Violence Unit

An alarm company owner and retired state trooper who has donated hundreds of hours to protect potential targets of domestic violence received a first-time award yesterday for "outstanding achievement" from the Carroll County state's attorney. James S. Emerick, 50, president of Risk Management Consultants in Cockeysville, has been installing portable alarm systems for 5 1/2 years for those whose spouses have been charged with a crime or who have obtained protective orders against them, said Gary Cofflin, the domestic violence unit investigator.

For septuagenarians Bea and Roland, the frequent drives to Johnson City, Tenn., to visit their son are long and a bit frightening, but a borrowed cellular phone will ease their minds on the next trip.The couple borrowed their phone from the Carroll County State's Attorney's Office. The office has 40 free "loaner" cell phones available for seniors who wish to feel secure when they travel."Driving along miles and miles of remote highway made me think about what would happen if we had some sort of problem," said Bea, 70, who lives in Carroll County.

A Westminster man was sentenced to eight years in prison yesterday after pleading guilty to punching his pregnant wife in June and beating and threatening her and a friend with a knife in September.J. Scott Hoffman, 25, also was found guilty in Carroll County Circuit Court of violating a protective order that he stay away from his estranged wife.For the September incident, Judge Francis M. Arnold sentenced Hoffman to eight years in prison for assaulting his wife, Beth, and to a suspended seven-year term for assaulting his friend, Christina Leatherman, also of Westminster.

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.

THE BALTIMORE Police Department's interest in starting a program that would focus on abused pets as an indicator of domestic abuse might look a bit too offbeat or frivolous were the department doing nothing else to combat this problem.But city police have some of the toughest anti-abuse standards in Maryland and are considered innovators in domestic violence prevention.For instance, the department lists every 911 call as domestic-related or not and requires officers to write reports on domestic-related complaints, even if a crime has not occurred; reports are referred to the domestic violence unit for preventive action.

The head of a Baltimore police domestic violence unit was arrested and charged with second-degree assault early yesterday after an alleged domestic dispute with his wife in their Pasadena home. The Baltimore Police Department will hold a suspension hearing today for Sgt. Gary F. White Sr., a 27-year veteran of the force. He heads the Southern District's unit that investigates domestic violence complaints. White, 49, was arrested after his wife was admitted to North Arundel Hospital with bruises to her shoulder and ear, said Charles Ravenell, an Anne Arundel County Police Department spokesman.

Alexandra N. "Sandy" Williams, a Baltimore County assistant state's attorney for 15 years, has been named to the District Court bench by Gov. William Donald Schaefer.Mrs. Williams will succeed John C. Coolahan, who retired from Baltimore County District Court in May to seek the Democratic nomination for county executive in the Sept. 13 primary.Mrs. Williams, 38, a graduate of Denison University in Ohio, earned her law degree from the University of Baltimore Law School. She became an assistant state's attorney in 1979, and was promoted to District Court division chief in 1990.

After Rebecca Tacchetti filed a protective order this summer, she felt more at ease knowing that the Howard County Sheriff's Office was only a phone call away when she had questions, worries or simply needed a shoulder to lean on. "They have been a wonderful support during a very difficult transition in a person's life," said Tacchetti, a Howard County resident. Tacchetti was one of the people to benefit from a pilot program called the Domestic Violence Welfare Check-Up. The Sheriff's Office started the program about two months ago to give those who filed protective and peace orders a way to follow up with deputies if they had questions about the process, said Sgt. Brian Baer, who heads the office's domestic violence unit.

MANY Harford countians, especially the thousands who have moved into the bedroom communities near Bel Air, are probably unaware that their state's attorney, injured in Vietnam 28 years ago, gets around in a wheelchair and has limited use of his hands.Joseph I. Cassilly, 47, is low-key about his disability in his public work, like the man in the photo on his office wall, Bob Dole. Another reason, good for Harford countians, is that there have been few horrific crimes to inject his name into the headlines.

County seeks to add staff to unit fighting domestic violence Carroll County will ask for $89,070 from the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention to add a sheriff's deputy and a secretary to the domestic violence unit in the Sheriff's Office. The positions would allow the unit to provide 24-hour coverage. The county's match would be $126,645, which it already pays in salary and benefits to a deputy and secretary. The funding would increase the domestic violence staff to three deputies and two secretaries.