yvette cade

Welcome to my site. Thank you for visiting. As you may have seen on Nancy Grace (Summer 2006), Montel Williams (Thursday, November 9, 2006), and Oprah (Wednesday, May 3, 2006), I have undergone a terrible tragedy. One that I did not expect, and never would have imagined. I encourage all women who are currently involved in abusive relationships to GET OUT NOW. If you have made a decision, as I did, to leave your abusive mate CONGRATULATIONS. You have done the right thing.

Although my ex-husband came to my place of employment, doused me with gasoline and set me on fire, I am a survivor. I suffered third degree burns over 60% of my body, but I am a survivor. My flesh is scarred, my spirit is not. I am strong! If you are looking for a living witness that no matter what you have been through -- YOU CAN MAKE IT, here I am.

I have survived numerous surgeries, and though I still have many more on the horizon, I am recuperating well at home. I am slowly making progress. My main concern is for my family and making sure that I stay strong and focused on moving forward. I am very thankful and appreciative of all the support I have received from everyone. Your thoughts, prayers, and donations are greatly appreciated by me and my entire family. Two months after Yvette Cade's estranged husband allegedly filled a 20-ounce Sprite bottle with gasoline, walked into the bustling cell phone store where she worked and doused her before lighting a match, Cade lies in a bed at the Washington Hospital Center burn unit. Through excruciating pain, endless operations and bitter memories of cavalier comments made by the Prince George's County judge who dismissed the restraining order she hoped would protect her, the Suitland resident quietly endures.

Since October, only medical professionals have been allowed to touch Cade, 31, who was burned over 60 percent of her body. So she has yet to receive comforting kisses from her 12-year-old daughter or a hug from her mother, who three times has traveled from Akron, Ohio, to be with her.



Yvette Cade was set on fire, allegedly by her husband.

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Last week, Cade -- for the first time since the attack -- looked in a mirror. Her reaction to the effect of third-degree burns on a face that had been as smooth as honey couldn't have been calmer.

"I finally saw myself in the mirror," Cade, 31, told her sister, Shereen Jackson. Something about Cade's quiet, drama-free tone told Jackson not to push her to elaborate.

Says Jackson: "If she wanted to say something more, she would have said it."

Jackson has plenty to say: about her sister's courage, her brother-in-law's apparent cruelty, the judge whose actions she feels grievously wounded her sister. But Cade -- whose communication has evolved from eye-blinks to tapping out letters on an alphabet board to the near-whisper that's now her voice -- wastes few words on anger or regret.

Physically, Cade -- who on Wednesday had yet another skin graft operation -- is progressing nicely. She can walk to a bedside commode; her body has resisted the life-threatening infections that often imperil severe burn victims. She discusses bill-paying with Jackson and counsels her daughter to behave while she's living with a cousin's family.

"I've never seen her upset since [the attack] happened," says Jackson, who credits their upbringing for Cade's forbearance. "Our dad's a Christian church guy, our mom's an earthy, granola-bar free thinker.

"That mixture means you keep everything positive."

Back on Sept. 19, Cade was her usual confident self as she sought an extension of a temporary restraining order from Prince George's District Court Judge Richard A. Palumbo against her husband, Roger B. Hargrave, who wouldn't stop hounding her, she said.

Explaining that Hargrave was intimidating her daughter and vandalizing property, Cade told Palumbo that she wanted "an immediate and absolute divorce," according to a recording of the proceeding.

"I'd like to be 6-foot-5," Palumbo, who's listed as 5-foot-4 on his driver's license, responded. "But that's not what we do here. You have to go to divorce court for that." According to the recording, Palumbo said, "Uh, this case is dismissed." Although documents show that the protective order was dissolved, Palumbo has said that he meant to retain the order and that its dismissal was a clerical error.
Clinton, MD The Prince George's County judge who dismissed a protective order against a man who later allegedly set his wife on fire has been removed from domestic violence cases.

A court spokeswoman tells Eyewitness News that District Court Judge Richard Palumbo was removed from hearing domestic violence cases by the court's chief administrative judge, Thurman Rhodes.

Weeks before 31-year-old Yvette Cade was doused with gasoline and set on fire, Palumbo ignored her pleas that her husband was intimidating her.

On September 19th, Palumbo dismissed a protective order that 31-year-old Yvette Cade had obtained against 33-year-old Roger Hargrave. On Monday, police say Hargrave went to his wife's workplace in Clinton, doused her with gas and set her on fire.

The clerk's office of the Prince George's County Courts released audio of a nearly four-minute exchange between Yvette Cade and District Court Judge Richard A. Palumbo recorded during a Sept. 19 hearing.

"The tape kind of speaks for itself," said State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey. He speculated that if Palumbo had a chance to
reconsider his decision to dismiss a protective order Cade obtained in August he would probably do things differently.

