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Issues Mount For Md. Judge
The driveway of Palumbo's home in Port Tobacco. District court judges are required to have their primary residence in the county in which they preside.
(By Preston Keres -- The Washington Post)
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Patricia Smith, a nurse, got a temporary protective order Dec. 6 after an incident the day before in which her husband allegedly shoved her during an argument over a car.
In an application for the order, she wrote: "My husband tried to prevent me from leaving my car. He grabbed my keys and shoved me away from the vehicle with his hands against my chest. Later, he threatened me and tried to break in one of my bedrooms where I was hiding."
District Court Judge Jean Szekeres Baron granted the order, indicating in documents that there were "reasonable grounds to believe" an assault had occurred.
On. Dec. 14, the Smiths had a hearing before Palumbo for the final protective order, and both showed up with attorneys. Charles Smith admitted that he pushed his wife.
"Yeah, I might have pushed her," he told the court, according to an audio recording. "It wasn't intentionally to hurt her. It was just to let her know she wasn't going to take that truck."
Palumbo denied the final protective order, saying, "I heard the testimony, I listened to both sides. The court feels there is no valid basis for a threat which would lead itself to a domestic violence order.''
Patricia Smith said it was humiliating to be in court before Palumbo. "When I left, I said, 'I can't believe the judge is allowed to act this way,' " she said.
Feeling defeated, Patricia Smith said she let her husband back in their home. The violence escalated, she said, until May, when he allegedly choked her.
She went back to court, this time before Baron, who again granted the protective order.
Reached yesterday, Charles Smith said his wife is exploiting the system and exaggerating the charges. "That was all a plot, from the first case to the second case. She didn't have bruises the first time, so she put them on the second time," he said.
The effectiveness of protective orders is a subject of debate, with some saying they have an empowering effect on the people seeking them and others saying they give victims a false sense of security.
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