TOWSON -- A county jury found a former Owings Mills dentist negligent for giving his former lover nitrous oxide for recreational use but stopped short of awarding damages.

After deliberating for less than two hours, jurors in the courtroom of Circuit Judge Dana M. Levitz found that Dr. Jules M. Sidle's negligent administration of the gas to Ellen S. Franklin did not cause her injury.

Franklin claimed the gas -- an anesthetic -- caused brain damage that led to memory loss.

A one-mile stretch of Harford Road in Northeast Baltimore will be closed from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. today for a neighborhood festival.

The closure on Harford between Echodale Avenue and White Avenue will accommodate the one-day Hamilton Business Association Festival.

Mandel aide sentenced in wire fraud, tax case

A former aide to former Gov. Marvin Mandel was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court to 21 months in prison for wire fraud and a concurrent 12 months for failing to file a 1994 income-tax return.

Michael S. Silver, 53, of the 13000 block of Cuba Road in Cockeysville bilked North American Title Co. and its customers of about $172,000 while working for the company as a lawyer and settlement agent in 1993, according to U.S. Attorney Lynne A. Battaglia.

Silver, who pleaded guilty in November and was disbarred, was a real estate attorney and served as Mandel's assistant appointments secretary in the 1970s.

Mandel was convicted of federal mail and racketeering charges in 1977, but the conviction was overturned in 1987.

Pub Date: 7/25/98