Maryland Del. Dana Lee Dembrow, charged with hitting his wife last month, was ordered yesterday to stay away from her and their Silver Spring home for more than five months under a protective order signed by a judge yesterday in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
Dembrow and his wife, Suzette, appeared in court with their attorneys yesterday for a brief hearing but did not speak to each other. The couple were married in 1988.
When asked by Judge W. Warren Donohue whether he accepted the conditions of the order, Dana Dembrow said, "If this is what my wife wants, your honor, then I agree."
Dembrow, 48, said in an interview that he hopes to reconcile with his wife. Suzette Dembrow, 39, who had a cut across her nose, declined to comment.
Dana Dembrow (D-Montgomery) was charged March 31 with second-degree assault after he allegedly hit his wife and bloodied her nose during an argument about their marriage. Dembrow has filed countercharges against his wife, saying that she is a former professional boxer who hit him first and who has been violent previously. On a court form, Dembrow wrote in the box for a description of his wife, "Beautiful."
Both assault cases are being handled by Frederick County State's Attorney Scott Rolle (R). Montgomery County State's Attorney Douglas F. Gansler (D) said he wanted to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.
A trial date for the charge against Dana Dembrow has been scheduled for May 31; a preliminary hearing for Suzette Dembrow will be held May 30, Rolle said.
The couple's troubles were a distraction for lawmakers in the Maryland legislature's final week after Dembrow publicly admitted that he struck his wife. The Women's Caucus issued a statement condemning domestic violence, though it did not name Dembrow, and the legislature's ethics committee convened to discuss the implications of his arrest.
Dembrow, who has served in the General Assembly for 16 years, has said it is too early to tell how the incident will affect his career.
In her application for a protective order, Suzette Dembrow wrote that her husband punched her in the chest three times March 30 after she tried to get his attention. Police 911 records show that police were called to the home, in the 2900 block of Schubert Drive, that day but did not make an arrest or file a report.
The next evening, Suzette Dembrow said, she gave her husband a note saying their marriage was over. She said that he then hit her in the nose and that, in the ensuing argument, she slapped him. Police were called to the home and found Suzette Dembrow on the porch, holding a towel to her face, with blood running down her nose, according to charging documents filed by the police.
The protective order, which expires Sept. 30, lists more than a dozen conditions worked out by the Dembrows' attorneys, including specific visitation hours for Dana Dembrow to spend with the couple's two daughters.
Dembrow was ordered to pay his wife $750 a month, to give her $1,000 for previously scheduled dental work and to pay off the balance, up to $6,000, of nine credit cards in her name, including Victoria's Secret, Kmart and Capitol One. She also will get access to their beach house for two weeks during the summer.
The sheriff's department will collect all firearms owned by Dana Dembrow, including a pistol in a lockbox that his wife said was stored in their house.
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