Frank Winstead: Folk hero to some, YouTube vigilante to others, and a total mystery to the press. The advisory neighborhood commissioner has made a name for himself by turning the ping-pong action in front of Comet into a grainy snuff film, and by referring to such ping-pong action as a short swat away from murder and rapes.

Thankfully, this city has a low tolerance for ping-pong porn vids. And, well, a high tolerance for wacky ANC reps.

Maybe Winstead will be re-elected. After all, bad press is the same as good press. Winstead doesn’t quite see it that way. Who the hell knows what he thinks? What he doesn’t believe in is taking reporters’ phone calls. He has stiffed the Post when they came calling. And he hasn’t returned my multiple voice-mail messages. As an elected official, he should be able to answer reporters’ questions.

With that in mind, we decided last night to take a trip to Winstead’s apartment on the 4500 block of Connecticut Avenue NW—quite a distance from Comet. Oh, and we brought along a video camera.

We’d like to call our little film: “Frank Winstead Gives Us The Bird.” Enjoy:

Video by Ted Scheinman

The Brookland listserv has more news on the Cardinal’s Nest, a neighborhood club owned by ex-cop Darrell Green and the subject of this week’s Show & Tell. In the column, I quote neighbor Tim Janning, who says he’s documented numerous visits to the bar from cops who don’t appear to be on official business.

Today, neighbor Dino Drudi noted some additional police presence at the Cardinal’s Nest on the listserv:

My neighbor reports yesterday evening there were FIVE MPD sport utility vehicles parked in front of Cardinal’s Nest—all the officers from these SUVs were patrons of the Cardinal’s Nest. Having observed the first vehicle arriving at 6:30PM, he noticed another hidden from his view that must have been there prior to that time. At approximately 7:10PM three more SUVs arrived. All these SUVs … were marked SOD (Special Operations Division). He reported that these officers were in the Cardinal’s Nest for approximately 1½ hours.

Later, Drudi posted this response, from Special Operations Division Commander James O. Crane:

Greetings Mr. Drudi, you may remember me from my days at 5D as a Sgt and later Captain. I’m still a Woodridge resident. The vehicles in question are under my command and I have initiated an investigated. We share AC Groomes’ and Chief Lanier’s concerns for the appearance and image such actions give the Department.

Sioban Farey, she of the incensed, wordy postings regarding the planned closing of the National Cathedral’s greenhouse, is deep in the weeds on this issue now. Since City Desk broke the news the greenhouse would close June 29, Farey and between 65 and 300 other incensed plant-lovers (her estimates) have been busy organizing to stop the insanity.

They’ve launched a rudimentary Web site, savethegreenhouse.org (upgrades are coming), and Farey has been on the horn with the Washington Post (a weekend story is promised) and NBC 4 (news tonight at 6 or 11, she thinks). It was on the front page of the Northwest Current (can’t link to it, sorry) and, well, they are doing this thing; they are going to keep that greenhouse open.

The Cathedral, which has already handed out virtual pink slips to the greenhouse employees, does not appear to be budging. The associate dean, Margaret Bergan Davis, has said (I’m paraphrasing) that cuts need to be made, new visions have to be realized, the greenhouse is not part of said new visions, so good luck, Sioban Farey. Davis left a message on Farey’s machine about all the other green programs going on that still are a part of the Cathedral’s vision. Farey was not impressed.

Farey has said, well, Farey has said a lot. In a 45-minute conversation late this morning, she brought up Darfur, 9/11, the snipers, the Walter Reed scandal, global warming (natch), and the stress our nation’s decision makers are under. (Plants reduce stress. There are studies. She could find them.) For all of these reasons and many more—including people like to buy plants and herbs at the greenhouse—Farey thinks this is a cause worth fighting for.

“I read the strategic report yesterday. They [the Cathedral officials] want more diverse, younger participants. We’re moving into a more enlightened green period. Even if it’s John McCain, it’s going to be more progressive environmentally. America is rejoining the international community….I’ve been working on planet change the last couple of years out of my own personal interest…This is the nation’s church in the nation’s capital and what they’re doing is cutting the tiny greenhouse loved by lots and lots of people….”

