_____Related Coverage_____ • New Blow For School Board in Pr. George's (The Washington Post, Apr 3, 2002) • Full Senate Endorses Cigarette Tax Rise (The Washington Post, Apr 3, 2002) • Van Hollen Takes Issue With Implications of Shriver Camp's Poll (The Washington Post, Mar 31, 2002) • Full Coverage _____Issues 2002: Ethics_____ • Md. House Rejects Bill Barring Governor From Job (The Washington Post, Mar 13, 2002) • In Md., a Charitable Way to Skirt Ethics Laws (The Washington Post, Feb 21, 2002) • For Md. Powerful, Marriage Conflicts Spread Over Courts (The Washington Post, Feb 4, 2002) • Del. Boschert and Council Members: Illegal Lobbying or Just Talking? (The Washington Post, Jan 17, 2002) • Md. Ethics Measure Caught in Late Rush (The Washington Post, Apr 9, 2001) • More Ethics Stories E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version Subscribe to The Post

By Matthew Mosk and Phuong Ly
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, April 2, 2002; Page B02

Maryland Del. Dana Lee Dembrow was arrested Sunday by Montgomery County police and charged with second-degree assault after he allegedly struck his wife, bloodied her nose and blackened her eyes during an argument about their marriage.

Dembrow, 48, was released on his personal recognizance after a District Court commissioner ordered the delegate not to return to the couple's Silver Spring home and to have no contact with his wife.

The four-term Democrat said in an interview yesterday that he slapped his wife once after she hit him. The couple were married in 1988 and have two daughters.

"It was a disgraceful and humiliating act on my part, and I deeply regret it," Dembrow said, choking back tears in his Annapolis office. "My political and legal careers are in shambles. Much more importantly, my family is devastated."

House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. (D-Allegany) said he had no expectation that the legislature would take action to prevent Dembrow from continuing his work during the session, although Taylor said he did not know the proper procedure for dealing with the arrest of a member.

"I'm not going to prejudge the situation," Taylor said. "I will ask our ethics advisers for advice."

Montgomery County police said their call to the Dembrows' home Sunday night was the second in two days. Police were called there at 10:17 p.m. Saturday, according to 911 logs. But no arrest was made, and no report was filed.

Officers were called back about 6:40 p.m. Sunday. They found Suzette Dembrow on the porch, holding a towel to her face with blood running down her nose and on her fingers and arms, according to a charging document filed in District Court.

According to the document, Dembrow had a half-inch cut on her nose, and her eye sockets were swollen and discolored. She told police that the Sunday argument about persistent problems in the couple's marriage was a continuation of their confrontation Saturday night.

Dana Dembrow said his wife struck first. "In a moment of lost control, I responded in kind, slapping her in the face once with an open palm and bloodying her nose," he said yesterday.

Suzette Dembrow was taken by ambulance to Laurel Regional Hospital, where she was treated and released. She could not be reached yesterday. Police placed Dana Dembrow in handcuffs, took him in a police cruiser to the county's Central Processing Unit in Rockville and charged him with second-degree assault, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.

Montgomery County State's Attorney Douglas F. Gansler (D) yesterday asked Frederick County State's Attorney Scott Rolle, a Republican, to handle Dembrow's case to avoid any possible favoritism. No date has been set for a court hearing.

Dembrow had been considering a run for state Senate this year in a new Montgomery County district carved out during legislative redistricting. Asked yesterday whether he would run, Dembrow said: "I'm afraid this really hurts me. This may destroy me."

Dembrow and his wife have been the subject of intense publicity before: In 1987, he appeared at a Halloween party as a pygmy, wearing full-body black makeup and a loin cloth; Suzette Dembrow wore a low-cut leopard-skin costume and carried a whip.

The Dembrows were at a Hyattsville party in 1990 that was raided by police looking for drugs.

During his 16 years in the General Assembly, Dembrow frequently has offered amendments that diluted bills dealing with drunken driving and domestic violence. This year, he voted in committee to defeat legislation that would have made it a misdemeanor for a batterer to willfully miss mandatory counseling sessions.

Dembrow has said his record is consistent and based on common sense. While he is unlikely to support mandatory penalties for criminals, he has a history of backing measures aimed at helping victims, including a favorable vote he cast this year for a bill that would enable domestic violence victims to secure protective orders on weekends.