THE CRIMINAL LAW AND PRACTICE SECTION
MARYLAND STATE BAR ASSOCIATION
2008 ANNUAL SPRING DINNER MEETING AND AWARDS PROGRAM
PRESENTATION OF THE 2008
ROBERT C. HEENEY AWARD
TO THE HONORABLE MARY ELLEN BARBERA,
COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS FOR THE STATE OF MARYLAND
MAY 27, 2008
BY THOMAS L. HEENEY, ESQUIRE,
PAST CHAIR OF THE SECTION COUNCIL:
The Annual Robert C. Heeney Memorial Award by the Criminal Law Section Council of the Maryland State Bar Association is now in its twenty seventh year. On this beautiful spring evening, we honor Court of Special Appeals Judge Mary Ellen Barbera as this year's recipient.
As we gather once again, I have been asked to address the history of the award and its standard bearer, my father. This coveted award recognizes that Maryland lawyer, who throughout his or her distinguished career over a lifetime, mirrors the highest professional standards and achievement in the field of criminal law achieved by Bob Heeney. This award was conceived and implemented by this very State Bar Association Criminal Law Section Council in 1981, the year of my father's untimely death at age 58. It was intended to be a model of excellence to guide all lawyers in the great state of Maryland who accepted the noble calling of pursuing justice in the arena of the criminal law.
The Robert C. Heeney award is an inspiration to all Maryland lawyers because it symbolizes the integrity of person and excellence of achievement that we all strive to fulfill in our daily work.
Recipients of this award made exemplary, lifetime, contributions to the Maryland criminal justice system. We as defense lawyers, prosecutors, law professors, legislators, and judges know, in our hearts, that a substantial number of those recipients have profoundly shaped us by their sparkling careers. A veritable Hall of Fame in Maryland criminal law comprises the past recipients, including:
- Court of Appeals Judge Joseph Murphy.
- Judges Irma Raker, Howard Chasnow and John McAuliffe, Court of Appeals, retired. Court of Special Appeals Judge Robert Murphy.
- Judges Charles Moylan, the late Richard Gilbert, Andrew Sonner,
- Elsboeth Boethe, Frederick Motz
- Of course, defense attorneys Alan J. Goldstein and Victor Crawford posthumously, and the late Fred Warren Bennett.
- Prof. David Aaronson
- Attorney General Joseph Curran, Legislators Joseph Owens and Sen. Walter Baker
- Most recently, Judge Charles G. Bernstein and William C. Brennan, Esq.
This beautiful, permanent, memorial plaque contains all of the names and dates of the past recipients, and it traditionally is prominently displayed for a one year period in the Courthouse, Law School, or Legislative chamber room where the honoree practiced, judged, taught, or legislated. Year after year it rotates across our state. This evening, it will return to the Montgomery County Courthouse where Bob Heeney practiced.
But, who was Bob Heeney? Everyone here now knows what the award is all about, but a fuller understanding, beyond the mere plaques, requires that you know something about the man behind the award:
On the one hand, many of you already knew Bob Heeney. I see assembled in this beautiful addition to Mrs. K's Tollhouse in Silver Spring, Montgomery County:
Judge Elizabeth Boethe
John McCarthy our State's Attorney
John Monahan our past Bar Association's President
Paul DeWolfe our Public Defender
Hon. Charles Day, Magistrate Judge of the U.S. District Court
I also see a host of others including former recipients of this coveted award. All knew him personally as well. He was a lawyer's lawyer, a dedicated partisan for the defense and a special friend to those who worked with him. His gentle nature, his humor, and his exuberant Irish temperament and love of fellowship endeared him to all these people.
On the other hand, as the years have gone by since 1981, there are likely more present this evening who did not know Bob Heeney personally than those who did. Allow me, then, the privilege of a testimony:
Bob Heeney was proud to be a lawyer. He saw the profession as a calling to help those in need . He felt that in so doing, he would leave the world a bit better. This award stands for a lifetime of meeting the highest professional standards and achievement in the field of criminal law. Bob Heeney did not practice law for the money or the prestige because he saw too much of real life to be impressed by either. On the contrary, he always advocated the fundamental point that being graced with the privilege to practice law gave a priceless opportunity to help people. "Seize the day" he counseled.
He was affectionately known as the "Patron Saint of Young Lawyer's." For years, the young lawyers were shown the torch of advocacy for those in legal need, those citizens accused. They wanted to help but needed the guidance to find and follow the "path." Bob Heeney provided this. There is a well known story of the John McAuliffe tribute at the Memorial Mass of Bob Heeney in February 1981. From the pulpit, the former young associate of the Heeney law firm and later one of the Court of Appeals' brightest lights- said "I carried Bob Heeney's briefcase- and was proud and honored to do so."
Not to say that the tutoring was always stellar! Jack Quinn was a young associate with the Montgomery County law firm of Heeney, McAuliffe, Rowan and Abell back in 1974. Now a prominent lawyer in the State, Jack was then assigned to "pinch hit" for Bob in a Prince George's County bribery case involving certain WSSC employees. There were many lawyers involved in this multi defendant criminal prosecution. One was Joe DePaul. Jack said to my Dad: "I've never had a bribery case, what am I supposed to do?" Bob said "Don't worry about it, whatever Joe DePaul does, you just do the same thing?"
