James M. Rea, Prince George's [Maryland] Circuit Court Judge, 79
DGH
James Magruder Rea, a retired Prince George's County [Maryland]
Circuit Court judge who presided over civil and criminal cases
including a 1987 drug trial stemming from the death of University of
Maryland basketball star Len Bias, and who lived in Upper Marlboro,
Maryland, died of pneumonia January 29, 2004, at Spa Creek Rehab
Center in Annapolis, Maryland, at the age of 79.
Judge Rea presided over the six-day trial of Brian Lee Tribble, who
was accused of supplying the cocaine that killed Bias during a party
just days after Bias had been drafted to play for the Boston
[Massachusetts] Celtics.
Tribble was acquitted of those charges, but three years later he was
convicted in another case of conspiracy and drug dealing.
Judge Rea spent 13 years on the bench of the state Circuit Court in
Prince George's County, serving until 1993.
Soon after his appointment to the Circuit Court in 1980, Judge Rea
found himself in the media spotlight. He intervened in a bitter labor
dispute, issuing an injunction barring 1,500 county workers from
striking.
When guards at the county detention center went on strike, he placed
the jail and the Corrections Department under court control. In the
mid-1980s, he overturned a zoning decision made by the Prince George's
County Council for Konterra, one of the county's largest and most
controversial development projects.
Judge Rea was a popular figure in Prince George's County political and
legal circles long before then-Gov. Harry Hughes appointed him to the
circuit bench.
He was born in Washington DC and grew up in Bladensburg, Maryland,
graduating from Bladensburg High School.
After serving as a second lieutenant in the Army during World War II,
he graduated from the University of Maryland and its law school.
He opened a general law practice in Upper Marlboro and became active
in the county Democratic Party and professional associations. He was
elected chairman of the Democratic Central Committee in 1966 and
served as president of the Prince George's Bar Association.
He was selected to serve on the bench of Prince George's County
People's Court in 1969. About two years later, Gov. Marvin Mandel
revamped the jumbled lower court system into a new statewide District
Court system.
Judge Rea was one of 38 men appointed to judgeships in the new court.
He rose to chief administrative judge while he presided mostly over
misdemeanor and traffic cases.
He was a trustee and chairman of William Pinkney Magruder Memorial
Hospital, a charitable trust fund for indigent pediatric patients at
Prince George's Hospital Center.
He was a member and registrar of Trinity Episcopal Church in Upper
Marlboro; a member of the board of overseers of Queen Anne School in
Upper Marlboro; and a member of the Marlborough Hunt Club and Southern
Maryland Society.
His wife, Evelyn Rea, died in 1980 after 26 years of marriage.