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Wo. You Don't Want To Catch This Judge On A Bad Day

By John Mesirow

It would appear that Maryland District Court Judge Bruce S. Lamdin had a lot of bad days. The excerpts below are from the opinion released yesterday by the Court of Appeals of Maryland. As stated in the opinion, "... Judge Lamdin expressly admitted that he made each of the comments attributed to him and that those comments violated specific Canons of the Maryland Code of Judicial Conduct..."

As to State v. Crook, #C 00239557, Judge Lamdin, in a case in which defendant entered a guilty plea to possession of paraphernalia and driving without a license, admitted that he made the following comments during the case:

?Why did you drive so poorly? Smoke a little weed before you got behind the wheel? . . . Smoke a little crack before you got behind the wheel? . . . Well, you?ve got the appropriate last name. . . . All right crack head, Crook. . . . You?ve got your money all tied up in the next shipment that?s coming in? Never mind. . . . My comment was, do you have all your money tied up in product??

Alrighty. Here's another.

As to State v. McClaughlin, #C 00240823, Judge Lamdin admitted, upon being informed by the Assistant State?s Attorney that the defendant had been asked to remain in the hallway with her baby until her case was called, that he stated:

?Well, you know, I got in trouble because I told some lady we confiscate cell phones and we put the cell phones in plastic bags and send them down to Annapolis. I suggested maybe we ought to do the same thing with children except poke holes in the bag. She filed a complaint against me for that so that?s why they keep all of the children out of my courtroom now. . . We ordered some plastic bags about five foot tall but they haven?t been ? they haven?t come in yet.?

More about kids ...

As to the complaint filed by Ronald Jacobson, Judge Lamdin admitted that during the course of his opening remarks for the afternoon docket, he made the following comment to the audience regarding a woman leaving the courtroom with her baby who was crying:

?If she only knew how much I hate kids, she would not have brought that kid in here today.?

There's plenty more. Keep reading.

Full post as published by Legal Juice on May 14, 2008 (boomark / email).