His early years in life instilled the humility and compassion he retained, even in the later years of professional triumph. His own father worked for the City of Newark, New Jersey Fire Department. Back then, fire engines were not motorized. They were horse drawn. He was very good at what he did. His job was to feed the horses. The work sometimes resulted in layoffs. The Depression came with all of its economic devastation. Nonetheless, as a young schoolboy, Bob Heeney was thrilled when he started to read. While reading his homework lessons out loud at the family kitchen table, one evening his father planted himself over Bob's rear shoulder, staring intently at the printed page of the grammar school text held by the child. This continued and became a routine part of many school days and family life. It was only later that Bob Heeney realized all along he had been teaching his father how to read.
Ninth grade was a struggle. It seems he was the class clown, more interested in entertaining and showmanship than in scholastic achievement. One who had a lifetime impact was Sister Miriam who in 9th grade changed his life forever. Things then became quite serious regarding school, work, and family contribution.
His first job, which he retained through high school graduation, was a Western Union telegram delivery boy on bicycle. All of the accomplished lawyers here experienced or vicariously learned that, on occasion, the necessities and misfortunes of life require a delay of college, graduate school, a career, and indeed one's very dreams. His secret was to pursue the dream always. In the case of Bob Heeney, his family, including four younger brothers and sisters, had little money, and his own dreams required deferral. There was, however opportunity knocking at the front door following high school graduation. That was a good job at a factory in Newark with Remington Ram, installing components in communication devices which would be needed in the coming war.
World War II was his greatest opportunity because after serving four years in the Army, principally in Eritrea in North Africa, 1946 brought the Honorable Discharge, Marriage, and significantly, the GI bill. This was followed by Georgetown University (school of Foreign Services), and Georgetown Law School- a seven year endeavor compressed into four years. Bob Heeney was in the fast track of hungry, spirited lawyer type thoroughbreds. This pursuit of excellence was not to end until his untimely death at age 58 in 1981.
He was the first part time Assistant State's Attorney, later President of the Montgomery County Bar Association, and was Vice President of the Maryland State Bar Association.
The man had no fear in a courtroom. However, he claimed before every criminal jury trial he had, which included over 100 capital cases, he could not keep his breakfast down. Not a single life was lost on his watch. As others have noted, he was a devastating cross-examiner. Looking through the Maryland Reporter, you would be amazed at the number of Briefs he filed with the appellate Courts on cutting edge issues. He was lead counsel in the notable Giles/Johnson rape case in 1962. Meaningful criminal justice in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties was unrecognizable in that time and place. He fought the good fight. On the other hand, he never took himself seriously.
Take the time one day and read the old correspondence in your attic that you have retained. Some time ago, I retrieved a forgotten treasure trove of correspondence between us beginning 42 years ago when I was just a college student. Two letters I think you will find revealing: the first is his discussion about the early, lean years of the law practice. Dinners, he said, consisted of beans and hot dogs (I do recall prodigious amounts of Gunther beer for the grown-ups). He said "I may have had several thousand dollars in my left pocket, but since it was not mine, the ethical lawyer makes do with his own money in his separate right pocket, as little as that may be." While no doubt preparing and musing what his next day courtroom performance would be like, he mailed a letter to me. In effect it said "It is possible the jury will not agree with the defense, but I am sure going to look good putting it on!" Sister Miriam may have instilled in Bob Heeney life lessons of substance and seriousness, but showmanship and razzle dazzle were never far behind!
As a youngster during a Christmas vacation, I shadowed him in the Courthouse one day. A colleague came up and said 'Hi, Bob. Merry Christmas to you." I never forgot his reply: "You know, for me it really is not a time to be merry. Three of my own are still in prison this Christmas."
His most fulfilling professional endeavor was the 1974 Federal criminal trial in which indicted Sioux Native Americans were put to trial for their actions in the 1973 siege of the Pine Ridge Reservation in the tiny town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. This arose from their protest of the 1890 U.S. 7th Calvary massacre of 300 Lakota Sioux at the same location. The underlying event was the subject the acclaimed book authored by Dee Brown Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee.
In the summer of 1973, the jailed Sioux were able to have a telegram delivered to Bob Heeney at the annual convention of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. They sought lawyers to represent them at their eventual trial. As President, my Dad issued a call to arms, a strike force was formed, and NACDL lawyers from around the country, led by my Dad, came to their defense pro bono. They won big and all 100 occupiers were acquitted. The trial court's decision is reported in U.S. v. Garmillo, 380 F.Supp. (E.D. Nebraska 1974). It was the NACDL's finest hour.
The Native Indians showed great respect for the volunteer lawyers and my Dad. They smoked the peace pipe in the Teepee on the reservation where the lawyers lived through out the pre-trial and protracted trial stage. Through translators, the leaders expressed thanks and respect for the victory of the day. Of deep interest to my Dad, was his clients' opposition to an earlier order of the Court. Upon Motion by my Dad, the Court vindicated the Defendants' assertion that they had the right to ignore the "All Rise" command of the bailiff when the white Judge in black robes ascended to the bench to start the morning's trial or resuming the session from a recess. They believed that no man should stand for another man, since such an action was reserved only for the creator, the Great Spirit. The Judge agreed and dispensed with the tradition, out of respect for the beliefs of those in the culture that were put to trial.
With this background of the namesake of the award this evening to Judge Barbera, you will now hear from others how Judge Barbera has contributed so significantly to the administration of justice in Maryland in so many different ways over her distinguished career.
Judge Barbera, you would have liked Bob Heeney, and Bob Heeney would have liked you! You are both cut from the same cloth!
Judge, congratulations on your exemplary career and your richly deserved award!