Carole Alexander of the House of Ruth, who had been counseling Cade, listened to the tape and was appalled.

"He gave him a message, a clear message: 'Do whatever you want,'" Alexander tells WJZ's Suzanne Collins. "He gave the man a license to kill."

The September hearing was prompted by a letter Hargrave wrote to Palumbo in August in which he asked the judge to rescind a protective order against him.

"I feel counseling may save our marriage," Hargrave wrote. The handwritten letter was filed with the court.

In the exchange released Thursday, Cade tells Palumbo that Hargrave had violated the order repeatedly by contacting her, intimidating her daughter and other members of her family and vandalizing the property of others.

"My husband is trying to stall our divorce," Cade tells Palumbo, who suggests that she get a lawyer and go to family court to get a divorce.

When Cade says she has no have money for a divorce lawyer, Palumbo advises her to seek help from the House of Ruth, a domestic violence program that had represented her in the past.

"Go back and ask them how to handle it," Palumbo says. He tells her he has "to be independent like an umpire," before concluding the hearing.

"His response to the victim in this incident was totally inappropriate, way, way, way, out of line. His comments were rude, they were insensitive. He did not listen to her," says Alexander.

Judge Palumbo tells Eyewitness News that it wouldn't be appropriate for him to respond.

Cade remains hospitalized after being burned over 60 percent of her body.

Her family says they are complaining to the Judicial Disability Board about Palumbo. That board has the right to censure a judge or even remove him from the bench.

Thirty-three-year-old Hargraves, of Temple Hills was ordered held without bond pending trial on Wednesday.
By clicking the link to the left, you will see surveillance video of Roger Hargrave walking into the workplace of his ex-wife Yvette Cade, dousing her with gasoline and chasing her outside where he set her on fire. You will see her run back into the store while she's on fire.

What you'll witness is graphic and disturbing, although a few of the most graphic frames are edited out.

9 News decided to make this video available on our website because it shows a domestic violence victim who survived and whose strength that day, and in court, helped convict her abuser.


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Jurors on Friday said guilty on all counts to a man now convicted of trying to kill his wife by setting her on fire. She survived and he may now spend the rest of his life in prison.

Roger Hargrave sat silently in court as jurors convicted him of attempted murder and assault. His ex-wife Yvette Cade also sat quietly.

Hargrave's lawyer told jurors there was "no doubt" Hargrave set Cade on fire while she worked. And jurors could see that for themselves in pictures from the store's video surveillance cameras.

When the video played in court, there was a universal gasp as people realized they were watching Yvette Cade on fire.

9 News made the decision not to air the video seen in the courtroom on the evening news shows because we felt many families may not want to watch the images together.

But we've put it on our website to show a domestic violence victim who survived, and whose strength that day -- and in court -- helped convict her abuser for what you'll see in the tape.

Yvette Cade's family left the courthouse with three convictions for Cade's ex-husband in hand Friday. And mercy in their hearts.

"The Bible says love is the greatest gift of all-- you must forgive to be forgiven," said her father, Hugh Cade.

The sentiment came just two days after the family sat in court and watched a recording of Hargrave setting Cade on fire at the T-Mobile store where she worked.

The surveillance video shows Hargrave walking in, Sprite bottle in hand, and going to a counter next to a customer Cade was helping. Cade is in the upper left corner, at a printer or copying machine. She comes back to help the customer, and suddenly Hargrave begins using his soda bottle to douse her. Experts testified the bottle's filled with gasoline.

Hargrave chases Cade outside. Cameras don't pick up her tripping and breaking her foot as he lights a match. They do pick up her running in flames into the store. Though we've edited that out, customers Sharon and Michael Smith watched it all unfold.

"When we saw her come in, I thought, it's not real. It can't be happening to her," said Sharon Smith.

As Cade desperately ran to the back of the store to find water, Smith watched as Hargrave followed her through the front door to pick up his keys so he could flee. Jurors decided Hargrave left his wife for dead. But Yvette Cade lived to tell her story.

State's Attorney Glenn Ivey called Cade an inspiration.

"To go through a horrible attack, but to be forgiving, it's a lesson for us all," he said.

Jurors also heard a 911 tape from the T-Mobile store as customers realized what had happened to Yvette Cade. Meanwhile, Yvette Cade did not talk or stand outside with her family after the verdict. She has chosen to tell her story next week on the Oprah Winfrey show.

Yvette Cade's case shed light on how domestic violence is handled in the courts. But there's still a question about whether a judge lifted a restraining order Yvette Cade thought she had against Roger Hargrave. The judge in question, Richard Palumbo, is assigned to administrative duties after perhaps lifting an order that might have kept Hargrave away from Cade.