Earlier this week, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan warned AG Peter Nickles: "You're playing games with the wrong judge." Sullivan was referring to the AG's near endless stall tactics in the Pershing Park cases. These tactics include attempting to preventing depositions from being taken, and fighting the release of documents to the public. But what about Sullivan's characterization that Nickles is playing games?

In an effort to answer that question, City Desk offers a play-by-play concerning the testimony of Det. Paul Hustler.

Read More "Pershing Park Case: The Games Peter Nickles Plays" »

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. Seven years later, Det. Paul Hustler comes forward to say out loud what a lot of people knew: Ramsey was directly responsible for Pershing Park. What did Patterson think?

Patterson responded to Hustler's affidavit with an e-mail. "I'd like to see the District settle," she wrote. "I'd like to have some assurance of lessons learned."

Read More "Pershing Park Case: Patterson Hopes District Has Learned Its Lesson" »

An affidavit filed today in U.S. District Court raises questions as to whether former D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey may have committed perjury in his sworn testimony about the Pershing Park fiasco. Ramsey had repeatedly stated in depositions that he had not ordered the mass arrest of approximately 400 people during the Sept. 27, 2002, World Bank/IMF protests.

Yet the affidavit, by Det. Paul Hustler, a 22-year D.C. Police veteran, maintains that Ramsey indeed ordered the arrests.

Read More "Affidavit: Ramsey Ordered Pershing Park Arrests" »

Last Friday, Pershing Park case lawyers had arranged to depose  Detective Paul Hustler. All was going according to routine. Hustler showed up. The OAG lawyers showed up. The day before, he had been prepped by the OAG's team.  But just as the deposition was about to start, Hustler made an unusual request.

Hustler wanted his own attorney present.

The deposition had to be put off. OAG lawyers used this speed bump to immediately filed a motion in U.S. District Court to bar Hustler from giving his deposition.

Read More "Pershing Park Case: Nickles Attempts To Prevent Detective From Testifying" »

AG Peter Nickles had promised to settle the Pershing Park cases by Thanksgiving. If he wants to make good on that promise, he might start with picking up the phone, and meeting with the plaintiffs lawyers. According to one lawyer, Jonathan Turley, the attorney general has yet to even call him.

While Nickles may not be such a goodwill ambassador, he did promise the courts that plaintiffs would see a nice payday soon. In late September, Nickles told U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan that he would personally direct settlement talks. He boasted of making huge breakthroughs in the negotiations, and stated that he expects the cases to be wrapped before the Macy's Parade. Yesterday, Nickles announced a settlement in an unrelated protester case, and again expressed hope that the Pershing Park cases would be resolved within weeks.

Turley, who represents plaintiffs in one of those cases (the Chang case), says Nickles has actually shutdown talks. "Despite the statement by AG Nickles that he was going to settle these cases," Turley explains, "he canceled all settlement negotiations with the Chang plaintiffs soon after leaving Judge Sullivan."

Read More "Pershing Park Case: Is Peter Nickles Ready To Deal?" »

The Office of the Attorney General continues to play stall ball in the Pershing Park cases. Recently, District lawyers lost their bid to take back documents previously turned over to plaintiffs attorneys. The fight over the never-ending discovery now centers around the District's filing of a motion for a protective order banning vasts amounts of government documents.

OAG attorneys argue that the order would simply and reasonably protect personal information from being made public. Attorneys even use Washington City Paper to zing plaintiffs lawyers!

Read More "Pershing Park Case: Nickles Seeks Order Barring Public From Seeing Discovery Materials" »

In the past few weeks, the Office of the Attorney General has waged a curious battle against plaintiffs in the Pershing Park case.

Attorney General Peter Nickles & Co. fought over whether plaintiffs could depose a government witness. They lost that battle and the deposition provided devastating evidence of more discovery abuses.

The losing fight over the depo has yet to put a dent in Nickles' M.O. The AG has not backed down from further stonewalling in the cases. In a curious move, the OAG argued in federal court filings that plaintiffs should return 211 pages of documents claiming that they were "mistakenly produced." The OAG contended that these documents were attorney-client work product.

Last night, Legal Times reported that U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled against Nickles on the matter.

So what are these mystery docs?

Read More "Pershing Park Case: Read The Document Nickles Didn’t Want You To See" »

Today, I wrote up a piece about how Office of Attorney General lawyers were/are furious with fire department brass. What's the reason for their anger? A shoddy investigation into the Georgetown Library fire that has become the subject of a massive lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court. The shoddy investigation means a lot of problems with basics like discovery and evidence requests by plaintiffs attorneys.

In my item (linked above, please read it!), I quote from two OAG lawyers' e-mails to the fire department. The two attorneys call out the department for their potentially damaging stonewalling on the discovery, and question whether fire investigators followed basic national standards when they worked the Georgetown library case.

