Abuse

As he sat through a painful hearing in a Towson courtroom two days after Christmas in 1988, the Rev. Thomas W. Smith had a fearful secret.Father Smith, 64, watched as his former associate pastor, the Rev. Marion F. Helowicz, 43, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a teen-age boy at St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church in Bradshaw. The defendant's lawyer told the judge that Father Smith had been "aghast" at the charges and "couldn't fathom that this had occurred."Father Helowicz's disgrace was in the next day's newspaper, his career as a priest shattered.

An attorney advising the University of Maryland recommended against seeking prosecution or reporting a swim coach who had allegedly abused a teenager at a private club, university officials said Wednesday. Documents released Wednesday by the school shed light on its response nearly 25 years ago to accusations involving Rick Curl, who was the head swim coach at the time. Immediately after the abuse was revealed, the university demanded Curl's resignation, but for decades he continued coaching thousands of swimmers — and Olympic competitors — at the club he founded outside Washington.

Saying "life is priceless," a man convicted of killing his landlady and her daughter-in-law in 2002 told an Anne Arundel County judge who is considering sentencing him to death: "I'm just sorry for everyone's losses today." Speaking for a few seconds, Kenneth Ernest Abend neither specifically addressed killing his landlady, Laverne M. Browning, and Tamie C. Browning, nor sought mercy. His lawyer said he was remorseful. But Debbie Browning, Laverne Browning's daughter, was not swayed. "I don't call that an apology," she said.

The news reports in recent days have been shocking: a puppy stabbed to death, a dog found abandoned with chemical burns. These are disturbing images for anyone. Even those for whom animal welfare isn't a priority recognize that animal cruelty can affect the whole community. It is well known that violence against animals is closely tied to other forms of abuse. Other criminal activities can also often be a part of this abuse, including use of illegal weapons, drug dealing and dog fighting.

Kelley Currin recalled dancing with her longtime swimming coach, Rick Curl, as a teenage girl the night of his wedding some 30 years ago. She wore a pink dress, held on too long and whispered in his ear, "I hate you. " She told Montgomery County Circuit Judge Marielsa A. Bernard on Thursday how she fell in love with Curl, who was then 33, before her 13th birthday in the early 1980s. She recounted the details of their first kiss near a water fountain at Georgetown Preparatory School and the way years of sexual abuse altered the trajectory of her life.

One of the few issues not thoroughly covered in Scott Calvert's well-researched, comprehensive articles on Baltimore Behavioral Health ( "Hooked on treatment," Nov. 7 and "Sheltered addicts, strained recovery," Nov. 8) is why psychiatric diagnoses are particularly prone to misdiagnosis and overdiagnosis. The reason is that psychiatric diagnosis is not based on pathological criteria. The closest the article comes to addressing this problem is the statement that "Even in the best clinical scenario, a psychiatric diagnosis is tricky, experts say; doctors have no X-rays to help apply the criteria defining a mental illness.

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) — A Frederick County sheriff's deputy faces charges of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl. The Frederick County Sheriff's Office said Thursday that 46-year-old Sam Bowman of New Market was charged Wednesday night. Bowman didn't immediately return a call to his home seeking comment. No defense attorney is listed in court records. Bowman has been with the sheriff's office since August. He was a school resource officer at Walkersville High School.

Let's hope that the youths who pelted a tethered dog with rocks and bricks, causing the dog to suffer severe head and eye injuries, are quickly apprehended and charged with cruelty to animals ("Group of children sought in abuse of 1-year-old dog," April 7). Animal abusers are bullies and cowards who take their issues out on "easy victims" — and they rarely limit themselves to hurting only animals. Psychiatrists, criminal profilers and law enforcement officials have repeatedly documented that young people who are cruel to animals often turn that violence against humans.

A Jarrettsville man was sentenced to 80 years in prison last week for his role in the sexual abuse of a child. Jeremy Shane Cochran, 32, of the 4100 block of Federal Hill Road, was found guilty in December by a Harford County Circuit Court jury of three counts involving the sexual abuse of a minor girl, according to court records. The jury found Cochran guilty of sexual abuse of a minor - continuing course of conduct, sexual abuse of a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual abuse of a minor, according to the case file.

The Food and Drug Administration is calling on pharmaceutical firms to give more attention to the potential for abuse of new drugs when subjecting them to pre-market testing. The agency this week released a draft of new voluntary guidelines to assist drug makers in figuring out which compounds should be placed under the Controlled Substances Act, which regulates the handling, record-keeping and dispensing of controlled substances. The guidelines urge researchers to look beyond traditional indicators such as whether a compound is addictive to other characteristics that could lead to abuse.

