Defense attorney Premal Dharia made a closing argument this morning in the case against her client, Vasile Graure. Dharia characterized the prosecution’s case a “story.”

“That’s all it is, ladies and gentleman,” she said. “A story. . . . bits and pieces of information cobbled together with a lot of assumptions.” Dharia referred to Graure as “a truck driver. A patron of the Good Guys club. A regular man, just like all of us.” She proceeded to outline the assumptions implicit in the prosecution’s case.

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Prosecutors delivered their closing arguments this morning in the case against Vasile Graure, a truck driver accused of setting fire to Glover Park strip club Good Guys last year. Graure is charged with seven counts of assault with intent to kill, one count of arson, two of burglary, and one of mayhem.

“Don’t play with fire,” prosecutor Kacie Weston said. “This is what we’re taught since we are very young, because of the damage it causes and the speed with which it causes that damage.” She continued, “Vasile Graure used fire as his own personal weapon to get even. . . to burn that building to the ground and kill everyone inside.”

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The Good Guys arson trial is coming to the end. The jury is hearing closing statements now in the trial of Vasile Graure. I’ll have updates on the arguments later in the day.

Attorneys for Vasile Graure opened and rested their case this afternoon in the case of last year’s fire at Glover Park strip club Good Guys. After calling five witnesses to the stand—including two employees of the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia and three MPD officers—Judge Robert Richter asked Graure if he’d like to testify on his own behalf. Andrew Ferguson and Premal Dharia shook their heads no. “No,” Graure responded. Richter asked if he was sure. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and so far, I say no, I can’t decide,” said Graure.

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The government called its last witness this morning in its case against Vasile Graure, the man accused of setting fire to Glover Park strip club Good Guys last year. After listening to the testimony of MPD detective Frank Molina, who detailed the police’s procedures used to identify the suspect, the jury filed out. Then, the defense moved to have as many as eight of the charges against Graure dropped. Among other charges—arson, mayhem, burglary—Graure is charged with eight counts of assault with intent to kill.

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Detective Todd Gray, a 19-year veteran of the D.C. police department, is assigned to the arson task force. He was involved in securing the search warrant for Vasile Graure’s arrest following the Nov. 3, 2007 fire. He entered Graure’s hotel room at the Alexandria Days Inn on the night of his arrest.

Inside, first aid gauze sat near a hotel chair. Police turned over a trash can outside the bathroom into the sink. Inside, he says, they  found burnt skin mixed with “miscellaneous food items”—a can of “some type of Spaghetti-Os” and candy bar wrappers. A wallet held a Nevada non-drivers I.D. and a Master Card identifying Graure by name.

Frank Raucci, a 59-year-old Takoma Park electronics technician, has been frequenting Good Guys for six to seven years. He knows the waitresses, and is a friend of manager Kathleen Lazorchack. He’s a regular. When he stopped into the club on the evening of Nov. 3, 2007, he sat down in front of stripper Gabriella’s stage and ordered a beer, waiting to speak to Lazorchack. In front of him was another customer he’d never seen before. Gabriella waved to Raucci in between moves. He got up and walked up to the stage to greet her. The other customer turned and watched him watch Gabriella, he says.

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Dr. James C. Jeng of the Washington Hospital Center’s burn surgery unit began treating Vladimir Djordjevic shortly after he was burned at Good Guys strip club on the evening of Nov. 3, 2007. Jeng says that when Djordjevic arrived, he had suffered burns on 95 percent of his body. Nearly all were third degree—the type of burn that doctors identify as not “having the wherewithal to repair themselves.”

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MPD Detective Richard Espinosa is currently stationed in Djibouti, Africa, as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Last year, he  helped arrest Vasile Graure, the defendant in the Good Guys arson case. Graure was arrested in Alexandria’s Days Inn several days after the fire. Espinosa testified today that police had put Graure under surveillance for about a day before he and another detective secured a warrant for Graure’s arrest. When Espinosa arrived at the hotel and entered Graure’s room, he noted what he described as “second degree burns” on his hands. The prosecution entered into evidence police photos of Graure’s arms, handcuffed behind his back. His arms appear bright red and chafed from the wrists up to the elbows.

On the night of the fire, Samuel Bond’s old Marine buddy invited him to celebrate his upcoming wedding. So Bond, 27, traveled from Richmond to Washington, D.C., and headed to the Good Guys strip club to join the bachelor party. At around 7 p.m., he sat down, had a couple drinks, talked with his buddy’s military friends, and watched naked women dance.
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