By Katherine Shaver
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 10, 2000; Page M08 

When Montgomery County's three new Circuit Court judges are sworn in shortly, their glossy portraits will join a wall on the third floor of the Rockville courthouse displaying 135 years of history on the Montgomery bench.

The sea of smiling, black-robed judges is almost all male, all but one of them white. For those keeping an eye on the diversity of the court's upper ranks, the portrait wall soon will show a bit more variety.

Eric M. Johnson, a former police officer and prosecutor who has been a judge since 1996 in Montgomery's lower District Court, will become the second African American ever appointed to the county's higher Circuit Court bench. Ann N. Sundt, a domestic relations master the last seven years overseeing divorce and child custody cases, will become the seventh woman ever appointed. William J. Rowan III, a well-known Montgomery trial lawyer for 30 years, becomes the 47th man.

Not that anyone's counting--at least not aloud.

Among the small community of lawyers in the Rockville courthouse daily, it is difficult to find any who describe Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening's choices as anything other than three of their most respected colleagues.

Of course, few lawyers ever say anything publicly that could be construed as even remotely negative about any judge. They never know which one they'll have to go before next. But even in the whispers of the courthouse hallways, there are few wrinkled noses. Many say if the governor's choices diversified their bench--a commitment Glendening has said he has for all of his judicial appointments--then it's simply a fringe benefit that will help their judges better reflect the people whose cases they adjudicate.

"I think it's about perceptions," said Sallie Williams, a Rockville lawyer and former president of the J. Franklyn Bourne Bar Association, whose 300 members are mostly black lawyers from Montgomery and Prince George's counties

"I can't say I've ever gone before a judge who's ruled against my client because of his race," Williams said. "But if a minority person keeps going before judges of another race and gets rough treatment, that's where perception might come into play."

With the new appointments, Montgomery Circuit Court's 17 judges now include two African Americans and four women. But Johnson's move from the District Court leaves the lower court with no minorities except for Judge Marielsa Bernard, one of two Hispanic judges in Maryland. Five of the District Court's 13 judges are women.

Nancy Sachitano, president of the Montgomery Women's Bar Association, declined to comment on whether the county's bench has enough women, saying "people have to draw their own conclusions" from the numbers.

"People think they get a fair hearing if the bench is representative of their community," Sachitano said. "We certainly think there are many women qualified to be judges who have worked long and hard. . . . My personal opinion is a good judge is a good judge. When you have a bigger pool of people from which to choose, you're able to get more of the brightest people."

When compared with the county's ethnic makeup, Montgomery's bench still has some catching up, particularly in the representation of Hispanics and Asian Americans.

With the new appointments, Montgomery's 30 sitting judges, including both District and Circuit Court, will be 87 percent white and 7 percent black. The county is 73 percent white, 15 percent black and 11 percent Asian American, according to 1998 U.S. Census estimates. Ten percent of the county's population is of Hispanic heritage, with representation in different racial groups.

One-third of the bench will be women. There are no black female judges, and none of either sex who are Asian American or Native American. Bernard is the lone Hispanic.

Statewide, Maryland's judges on both courts are 82 percent white and 17 percent black, according to the state Administrative Office of the Courts in Annapolis. There are no Asian American or Native American judges in the state.

"In terms of ethnic diversity, we still have a long way to go," said Montgomery State's Attorney Douglas F. Gansler. "We've doubled the number of African Americans on the (Circuit Court) bench. That's the good news. The bad news is we now have two on a bench of 17 judges. That's not reflective of the county, and it's certainly not reflective of the percentage of African Americans who appear before judges on the criminal docket."

Dino Flores, recently elected president of Montgomery's Hispanic Bar Association, chalked up the lack of Latino judges to a "numbers game." There are relatively few Hispanic lawyers, he said, and many lawyers simply don't want to be judges or endure the sometimes "grueling" nomination process.

"I think it's important for people to see diversity on the bench like they do in the grocery store or post office," Flores said. "But I don't look at the bench and think, 'Gee, there are too many white judges.' I feel confident the judges in Montgomery are very sensitive to issues that a large non-English-speaking population brings to the court."