Paul Joseph Feeley, a former Baltimore County public defender and a Towson attorney, suffered a fall at his Timonium home and died June 15 at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 86.
Born in Baltimore and raised on West Fayette Street and on Guilford Avenue, he was a 1942 Loyola High School graduate.
He attended Loyola College for two years, joined the Army's Air Corps and trained as a bombardier. He spent most of wartime in Walla Walla, Wash., in training, family members said.
After the war, he resumed his studies at Loyola College and earned a degree in 1948. He was junior class president and played varsity basketball. Mr. Feeley remained active in the school's alumni group and was the college's alumni association president in 1960.
Mr. Feeley earned a degree at the University of Maryland School of Law in 1952 and began his private law practice, including criminal law, in 1958. He was named an assistant state's attorney for Baltimore County in 1959 and held the post until 1962. He then became assistant county solicitor.
"He was outgoing and an effervescent kind of person," said former Baltimore County Councilman Francis "Frank" Barrett of Mays Chapel. "Whether in school, in the law courts or playing ball, he was methodical."
In late 1971, Alan H. Murrell, the Maryland Public Defender, named Mr. Feeley to the post of Baltimore County Public Defender, then a newly created position.
"At the time it was a controversial concept to provide counsel to the accused and alleged criminals who could not afford a lawyer," said a friend, Tom Toporovich, former secretary to the Baltimore County Council who lives in Dundalk. "Paul was conscientious in his new and exciting task. He was low-key and believed in getting the job done without fanfare. He was a remarkable guy in a family of remarkable public service."
In 1984, he stepped down from the post. In a Baltimore Sun interview at the time, he recalled that some of those he defended "had an absolute lack of remorse for anything they've done." He continued, "They are so callous, so young, incredibly so, and they talk about murder the way other people talk about shoplifting."
He married Anna Barthelme, a longtime friend, in 1972, and became a stepfather to her children. They celebrated 25 years of marriage before her death in 1997.
See the rest here:
Paul J. Feeley, public defender