Spousal Abuse

Charges of spousal abuse have been filed against Irv Krespi, a cancer patient who last month received nationwide media attention for an emotional, two-mile ocean swim with his 4-year-old daughter. The Orange County district attorney's office on Monday charged Krespi, 61, of Costa Mesa with assault, battery and resisting arrest, all misdemeanor counts stemming from an incident on the night of Aug. 15, hours after the swim. If convicted, Krespi faces a maximum of three years in jail.

Manny Ramirez was the best thing to hit Los Angeles. And nothing that has happened recently changes that. He was a performer, an overnight sensation in Los Angeles after arriving late in 2008, providing almost unmatched escape for those who find their release in sports. It was so much fun, the anticipation and eventually the expectation that he was going to deliver something memorable. He had big hit after big hit, and the Dodgers were suddenly a hair away from playing in the World Series.

Andrea Dworkin's article, "Trapped in a Pattern of Pain Where No One Can Help" (Opinion, June 26), had a deeply disturbing effect on me and should be required reading for every legislator. We have laws to protect children from abuse which do not require the child to press charges. When a battered woman repeatedly contacts authorities that in itself should be enough to warrant legal intervention. My own experience in a previous marriage corroborates Dworkin's chilling description of spousal abuse.

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman has been charged with spousal abuse, brandishing a deadly weapon and trying to dissuade a witness in connection with a domestic violence incident last month at a Century City hotel involving his girlfriend, the city attorney's office said Thursday. "His girlfriend of four years sustained visible physical injuries," said Nick Velasquez, a city attorney's spokesman. Rodman, the onetime Laker and Chicago Bulls rebounder, must appear in court May 22, Velasquez said.

Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature, spurred by the O.J. Simpson case, are about to approve spending an unprecedented $30 million to assist battered women and intensify prosecution of spousal abusers. The historic commitment was quietly written into the otherwise austere state budget at the urging of female legislators, who capitalized on the notoriety of the Simpson case to attack an issue they say has been neglected for years. "It did take O.J.

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman has been charged with spousal abuse, brandishing a deadly weapon and trying to dissuade a witness in connection with a domestic violence incident last month at a Century City hotel involving his girlfriend, the city attorney's office said Thursday. "His girlfriend of four years sustained visible physical injuries," said Nick Velasquez, a city attorney's spokesman. Rodman, the onetime Laker and Chicago Bulls rebounder, must appear in court May 22, Velasquez said.

LeRoy Irvin, a punt returner and defensive back for the Rams in the 1980s, was jailed Wednesday on criminal charges of spousal abuse. Irvin was charged with spousal abuse, vandalizing the home of his estranged wife and threatening to kill her in telephone conversations. Irvin was remanded into custody at the Los Angeles County Jail after failing to appear at a prior hearing, authorities said.

Jan Rubinstein, 35, Loyola Law School graduate and activist in the fight against spousal abuse. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at the UCLA Faculty Center for Rubinstein, who had lived on Guam for 12 years. After she won a divorce case, her client's ex-husband followed the client from the courthouse in Agana, Guam, and allegedly shot her to death. The man has been arrested and charged with murder.

Sociologist Nancy Nason-Clark has seen both sides of the way people in churches react to reports of spousal abuse. She cited the case of a battered wife who works as an office manager in a denominational headquarters. Her husband is viewed by clergy as "a fine Christian man" incapable of beating his wife's head against a kitchen cabinet. But the sociologist also cited the actions of some members of conservative churches who support transitional housing or provide shelter for abused women.

Rodney G. King pleaded not guilty Friday in Alhambra Municipal Court to assault with a car and domestic violence charges stemming from a July 14 incident involving his estranged wife. King, 30, whose videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers four years ago shocked the world, is charged with corporal injury to a spouse, assault with a deadly weapon and hit and run.

A senior investigator for the Riverside County district attorney was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of spousal abuse and perjury, officials said. The arrest is the second shock to the Indio office of Dist. Atty. Grover Trask in recent months. In May, a senior investigator killed himself and five family members at his home in Garner Valley in the San Bernardino National Forest. Luis "Tito" Bolanos, 44, of Cathedral City was arrested in his office.

New evidence about mass murder defendant Vincent Brothers' troubled history with women contains allegations that local authorities protected the school administrator because he was considered a civic role model. Documents released by court order show that Brothers, who is accused of killing five members of his family in what police have called the "most heinous crime" in this city's history, was repeatedly accused of intimidating and physically assaulting women as far back as 1988.

Today, all the U.S. Senate candidates in Illinois can talk about is their drug use. Last week, it was wife beating. The week before? How much money each candidate had in the bank. The race to fill the open seat currently held by Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald has drawn a host of wealthy candidates -- seven of the 15 contenders vying in the Tuesday primary are millionaires. It also has unleashed a Jerry Springer-esque debate over personal morals, drug use and messy divorces.

I just finished reading "'She Was Terrified of Him'" (March 19), on Jose Delacruz, who was released to "get his financial business in order." Now a woman and her small children are missing. I don't understand how a Superior Court judge can look at the history of Delacruz and not take the family into consideration. He had just been convicted of spousal abuse! What about that poor woman who was brave enough to leave him and go to a shelter to save herself and her children? I wonder if she had time to get her business in order?

A retired Los Angeles firefighter charged with beating his wife, stalking her and torching her car has been captured in Nevada after South Pasadena investigators pursued him for about 2 1/2 years. It was retirement money that David Walter Pierson earned fighting fires for 27 years that led to his capture Sept. 18 in Laughlin, Nev., said South Pasadena Police Sgt. Mark Miller. "They always say follow the money," Miller said.

There are many reasons for a family reunion--weddings, funerals and, in Edward Allan Baker's "Crying Rocks" at the new Laurelgrove Theatre, shooting your husband. In the play's double-cast premiere, the cast that performs on Sundays gives fierce portrayals that wring laughter out of tragedy. Jack Heller deftly directs this sensitive drama about the cycle of spousal abuse and its effects on a blue-collar mother and her four daughters. Heller doesn't make sympathizing with the victim easy.

There are many reasons for a family reunion--weddings, funerals and, in Edward Allan Baker's "Crying Rocks" at the new Laurelgrove Theatre, shooting your husband. In the play's double-cast premiere, the cast that performs on Sundays gives fierce portrayals that wring laughter out of tragedy. Jack Heller deftly directs this sensitive drama about the cycle of spousal abuse and its effects on a blue-collar mother and her four daughters. Heller doesn't make sympathizing with the victim easy.

Seizing the spotlight that former football great O.J. Simpson's arrest has thrown on spousal abuse, lawmakers from throughout the state said Tuesday they see momentum for passing stronger laws to curb domestic violence.

Weeping and expressing gratitude to supporters, a 40-year-old Indian immigrant accused of trying to drown her two children was released from jail Wednesday after those benefactors posted $500,000 bail. Draped in a traditional Punjabi scarf and borrowed clothes, an emotional Narinder Virk stepped out of Ventura County Jail and embraced her supporters. In her native language, she thanked them and clung to their arms as she shuffled outside the jail for the first time in eight months.

In Russia there is no such crime as spousal abuse. They don't even have the concept of a restraining order. In fact no distinctions are made between killing your spouse and killing your neighbor, or beating your child and beating a bar mate. But that could change when six high-ranking Russian officials return home from Ventura County, taking with them the tools to define and combat the problem of violence within families.