Farey of Chevy Chase, D.C. side, says she has also been enlisting “establishment” people, one of whom calls what’s happening “absolutely disgusting” and another of whom promised to pull $1,000 out of her pocket right then and there “and she said she has a friend who’d be willing to contribute considerably more.”

Yet this is not just a greenhouse for the matrons of Cleveland and Glover Parks, she attests. Latinos shop there for the specialized herbs and people “make pilgrimages” there on a regular basis.

In other words, watch out Margaret Bergan Davis. You’re going to have to deal with this one for awhile yet.

(photo by Just Chaos)

Tonight, step right up to the Palace of Wonders for a special “Weirdo Show” performance to benefit local jugger, magician, and pirate worker Johnny Anderson, who has been in and out of the hospital after having his leg crushed by a car last June. The benefit features performances by conjurer Eric Henning, vaudeville comedians Phillips and Flathead, glass-walker Mab Just Mab, and burlesque dancer Sugar Ann Spice. Proceeds will go towards Anderson’s surgical bills.

Anderson’s wife, sword-swallower Charon Henning, has had her one share of side-show related medical emergencies; check out this March S&T on local sword swallower injuries for more on her. Anderson’s injury, though, didn’t occur at the side-show, but rather outside it.

The circumstances of Anderson’s injury are weirder than sword-swallowing, glass-walking, and pirate-working combined. John Spitzer, a.k.a. Weirdo Show emcee Professor Sprocket, says that Anderson’s leg was crushed outside the Palace’s first anniversary bash when a D.C. police cruiser made a sudden U-turn, striking Anderson. Anderson and Henning pressed charges couldn’t find a lawyer to press charges. Says Spitzer, “now the District doesn’t have any record of the incident, and the officer in question seems to have disappeared.”

File that one away in your brain’s personal Museum of Oddities, then go check out the real deal at the Palace. “Every penny goes to Johnny and Charon,” says Spitzer. The benefit costs $10 at the door; throughout the show, the audience can also engage in some betting games to help raise additional funds. Be glad it’s going to a good cause: “Never bet against a carny,” warns Spitzer.

The benefit show begins at 9 p.m. tonight at the Palace of Wonders, 1210 H Street NE.

Late last year, Jennifer Durham settled her lawsuit against the District regarding the death of her son, Thomas Jones, who suffered a heart attack while playing basketball inside the D.C. Jail. A video of the incident showed that corrections officers had failed to perform CPR or even the most basic life-saving measures on her son ( Cover Story, “Man Down,” 6/27/07). The settlement provided a six-figure sum to Jones’ young daughter. It wasn’t enough for Durham’s attorney Douglas Sparks. He wanted Department of Corrections officials to meet directly with Durham and prove to her that they’ve made changes.

On March 10, Durham and Sparks met with corrections officials at its headquarters on Vermont Avenue NW, where they were greeted with a surprise: DOC Director Devon Brown had decided to run the session himself. The meeting lasted nearly two hours. Sparks says Brown began the meeting by doing what few officials ever do—he apologized. Another official soon pulled out detailed spreadsheets showing that the entire corrections workforce had been certified in everything from basic first aid to the operation of portable defibrillators—a key issue in Durham’s lawsuit.

“It was the first time in my career—and I’ve been doing this almost 30 years—I’ve ever seen anyone in the DOC, especially in the high level, show such compassion,” Sparks says. “It’s the first time I’ve had them say they’re sorry.”

When it was Durham’s turn to speak, she told stories of her son and talked about what it was like to see the video of him dying on the gym floor. She cried. She came away from the meeting satisfied.

“It made me feel like what [my son] went through, what he went through, it mattered. It made a difference,” Durham said at the time. “You know, I feel pretty good behind it.”

I guess I was a little glib when I joked about that whole severed-heads-and-cities thing a couple days ago. It turns out that heads have been turning up in Edinburgh, Scotland, just as another body part washed ashore in Arbroath!

