Woman's Face Who Was Set On fire By Her Husband

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Yvette Cade, set on fire last year by her estranged husband, appeared on Oprah Winfrey's television show to speak publicly about her ordeal for the first time since she testified during his trial. "Every day is a struggle," she said. (By George Burns © Harpo Productions)

On 'Oprah,' a Wife's Tale of Terror
It Was Two Months Before She Looked at Her Face. Yesterday, She Showed It to the World.

By Allison Klein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 4, 2006; B01

Her face is splotched with tender pink patches, her right ear is half-missing and her hands are covered with charred, fragile skin. Yvette Cade, the Prince George's County woman who was set on fire by her husband last year, appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show yesterday for the entire hour and described her living horror.

She did not spare the graphic details.

Cade wears a mask 23 hours a day to prevent scar tissue from forming. She pulls on a pressure garment to keep her skin from becoming bumpy. Sometimes, she can't bear the pain of sliding it on.

"My arms, they're sometimes hard to move," said Cade, 32. "I go to physical therapy to try not to let my arms get stuck. My ears melted. I don't have my earlobe. But I can hear."

Cade was set ablaze by her estranged husband Oct. 10 at the T-Mobile store in Clinton where she was working. Roger B. Hargrave was convicted last week of attempted murder.

Apart from the Winfrey show, Cade has not spoken publicly since the incident, other than at her trial, at the request of Prince George's prosecutors and the judge, said a sister, Shereen Jackson.

Cade was poised and calm, sitting next to Winfrey on a pale yellow love seat. She was expressive with her big, brown eyes and frank honesty.

She wore a black suit and slacks, with a blue shirt underneath, and white tennis shoes. Through most of the show, she kept her hands in her lap and her feet crossed at the ankles.

Her fingers are so damaged they do not allow her to use buttons or zippers.

Winfrey held her up as an example of the violence that can occur in abusive relationships.

Cade said she has had no contact with Hargrave since he attacked her. Two days before his trial, though, she got a call from jail and believes he was trying to reach her.

"Ten forty-seven at night, I get a collect call from a correctional institute. I couldn't believe it," Cade said. "What would he have to say to me? I was supposed to be dead."

Looking at Cade's face and hands, Winfrey asked her whether her idea of beauty has changed.

"No," Cade said, smiling and touching her close-cropped hair and a bandage on the back of her head. "I still wanted to look good when I came out here. It's just another beauty, that's all."

Cade said that she did not come from an abusive home but had been in an abusive relationship before she married Hargrave.

Winfrey told her audience that several weeks before Hargrave's attack, a Prince George's District Court judge dismissed a protective order Cade had obtained against Hargrave. The audience gasped.

The judge later said the dismissal was the result of a clerical error, Winfrey said in disbelief. "Shame, shame -- that's a shame," she added.

Although protective orders are designed to keep abusers away, there is no consensus on whether they are effective.

Winfrey played the audiotape of a court hearing in which the judge, Richard A. Palumbo, is sarcastic, talks over Cade and dismisses her protective order.

"I think that's awful, don't you?" Winfrey asked audience members, who responded, "Yes!"

"We invited Judge Palumbo to be here or provide a statement, and you can see he ain't here," Winfrey said, prompting a big laugh from the crowd.

Since shortly after the attack on Cade, Palumbo has not been hearing cases. Maryland's judicial commission recently filed misconduct charges against him in connection with his treatment of women in domestic violence cases and with some traffic incidents in which he allegedly misused his position as a judge.

At Hargrave's trial, prosecutors played a surveillance video from the T-Mobile store of Cade actually on fire. Winfrey showed it as well.

And Cade described what she remembered from that morning: Hargrave came into the store, and when she saw him, she told him she'd be with him in a minute. He then walked up to her and poured gasoline on her from a Sprite bottle.

Cade said she didn't realize what was happening.

"I was really focused on the customer. I didn't want to cause any commotion in the store and make the customer feel that there was something going on," she said.

Then she felt something on her back. It was Hargrave, using a lighter to ignite her.

Cade ran outside, then back into the store. "I just went to the sink and I began to hose my face," she said. "And I remember thinking to myself that my face was melting."

Cade was in a hospital for three months and endured more than a dozen surgeries.

The first time she looked at her face was two months after she arrived at the hospital.

"It was on the 60th day. My mother would count the days," she said. "And it was by accident. Beauty comes within, and I just said, well, maybe -- I don't question God, but maybe this is my calling. I was comfortable with it, and I have to continue my life."

After the show, Cade said in a telephone interview that she thought she had done well and that it felt fine watching herself on television. Going forward, Cade said, she is focused on her upcoming surgeries and recovery.

"Every day is a struggle," she said.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company
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Such a sad story. Bless her heart.
It was so wrong of the judge to dismiss the protective order that she had against her estranged husband.
 
That judge has got to go. :thumbd:
 
Reba said:
That judge has got to go. :thumbd:
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Agreed! From what I seen in the article, maybe this is the last straw and he will be out as judge.

Absolutely disgusting and despicable action on Hargrave's part.

Bless Ms. Cade's heart...more power to her!
 
lol the judge should've had his ass sent to prison for being an asshole over that woman.
Amazing she's still alive after all.
 
OMG!!! Blessed that woman survived!!! Damn that Judge! He has to go, PERIOD!!! :thumbd:
 
What I see in that picture is not disfigurment. I see incredible confidence instead...you have to admire her.

That judge should be forced to serve the same penalty as the criminals he AIDED (in my opinion) to commit their crimes. Life in prison, maybe?
 
oh my gosh! i saw on the television what terrible for her.

what amazing story of her and her husband getting fires on her that not right and getting burns of her everythings on her skins and faces but she very lucky to alives and she explain to Oprah about everythings!

but i would agree with posts but she need to protection to away from husband they dont hurt her if harrasment again they will call police to report for sure they husband will throw to jail for rest of life they wont bother her ever.

Judge will handle to restrained order against of her husband to stop harms for burns of her they wont hurt if again Judge will tell him what to away as feet as 300 or 400 feet from her.
 
:aw: :aw: I saw this courageous woman on the Oprah show the other day, and I couldn't believe that her husband would do this to her!!!! I give her lot of courage, to come out in public, and to tell her story. I couldn't believe that a man who is supposed to protect her, would do this to her. When she talked about her ordeal, her eyes held so much sadness, and yet the strength she had made me admire her more. No matter what she looked like, she is a very pretty woman, inside and out.
 
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