Once, at the Diredawa Cafe, you could get stuff like coffee, tea, and bread. After the police raided the place in May, you couldn't get anything.

A judge has issued a "stay-away order" barring Etana Shuremu, the proprietor of the Georgia Avenue NW shop, from even visiting it.

That's because cops believe Shuremu was dealing khat, a stimulating leaf that's chewed in East Africa and parts of the Middle East. It's a controlled substance in the U.S. Stay-away orders are often issued by judges at the beginning of court cases involving drug distribution. The orders forbid dealers from returning to houses streets or areas they might have once plagued.

But according to his lawyer, Erich Ferrari, Shuremu's stay-away order means he can't make a living.

Last week, Ferrari filed a motion asking the judge to let Shuremu enter his store and start serving customers again. "It's not only a source of income, it's a way for him to strengthen his ties to the community," says Ferrari. Ferrari says prosecutors oppose the idea. The U.S. Attorney's office declined comment. The judge is currently considering the motion.

Prosecutors believe they can connect Shuremu and his cafe to hundreds of pounds of khat.

That might seem like a big deal, but there are few indications that the khat game costs lives the way some other illicit substances do. Treating it that way feels like overkill.

Photo by cliff1066™ via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0 Generic

"Today, a student Thomson Elementary School brought an undetermined amount of cocaine to school and shared it with others in his class. Four of the students who received the cocaine ingested it, some orally and others inhaled it through the nose. It is unknown at this time how much each student ingested.

The students’ teacher spoke with the student who distributed the cocaine and alerted the main office. The four students were evaluated by the school nurse and transported to the hospital as a precaution. A fifth student, who did not ingest the drug, was also transported as a precaution. All are reportedly OK.

School leadership at Thomson ES notified the parents of the students involved and met a group of parents after school to address their concerns regarding the incident. A letter from school leadership also was sent home explaining what had happened (see attached).

School is not in session Friday as it is a professional development day for teachers. Counselors will be at the school on Monday to discuss the incident with the student body and teachers. The counselors will provide information to educate students about the dangers of drugs and offer advice on drug prevention.

The student who brought the cocaine to school has been charged with Possession Controlled Substance (cocaine). The Office of Attorney General handles juvenile matters and will determine how to proceed with charges given the age of the student."

According to court papers, in June, the detective was arrested for shoving two men, then putting one of them in a choke hold and slamming him against a car. The violence broke out as a result of an argument. Witkowski was driving along 14th Street NW at about 3 a.m. when he stopped at a light at Fairmont Street. That's when, prosecutors say, he began yelling at two men parked on the corner. The men, who told cops they were waiting for a friend, got out of their car—supposedly to get some air—and conflict ensued.

Witkowski was also accused and convicted of leaving the scene, despite being asked not to by a uniformed officer who showed up during the conflict. The Washington Post reported the detective also refused to take a sobriety test. In court papers, Witkowski's lawyer suggested the arresting officer (different from the officer who ordered Witkowski to stick around) had some sort of bias against the defendant.

The detective's lawyer declined comment, as did the U.S. Attorney's office.

Court filings say Witkowski has worked for MPD for more than 20 years and has received over 20 commendations and letters of appreciation for his service. He has no previous record. MPD spokesperson Gwen Crump says that whether Witkowski keeps his job depends on the "outcome of an internal affairs investigation."

An hour before the Oct. 15 incident that would end with Ali Ahmed Mohammed dead, a fight broke out at DC9. That's according to Damon Dixon, 37, a bartender there. The fight, which occurred around 1:30 a.m., allegedly involved Georgio Tuccio, 21. Dixon describes the moments before the fight as calm. He was having a conversation with "a guy and a girl" at the bar about piercings when their friend came out of the bathroom and joined the chat. The friend was Tuccio. Dixon recalls that Tuccio immediately started off on the wrong foot by making a bad joke: "He said he had a piercing on his penis and did I want to see it."

