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High tech, high temps and no-charge trouble
May 13, 2004
By PETER GEIER,
Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer

It's all in an afternoon's work for the CJCC in Baltimore
Wireless connectivity in all Baltimore's circuit courtrooms gives the court a toehold in the new century - but it remains bedeviled by the details of its criminal dockets.

Members of the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office and vendor Courtroom Connect, a private New York-based service provider, yesterday demonstrated the wireless high-speed Internet connection available to members of Baltimore's bar.

"We are edging our way into the 21st century," Administrative Judge Marcella A. Holland told Baltimore's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council yesterday, "and are very proud of that."

Using the system, Assistant State's Attorney Darren P. O'Brien accessed the court's database, Westlaw, the Internet and his own office's intranet and e-mail system from his laptop.

Louis Goldberg, president of Courtroom Connect, said Baltimore is the first jurisdiction he knows of to apply the cutting-edge technology in its criminal courts, as well as civil courts.

"We've never had someone be so enthusiastic about the criminal side before," Goldberg said, adding that Baltimore "is ahead of the nation" in that way.

A meeting attendee who asked not to be named had his own comment on the new technology - and the heat of the day.

"It's nice to know that where we have air conditioning only about 10 percent of the time, we now have wireless connection," he said, flapping his jacket lapels for air.

The news from the cutting edge followed ground more familiar to council members.

After hearing the state's attorney's report as to the large numbers of cases stetted and nolle prossed in district court, Michael E. Kaminkow, a coordinating council member who represents the private defense bar, asked when arrestees brought into the system actually begin making a record.

Kaminkow wanted to know whether people arrested for crimes but not charged - "let out the back door," he said - should be concerned about having a criminal record that needs to be expunged.

He recently learned of several U.S. government employees with security clearances who had a run-in with the law for which they were arrested and not charged, but which could pose problems for their clearances, he said.

One apparent difficulty is that uncharged incidents have tracking numbers, but are not assigned the case numbers needed when applying to have the record expunged.

"There's no form and nobody's been doing it," said Tammy M. Brown, the coordinating council's new executive director, of applications for such expungements.

Brown spoke from experience: In her last job, she was a staff attorney at the Open Society Institute's Ex-Offender Project, for which she ran an expungement program in Baltimore's communities.

Those whose charges were nolle prossed, stetted or dismissed, or who got a probation before judgment or an acquittal, can apply to have their records expunged at specified times, she said; but non-convictions can cause applicants problems with entities such as the housing authority or an employer.

An employer can ask a potential employee if he or she has been convicted of a crime - not arrested - said Brown, but if the answer is "no" and a background check reveals an arrest, the employer may think the applicant lied.

Kristen Mahoney, director of the Baltimore police department's grants/government relations section and the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, sitting in for the mayor and the police commissioner yesterday, said she would look into the issue.