Family Violence

THE July 8 report of the Family Violence Coalition says the Baltimore Zoo last ear spent twice as much money to care for animals as the state spent to provide safety for women and children in all 18 shelters.Despite the fact that there were 613 confirmed cases of child sexual abuse in the city in 1989, the Baltimore City Sexual Abuse Treatment Program was dismantled.

The state has won $2.4 million in new and continuing federal grants to prevent family violence and support domestic violence victims, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend announced yesterday.The grants include $140,626 for the House of Ruth to continue its court advocacy unit for domestic violence victims; $485,355 to train state troopers and local police officers on domestic violence policies and $542,174 for three initiatives in Montgomery County, including a prosecutor to handle domestic violence cases.

A 39-year-old man was arraigned yesterday in Baltimore Circuit Court on charges of second-degree murder and child abuse in the death of his infant son, who died from blunt force injury to the head, the state's attorney's office announced. Charles Dyson of the 1700 block of Ramblewood Ave. had his son, Daquan Antonio Dyson, at his home July 27 when the incident occurred. Daquan was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he died two days later. Assistant State's Attorney Julie Drake, chief of the felony family violence division, will handle the case, which is scheduled to begin Feb. 7 before Judge John N. Prevas.

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.

Maryland will receive $426,000 in federal grant money to help law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, victim assistance groups and others to combat domestic violence in the state, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend announced yesterday.The state is one of just two in the nation -- Rhode Island is the other -- to receive the money, which was made available under the federal Violence Against Women Act of 1994. It will supplement Maryland's efforts in implementing its five-year STOP Violence Against Women plan, Mrs. Townsend said.

The state Court of Appeals disbarred a one-time Prince George's County prosecutor and People's Court judge yesterday due to his pattern of domestic violence and probation violation -- the first time the state's highest court has stripped a lawyer of his license because of domestic abuse.The action was taken against Richard E. Painter, who was convicted in 1994 of battery and illegally transporting a handgun in connection with family violence in Montgomery County, and had violated his probation.

When Thiru Vignarajah left the Maryland U.S. attorney's office to lead a new unit of the city prosecutors, there was the matter of putting together a new team of lawyers to pursue major crimes, bolstering relationships with police and other law enforcement agencies, and identifying the city's most violent criminals. There was also another matter: painting the office. To help create a sense of ownership over their work, he encouraged his new prosecutors to pick out their offices and paint the walls with the color of their choice.

The Johns Hopkins University has the No. 1 nursing school in the country according to rankings of graduate programs released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report. Multiple programs at Hopkins, the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore — the state's leading centers for graduate education — finished in the top 25 in the magazine's rankings. The ratings for medical, law and other graduate schools incorporate test scores, undergraduate grades, acceptance rates and peer assessments.

ANNAPOLIS -- Michael Jenkins always saw the 1986 death of his 9-year-old daughter, Myeshia, as a sacrifice that could save others from child abuse.Now, at Mr. Jenkins' insistence, the bulk of a $250,000 settlement approved yesterday by the state Board of Public Works will be distributed among 10 child-advocacy groups in Maryland -- to be spent on preventing abuse and domestic violence. Mr. Jenkins, who lives in Baltimore, will receive $50,000."There are a lot of heroes in this story, and certainly one of the big heroes is Mr. Jenkins," said Kathryn V. Shulman, executive director of the Public Justice Center, part of Mr. Jenkins' legal team and one of the groups that will receive money as a result of the settlement.

The media frenzy surrounding Lorena Bobbitt's acquittal had little to do with the reason for the verdict -- temporary insanity -- and everything to do with the public's macabre fascination with the method of her revenge on an abusive husband. Too bad. The lesson of the Bobbitt saga is not only the mutilation she inflicted on her husband but the years of cruelty that led to such a ghastly act.Coincidently, the same day the jury announced its decision in Manassas, Va., a courthouse in Baltimore County was the scene of a meeting that offers hope to many women who feel as desperate and beleaguered as Lorena Bobbitt.