Adrian Fenty, Cathy Lanier, Interim AG Peter Nickles Resignation Watch, Day 5: I kid you not: Four teens stabbed at NE “peace” festival.

Well, at least no one was shot!

The Washington Post:

Four teenagers, all female, were stabbed in a Northeast Washington neighborhood yesterday shortly after the close of activities there promoting “Peace in the Streets.”

The teenagers, who range in age from 15 to 18, suffered wounds that were not believed life-threatening. The incident occurred about 7 p.m. near Nannie Helen Burroughs and Division avenues NE, according to police and fire department officials.

There was no indication of what prompted the stabbings and no report of arrests.

Mattaponi Springs Golf Club gets a mention in The Washington Times.

The Washington Times:

The question should not be whether to take your next golf trip to Virginia, but where in Virginia you should go. We offer a few suggestions.

[…]

6. Discover something new. Leave it to a patent attorney to develop 330 acres of “intellectual property” in Caroline County. Mattaponi Springs Golf Club is the brainchild of owner and builder Jim Oliff, who spent two years looking for a site for his course and another five years building it. “The property at Mattaponi Springs was enough to get any architect keyed up,” says designer Bob Lohmann. “There’s tremendous elevation change and the sandy soil allowed us to create some fabulous natural waste areas in the Pinehurst tradition. “What makes a round really enjoyable are the player-friendly surfaces – the zoysia fairways and bentgrass greens. Perfect lies are the rule, not the exception. We tried to get a lot of variety of holes,” says Lohmann. “Short par 4s, long par 4s, different types of doglegs. It’s real evident here with the short par 3s.”

Adrian Fenty, Cathy Lanier, Interim AG Peter Nickles Resignation Watch, Day 3: Quagmire: Unconstitutional checkpoints in Trinidad neighborhood suspended after eight shootings in the Green Zone.

The Washington Post:

D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier yesterday suspended the checkpoint program that screened people driving into the troubled Trinidad neighborhood, acting after a night that left eight people shot at six locations elsewhere in the city.

Officials have not ruled out setting up checkpoints in Trinidad and other areas in the future, but there are no immediate plans to do so, authorities said.

None of the violence took place in the 5th Police District, the section of Northeast Washington where police have stepped up enforcement after recent killings. Police began operating a checkpoint Saturday night on Montello Avenue NE, and it was up and running Wednesday, its last day in operation.

All the victims survived. They included three men, hit in a drive-by shooting; a woman, shot in the back; and an 11-year-old, grazed in the wrist when he and friends allegedly played with a gun, police said. In the other cases, a man was shot during a confrontation with police, a woman was wounded when she and a friend were attacked by a group of assailants and a man was shot leaving a carry-out restaurant.

Police said the shootings are not related. No one has been arrested in any of the cases.

Well, I guess you should close down all of D.C. and run everyone’s papers.

[…]

The program, in which all drivers must justify their purpose for being in a targeted area, has been criticized by civil rights groups, D.C. council members and residents who said police are overstepping their power.

“As crime occurs elsewhere in this city, they’re going to have to go back to community policing,” said council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), who is holding a hearing Monday on the initiative.

“Checkpoints aren’t going to stop crime,” Mendelson said.

Um…yeah, sure, you just found those pictures by accident.

Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Richmond police are investigating photographs posted on a California-based Web site that show uniformed patrolmen cavorting with young women outside nightclubs.

The officers were unaware that they were posing for photos that were to be posted on the Web site, acting Sgt. Marian L. Harris said in a news release about the investigation. The officers are from Richmond and at least two other mid-Atlantic jurisdictions.

The photographs were taken during the winter months outside various nightclubs, the news release said.

WWBT, whose staff discovered the photos online and alerted Richmond police, said the man who took the photos said they were shot on Halloween.

The women in the photos had asked to be photographed with the officers, the police news release said.

“Our officers are expected to use good judgment whenever being asked to be photographed,” said Maj. Margaret Horn of the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

The office will determine whether there is any improper conduct on the part of the officers.

The pictures were posted Tuesday on a Web site that features contributed photos, many of them of young women in revealing or suggestive poses, from various cities and universities in the U.S. and abroad.

And in other news, Japanese worker demoted after 780,000 porn hits at work.

Apparently, at WWBT, that’s called “news research”.

Adrian Fenty, Cathy Lanier, Interim AG Peter Nickles Resignation Watch, Day 2.

The Examiner reports that Fenty and Lanier will continue their unconstitutional military-style checkpoints for the time being.

Meanwhile outside the “Red Zone” (the Trinidad neighborhood), in what I would guess you would call the “Green Zone”, at least eight people were shot and wounded (luckily, no fatalities), including a 12 year-old boy and a 19 year-old woman. One of the shootings was officer involved. The office shot and wounded a man after the officer was attacked with his own baton (The Washington Post).

Maybe the officer would have had backup and wouldn’t have been forced to shoot the guy if you didn’t have dozens of officers manning unconstitutional checkpoints?

In all of these incidents, a firearm was used. Guns are illegal in Washington, D.C.

If someone violates the utterly useless firearm ban, do you expect them to tell the truth to police officers at a checkpoint (a great question The Examiner asks)?

Does anyone remember when Lanier said that the city doesn’t have any gangs? Instead, they have “crews” which are distinguished from gangs because crews are created for self-defense and not for criminal enterprises (she must have never taken a college class on gangs and isn’t aware the fact that gangs are created as a means for teenagers to protect themselves and usually evolve into a group that commits crimes) (The Washington Times, American Street Gangs, p. 112).

Apparently, the “Skull Krusher Crew” (the actual name) in Prince George’s County didn’t get that memo when they robbed and beat to death a 56 year-old West African immigrant (The Washington Post).

And perhaps the greatest political cartoon ever (from The Examiner):

Bravo: Guy gets the same amount of time in jail for abducting, setting his girlfriend on fire as the guy that missed two court dates while in jail in another jurisdiction.

Aren’t punishments supposed to be proportionate to the crime?

The Free Lance–Star:

Marcus Duane Simms thought he had a valid reason for not showing up in Stafford Circuit Court twice in January.

He was in jail in Norfolk.

Unfortunately for Simms, a Stafford County jury–and state law–disagreed.

The jury recommended that Simms, 21, serve a year in prison after convicting him of two counts of failing to appear in court.

AP via RT-D:

A Smithfield man will serve a year in jail after being convicted of abducting his girlfriend and setting her on fire.

[…]

Mizell spread hair gel on the woman and set it on fire last August after the two had argued in the woman’s apartment in Suffolk. His lawyer said in court that Mizell thought she had sex with another man the previous night.

What is Channel 9 (WUSA9) news smoking?

Tuesday night, at around 7 p.m., the talking head on the local news stated the Democratic and Republican primary results would be coming in soon. In the 10th Congressional District, Judy Feder was running for the Democratic nomination while Frank Wolf, the incumbent, was running for the Republican nomination. The talking head stated something similar to: “Judy Feder gave Frank Wolf a hard pressed race in 2006”.

What are these guys smoking?

Judy Feder was crushed in 2006. 2006 was one of the worst years for Republicans in decades and Frank Wolf won the race by 16.36% points.

Frank Wolf won every jurisdiction in the district (Clark, Fairfax, Fauquier, Frederick, Loudoun, Prince William, and Warren Counties and the cities of Manassas Park, Manassas, Winchester). At the worst, he won Fairfax County by 6.7%, and at the best he won Frederick County by 37.6%.

Heck, Judy Feder can’t even get money from people in the Commonwealth of Virgnia, much less from people inside the 10th Congressional District (The Washington Post): 72% of her money comes from people outside the state for crying out loud! Meanwhile, 72% of Frank Wolf’s money comes from inside the state, with 70% of the in-state contributors coming from inside the 10th Congressional District!

No bias as channel 9, that’s for sure! (Snort.)

Asinine prosecuting in Stafford County: Guy gets more time for a failure to appear (when he was in jail in another jurisdiction) than for four theft related charges.

Read every sentence twice to fully understand this stupidty. From The Free Lance–Star:

Marcus Duane Simms thought he had a valid reason for not showing up in Stafford Circuit Court twice in January.

He was in jail in Norfolk.

Unfortunately for Simms, a Stafford County jury–and state law–disagreed.

This jury, in this case, is completely stupid. More on the state law below.

The jury recommended that Simms, 21, serve a year in prison after convicting him of two counts of failing to appear in court.

People get less time for dealing drugs for crying out loud!

Sources said that before taking his case to the jury, Simms rejected a deal in which he would have served two days in exchange for his guilty pleas.

As would I.

According to the evidence and court records, Simms was arrested in Stafford last year on four theft-related charges.

As I wouldn’t.

He was supposed to appear for trials on Jan. 8 and 24, but he did not because he was locked up in Norfolk on charges he picked up while free on bond.

Prosecutor Michael Hardiman said that under state law, being in state custody does not excuse a defendant from missing court. He said that Simms’ was required to be on good behavior while on bond.

Mr. Prosecutor Guy: You’re not the most up-to-date on the intent of state law are you?: § 19.2-128:

A. Whoever, having been released pursuant to this chapter or § 19.2-319 or on a summons pursuant to § 19.2-73 or § 19.2-74, willfully fails to appear before any court or judicial officer as required, shall, after notice to all interested parties, incur a forfeiture of any security which may have been given or pledged for his release, unless one of the parties can show good cause for excusing the absence, or unless the court, in its sound discretion, shall determine that neither the interests of justice nor the power of the court to conduct orderly proceedings will be served by such forfeiture.

B. Any person (i) charged with a felony offense or (ii) convicted of a felony offense and execution of sentence is suspended pursuant to § 19.2-319 who willfully fails to appear before any court as required shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony.

C. Any person (i) charged with a misdemeanor offense or (ii) convicted of a misdemeanor offense and execution of sentence is suspended pursuant to § 19.2-319 who willfully fails to appear before any court as required shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Anyone with an ounce of sense (something a Stafford County prosecutor and jury apparently lack) would see that the condition in subsection A should also apply to subsections B and C.

In addition, note the inclusion of the words “willfully fails to appear”.

As for being on good behavior: This is completely and utterly irrelevant to Simms’s failure to appear charges. If he violated the terms of his bond, he should have been show caused and have had bond revoked in Stafford County (which occurred). The fact the violated the terms of his bond has absolutely no bearing on his failure to appear charges.

Defense attorney Denise Rafferty agreed that the law was against Simms, but she asked the jury to use its common sense and recognize that Simms could not have been in court those days.

Common sense ain’t so common.

She pointed out that he had shown up for other court appearances in Stafford, including his arraignment and a preliminary hearing.

Simms ended up pleading guilty to receiving stolen property in Stafford and got a suspended three-year sentence.

I’m sure the people that had stuff stolen from them appreciate the fact that the guy is going to get more time in jail for annoying a prosecutor and a judge, than for stealing their stuff.

Simms pleaded guilty in April in Norfolk Circuit Court to charges of eluding police and hit and run. He will be sentenced on those charges later this month.

His sentencing on yesterday’s convictions is set for Aug. 25 in Stafford Circuit Court. The judge could reduce his one-year sentence but cannot increase it.

Two Murder Suspects Arrested

From the Caroline County Sheriff’s Office:

Two suspects have been arrested following extensive investigative efforts by the Caroline County Sheriff’s Office.  Following the investigation of a homicide, which occurred on May 7, 2007 on New Baltimore Road, Deon Alexander Terrell, 19 of Dawn and Lashawn Montque Monroe, 23 of Ruther Glen were arrested on June 9, 2008 and charged with the following:

Deon Alexander Terrell:

  1. 1st Degree Murder
  2. Use of a Firearm in the Commission of a Felony
  3. Robbery
  4. Conspire to Commit Robbery

Lashawn Montque Monroe:

  1. Capital Murder
  2. Use of a Firearm in the Commission of a Felony
  3. Robbery
  4. Conspire to Commit Robbery

Both Suspects are being held without bond at the Pamunkey Regional Jail and a court date of June 11, 2008 has been scheduled.

No further information will be released at this time.