The law in Maryland and many other states allows prosecutors to press charges in cases of suspected domestic abuse even when the apparent victim doesn't want them to. The reason is that victims are often in no position physically or emotionally to confront their abusers in court. They may fear retaliation, or they may continue to believe promises that the abuser will change, no matter how many times they're broken.
What Baltimore County District Judge G. Darrell Russell Jr. did flew in the face of that crucial protection.
Last week, Judge Russell was faced with a domestic abuse case in which Frederick D. Wood of Middle River was charged with second-degree assault for an incident in which he allegedly hit and kicked his fiancee and banged her head against the wall. When police arrived to investigate, they reported that the woman had a bloody nose. But when the couple arrived in court, Mr. Wood's lawyer asked for a postponement so the two could get married and the woman could invoke spousal privilege to avoid testifying against him.
That should immediately have set off alarm bells for Judge Russell, but instead, he leapt to the couple's aid, offering to perform the ceremony himself, which he did later that day. When the case resumed, Judge Russell found Mr. Wood not guilty and even made a crass joke that he had "sentenced" Mr. Wood to "life married to her."
The court deserves credit for immediately reassigning Judge Russell to paperwork duty on civil cases after learning of the incident, but the matter cannot be allowed to end there. Judge Rusell showed colossally poor judgment and insensitivity in this case, rendering it almost impossible to imagine him ever serving as a fair arbiter of justice in cases of domestic abuse, and it's fair to question whether he has the temperament to be a judge at all. At the very least, the public needs to know he will never be presiding over domestic violence cases again.