If Vince Gray runs for mayor as reports indicate, he forfeits an almost certain re-election as council chairman. So who runs?
Jack Evans: Back in September, the Ward 2 councilmember told LL he'd "be interested" in running for chair if Gray ran for mayor. But Evans, in his past, has pledged mayoral runs only to think [...]
During his tenure as police chief, Charles H. Ramsey faced countless challenges from coordinating an emergency response on 9/11 to helping to track down the D.C. Sniper. Of course, his job had other lower profile responsibilities like crime fighting and answering then-Councilmember Kathy Patterson's tough questioning.
So what can this veteran cop not handle?
Being deposed (again) [...]
A few months ago, Det. Paul Hustler came forward and stated in his sworn affidavit that he had heard D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey give the order to arrest the 400 individuals in Pershing Park on Sept. 27, 2002. The testimony had contradicted the former chief's sworn-statements in which he denied ordering the arrests.
Ramsey [...]
When all else fails, commission a report.
It's one of the tried-and-true plays in the crisis-management playbook. Think about the history: the Warren Commission, the 9/11 Commission, the Iraq Intelligence Commission.
This past summer, D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles had reached pretty much the same stage. As the city's top lawyer, he was entrusted with defending the [...]
When news broke yesterday that a D.C. Police Detective had come forward to dispute former Chief Charles Ramsey's assertion that he did not order the arrests in Pershing Park in 2002, I immediately thought of Kathy Patterson.
Few fought harder to get at the truth of what led to Pershing Park than the former D.C. councilmember. [...]
Plaintiffs lawyers in the second Pershing Park case have filed their response to AG Peter Nickles' sworn statement submitted to U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan on August 12.
Nickles' statement in which he was ordered to explain numerous discovery problems including a missing police document and faulty radio dispatches has come under heavy fire from [...]
Last week, former-Councilmember Kathy Patterson submitted a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan. The letter called into question several statements made by AG Peter Nickles in his sworn submission to Sullivan regarding the Pershing Park case. Councilmembers Phil Mendelson and Mary Cheh have their own critiques. But it was Patterson who sent her [...]
Late last week, I got an anonymous letter gently complaining about our coverage of the Pershing Park mess. A few times a week, we've posted critical pieces concerning the sloppy work of the OAG or pointed to discrepancies among D.C. Police personnel over how basic documents could either disappear (the running resume) or be tampered [...]
On August 12, AG Peter Nickles submitted his sworn statement to U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan. By now, the statement has been read by several Pershing Park experts. Their verdict: Nickles' statement needs a re-write! Councilmember Phil Mendelson and Former Councilmember Kathy Patterson caught several possible errors.
Mendelson took issue with Nickles' claims that the [...]
Today, At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson joined former Councilmember Kathy Patterson in fact-checking AG Peter Nickles' increasingly faulty sworn statement regarding the troubled Pershing Park case.
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan had ordered the city's attorney general to submit a sworn statement explaining the evidentiary problems in a Pershing Park case. Nickles and OAG attorney Tom [...]
Today, former Ward 3 Councilmember Kathy Patterson submitted a letter [PDF] to U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan regarding the troubled Pershing Park Case.
Patterson, who headed up the council judiciary committee at the time of the mass arrests and spearheaded an exhaustive investigation into the incident, may be the best authority on the subject (not [...]
On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan slammed the District's lawyers for how it has severely mishandled evidence in a civil case brought by plantiffs who were arrested in Pershing Park in September 2002.
Sullivan focused particularly on AG Peter Nickles. The Post writes:
"Sullivan ordered D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles to submit a sworn [...]
