Judge Richard Palumbo
Last October 10th, Yvette Cade’s husband went to her workplace and doused her with gasoline. When she ran, he chased her into the parking lot, held her and threw a lit match on her.
Three weeks earlier, Judge Richard A. Palumbo had dismissed the protective order she’d gotten from a Maryland court.
Yvette had appeared in Judge Palumbo’s court asking that the protective order against her husband be extended. She didn’t ask that he be arrested or imprisoned. All she asked for was time.
Evidently even that was just too much of a bother for Judge Palumbo. Get over it, Yvette. Get a divorce. Next case.
Yvette Cade has an associate’s degree in computer science from Southern Ohio College. Richard Palumbo has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland.
Yvette Cade is a certified mortgage consultant. Richard Palumbo has a law degree from the University of Baltimore.
Yvette Cade is a top sales representative for T-Mobile Wireless. Richard Palumbo is a former Maryland state legislator.
Yvette Cade is a mother. And last October Yvette was a petitioner in a courtroom.
Richard Palumbo is a judge. And last October Richard Palumbo was the judge in that courtroom where Yvette asked for more time.
Maryland’s Commission on Judicial Disabilities finally found their sex parts and filed official misconduct charges against Judge Palumbo, according to the Washington Post.
Good. Judge Palumbo should have his gavel taken, his black robe removed and be escorted from the bench, permanently.
i hope this man gets the same treatment that this woman got for not giving her a restraining order and i hope her husband gets the death penalty or worse have what happen to her happen to him, this life is so unfair she seems like a great mother and a wonderful person and for that to happen to her is horrible. why cant we have all good people in the world
I share your outrage, Chris. Hopefully the Maryland Judicial Commission will have the guts to do the right thing and disbar Judge Palumbo. As for Yvette’s husband, he should live out his days working in the burn unit of a Shriner’s Children’s Hospital.
Sandy,
I saw Yvette on Nacy Grace tonight.Is there any where that I can write a letter about this Judge Palumbo. I am in disbielf that this happened,and for her to be treated that way in a court of law is a embrassing to our judicial system.
Thank You.Jan
Judge Richard Palumbo is a deplorable human being. Palumbo should be held resonsible for the crime endured upon Yvette Cade. I think Hargrave got off easy with the lifetime sentence he recieved. I can only Hope the best for Yvette, and to continue to remain optimistic through this whole affliction.
Jan - A letter to Maryland’s Commission on Judicial Disabilities couldn’t hurt.
Sally D. Adkins, Chair
Gary J. Kolb, Esq., Executive Secretary
Peoples Resource Center, Room 1.210
100 Community Place, Crownsville, MD 21032
(410) 514-7044; fax: (410) 974-2182
web: http://www.courts.state.md.us/juddisable.html
It’s true what this judge did is beyond criminal and he more than deserves to be held accountable, but he isn’t the only one and this is not an isolated occurance. Try to get a fair impartial hearing in Annapolis. Several judges have even ignored the law including decisions from the court of special appeals and put children at risk and allowed them to be continually harmed. Without being accountable why should they care what happens when they screwup and don’t believe a bleeding child.
You’re right. Judges, like lawyers, doctors and anyone else, need to be held accountable.
i say we burn him alive
Which, in the final analysis, would solve nothing and only reduce us to the level of Yvette’s husband.
It is my understanding that since Judge Palumbo has decided to retire, the Commission will not have the hearing on the charges against the Judge. This seems like an “out” for the Judge who walks away with his pension and not even a slap on the wrist for his bad decisions and abuse of his position if the charges are true as in the Commission’s report. Who is protecting the Judge : the Governor, the other lawyers in Maryland who sit on the Comission?
Unfortunately, I would venture to say all of the above.
I find it absolutey horrid that this Judge would allow a petitioner to win a case that he refused to show up for. I believe it should be required that you be preent for your petition to be heard otherwise you are the one dismissed. I am so sorry that it took so long to get this judge off his bench. He never should have been allowed to claim a clerical error or any other excuse. Surely he is smart enough to realize that his courtroom hearings are taped. What a fool. I hope his carreer is adversly affected by this. My only other hope is that he feels the weight of this in every way possible……… financially, emotionally, mentally and spiratually.
