Domestic Abuse

Three years ago, Rhonda took back her life when she left her abusive husband and moved into a safe house run by the the Domestic Violence Center of Howard County.Last night at a candlelight vigil for victims of domestic violence, Rhonda lighted a white candle to mark her three-year struggle to build a new life and the struggles of all the others who have suffered with her."I am a new creation, I have renewed my life," Rhonda told the 35 people who assembled at Amherst House in Kings Contrivance village in Columbia for a Celebration of Unity Against Domestic Violence.

Daren Ruffin had been home from jail for only about a week before he found himself in custody again. The charge was the same: second-degree assault, after his wife told Baltimore police that Ruffin beat her. But instead of spending a month in jail in lieu of bail, as he had before, Ruffin was released the next day on his own recognizance and ordered to stay away from his wife, Melissa Davis. Hours later, he was charged with first-degree murder. Police found Davis stabbed to death in the couple's apartment last Friday and say Ruffin confessed to the crime.

As a Baltimorean and Ravens fan, I am disheartened by the fact that so much attention is being given to the dismissal of offensive coordinator Cam Cameron and so little attention to Terrell Suggs' alleged domestic abuse troubles ("Suggs, fiancee reach court agreement," Dec. 12). John Harbaugh has held various press conferences to explain the organization's position regarding the dismissal of Mr. Cameron and the future expectations for the team. However, he has yet to publicly condemn domestic abuse and state that the Ravens will not tolerate such behavior by their players.

As a Baltimorean and Ravens fan, I am disheartened by the fact that so much attention is being given to the dismissal of offensive coordinator Cam Cameron and so little attention to Terrell Suggs' alleged domestic abuse troubles ("Suggs, fiancee reach court agreement," Dec. 12). John Harbaugh has held various press conferences to explain the organization's position regarding the dismissal of Mr. Cameron and the future expectations for the team. However, he has yet to publicly condemn domestic abuse and state that the Ravens will not tolerate such behavior by their players.

Maryland's insurers and advocates for victims of domestic violence told state regulators yesterday that they would support a state law banning insurers from using an applicant's history as a victim of domestic abuse as a factor in setting premiums or denying coverage.The groups said they'd support the change even though most major insurers say they already eliminate such information from their underwriting files.Although a few members of the Health Insurance Association of America have said they do use the information when making coverage decisions, "I really don't think it is a severe problem," said Lynne E. Fritter, an attorney for the trade association.

In what is being described as the state's first partnership between a private and public agency to curb domestic violence, Harford County law officials and an abuse resource center yesterday formally unveiled a domestic violence intervention team.The team, made up of two officers from the Harford County Sheriff's Office and a legal advocate from the Sexual Assault/Spouse Abuse Resource Center Inc. (SARC), provides investigative, counseling and legal assistance to victims of domestic abuse.

The Carroll County state's attorney's domestic violence unit is appealing to businesses and residents for unused cellular phones to afford abuse victims immediate access to police help.Gary Cofflin, special investigator, said the unit has about 100 active domestic violence cases, and the need is great to protect victims from further abuse."We are asking that anyone planning to upgrade a cellular phone to consider donating the old phone to the domestic violence unit," Cofflin said.Even without being activated, a cellular phone can still be used to dial 911, which is a free service, he said.

The Domestic Violence Program of the Family and Children's Services of Central Maryland will establish a lending library at its Woodlawn office to provide educational and self-help resources for low-income victims of domestic violence. The library, which will be open next month, is to be funded by a $10,000 grant from the Maryland attorney general's office. The Domestic Violence Program of the Family and Children's Services of Central Maryland has been serving victims of domestic violence since 1984.

BANGOR, Maine -- The new customer slipped into Janie B. Good's hair salon cautiously, as if worried that someone might see her. She was only in her 30s, but fear had etched tight lines in her face. Nervous, she told Good: "Don't cut off too much. He doesn't like my hair short." It's your hair, Good started to tell the young woman whose tresses draped down over her shoulders. But as the client had leaned back for a shampoo, Good noticed bruises on her neck. Easing her fingers across her scalp, Good felt bumps that could have come only from being struck.

