Mary Fisher

Bethesda -- IN THE political summer of '92, two women, Elizabeth Glaser and Mary Fisher, brought AIDS home to America. Mrs. Glaser, who addressed the Democratic National Convention in New York, died of the disease last December at age 47. The HIV-positive Ms. Fisher, who told the Republican delegates in Houston that she was "one with the lonely gay man sheltering a flickering candle from the cold wind of his family's rejection," is also 47 now.On Sunday it...

One of Rita Fisher's older sisters has filed a $15 million suit against Baltimore County claiming county social workers helped cause the girl's death by failing to respond to reports of abuse in the months before she died of starvation at her mother's home in 1997. The suit, filed by Georgia Fisher, alleges that social workers failed to detect the abuse inflicted on her and Rita. It also claims that Fisher, now 21, suffers from depression and other psychological problems because of the abuse and her memories of Rita's death at age 9. "From the time of Rita Fisher's death until the present, Georgia Fisher has spent her life in and out of psychiatric institutions for treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression and suicidal ideation, stemming from the abuse she suffered," according to the suit filed this week in Baltimore County Circuit Court.

A Baltimore County circuit judge found yesterday that Rose Mary Fisher, 21, is competent to stand trial next week in the starvation death of her 9-year-old sister, Rita Fisher, last summer.A psychiatrist hired by Fisher's lawyer had argued that Fisher would have a difficult time testifying against her co-defendants -- her boyfriend, Frank E. Scarpola Jr., 22, and her mother, Mary E. Utley, 50 -- because she is passive and is under their influence.All three defendants are charged with abusing and murdering Rita, who died weighing 47 pounds and with signs of physical abuse.

Two Baltimore County women asked Maryland's highest court yesterday to overturn their convictions for murdering 9-year-old Rita Denise Fisher, saying that child abuse should not have triggered second-degree felony murder charges. In a case that could ultimately call for intervention from legislators and change how child abuse cases are prosecuted, Court of Appeals judges asked Assistant Attorney General Ann N. Bosse whether abuse was a serious enough crime to make any resulting death a felony murder.

BOCA RATON, Fla.--It's Sunday -- 2 in the afternoon, to be exact -- and the blazing sun is bouncing sparks off the water shimmering in the pool. There's a Sunday-afternoon stillness outside. And the view through the soaring glass walls of this spectacular house is peaceful, almost bucolic: lush green grass, electric-blue skies and motionless, high banks of pearl-colored clouds.Inside, however, the pace is quite different.For one thing, a newspaper photographer is at the front door. For another, an ABC "PrimeTime Live" crew sent by Diane Sawyer is on its way. Then there's a reporter setting up a tape recorder in the living room and, somewhere in another room, there are sounds of a fax machine faxing and a phone ringing.

In a large, inviting house in Bethesda, flanked by a cozy art studio, a jungle gym nestled in a grassy glade, and trees covered in autumnal reds and yellows, Mary Fisher wonders aloud what she should say about AIDS to the parents and teachers of 6-year-olds.Hundreds of public appearances have come and gone since the mother of two moved the Republican Party elite to tears at their 1992 national convention by announcing that she was infected with the virus that causes AIDS.But on this recent October night, Ms. Fisher is scheduled to address the PTA at her own son's Montgomery County elementary school.

A Baltimore County grand jury yesterday indicted Rose Mary Fisher, 20, on a first-degree murder charge in the June 25 starvation death of her sister, 9-year-old Rita Denise Fisher -- the third person to be charged with murder in the girl's death.Rita Fisher, a third-grader at Winand Elementary School, died from dehydration and malnutrition, according to the state medical examiner.She weighed 47 pounds at the time of her death, had cracked ribs and had marks on her wrists and ankles indicating that she had been bound.

One of Rita Fisher's older sisters has filed a $15 million suit against Baltimore County claiming county social workers helped cause the girl's death by failing to respond to reports of abuse in the months before she died of starvation at her mother's home in 1997. The suit, filed by Georgia Fisher, alleges that social workers failed to detect the abuse inflicted on her and Rita. It also claims that Fisher, now 21, suffers from depression and other psychological problems because of the abuse and her memories of Rita's death at age 9. "From the time of Rita Fisher's death until the present, Georgia Fisher has spent her life in and out of psychiatric institutions for treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression and suicidal ideation, stemming from the abuse she suffered," according to the suit filed this week in Baltimore County Circuit Court.

