On September 27, 2002, D.C. Police surrounded some 400 individuals in Pershing Park. Those individuals were rounded up without warning, arrested, and transferred to the police academy where they were hogtied for hours [See our Boss Hogtie cover story on the incident].
Sally Norton, a nurse in town for a conference at the nearby Marriott, had [...]
D.C. AG Peter Nickles has reached a settlement in one of the two remaining Pershing Park cases. The deal, which came together last night, includes a District payout of approximately $8.25 million to the roughly 400 plaintiffs in the Barham class action lawsuit.
The deal mirrors the recent settlement in the historic Becker case in which [...]
Earlier today, we linked to the Examiner's great investigative piece on District employee bonuses. Among the District employees that received a hefty bonus was none other than the Office of the Attorney General's scapegoat in the Pershing Park mess: Tom Koger.
Koger's boss, who must have approved his more than $2,000 bonus in October, is none [...]
In the Pershing Park case, it pays to be the scapegoat. The Examiner's Bill Myers reported today that Tom Koger was awarded a $2,600 bonus in October. Koger was the Office of the Attorney General lawyer charged with handling the Pershing Park cases. This past August, AG Peter Nickles took Koger off two class-action cases, [...]
After D.C. police mass-arrested about 400 people at Pershing Park on Sept. 27, 2002, they hog-tied their quarries, cuffing their right wrists to their left ankles. The restraint left the arrestees in painful, circulation-stopping positions.
Surely there was a good reason to treat these peaceful protesters and passersby like pork, right? Like, they were a threat [...]
The Sporkin Report continues to reverberate among plaintiffs seeking damages in the infamous Pershing Park case. Late yesterday, attorneys in one of the cases filed their own response [PDF] to the Sporkin findings [PDF]—repeating their position that a federal criminal investigation into the missing or destroyed evidence should be on the table.
The lawyers join a [...]
D.C. Police Union Chief Kristopher Baumann has reviewed Ret. Judge Stanley Sporkin's report on the missing and/or destroyed evidence in the Pershing Park case. Baumann says he has concluded that there can be only one next step: The case should be referred to the Department of Justice.
“There needs to be an independent prosecutor set up," [...]
Late last Friday, Ret. Federal Judge Stanley Sporkin's investigative report [PDF] on Pershing Park was made public. The long-awaited document totaled 18 pages and included findings based on interviews with 14 individuals. Legal Times declared the report's conclusions "fairly modest." The report found no smoking gun, WaPo observed. After a quick read of the report, [...]
Ret. Judge Stanley Sporkin's investigation into the missing and/or botched evidence in the Pershing Park case has been released. The 18-page report is not a whitewash as we had speculated it would be (mea culpa, Judge Sporkin). While the judge failed to name names and definitively conclude what exactly happened to the running resume and [...]
When a D.C. cop speaks out unfavorably against the department, they can expect a little hostility in the workplace. Best case: they'll get some kind of written warning. Worst case: they'll get transferred to a dull desk job. One thing they may not count on is a personal attack from Attorney General Peter Nickles.
In a [...]
Are you hazy on the events of Sept. 27, 2002 when D.C. police arrested 400 people in Pershing Park? Do you want to read about what it was like to be hogtied for hours?
Are you unsure what exactly a running resume is? Would you like to know just how the District lost or destroyed crucial [...]
In a few days, retired judge Stanley Sporkin will issue his report on the discovery abuses in the Pershing Park cases. It seems unlikely that he will find out just who destroyed the running resume and erased key portions of the radio communications on Sept. 27, 2002. So how will authorities get to the bottom [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
On November 17, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan confronted AG Peter Nickles on his recent attempts to bar witnesses from being deposed and for general feet dragging in the Pershing Park cases [PDF].
Sullivan ordered depositions to take place. He then stated that there would be serious penalties levied against the District if it failed [...]
