Charles Circuit Court Judge Robert C. Nalley has been accused of letting the air out of a car of a part-time cleaning woman who works at the courthouse. Two officers from the county jail insist that they saw the judge let the air out of a 2004 Toyota Corolla that was parked outside of the La Plata courthouse at 3:45 pm in the afternoon. One claims to have a picture of the act.
Nalley is the county’s former state’s attorney.
Jean Washington, the 51-year-old cleaning lady, said that a sheriff’s deputy warned her “Jean, you need to move your car. Judge Nalley’s going to let the air out of it.”
One article says that judge has confessed to the act. He is quoted as saying “Absolutely, I plead guilty . . .I noticed the car is not there for the first time in several days.”
Here is Nalley’s background from the court website:
Assistant State’s Attorney, Deputy State’s Attorney, Charles County, 1971-75. State’s
Attorney, Charles County, 1975-80. Chair, District Advisory Board, District 4, Public
Defender System, 1983-. Administrative Judge, District Court of Maryland, District 4,
Charles County, 1983-88 (Associate Judge, 1981-83). Attended parochial schools in Charles and St. Mary’s Counties; Gonzaga College High School, Washington, DC; Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama, B.S., 1965; Georgetown University School of Law, J.D., 1969. Admitted to Maryland Bar, 1969; District of Columbia Bar, 1970. Served in U.S. Army, 1969-71. Member, American, Maryland State and Charles County Bar Associations.
She moved the car to a more distant spot but was later told that her back tire was flat.
[UPDATE: Nalley has now resigned]
[Second update: Nalley has accepted a citation for tampering with a vehicle, here]
For the full story, click here.
I had had a great misfortune of dealing with Judge Nalley for eight years. The story of his flattening the cleaning lady’s tire is minor on the scale of his lawlessness and stupidity.
Nalley is despised by many attorneys who have come before him, for his ill — often affected — temper, intellectual dishonesty, extreme bias, disregard for the law, and egregious favoritism of a few local cronies.
Nalley’s decrees were overturned in my case by the Maryland Special Court of Appeals not only for blatant disregard of the controlling case law, but for ex parte communications between him and the opposing counsel — one of the cronies, who was also cited by the Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland for ex parte communications and other unethical conduct in my case.
I provided proof in court that as an administrative judge Nalley channeled close to 70% of the opposing counsel’s cases to himself — in multiple cases, including mine, contrary to the local rules and under manifestly bogus pretexts — even as he heard fewer than 25% of similar cases at the courthouse. Nalley repeatedly referenced my discussions with the counsel, even as the discussions had taken place outside of the courtroom, and could only become known to him through ex parte communications.
As I stated above, the misdemeanor charge at hand is but a minor incident on the scale of Judge Nalley’s abuses of power and law.
Jacob Roginsky, Ph.D.
202-277-7454
Here comes the judge:
Charles Judge Cited for Tampering With Vehicle After Admitting He Deflated Woman’s Tire
By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 22, 2009
The Charles County judge who admitted to deflating the tire of a car that was parked near the courthouse last week was cited Friday for tampering with a motor vehicle.
Circuit Court Judge Robert C. Nalley walked into the La Plata Police Department building and accepted the citation, said Chief Cassin B. Gittings. “He signed it, and that’s that, until there’s a court date,” Gittings said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR2009082103071.html
la plata is really nice. the college there is quaint.
He has not resigned from the bench. They’ll have to drag him off. He just isn’t the admin judge anymore – not a big deal.