Dixon says he explained that he didn't appreciate the humor, and Tuccio eventually apologized. But then Dixon tuned around to make a drink, and Tuccio began "screaming at somebody, 'What you are looking at?'" That's when the fight broke out. "There was a melee," Dixon says. "People were fighting. You couldn't tell who was fighting who."

Dixon helped get Tuccio out of the club, but not before Tuccio punched out a window, he says. The cops were called, but even after they came Dixon says Tuccio was still going off, "telling everyone to go fuck themselves." Tucio's lawyer declined to comment to City Desk.

Tuccio was arrested for destruction of property. In charging documents, cops said Tuccio was talking "loud and aggressive," when they arrived.

Later that night, five DC9 employees would be arrested for murdering Mohammed after he broke a second window with a brick, following the 27-year-old being denied entrance to the club. Prosecutors have since dropped all charges against the men.  In a filing connected to destruction of property charges against his client, Tuccio's lawyer, John Copacino,  claimed there were witnesses who saw the DC9 employees once accused of beating Mohammed to death beat up Tuccio. The court papers suggest Tuccio smashed his window in retaliation.

Dixon says that neither beating happened. "Five innocent people have had their lives ruined," he says.

Tuccio, though, seems to be exiting the story. Earlier this week, authorities dropped the charges against Tuccio. William Miller, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office, confirms that his office "has dismissed the misdemeanor charge of destruction of property."

"Mr. Tuccio has agreed to pay restitution." Miller says in an e-mail. "Beyond that, we typically do not discuss charging decisions, and have no further comment at this time."

Photo by meeshypants via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

In the days leading up to last night's horrendous drive-by shooting in Washington Highlands, police had sought an arrest warrant for one of the men thought to have carried out the crime.

Orlando Simms Carter, 26 20, now under arrest for the deadly drive-by, was suspected by police to have played a part in the March 22 killing of Jordan Howe, 20, on Alabama Avenue SE.

Police took evidence to prosecutors last week seeking arrest warrants for Simms Orlando Carter and Sanquan Carter, 19, who are brothers. But prosecutors determined that the evidence would only support a warrant for Sanquan. (The warrant was subsequently issued, and he was arrested.)

Sources indicate that Simms Orlando Carter was then targeted in a retaliatory shooting on Chesapeake Street SE, which failed. He was grazed by a bullet and hospitalized, before leaving the hospital last week.

On Friday, LL is told, police summoned an emergency meeting with prosecutors, but without an eyewitness to finger Simms Orlando Carter as having a part in the Howe killing, prosecutors declined to take the warrant to a judge.

Channing Phillips, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office, confirms that police sought a warrant from his office. "Our officials did not feel at the time that there was sufficient evidence ...but we were willing to keep working with [police], and did, to gather additional evidence."

Howe Carter allegedly orchestrated yesterday's drive-by as payback for the attempt on his own life. Four died in the attack; five are wounded. Besides Simms, Nathaniel Simms Carter, 20, and an unnamed juvenile have been arrested.

What's behind this brazen outburst of violence?

"It's all over a bracelet," says Ron Moten, the longtime gang interventionist formerly of the Peaceoholics. "Costume jewelry."

At a vigil last week for Howe, Moten says that attendees said the whole beef centered around a "fake diamond" bracelet that Howe had.

Now the beef has enveloped the streets of Washington Highlands, centering on South Capitol Street between Atlantic and Chesapeake Streets.

Says Moten, "That area's called Ground Zero."

UPDATE, 11:40 P.M.: Due to a transcription error, LL misnamed the suspect who was allegedly involved in both the Howe murder and the Tuesday drive-by. The suspect is Orlando Carter, not 'Orlando Simms.' Another suspect arrested Tuesday night was Nathaniel Simms, 26. Also, Orlando Carter is 20, not 26, and he is the brother of Sanquan Carter, arrested in connection with the Howe killing.