Sandy said:
No, have Palumbo spend HIS remaining days working in a burn center.
Point well taken.
Judge Palumbo should be convicted to life in prison for his actions.
Clerical error my foot. He’s just as vile as Ivette’s husband.
Ivette should sue the pants of this awful man.
And thank you, thank you Oprah for bringing this story to your show. And the taped evidence.
I heard his comments when she explained to him what she wanted and he responded, well I wish I were 6 1/2 feet tall…..I hope he now feels less than 6 1/2 INCHES tall. For a former member of the ETHICS committee…his attitude… to dismiss this woman’s plight because he felt it wasn’t worth his time to hear…I can’t formulate a complete sentence to express my disgust and deep sadness…to make everything worse, for this man NOT to own his mistake and blame it on a “clerical” error–this man has no true regret or he’d be a MAN and take responsibility for his fateful actions…
Thank God Judge Richard Palumbo retired in 2006. That man should never have been a judge!!!!
Will it make a difference to write a letter? Palumbo definately needs more discipline than a slap on the wrist. Yvette is a hero, and as mentioned Palumbo is a DEPLORABLE human being.
You people have all lost your minds. How is this Judge Palumbo’s fault? Certainly, he was insensitive in the courtroom. I don’t think he meant any offense but was just providing a matter-of-fact “hey, you’ve had a restraining order and if you wanted a divorce you should have filed for one.” He worded it poorly, but that was certainly his point. She could have gotten another protective order as part of the divorce proceedings in Circuit Court but the role of the District Court (where Palumbo sat) is not to bar one spouse from the other (and presumably, from the marital home) indefinitely until the other decides what he/she wants to do.
The bottom line is that no protective order would have prevented this. It’s not like there aren’t laws against setting people on fire here in Maryland. There are. This guy didn’t care about the law (be it against assault or against violating a protective order). What happened is terrible and the monster who did it should go away forever, but in NO WAY is this Judge Palumbo’s fault.
This judge should be required to pay for ALL of this poor woman’s expenses. He and his entire family should be removed from whatever luxury he has accumulated and his entire savings should be turned over to this woman. He is responsible for this woman’s condition and should be imprisioned for what has happened.
What goes around comes around… may God have mercy on his soul!!!
Where is former Maryland District Richard Palumbo now? There is a Richard Palumbo, LLC (see richardpalumbo.com). It appears that Richard continues to practice law. I intend to find all the facts and details and request the State Bar where he is registered to revoke his license to practice. He is not a member of the Maryland Bar Association. There is a Richard Palumbo, LLC in Rhode Island. Any ideas? If he is practicing law without a license, he needs to be prosecuted.
The least we can do for Yvette is make sure that (1) Dick (the former judge) does not enjoy a lifestyle based on privileges he did not earn as a judge. He should have been prosecuted for gross negligence and failure to perform his duties and denied a state pension (2) there need to be new laws to prevent recurrences of Judicial abuse. Other laws might address the issues of accessable lists of spousal abusers so women can check out the new boyfriend. Prior domestic violence incidents and prior criminal history should be manditory considerations for judges implementing and maintaining protective orders. Judge Palumbo should have jailed Yvettes abuser for simply threatening to set her on fire while under protective orders. Yvette should have access to funds from a victims restitution fund. Victims should never be harassed from their incarcerated abuser. Women should be trained to act defensively. Yvette could have hit the store panic alarm, locked herself in the restroom and called 911 on her cell phone before her abuser got close to her. She was unprepared. Employers should have emergency plans for their employees, including employees who are being harassed by an estranged domestic partner. Attempted murder of a domestic partner who has been placed under protective orders should be a capital offence. This was a premeditated act. The court had placed Yvette under its protection. This crime should have been taken much more seriously. Lets change the laws so we can change the outcomes.
