local digest

Murder charge filed

A Northeast Washington man was charged with murder and assault Monday for allegedly beating his wife to death and severely injuring a person who was with her in their District home, police said.

The wife, Rosa May Fludd-Ross, 55, and the other victim, whose identity was withheld by police, were found beaten in Fludd-Ross's home in the 3900 block of 35th Street NE shortly after 7 a.m. Sunday. Fludd-Ross's husband, Kenneth L. Ross, 52, was charged with first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon, police said.

Police did not disclose any motive for the attack, nor would they disclose the age or gender of the other victim, who they said is hospitalized in critical condition.

-- Paul Duggan

Judge back from war

D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert R. Rigsby returned to court Monday after spending more than six months overseeing military trials in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

Rigsby oversaw about 30 trials involving U.S. soldiers accused of murder, sex crimes and drug possession. Rigsby said that Iraq "wasn't bad" but that Afghanistan was his biggest challenge. When he arrived in Afghanistan, he said, his base was under fire, and a soldier was killed.

Before he deployed in April, Rigsby, 48, who has been in the Army for 28 years and was promoted to colonel last year, oversaw assault and drug cases in D.C. Superior Court.

For the next month, Rigsby will oversee felony cases until he assumes his new court assignment in January in which he will oversee cases that occur east of the Anacostia River.