For Fabian, it’s business before prison
November 7, 2008
Even an imminent nine-year federal prison sentence for a multi-part, multi-million-dollar fraud scheme cannot extinguish the entrepreneurial spirit in Alan Fabian.
The Hunt Valley consultant, certified public accountant and major Republican Party donor is spending this weekend in sunny Orlando, Fla., at the National Association of Realtors Conference/Expo. He’s there to market a Web application developed by his latest business, 4th Sector Ventures LLC, which was formed a year ago — after his August 2007 indictment but before his May guilty plea.
I can’t speak for Fabian’s company, but I do know that so-called fourth sector organizations are generally socially responsible for-profits and that Fabian invented learning software at his since-bankrupted nonprofit in downtown Baltimore, the Centre for Management and Technology.
The Orlando trip, and a long Thanksgiving weekend with his family and friends at his soon-to-be forfeited North Carolina beach house, come courtesy of U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake, who sentenced Fabian two weeks ago.
Blake granted the unopposed motion for modification of release conditions on Wednesday. Fabian’s movements have been limited since his indictment and were further curtailed when he pled guilty.
Blake’s predecessor as presider, U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett, had been less willing to make exceptions for Fabian: Bennett denied an August request for a two-week family beach vacation to North Carolina even though neither Fabian’s pretrial services officer nor federal prosecutors objected to the idea.
BRENDAN KEARNEY, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentGarrett closer to getting a judge
September 4, 2008
The Trial Courts Judicial Nominating Commission in Western Maryland has forwarded to the governor the names of all four applicants for the long-vacant Garrett County District Court seat, a Maryland judiciary spokesman said today.
That means the commission thought the applicants — Leonard J. Eiswert, Linda Sue Sherbin, Raymond G. Strubin and Daryl T. Walters — were all qualified for the judgeship. Strubin’s and Walters’ names had already been sent to the governor in an earlier round of applications and vetting.
The ball in now in Gov. O’Malley’s hands. His chief legal counsel said in July that O’Malley would move quickly to pick a judge. The Garrett seat has been empty since Judge Ralph Burnett died 16 months ago.
Also, I should correct the record. Last week, I blogged that Aug. 29 was the deadline for new applications for the seat. The deadline was actually July 29.
CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentLocomotion in motion
August 5, 2008
Sometimes judges mercifully take the edge off their legalese-heavy opinions by employing literary devices.
A federal judge in Washington grabbed headlines last month with his penchant for rhyme. In an opinion in May, Court of Appeals Judge Glenn T. Harrell opened with an allusion to Julius Caesar’s account of his formative military campaign through Central Europe. And retired Court of Special Appeals Judge Charles E. Moylan Jr. rarely pens an opinion without some dramatic turns of phrase or esoteric references.
Apparently keen to flex his facility with literary devices, U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus took advantage of the transportation subject matter in the case of Beckham v. National Railroad Passenger Corp., et al. to explain his ruling in an opinion last week.
The case involves a commuter’s racial discrimination claims against Amtrak and the Maryland Transit Administration for a series of hostile interactions with a conductor on the MARC Penn line two years ago.
“Much like that train, this case has traveled from the District of Columbia to Maryland following the granting of MTA’s motion to transfer the case to this Court,” Titus begins rather innocently.
“When this case pulled into Greenbelt from the District of Columbia, MTA immediately sought to disembark from the case based in part on its purported Eleventh Amendment immunity …,” Titus continues. “Plaintiff, however, contends that MTA should have raised its immunity argument before buying its ticket and catching the train to this Court.”
Titus dismissed all claims against the MTA except one, concluding, “[n]evertheless, MTA cannot exit the train just yet, as the Court declines to award it summary judgment as to Plaintiff’s Count V claims.”
Are you “all aboard” with injecting a bit of levity into the disposition of motions or did Titus’ train run away?
BRENDAN KEARNEY, Legal Affairs Writer
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