Wife

An Edgewater man was arrested yesterday on charges that he ran over his wife with a van in front of their house in the Woodland Beach neighborhood.Demrick Paul Mayes, 35, of the 1600 block of Bay Ridge Road was charged with driving while intoxicated, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, failure to report an accident, giving false information to police and negligent driving.His wife, Karen M. Pioipauskis of the same address, was listed in serious condition yesterday at Prince George's Trauma Center in Cheverly.

A former city police officer and his wife were released under federal supervision yesterday after they were charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud for filing false reports in connection with fraudulent insurance claims, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office. Michael B. Nelson, 26, surrendered to federal authorities yesterday, and his wife, Tierra Spencer Nelson, 23, was arrested at their home Wednesday, said Marcy Murphy, the spokeswoman. The couple, both of whom live in the 5100 block of The Alameda, are charged in indictments with submitting a false auto theft report and a false burglary report to their insurance company to receive at least $10,000 in insurance claims.

Police in Charlotte, N.C., arrested Daniel Scott Harney at a motel last night after the Ellicott City man charged in the fatal shooting of his estranged wife the day after Christmas was featured on a national television program.Mr. Harney, 40, also was being sought by Howard County police in the wounding of a male visitor that his wife, Shirley, 41, was entertaining at their house in the Brampton Hills section of Ellicott City, then leaving with his two sons, ages 8 and 10. The boys were with Mr. Harney when he was arrested last night and seemed to be in good condition, police said.

BOSTON -- To think that I had never focused blame on this particular part of the male anatomy. But there was anthropologist Helen Fisher on the Today show, explaining that Client 9's destiny was in his eyebrows. And his cheekbones. "All you have to do is look at Eliot Spitzer," she said authoritatively. "He's got very high cheekbones and a very heavy brow. And these are signs of extremely high testosterone." Who knew? Of course, this anthro-babble was not as bad as what came from Laura Schlessinger, the guiltmeistress of talk radio, who located the cause of infidelity entirely outside of the male body and onto the wife.

WASHINGTON -- An angry Newt Gingrich lashed out at questions about his wife's employment yesterday, saying his critics would see a conflict of interest "in everything that my wife or I do the rest of our lives.""I think my record of being investigated, scrutinized, smeared and attacked sort of rivals anybody in recent public life," the House speaker said at his regular news conference yesterday.The speaker's wife, Marianne Gingrich, was hired in September by a private company owned by American businessmen who are trying to create a free-trade zone in Israel.

IT SO HAPPENED that in the hours before Lady Diana Spencer was to become the Princess of Wales in 1981, I was working on a story on New York's Eighth Avenue, hanging out with a group of prostitutes. At daybreak I intended to go home and watch the royal wedding, my companions to get some sleep. But before we parted they gave an unforgettable valediction to the bride. "She's got the richest john in the world," one of the women said.This purely commercial view of matrimony seemed exceedingly harsh.

SUN SCORE **1/2 In the French farce My Wife is an Actress, actor-director Yvan Attal spends as much time dodging emotional bullets as hitting comic targets. Combine the title with the image of a dazzling female and a frazzled male, and you've got the movie perfectly. The picture has its moderate appeal, thanks to elegant film craft, an even more elegant female lead, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and a second male lead, Terence Stamp, who is elegant to the third power. But it leaves you feeling as if you've seen a grab-bag pilot for a TV series that didn't make the cut. As a sportswriter also named Yvan, who is married, just like him, to Charlotte (the daughter of Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, she goes by her first name in the movie)

Gov.-elect Parris N. Glendening turned his attention to the task of governing yesterday, naming a diverse 12-member group to oversee the two-month transition of power from the Schaefer administration to his own.As many Glendening insiders expected, the committee will be headed by his wife, Frances Hughes Glendening, a 43-year-old lawyer with the Federal Election Commission. She will co-chair the panel with James T. Brady, 54, managing partner of the Baltimore office of Arthur Andersen & Co., an international accounting and consulting firm.

A 78-year-old Pennsylvania man charged with murdering his wife was arrested last week in North Laurel, Howard County police said.James P. Gantz Sr., from Manheim Township in suburban Lancaster, waived extradition Friday and was returned to Pennsylvania Saturday, police spokesmen said.Mr. Gantz was arrested Thursday afternoon in his Chrysler minivan on the 9600 block of Canterbury Riding, said police Sgt. Steven Keller. Howard police had been alerted by Manheim police that Mr. Gantz might be with relatives in Howard or Montgomery counties, Sergeant Keller said.

A Dundalk man who fatally shot his estranged wife and wounded one of her friends before killing himself Thursday night had previously threatened to kill the woman and himself, according to court records and police. Mark Todd Chiveral apparently was waiting with a shotgun outside his wife's house in the 800 block of Jaydee Ave. when she got home about 11 p.m. Thursday from bowling with a friend, police said yesterday. Chiveral fired at least one shot through the window of a car, hitting his wife's friend, identified yesterday as Heather Marie Szczepanik, in the head, said Bill Toohey, a county police spokesman.