Booth M. Ripke
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25 Year Old Walk Around Money Law Declared UnconstitutionalAll charges dismissed and 25 year old walk around money law declared unconstitutional under the First Amendment by Maryland's highest appellate court in a Prince George's County election law case involving the Republican candidate's gubernatorial campaign.
- Booth M. Ripke
- Larry Allen Nathans
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Actual Innocence Petition Granted and Upheld on AppealUnanimous finding by the Court of Appeals reinstating the granting of an Actual Innocence Petition by the Baltimore County Circuit Court. Client freed shortly thereafter.
- Booth M. Ripke
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Attorney Admitted to Maryland State Bar After Lengthy Character Committee HearingCharacter Committee admitted our new lawyer client to the Maryland State Bar after a day-long hearing in which accusers are found not to be credible after cross-examination and presentation of numerous defense witnesses and other documentation.
- Booth M. Ripke
- Larry Allen Nathans
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Attorney Client Cleared in Attorney GrievanceAttorney client cleared in Attorney Grievance Investigation based on alleged misrepresentations and escrow misuse.
- Booth M. Ripke
- Larry Allen Nathans
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Attorney Grievance Complaint DismissedThe Attorney Grievance Commission agreed not to proceed with charges alleging that a third-party was able to steal funds after we presented information showing that the complainant was incorrect that trust funds had been mismanaged and that the funds received from the law firm had not been properly reported to a court.
- Booth M. Ripke
- Larry Allen Nathans
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Case Not Docketed After Diligence and Misrepresentation ClaimsBar Counsel's decision not to docket case against trusts and estates lawyer for failure to diligently represent interests of estate and rejecting heir's claim of attorney misrepresentation and theft of assets.
- Booth M. Ripke
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Client Acquitted of All Charges in Assault RetrialLarry Nathans and Booth Ripke gained an acquittal for a client in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court trial. The client had been previously convicted with other counsel based in large part on the testimony of two witnesses. After the main witness testified in the retrial, was cross-examined by Mr. Nathans, and the client was acquitted, false statement charges were brought against the main witness and she was subsequently found guilty.
- Booth M. Ripke
- Larry Allen Nathans
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Client Guilty of $30,000 Embezzlement Scheme Is Granted Probation Before JudgmentA client was spared from having to receive a criminal conviction, or any jail time, despite pleading guilty of a large felony embezzlement scheme originally alleging 40 counts of theft over more than a six month period of time.
- Booth M. Ripke
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Client Paid in Civil Settlement by Company Alleging TheftA Baltimore County Assistant State's Attorney dismissed the embezzlement charges. Thereafter, Nathans & Ripke, LLP negotiated a civil settlement in which the company alleging the theft, paid our client several thousand dollars.
- Booth M. Ripke
- Larry Allen Nathans
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Client Received Unsupervised Probation After Initially Being Charged With 1st Degree MurderBaltimore City Circuit Court attempted first degree murder charges dropped to a misdemeanor and client received unsupervised probation sentence.
- Booth M. Ripke
- Larry Allen Nathans
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Client Receives Warning Instead of Disbarment After Improper Escrow Fund AllegationsPeer review decision of warning rather than disbarment or suspension for experienced civil defense attorney alleged to have stolen and comingled client funds.
- Booth M. Ripke
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Client Removed From Sex Offender RegistrySex Offender Registry agreed to remove the client’s name after Nathans & Biddle, LLP proved that the publication of the client’s personal information was against the law.
- Booth M. Ripke
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Client’s Registration as a Sex Offender Ordered ReducedCourt agreed to order the sex offender registry to reduce the period of Client’s registration from life-time to only 10 years, after proof by Nathans & Biddle, LLP that any longer registration violated the law.
- Booth M. Ripke
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Conviction Overturned for Client Serving a Life SentenceA St. Mary's County client serving a life sentence had his conviction overturned based upon Nathans & Biddle, LLP's discovery that the client's trial counsel had failed to adequately investigate and raise a mental health defense.
- Booth M. Ripke
- Larry Allen Nathans
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Five Year Minimum Mandatory Conviction ReversedThe Maryland Court of Special Appeals reversed client's five year minimum mandatory conviction because the Cecil County Circuit Court failed to give a jury instruction requested by the defense that was supported by trial testimony. Client subsequently entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to time served.
- Booth M. Ripke
- Larry Allen Nathans
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Government Forgoes Felony Embezzlement Charges, Agrees to MisdemeanorEarly intervention with Government, before charges were ever filed, led to agreement by the Government not seek available felony embezzlement indictment.
- Booth M. Ripke
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Howard County Felony Indictment DismissedFelony Criminal Charges dismissed in Howard County Circuit Court after arguing that the Indictment left out an essential element of the crime and was otherwise not specific.
- Booth M. Ripke
- Larry Allen Nathans
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Innocent Man Freed From Prison, Later Pardoned and Awarded $1.4 MillionFreeing an innocent man, Michael Austin, from prison - Mr. Nathans was engaged by Centurion Ministries, a New Jersey based organization committed to free wrongfully imprisoned individuals. Mr. Austin was serving a life sentence for the 1974 armed robbery/murder of a convenience store clerk. Larry Nathans and Booth Ripke mounted a successful challenge to Mr. Austin's conviction, based upon Mr. Austin's innocence and significant constitutional violations leading to his conviction. The case received significant local and national press coverage including an appearance by Mr. Austin and Mr. Nathans on ABC's Good Morning America news program. Mr. Austin received a full pardon from Governor Robert Ehrlich. The Maryland Board of Public Works (BPW) awarded Mr. Austin over $1.4 million dollars in compensation (the largest award ever given in Maryland). At the BPW hearing, Governor Ehrlich praised Mr. Austin's Nathans & Ripke, LLP, attorneys for their work in representing Mr. Austin.