Baltimore County Circuit Judge Dana M. Levitz yesterday ordered a psychiatrist to examine Rose Mary Fisher, after her lawyer said Fisher suffers from a mental disorder and is not competent to stand trial in the death of her younger sister.Rita Denise Fisher, 9, starved to death in June. Rose Mary Fisher is set for trial April 8 with her mother, Mary E. Utley, 50, and Rose Mary Fisher's boyfriend, Frank E. Scarpola Jr., 22, on charges of murder and child abuse.This month, Mary Utley dropped her insanity claim that she was not criminally responsible for her actions at the time her youngest daughter died.

Two Baltimore County women asked Maryland's highest court yesterday to overturn their convictions for murdering 9-year-old Rita Denise Fisher, saying that child abuse should not have triggered second-degree felony murder charges. In a case that could ultimately call for intervention from legislators and change how child abuse cases are prosecuted, Court of Appeals judges asked Assistant Attorney General Ann N. Bosse whether abuse was a serious enough crime to make any resulting death a felony murder.

When the time came for James O'C. Gentry Jr. to convince a jury that three defendants had starved and beaten 9 - year - old Rita Fisher to death, the prosecutor marshaled the evidence on his laptop computer.Then he unveiled a high - tech slide show that transformed the Baltimore County Circuit Court room into a theater of tragedy.There was no escaping the image of Rita's emaciated, battered body as it flashed on the courtroom wall, larger than life. Or the image of her abused, waif - like sister, Georgia.

Everyone else seems to have moved on to other business by now, but David Ruppert is still fixed on the Rita Fisher case. He's still back there with all the grim, wrenching testimony about the abuse and murder of that 9-year-old girl. Ruppert suspects other jurors in the recent trial are feeling the same way."Except," he's quick to add, "I was an alternate juror. I didn't get to vote. They did."Ruppert sat through the two-week trial with three other alternate jurors. They were dismissed before the jury began its deliberations April 28. So Ruppert, for one, never got to say how he felt about the defendants -- Rita Fisher's mother, Mary Fisher-Utley; Rita's elder sister, Rose Mary Fisher; and the sister's boyfriend, Frank Scarpola.

DAY UPON DAY, Frank Scarpola carried a paperback Bible to Baltimore County Circuit Court with bookmarks sticking out of selected pages and "Holy Bible" written in big letters across the front. He held it ostentatiously in front of him so nobody on the jury should miss it. But jurors never knew if Scarpola had ever read the commandment about not committing murder, right up to the moment they convicted him Tuesday of slowly killing a defenseless little girl named Rita Fisher he should have loved.

A Baltimore County circuit judge found yesterday that Rose Mary Fisher, 21, is competent to stand trial next week in the starvation death of her 9-year-old sister, Rita Fisher, last summer.A psychiatrist hired by Fisher's lawyer had argued that Fisher would have a difficult time testifying against her co-defendants -- her boyfriend, Frank E. Scarpola Jr., 22, and her mother, Mary E. Utley, 50 -- because she is passive and is under their influence.All three defendants are charged with abusing and murdering Rita, who died weighing 47 pounds and with signs of physical abuse.

Baltimore County Circuit Judge Dana M. Levitz yesterday ordered a psychiatrist to examine Rose Mary Fisher, after her lawyer said Fisher suffers from a mental disorder and is not competent to stand trial in the death of her younger sister.Rita Denise Fisher, 9, starved to death in June. Rose Mary Fisher is set for trial April 8 with her mother, Mary E. Utley, 50, and Rose Mary Fisher's boyfriend, Frank E. Scarpola Jr., 22, on charges of murder and child abuse.This month, Mary Utley dropped her insanity claim that she was not criminally responsible for her actions at the time her youngest daughter died.

A Baltimore County grand jury yesterday indicted Rose Mary Fisher, 20, on a first-degree murder charge in the June 25 starvation death of her sister, 9-year-old Rita Denise Fisher -- the third person to be charged with murder in the girl's death.Rita Fisher, a third-grader at Winand Elementary School, died from dehydration and malnutrition, according to the state medical examiner.She weighed 47 pounds at the time of her death, had cracked ribs and had marks on her wrists and ankles indicating that she had been bound.

When Richard and Mary Fisher finally got a chance to take an extended vacation after 10 years of marriage, they decided to take their children, Richard and Ashley, to see the sights in Florida."

Bethesda -- IN THE political summer of '92, two women, Elizabeth Glaser and Mary Fisher, brought AIDS home to America. Mrs. Glaser, who addressed the Democratic National Convention in New York, died of the disease last December at age 47. The HIV-positive Ms. Fisher, who told the Republican delegates in Houston that she was "one with the lonely gay man sheltering a flickering candle from the cold wind of his family's rejection," is also 47 now.On Sunday it...