Abuse

The 1994 Violence Against Women Act has done tremendous good in stepping up prosecution of domestic violence, aiding victims and increasing awareness of a too-often silent threat to our society. But the act was allowed to lapse in 2011 amid partisan bickering. On Tuesday, the Senate sent a strong signal by voting to reauthorize the law by an overwhelming 78-22 vote, but its survival in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is, sadly, far from certain. VAWA, as the law is called, aids in the investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women and allows for civil redress in cases that prosecutors choose to leave unprosecuted.

A Harford County jury found James Thomas Starr, 26, of Fallston, guilty of sexual child abuse and third-degree sexual offense, Harford County State's Attorney Joseph Cassilly announced Friday. The verdict came after more than 10 hours of deliberation over two days and was announced Thursday, Cassilly said in a media release. Circuit Court Judge Stephen Waldron has ordered a pre-sentence investigation and remanded Starr to police custody. He had been free on $250,000 bail. Sentencing is scheduled for April 17 at 9 a.m. in Harford County Circuit Court.

A Severn father was found guilty of child neglect on Wednesday, but was acquitted of the most serious charge facing him - child abuse - in a case that stemmed from his 5-year-old son losing consciousness after drinking methadone. In a bench trial, Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Paul A. Hackner found Paul K. Brooks Sr., 28, guilty of seven charges, including drug possession, stemming from the September 2012 incident. Hackner said Brooks should have acted faster to get the child medical help when he began to get sick - but he noted that Brooks ultimately made the 911 call, according to a recording of the verdict.

Police testified Tuesday that a Severn man, whose 5-year-old son lost consciousness last September after drinking methadone that the father acknowledged buying, waited more than an hour after the boy initially became ill to call for help because he "was scared. " The remark came as the trial of Paul K. Brooks Sr., 28, opened in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. Brooks is facing child abuse and related charges. Three other charges in the case were dropped last month. In opening statements, defense attorney Peter S. O'Neill conceded neglect and "poor judgment," but said Brooks was not guilty of child abuse.

A 57-year-old Randallstown woman has been arrested after video of her abusing an intellectually disabled man in her care at a Columbia group home surfaced online, according to Howard County Police. Donna Everett, of the 9900 block of Cervidae Lane, was arrested after her employer, Emerge, Inc., brought the video to the attention of police after discovering it on the website YouTube, police said. Everett, a house manager at the home in the 6500 block of Quilting Way in Columbia, "can be seen striking the man in the head, face and neck, and spitting in the man's face," police said.

Conventional wisdom indicates that a host of mental health issues will be up for discussion during the General Assembly's 2013 legislative session. This is welcome news for the one in five Marylanders living with mental illness who are struggling to access the services they need. The current attention to mental health speaks to the longstanding inadequacy of the community mental health safety net in this country. More than 60 years have passed since we opened the wards of inhumane psychiatric hospitals for public inspection nationwide, as depicted with heart-wrenching clarity in the 1949 Baltimore Sun expose "Maryland's Shame.

The best chance to get the U.S. Senate to do its job is not to withhold pay (although withholding campaign contributions might have done the trick) but to reform the Senate rules so that filibusters aren't used so routinely to gum up the works. Majority Leader Harry Reid promised to take action, but the reforms revealed Thursday fall short of the strong medicine the chamber, and the nation, so desperately need. Potentially the most far-reaching change Senator Reid, a Democrat, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, have agreed to support is a rule change that would make it much more difficult to filibuster a bill prior to its coming to the floor.

A Baltimore private school teacher and coach was arrested last week after an investigation by the Baltimore County Police Department's Crimes Against Children Unit, police said Monday. Foye C. Minton Jr., 33, of Cockeysville, was charged with second-degree child abuse, police said, and is being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center on $250,000 bond. Police said a victim, now 20, came forward in December alleging that the abuse started in 2009 when she was a student at Shoshana S. Cardin School in Baltimore.

The attorney for a Baltimore private school teacher has acknowledged that his client had sex with a former student, but says he is innocent of any crime because the contact was part of a consensual, adult relationship. Foye C. Minton, 33, of Cockeysville, was charged with second-degree child abuse, police said, and is being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center on $250,000 bond. A lawyer who has represented Minton in previous traffic cases released a statement on his behalf Tuesday that said he had no inappropriate contact with his accuser when she was a minor.

Michael Mershon can get pretty stirred up about lighting. He's been working in the business for more than 30 years, most of that time in Maryland, and said he's seen local governments waste millions of dollars on lighting jobs through contract practices that were sloppy, or worse. He was worked up enough early last year to file a complaint with the Howard County auditor, detailing how companies he was representing were prevented from bidding against a large lighting company for a job on a county athletic field.