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Cooper hangs up his robe after 12 years
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by GRETCHEN PHILLIPS
Judge Richard A. Cooper plans to retire March 1 after spending about 12 years on the Charles County District Court bench. In addition to serving as a judge, he's also worked as a state's attorney, a public defender and a private attorney.
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Judge Richard A. Cooper has played a large chunk of the roles the courtroom has to offer.
He's been a private attorney, public defender and state's attorney. And now, after 12 years as a Charles County District Court judge, he has decided it's time to call it quits.
"I just felt it was time to go ahead and retire. Most of the judges that have their time in are retiring," said Cooper, 66, who will be stepping down March 1.
Those who know Cooper say he will be missed for his intelligence and patience.
"[Cooper] is very well grounded in the law," said Cooper's former law partner, T. Myron Loyd. "He's very good with people and thoughtful and compassionate. And a very good student of the law. … All those qualities are important in being a good judge."
Born in Ohio, Cooper moved to Maryland with his family when he was 5. He said his mother pegged him for the law early on: "She said I liked to argue, so I could be a lawyer."
Also at a young age, he met his law partner-to-be Loyd and future Charles County judge Richard Clark, both of whom attended grade school with Cooper at St. Jerome School in Hyattsville.
After Cooper graduated from college, he became a law clerk for Maryland Court of Special Appeals Judge Robert C. Murphy, who would later become the chief judge of the Court of Appeals. Cooper then served in the U.S. Army and spent a year in Vietnam, earning a Bronze Star. When he returned, Cooper became a private attorney and worked for 11 years with his school buddy, Loyd.
"… Cooper was a low-key, thoughtful, reflective type, who never went to court without meticulous preparation," said Loyd in a speech he wrote for Cooper's appointment as judge.
Cooper later worked as a public defender and in the state's attorney's office in Charles County.
"When [Cooper] was a public defender, people said he could make a silk purse out of a sow's ear," said John Mudd, another of Cooper's former law partners. "He could take somebody who was pretty rough around the edges and make something pretty presentable."
After his time as a prosecutor, Cooper practiced with the La Plata law firm Mudd, Mudd & Fitzgerald until he took to the bench in 1997.
Mudd said as a judge, Cooper was prompt and fair.
"He's seen a lot of life. … And it's allowed him to administer justice with common sense," Mudd said.
Cooper presided over the much-publicized case involving a woman who was charged with locking her two young children in a storage unit. Felicia Dorsey said she made her 4- and 5-year-old daughters stay in the unit alone for several nights in November 2004 because she was evicted from her Waldorf home.
While Dorsey spent the night with her mother, the two girls reportedly stayed in the unheated compartment, where temperatures dipped below freezing.
Dorsey pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment, and Cooper sentenced her to 60 days in jail.
"You weren't living in the storage bin. If you had been living there, it would have been a different situation. It was simply your pride that got in the way of seeking help. You had the ability to do better," Cooper told Dorsey at her sentencing.
"It was a very sad case," said Cooper in a recent interview.
Cooper said that as a judge, he's enjoyed helping defendants change their lives.
"People are generally good and worth saving. They make mistakes, but you try to help them. … And every once in a while, you succeed," Cooper said.
"Judge Cooper has a tremendous record of public service. He served in the military in Vietnam. He was a formidable attorney in the public defender's office. He was a great boss as state's attorney. He's been an even-handed judge with a wealth of experience," said Charles County State's Attorney Leonard C. Collins Jr. (D).
"He's an excellent person and an excellent, excellent lawyer," said Rudolf Carrico Jr., a private attorney in La Plata.
Carrico will lead the Judicial Nominating Commission in its search for Cooper's replacement. The commission has announced the vacancy left by the judge's retirement, and nine people have submitted their names for consideration. The applicants are Tonia Yvetta Belton-Gofreed, Douglas Craig Cooley, Shara Gabrielle Hendler, John Lund Keller, Karen Rhoberta Piper, Thomas Raymond Simpson Jr., Jerome Richard Spencer, Kenneth Aughtry Talley and Elizabeth Dorothy Theobalds.
The nominating commission will meet March 6 to choose applicants for submission to Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), who will appoint a judge from among the selection.
The county is also awaiting the appointment of a circuit court judge to fill the shoes of Christopher C. Henderson, who recently stepped down from the bench. In addition to being an applicant for Cooper's judgeship, La Plata attorney Thomas Simpson has been nominated for consideration as a circuit court judge, along with Helen Ina Harrington, a domestic master, and District Court Judge William Louis Hennessy.
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