Is Our Deer Learning?: Maybe it's not too late to change the award-winning designs of some of the new libraries around town. Because, apparently, the local fauna have trouble with lots of windows. A deer crashed through the plate glass in the interim library in Washington Highlands today, shattering the window; the deer had to be put to death, after breaking its jaw. No word on whether it was rushing to return books to avoid an overdue fine. -1

McPherson Square, Preoccupied: Yesterday's deadline for Occupy D.C. to abide by rules banning camping in McPherson Square passed without too much trouble, as many protesters agreed to ditch things like stoves and sleeping gear in order to keep the U.S. Park Police from raiding the site. Today, the Occupiers failed to get a restraining order against the enforcement of the rules—but they did get a promise of advance warning before a bust. Which, among other outcomes, guarantees extensive media coverage if the cops ever do move to clear the park. +2

History Of Fiction: Republican presidential candidate and would-be moon colonizer Newt Gingrich has compared himself to everything from Moses to "a Viking." So it's almost understandable that Post reporter Stephanie McCrummen might have thought Gingrich was referring to another historical figure when he said he was a student of "the Japanese samurai warlord Toranaga." Unfortunately for McCrummen, Toranaga is a character in Shogun, a James Clavell novel published in 1975, not an actual historical figure. Fortunately for the rest of us, the correction noting that fact is quite amusing. +2

Save Us, Peyton Kenobi, You're Our Only Hope: Two seasons ago, the Washington Redskins signed Donovan McNabb amidst great preseason hype. Before the 6-10 2010 campaign was over, McNabb had been benched for Rex Grossman. So the news that the team is now doodling Peyton Manning's name and drawing burgundy and gold hearts on notebooks in Ashburn, Va., doesn't exactly inspire great confidence. Of course, the modern era being what it is, there is already a petition to bring Manning to town and a Twitter feed to promote it, complete with PhotoShopped images of Dan Snyder posing with his new QB. -1

Yesterday's Needle rating: 38 Today's score: +2 Today's Needle rating: 40

It's an especially poor idea when you're right outside the White House.

And it crosses the line into an especially lousy idea when what you're actually carrying in your backpack is... marijuana.

According to charging documents,  Michael Joseph Hutchinson, 32, of Fort Washington, Md., was arrested after he exclaimed: "I got a bomb!"

Hutchinson made his declaration at around 5:00 on the 4th of July, as he strolled down the 1600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue NW, the documents claim. He was immediately stopped by a Park Police officer and then detained by the Secret Service. Authorities took his "green backpack from him and set it on the street." They soon cleared throngs of July 4th revelers from the block and from adjacent Lafayette Square.

In the documents, the Park Police officer who overheard Hutchinson says he had just finished a conversation with the suspect. Hutchinson, he says, needed to know where the fun was: He allegedly approached the officer to ask  for directions "to the 'Smoke Out' demonstration at Henry Bacon Field."

The officer dutifully directed Hutchinson to the 41st Annual 4th of July Smoke-In, a pro-marijuana concert that takes place every Independence Day. As Hutchinson walked away, he allegedly made his threat.

Searching Hutchinson, authorities found "a small ziplock bag containing a a green leafy substance. The front pocket of Hutchinson's backpack was also searched, and a knife was found. The Secret Service then treated his bag as a suspicious package. An Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team later "declared the bag clear of explosives."

"In the bag were found two hand-rolled cigarettes made of green leafy substance which were contained in a metallic cigarette case, and an unlabeled glass jar containing various pills," the charging documents say.

Hutchinson was cuffed for making terrorist threats and for possession of marijuana. "The day I say I have a bomb in my bag at the White House this happens," Hutchinson  allegedly said after his arrest.

Yet, as Johnny Barnes of the American Civil Liberties Union points out, "the only homicide in Trinidad last year was at the hands of the police."

It's a year and one day since Trey Joyner, 25, was mowed down by police bullets, and family members of the slain Trinidad resident are still waiting for an update on the investigation. Relatives, along with some fuming local activists, gathered in front of the John A. Wilson building on Wednesday to point out as much.

Dressed in the coveralls of his workplace, Travis Joyner wanted to know why authorities had yet to reveal what they'd discovered about the circumstances surrounding his brother's death. The family only knows that on June 8, 2009, Trey Joyner was killed by plainclothes park police, allegedly after he pulled a gun.

