LL cycled down through the drizzle to the District's federal courthouse this morning to catch a hearing in the Ted Loza bribery case.

Things have been rather quiet in the prosecution of Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham's former chief of staff, and LL was hoping prosecutors might be filing the new charges they've indicated that might be on the way. Alas, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb told LL no such charges would be forthcoming today.

So LL turned around and left, exiting through the courthouse annex. A few steps up 3rd Street NW, lo and behold, was Loza, running late for his 10:15 hearing. It was the first time LL had encountered him since his arrest.

"Life is good," Loza said, dressed in blue suit and red tie.

Conversation quickly moved to the state of his case: "I'm innocent. This is bullshit," he told LL, declining to speak in any further detail.

He proceeded take umbrage at LL's reporting last fall on Loza and his personal and professional dealings. "You didn't do me any justice," he said.

There's always next time, LL replied.

Loza's trial was set today for Oct. 4—bad news, incidentally, for Graham's Democratic challengers who might have enjoyed some pre-election bad press for the incumbent. Only an independent or Republican will be in a position to make political hay out of any revelations that might be aired at trial.

File photo by Darrow Montgomery

"You know I need it. That's why I take it, you know."

—Ted Loza, chief of staff to Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, June 19

Federal agents swarmed the John A. Wilson Building on Sept. 24, after a sting operation caught Loza accepting a $1,500 bribe to influence taxi legislation on behalf of Abdulaziz Kamus, an Ethiopian community leader. (He offered the above rationalization in the process.) Loza, long one of Graham's top aides, had a close relationship with his boss—close enough that Graham bankrolled a 2006 abortion for a woman that Loza had abused. But Graham consistently denied any wrongdoing, and the federal probe soon turned away from city hall and into the District's taxi industry. Later in the fall, the feds arrested taxi mogul Yitbarek Syume and dozens of aspiring cab drivers, as part of what was revealed to have been a long-running investigation that involved the cooperation of wire-wearing, whistleblowing Taxicab Commission chair Leon Swain. But political fallout is ongoing—though Graham hasn't been personally implicated in any illegalities, the scandal has emboldened at least two Ward 1 community activists—Jeff Smith and Bryan Weaver—to explore runs against him in 2010.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

More from LL's Quotes of 2009

U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman's ruling this afternoon overturns an Oct. 9 decision by Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson to allow Syume to live in a halfway house pending trial. Prosecutors had asked that Syume be kept in jail due in part to comments he'd made on tape purportedly threatening the life of Abdulaziz Kamus, named in a Washington Post report as a FBI mole. On the tape, Syume can be heard saying Kamus will be "permanently eliminated" and that "they will come to him."

Robinson didn't see the comments as necessitating Syume's captivity; Friedman did. "The tape is clear that the intent was to kill Mr. Kamus," he said.

Prosecutors, in court today, told Friedman that Kamus and his family have been placed in protective custody because of the threats.

The move comes more than a month after his chief of staff, Ted Loza, was collared in a bribery sting where taxi-related interests are alleged to have paid Loza to influence cab legislation. Graham has had the D.C. Taxicab Commission under the purview of his public works and transportation committee since 2007, giving him great control over legislation affecting the taxi business, as well as the power to investigate the industry.

The timing, to say the least is odd. Both Graham and Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray came under fire from LL and others for not making this move sooner. And, earlier this month, the pressure had eased on Graham after federal prosecutors decided not to interview a pair of key staffers before a grand jury

"Though I have committed no crime, nor am I reportedly the target of any investigation, I want to ensure that Taxicab Commission oversight continues without any distractions relating to the Ted Loza indictment," Graham wrote in a letter released to the press this afternoon.

Graham spokesperson Brian DeBose says his boss "had been planning on doing this for a week now or more." The issue was, who would take over the responsibilities? Gray, who has defended Graham's right to keep taxis in his portfolio, "wasn't part of the decision to step down. That was totally Jim's decision."

All taxi matters will be handled until further notice by Gray's Committee of the Whole.

Toney is a former chairman of the D.C. Taxicab Commission, and before that served Mayor Anthony Williams in his economic development office. He has a long record of service to the District government before that, as a D.C. Council aide dating back to the 1980s and as a key figure in the city's banking regulatory apparatus.

Since leaving the Taxi Commission—he was replaced by FBI informant Leon Swain—he went to work for a group of Ethiopian cab companies, according to several sources, serving as their attorney, and taking an interest in United Fleet Management, a meter installation company formed by Yitbarek Syume, the alleged leader of the bribery scheme.

Far as LL can tell, there are a couple of possibilities.

First, Toney could be cooperating with the FBI in their takedown of Yitbarek Syume et al., or in investigations of other figures in the cab industry—figures possibly not in the District. If that's so, however, why would federal authorities raid his home, as the Washington Post reported a week ago?

Or perhaps Toney, as a business partner of Syume, is an ancillary figure in the investigation. A member of the bar in good standing, Toney might have been careful to refrain from getting involved in illegal activities, and thus avoided indictment, as part of the taped conversation indicates:

Swain: What about Toney, though?

Syume: —Toney is OK. Toney doesn't know nothing....

...But Toney knows about the stuff with Kamus?

—Still he doesn't know. He always said in the meeting, I don't know nothing.

OK, and he's going to keep on saying that?

—Yeah.

He's ain't going to change up on us?

—No...believe me. We lack everything...But I worry that we gave him eight [???], I don't know how we take out that one....to give him to them?

What, eight companies? Lemme tell you something, I didn't give him shit.

But in another part of the conversation, Swain declares that Toney has knowledge of the "companies"—a likely reference to the scheme in which Syume and his co-conspirators are alleged to have bribed Swain for multi-vehicle taxi company licenses.

Swain: You got to do me one favor, though. I know you know that Toney knows about all the companies and all the other shit. You sure Toney ain't going to talk?

Syume: —I didn't get him here yet, but I send someone to him...He doesn't know nothing, he's careful. Toney, he's careful from the beginning.

I know, but when we were sitting over there at Naylor Gardens the first time, we were talking about the companies and all that. And when we were coming back from New York, him and I were talking about the companies. So I know he knows about it...

—But he doesn't know...

He knows but he doesn't know...

—He doesn't know...so I am confident [in] Toney. He is legal everything.

The last portion of the conversation—"he knows but he doesn't know"—could indicate that Toney has knowledge of some aspects of the scheme but not others. Or, as LL already noted, Toney, like Swain, is in with the feds and part of their subterfuge.

LL has made repeated attempts to contact Toney in recent weeks, including numerous phone calls and visits to his Brightwood home. All have been unsuccessful.

Authorities also executed several search warrants this morning in connection with the case.

More updates coming!

Update 2:33 pm: Friedman says the actual arrest tally for the day stands at 27.