Restraining

The mother of Terrell Suggs' two children was granted a restraining order against the Ravens linebacker in a Baltimore District Court hearing that was devoid of abuse allegations and involved both sides working out custody and child support terms as they await the outcome of two civil lawsuits filed by the woman. Suggs' attorneys stressed that there was mutual agreement about the restraining order and said the 27-year-old football player denies any allegations of abuse involving Candace Williams, 26, who says he assaulted her on two occasions last month.

Maryland is on the right track in trying to do something to cut hospital costs ("Hospitals uneasy over rate plan," April 7). A state proposal would establish a plan to tie medical spending to the growth of the economy. The plan, according to your story, "is making hospital executives uneasy. " Well, let me tell those executives that their present hospital costs are making me uneasy. In early March, I had an allergic reaction to "Z-pack," an antibiotic prescribed for a virus that had been diagnosed as a bacterial infection I suffered for three days with no appetite and little sleep and finally had to go to the emergency room at Greater Baltimore Medical Center.

A Baltimore woman has obtained a temporary restraining order against Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs after filing a domestic violence complaint, according to online court records. On Friday, a court commissioner ordered Suggs to stay away from the woman and her home, pending a hearing this Friday. The order was granted after the woman, identified as Candace Williams, 26, filed a domestic violence complaint in Baltimore District Court. "I won't have anything to say," Suggs, 27, told The Baltimore Sun on Saturday.

Robert Ethan Saylor didn't like to be touched, and suddenly an off-duty deputy had his hands on him. Within moments, two more deputies would grab him, the four men would fall in a heap on the floor, and Saylor, who had been shouting and resisting their attempts to restrain him, would grow quiet and still. More than two months after a man with Down syndrome died at the hands of three off-duty Frederick County sheriff's deputies, these details about his death emerged in an autopsy report released this week.

A Baltimore circuit judge handed a temporary legal victory yesterday to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. in his battle against Mayor Martin O'Malley over management of the city's troubled social services agency. Judge Kaye A. Allison denied O'Malley's request for a temporary restraining order to prevent interim Department of Social Services Director Floyd Blair from making any changes to the 2,400-employee department until the court decides whether Blair's appointment was legal. In a lawsuit filed Sept.

A teacher who alleged that ousted Annapolis High School principal Deborah Williams tried to run her vehicle off the road last week withdrew her request for a restraining order in court yesterday. An attorney for Spanish teacher Milagros M. Cancel declined to comment on why her client dropped her civil complaint against Williams, who was forced out of her job last week for unrelated reasons. Outside court yesterday, Williams declined to comment about the case. She hugged friends and was met with applause from about 30 supporters who attended the brief morning hearing.

State police released audits yesterday showing that failures to properly log domestic restraining orders, to prevent accused abusers from buying guns, are more pervasive than officials previously acknowledged.All of the 21 jurisdictions audited by the state police frequently failed to correctly enter the protective orders, listing the wrong gender, name or race.The audits released yesterday were of mostly rural jurisdictions. The state police plan to begin auditing Baltimore City today."We are suffering from lack of staff, and I know people are tired of hearing that, but it is very much a reality," said George F. Johnson IV, president of the Maryland Sheriff's Association.

A Baltimore woman has obtained a temporary restraining order against Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs after filing a domestic violence complaint, according to online court records. On Friday, a court commissioner ordered Suggs to stay away from the woman and her home, pending a hearing this Friday. The order was granted after the woman, identified as Candace Williams, 26, filed a domestic violence complaint in Baltimore District Court. "I won't have anything to say," Suggs, 27, told The Baltimore Sun on Saturday.

A Howard County pupil will not be allowed to wear an African-style head-wrap to school any time soon: She failed to win a temporary restraining order from a U.S. District Court judge in Baltimore yesterday.The pupil, 14-year-old Shermia Isaacs, says her right to freely express her Jamaican heritage is violated by a no-hats policy at Columbia's Harper's Choice Middle School -- a policy that school officials interpreted to include her cloth head covering.But Judge J. Frederick Motz indicated that the policy is content-neutral and reasonably related to an educational purpose, according to Patti Caplan, a spokeswoman for Howard County schools.

Poor handwriting, incomplete information, inadequate forms and lack of automation are obstacles that make restraining orders ineffective and give accused abusers the opportunity to purchase handguns, court and law enforcement officials said yesterday. But the state has taken an initial step toward improving processing to help keep victims safe with its first in a series of training seminars, which began yesterday with a seminar for supervisors of data entry clerks, sheriff's deputies, prosecutors and court employees involved in the paperwork.