Eyewitnesses have contradicted an assertion made by cops that after a struggle in an alley, Joyner turned a gun on a group of U.S. Park Police officers who were in Trinidad as part of an inter-agency task force led by the FBI. Witnesses' claim that Joyner was shot in the back would also seem to contradict the cops' account.

"I'm to the point that I'm very frustrated, that our family hasn't gotten any answers," Joyner tells City Desk. "To me it's very sad, because I feel as though if it had happened in another area of Washington, D.C. like Dupont Circle of Upper Northwest, I believe that the investigation would have been over."

Joyner says the local U.S. Attorney's office, which was investigating the tragedy, contacted the family a week after the shooting, but not one time after. The investigation has now been taken over by federal prosecutors in Philadelphia.

Joyner says his family has tried to contact Mayor Adrian Fenty to see if he could help get answers, but the mayor wasn't interested. Cousin Patrice Lancaster hounded the Mayor's office about her deceased relative, and says she was hung up on three times. Eventually, someone who identified herself as "an administrative assistant"  to the mayor told her "that Mayor Fenty didn't want to have anything to do with my cousin's case," she says. 

"Not true," mayoral spokesperson Mafara Hobson says of Lancaster's story via email.

Trey Joyner's father, Walter Joyner, his voice wavering, called for an end to the violence: "I would just like to say, put yourself in my place and all of our brothers and sisters need to ban together and stop this police brutality that is happening on our streets killing our youth. That's all I have to say right now."

Staff photo by Rend Smith

Much of this scandal broke after his July 4th stalking arrest. Soon after, Barry and/or his staff held multiple press conferences outside the Wilson Building. Instead of coming clean, his spokesperson read statements that simply bashed the character of Barry's former-girlfriend Donna Watts-Brighthaupt. [And in secret, Barry continued to pursue her]. Barry's own response centered on threatening to sue the U.S. Park Police for properly arresting him in the first place. He also firmly believed that there was nothing wrong in hiring girlfriends.

As Bennett's investigation went into high gear, Barry used that time to keep tabs on witnesses, and pressure Watts-Brighthaupt to not hand over critical evidence. Barry also sat for his own deposition. If there was a time he could have presented his rebuttal to Bennett's charges, that would be the time. Instead, he refused to answer certain questions, played dumb in other instances, and referred to those kickbacks as "loans." Bennett's people found his answers to not be so credible.

As Catania told WaPo:

"These are very serious allegations. The conclusions — they are not allegations, they are conclusions — by our special counsel amount to the fact that Marion took kickbacks" from a former girlfriend, Catania said. "The council does not have the authority to remove Mr. Barry from office. That responsibility rests with the voters of Ward 8. But we do have the authority to determine which committee he sits on and whether or not he chairs a committee."

No one on the D.C. Council expects Barry to suddenly come up with evidence that will save him. So why wait to start deliberating on what to do?

Morning all. Late last night, we published a piece on the latest mystery woman in Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry's life: Sharon Bowen. Bowen, who resides in Ohio, received $50,000 in contract work from the legendary politico to work on poverty issues in Ward 8. Bowen, our sources say, was also Barry's girlfriend at the time (June 2007 to May 2008). For the piece, we detail her work and interview key players including Barry and Bowen's daughter. Meanwhile, the Hill Rag's The Nose examines Barry's legislative record and finds it lacking in accomplishments. The upshot: many of Barry's bills go nowhere and his priorities seem misplaced.

TREY JOYNER: The U.S. Park Police shooting of Trey Joyner on June 8 is getting a serious look by law enforcement authorities. On that Monday night, four park police cops in plainclothes moved in on Joyner as he was getting out of a car. When the officers tried to arrest him, allegedly a struggle ensued and he was gunned down. Witnesses at the time stated that Joyner was shot in the back and that the officers did not announce themselves. Now, WaPo is reporting that a federal grand jury is getting deep into the case and has subpoenaed an amateur video showing the chaos in Trinidad after the shooting. The WaPo scoop includes an interview with the filmmaker and has the man's video. Fox-5 finds Eleanor Holmes Norton is still fuming over whether or not the U.S. Attorney's Office should be leading the investigation into the shooting. If only all suspicious police shootings got this much attention.