Apologies to the good people of Tayside. —Andrew Beaujon

Hey, remember William Morva? The Dude-Ball-playing, barefoot, raw-meat-eating coffeeshop regular of Blacksburg? It took a jury under four hours to give him the death penalty. Can’t get enough? Check out Roanoke Times‘ online package “Homicide on the Huckleberry,” if purely for the title alone. —Jule Banville

In this week’s Young & Hungry, I proposed that José Andrés‘ THINKfoodGROUP finance the necessary research to open a full-blown Salvadoran restaurant in D.C., so that we all could finally get a taste of the country’s cuisine without interference from Mexico. The celebrity chef quickly responded this morning with an email. His short answer? No Salvadoran project.

Of course, his rejection came with a clever little dig.

The full text of his email is below:

“Hi Tim!…….good article……..

Sorry to inform that is not in my plans a Salvadorean project, amigo!

I have work to do to bring homeyness, consistency and price to my
Jaleo> menu…….

See you soon,

Jose Andres”

On Friday, Feb. 29, a U.S. District Court jury awarded D.C. police officer Randy Squires $225,000 in his discrimination case against the city. The case outlines Squires’ complaints that his former supervisor, Robert Atcheson, treated him unfairly because he is black (The District Line, “Management Bile,” 2/6).

The jury found that the supervisor, who is white, had created a hostile work environment based on racial bias, unfairly shut out Squires from overtime opportunities, and resorted to retaliation after the officer filed grievances. “His treatment of Squires from jump street was classic discrimination,” says Squires’ attorney Donald Temple. “Management needs to realize race discrimination is not a figment of these officers’ imagination.…There’s no doubt in my mind, if [Atcheson] stays in that position, he’s going to cost the city a lot of money.”

Atcheson, who was promoted to captain in December, did not return calls. Squires plays down the case’s impact: “It’s just a small war that I won,” he says.

(illustration by Josh Neufeld) 

Slate has an article today on the grotesque corruption of a Mississippi forensic examiner who used bogus bite mark analysis to help prosecutors, ultimately leading to the bogus imprisonment of innocent people. The author of the piece has reported on the situation before and offers an interesting observation:

One key problem is that forensics labs often fall under the auspices of prosecutors. Even honest crime-lab workers, medical examiners, and other experts can be subtly influenced to make evidence conform to a prosecutor’s wishes.

Pro-prosecutor bias is exactly what Maryland public defenders say is wrong with Dr. William Vosburgh, the director of D.C.’s incipient crime lab, in an October 2007 story in the Washington City Paper. A coincidence: Vosburgh might have testified more about blood-spatter patterns than bite marks during his career in Maryland, but he does know a thing or two about teeth—he used to be a dentist.

Vosburgh responded to the story with an angry letter, and an attorney in Maryland responded to Vosburgh’s miffed missive with a pissed epistle of his own.

I received an email this week from a graduate business student at George Washington University who wanted to get ahold of David Nagar, co-owner of Teddy’s Roti Shop, about “the possibility of working with our team at GW to help this business rebound from its recent setbacks.” It sounded like a noble cause, so I contacted Nagar today to see if he’d be interested in potentially free help for his struggling Trinidadian restaurant.

Turns out that Nagar’s not even in business—at least not currently. He says he was forced to leave his temporary spot inside the Silver Spring Caribbean-Style Restaurant when the gas was shut off. (Just for the record, that info has not been verified.)

But Nagar says he’s close to signing a lease on a space in the 7300 block of Georgia Avenue NW, which would, interestingly enough, put him just down the street from his old location, soon to become Taste of the Caribbean II. Why do visions of Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump leap to mind?

The location that Nagar is eyeballing is not a commercial kitchen space, so he would have to build it out himself. Still, he thinks he could have the new Teddy’s ready in a couple of months.

In the meantime, though, he says he’s open to the assistance of the kindly grad students at GW. And, yes, they offered their help with the full knowledge of our November story.

Since shuttering in 2004, the Benning Neighborhood Library lost its books and gained several battles between city officials and Northeast activists.

In 2006, the city introduced plans to transform the building into a mixed-use facility with the library, artists’ spaces, and apartments. Neighbors hated the idea.

Last June, when the city applied for a demolition permit, a group of activists again united in protest: They sued Mayor Adrian Fenty and several other District officials.

“If you see [the city] as misinformed motherfuckers, then you deal with them that way. But if you see them as dirty bastards who are taking something from you…and you start there, then you can get in a position where you can fight them,” one plaintiff, Rick Tingling-Clemmons, told the City Paper last July.

Interesting choice of phrasing—but ultimately not effective. A judge at first postponed the demo, but the city eventually got its way, tearing down the facility last October.

Still, activists believe they got something out of all the legal paperwork: In the ongoing clash of transparency and openness vs. the District of Columbia, the city has suffered a blow. According to an order issued by a judge in late December, the city failed to provide its plans and zoning changes within 30 days to the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission. Now, as the city considers moving the proposed library from its current location, it is required to provide a detailed explanation, says plaintiff and attorney Jane Zara.

“The big thing that needed to be enforced was the authority and the standing of the ANCs,” says Robin Diener, director of the Library Renaissance Project. “The library had never, in the history of DCPL, notified the ANCs.…It’s unfortunate we had to go to court to enforce that,” she says. “But we did.”

You’ve seen this guy. You’ve watched him do his thing. He’s out there any time the weather’s OK. He stands at the free-throw line of the half-court at Stead Park on the 1600 block of P Street NW. And he just shoots, nonstop. Actually, he does stop every so often to update his book of stats. His routine was brilliantly chronicled by none other than our own sports/games/competition columnist Dave McKenna.

Sometime in the next year or so, Robert Triolo will lose his hoop. Renovation plans for Stead call for eliminating the half-court and replacing it with a small field for kids to play on. Triolo will likely have to take his game to the adjacent full court, but that’s often busy with five-on-five games.

Wilson is protesting its loss to Coolidge last week to DCIAA officials, alleging that the Colts used an ineligible player.

The player in question is former midget football legend Sirlee Monzey, a recent addition to the Coolidge squad.

Perhaps the Wilson athletic department’s investigation into Monzey’s background is coincidental, but: At the end of the Coolidge game, Wilson athletic director Eddie Saah, with whom I had just discussed DCIAA eligibility rules, was spitting mad on the sidelines, accusing the Colts of running up the score rather than running out the clock.

Saah’s accusation was dead-on: Coolidge’s last touchdown in the 34–13 win came with just 90 seconds left and served no competitive purpose.

Saah’s used to blowouts—he’s just not used to being on the short end. He doubles as the manager of Wilson’s baseball team, which is the most dominant program in the history of D.C. athletics. His teams have won 15 DCIAA titles in a row and have lost only one game to a league foe in that time. If my math’s right, Saah’s boys outscored division opponents in the 2007 regular season by 157–5.

In March, when the schools last met on the diamond, Saah’s team whooped up on Coolidge, 21-0.

That’s the exact same margin of victory that got Saah so miffed last Friday. And, again, that’s from a baseball game.

While the Wilson AD was stewing on the sidelines about Coolidge’s tactics, Monzey, a senior running back whose high school football career might be ended if the protest is upheld, wasn’t even on the field. He sat out the entire fourth quarter.

The Payday Loan Consumer Protection Act, which holds once-exempt short-term lenders to the District’s 24 percent annual interest-rate cap, has passed the D.C. Council by a 12-1 vote.

The lone opponent was Ward 8 Councilmember Marion S. Barry Jr., who originally cosponsored the bill with Ward 3’s Mary Cheh. In an interview earlier this month, Barry said he didn’t understand the true nature of the bill—which lenders say will kill the payday industry—when he put his name on it.

The bill’s passage follows a pricey effort by the payday loan industry to stall its progress with a PR campaign, lobbying, and donations to community groups.

In remarks before his no vote, Barry cited the widespread appeal of payday loans, noting that there have already been more 60,000 payday transactions in the city this year, and lamented the fact that loan seekers would be forced to go to Virginia. (Maryland already has an interest-rate cap.)

“Let me say, there are some unscrupulous people in this business who have taken advantage of people,” Barry said from the dais. “Just because there’s four or five rotten eggs, you don’t throw out all the eggs.”

Barry mentioned reforms such as limiting loan “rollovers” and mandating financial counseling, but he did not introduce any amendments to the bill or substitute legislation.

Said Barry: “I want my conscience clear that I’ve done all I can do to reform this system.”