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Joseph G. Finnerty Jr., a highly-regarded trial lawyer who had headed what is now DLA Piper's litigation department and later over saw expansion of the firm to Philadelphia and New York city, died Thursday of Alzheimer's disease at Copper Ridge assisted-living facility in Sykesville. He was 76.

The crime rate is the highest in three decades in Allegany County, a Western Maryland jurisdiction beset by the departure of most of its major employers.