Domestic Violence

Shorty needed a ride home. She got confused sometimes, the result of some undefined mental condition, and wasn't always sure where she'd wandered. Her family knew this about Michelle "Shorty" Knight, all 4 feet 7 inches of her, and that's why they worried. She got in a car. It begins there, with that simple act, a 21-year-old — in many ways still very much a girl — got in a car. Aug. 22, 2002. If she'd looked up in that last moment of freedom, she would have seen a...

THE BATTLES over child custody that unfold in courtrooms across the United States don't get much attention. If a celebrity is involved, there might be headlines, but publicity is generally shunned out of the not-unreasonable urge to protect the privacy of children. Unfortunately, though, that has tended to shroud problems in how these critical decisions are made. That's why a conference focusing attention this week on systemic issues in family court is so important. The Battered Mothers Custody Conference...

Charles Ramsey, the Cleveland dishwasher who heard a scream, kicked in a door and rescued three women from horrific captivity, stepped out of a white Rolls-Royce on U Street NW Friday night and seconds later was on Alex Soto's Facebook page. "You're kidding me," shouted Soto, who was strolling in front of Ben's Chili Bowl with his girlfriend when Ramsey miraculously emerged from the gleaming Rolls. "You're, like, a lifesaver. I've been watching this on the news all the time and here...

SEATTLE — Former Seattle Seahawks linebacker Leroy Hill won't face a felony charge in his January arrest for investigation of domestic violence. The King County Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday the case for a felony charge was legally insufficient to pursue. Prosecutor's office spokesman Dan Donohoe says the case is being referred to the city attorney in Issaquah, the suburb where Hill was arrested. Hill could face possible misdemeanor charges. Hill was arrested shortly after the...

THE BATTLES over child custody that unfold in courtrooms across the United States don't get much attention. If a celebrity is involved, there might be headlines, but publicity is generally shunned out of the not-unreasonable urge to protect the privacy of children. Unfortunately, though, that has tended to shroud problems in how these critical decisions are made. That's why a conference focusing attention this week on systemic issues in family court is so important. The Battered Mothers Custody Conference...

Maryland: Up to one year; a six-month extension is possible. Virginia: Up to two years. District: One year; an extension is possible. Maryland: Clear and convincing evidence of abuse. Virginia: Preponderance of evidence. District: Preponderance of evidence. Maryland: A judge cannot remove guns while a temporary order is in place. Guns may be removed under a final order; there are exemptions for rifles. Virginia: Guns cannot be bought or transported during any order of protection.

Regarding the Feb. 24 Metro article " Jury saw a limit to Huguely's malice ": It is important to put the violence by George Huguely V in context and to place responsibility where it belongs. A young woman just starting out in life was murdered by an abusive ex-boyfriend. Her death was brutal — and she suffered. There can be no excuse for such violent behavior. Not jealousy, not alcohol, not the volatility of young love. Women in their early 20s experience the highest rates of intimate-partner violence in the country.

Howard County Police Detective Molly Gale sees the ugly outcome of domestic violence regularly, but she remembers one case in particular. The victim was a woman who had immigrated to the United States with her child to join her new husband. But after he sexually assaulted and beat her, the woman, a nurse, felt terrified and helpless. Working out of the police department's 17-month-old domestic violence section, Gale took the woman under her wing, making sure she received counseling and services while Gale helped gather evidence to file...

Domestic violence doesn't keep regular hours. Frequently, it unfolds very late or very early. And that makes it difficult for the police officer who shows up in the middle of the night or early morning and has to make sense of a conflict that might well have a paper trail back at the courthouse. Now, Maryland is putting more information in the hands of law enforcement officers, such as Prince George's County Sheriff's Deputy 1st Class Andrew Whyte, who encounter domestic disputes almost every day. Whyte and a...

As pr osecutors, we have long noted with distress how often children are present when violent crimes are committed. Kids don't need to be the target of the violence to be scarred by it. Ask any adult who witnessed domestic violence while growing up; decades later, he or she will still be able to talk vividly of the event and how it affects them today. Researchers studying these "invisible victims" have found that an array of emotional and behavioral consequences flow from the exposure.

