Abuse

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. -- Outside, the prison resemble nothing so much as a low-lying suburban office park or a modern middle school. It sits in a wooded area far off the main road south of Milledgeville, a central Georgia town of antebellum mansions and a distinctly Southern air.Five prisons are clustered here, not counting a youth detention facility, making the care and feeding of convicts the economic lifeblood of the area. In such a setting, the Georgia Women's Correctional Institution is an utterly unremarkable presence.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. @

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.

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.

Synthetic marijuana ranked in the top three substances abused by the nation's high school students in 2012, according to a new report compiled by the Center for Substance Abuse Research at the University of Maryland, College Park . The drug -- herbs treated with chemicals designed to mimic the effects of marijuana -- ranked third next to alcohol and marijuana, which 57 percent and 39 percent of students in grades nine through 12...

The Sun's recent article on the use of zoning laws to limit liquor stores highlights a complex issue ("Zoning should be used to limit liquor stores, Hopkins study says," April 12). We support a community's right to decide for themselves what type of businesses and services are located in their neighborhoods, and we believe that alcohol licensing regulations should be enforced to deal with those who are not in compliance with the law. These are local issues that should be discussed and decided by all members of the community, including local hospitality businesses.

As an independent child advocate of almost 20 years in Maryland, I agree that we need to strengthen its reporting laws and extend the statue of limitations for victims to come forward ("Uncovering the abusers," Nov. 28). The John Merzbacher case is a prime example of an institution looking the other way and protecting itself rather than the victims. We saw this repeated with Boy Scouts and Penn State. Our understanding of serial child sexual abuse is that it is everywhere, that is, in all institutions, and unless we do something to strengthen reporting laws and extend the statue of limitations for victims, it will continue unabated.

The agreement by the Los Angeles Archdiocese to pay $660 million to more than 500 sexual abuse victims is a record amount that pushes the total that the American Roman Catholic Church has paid as a result of clergy sex abuse to more than $2 billion. But from the tearful acceptances by some of the victims, it's clear that money alone cannot ease the pain and suffering they have endured. The church must continue to confront this issue and come clean - not only with past victims, but with itself - in order to prevent more abuse.

Rutgers announced the suspension of men's lacrosse head coach Brian Brecht, a former Loyola University assistant, on Friday pending a university police investigation of allegations of verbal abuse. No length was given for the suspension, which is with pay. Brecht's suspension comes a little more than two weeks after the highly publicized firing of men's basketball coach Mike Rice. Rice was let go April 3 after a video surfaced of him making homophobic slurs and throwing basketballs at his players during practice.

Amid growing concerns about the relationship between substance abuse and mental illness in children and adolescents, the Harford County Office on Mental Health will hold an educational town hall meeting for Harford County families and service providers. A panel of local experts on drug abuse, mental illness and suicide prevention will present information about recent trends and local resources. The town hall meeting, "Resiliency: Building a Path to Recovery for Children and Adolescents," is scheduled on Thursday May 2 from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the William N. McFaul Activities Center.