Police Chief Cathy Lanier, after a press conference tonight, addressed the chronology that led up to the Tuesday shooting. Last Monday, March 22, Howe was murdered in the early morning hours. Police identified two suspects—now identified as the Carter brothers. Prosecutors immediately presented a search warrant for Sanquan to a judge, and he was arrested on Tuesday. The evidence behind Orlando, however, was thinner, and prosecutors would not sign off. Meanwhile, Orlando was shot and wounded on Tuesday, seven hours after his brother is arrested. He was taken to a hospital—by helicopter, according to Lanier—where he was "uncooperative with hospital staff and walked away." And police, meanwhile, were working with the U.S. attorney's office to get a warrant to a judge, to no avail.

"I don't have a problem picking up the phone and calling any of the federal agencies," said Lanier. "When I need them to help me, I go to the phone and I call them, and they come. And, yes, I did pick up the phone, I called them, and they came." There was a meeting on Friday to discuss the warrant, but no movement. Prosecutors would not agree to take the evidence to a judge.

Lanier said this about that decision: "I'm a police officer and I can only think like one. And, you know what, we don't always agree with the U.S. attorney's office. Sometimes we have a difference of opinion, and my goal is to stop more people from being injured. When we submit an arrest warrant, the U.S. attorney's office has to make a decision. Do we always agree? No. But the bottom line is we don't go forward until we do."

On Tuesday, Robert S. Bennett laid out an astonishingly detailed case against Ward 8 Councilmember Marion S. Barry Jr. and concluded that the matter should be referred to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Bennett's conclusion raises the rather comical notion that the U.S. Attorney's Office consists of a bunch of bureaucrats sitting around the office waiting for "referrals" to come across the fax machine.

In fact, the federal prosecutors that oversee crime and justice in the District need no stamped-and-signed invitation to take on a case. When news broke last summer concerning Barry's controversial business and personal relationship with Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, law enforcement officials soon began looking into the allegations. They quizzed Watts-Brighthaupt, who refuses to say how many meetings she had with the law.

And so far, prosecutors have not charged Barry with kickbacks or directing money to fishy nonprofits staffed by supporters. The Bennett report may read like a slam dunk. A jury may not see it that way.

Prosecutors may be showing restraint for one reason: Donna Watts, on the witness stand. Just watch her interview with Fox 5. Or read our interview with her earlier this week about those kickbacks.

Today, City Desk reached Watts at her home asked her about the prospect of a criminal prosecution.

"I hope it doesn't go there," Watts says.

Watts went on to say:

"I hope that [Barry] won't have to be prosecuted. I don't think it warrants the U.S. Attorney's Office. I don't think it should go that far, really I don't. Not for what he did with me.... I hope the people we elected as our leaders will exemplify true leadership...research..ask the right questions...and deal with this problem internally."

Would you testify?

"I haven't thought about it," Watt says.

"As far as Marion is concerned, let's just say I hope the truth, the entire truth is revealed," Watts says.  "And the council will take all into account before deciding Marion's fate."

*file photo by Darrow Montgomery.

As you may recall, Arenas and Crittenton will be forever linked as really awesome guys to have in a locker room.

Crittenton apparently has pled guilty to the misdemeanor charge. Legal Times' blog has a full breakdown of the plea and Crittenton's lawyer's statement.

5 p.m. update: After Crittenton entered his plea, Senior Judge Bruce Beaudin sentenced him to one-year unsupervised probation, and required him to perform community service with the NBA's Haiti project as well as some local children's organizations.

The big news: Crittenton's claims that he believed Arenas intended to harm him.

After the jump: Prosecutors' narrative of events and counter WaPo's now-famous account of the incident in one significant way—Crittenton's gun was not loaded during the locker room incident!

The U.S. Attorney's Office press release provides a narrative regarding pre-Christmas fight between Crittenton and Arenas. On December 21, Crittenton arrived at the Verizon Center at 9 a.m. to receive medical treatment and to attend the Wizards' practice. The prosecutor's office writes:

"According to Crittenton, before he left his home in Virginia for practice that day, Crittenton had placed a lawfully owned, unloaded handgun into his backpack because he believed Arenas would carry out his threat to shoot him that day."

