NEWS
By Peter Hermann | October 23, 2009
It used to be that officers wrote off domestic killings as a given - unfortunate and often brutal crimes that added numbers to the city's death tally but couldn't be prevented in the traditional way, such as with more police, neighborhood sweeps and arrests. And there wasn't much of a public outcry. People felt bad and were angry, but they didn't feel less safe because the man up the street killed his wife in an upstairs bedroom. A new team of Baltimore police and prosecutors is turning those antiquated theories around.
NEWS
By Tricia Bishop | October 20, 2009
A 24-year-old Baltimore man was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday for biting off a portion of his former girlfriend's nose, a disturbingly intimate form of violence that prosecutors say is surprisingly prevalent in family violence cases. Charles Bowers pleaded guilty to first- and second-degree assault last month in the 2008 incident, which followed an argument over house keys. Judge Alfred Nance recommended that Bowers be allowed to serve his sentence at Patuxent Institution, a correctional mental health facility in Jessup, and that the young man, who said he grew up in an abusive home, be referred for psychiatric evaluation and treatment.
NEWS
October 4, 2009
Last month, Theodore Blandford broke into the Lothian home of his estranged wife, Sheena Blandford, and shot her to death, along with her sister, Cheryl Timmons. Ms. Blandford knew she was in danger; two weeks earlier she had requested a protective order from the courts after her husband threatened to kill her by running over her with his truck and bashing her with a hammer. Ms. Blandford's death was only one of many well-publicized incidents this year that threw a bright spotlight on the problem of domestic violence in Maryland - a problem made more acute by the economic downturn, which has exacerbated the turmoil in troubled families and put thousands more women at greater risk of serious injury or death at the hands of abusive partners.
NEWS
By Julie Bykowicz | July 20, 2009
Police have identified a man who they say wounded two city officers in a shootout Saturday as Shawn Sinclair, a 34-year-old West Baltimore resident with a history of domestic assault accusations. Sinclair, who was also injured in the shootout, remained hospitalized Sunday but was expected to be charged with attempted murder and domestic violence-related counts, said Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. The shooting happened before noon Saturday in the 2400 block of Harlem Avenue, as police tried to arrest Sinclair on charges that he assaulted two women he knows earlier that day. Police on Sunday also identified the wounded officers.
NEWS
By Ned Holstein and Glenn Sacks | July 16, 2009
Police recently concluded that former Baltimore Ravens star Steve McNair was shot dead in his sleep by girlfriend Sahel Kazemi in a murder-suicide. Yet while there are more than 10,000 media entries on Google News for "Steve McNair," only a few of them mention the phrase "domestic violence." Violence by women against their male partners is often ignored or not recognized as domestic violence. Law enforcement, the judicial system, the media and the domestic violence establishment are still stuck in the outdated "man as perpetrator/woman as victim" conception of such violence.
NEWS
June 19, 2009
Demaune Millard, the chief of staff to Mayor Sheila Dixon who is the subject of two domestic violence complaints from a fellow city employee, helped extricate his boss from a tricky situation Thursday when he took what city officials say was a planned leave of absence. Ms. Dixon insisted when news first broke about the accusations - and counter-charges filed by Mr. Millard - that she has "zero tolerance" for domestic abuse and is "deeply concerned about any accusations about domestic violence."
NEWS
By Arin Gencer | June 18, 2009
With Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon maintaining a public hands-off stance for now, some are waiting to see how she handles assault charges that have been filed by two city officials who previously were romantically involved. Beyond reiterating Wednesday that she has "a no-tolerance level for domestic violence," Dixon declined to comment further on the accusations that Elizabeth C. Smith, a liquor board commissioner, and Demaune Millard, her chief of staff, have made against each other. "This is a private matter - I want to give them that privacy to move through that process as we move forward," Dixon said.
NEWS
By Jacquelyn Campbell | June 14, 2009
As a researcher of domestic abuse against women in the U.S. and globally, I wasn't surprised when a survey last week linked the economic downturn to an upswing in domestic violence. I've seen time and again the brutal connection between financial stress and violence against women. Financial stress does not cause domestic violence, but can make a bad situation worse. And the new report highlights the ongoing, and largely ignored, problem of domestic abuse, a major public health problem for women everywhere.
NEWS
By Justin Fenton | May 8, 2009
A city police commander has been reinstated for active duty after being cleared of wrongdoing in a probe into text messages he exchanged with a community activist who was being sought on a warrant and later allegedly stabbed his wife to death. Dep. Maj. Dan A. Lioi was suspended with pay March 14 after the text messages were uncovered by detectives investigating the Nov. 17 killing of Veronica Williams. Sources with knowledge of the situation told The Baltimore Sun at the time that some messages sent to 33-year-old Cleaven Lawrence Williams Jr. raised concerns that not all efforts had been made to serve the outstanding warrant.
NEWS
March 24, 2009
We've said it before and we'll say it again: Firearms and domestic violence don't mix. So why is the Maryland Senate trying to wreck a bill intended to protect victims of abuse by tacking on an amendment that would keep guns on the table in domestic violence cases? This is cynical politics at its worst. The bill, sponsored by Gov. Martin O'Malley, would require judges to confiscate firearms from partners who are under final restraining orders as a result of domestic violence. The rationale is obvious: Given the explosive nature of abusive relationships, the presence of any firearm can quickly turn deadly.