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Ailing Man Accuses Wife Of Assaulting Him In Bed
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By LISA A. DAVIS The Tampa Tribune

Published: Feb 13, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - Rene Ramseier lay in his bed Sunday evening, his upper body drained by Lou Gehrig's disease, barely strong enough to lift a cup of coffee, and listened as his wife lambasted him about being lazy.

Unable to fight back, Ramseier, 73, didn't say a word as she cursed him and complained he didn't help around the house, he told Pasco sheriff's deputies.

Then Caren Garrity got physical, repeatedly slapping her husband and hitting him with a stuffed black toy dog, a sheriff's report states.

She grabbed his leg and tried to drag him from the bed, he told deputies, but Ramseier summoned help by hitting his bedside medical alarm.

When paramedics arrived at the couple's home at 5300 Wellfield Road, Ramseier told them his "alcoholic wife" had roughed him up, a report states.

He wasn't seriously injured, but his blood pressure rose during the incident and a nurse from hospice, which has been providing in-home care, was called.

Ramseier, a retired physicist, told authorities that Garrity, a part-time college instructor, gets violent when she drinks and also hit him Friday.

A witness told deputies the couple have "domestic problems" every few months.

Neither of them could be reached Monday to talk about how a relationship that involved a shared love of researching the Arctic and Antarctic ended up with Garrity, 47, in jail after Sunday's incident.

As deputies asked her what happened that night, Garrity slurred her words and stumbled, a report states. She accused Ramseier of hitting her and throwing her to the ground, but she wouldn't say where in the house it happened.

Asked what she and her husband were fighting about, Garrity mentioned his illness and said he becomes emotional, a report states.

Lou Gehrig's disease - or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Patients lose muscle control and can become paralyzed and die.

Patients usually remain lucid as the disease ravages their bodies.

Garrity was arrested on a felony charge of domestic abuse. She was released from the Land O' Lakes jail Monday evening after promising a judge she would return to court for future hearings in the case.

She's been working part time at Pasco-Hernando Community College in Brooksville, where she teaches geology and astronomy. She and her husband have published papers on their research.

Last summer, they spoke to the congregation of Spirit of Life Unitarian Universalists in Odessa about their experiences working in the polar regions, the church's Web site says.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083 or ldavis@tampatrib.com.
http://pasco.tbo.com:80/pasco/MGBI8W4P3YE.html