Md. Burning Victim Told Judge of Fears

Hargrave's letter led to the September hearing, where Cade pleaded her case.

"Your honor, he's violating the peace order. He's contacting my family. He's still contacting me. He's intimidating my daughter, and he's vandalizing other people's property," she told the judge.

She said that her husband was trying to force her to go to marriage counseling and that she did not want to go.

"Well, it might not be a bad idea if you want to save the marriage," the judge told her. Palumbo did not respond to several requests for an interview yesterday.

At yesterday's bond review hearing, about a dozen of Cade's family members showed up. Several spoke to the court, asking that Hargrave not be released.

Hargrave spoke as well, saying that he is not a threat to society and that he wants to be free from jail so he can help prepare his defense. The defendant, who has a history of arrests and convictions for drug and gun crimes and robbery, said he has never missed a court date.

Cade's older sister, Shereen Jackson, said before the proceeding that Cade's entire face and most of her chest and arms are burned. She breathes through a tube and blinks to communicate.

She said Cade was seeking the help of a domestic abuse shelter to guide her through her separation from Hargrave. He was consistently verbally abusive and would attack her physically, Jackson said.

Hargrave once hit her with a hammer and in recent months had been stalking her, the sister said. The night before he set her on fire, he tried to break into her house, Jackson said.

Cade and Hargrave met through a family friend and married on Halloween in 2001. They were legally separated in December 2004 and were in the process of a divorce. They did not have children together, but each has a child from a previous relationship.

She had worked at the T-Mobile store since it opened about two years ago, and he had several on-and-off jobs, most recently working at a water utility company, Jackson said.

Prince George's State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey said yesterday his office is investigating the criminal case and is also doing a comprehensive review of the civil case.

"I want to make sure we're doing everything we can to make sure women, and sometimes men, in these domestic violence situations are getting the help and guidance they need to get out of them," Ivey said.

Palumbo, a former county prosecutor, served as a state delegate in Prince George's for two decades before being appointed to the bench in 2001.

In November that year, two weeks after he was sworn in as a judge, he was cited by county police for failing to remain at the scene of an accident after the 1998 Mercedes-Benz he was driving hit the back of a shuttle bus near the Upper Marlboro courthouse. Six months later, Palumbo was acquitted of leaving the scene of an accident and fined $100 for speeding.

At the Sept. 19 hearing in which he dismissed Cade's protective order against Hargrave, the judge told Cade he could not be her advocate, only an "umpire." But when she said she no longer wanted to be married to Hargrave, he gave her this piece of advice:

"Well, then, get a lawyer and get a divorce," he said. "That's all you have to do."