Anne Arundel County officials began participation yesterday in a national program intended to collect unwanted wireless phones, refurbish them and donate them to victims of domestic abuse. The goal is to gather 300 wireless phones from nine collection centers around the county through April 30. The effort is being jump-started by a donation of 25 phones - complete with limited emergency service - from Nextel Communications Inc. and Motorola Inc. "Victims of domestic violence feel themselves in danger," said State's Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee, who joined with Sheriff George F. Johnson IV to announce participation in the Call to Protect program.

A Baltimore-based therapist who was disturbed by the response to the murder-suicide committed by a Kansas City Chiefs player has taken her cause national. Gretchen Tome, who works at House of Ruth, posted a petition on Change.org demanding NFL commissioner Roger Goodell mandate players convicted of domestic-violence related charges receive counseling. As of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, more than 6,700 people had electronically "signed" the petition. Each time someone endorses the petition, an email is sent to Goodell and three members of his staff.

Tashawna Jones, 18, and Tyrone Alston, 19, had been dating for two years, but privately, those close to her would later tell police, she was being abused, and was she "ashamed and scared to tell anyone. " She was ready to leave him, they said. Jones didn't get the chance. On Oct. 12, police say Alston shot her in the back of the head at point-black range in the middle of the street in North Baltimore's Harwood neighborhood. Police say the shooting was captured on surveillance cameras, as was the couple's movements in the moments leading up to the shooting.

Sen. Ben Cardin used a roundtable discussion in Prince George's County on Thursday to call on House Republicans to pass the Senate version of a bill that would reauthorize hundreds of millions of dollars of spending on domestic abuse shelters and violence prevention programs. Both chambers of Congress have passed legislation to spend $660 million a year over five years to combat violence against women -- funding programs that have been reauthorized twice before with bipartisan support.

When Timothy Scott Sherman shot and killed his mother and adoptive father while they slept, the case disturbed the normally quiet life in the small Harford County hamlet of Hickory. A quarter-century later, another family murder has rocked the county, in neighboring Bel Air. In that case, Robert C. Richardson III has confessed to killing his father, according to authorities. The state's attorney for Harford County, Joseph I. Cassilly, a gruff no-nonsense lawman, prosecuted the 1987 Sherman case in the beginning of his career and now takes the lead on the Richardson case, which has once again cast a pall over his community.

A Carroll County judge on Monday awarded temporary custody of a 21-month-old girl at the center of an abuse case to her maternal grandmother and step-grandfather. A hearing on permanent custody will be held later, Carroll Circuit Judge Michael M. Galloway decided. The child was hospitalized April 11 after her 19-year-old mother discovered that the girl had been injured while both were spending the night at the home of Ryan C. Gifford, 23. The mother told police that she and Gifford had been drinking.

W ho says romance is dead? Why, just the other day, Judge G. Darrell Russell Jr. was presiding over what started out as a domestic abuse trial but turned a couple of hours later into a wedding ceremony. Russell is the now-infamous Baltimore County district judge who was slated to hear a woman's charges that her boyfriend, Frederick Wood, had smacked, kicked and banged her against a wall and then dragged her across the room. But instead, he went all matchmaking yenta, agreeing to a request by the caveman's defense lawyer to postpone the trial so the couple could get married and the new bride could invoke marital privilege not to testify against hubby.

Howard County's state legislators rejected a plan yesterday that would have fined people convicted of domestic abuse up to $250, with the money going to prevention and education programs.Sen. Martin G. Madden, a Clarksville Republican who sponsored the bill, said it would have created a steady funding source for the fight against domestic violence.The fine would have been in addition to criminal punishments.But other members of the delegation noted that the state has no specific criminal charge titled "domestic abuse."

HOME SHOULD be a haven, but in too many families home is a dangerous place. According to the American Medical Association, the annual toll of domestic violence in this country includes physical abuse to at least 2 million children, up to 4 million women and 1 1/2 million older adults. A 1993 Commonwealth Fund study found that abuse by husbands or boyfriends is the single largest cause of physical injury to women in America, more common than burglary, muggings and other physical crimes combined.