My Baltimore Sun colleague, Melissa Harris, attended the funeral for Mark P. Cohen, who died Sunday of cancer. Cohen, the city’s top homicide prosecutor, was interred this afternoon after a brief and crowded service at the Sol Levinson & Brothers Funeral Home on Reisterstown Road.

The region’s criminal justice leaders, from Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III to the state’s attorneys in Howard and Harford counties, attended.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy gave the eulogy, describing the man who served the city for more than 30 years as "a symbol of what a good prosecutor should be." He had a "love of the law" and a strong "moral compass," she said.

He lead the office’s softball team, which garnered him the nickname "skipper," not only because of his love of sports but also so he could meet and mentor younger prosecutors, Jessamy said.

The rabbi who spoke before Jessamy described Cohen as "legendary" — the equivalent of an NBA star or major league ball player — an "icon" in the city’s criminal justice system. Comparing a thin, pale man with glasses and curly, blond hair to a meaty, superstar athlete would seem ridiculous, if it were not true.

Cohen, 62, underwent a transformation in the courtroom — from a shy man to a force to be feared.

I watched Cohen argue for one of the last times, if not the last, before Baltimore Circuit Judge John C. Themelis late last year.

In less than 30 minutes, Cohen reduced an "expert" witness hired by the defense to a near-quack, proving that the man from out of state didn’t know a lick about the case and had contradicted himself on numerous occasions.

His questions were as precise as a surgeon’s incisions. He asked the witness to point out which page in the record supported his claims and then stood silent, watching the man squirm for minutes as he thumbed through hundreds of pages of transcripts. The witness concluded, as Cohen already knew, that the facts didn’t support his statements at all.

Cohen, on the other hand, seemed to have the packet memorized.

His knowledge and experience will be difficult to replicate.