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Nov 18, 2008 6:14 pm US/Eastern
Attack Victim Had Protective Order Against Husband
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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Charges are pending against the leader of a Baltimore City community organization after police say he stabbed his estranged wife repeatedly outside the Eastside District Courthouse just hours after a judge there granted her a protective order.
CBS
Charges are pending against the leader of a Baltimore City community organization after police say he stabbed his estranged wife repeatedly outside the Eastside District Courthouse just hours after a judge there granted her a protective order.
Mike Hellgren spoke to the judge who granted that protective order.
She said that Cleaven Williams had not yet been served with it because he was not in court with his estranged wife. Williams is still recovering after a police officer responding to the scene shot him.
Numerous sources tell
WJZ Cleaven Williams is the president of the Greater Greenmount Community Association. No one with that group would talk on camera, but their website includes pictures of elected officials. It says their focus is on preventing violence.
Veronica Williams is fighting for her life after police say her estranged husband, Cleaven, pulled out a knife and stabbed her over and over again.
"I see the lady laying down on the ground bleeding," a witness said. "Her face was all over bleeding."
WJZ has confirmed just three hours before the stabbing a judge granted Ms. Williams a temporary protective order. It had not yet been served on her estranged husband.
Judge Jeannie Hong tells
Eyewitness News she granted that order because there were "reasonable grounds that an assault has been committed on her by him."
WJZ has also learned Veronica Williams filed for a protective order just days before--on Nov. 9--but when she did not appear in court, it was dismissed. She got help from the advocacy group House of Ruth.
When a police officer came across the violent scene Monday, investigators say he tried to get Mr. Williams to stop. When he would not, the officer tased him. When that did not work, he shot him.
"The officer was within every right to act using his police powers," said Troy Harris, Baltimore City Police.
Judge Hong says in Baltimore City, there were 9,559 hearings for protective orders in the first nine months of this year.
WJZ explored the domestic violence crisis in an investigation last May when we spoke to first lady and city judge Katie O'Malley.
"It's troublesome for the judge because even when you do grant the order, you know you're giving this petitioner a piece of paper and that can't really protect you from a gunshot," she said.
In this latest case, victim Veronica Williams is being treated at Shock Trauma. Her estranged husband has been under armed guard recovering from gunshot wounds at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
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