of the court. "Under the present case, therefore, wherein Marcus J. took exception to all matters decided by the master and unequivocally stated that he 'requests that the matter be set for a hearing de novo,' he was entitled to such a hearing."

Statement was hearsay, CSA holds

A third-party statement in a Montgomery County defamation lawsuit was improperly admitted hearsay, the Court of Special Appeals ruled Friday, ordering a new trial in the case.

Amelia Foster, a former Montgomery County Public Schools employee, was awarded $285,000 in a 2005 lawsuit against the Montgomery County Board of Education and employee Carol Gazunis. Foster testified during the trial, over defense objections, that the high school principal told her Gazunis accused Foster of "intentionally sabotaging the school's computer system."

Foster's lawyers said the statement was not hearsay because it was not used to show the statement's truth -- only that it was made.

But the court, hearing the case on remand from the Court of Appeals, found the third-party, out-of-court statement to be hearsay that did not meet any exceptions to the rules, specifically that the principal was acting as an agent for Gazunis.

Marital property argument rejected

The Court of Special Appeals has rejected a divorced father's claim that the house he and his now ex-wife bought during their marriage does not qualify as the "family home" because he never actually lived there.

In his argument, David Maness relied on the statutory definition of family home as being the parties' principal residence "when they lived together." Having never lived with his wife at the Severna Park house, Maness said it was not the family home and thus his ex- wife, Rebecca Sawyer, and two children should not have been granted use and possession of it by Anne Arundel Circuit Court Judge Nancy L. Davis-Loomis.

"The absent spouse may never have lived under the roof for a single night, but we cannot believe that the Maryland Legislature intended, should the marriage then dissolve, to preclude the passage of a use and possession order for the protection of the custodial spouse and children," the intermediate court wrote. "There would be no intelligible purpose to be served by such a stingy interpretation of a law passed, after all, for the benefit of the children."

Sanctions by consent

Attorney Grievance Commission v. David William Bodley, AG No. 81, Sept. 2007. Filed June 17, 2008.

Md. jobless rate rises to 4%

The Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation said the state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in May rose to 4 percent, up from 3.6 percent in April. DLLR Secretary Thomas E. Perez said the upturn was consistent with a half-percentage point increase in nationwide unemployment, to 5.5 percent, in May. He said the state's economy is "seeing the effects of ... the financial stresses caused by the credit crisis and rising energy and food costs. ..." The department said a breakdown of employment data by jurisdiction for May will be available online Thursday at www.dllr.state.md.us.

Constellation bonds sell well

Constellation Energy Group Inc., of Baltimore, the largest U.S. electricity marketer, sold $450 million of hybrid bonds, triple the amount planned, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The junior subordinated debt yields 8.625 percent and is non-callable for five years. The bonds have a scheduled maturity of 2063 and a final maturity of 2068. Constellation originally marketed $150 million of bonds. The debt is rated Baa2 by Moody's Investors Service, the second-lowest level of investment grade, and one step lower by Standard & Poor's at BBB-.