When Crittenton found Arenas' handguns in his locker and a sign that read "pick 1," he asked Arenas: "What is this?" and asked Arenas to get the guns off his chair. He then picked up one of the guns and threw it along the floor. The prosecutor's office goes on to state:

"According to Crittenton, he feared for his own safety, so he told Arenas he had his own gun. Crittenton took his handgun out of his backpack and, without pointing it anyone, showed it to Arenas, holding it below his waist pointed downward."

Prosecutors point out that there is no evidence that Crittenton's gun was loaded or that he ever loaded the gun. "There also is no evidence that Crittenton ever chambered a round, pulled back the hammer, raised or pointed the firearm, or otherwise brandished the firearm in a threatening manner at any time during this incident," the U.S. Attorney's Office writes.

This directly contradicts WaPo's Mike Wise's amazing story on the incident in which sources told him that Crittenton had chambered a round.

Later, Crittenton arranged to surrender his firearm used in the incident. His gun of choice: An unloaded silver-and-black nine millimeter semi-automatic Taurus with magazine. Crittenton had no criminal record.

If anyone has learned anything from this week it's that you shouldn't lie about guns. Dante "Little Head" Vaughn has learned that lesson the hard way—with a jury conviction.

Yesterday, a D.C. Superior Court jury found Little Head, 29, guilty of obstruction of justice for repeatedly lying about a shooting incident in April 2008.

Little Head was shot once in the leg during a drive-by-shooting at the corner of Lincoln Road and Randolph Place NE. The shooting was right under a D.C. Police camera. When questioned by police in a nearby hospital that night, Little Head lied about the location of the shooting. He also, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, encouraged his fiance to lie to the cops. A month later, police came back to re-interview Little Head. He did not use that second chance wisely. Instead he stuck to his lies.

Little Head's shooting, the U.S. Attorney's Office says in a press release, was a pivotal event, one that "touched off a round of retaliation shootings." Those shootings resulted in two deaths and more than 15 wounded.

Little Head faces 15 to 27 years in prison.

*file photo by Darrow Montgomery.

For example, the statements offered by Wainstein and Arenas just released moments ago. They are a significant step up from Arenas' twitter postings in which he seemed to take the whole affair as one big joke. The statements suggest Arenas will not be twittering about the incident any time soon.

Both statements after the jump.

From Wainstein:

"This afternoon, Gilbert Arenas voluntarily met with federal prosecutors at the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and detectives of the Metropolitan Police Department to explain the circumstances surrounding the presence of his unloaded firearms at the Verizon Center last month.

From the outset of this incident, Mr. Arenas has been fully cooperative with the investigation. He acknowledged his possession of the guns when questioned by Washington Wizards team officials; he immediately offered and relinquished the guns to Wizards security personnel; and he had me proactively reach out to the U.S. Attorney's Office and make an immediate self-disclosure about the guns.

Consistent with that cooperative approach, Mr. Arenas felt it important that we meet with law enforcement at the first possible opportunity so that he could tell the full story. Over the course of a two-hour interview this afternoon, Mr. Arenas answered every question asked of him.

Mr. Arenas has been constrained in his public comment about these circumstances out of concern that he not do anything to interfere with the ongoing law enforcement investigation. Please understand that his public comments will continue to be limited as long as the investigation continues. Nevertheless, now that he has completed his interview, Mr. Arenas wishes to make the following statement about last month's events and today's interview."

From Arenas:

"I appreciated the opportunity to meet with law enforcement officials today. As the person who caused this trouble in the first place, I thought it was my duty to be the first witness to come forward and meet with the prosecutors and detectives. I told my attorney I wanted to get in for an interview as soon as we could arrange it, and that was today.

I told the detectives and prosecutors the whole story about my storing the unloaded guns at the Verizon Center and what I was intending to do when I took them out of my locker on December 21st.

As I have said before, I had kept the four unloaded handguns in my house in Virginia, but then moved them over to my locker at the Verizon Center to keep them away from my young kids. I brought them without any ammunition into the District of Columbia, mistakenly believing that the recent change in the DC gun laws allowed a person to store unloaded guns in the District.

On Monday, December 21st, I took the unloaded guns out in a misguided effort to play a joke on a teammate. Contrary to some press accounts, I never threatened or assaulted anyone with the guns and never pointed them at anyone.

