Judge weds victim, assailant
Even on a TV show, this would be impossible to believe:
A judge overseeing the prosecution of a man charged with beating his girlfriend allows the man to leave court, get a marriage license and then marries the couple in his chambers 20 minutes later. Then, citing marital privilege, the newlywed wife refuses to testify and the very same judge finds the man not guilty.
District Court Judge G. Darrell Russel Jr. announced in court: "Earlier today I sentenced you to life married to her."
Authorities promptly reassigned the judge and women's rights groups appropriately expressed outrage. The Baltimore Sun's Nicole Fuller reported:
"Police were called to Wood's home in the first block of S. Hawthorne Road on Nov. 29, and his fiancee told police that Wood smacked her in the face, kicked her and banged her head against a wall and then dragged her. The officer noted, according to the news report, that the woman had a bloody nose."
Comments
someone tell me again why judges should not be subject to citizen accountability by election.
Posted by: John20723 | March 18, 2010 9:03 AM
I always thought that when you obtained a marriage license in Maryland, you had to wait a minimum of 48 hours to get married, and that the license expired after 6 months. This doesn't make sense to me. Is the marriage even valid?
Posted by: chrislin | March 18, 2010 12:24 PM
I thought slavery was over.
Posted by: MaryG | March 18, 2010 12:28 PM
This is truly outrageous! The judge's comment makes it appear that the woman is the problem. Abusers always use the same rationale: I wouldn't have had to hit her if she hadn't kept aggravating me! I hope that the committee on judicial disabilities opens an investigation on this~
Posted by: Rita M. | March 18, 2010 2:44 PM
Oh well.....here goes another series of police calls for domestic violence where eventually the woman will wake up dead. The judge should be severely repremanded. As a former police officer, I once knew a judge that actually refused to hear ANY alcohol related cases after his own son was involved in an accident with a person later found guilty of DWI. THAT'S the way it should be.
Posted by: Keith Rock | March 19, 2010 9:31 AM
Once a beater, always a beater unless there is a professional anger management program in place to break the cycle. Did Judge G. Darrell Russel Jr. make that kind of help mandatory for this man? If not, down the road he may be charging him with murdering his wife. How will the Judge feel then. Bad judgement on his part.
Posted by: Chris | March 24, 2010 10:56 AM
Its about time that the domestic violence centers get stopped in attacking men. Allegations of abuse have gone too far, female judges order men out of their homes, deprive them of their property, take their children away, and literally fine them, give women free lawyers all based on an allegation. These centers are used by women only to gain an advantage in a divorce, the idea of clear and convincing evidence has turned into judicial whim against men. Stop the abuse coming from domestic violence centers attacking men for being men. A women can go into court and say, the man living in my house is crazy, he is not taking his medicine and he has a baseball bat, the judge will order him out right a way, a man can go into court and say, the woman living in my house is crazy, she is not taking her medicine and she has a knife, and the judge will ignore the man's allegation and go on to the next case. Men, stop supporting the domestic violence centers, they are set up just to subjugate you.
Posted by: Bryan | March 24, 2010 3:14 PM