USI professor barred from seeing burned wife

EVANSVILLE -- A judge ordered a University of Southern Indiana professor charged with attempting to kill his wife not to have any contact with her for two years.\nVanderburgh County Judge J. Douglas Knight made the ruling Thursday after hearing testimony Tuesday that Ramadan Hemaida had tampered with his wife's ventilator and had displayed aggressive behavior inside her hospital rooms.\nThe judge determined that Hemaida was a "credible threat to the safety of his wife."\nHemaida's defense attorney, Jeff Lantz, said the protective order can be dropped if the wife wishes.\nLantz maintains Hemaida is innocent.\n"He's upset about his wife's condition and is upset he can't call the hospital," Lantz said.\nHemaida is being held at the Vanderburgh County Jail on a $500,000 bond. Hospitals don't accept collect calls, which are the only option available to inmates, Lantz said.\n"We are waiting for a chance to tell his side and waiting for the wife to recover so she can tell her side," Lantz said.\nLawyers have been appointed to represent his wife, Fatima Hemaida, who is recovering from burns at Kindred Hospital in Indianapolis.\nHemaida, who teaches in USI's business school, was indicted by a grand jury on charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery after his wife suffered first-, second- and third-degree burns to 40 percent of her body May 24.\nHemaida and his wife told authorities her clothes caught fire after she spilled gasoline on herself while lighting a barbecue grill, a police report said.\nInvestigators have said evidence contradicts that account.