May has been a rough month for President Barack Obama: more Benghazi developments, plus the breaking IRS and journo-bugging scandals. Taken separately, none of these episodes is fatal. They do not reach Watergate levels. Given that previously classified Benghazi emails were doctored by Republicans, and that even former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates confirms it would have been impossible and ill-advised to dispatch fighter planes to the consulate, clearly there's more smoke than fire in Benghazi.

The University of Maryland says it alerted the state attorney general nearly 25 years ago that the school's head swimming coach had acknowledged sexually abusing a girl at his private club, but he was not charged until last year. Rick Curl, founder of Washington's pre-eminent Curl-Burke Swim Club, resigned his position at College Park in August 1988 after the parents of the teenage victim gave the university a letter signed by Curl that acknowledged the abuse. Curl and the parents entered into a legal settlement around that time.

Kelley Currin recalled dancing with her longtime swimming coach, Rick Curl, as a teenage girl the night of his wedding some 30 years ago. She wore a pink dress, held on too long and whispered in his ear, "I hate you. " She told Montgomery County Circuit Judge Marielsa A. Bernard on Thursday how she fell in love with Curl, who was then 33, before her 13th birthday in the early 1980s. She recounted the details of their first kiss near a water fountain at Georgetown Preparatory School and the way years of sexual abuse altered the trajectory of her life.

A mayoral commission has issued a highly critical report challenging Baltimore's commitment to eradicating violence against dogs and cats, citing a lack of police investigation and poor conditions for captured strays. And five members of the Anti-Animal Abuse Commission, including chairman Caroline Griffin, have resigned in protest because of the city's inaction, Griffin said. "City Hall has failed to recognize or endorse this report," Griffin said. "By failing to recognize the problems, it's impossible to fix the problems.

Rutgers reinstated men's lacrosse coach   Brian Brecht on Tuesday, almost a month after having suspended him with pay over allegations of verbal abuse. While the university investigation found that the former Loyola University assistant did use inappropriate language and exhibited unprofessional behavior on occasion, the instances were infrequent and not directed at individual players. Accordingly the university found no criminal or university policy violations. “I regret my behavior and am determined to set a better example in the future,” said Brecht, who missed the last two games of the season.

Anne Arundel County police are investigating sexual abuse allegations by a former student at Monsignor Slade Catholic School in Glen Burnie, officials of the Archdiocese of Baltimore said Wednesday. In a letter posted on the archdiocese website and sent to parents via email Wednesday, Barbara McGraw Edmondson, the superintendent of schools within the archdiocese, said county police searched the school Tuesday afternoon and that those being investigated have been suspended until "a determination is made concerning the veracity of the allegations.

I find it sadly ironic that letter writers Kyle Lagratta and T. Griffith contributed numerous column inches to defending lacrosse and pontificating about teaching their sons respect for sport ("A culture of entitlement" and "Culture of respect missing in lacrosse, youth sports," Readers respond, May 11) but not a single word about teaching them not to physically or psychologically abuse people they purportedly love. The tragedy of Yeardley Love's death is that in this day and age, 50 years after the birth of the women's movement, fathers and mothers apparently still are not teaching their sons and daughters not to abuse the ones they love, or that no-one should ever put up with abuse from one who claims to love them.

The acquittal of a 26-year-old man accused of sexually abusing his 5-year-old stepdaughter has upset prosecutors and child abuse investigators in Howard County. Article, Page 6B. @

A Fallston man found guilty earlier this year of child sex abuse charges was recently sentenced to serve 20 years in prison, according to court records. James Thomas Starr, 26, was found guilty by a Harford County Circuit Court jury Feb. 8 of sex abuse of a minor and a third degree sex offense. On April 17, Circuit Judge Stephen Waldron sentenced Starr to serve 25 years with five years suspended on the child sex abuse conviction and 10 years with all 10 years suspended on the third degree sex offense conviction, according to Maryland online court records.

The most common complaint from people who email me about my columns is that the federal government is horrible: Too big and growing too fast, too corrupt and wasteful, and providing too many benefits to too many Americans. If we just shrink the government, they claim, the economy will boom. Unfortunately, readers often apply these critiques to governmental spending so insignificant as to barely matter. Grants to ACORN or for the so-called "Obama phone" program are so minuscule they're laughable, no matter how incessantly the conservative media echo chamber reports and re-reports on these so-called "scandals.