Dana and Barb I think you need to get hold of your senses. Do you think her husband would have listened to a restraining order? If you take a breath I think you’ll realize it would not have. The bottom line is there is NOTHING Judge Palumbo could have done to protect her from this. Not one thing. She dropped the ball on her divorce, and that is what he was pointing out to her in the hearing (protective orders are not supposed to be indefinite), but even the divorce would not have helped her. Her husband was deranged and will thankfully spend the rest of his days behind bars. Focus your energy on help and sympathy for Yvette rather than anger against a judge who is no guiltier than SHE is.
To lay the blame for this crime at Palumbo’s feet is utterly ridiculous. And he’s not going to get disbarred although he hasn’t actively practiced law for several years. He’s more of a business man I believe.
You can be a member of the Maryland bar (i.e., be a lawyer) without being a member of the Maryland Bar Association, which is more of a networking thing. Licenses to practice law are issued by the Maryland Court of Appeals, not the Maryland Bar Association. He is a licensed (and well respected) attorney.
In all fairness I do beleve that this women was in the wrong court room. she should have seeked councle and gone to the wright place. To blame this gudge is inaccurate.They shoud not try to make a scapegoat out of this judge. A restraining order holds as much wait as a roll of toliet paper.The real issue is the sick man that set this women on fire and should be ultimitley punished.
In reading the comments about former judge Richard Palumbo I agree with only one individual, Mike from Maryland. Former Judge Palumbo did use poor judgment in some of his statements but if you’ve ever been in his courtroom you’d see that he tries to be witty, sometimes to his own detriment. He’s not to blame for what happened to Yvette, her husband is to blame and he has been put away foever. Judges are human and humans make errors. Maybe in time Richard Palumbo will take his talent and his knowledge of the law and offer to help women who are in Vyette’s position now as she was then. Don’t you think that Richard Palumbo would make a top notch advisor to those who are suffering domestic violence and don’t know what to do, where to go or even how to represent themselves in court before a judge? I do.
I know a young woman with three children whose husband choked her one night so severely that her 12 year old son called 911. She fled the house before the police came and then tried to get a protective order. She received a temporary order but was not able to get a permanent order because no one thought to order the 911 tape, her word against his, she lost. He then went before a judge (having been coached by his lawyer as to what to say) and was successful in having her committed for 72 hours evaluation. While she was in the hospital he called social services and reported child neglect in the home. When she was released (totally sane) he took her to social services where she was told that if she didn’t sign a Safety Plan they would take her to court and remove the children. She was so upset that she signed the Plan which provided for her to have supervised visits and him to be the primary custodian of their children.
After the social services evaluations, the safety plan was rescinded and it was recommended that the children be returned to their mother. Knowing what social services was doing before the wife, the husband went in to another county and filed for a protection order against her stating that social services viewed her as scitzophrentic (sp), a danger to herself and her children (which was all a lie). He received the protection order, custody of the children and she received supervised visits. That was in 2006.
Today, because of trial postpondments and his manipulation of the legal system, no judge has heard her story, seen her evidence or even listened to the chilling 911 tape.
I’ve followed this woman’s journey through the legal system and it’s pitiful. She barely made it through high school. For eight years she was a stay at home mom. Her kids were her life. Her husband was abusive, physically and mentally, and even wrote her a letter apologizing for the physical abuse. But he was and is smarter than she, he’s a college graduate, a businessman. He knows how to manipulate the legal system to his advantage.
My point is, this woman is one of thousands. I’m sure there is help out there for people like her but where to you find it? Richard Palumbo could change his whole image if he were to make himself available to counsel people who are in situations like Yvette and my friend. Who better to counsel people who can’t afford an attorney but who don’t qualify for legal aid, on how to present their domestic situations to a judge than a former judge?
In my eyes Richard Palumbo should be practicing law, domestic/family law, or at least, consulting in that field.
Jean,
Thank you for your comments. Most areas of the country have domestic violence shelters and/or hotlines that offer counseling, legal support and often temporary shelter. Try contacting the local social service agencies and/or legal aid for referrals to the shelters/hotlines. They’re out there. Peace to you.