Joke or not, I now recognize that what I did was a mistake and was wrong. I should not have brought the guns to DC in the first place, and I now realize that there's no such thing as joking around when it comes to guns — even if unloaded.

I am very sorry for the effect that my serious lapse in judgment has had on my team, my teammates, the National Basketball Association and its fans. I want to apologize to everybody for letting them down with my conduct, and I promise to do better in the future.

I also want to thank the detectives and prosecutors on the case for the professionalism and courtesy they showed me during the interview today. I stand ready to continue to give my full cooperation to them and to the League as they investigate this incident."

Do you think Arenas gets it now?

According to court documents, the investigation appears to have begun when an inmate notified authorities that contraband was being smuggled into the facility in October 2008. The inmate agreed to cooperate with federal authorities in the investigation.

In November 2008, the inmate learned that Officer Quincy Hayes was smuggling in items for other inmates, according to court records. The court records state: "The [inmate] eventually gained Hayes' trust such that Hayes was willing to smuggle contraband into the CTF for [the inmate]."

On March 30, 2009, Hayes got a call from an undercover F.B.I. agent posing as the inmate's brother. Law enforcement recorded the call. During the call, Hayes tells the undercover officer that he wanted $600 to smuggle in the contraband.

Undercover cop: "Dude, you for real?"

Hayes: "(Laughs) So, I mean...I...hey, I was like that's, that's generous...you know, you know."

Undercover cop: "Dude."

Hayes: "I'll, I'll work it out with you know...with about four. I mean, I would've as two...it's two for two, right?"

They eventually settle on $250 two smuggle two iPod touches into the jail. Then it became just one iPod touch for $250 for just the cooperating inmate. On June 5, 2009, Hayes met with the undercover cop in the parking lot of RFK Stadium. The cop gave Hayes $300 to smuggle in the iPod Touch. The meeting was captured on videotape.

The iPod was eventually confiscated along with a cellphone.

Between October 2008 and March 2009, Thomas Ford, a corrections officer at CTF, conspired with Renee Braxton, a security guard at the National Building Museum, to smuggle into the facility two cellphones and two battery powered phone charges, a pack of cigarettes, and a lighter—for very small bribe payments of $100 and $50.

Braxton allegedly helped facilitate the bribe scheme. At one point, agents followed her from the National Building Musuem to the correction facility parking lot where she was to meet up with an undercover agent. She started to freak out. The meeting was recorded:

Braxton: "I dropped it off. I've got this big ole police van...mobile behind me. I don't know what the heck...where the heck I'm going. I'm making all kinds of crazy turns and stuff. I gave it to him and um...he said, he'll get them a charger."

Undercover Cop: "Oh, he will?"

Braxton: "Yeah, that's what he said."

Undercover Cop: "Cool, cool."

Braxton: "He said he will take care of it."

According to the complaint, three days later Ford gave the cell phone to the cooperating inmate inside CTF.

At a meeting on Feb. 10, 2009, the undercover cop met with Ford in the CTF parking lot. The officer gave Ford an iPod adapter for the charger, "cigarettes rolled in duct tape and placed in a plastic baggie" and a lighter. The conversation, again, was recorded:

Undercover cop: "50 dollars for a pack of cigarettes?"

Ford: "Hmm."

Undercover cop: "Jesus Christ Almighty"

Ford: "The risk goes up...trying to just get it through the front door...That's the going price."

Ford, Hayes, and Braxton have all been charged.

*follow me on Twitter.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office:

"Khanu owned and operated two nightclubs on F Street in the District, named DC Live (and later VIP) and Platinum, from at least 2000 through 2003. Khanu skimmed millions of dollars in cash from these clubs to pay employees wages in cash, and for his personal use."

When law enforcement raided Khanu's Potomac home, they found $1.9 million in cash as well as "a double set of books and records."

Councilmember Jim Graham has generally kept quiet on the taxicab bribery case that has so far snared his right-hand-man Ted Loza. But at a recent Kalorama Citizens Association meeting, Graham apparently couldn't help himself. According to sources in attendance, he blasted federal law enforcement for busting Loza.