HOMELESS FAMILIES: District officials plan to expand the number of beds for homeless families by 10 percent. But there's a catch: the extra beds will only be available in the winter. WaPo reports that means 75 more beds (WUSA also has the story). Key graphs:

"Nassim Moshiree, a lawyer with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, said the officials who presented the plan seemed overconfident. 'This past spring, 88 families were living at the family shelter at D.C. General Hospital when the capacity was 75,' Moshiree said. 'Some had to stay in the cafeteria. They say they'll only need 75 beds there in the winter, when demand is high now. Where is their Plan B? They need a Plan B.'

Fred Swan, family services administrator for the Department of Human Services, said Moshiree voiced a common complaint. 'To a certain extent, we hear that every year,' Swan said. 'We'll make adjustments as needed.'

AFTER THE JUMP—Cathy Lanier dismisses the controversy over the "police" report in Fenty's car accident, Harry Jaffe continues to hammer away at the Pershing Park case, Fenty signs anti-crime bill, and much, much more.

NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT: D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier doesn't get why the press—and maybe a few readers—are concerned over how the police handled Mayor Fenty's fender bender. "I think there has been a lot of things made out of nothing here," Lanier tells WJLA. Nothing? WaPo has more from Lanier on the accident. Key quote: "'[Fenty] stayed on the scene. The [mayor's] children that were on the scene, were taken from the scene, but he stayed on the scene while the other driver didn't,' Lanier said. 'There are no procedures that were not followed. We thought that it was important to get the report taken and then file the supplemental report when we got the information. The important thing was to take the report, and it was taken, The photos were not taken because the other driver left the scene. The mayor stayed on the scene. He could have left because it was a minor fender-bender — if this was anybody else, they could have exchange information and left the scene.'

MORE TROUBLE FOR PETER NICKLES: The Examiner's Bill Myers is reporting that there's a big conflict brewing betweeen AG Nickles and City Auditor Deborah Nichols. Key graphs: "City Auditor Deborah Nichols says she wants a look at the last few years of books of the Anacostia Waterfront Commission and the National Capital Revitalization Corp. but that Nickles is invoking attorney-client privilege to prevent access to important records. 'It's quite clear that the [Attorney General's Office] is inexplicably attempting to subvert the auditor's authority,' Nichols wrote in a July 2 letter obtained by The Examiner. Nichols called the attorney general's conduct 'unconscionable and unacceptable.'" Nickles says his actions were "appropriate." Myers goes on to explain why Nichols is so interested: "According to a source familiar with Nichols' audit, she also is asking questions about tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees the revitalization corporation paid to Michelle Fenty in 2006 as Mayor Adrian Fenty, then a D.C. councilman, campaigned for the mayor's office. The mayor's wife focuses her practice on global technology transactions and does not appear to have a background in community development." Meanwhile, Harry Jaffe compares the problems in the Pershing Park case to Watergate.

CAFRITZ FIRE: Today, Mayor Fenty plans on announcing the preliminary findings in the city's investigation into the hydrant problems surrounding the Peggy Cooper Cafritz house fire. WaPo reports that WASA has written a letters to City Administrator Neil O. Albert in an apparent attempt to push some of the blame on the Fire Department. Fenty is expected to hold a news conference today near the Cafritz home. WUSA reports that the Fire Department is already taking measures—measures that were recommended in 2007—to prevent such hydrant issues from happening again.

BUDGET TALK: Elissa Silverman and Liz Williams get all ProPublica on the District as they report out what happened to the city's federal stimulus money in the Hill Rag. They find that without the fed's help the District would be in total budget meltdown mode: "The stimulus is helping DC in two key ways. Plummeting tax revenues combined with increased demands for health care and other human services have created gaping holes in state and local government budgets everywhere. The District is no exception. About a quarter of DC’s budget gap this year and next will be plugged by various pots of money made available from the stimulus. Without that critical influx of dollars, the city would have had to make even deeper spending cuts that would have led to more job losses and slowed down our economic recovery."

