Street Legal
Attorney Mark Rochon defends the indefensible and makes juries believe the unbelievable. This time, he had his work cut out for him.
Cover Story
It was obvious who the dead man's family was. Sitting quietly outside Courtroom 319, the brother wore a big, black cowboy hat, and the sister-in-law wore plaid flannel. They had come to D.C. Superior Courthouse from Virginia—that's Virginia with a capital V—just across the river, but a world away from the District. When the trial finally started—after the jury shuffled in and the prosecutor rose to speak—the brother was the only one to cry. Big, fat tears of a man whose baby brother, David Hancasky, had died of a gunshot wound to the face in the middle of the night.
On a warm Friday evening in September 1996, three longtime friends—Lori Byars, Michael Corley, and Hancasky—were drinking beer, playing cards, and smoking dime bags of crack at Byars' house in Alexandria. Byars and Hancasky had spent their childhoods on this block, where Hancasky still lived with his parents. Now in their late 20s and early 30s, all three were adults by default, still just bumping along from day to day. They'd grown up to be regular crack users, frittering away their paychecks on weekend binges.
That Friday was typical, a night spent chasing their highs across the Potomac. Back and forth they drove, all night long, from Virginia to the District, to replenish their crack supply. They drove a half hour each time, to their usual point of purchase in a neighborhood just off Route 295 in Southeast D.C.... Continued 
Issue of May. 1 - 7, 1998
News and Features
- Street Legal
Cover Story - Young, White, and Out of Control
Feature - Nightmare on Elm Street NW
The City - Doctor's Orders
The City - The Needle
The City - TB or Not TB
The City - Ladies of the Blight
The City - Might as Well Slump
The Mail - Humor-Impaired
The Mail - Fresh Meat
The Mail - Curly in '98?
The Mail - Boyz on the Court
The Mail - Flipping the Byrd
The Mail - Soho Tea Party
The Mail - Light Motif
The Mail - Reborn Unionist
The Mail
Columns
- A Boy of Endless Summer
Cheap Seats - Weed Whacked
City Desk - Brimmer's Comeback Bid
Loose Lips
Eats
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- Animal Logic
Film Review - Domesticating the Documentary
Talking Pictures - Where's the Boss?
Videocrity
Music
- Bonnie Raitt
Music Review - Chris Whitley
Music Review - Fatal
Music Review - Wheat
Music Review - Peerless Lee
Music Review
Theater
- Cat in Gloves
Theater Review - Brought to Light
Theater Review
Arts and Events
- Digital Dada
Arts - One Last Dance...For Now
Artifacts - Trusty Gazetteers
Artifacts - Missed History
Artifacts - Yahweh or the Highway
Books - Urbi et Orbi
Art Review - Feed the Tree
Books
City Lights
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- Morcheeba
City Lights - Sonic Youth
City Lights - Native American Literary Festival
City Lights - Incarcerated Women: A View From the Inside Out
City Lights - The Long Way Home
City Lights - Howard University School of Communications End-of-Semester Screenings
City Lights - School Safety Patrol Parade
City Lights - Roger Hodgson
City Lights - Tim Berne
City Lights - Robert Dallek
City Lights - Keith Ridgway
City Lights - An Evening With Dr. Dread: The Story of RAS Records
City Lights - Pete Hamill
City Lights - Goshogaoka
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