Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr. speaks German, writes Japanese, reads Greek, studies World War II and cybersurfs the Internet.
The Anne Arundel Circuit Court judge, who will decide whether Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey is entitled to a legal remedy in last month's gubernatorial election, is known for his computer skills and his compassion. Judge Thieme, 64, requires his law clerks to be computer literate and keeps a computer in his courtroom. He uses it to refer instantly to cases cited by the lawyers appearing before him -- a practice that can be intimidating.
"There have been times I've told opposing counsel who are from out of town not to get rattled by him, because I know from experience it would be easy to get rattled by his grasp of the law and his intensity and focus," said Ronald Naditch, an Annapolis lawyer who worked with Judge Thieme when both were prosecutors in Annapolis in the 1960s.
The judge doesn't mean to intimidate, Mr. Naditch said. It's just that he doesn't like to waste time.
"You're dealing with people's lives and their property. It's very serious stuff," he said.
In an interview, Judge Thieme declined to discuss the Sauerbrey case, other than to say it probably will be appealed to a higher court no matter how he rules.
"The way I see it, I'm only a steppingstone to the Court of Appeals," he said.
Those who know the Baltimore native -- who was schooled by the Jesuits, writes classical music and plays the guitar and piano -- say that he is the right judge for the job.
"He's fair-minded, he's a level-headed judge and he's totally above politics," said T. Joseph Touhey, a Glen Burnie defense lawyer and longtime friend.
L Judge Thieme did not always see himself involved in the law.
At Loyola High School he played classical piano. After graduating from Loyola College in 1953, he was accepted to the doctoral program to study music orchestration at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.
He loved the piano, but he also knew his limitations.
"I wasn't that good to be a performer, and you figure that you only have so much talent in music, that if you're not able to perform, what you'd end up doing is teaching, so I chose law," he said.
After finishing at the University of Maryland Law School in 1956, Judge Thieme practiced law in Baltimore briefly before moving to Glen Burnie in the late 1950s.
As a young lawyer, he was attracted to criminal law by the legal issues that were being decided at the time, he said. The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Earl Warren, was busy expanding defendants' rights, by making decisions that would guarantee a defendant's right to counsel, establish requirements for police on suspect identification and set out limits on police searches and seizures.
"You had this revolution going on where the [Supreme] Court was developing this whole body of law, based on constitutional issues, and it was fascinating," he said.
He joined the Anne Arundel County state's attorney's office in 1965 and worked as an assistant and deputy for four years before he ran for the top prosecutor's job when it became vacant in 1970.
A Democrat, he squeaked by Republican Arthur Anderson in a vote of 26,584 to 24,395.
"We both ran terrible campaigns. We were both neophytes and neither one of us knew what we were doing," said Mr. Anderson, 80, a retired District Court judge. "But he's a good man, and he's done a hell of a job."
On the bench, Judge Thieme's decisions have generated some controversy. In 1987, he ruled in favor of a group fighting the decision to locate Oriole Park at Camden Yards at its current site. The decision, later reversed by the Court of Appeals, angered Gov. William Donald Schaefer, a stadium backer, and was widely seen as costing the judge a seat that was vacant on the Court of Special Appeals.
He does not regret for the decision. "Everybody gets reversed," he said. "That's what they're (the appellate courts) there for."
It is been better for him to be a trial judge, he said, since trial judges deal with human beings and real life.
"They [the appellate courts] can make a ruling that says love thy neighbor or some other high sounding principle, but I'm the one, the trial judge is the one, who has to apply it," he said.
According to those who know him, it is that attitude -- considering both sides evenly even -- that typifies his approach to the job.
"That's the kind of thing that generates the respect that he has. His ability to ignore the politics and stick to what the law is," said Gill Cochran, another Annapolis lawyer.
If he hears one criticism, it can be from crime victims on his sentences for criminals.
"I do think he's sometimes too lenient, certainly I might sentence more harshly a lot of the time," said Anne Arundel County State's Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee. But the prosecutor is quick to add that he and the 30 lawyers on his staff "overall like being in front of him for cases."
In his private life, the judge has experienced personal tragedies.
In 1974, his son, Greg Thieme, was killed by a drunken driver while riding his motorcycle. In 1991, another son, Mark Thieme was shot and critically wounded by his estranged wife.
For several years after his son's death he refused to hear drunken-driving cases. The case against his 30-year daughter-in-law was transferred to Calvert County to avoid any appearance of impropriety.
"Talk about tragedy and domestic violence, you don't have to tell me about it," Judge Thieme said.
In a sunny office that overlooks a tributary of the Bodkin Creek, the judge relaxes by perusing -- occasionally in German -- the Internet and writing music on an electronic sheet of music he can summon to his computer screen.
His computer is hooked up to a synthesizer, so that he also can listen to the notes that he has written by hitting a few buttons on his computer keyboard.
He doesn't write much music, he said.
"Why try to imitate Mozart when you can listen to the real thing?" he said.