Recalls one source who was there: “[Graham] basically said Ted was entrapped by the FBI. The gentleman Kamus…He said he and Ted were very, very good friends. I thought it was a very bizarre thing to say."

Says another: “He talked a little bit about the investigation. He went back and forth from sort of defending Ted and throwing Ted under the bus a little bit. He talked about how Kamus was a really good friend of the office and a good personal friend of Ted’s.…That’s when he came up with the FBI entrapment….It’s a close friend of Teddy’s who got caught up in the investigation.” [See pictures of Loza and Kamus].

And finally, here's one more source from the KCA meeting: "I heard him talk about the taxicab investigation and how tragic everything was....It gets you paranoid. You don’t be expecting to be talking to someone and thinking you are talking to the FBI."

Pretty deep insights from the Grahamstander.

When we asked the councilmember to confirm or deny his comments, a staffer offered up a very unique retort.

Brian DeBose, Graham's new spokesperson, replied via e-mail: "It was an off-the-record meeting. That means you want him to verify something. He wants to know what you want him to verify before he talks to you." (This item initially misspelled DeBose's last name)

I replied that there's no such thing as an off-the-record public meeting. DeBose replied: "Incidentally, I know a community meeting is by definition not off the record. However, Dennis James assured the Councilmember it would be."

Denis James did not return calls seeking comment.

Bryan Weaver, an ANC Commissioner in Adams Morgan, says the meeting was not advertised as off-the-record. “I don’t know how you can have public meeting be off the record," he says. "It’s impossible. They had probably a 100 signs up in the community featuring Jim Graham as the speaker…It was the only thing on the poster.”

Eventually, Graham agreed to be interviewed. Yesterday, I was told that he would be calling. He never did. This afternoon I got another, final response from DeBose: "The councilmember was unavailable for comment by press time."

*photo by Darrow Montgomery.

The District lost.

The implications of the ruling are narrow but sharp: It pretty much puts the kibosh on any attempts, short of congressional action, to expand the Office of the Attorney General's prosecutorial bailiwick beyond the smattering of low-rent misdemeanors it already handles.

As Scarcella noted in his original story back in June, the dispute pitted Attorney General Peter Nickles and his congressionally castrated office against the federal Department of Justice, which prosecutes the vast majority of District crimes, in a "rare public turf battle."

The conflict is rooted in the misdealings of Emerson Crawley, a D.C. Public Schools employee who stuck the city with $7,400 in bills for fancy meals that turned out not to be work-related. His bosses found out, told the U.S. attorney's office about it, but the federal prosecutors decided in 2007 not to bring charges—apparently the offense was too piddling to warrant the feds' valuable time.

OAG decided they wanted a crack at Crowley anyway, and filed charges against him under the District's "false claims" statute. Back in 1997, when the D.C. Council passed that law, making it illegal to defraud the D.C. government, they mandated that OAG prosecute those offenses.

But Crowley had a very good lawyer who happened to have once run the city legal shop—Fred Cooke, noted for his representation of Marion Barry, was in charge back when it was called the Office of Corporation Counsel—and Cooke questioned whether OAG had the authority to press the case.

After all, under the District's home-rule charter, the feds are entitled to prosecute all crimes, save for violations of "police or municipal regulations, where the maximum punishment is a fine only or imprisonment not exceeding one year." Moreover, the D.C. Council, Scarcella notes, is "specifically prohibited from enacting any law 'relating to the duties or powers' of the U.S. attorney's office."

So Crowley's trial judge sent the matter to the appeals court. In a hearing there last June, Scarcella reported, the District argued that the restrictions on the local AG's authority ran only to laws in place prior to home rule. After that, the council can make new crimes and let OAG prosecute them. The U.S. attorney's office "argued that Congress never meant to give the D.C. Council free rein to create new crimes and assign a prosecutor."

The court didn't buy the District's arguments. If the city wants more local prosecutorial power, it's going to have to go to Congress to get it.

