If D.C. Council chairman and mayoral candidate Vincent Gray is in a bit of trouble for an outstanding Maryland ticket from 2002, Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. may be really in for it. According to Maryland court records, Thomas has earned himself five speeding tickets in the Old Line State—none of which have been paid. Online records indicate that in each case, Thomas failed to appear in court to resolve the ticket, and also failed to pay the fines.

The court records show Thomas, who is seeking re-election this year, had quite the lead foot in his younger days. He received speeding tickets in Prince George's County on April 1, 1985; on March 18, 1986; and on Oct. 15, 1992. He also received a ticket in Anne Arundel County in 1985, and one in Montgomery County in 1991.

The 1986 P.G. County instance was the most egregious: Thomas was accused of going 64 on the 7200 block of North H Avenue, where the speed limit was 35. The heftiest fine Thomas incurred as a result of his zooming was $50, but Angelita Plemmer, a court spokeswoman, says he likely owes more now, as the fines racked up late fees. She was not able to ascertain whether—like Gray—Thomas's license had been suspended in Maryland. The words "failure to appear suspension" do appear on four of the citation records. Officer Evan Baxter of the Price George's County Police says that means "the defendant has failed to appear and his driving privileges have been suspended."

Contacted by City Desk Thursday, Thomas said he has no idea why the citations are still marked as active. He insisted he paid the tickets a long time ago. "It has to be an administrative error," he said. Besides, he said, "the statue of limitation has probably run out on them."

But Thomas does vaguely remember getting the long-ago reprimands: "Some of them I got when I was commuting to Bowie State University." In a 1985 citation, his vehicle tag is recorded as "SAVVY". Thomas says he remembers getting that vanity plate put on a 1972 Datsun he once drove. Back then, he was working for Marion Barry, and decided he liked the word when a journalist used it to describe his boss.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Remember Jack McKenna? The 21-year-old University of Maryland student whose videotaped post-game pummeling by riot police in March sparked local outrage and generated national headlines?

Turns out, McKenna, seen here pumping his fists and skipping in the direction of cops on horseback just prior to the beatdown, was singing another school's fight song at the time.

"Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame," McKenna can be heard chanting on a cellphone video recording of the incident, according to lawyers preparing his forthcoming lawsuit against the Prince George's County Police Department. (Prior video footage contained unclear audio.)

McKenna and other students had taken to the streets that night in celebration of the Terapins' stunning upset of college basketball powerhouse Duke. (The University of Notre Dame had no apparent involvement in the game or the ensuing ruckus.)

One of McKenna's lawyers, Terrell Roberts, tells City Desk that the new audio component will prove that his client wasn't saying anything disrespectful before he was pushed against the wall and "just brutally, savagely struck multiple times." 

Prosecutors had initially charged McKenna with assaulting the cops and their horses. Those charges were dropped after video surfaced indicating the opposite. Officers involved in the incident were suspended as a result of the video. The FBI was called in to investigate.

Could the cops have misinterpreted McKenna's singing "shake down the thunder from the sky" as a threat? Full lyrics after the jump:

Rally sons of Notre Dame,
Sing her glory, and sound her fame
Raise her Gold and Blue,
And cheer with voices true,
Rah! Rah! For Notre Dame.

Footage of the incident, released yesterday by McKenna's attorney, has now found its way onto YouTube, along with additional footage showing more revelery turned to chaos that night:

In the video, he appears to approach mounted police officers while skipping and raising his arms. One second, McKenna's just fooling around; the next, he's on the ground being hammered by cops in riot gear.

Though McKenna was arrested after the incident, charges were ultimately dropped.

Footage of McKenna's beating comes on the heels of  another alleged beatdown involving Prince George's cops. On March 31, 20-year-old Prince A. Duncan-Lolliswas, of District Heights, was reportedly injured by police outside a Papa John's in the Largo area. The Washington Post reports:

"I didn't do anything. I was trying to get a job," Duncan-Lollis said. He said an officer who escorted him out of the pizza shop asked for identification, and when Duncan-Lollis reached toward his back pocket to get it, the officer knocked him to the ground.

"I turned my head to the right and saw another officer coming. I was [pepper-sprayed], and I couldn't see anymore," Duncan-Lollis said. After that, he said, he felt blows to his face and torso.

A Metro section-front story reports how Espina’s son, Manuel de Jesus Espina Jacome, who watched his father die, stood up at a community meeting last week and asked county police officials: “What are you doing with assassin police officers?”

It’s not the first time Jackson’s version of an arrest didn’t jibe with other facts.

The Post has another story today about a traffic stop Jackson made in Hyattsville in May last year that led to the arrest of Shawn M. Leake. In his report, Jackson said Leake came out of his car swinging and “even tackled me to the ground.” The only problem is the police video, obtained by Leake’s lawyer and given to the Post, shows Jackson pulling Leake out of the car, slugging him and throwing him to the ground.

County prosecutors dropped the charges against Leake. Nevertheless, Jackson was cleared by an internal police investigation.

About three months after arresting Leake, Jackson shot and killed Espina while moonlighting as a security guard at the apartment complex where the confrontation occurred. Jackson has maintained that Espina was violently resisting arrest. But his son and another witness allege he was on the ground and not trying to fight back when the officer beat him and then pulled the trigger. While he wasn’t on the police payroll that night, Jackson is still on administrative duty until the internal inquiry into Espina’s death wraps. That investigation has dragged on for so long one can’t help but question whether the department is waiting for the case to fade from public view before deciding Jackson’s fate.

It makes you wonder what’s going on inside the P.G. County police force. Two other officers are also on administrative duty pending the outcome of an investigation into another traffic-stop incident involving a Latino, the Post reports.

Today’s Post goes through the motions of listing “signs” that police and the Latino community are rebuilding their tattered relationship. But it smacks of public relations spin. The fact that Jackson remains on the force nearly a year after Espina’s death – especially since it wasn’t the first time his version of events clashed with other evidence – seems sign enough that little has changed.