Judge marries defendant to alleged victim

[demmiblue]

A Baltimore County judge was reassigned Wednesday after he presided over the marriage between a man being prosecuted for domestic violence and the alleged victim - a marriage that led to the man's acquittal.

Baltimore County District Judge G. Darrell Russell Jr. took the unusual step last week of allowing the defendant to leave court to obtain a marriage license and married the couple later in his chambers. About 20 minutes later, his new wife invoked marital privilege so she would not be required to testify against her husband.

The case came to an end with the judge finding the defendant not guilty, saying, "I found you not guilty, so I can't sentence you as a defendant in any crimes, but earlier today, I sentenced you to life married to her."

<SNIP>

Alexander also questioned why the judge apparently ignored evidence in the case - the police report detailing the woman's injuries and her initial statement. Although the victim refused to testify against her alleged attacker - a common scenario in domestic violence cases - judges don't necessarily need victim testimony at trial for a conviction, Alexander said.

"(Russell], with intent, behaved in a way to potentially put this victim at far greater risk, and he did that as a member of the bar and an officer of the court," said Alexander. "And it's absolutely inappropriate for him to in any way collaborate with this alleged perpetrator. It's bizarre. It's dangerous. And I think he should be removed from the bench."


Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/bal-md.judge18mar18,0,2455093.story

[rucky]

1. This won't end well.

[existentialist]

2. Domestic violence

1)It was,at best poor judgment.

2)It probably will not end well. Domestic violence usually gets worse after a marriage.

3)Many states (and tribes) are changing the marital privilege regarding testimony so that it no longer applies in cases where the victims are family members. I think this is an important and substantial improvement in the rules of evidence.

4)While I think the judge erred, I do sympathize. While it is correct that it is theoretically possible to go forward without assistance of the victim in a domestic violence case, it is difficult. There are cases in which there is little or no corroborating evidence and such a prosecution is nearly impossible.

[LiberalFighter]

3. Judge needs to be removed from office.

[Berry Cool]

4. That marriage will be a life sentence, of course.

Most likely it will end with the wife's death. Perhaps the husband's, also.

[existentialist]

5. at least the odds heavily favor

that there will be more violence.

To say that it will probably end in someone's death may be an overstatement. There are more domestic violence cases that end without someone dying than with someone dying. If all or even most domestic violence cases ended in a death then the homicide rate would be a lot higher than it is.

[demmiblue]

6. It has the ring of, "into the lion's den with you."

I am amazed by his ruling.

:puke: