The Judiciary Report - Yvette Cade

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PATRONIZING, DISMISSIVE JUDGE LETS CRIMINAL LOOSE ON INNOCENT WOMAN WHO IS LATER SET ON FIRE

Victim Yvette Cade

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Future Of Judge In Burned Woman Case In Jeopardy

(WJZ) Clinton, MD 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.

Judge Richard A. Palumbo

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.

Abusive husband Roger Hargrave

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."... - CBS