CRIME BILL: WaPo reports that Mayor Fenty signed the emergency crime bill (minus the tricky anti-gang initiative). Fenty and Lanier praised the bill's new anti-loitering provisions, etc. Fenty still played the spoilsport: the bill's author Councilmember Phil Mendelson did not attend the bill signing photo op. He was not invited. Wondering why? Mendo did not support the anti-gang initiative.

FENTY'S SCHEDULE:
9:00 a.m. Remarks
Chain Bridge Fire Report
Location: 3022 Chain Bridge Road, NW

10:00 a.m. Remarks
Summer School Graduation
Location: Washington Convention Center
801 Mount Vernon Place, NW
Ballroom AB Level III

11:45 a.m. Remarks
Potomac Avenue Triangle Park Groundbreaking
Location: Intersection of Potomac Avenue, 13th, and I Streets, SE

1:30 p.m. Remarks
Marvin Gaye Park Groundbreaking
Location: Intersection of Division Avenue and Foote Street, NE

Norton, after talking with Park Police Chief Salvatore Lauro, had been under the impression that the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division would be leading an inquiry into the incident. She told residents as much at a community meeting last month at Mount Horeb Baptist Church.

"Last week, my staff was informed that the Civil Rights Division is not leading the investigation of the shooting, but that the U.S. Attorney's Office will be the agency leading this investigation," Norton wrote to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder this week.

More from the July 27 letter:

It was clear to me that the involvement of federal police officers in a local shooting required a federal investigation. At the meeting, Chief Lauro told me that the Civil Rights Division had called him and that he had been told they would be taking over the investigation, according to notes taken by my staff at the meeting.  There appear to be no federal procedures in place for an incident involving a shooting of a local resident by a federal police officer.  Therefore, the use of a third party federal authority with no involvement with the city or local police seemed to me to be appropriate, especially since the Civil Rights Division has a long and credible history of investigating police departments and incidents around the country.

... This incident has raised considerable consternation here, but one thing I thought had been settled was that an independent body would be investigating the Trinidad shooting.  I seek immediate clarification and I believe that such clarification is due as well to the family and to the citizens I represent.

Six Park Police officers were placed on administrative leave after the shooting. Lauro told the Washington Post last month that the officers were not part of an FBI-led "Safe Streets" task force, which is what Park Police had initially said.

Read the full text of Norton's letter here.

Chenille Spencer, once a regular ladyfriend of Marion Barry's—and a regular with him at Player's Lounge—described her connection to Barry in 2006 as "loyal." She remains so. In a phone call to Washington City Paper to "speak on the the police and the way Mr. Barry was treated," Spencer defended her former flame and current friend.

"Mr. Barry is like a tree and all of us are the branches and leaves," she says. "I am just one of the apples that never fell off." Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, the woman at the center of the latest Barry scandal, "needs to know that she has to accept certain things. She will never be able to have a public dinner with him....She needs to accept the fact that Mr. Barry is loved by reverends, bishops, friends, me....You'll never have him all to yourself."

But in speaking of Watts-Brighthaupt, Spencer got off track after prefacing her comments with: "I have nothing to say about Donna whatsoever."

Her main concern, she says, is how Barry was treated by the U.S. Park Police, who arrested and booked him for stalking Watts-Brighthaupt on the night of July 4. (The charge was later dropped by the U.S. Attorney's Office.) "When he came home from jail, he did not have any shoestrings [in his shoes]. They still have his car. They still have his cell phone....It's been a major inconvenience for him."

The ex-mayor and Ward 8 councilmember was detained for "well over an hour" and did not get home until 4:30 a.m., she says. "They took it too far. It was jut a simple domestic dispute," Spencer continues.

Watts-Brighthaupt didn't understand that and didn't understand Barry. "When you're with that man, you want him all to yourself," she says, but that's not how it is going to be. "That's just his personality."

Spencer signed off with a label previously given to her—"arm candy"—and a final message for Watts-Brighthaupt: "Tell her to come correct or don't come at all. We want a drama-free life. Believe me she is going to be scrutinized."

*Reported by Mike DeBonis. Photograph by Darrow Montgomery.

The U.S. Park Police has one story. And a WJLA story with interviews from potential neighborhood witnesses has yet another version of events. Let's break it down.

In an interview with City Desk, U.S. Park Police Sgt. David Schlosser, the department's spokesperson, lays out this simple scenario.

