Robin Keith Annesley Ficker (born April 5,1943) is an American political activist,real estate broker,disbarred[4] attorney,former state legislator,sports heckler,and perennial candidate from Maryland.
Ficker was a member of the Maryland Bar from 1973 until his disbarment in 2022.[9][10] His first case went to the Supreme Court of the United States seeking to end the National Football League's blackout of sold out home football games.[11] In 1973 Ficker,representing Deborah Drudge,gained a consent judgment signed by Federal District Court Judge Roszel C. Thomsen,forbidding evaluations based on facial features and physique,for positions in the office of the Montgomery County Attorney. The judgment said no future applicant could be asked any questions regarding marital status or child care arrangements. On January 6,1986,U.S. District Court Judge Norman Ramsey ordered,in a suit brought by Ficker against the Montgomery County Board of Elections,that Md. Election Code Art. 33,S 23-5(4) limiting the payment of money to petition circulators for initiative measures be declared null and void under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
Ficker won two landmark injunctions preventing the state of Maryland from denying access to serious traffic and criminal court records. In 1992,U.S. District Court Judge Eugene Nickerson granted Ficker an injunction against provisions of the Maryland Public Information Act that denied access to police reports,criminal charging documents,and traffic citations in the Maryland Automated Traffic System. A 2003 Attorneys General opinion said the 1992 "Ficker order is still in effect and enforceable." In 1997,in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit,Ficker successfully challenged the constitutionality of a Maryland law forbidding lawyers from targeted direct-mail solicitation of criminal and traffic defendants within thirty days of arrest.[12]
In October 2009,represented by the American Civil Liberties Union,Ficker convinced parks officials in Montgomery and Prince George's counties to rescind enforcement of a rule requiring a permit before a person could carry signs or solicit signatures in county parks.[13] In 2013,Ficker represented a Hyattsville man who was found not guilty by a jury of all 23 counts in a case of attempted murder,armed robbery,carjacking,assault and eluding police among other charges.[14]
2013 school discipline cases
In 2013,Ficker received widespread attention for securing school suspension reversals and disciplinary record expungement for children,ages 5- to 7-years old. A 6-year-old in Maryland had been charged with threatening "to shoot a student" for pointing his finger and saying "pow".[15] A Pennsylvania 5-year-old was said to be making a "terroristic threat" by talking about a Hello Kitty bubble-blowing gun.[16] A Virginia 6-year-old had been suspended for pointing his finger at another student who pretended to shoot him with a bow and arrow after their class had studied Native American culture.[17][18] A 5-year-old Southern Maryland child had been suspended for 10 days for bringing a cap gun onto a school bus to show a friend.[19] Still pending in Maryland is the matter of a suspended seven-year-old who chewed a toaster pastry into the shape of a gun.[20]
When ex-convict Daron Dylon Wint was arrested and charged in the deaths of three family members and their housekeeper, in which a ten-year-old child was tortured in order to extract money from the child's father, Ficker said Wint didn't seem violent when he defended him in earlier cases. "My impression of him — I remember him rather well — is that he wouldn't hurt a fly. He's a very nice person", Ficker said.[21]
Ficker characterized Wint as "kind and gentle", and added that authorities have arrested "the wrong guy" in the murder case, claiming, "They've made a big mistake here."[22]
Wint was found guilty in 2018 and sentenced in 2019 to four consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole.[23]
Controversies and disciplinary issues
In 1990, Ficker was publicly reprimanded by the Maryland Court of Appeals upon a finding that he had violated ethical rules prohibiting neglect, engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, and lack of diligence.[24]
In March 1998, he was indefinitely suspended from the practice of law, with the right to reapply for admission after 120 days, arising from violations related to competence, diligence, fairness to opposing counsel and parties, supervising lawyers and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.[25]
In August 1998, he was privately reprimanded by the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission for a violation related to competence. In January 2002, he was privately reprimanded by the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission for a violation related to client communications. Ficker was again indefinitely suspended from the practice of law in 2007. A dissenting judge in that suspension commented, "If disbarment is not warranted in this case for these types of issues, with a respondent with this history, it will never be warranted."[26] Ficker's law license was reinstated on December 8, 2008.[27][28]
In 2017 he was again reprimanded by the Maryland Court of Appeals for showing up late to Howard County District Court for a scheduled hearing in December 2015. The Court of Appeals order also stated he violated the Maryland Rules of Professional Conduct in 2013 by hiring a disbarred lawyer in a non-lawyer capacity without alerting bar counsel.[29]
In 2022, Ficker was found to have intentionally lied to a judge in 2019 and disbarred by the Maryland Court of Appeals.[10][4]
Politics
Ficker has run for various state and local offices since the 1970s. In 1972, he ran for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives in Maryland's 8th congressional district, blanketing Montgomery County with "Our Friend Ficker" campaign signs on utility poles, trees and traffic lights, which resulted in county officials seeking an injunction to stop the placement of these signs on public property.[30][31][32] He lost the Democratic primary to Joseph G. Anastasi.[33][34]
In 1978, Ficker was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates as a Republican, representing Montgomery County from 1979 to 1983.[2][1][35] He lost a 1980 primary in the 8th congressional district to former congressman Newton Steers (who had been defeated for re-election in 1978).[35] Ficker lost his bid for re-election to the House of Delegates in 1982.[36]