In my calls to the OAG prior to publishing the piece (linked above, please read it!), I got nowhere. Nothing much beyond no comment, it's pending litigation, the usual.

A few hours after my item ran (linked above, please read it!), OAG's Kimberly Matthews called to say she really, really wanted to see those e-mails. Could I please send them to her?

Read More "OAG Calls. It Wants Its Emails Back." »

First the Pershing Park case. The Office of the Attorney General may have had serious trouble with another high profile lawsuit---the Georgetown Library fire case. In April 2007, a three-alarm fire gutted Georgetown's public library. Two hundred firefighters along with roughly two dozen trucks battled the blaze. That huge effort may not have translated into a thorough investigation into the fire's cause. Chief Dennis Rubin and Co.'s sloppy detective work may cost the city big time.

In a lawsuit stemming from the fire, a contractor has challenged the department's conclusions that heat guns caused the blaze. The contractor saw enough holes in the fire department's investigation to sue the District.  Whether heat guns caused the blaze or not, the lawsuit is making one thing clear: the OAG is having difficulties furnishing evidence and discovery materials.

And OAG lawyers are furious at fire department personnel.

If there ever was a fire that called out for a serious investigation, it would be the twin fires that gutted the library and Eastern Market. The Eastern Market fire continues to be a subject of debate. Apparently, according to e-mails obtained by City Desk, the Georgetown Library fire investigation was far from competent.

At one point, an OAG attorney calls into question whether fire investigators followed national standards, and whether those investigators should be punished.

Read More "OAG E-Mails Show Frustration With Fire Department; Did Investigators Botch The Georgetown Library Case?" »

After some last minute stonewalling by the Office of the Attorney General, Pershing Park plaintiffs were finally allowed to depose a District employee concerning the vast discovery abuses in this mess of a case. Backed up by a court order, the employee was deposed on October 23. According to a filing submitted in U.S. District Court yesterday, the deposition exposed new  discovery abuses.

What are those new abuses?

During discovery over the cases, District employees culled e-mails related to Pershing Park. There were so many e-mails found that they needed a flatbed dolly to transport the documents. Those thousands of pages were carted to the office of the D.C. Police Department's general counsel.

Years later, the documents have not yet been turned over to plaintiffs attorneys. Even after the U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan slammed the city for its discovery failings this past summer. Even after AG Peter Nickles promised a thorough case review and document dump.

How do the lawyers know this? The District's own witness---Kimberly Thorpe---told them in last week's deposition.

Read More "Pershing Park Case: New Discovery Abuse Shocker" »

From Kojo:

Ugh.

"The mayor had nothing to do with the contract."---Peter Nickles on Kojo concerning questions related to the parks contracts to Fenty's frat brothers. Then why is there a hearing going on? Maybe Nickles needs to read LL's latest column.

And this from Nickles: "I think Mary Cheh is great....Mary Cheh is a great councilmember."

At this point in the whole Pershing Park court mess, AG Peter Nickles is supposed to just play nice and hope the two big cases settle. Nickles offered up his problematic mea culpa and promised that settlements would be forthcoming. It appears his sweet talk has an expiration date.

Last week, plaintiffs lawyers in the Chang case filed an emergency motion to get the OAG to comply with a request to take a deposition. The plaintiffs lawyers wanted to depose a District official "regarding the District's preservation or lack thereof of electronically stored materials, including e-mails."

This deposition goes to the heart of the entire court mess. And it may be important since the D.C. Council hasn't come close to investigating the Pershing Park discovery problems or the missing evidence in the case.

But the OAG decided to prevent such a deposition from taking place. The lawyers write in their motion:

"Two days before the deposition was to go forward, District counsel unilaterally and without cause announced that the deposition was cancelled, suggesting that it continues to believe its litigation strategy of discovery abuse can continue without consequences."

More on this drama after the jump.

Read More "Pershing Park Case: OAG Reverts Back To Stonewalling" »

Seven years on and still more government documents being "found" and turned over to plaintiffs attorneys in the messy Pershing Park case. Today, AG Peter Nickles filed a notice that roughly 2,000 pages of documents had been produced for the plaintiffs. This is not the first of such notices nor will it be the last.

Nickles writes to the court that "these documents were located as part of the District's sweeps of the OAG Civil Litigation Division." Also included with the production was a privilege log reflecting documents redacted or withheld.

Read More "Pershing Park Case: OAG Finds 2,000 Pages Of Discovery Materials" »

Leave it to NBC-4 (or if you prefer WRC-TV), operators of the worst local news site, to slap a story with some real news value with a sexist headline. The station follows the Nickles-Cheh story with a piece headlined: "D.C. Catfight!"

First Nickles referred to Cheh as an angry woman. Now, a local news channel throws up another sexist cliche. Wendy Rieger needs to start a protest. Wait, is she still working there?

Read More "NBC-4 Takes On Nickles’ Sexism With Sexist Headline" »