Legal Momentum Meets with Senate Staffers to Help Domestic Violence Survivors

May 19, 2006 -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fight for the rights of domestic violence survivors moved from the courtroom to the halls of a Senate office building as Legal Momentum made sure the voice of Shereen Jackson was heard. Jackson's sister Yvette Cade was almost fatally burned in a heinous attack orchestrated by her estranged husband. Lisalyn Jacobs, Legal Momentum's Vice President of Government Affairs and Policy Analyst Jennifer Grayson facilitated the meetings with Senate staffers.

Last October Cade's estranged husband set her on fire at the T-Mobile store where she worked. Next month a Maryland judge is expected to sentence 34-year-old Roger Hargrave to life in prison after a jury found him guilty and recommended life behind bars.

The verdict and sentence send abusers the message that juries are prepared to take their actions seriously and punish them to the fullest extent of the law," says Lisalyn Jacobs, Vice President of Government Relations.

But, there is more work to be done.

Several weeks before the attack a Prince George's County District Court Judge dismissed her protective order issued against Hargrave. An audiotape of the proceeding reveals Judge Richard A. Palumbo using a sarcastic tone as he interrupts Cade's pleas for protection. Maryland's judicial commission recently filed misconduct charges against him in connection with his treatment of women in domestic violence cases and his actions during several traffic incidents. "His repeated questionable conduct in the courtroom, his brushes with the law outside the courtroom and his callous handling of the Cade case all make it very appropriate for him to be sanctioned," says Jacobs.

Jacobs, Grayson and Jackson discussed several points with Senate staffers

  • Judicial Training: Judges must hold abusers accountable in a consistent and systematic way. These judges must be trained to identify dangers, perpetrator behavior and reliable evidence. You may recall a judge dismissed a protection order against Cade's estranged husband. The judge's actions are being investigated.
  • Workplace Resource Center: Federal funding is needed to establish a center to help employers understand how they can support employees who are harmed by domestic violence. Yvette Cade was attacked in her workplace.

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