In 2009, Ficker moved from his primary residence in Boyds to his childhood home in Colesville to run for the Montgomery County Council in District 4 where he won a three-way Republican primary with 58% of the vote.[39] He lost to Democrat Nancy Navarro 61% to 35%.[40] Moving back to Boyds in 2010, Ficker ran as a Republican for the Montgomery County Council seat in District 2.[7] Ficker lost to State Delegate Craig L. Rice (D-Dist. 15), of Germantown, 59% to 40%.[41]
Ficker was a candidate in the 2012 Republican primary for the newly redrawn 6th congressional district seat held by 10-term incumbent Roscoe Bartlett,[42] finishing fifth in an eight-candidate field.[43]
Ficker ran unopposed for the 2014 Republican nomination for the District 15 State Senate seat in western Montgomery County.[44] Running with his son Flynn Ficker on a candidate slate for the Maryland Senate and House, the Fickers in May reported visiting 20,000 homes.[45] Ficker lost the District 15 State Senate election to Democrat Brian J. Feldman, who won 60.4% of the vote to Ficker's 39.5%,[46] while his son lost his contest for the House election.[47]
In 2016, Ficker was again a candidate in a Republican primary, but this time for the 6th congressional district. He finished fourth in an eight-candidate field.[48][49]
Ficker won the 2018 Republican nomination for Montgomery County Executive unopposed.[6][50] He was initially turned down for public matching funds. His campaign filed a lawsuit and was later notified it qualified for the public funding shortly after the primary.[51] Ficker faced DemocratMarc Elrich and Democrat-turned-IndependentNancy Floreen in the general election on November 6, 2018. Ficker finished third with 16.5% of the votes, behind Floreen with 19.2% and the winner, Elrich, with 64.3%.[52]
In April 2020, Ficker was present at a rally in Annapolis which protested Governor Larry Hogan's stay-at-home orders.[53] Ficker was photographed holding a sign reading "Robin for Governor",[54] apparently confirming reports that he planned to run for governor in the 2022 Maryland gubernatorial election.[55][56] In July 2022, he lost the Republican primary, placing third behind Kelly M. Schulz and Dan Cox.[57] Ficker later endorsed Cox in the general election.[58]
In March 2023, Ficker declared his candidacy for United States Senate to challenge incumbent U.S. Senator Ben Cardin in the 2024 election;[59] however, in May 2023, Cardin announced that he would retire and not seek re-election in 2024.[60]
Ballot initiatives
Since 1974, Ficker has become known for promoting a series of ballot initiatives. The issues range from term limits, curbing tax increases, to limiting budget waste and duplication.[61] He collected as many as 15,000 signatures for each of 20 initiatives, that together received 2 million votes.[62][63]
A county initiative he proposed for the November 2008 ballot received 194,151 votes, prevailing by 5,060 votes.[64] The measure requires the nine-member Montgomery County Council to vote unanimously to raise property tax revenue above the local limit.[65] The victory earned him the Libertarian Party's Free Market Hero of the week award.[66]
In the fall of 2015, Ficker began campaigning for a ballot measure in the 2016 general election to place term limits on the Montgomery County Executive and Montgomery County Council members.[67][68] In 2016, Ficker's term limit initiative passed with 69% of the vote, limiting County Councilmembers to three consecutive terms in office.[69]
Sports heckler
Ficker is known for his passionate support of the NBA's Washington Wizards. For many years, he heckled the opposing team at the games. Ficker had seats at USAir Arena, located in Landover, Maryland, immediately behind the visiting bench. When the team moved to downtown in Washington D.C. to the MCI Center in 1997, the Wizards took the opportunity to reseat Ficker well away from the opposing team’s bench. He gave up his seats in response.[70] Not having been to a Wizards' game since in April 1998,[71] Ficker attended Game 4 of the Wizards-Pacers Eastern Conference Semifinals on May 11, 2014.[72]
Though many players from opposing teams were not fans of Ficker,[73]Phoenix Suns star Charles Barkley in particular thought so much of him and his ability to get under players' skin that he flew him out to Phoenix during the 1993 NBA Finals. Barkley bought Ficker a ticket directly behind the bench of the visiting Chicago Bulls with the intent that Ficker's taunts would distract the Bulls players. Ficker did not last the first quarter before being removed by America West Arena security.[74]
In 2012 Ficker appeared on The Jeff Probst Show in which he was playfully surprised by special guest Isiah Thomas, former professional basketball player and member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Probst shared that Thomas, in agreeing to appear on the show, said "Ficker was one of the greats".[75] In 2013 Ficker was featured on ESPN's Olbermann in which his heckling was discussed along with the often acrimonious fan vs. player interactions that would result.[76]
The University of Maryland wrestling team won Ficker's support in 2010[77] when he wrote a letter to The Washington Post criticizing the lack of coverage for the Terrapin team[78] and attended the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament in Raleigh, North Carolina as well as the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship in Omaha, Nebraska.[79] His vocal[80] and visible support remains ongoing as of 2015.[81]
Personal life
Family
Ficker has a daughter and two sons. Ficker's daughter, Desiree Ficker, is a top female professional triathlete, finishing second at the 2006 Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.[82] Ficker's 20-year marriage to the late Dr. Frances Annette Ficker ended in divorce.[83]
1995 traffic incident
In 1996, Ficker was acquitted of destruction of property in a 1995 traffic incident and saw battery charges dropped by the State's Attorney after a jury deadlocked 10-2 in favor of acquittal. Ficker had been convicted in a non-jury District Court trial but appealed for a Circuit Court jury trial.[84][85] In the traffic incident the pregnant driver of the car Ficker allegedly hit reported that he struck her in the face, breaking her glasses.[86]
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↑ Davis, Janel (December 24, 2008). "Ficker law license reinstated". The Gazette. Gaithersburg, Maryland: Post-Newsweek Media, Inc./Gazette.Net. Archived from the original on May 9, 2012.
Formerly the Chicago Packers (1961–1962), Chicago Zephyrs (1962–1963), Baltimore Bullets (1963–1973), Capital Bullets (1973–1974), and Washington Bullets (1974–1997)
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