When I was new to column writing, a woman contacted me to discuss a legal battle that pretty much consumed her life — the matter of child custody resulting from a bitter divorce. Her ex-husband lived in Florida and wanted full custody of her two children while the woman, of course, had hired a Maryland attorney to fight off her ex and his lawyers. She claimed her ex had been abusive to her and the kids. She loaded me up with court documents and letters, and asked me to write a column to expose what she considered her husband’s abusive nature and his heavy-handed efforts to wrest her children away from her.
I got into the case for a few days, read the docs, spoke to the ex-husband or his attorney — I can’t remember which, it might have been both— and decided it was an impossible story to write. It was all He Said/She Said, with no clear bad guy or good guy. My editor, Bob Keller, concurred and then advised the young me to stay away from child custody cases as subjects for newspaper columns. I have followed that advice for some 40 years.
Judges do not have the luxury of avoiding custody battles. They are paid to preside over them and make a judgment — to pick a side, one parent over another, or to approve a compromise. It is a difficult job.
Washington County Circuit Court Judge Andrew Wilkinson did his job the other day and it apparently cost him his life. He awarded custody of a man’s children to his ex-wife, and now that man is wanted for the judge’s murder.
What a horrifying tragedy this is, though no one in gun-infested America should be surprised that such a thing could happen. An angry man and a gun — few things are as volatile and as dangerous, and custody battles, particularly, compound that danger.
On this subject, The Daily Record quotes Andre Davis, the retired federal and state judge and former Baltimore city solicitor: “For all of the attention that’s paid to the risk to judges and others in criminal cases, it’s so important to remind everybody that it is these emotion-laden cases involving families and children [that pose the most danger].”
Dan Rodricks 
Certainly true Dan, and Judge Davis is correct as well. I am a lawyer. I don’t do these kinds of cases. But, I recall chatting with a circuit court judge who told me that several of the judges in his circuit (not Washington County) wear guns beneath their robes on days when they hear family law cases, even though the courts have metal detectors and court room deputies.
This was, plain and simple, premeditated murder. The man who is the suspect did not appear for the hearing on the day of the hearing. Unfortunately, anyone with half a brain can locate the home address of another person on the internet. This is undoubtedly what this horrible person did.
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You nailed it. While on the Circuit Court I was able to avoid that duty, thank G-d!
I could not avoid a week’s training in that area, which was one of the worst weeks of my life. I was so depressed I ate constantly and probably gained 30 lbs in 5 days.
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How sad
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😢
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I am a victim of the court system failing to do their duty and there are many of us out there, sitting in these hearings after doing everything right all to find out that the unfit parent is given custody based of bias. My ex is a police officer, our judge a former police officer and counsel for the county sheriffs. They both work in the same county, I proved 10-fold my claims and my ex won on lies that have shattered my family. I was accused of the exact things they do and now my children have come home suffering, this past week blood and protein in urine. Ex stated on the stand the children are not allowed to use the bathroom at night. I have no attorney; this is the nightmare we are forced to live while she sleeps at night.
There needs to be change and these judges need to be held accountable.
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