Melcer, Stephen G.

Mr. McManus has been practicing law for twenty years, and for the past ten years he has been a partner at the firm. He began his career as a law clerk for Judge Joseph Mattingly in St. Mary's County Maryland and then worked as a prosecutor in both St. Mary's and Prince George's County. He continues to utilize his broad experience in litigating both civil and criminal matters, including a wide range of business disputes, in courts throughout the state.

Mr. McManus has  enjoyed a number of recent successful results for his clients this year in both civil and criminal cases.  In July he won a substantial settlement  for his client against a major grocery chain’s pharmacy for negligently filling a prescription with the wrong medicine.  In March, while defending a negligence claim, Mr. McManus was able to persuade a Calvert Count jury to award the plaintiff only $800 where the plaintiff had significant medical expenses and was seeking a verdict of several hundred thousand dollars.  More recently, in September, he persuaded a jury to award only $327.00  in a case against a prominent plaintiff’s attorney where the plaintiff was claiming a permanent injury.  He continues to receive inquiries from members of the plaintiff’s bar relative to his success  in Deschamps v WMATA,   a case  in which Mr. McManus obtained a verdict in excess of $350,000 for a client injured on  a  Metro escalator.  McManus prevailed again before the Maryland  Court of Special Appeals when WMATA  appealed the verdict.

These successes have  not been limited to civil cases.  Mr.  McManus , along with Daniel Renart of the firm, represented Gregorio Aguirre who was charged with first degree murder and related counts in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County.  Mr. McManus was successful in getting all counts dismissed in advance of trial.  In August he won a complete acquittal for an criminal defense attorney who was charged in a much publicized case with disorderly conduct in Calvert County, Maryland.

His more noteworthy criminal cases as a prosecutor include:

* In 1985, Michael John Desasrno was convicted of sexual child abuse for acts committed by the former highschool wrestling coach while acting in the capacity as a wrestling coach.

* In 1987, Mr. McManus successfully prosecuted Willie Horton for beating and raping an Oxon Hill woman. The case received national media attention in the 1988 presidential election between George Bush and Michael Dukakis. Willie Horton, serving a life sentence for murder, escaped from a Massachusetts prison furlough program to commit the rape, while Mr. Dukakis was governor of the state.

* In 1988, Mr. McManus convicted a trucker for Motor Vehicle manslaughter in the 1986 deaths of two highschool girls in Riverdale. A truck with 18 safety defects carrying hot asphalt stalled at the top of a hill and rolled into a car occupied by three highschool girls. One was severely injured and the other two died when nearly 14,000 pounds of hot asphalt was dumped on the car.

Mr. McManus has developed a reputation as one of the premier personal injury attorneys in Southern Maryland. He has successfully represented both plaintiffs and defendants in a number of major truck accident cases, and developed a specialty in negotiating complex personal injury settlements. Mr. McManus has lectured with several judges, at multiple personal injury seminars for lawyers. An 'AV' rated attorney, he is a member of the American Bar Foundation, the Maryland State Bar Foundation, the Governor's Trial Courts Nominating Commission, and has chaired or co-chaired the local bar's Tort Law Sub-Committee for the past seven years. He is the father of three daughters and hopes to improve as a soccer coach in the near future.

Born on August 17, 1954 in Kingston, New York. Married