Baltimore is wasting about $400,000 every month it does not install a new phone system, a lawyer for Comptroller Joan M. Pratt argued in court Thursday. But the mayor's lawyers argued that Pratt has no legal right to sue the city because she is a city officer. Pratt and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake have been sparring for months over who should upgrade the city's phone system, leading to a war of words, an investigation by the city's inspector general and now a court battle. "The city is throwing money down the drain," said Pratt's attorney, Charles G. Bernstein, a former city judge who works for Orioles owner Peter Angelos' law firm.

Baltimore Comptroller Joan M. Pratt filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to stop Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's technology office from installing a new phone system, alleging the administration used an "underhanded, illegal technique" to bypass the competitive bidding process. The suit seeks a temporary restraining order against the Rawlings-Blake administration to prevent the Mayor's Office of Information Technology from using existing contracts with Digicon Corp. to install a Voice over Internet Protocol phone system.

Maryland is the only state in the nation to enjoy a federal exemption that allows it to regulate how much hospitals can charge patients, much like the state public service commission regulates utility rates. Under the system administered by state's Health Services Cost Review Commission, hospital patients are charged the same rate no matter where they seek care, and health insurance companies all contribute equally to help cover the cost of uncompensated care for people who lack the means to pay. The result has been that hospital costs as well as overall spending on health care have risen more slowly in Maryland than anywhere else in the country.

When a police sergeant approached a black Jeep Cherokee parked on the side of Piney Orchard Parkway in Anne Arundel County, its hazard lights blinking, she thought it would be a routine check on a stranded motorist. But the encounter was the first in a series of events that ended with the motorist's death. Police said that when the sergeant approached, 41-year-old Patrick Raphael Toney, an academic adviser at Bowie State University, got out of the vehicle, threw items onto the ground and spat.

The Anne Arundel County Council can begin the process of replacing Councilman Daryl D. Jones next week when he begins serving a five-month federal prison sentence, a judge ruled Wednesday. Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr., a retired Court of Special Appeals judge, ruled against a request by Jones' attorney for a temporary restraining order to prevent the council from selecting a replacement. Earlier this month, another judge threw out a similar request, calling it premature because Jones had not suffered harm.

Baltimore International College is facing new questions about its ability to continue operating as the culinary college fights to keep its accreditation until a planned takeover by Virginia-based Stratford University. The college won a temporary restraining order in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, protecting its accreditation until Sept. 12. But the college will likely have to return to court next week to seek a preliminary injunction that would extend the protection for an undetermined amount of time.

Saying he cannot get The Examiner to stop throwing unwanted papers in his driveway each morning, a Baltimore lawyer has asked the Baltimore County Circuit Court for a temporary restraining order to force an end to the deliveries. "They're trespassing, technically," said Joel L. Levin, referring to the carriers who deliver the papers in his Pikesville neighborhood. Almost a month ago, he said, he began calling the paper's circulation department to have them stopped, but they keep coming.

A dispute between one of Baltimore's most prominent churches and a well-known city real estate agent and church benefactor who alleges that the church's pastor might have misappropriated money landed in Circuit Court yesterday.Officials of Douglas Memorial Community Church were seeking a restraining order against 35-year parishioner James Crockett, whom they say became disruptive during a churchwide business meeting Jan. 17 and appeared to threaten their pastor.Crockett, 73, says he was seeking answers to questions about the church's finances, including $6,000 in legal fees for an unspecified matter that were paid on behalf of Douglas Memorial's pastor, the Rev. Brad R. Braxton.

The brouhaha surrounding the trademarking of the word "hon" seemed to become more serious Monday as Denise Whiting was granted a restraining order against a man who organized recent protests against her. Judge Joan Bossman Gordan issued the so-called peace order on Monday on Whiting's behalf, barring Steven Akers, a 25-year-old student from Severn, from any of Whiting's Hampden businesses and from contacting her or harassing her. Gordan extended...

The Sun editorializes ("Best of Enemies" April 30) that the Fatah-Hamas decision to work together may doom peace-keeping efforts undertaken by the U.S. But the matter of recently renewed Jerusalem settlements by Israel and the U.S. response must not be overlooked. Israel, to the embarrassment of President Obama, has initiated new settlement activity even in Jerusalem. This is an embarrassment to our president because Fatah had agreed to negotiate a "final" peace on condition that there be no new settlement activity, including in Jerusalem.