Maryland Courts Protect Domestic Abusers

A married couple in LanHam, Maryland  got into an argument at their home on the 9400 block of Worrell Avenue. According to Prince George's County police,  the husband, Fragoso-Duana, 36, then walked away from the home.  His wife, Araceli Alvarez-Mendoza, 37, subsequently followed him in an SUV, drove alongside him for a bit and then ran him over with her vehicle.

A man witnessing the domestic incident called 911. According to the Washington Post, the caller told a 911 operator “Oh, my God, I can’t believe I witnessed that.  A man was running down the road and a truck just ran him over on purpose and the truck is sitting on top of him.”  A Washington DC news station, WUSA9, stated a security camera video "appears to show Alvarez-Mendoza intentionally accelerating toward her husband, who is running away. After being struck the vehicle continues to drag the victim until it strikes a tree."  Alvarez-Mendoza’s husband was trapped under the SUV and died at the scene.

Araceli Alvarez-Mendoza, 38, was recently sentenced to a mere 6 years in jail for this deadly domestic assault.

In the city of Laurel, another wife, Marquita Berry-Sutton, stabbed her husband, Johnnie Sutton III, 121 times. He died at the scene. The wife claimed her husband was about to sexually assault her, though there is no history of domestic attacks. Johnnie Sutton was unable to state his side of the story because he was dead. Marquita was convicted of murder and sentenced to only 10 years in prison.

When husbands assault their wives, the sentencing outcome is vastly different.

A Gaithersburg husband killed his wife in July 2014. Montgomery County police said the husband, Cola Beale, called around 10:30 a.m. on July 27 and said he had grabbed his wife and “swung her down the stairs.” He told police he saw blood coming from his wife’s head, but that she was still breathing when he left the residence. When police arrived she was dead. Beale was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

 A St Mary's County husband, Ryan Holness, wanted to divorce his wife Serika Holness.  He obtained a $500,000 life insurance policy on his wife and made himself the sole beneficiary. With the help of a friend, Mr Holness then stabbed his wife to death in a remote area of Kent County. For his crime, Ryan Holness was sentenced to life in prison. His friend, Dellando Recardo Campbell, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

In 2012, Robert Jarrett of Elkridge was arrested for killing his wife in 1991. In August 2013, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Statewide, only one domestic abuse case was discovered where a violent wife was sentenced to a similar lengthy prison term. Jaclyn Martin of Dundalk was sentenced in 2012 to 60 years in prison for the murder of her husband.

Murdering a wife is judicially a more serious crime than murdering a husband in the state of Maryland. The reason for this sexist double standard is feminism.

Feminist groups such as Court Watch Montgomery, House of Ruth and many other organizations work closely with the state's judicial system.  When a wife commits domestic abuse, these feminist organizations urge her to claim she was raped, or abused, or her husband's murder was an accident, or her husband threatened the kids, or a host of other lies. Using this fraudulent claim, feminists then persuade and apply political pressure against both prosecutor and judge to lessen any potential punishment against the violent wife. In Araceli Alvarez-Mendoza's case, the claim used was 'she accidentally ran over her husband' - despite the fact a witness asserted otherwise.

When husbands committing domestic violence use similar excuses, these same organizations threaten sex discrimination lawsuits against Maryland jurisdictions. Feminists state a husband can never have an excuse for killing his wife.

Within this state's legal system, domestic abusers are not really judged on the basis of their actions. Instead, they are judged and sentenced on the basis of their gender.  It’s as if Araceli Alvarez-Mendoza sprinkled magical female pixie dust on her husband while she ran over him thereby making his murder not so bad. Feminism is an ideology of sexism. It needs to be removed from Maryland's judicial process.