Dockets canceled for district court

Officials knew of building strains

Friday, Sept. 5, 2008

According to a message distributed to court offices this week by Brenda Giammerino, administrative clerk for the court, the court will be down to one judge several days this month, requiring the court to cancel six previously scheduled dockets.

‘‘As you are all aware, it is becoming more and more difficult to get visiting judges to cover when our judges are out,” Giammerino wrote. ‘‘So, for the month of September, we will have to cancel several dockets.”

According to Darrell Pressley, spokesman for the Maryland Judiciary, the cancellations were the result of a perfect storm. With Charles County Judge Richard Cooper taking some leave this month and Calvert County District Court Judge Stephen Claggett recently retired, there was no judge in the Southern Maryland region to pick up the canceled dockets.

Pressley said that new Judge E. Gregory Wells will be on the Calvert bench by the end of the month, and the judiciary is currently recruiting retired judges to fill gaps in the Charles dockets.

Courtroom 2’s traffic dockets for Sept. 12 and 18 are canceled as well as criminal dockets in Courtroom 2 on Sept. 16 and Courtroom 1 Sept. 26. Dockets scheduled for Courtroom F are canceled Sept. 17 and 24.

District Court only has two judges — Richard Cooper and Louis Hennessy. Giammerino’s message states that Hennessy will be working alone for all dates except Sept. 26.

According to Sharon Hancock, clerk of the circuit court, the district court cancellations will not affect cases scheduled in circuit court.

To Charles County State’s Attorney Leonard C. Collins Jr., the large number of cancellations is unprecedented but predictable.

‘‘District court is the bottleneck for law enforcement in Charles County, and it’s getting worse,” Collins said Thursday.

His statement was similar to the one he made before the Charles County commissioners during budget hearings in May, when he warned that the court was ‘‘simply overrun with cases” and pleaded with the county commissioners to remove some courthouse tenants this year in order to create space for a new district court judge.

The commissioners do not fund district court but serve as the landlord of the courthouse. The county is building a second courthouse in its La Plata government campus, but the project is two years away from completion.

Collins told the commissioners that district court might not be able to wait that long. Citing statistics from the district court and the Maryland State Police central records division, Collins presented the commissioners and the court system with a chart showing the explosion in caseload faced by the court since it added a second judge in 1988.

Between 1988 and 2007, the number of sworn police officers in the county has nearly doubled from 167 to 312. Domestic violence cases and peace orders have more than quadrupled from 353 each year to 1,546. Criminal cases have jumped 47 percent from 3,652 a year to 5,363. And traffic citations have nearly tripled from 17,100 each year to 44,557.

The problem is well-known in Annapolis.

In October 2007, Chief District Court Judge Ben C. Clyburn wrote Chief Judge Robert M. Bell of the Maryland Appeals Court, stressing that Charles County’s traffic case flow was suffering and that the county was in need of an additional judge.

Sen. Thomas V. ‘‘Mike” Miller (D-Calvert, Prince George’s), president of the Senate, and Del. Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel), speaker of the House, followed Clyburn’s letter with their own in November 2007. They called for Bell to request eight new district court judges statewide to meet increasing caseloads.

According to Del. Murray D. Levy (D-Charles), Charles County’s legislative delegation is aware of district court’s problems and is preparing its own letter to Bell, requesting an additional judge in this year’s state budget.

‘‘I think the only issue is whether the state has the money,” Levy said.

The state is facing a $1 billion deficit this year.

There is another problem facing the hiring of a new judge for the county — where to put him or her. Commissioners’ President F. Wayne Cooper (D) said that the county offered to let district court hold sessions in the county government building auditorium, but the idea was rejected for security reasons. Cooper said he has not heard from district court since then. ‘‘We can still try to work with them,” Cooper said.