Dennis Sweeney?s 16-year career as a Howard Circuit Court judge includes many notorious and groundbreaking cases.
He is stepping down from the bench at the end of this month.
He spoke with The Examiner about his career and what?s next for him.
Q What is your most memorable case?
A Fairly early on in my career [September 1992], there was the Pam Basu case.
A lady was getting ready to take her child to the first day of nursery school, and these guys ran out of gas on [Interstate] 95 and decided to carjack another car. … Her arms got stuck in the seat belt, and they dragged her for about two miles with her baby in the back.
She died, of course.
I did the trial for the first felon.
That case was really the impetuous for Congress to enact the Federal Carjacking Act.
Q Did your own assumptions ever make a judgment more difficult?
A There was this grandmotherly lady from the Philippines who was charged with hiring somebody to murder her daughter-in-law.
She was a petite, very proper lady who had a master?s degree, and she was a [registered nurse].
She had to be in her 60s, and she is now serving life without parole. …
There had been a custody issue, and she hired a fellow who killed [the daughter-in-law] by slicing up the body.
Q Is it difficult to separate your personal beliefs from your judgments?
A You have to be neutral and not just making snap judgments.
The area where it?s the hardest is family law, because you naturally import your personal values onto another family. I have to say, “This is not my family,” and the standard shouldn?t be the way Mom and Dad Sweeney raised their boy Dennis, or the way I?m raising my two girls and my son. …
Q Do you have any regrets?
A If you wring your hands about every decision that?s made, you aren?t going to be a successful judge. You have to decide fairly and move on. …
Occasionally, you see a judge get paralyzed doing cases and hoping a great solution will drop upon them if they keep it churning, but that doesn?t happen in my experience.
Q Why did you decide to retire?
A It?s a 15-year term, and then you have to sign up again. …
When you retire, it?s not that you go away, you can come back. …
I?ll be coming back as a retired judge and doing some arbitration and mediations.
Q What advice do you have for the judge who will take your position?
A One of the things you have to learn when you?re a judge is that it?s not about you. When you?re a lawyer, you?re the prime actor, the star. There?s a shift when you become a judge. You have to shut up and listen.
When you have to make a decision, it?s not done in the most colorful way, but it?s very even-handed. … I?m like a soccer referee; the best refs are the ones you don?t notice, who let the game go. …
Q If you could have taken any other career path, what would you have done?
A I would have liked to be a historian. I?ve been doing some research into the Sweeney family, and I wanted to write a short thing on judges who have served in Howard County. …
Q What?s next now that you have some free time?
A … I?m looking at ways to make jury service more interesting and efficient.
I?m writing a column for The Daily Record on the jury trial. … It?s an important thing that I don?t think we?ve devoted enough time to. …
Also, my wife will still be chief of the Appellate Division, so I?ll probably have to start getting dinner ready and maybe wash some clothes.
