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Oct 15, 2005 7:13 am US/Eastern
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Future Of Judge In Burned Woman Case In Jeopardy
Clinton, MD (WJZ) ―
The Prince George's County judge who dismissed a protective order against a man who later allegedly set his wife on fire has been removed from domestic violence cases.
A court spokeswoman tells Eyewitness News that District Court Judge Richard Palumbo was removed from hearing domestic violence cases by the court's chief administrative judge, Thurman Rhodes.
Weeks before 31-year-old Yvette Cade was doused with gasoline and set on fire, Palumbo ignored her pleas that her husband was intimidating her.
On September 19th, Palumbo dismissed a protective order that 31-year-old Yvette Cade had obtained against 33-year-old Roger Hargrave. On Monday, police say Hargrave went to his wife's workplace in Clinton, doused her with gas and set her on fire.
The clerk's office of the Prince George's County Courts released audio of a nearly four-minute exchange between Yvette Cade and District Court Judge Richard A. Palumbo recorded during a Sept. 19 hearing.
"The tape kind of speaks for itself," said State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey. He speculated that if Palumbo had a chance to
reconsider his decision to dismiss a protective order Cade obtained in August he would probably do things differently.
Carole Alexander of the House of Ruth, who had been counseling Cade, listened to the tape and was appalled.
"He gave him a message, a clear message: 'Do whatever you want,'" Alexander tells
WJZ's Suzanne Collins. "He gave the man a license to kill."
The September hearing was prompted by a letter Hargrave wrote to Palumbo in August in which he asked the judge to rescind a protective order against him.
"I feel counseling may save our marriage," Hargrave wrote. The handwritten letter was filed with the court.
In the exchange released Thursday, Cade tells Palumbo that Hargrave had violated the order repeatedly by contacting her, intimidating her daughter and other members of her family and vandalizing the property of others.
"My husband is trying to stall our divorce," Cade tells Palumbo, who suggests that she get a lawyer and go to family court to get a divorce.
When Cade says she has no have money for a divorce lawyer, Palumbo advises her to seek help from the House of Ruth, a domestic violence program that had represented her in the past.
"Go back and ask them how to handle it," Palumbo says. He tells her he has "to be independent like an umpire," before concluding the hearing.
"His response to the victim in this incident was totally inappropriate, way, way, way, out of line. His comments were rude, they were insensitive. He did not listen to her," says Alexander.
Judge Palumbo tells
Eyewitness News that it wouldn't be appropriate for him to respond.
Cade remains hospitalized after being burned over 60 percent of her body.
Her family says they are complaining to the Judicial Disability Board about Palumbo. That board has the right to censure a judge or even remove him from the bench.
Thirty-three-year-old Hargraves, of Temple Hills was ordered held without bond pending trial on Wednesday.
Hargrave is charged with attempted murder in the attack.
(© MMV, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)