State Department Officer Charged With Attempted Murder The Associated Press Published: Jan 9, 2002 WASHINGTON (AP) - A veteran State Department foreign service officer has been charged with attempting to murder her friend's estranged husband. Police say Margery L. Landry, 48, broke into the house of Arlen Slobodow before dawn Monday wearing a black ski mask and armed with a gun. Slobodow was awakened when the intruder tried to push him off the bed, according to police records cited by The Washington Post. Landry fired two shots at Slobodow, striking him once in the leg. He then wrestled with Landry, ripping off her mask, police said. According to police reports, Landry is a close friend of Slobodow's estranged wife and godmother to his two sons. Police are investigating whether the shooting is connected to an alleged threat by Slobodow's wife, Elsa Newman, to hire someone to kill her husband and children if she couldn't have custody. Landry was charged with attempted murder, assault and burglary and was ordered held without bond. Slobodow is in stable condition in a hospital. Slobodow's children, a 5-year-old boy and an 8-year-old boy, were not injured, police said. As a result of Newman's alleged statements to her attorney in September, a judge granted Slobodow full custody of the children, and Newman was allowed a supervised visit every two weeks, court charging documents state. Police said they are trying to find Newman, who lives in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, Md., for questioning. Prosecutors described the two women as close friends and former college roommates. Landry, who works in the State Department's Office of Children's Issues, and her husband, John, a civilian Army employee, are godparents to Slobodow and Newman's children. Henry Asbill, Landry's attorney, told the Post that his client should be presumed innocent. He argued during her bond hearing that she has no prior arrest or conviction. Landry works in the division at State that handles international parental child abduction and international adoption matters, an agency spokeswoman said. She said officials would follow the police investigation of Landry and have not made a decision on her employment.