- Booth M. Ripke
- Larry Allen Nathans
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Largest Cocaine Dealer’s Sentence ReducedRepresentation of supposedly largest cocaine dealer ever prosecuted in Greenbelt Federal Court ended in vastly reduced 11 year sentence.
- Booth M. Ripke
- Larry Allen Nathans
- Robert W. Biddle
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New Trial Granted for First Degree Murder CaseGranting a Motion to Reopen and granting a new trial after 23 years by the Howard County Circuit Court in a first degree murder case.
- Booth M. Ripke
About
Practice Focus & Experience
Booth Ripke has 25 years of experience as a criminal defense litigator. He has successfully defended a full range of cases - from major federal felonies to state court misdemeanors. His advocacy was critical in winning the release of Walter Lomax (who had been wrongly imprisoned for 39 years), and Andrew Stewart (who was innocent and had been incarcerated for 36 years), and winning an Actual Innocence Petition for George Seward, and obtaining a new trial in a first-degree murder case for Brian Tate.
Mr. Ripke's practice is primarily focused on white collar and post-conviction criminal matters. He also focuses on appellate litigation in Maryland state and federal courts, the District of Columbia, and the Fourth Circuit, as well as the defense of professional licenses. Mr. Ripke has represented numerous attorneys before either the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission, Bar Counsel of the District of Columbia, and in Rule 11 proceedings in federal court. He regularly defends issues like the unauthorized practice of law, questions involving alleged breaches of financial obligations, attorneys who have received formal complaints from judges, and attorneys facing possible professional repercussions arising from criminal convictions.
Activities, Publications, & Speeches
Mr. Ripke is a graduate of the Maryland State Bar Association's Leadership Academy program. He has taught Legal Research and Writing at the University of Maryland School of Law. In 2003, Mr. Ripke was voted the Adjunct Professor of the Year at the University of Maryland School of Law, where he had lectured on pre-trial litigation and appellate practice. Mr. Ripke was elected in 2007 to become a Fellow of the Maryland Bar, an honor reserved for only 1% of the members of the state bar. Mr. Ripke served as the 2012-2013 Chairperson of the Correctional Reform Section Council for the Maryland State Bar Association. He recently led a panel discussion at the Mid-Atlantic National Lawyers' Guild Conference.
Bar Admissions:
Mr. Ripke is admitted to practice in Maryland, the District of Columbia, the U.S. District Court for Maryland, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit, The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.
Education
Mr. Ripke is an honors graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law (1998), and graduated Order of the Coif with a fellowship in the study of mental health law. He received a Masters of Education degree (1992) from the Pennsylvania State University in Counseling and a Bachelor of Science degree (1991) from the University of Florida, with high honors.
Awards
Mr. Ripke was elected in 2007 to become a Fellow of the Maryland Bar, an honor reserved for only 1% of the members of the State bar.
Mr. Ripke was chosen for inclusion in the Maryland Super Lawyers for 2016-2018, 2020-2025 in the area of Criminal Law. He was selected for inclusion on the 2009 Super Lawyers Maryland Rising Stars list, featuring outstanding young lawyers in the state.
Mr. Ripke was also selected for inclusion in the Best Lawyers of America (2018-2025) for White Collar Criminal Defense.
Leadership & Professional Associations
Lectures, Presentations and Appellate Oral Arguments
- Lecture, Internal workings of the Attorney Grievance Commission, Presentation for Maryland Criminal Defense Attorney’s Association, September 21, 2017.
- Innocence Conference: From Bloodsworth to today. Wrongful convictions in Maryland, Panel Presentation at University of Baltimore School of Law, September 29, 2016.
- National Lawyers Guild – Maryland Chapter. Panel Presentation at Annual Conference, Unger Workshop, April 18, 2015
Mr. Ripke served as principal counsel in arguing the following appeals
- United States v. Chikvashvili, 859 F.3d 285 (4th Cir. 2017)
- United States v. Glover, et al., 872 F.3d 625 (D.C. Cir. 2017)
- Gupta v. State, 452 Md. 103 (2017)
- Seward v. State, 446 Md. 171 (2016)
- State v. Gupta, 227 Md. App. 718 (2016)
- Attorney Grievance Commission v. Berry, 437 Md. 152 (2014)
- State v. Seward, 220 Md. App. 1 (2014)
- Crawford v. Katz, 32 D.3d 418 (D.C. 2011)
- Barnes v. State, 195 Md. App. 1 (2010)
- United States v. Akins, 335 Fed. Apx. 335 (4th Cir. 2009)
- Dorsey v. State, 185 Md. App. 82 (2009)
- United States v. Olivares, 292 F.3d 196 (4th Cir, 2002)
Professional Associations:
- Chair, Correctional Reform Section Council, Maryland State Bar Association
- Member, Federal Bar Association
- Member, Maryland State Bar Association
- Member, Maryland Criminal Defense Attorney's Association
- Amicus Committee of the Maryland Criminal Defense Attorney's Association
- Legislative Committee of the Maryland Criminal Defense Attorney's Association
Hobbies
When he finds time to relax, Mr. Ripke enjoys spending time with his family, hosting weekend camping trips, and following the year-long obsession that is Florida Gator football.
