Maryland

Case of lost painting offers lessons in auction law; will buyer get $43K for missing $21K artwork?

A little over a year ago, a New Orleans art broker purchased an impressionist painting at a Maryland auction for $21,500. However, the nearly 100-year-old painting by Ellsworth Woodward disappeared before the buyer, Amanda Winstead, could collect it. She sued and was awarded $43,500 by a New Orleans court, even…

Apr 16, 2014 4:09 PM CDT

Pit-bull owners would get same legal protections as other dog owners under Maryland bill

Lawmakers in Maryland are considering a bill that would overturn a 2012 decision that found pit bulls are inherently dangerous and their owners are strictly liable for attacks by the dogs. The State and House have passed differing versions of the bill, and they will have to pass a single…

Mar 24, 2014 12:20 PM CDT

Lawmakers propose ‘Toaster Pastry Gun Freedom Act’ to stop school suspensions over imaginary weapons

The father of a 7-year-old boy suspended from school for two days last year for chewing a breakfast toaster pastry into the shape of a gun did not protest the Baltimore district’s application of its zero-tolerance policy on weapons in vain. A lawmaker in Maryland last year proposed a bill…

Jan 30, 2014 5:35 PM CST

Art museum gets Renoir painting that woman said she bought for $7 at flea market, judge rules

A federal judge has ruled against a Virginia woman who claimed she purchased a small painting by a famous French impressionist for $7 at a flea market. How Marcia “Martha” Fuqua acquired the Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting doesn’t matter, said U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in a Friday decision granting a…

Jan 13, 2014 5:20 PM CST

Judge OKs mistrial when juror won’t deliberate due to religious beliefs, schedules contempt hearing

A Maryland judge declared a mistrial Thursday in a manslaughter case over the death of a law enforcement officer in a high-speed chase after a juror refused to deliberate due to her religious beliefs. The juror did not initially raise this objection before deliberations began Wednesday in the case against…

Jan 10, 2014 12:10 AM CST

Still a murder mystery: Who killed federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna?

Despite a $100,000 reward offer, authorities still haven’t solved the slaying of federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna, who died 10 years ago this month. Luna, an assistant U.S. attorney in Baltimore, was 38 when he died, MyElancoNews reports. He had 36 stab wounds and his throat had been slit. His body…

Dec 10, 2013 11:45 AM CST

Museum seeks dismissal of woman’s claim to stolen Renoir

The Baltimore Museum of Art is asking a federal judge to dismiss a Virginia woman’s claim to a tiny Renoir painting she says she bought in a “box of junk” at a flea market in 2009 for $7. The museum, in a motion for summary judgment Tuesday, says the 1879…

Dec 5, 2013 11:30 AM CST

Facebook chat about ‘hit’ on judges adds to court problems for 2 defendants

Tipped that a Maryland man had tried to buy a rifle because he wanted to kill a judge, police didn’t have to look far to find supporting evidence. On a Facebook page, their suspect, Zachary Ryan Mitchell, and another man, Justin Ray Ferrell, complained about the Anne Arundel County judges…

Dec 3, 2013 10:45 PM CST

Lawyer who started law school at 16 is still practicing at 96

When Jerome Offutt graduated from law school in 1937 at the age of 19 he was too young to practice law in his home state of Maryland. Once a child prodigy, Offutt is still achieving much at an unusual age—he’s 96 and still practicing law, according to broadcast station Your4State.com.…

Nov 18, 2013 2:30 PM CST

Identical twin accused of killing his brother is fatally shot

After years of legal limbo in which Wael Ali was considered a suspect in the slaying of his identical twin brother but never convicted, Howard County police may close their investigation. On Tuesday, the body of the 25-year-old was buried in a Baltimore cemetery next to the grave of his…

Nov 7, 2013 12:10 AM CST

Johns Hopkins pursues settlement in mandatory class action over gynecologist’s photos

A judge in Baltimore has conditionally OK’d a mandatory class action in a case brought by former patients of a deceased Johns Hopkins Hospital gynecologist accused of secretly photographing and filming women in examining rooms. Some 3,800 individuals are already represented by counsel in the case and the total number…

Nov 1, 2013 6:55 PM CDT

State AG backtracks, says he should have investigated whether there was underage drinking at party

Maryland’s attorney general, Douglas F. Gansler, opposes underage drinking and has urged parents to take responsibility to prevent it. But when it came to a high school graduation party attended by his own son, held in a beach house in Delaware, the AG felt it wasn’t his job to serve…

Oct 25, 2013 4:25 PM CDT

LeClairRyan acquires 11-attorney health care boutique, plants flag in two more states

A growing Virginia-based midsized law firm has expanded its footprint with the acquisition of an 11-attorney health care boutique. LeClairRyan has acquired Adelman, Sheff & Smith, which will continue operating in its existing offices, a Tuesday press release announces. Including the Adelman firm’s offices in Annapolis, Md., and Glenwood Springs,…

Oct 16, 2013 4:50 PM CDT

Inmate’s claimed plot to kill prosecutors is admissible at his trial for prior murder, judge says

Explosive claims that an imprisoned defendant awaiting trial in a murder case plotted to kill two Baltimore prosecutors can be used in evidence in the original case, a Maryland judge has ruled. Although lawyers for Robert G. Moore, 45, and two co-defendants in the original murder conspiracy case objected, Judge…

Oct 2, 2013 5:12 PM CDT

Now-convicted burglar left rap sheet at crime scene, authorities say

For some reason, Andre Antonio Henry was carrying a two-page copy of theft charges filed against him in Washington, D.C., when police say he committed an office burglary in the metropolitan area. The document, which contained his full name, apparently fell out of his pocket at the Office of the…

Sep 19, 2013 4:40 PM CDT