When Anne Arundel County Orphans’ Court Judges Vickie Gipson and Marc Knapp yelled at each other in chambers, their voices reverberated through the adjacent Register of Wills office, where staff were meeting with grieving people trying to settle their loved ones’ estates.

On the bench, Gipson and Knapp interrupted and talked over each other, at times giving litigants conflicting directions. At one point, Knapp told a family to “ignore” what Gipson had advised them.

The third probate court judge, David Duba, didn’t show up to the office to which he was elected for about six months because he worked as a high school teacher. So Gipson and Knapp had to agree on decisions for wills.

The judges’ prolonged spat escalated, spilling out of chambers and into the public eye. Gipson twice summoned county police to the probate court. She applied for a peace order against Knapp. State authorities unsuccessfully pursued a criminal case against him. Both face ethics charges before the state Commission on Judicial Disabilities, which investigates wrongdoing by judges.

Hearings before the commission over the last several months portrayed a dysfunctional probate court. The commission’s investigative counsel, which functions like the prosecution in criminal cases, said Gipson’s and Knapp’s behavior served to “denigrate public confidence in” the Anne Arundel County Orphans’ Court.

Eunice Owens, a longtime administrator with the Register of Wills who essentially functions like a courtroom clerk, recalled litigants being shocked by the judges’ behavior.

“What kind of decision are we going to get if they’re doing this on the bench?” Owens testified. “‘Are they real judges?’ I’ve had someone come up to me more than once and ask that.”

Anne Arundel County residents elected Gipson, Knapp and Duba to four-year terms on the Orphans’ Court in 2022, with Gipson already having served one term on the bench. It costs $25 to run for the county Orphans’ Court; a law degree is not required. None of the three judges had practiced law in the state of Maryland. Anne Arundel probate judges are paid approximately $60,000 annually, with the chief judge earning about $65,000.

Gipson is an attorney and could practice law in Washington and Pennsylvania but not Maryland. Knapp, who got a law degree in his 70s after a career in finance, admitted that he’d hardly ever stepped into a courtroom before his election. And Duba taught social studies at Bowie High School and previously worked as chief of staff for two Anne Arundel County state delegates.

Gipson was the chief judge, a largely administrative title. But her colleagues said she reigned over them, requiring them to get her approval on all orders before filing them.

“If you did not agree with her, no matter what it was, she had an issue with you. ... It was either her way or no way,” testified Tameka Smith, the county’s chief deputy register of wills.

Gipson did not show up to her first two hearings before the judicial commission, which rescheduled her third to December after a closed-door session in October that Gipson attended by video. She has not appeared on the Orphans’ Court for several months, and some staffers testified that she previously missed stretches of court for health issues.

Reached by phone, Gipson declined to comment.

Knapp appeared for his three October hearings before the commission in Howard County Circuit Court. He was represented by an attorney experienced in representing judges before the commission, William Brennan.

On the witness stand, Knapp admitted to cursing at his colleagues when he disagreed with them, belittling them and leaning over their desks during arguments.

“You’re not an attorney. You don’t know what the hell you’re doing,” Knapp recalled telling Duba during one argument.

He also repeatedly insulted Gipson’s writing and recalled once telling her to “quit dicking around” when he thought she was taking too long to issue an opinion.

When Smith got promoted to her current role, she testified, Knapp asked her, “How does it feel to finally be important?”

“Judge Knapp’s way or the highway,” Deputy Assistant Investigative Counsel Derek Bayne told the commission, asking it to recommend removing Knapp from the bench.

After deliberating, the commission will issue an opinion with findings of fact, whether the evidence revealed “sanctionable conduct” and recommends punishment.

The Supreme Court of Maryland decides on any sanctions.

Knapp and Gipson are each accused of violating a variety of ethical rules for judges, including a prohibition on speaking to the news media. Each provided comments to news outlets, including The Banner, as their dispute aired in public.

Gipson’s attorney, who no longer represents her, previously said that punishing the chief judge “victimizes the victim.” Gipson has maintained that she was afraid of Knapp, who Duba told police became “aggressive” during disputes in chambers.

While describing Knapp as the “primary aggressor,” the investigative counsel accused Gipson of deflecting blame from her own behavior.

On his client’s behalf, Brennan denied that Knapp had ever presented a danger to Gipson. He blamed the chief judge for making the dispute public by calling the police and filing for a peace order.

Brennan suggested that the commission recommend Knapp undergo implicit-bias training, or any other program the commissioners saw fit, but asked that he not be removed.

Knapp went back to work after the Supreme Court lifted his suspension when his criminal charges were thrown out, and collaborated well with visiting judges and the judge appointed to replace Duba, who resigned last November, Brennan said.

He even found a way to work with Gipson when they were the only two on the probate bench.

“The work got done,” Brennan said.