The weird part about all this is that the feds can allow the District to prosecute cases it doesn't want to handle. They didn't do that in this case—meaning at DOJ made an affirmative decision that Crowley shouldn't be prosecuted by themselves or anyone else.

Nobody knows why, Scarcella writes: "Federal prosecutors have not stated their reasons for declining to file charges against Crawley."

UPDATE, 5:05 P.M.: Asked why he hasn't been able to reach an agreement with the feds to prosecute the case, Nickles says, "As best as I can fathom, it's a matter of establishing jurisdictional prerogatives."

Nickles points out that the District has a pointed interest in prosecuting crimes against the government itself and seems perplexed that there would be a dispute over doing so: "It seems to me awfully strange. It seems part and parcel of the whole home rule idea."

In the wake of today's decision, by a three-judge appeals panel, Nickles says he's considering either an appeal to the full appeals court, an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, or lobbying Congress to change the law.

"We're not just going to accept it, that's for sure," he says. "To me, this is serious."

The D.C. Police Department has heralded its latest All Hands On Deck weekend with a press release. This AHOD took place between the early morning hours of July 10 to the early morning hours of July 12. The all gambit produced 519 arrests and one closed homicide case.

As all AHOD scholars know the bulk number doesn't quite tell the story of what the officers really achieve during these weekends. More detailed breakdowns show that much of the arrests are ultimately tossed out by the U.S. Attorney's Office. We posted the numbers of previous AHODs here and here and here.

The latest numbers provided by the U.S. Attorneys' Office show a similar stack of flimsy arrests.

Here are the stats from the July 10 to July 12 AHOD via prosecutors:

July 10 Cases:

Felonies: 7

Misdemeanors: 48

Fugitive: 4

No papered cases: 22

July 11 Cases:

Felonies:  21

Misdemeanors: 41

No Papered cases: 38

Fugitive: 3

July 13 Cases:

Felonies: 20

Misdemeanors: 74

No Papered cases: 40

Fugitive: 7

Total cases tossed out: 100

Total felony cases: 48

Photo By Darrow Montgomery

At a little after 9 p.m., Councilmember Marion Barry spokesperson Natalie Williams began another hastily scheduled press conference in front of the Wilson Building by thanking the U.S. Attorney's Office for dropping the stalking charge against the councilmember. Prosecutors had announced three hours earlier that they would not press on with the stalking case. "Our hearts are full tonight with thanks," Williams said. "We are grateful that the U.S. Attorney's Office has seen fit to not charge Mr. Barry."

Barry had been charged with stalking Donna Watts-Brighthaupt over the July 4 weekend. The arrest had since provoked a series of press conferences and embarrassing disclosures concerning Barry's troubled relationship with Watts-Brighthaupt. The disclosures included bizarre hotel fights and audio tapes showing how obsessed Barry had become with his ex-girlfriend. Yet to be clarified is how Barry came to secure lucrative contract work for Watts-Brighthaupt. 

Williams stated that Barry would answer questions about the the payments tomorrow. She also said that they would be able to provide the documents (contracts, e-mails, etc.) proving that the councilmember had acted properly. She insisted that the nothing Barry had done was illegal. 

After Williams finished reading from her prepared text, she took a few questions from reporters. The first question concerned the audio tapes. 

"This is over," Williams declared. But it wasn't. She went on to argue that the tapes only proved that Barry and Watts-Brighthaupt were in a romantic relationship. 

Williams later added that "Barry is not disappointed" by his behavior heard and referenced on the audio tapes. She refused to address Barry's actions at the Democratic National Convention when he kicked Watts-Brighthaupt out of his hotel room after she claims she refused to give him a blowjob. "They're two adults," she'd only say.

As to how Watts-Brighthaupt got the contract work from Barry's office, Williams isn't quite clear on all the details. She says she doesn't know if the ex-girlfriend even went through any interview process. "I have no idea how that transpired," she admitted. 

Earlier this evening, City Desk interviewed Watts-Brighthaupt on the U.S. Attorney's Office decision. 

*photos by Darrow Montgomery.