CULIACAN, Mexico — Mexico saw a wave of killings over the weekend, despite what the government says is a drop in the number of deaths related to drug violence. In the northern state of Sinaloa, 17 bodies were found over the weekend, including six dumped in a pile along a highway. The Sinaloa state prosecutors' office said two of the men were decapitated. The discovery on Sunday came just over two weeks after another pile of six bodies was found in another Sinaloa town. State...

The Calvert County Sheriff's Office has a new tool to assist with investigations of domestic violence and strangulation. The KrimeSite Imager, an ultraviolet alternative light source camera lens and stabilizer, was donated to the sheriff's office by Safe Harbor Inc., the fundraising arm of the Safe Harbor shelter. The shelter is for female victims of domestic violence and their children, Safe Harbor Inc. board member Ed Apple said. Board treasurer Linda Kelley said that when cases of domestic violence...

Mariska Hargitay, better known as " Law & Order: Special Victims Unit " detective Olivia Benson, is the human intersection of life and art. Precisely, the line between the fictional role she plays and the role she has carved out in real life is approximately a hair's breadth. The passion that television viewers witness on the popular crime show — the rage, the disgust, that curled lip, the twitching eye — may be part of the actor's toolbox, but it's no act. Philosophically, at least, Olivia and...

Vice President Biden, in Rockville Wednesday to announce a new initiative to curb domestic violence, got personal as he described the effort to eliminate what he called "a blight on the nation's conscience. " "I was raised by a gentle man, a strong man," said Biden of his father, who told him "it was the worst sin of all if a man raised a hand to a woman. " Speaking to an audience of elected officials, victims' advocates and law enforcement personnel Wednesday morning at the...

Vice President Biden and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday will unveil a new domestic violence initiative and award $2.3 million in grant money as part of a new effort to reduce gun violence , according to a White House official. At an event in Rockville, Biden and Holder plan to introduce the Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Demonstration Initiative — a Justice Department program modeled after state initiatives in Maryland and Massachusetts and intended to...

Seeking to avoid a protracted and politically damaging fight over reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, Republican leaders are prepared to allow the House to vote Thursday on a version of the bill favored by Democrats, an unusual move that acknowledges GOP divisions on the touchy issue. The House will vote first on a Republican version of the bill, which authorizes funding for programs to aid prosecution of domestic violence and sexual assault cases and assist victims.

The fatal shooting of Heather McGuire last week [" Suspect in wife's slaying found dead ," Metro, March 14] should prompt us to ask hard questions about the judicial and law enforcement systems of Maryland and Montgomery County. Ms. McGuire, whom I accompanied to court numerous times as an advocate, was counting on the state to keep her longtime abusive husband, Philip Gilberti, behind bars. Instead, Mr. Gilberti was released from jail twice in one week, the last time without having to put up a single dollar.

When Darrick Moore, a forklift operator, first came to the basement of a nondescript, yellow-brick building in Baltimore this year, he was angry. Baltimore police had arrested him for hitting his wife, and, as part of his probation, he had to attend a 22-week program run by the House of Ruth Maryland, a nonprofit domestic violence center. Each week he would join a group of men, a sign above their heads serving as a grim reminder of the message they were being taught: "Battering is always a choice.

As pr osecutors, we have long noted with distress how often children are present when violent crimes are committed. Kids don't need to be the target of the violence to be scarred by it. Ask any adult who witnessed domestic violence while growing up; decades later, he or she will still be able to talk vividly of the event and how it affects them today. Researchers studying these "invisible victims" have found that an array of emotional and behavioral consequences flow from the exposure.

The Senate has agreed to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act , showing bipartisan support for a measure that would revamp domestic violence programs and extend the law's protections to gays and lesbians and women on tribal reservations. The 78-to-22 vote puts pressure on the GOP-held House to also act to renew the 19-year-old measure, which Congress has twice reauthorized but which lapsed in 2011 amid partisan disputes over key provisions. The House and Senate also ...