Judge’s action outrages women’s groups

Friday, Oct. 21, 2005

Leaders of two Maryland women’s organizations say they are outraged by the dismissive treatment of women in some courtrooms — an issue brought tragically into focus last week when it was revealed that a Prince George’s County judge dismissed a protection order against a husband who later set his wife on fire.

Maryland National Organization for Women has received more than a dozen calls about the treatment of women in Prince George’s courtrooms since Roger B. Hargrave assaulted his wife earlier this month, said its president, Duchy Trachtenberg.

Yvette Cade remains hospitalized with third-degree burns after police said Hargrave confronted her at the T-Mobile phone store in Clinton where she worked, splashed her with gasoline and set her on fire on Oct. 10.

Although Cade had pleaded with Judge Richard A. Palumbo on Sept. 19 not to lift the protective order, telling him that Hargrave continued to contact her family and intimidate her daughter, Palumbo dismissed the order and told Cade to get a lawyer.

‘‘What Judge Palumbo did was not in the best interests of the woman and her child,” Trachtenberg said.

She said the Prince George’s complaints were not limited to Palumbo, adding that Maryland NOW is in the process of filing a complaint about him with the Commission on Judicial Disabilities.

Maryland NOW recently filed a complaint against Prince George’s Circuit Court Judge Herman Dawson for a pattern of discrimination against women, particularly for steering them to family court to work out problems.

Both Palumbo and Dawson have told women not to ask for protective orders unless they have a lawyer, although the law allows protective orders to be issued without legal representation, Trachtenberg said.

‘‘What’s clear to me is either the judges don’t know the law or they absolutely don’t wish to enforce the law,” she said.

She said Maryland NOW is considering filing a broader complaint against judges in circuit and district courts for a pattern of bias against women that ‘‘violates the spirit and letter of Maryland domestic violence law.”

‘‘It’s really a disgrace — every woman’s group needs to be mad and angry,” Del. Shirley Nathan-Pulliam, president-elect of Women Legislators of Maryland, said about Palumbo’s actions.

‘‘A woman who comes before you and pleads not to lift a restraining order, that should tell you she is in fear for her life. That’s my opinion as a registered nurse and member of the legislature,” said Nathan-Pulliam (D-Dist. 10) of Baltimore.

Nathan-Pulliam, who served with Palumbo in the House of Delegates before he was appointed to the bench in 2004, said she spoke only for herself, not the women’s caucus, which she is slated to lead next year.

The Sept. 19 hearing for Cade and Hargrave was supposed to have modified the protective order, not dismissed it, said Ron Snyder, a spokesman for the Court Information Office for the Maryland Judiciary.

Hargrave wanted the change because he wanted his wife to go to counseling with him.

‘‘The petition for modification should have been dismissed, that day,” Snyder said. ‘‘There was a communication error between the judge and the clerk that led to [the protective order] being dismissed.”

Palumbo has been barred from hearing domestic violence cases until early December.

Hargrave is being held in the Prince George’s County Detention Center without bail on an attempted murder charge.

Palumbo’s lawyer, William C. Brennan, refused to discuss the matter.

Trachtenberg said NOW has been monitoring courts in Montgomery, Prince George’s, Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties to examine judges’ treatment of women.

The second highest number of complaints has come from Anne Arundel, she said.

Staff Writer Erin Henkcontributed to this report.