While the city of Baltimore is about a 12-hour drive from Chicago, one particular case involving matters of both criminal and family law is sending ripples of outrage across the country. As reported by the Baltimore Sun, a man accused of domestic violence was found not guilty after he married his alleged victim.
Frederick D. Wood was charged with second-degree assault when his fiancée claimed he hit her in the face (drawing blood), kicked her, and rammed her head into a wall. As with the majority of domestic violence cases, Mr. Wood's partner was the main witness in the case against him.
In an attempt to protect himself from her testimony, Mr. Wood requested time to obtain a marriage license when his case came up for trial, which Judge G. Darrell Russell Jr. granted. A second judge waived the standard 48-hour waiting period between the issuance of the license and the wedding, and Judge Russell married the couple in his chambers that same day.
Chicago family law attorneys will tell you that in Maryland, as in Illinois and elsewhere in the US, married people cannot be required to testify against one another. It would be inappropriate to assign guilt to Mr. Wood, but he clearly benefited from the hasty marriage:
The woman then invoked marital privilege so that she would not be required to testify against her husband and Judge Russell found Wood not guilty.
Advocates for battered women were appalled, including Dorothy Lennig, director of the legal clinic at the battered women's organization House of Ruth:
"Here's somebody who is clearly injured. And the authority figure, rather than acting neutrally or doing something to help protect her, pushed her into more entanglement with the alleged batterer."
Would we have seen the same outcome in an Illinois court? That's difficult to project, but this case illustrates the enormous latitude judges have in family courts.
Related Resources:
- Witnesses: Relationship to a Party (LawBrain)
- How to File for an Order of Protection in Illinois (PDF, Southern Illinois University School or Law)
- Helping Battered Women Without Holding Them in Contempt (FindLaw)
- Contact a Divorce Attorney in Chicago (FindLaw)
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