Protective Orders

Hardly a week goes by without news of a Maryland resident who has been murdered or seriously injured in an act of domestic violence where a protective order had been issued against the attacker. In a recent incident, police shot a 25-year-old Kent County man who had forced his way into the apartment of his girlfriend and held their toddler hostage. Domestic violence is the No. 1 cause of physical injury suffered by women and, according to studies, requires more medical care for them than rape, muggings and car accidents combined.

State: From July 2009 to June 2010, 38 people were killed in domestic violence incidents in Maryland, including seven in Anne Arundel County, two in Prince George's County, two in Montgomery County, and one in Howard County. Eighteen of the 38 were females: 10 were killed by boyfriends, seven by ex-boyfriends and one by a relative. Eighteen of the 38 were males: Five were killed by an intimate partner or ex-girlfriend; five committed suicide after killing or attempting to murder a girlfriend; three were killed by wives or ex-wives; two were killed by police after murdering or attempting to murder a girlfriend; one was killed by a girlfriend; one was killed by an ex-girlfriend; one was killed by a relative.

Most of Carroll County's workers travel to other counties to do their jobs. There hasn't been much change in that situation in recent years. Carroll's still a bedroom suburb, overlaid on a shrinking farming community. So how long is your commute? Fifteen minutes, an hour each way? What's the longest time you would drive to work and still live in Carroll County? How about seven hours roundtrip to Salisbury? David Barcroft of Hampstead faces that prospect, and he has gone to court to stop his employer, the Maryland State Police, from ordering his transfer.

The 25-year-old Canton man accused of hurling a piece of concrete that fatally injured an off-duty Baltimore police detective was ordered held without bond Monday at a brief hearing at Central Booking. Sian James, dressed in a bright yellow jumpsuit with his hands shackled in front of him, did not speak at the hearing. A public defender asked Associate District Judge Charles A. Chiapparelli to set bail, noting that James was steadily employed at an area Jiffy Lube. Without asking for the facts of the case, Chiapparelli denied the attorney's request.

ANNAPOLIS -- Gov. William Donald Schaefer signed legislation yesterday that will add new protections for battered women in Maryland -- and could save lives.The new domestic violence law, which goes into effect Oct. 1, allows many more women to obtain protective orders against abusive husbands and lovers.And the orders may be imposed for up to 200 days. The limit of such orders under current law is 30 days -- far less than in most states.Judy A. Wolfer, legal clinic director at the House of Ruth, a refuge for battered women, called the new domestic violence law "a great step in the right direction" -- but she said many states are still far ahead of Maryland.

Changes in Maryland's domestic violence laws, which took effect yesterday, give judges added leverage to use protective orders to bar abusers from assaulting or harassing their victims.The modifications in the Family Law Article permit judges to issue a protective order for up to 12 months -- an increase from the previous maximum of 200 days -- and give authority for a protective order to be extended for an additional six months.In Carroll County, where three people were killed in Hampstead during two unrelated domestic violence incidents in May and June, State's Attorney Jerry F. Barnes applauded the changes.

About 30 percent of protective orders issued by Maryland judges are not entered into a statewide computer database used to prevent people accused of domestic abuse from buying handguns, a sampling by federal prosecutors has found.The omissions could indicate a failure of what is meant to be an extensive system designed to protect victims of violence from angry spouses or loved ones.Problems were discovered by Lynne A. Battaglia, the U.S. attorney for Maryland, whose office studied a sampling of protective orders issued by judges in each of the state's jurisdictions from April through July.

In a victory for battered women, Maryland's highest court ruled yesterday that a judge must consider an alleged abuser's track record when weighing a request for a protective order.Experts say the Court of Appeals ruling adds teeth to Maryland's domestic violence statute by spelling out for the first time factors that judges must consider when they rule on the estimated 14,000 requests for protective orders filed each year.The 16-year-old law allows spouses, blood relatives and anyone who lives with an abusive partner to file a petition for a protective order in any District Court or Circuit Court.

Jeffrey Jacobsen buckled his young sons into his sport utility vehicle and was about to drive away from the Timonium home he once shared with his estranged wife when he paused, the man's father recalled. Jacobsen asked his father, who was sitting beside him, to tell his wife to come outside. He said he had a question for her. As Jessica Jacobsen approached the vehicle, her husband quickly got out, shot his wife in the chest with a handgun and ran into the house, his father, Reginald Jacobsen, recalled yesterday.

The number of people trying to buy handguns illegally by lying on application forms has decreased significantly in recent months, state officials say. Even as those numbers drop, the Maryland State Police and attorney general's office have teamed to prosecute those lying on applications about restraining orders, which are usually issued to shield women from abusive or threatening spouses. "If someone makes a blatant misrepresentation, we're going to find out about it," Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. said.

The man injured in a shooting at the downtown Hilton hotel last week is in jail on unrelated federal gun charges, while the woman charged with shooting him has posted bail and is the subject of a protective order. Harold Lee O'Neal, 26, was being sought by federal authorities after being indicted in February on weapons charges, records show. A federal grand jury handed down an indictment charging O'Neal with illegally possessing a loaded Hi Point .9 mm semiautomatic handgun with an obliterated serial number, and possessing heroin with intent to distribute, according to court records.

Nothing seemed outwardly amiss Monday at the Columbia home where a mother and son were found dead by relatives Friday night in a tragedy that Howard County police suspect may have been the result of a suicide. A pleasant man in a blue tank top who seemed to be cleaning answered the door at the house with white siding and gray shutters. He politely refused to discuss the events of Friday night, when relatives called police to a disturbing scene inside — the bodies of 46-year-old Tracy Denise Hawks and her 18-year-old autistic son, Christopher Melton, on a bed in the master bedroom.

Marylanders might soon be able to erase from the public record any evidence that they were falsely accused of domestic violence. A bill moving rapidly through the General Assembly would still allow victims' rights groups to view such information, a nuance that allowed the measure to pass without opposition in the House of Delegates. It is set for a Senate hearing today. "The bill allows us to continue to help victims," said Lisae C. Jordan of the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Women lawmakers angrily protested Thursday to House Speaker Michael E. Busch about the way a committee that handles sensitive crime legislation treats those who come to Annapolis to testify. In particular, the head of the women's caucus said, Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph F. Vallario Jr.'s "tyrannical leadership" has become intolerable. "He sets the tone for the committee," said Del. Sue Kullen, a Calvert County Democrat and president of the Women Legislators of Maryland, which includes the General Assembly's 58 female lawmakers.

A 27-year-old Ellicott City woman who had her son's father arrested and then took the boy was sentenced Wednesday to nearly four months in jail for violating a protective order and abducting a relative within the state. Jennifer Nolan told Howard County District Judge Mary C. Reese that she was wrong to take her 2-year-old son in January, but she said that losing custody of him last October proved difficult. Nolan had custody of the child for the first 14 months of his life while the father, Theodore Gresser, was attending college in California, but according to her mother spent much of the time trying unsuccessfully to fight drug addiction.

Composed but clearly anguished, the estranged wife of former Baltimore Raven Michael C. McCrary told a judge Monday that he has become increasingly violent and verbally abusive, at one point punching a hole in a wall next to her head. "I don't want him near me," Mary Haley McCrary, 40, married to the retired defensive end since 2005, told the judge. "I don't want him near my daughter," referring to their 6-year-old child. Judge Jan Marshall Alexander of Baltimore County District Court granted the woman's request for a temporary protective order that bars the 6-foot-4-inch, 270-pound former Pro Bowler and defensive end from the couple's home in Timonium.

If voters agree in November, domestic violence victims will be able to receive immediate protection from their abusers even when courtrooms are closed. The General Assembly gave final approval yesterday to a bill that would allow court commissioners to grant temporary protective orders on weekends and after regular court hours - the times when most men and women are at home and so most domestic violence occurs, according to state crime statistics. A judge would then review the order when court reopened.

The wife of former Baltimore Raven Michael C. McCrary was granted a temporary protective order Monday against the retired defensive end. A Baltimore County District Court judge accepted Mary Haley McCrary's position that her husband had threatened her and the couple's nanny who cares for their young daughter. Since it was an ex-parte hearing -- meaning that just one side can argue the case without the defendant being present -- Michael McCrary did not appear in court Monday, but will have an opportunity to do so at a hearing next week.

The wife of former Baltimore Raven Michael C. McCrary is seeking a protective order against the retired defensive end, claiming that her husband brandished a pistol during an argument, tossed a 45-pound metal kitchen stool at her and threatened to "ruin" her in a series of encounters dating to 2008. "He's an 11-year veteran of the NFL and is volatile and violent," Mary Haley McCrary, 40, said in a handwritten statement that was part of a protective order petition filed late Friday in Baltimore County District Court and obtained by The Baltimore Sun. "I fear for my life."