WOMAN BEATEN; EX-LOVER SOUGHT

CORTNEY BAIRD KNEW her ex-boyfriend was a dangerous man.

Baird, 34, filed a protection-from-abuse order against Glenn Minch Jr. - her estranged boyfriend and the father of her then-6-month-old daughter - on June 6. Obtained yesterday by the Daily News, it explicitly states Minch's threats toward Baird.

"He has threatened to break every bone in my face and to slit my throat from ear to ear," Baird - a resident of suburban Narberth - wrote in the court papers about Minch's terror. It also stated that Minch had "placed his hands around Baird's neck" before.

Ironically, she withdrew the order just nine days later. On Tuesday night, the normal calm of the leafy, affluent Main Line suburb was shattered when Minch allegedly followed through on his threats.

Police said the drama unfolded shortly before 9 p.m., when police were called to the apartment that Baird rents on Woodside Avenue.

"They've had a tumultuous relationship over a number of years," said Narberth's mayor and police chief, Tom Grady, of the estranged couple's interaction.

"There were frequent calls to the house and they almost always were regarding domestic issues," Grady added, declining to provide further details of the incidents.

Cops said that upon arriving they learned that Minch had gotten into a physical confrontation with Baird and choked her. As Baird lay unconscious on the floor, Minch - with his 18-month-old daughter, Macie Lynn, in tow - took off in his ex's Honda Accord.

An Amber Alert was immediately issued for little Macie, and an intense hunt for her safe return and the capture of her father began.

Yesterday morning, after a search that included the FBI and the Narberth, Lower Merion and Woodbridge, N.J., police departments, the blue-eyed, smiling tot was found unharmed at her grandmother's house in Woodbridge in northern New Jersey.

Baird underwent surgery yesterday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital to repair a crushed larynx and several cracked vertebrae.

Meanwhile, neighbors on the quiet, tree-lined street in Narberth - where children play in spacious yards and residents still know each other by name - were horrified at the ongoing drama there.

Katherine Costa, a Narberth resident for nearly two decades, sat on her porch yesterday facing Baird's house with a deep sadness in her dark brown eyes.

"I was absolutely sick after I learned what he did to her," she said. "It's disgusting and awful."

Costa said she saw police at Baird's house on a regular basis and heard Minch "always yelling."

"I wanted to offer her my support, you know?" Costa said. "Just to say that I would be there for her if she needed it, but I didn't know her well enough to do that.

"I didn't want to be intrusive," she added.

"She was just one of the most sweet, lovely and caring people you could ever meet," Costa said of her interaction with Baird.

"When she moved in here a couple of years ago, she had this spark in her eye, but as time went she just lost it," said Erminia Costa, another neighbor of Baird's and Katherine Costa's mother.

It was unclear what Baird did for a living, but Minch was sporadically employed at the Ardmore IHOP between May and December of last year, said Patrick Lenow, a spokesman for the company.

Neighbors at her mother's former address in New Jersey said that Baird was a graduate of Chestnut Hill College and worked for years as a waitress and hostess at local restaurants near her home.

"I knew Cortney when she was in college," said Valerie Grossman, a neighbor of the Bairds.

"She was just a really nice, sweet kid," Grossman said.

Meanwhile, Baird's family waited anxiously yesterday in a waiting room outside the Neurosensory Intensive Care Unit inside Jefferson Hospital.

Her mother, Karen Baird, wept softly at times and only was able to say that she hoped things would turn out OK for her daughter.

Her brother David said of his younger sister, "She's doing as well as possible.

"The baby is safe," he added, sounding relieved.

Baird's family members had little information about Minch - only that he had been separated from Cortney for quite some time.

Karen Baird added about Minch, "He has a serious drug problem."

Police in Narberth were still searching for Minch last night. Records show he has had several arrests for drug charges.

A citation issued by the Narberth Police on May 18, 2006, for criminal trespassing states that the "defendant has had five prior police contacts with the department this year."

Minch is described as a white male, 6 feet tall, and weighing about 180 pounds.

He was last seen driving a black Honda Accord with Pennsylvania license plate number FSF-8590. *