"Yesterday detectives received information about about a man with a gun, located the subject," Schlosser says. "While they were making the arrest, a struggle ensued. The suspect was shot. The suspect did have a gun and the gun was recovered at the scene."

According to WJLA account, Trey Joyner never pointed a gun at the cops:

On Monday night, four U.S. Park Police officers moved in when an informant reportedly made a call about a man with a gun. The plainclothes officers are part of the multi-agency Safe Streets Task Force.

Trey Joyner apparently got of a car and then something occurred which prompted the officers to fire repeatedly. Witnesses say they heard at least seven gunshots.

Investigators say they recovered a gun at the scene, but some who say they witnessed the shooting are adamant Joyner never brandished a gun or threatened the officers.

"He never pointed the gun at him," said a witness.

The diverting narratives could simply be due to the fact that the case is still very, very fresh. One hopes the D.C. Police Department were able to do a thorough canvas and that residents came forward with whatever they saw. The D.C. Police Department is handling the case.

Schlosser says: "We are cooperating completely with them."

This afternoon, the Partnership for Civil Justice announced that it had filed a FOIA request today seeking answers concerning this shooting. [You can read a PDF of the FOIA].

In a release, the Partnership writes:

"In response to reports that a resident of the District was shot in the back and killed last night in the Trinidad neighborhood by undercover federal law enforcement agents, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund filed a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) today demanding disclosure of the directives and policies authorizing and implementing the program through which the officers were operating.

Few D.C. residents are aware of the existence of this FBI-led undercover law enforcement operation through which plain-clothed Park Police officers opened fire in the midst of a D.C. neighborhood. The fact of this operation, shrouded in darkness, came to light in reports published today that the officers involved in the above-referenced incident were working as part of an MPD and federal “inter-agency task force dubbed Operation Safe Streets, which addresses violence throughout the region and is overseen by the FBI.” (See Debbi Wilgoren and Martin Weil, The Washington Post, June 9, 2009, online edition)

The FOIA request was submitted to the MPD, the Mayor’s Office, the FBI and the National Park Service’s Police."

U.S. Park Police were last involved in a shooting on April 13 of this year at 2nd and K Street NE. Schlosser says that investigation is still on-going.

*Correction: This reporter in a previous post was completely confused about this police shooting. He mixed up the earlier police shooting from yesterday morning with the Park Police shooting from last night. Item has been fixed. Embarrassment remains.

Yesterday, the U.S. Park Police were involved in a shooting of a District resident at 2nd and K Streets NE. The shooting took place in the early afternoon.

Davin Tarr was home working on his taxes. He was sitting on his couch in his 11th Floor apartment on Eye Street between 2nd and Third, he says, when he heard a pop, pop, pop.

And then Tarr heard another pop, pop, pop. "There were two bursts of them, pretty close together," he recalls.

This wasn't the normal city noises he was used to. Tarr decided to see what was going on outside his window.  According to the park police, Tarr apparently heard the officers fire on Ronald Hughes after he allegedly struck one of the officers with his car.

Hughes managed to drive off. Tarr was able to capture his failed escape.

Tarr grabbed his Nikon D300 and began snapping away at the scene below which he posted on Flickr. The photos have generated a fair amount of comments as they detail the standoff between Hughes and the Park Police.

Tarr's photo series shows Hughes attempting his getaway, sputtering into a wall and then driving down 2nd Street NE until a police cruiser boxes Hughes in. Hughes–who was injured in the shooting–is eventually dragged out of his car by his undershirt. "They were mostly trying to get his shirt off of him," Tarr says.

“At that point, he wasn’t putting up much resistance or anything," Tarr adds. "The cops were acting pretty professional in my layman’s opinion. They acted swiftly but carefully.”

Tarr adds that the police held Hughes in place until paramedics arrived a short time later.

Of Hughes, Tarr says: "I think he was basically surrendering at that point. He got down on the ground without any struggle. The cops didn’t do anything with him. They just made sure he stayed there. It looks more dramatic in the photos.”

After Tarr's photos hit the web, he says he got an e-mail from a U.S. Park Police detective. The police asked for copies of his pictures. Tarr says he gave his consent.

Tarr shrugs off the attention, explaining that it was just "an interesting day out on the street.”

Photo By Davin Tarr.