Local
Proposed ‘gag order’ in Wone case draws objections
Court papers pertain to pending $20 million wrongful death civil suit
Four D.C. area news outlets filed court papers Monday objecting to a motion filed last month by the defense in the Robert Wone civil trial asking a judge to prohibit all lawyers involved in the case from speaking to the news media.
In a little noticed development, attorneys representing gay defendants Joseph Price, Victor Zaborsky and Dylan Ward filed an Oct. 8 motion in D.C. Superior Court asking for an order barring the attorneys from making “extra-judicial statements” about the case to anyone outside the courtroom.
“Most of the media coverage has clearly implicated the defendants of some wrongdoing, premised upon multiple inaccurate and untruthful assertions of the Metropolitan Police Department (“MPD”) and the U.S. Attorney General’s Office for the District of Columbia,” the defense motion states.
“The press coverage is necessarily having the effect of poisoning the jury pool, which [threatens] to make it impossible for the defendants to find an impartial jury,” it says.
The three defendants have been named in a $20 million wrongful death lawsuit in connection with the 2006 murder of D.C. attorney Robert Wone, who was stabbed to death in their upscale townhouse near Dupont Circle.
Earlier this year, a Superior Court judge found the men not guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and evidence tampering in connection with the murder. No one has been charged with the murder.
The men have said an intruder killed Wone after entering the house while the three were asleep in their bedrooms and while Wone spent the night in a guest bedroom at the house after working late at his nearby office. Wone and the men were longtime friends.
In a motion filed Monday, the D.C. blog Who Murdered Robert Wone, Washingtonian magazine and Allbritton Communications Company on behalf of WJLA-TV, News Channel 8, and the recently created local news website TBD.com asked the court for permission to intervene as third party opponents of the defense motion.
“The gag order, if granted, would constitute a prior restraint on speech that would strip media interveners’ First Amendment rights by barring them from speaking with either party’s counsel to gather information about the case,” the media outlets said in the motion.
“To safeguard their constitutionally protected rights to gather and report on news, which would be obliterated if the gag order is entered, media interveners respectfully move this court for permission to intervene … so they can oppose the gag order’s overbroad and unconstitutional prior restraint of speech,” the motion says.
In their motion seeking the order barring the lawyers from speaking about the case outside the courtroom, the attorneys representing the gay defendants cited an example of what they called a highly inappropriate statement by an attorney representing Katherine Wone, Robert Wone’s widow and the lead plaintiff in the case.
“On September 16, 2010, one of plaintiff’s attorneys, Patrick M. Regan, addressed a collection of reporters outside the court house, where he made numerous statements about the case, including the following quote: ‘Defendants don’t assert their fifth amendment rights if they are not guilty of something.’”
Regan was referring to an earlier statement in court by defense attorneys that the three defendants planned to decline to answer questions on the witness stand at trial by invoking their Fifth Amendment right not to make self-incriminating statements in a legal proceeding.
“This patently incorrect and inflammatory statement served no legitimate litigation purpose, but its public dissemination likely caused substantial prejudice to the defendants by ‘poisoning the well’ of potential jurors,” the defense motion says.
Attorneys representing the media outlets disputed that assertion. They noted that the civil trial is not scheduled to take place for at least a year and that the court process for screening potential jurors would prevent the selection of jurors incapable of rendering an impartial verdict.
They also noted that defense attorneys made strong statements to the media denouncing the government’s evidence and arguments during the criminal trial, where the defendants exercised their right not to testify.
Katherine Wone’s attorneys filed a separate motion on Oct. 25 opposing the gag order proposal.
“For more than four years defendanrts and their counsel have actively sought to use the media to convince the public that their clients had no involvement in Robert Wone’s murder and coverup,” the Wone attorneys’ motion says. “Plainly, defendants have enjoyed their ‘right to present their side of a dispute to the pblic…’ Mrs. Wone should not now be denied that same right.”
Superior Court Judge Brook Hedge is expected to issue a ruling on the media outlets’ motion to intervene and on the defense motion to bar the lawyers from discussing the case outside the courtroom within the next several weeks.
Delaware
Historic New Castle to host Pride Market this weekend
Delaware town offers event with more than 55 vendors
The town of New Castle, Del., will host a Pride Market on Sunday, the first day of Pride month.
The event is hosted by the Delaware Sexuality and Gender Collective and features more than 55 LGBTQ-aligned businesses and resources, including Planned Parenthood of Delaware, the ACLU of Delaware, Orgullo Delaware, and New Castle Public Library. The event runs from 12-5 p.m. at 3rd Street and Delaware Street on The Green, an open space and market square.
The inaugural Pride Market in November 2024 was the first market in the town’s history dedicated to the LGBTQ community. The Pride Market is “designed to be an affirming space for LGBTQ businesses and individuals to join together as a community,” according to the Facebook page.
New Castle was founded in the 1650s by Dutch settlers with weekly markets on The Green beginning in 1655. The area features historically significant buildings like the 1732 Court House, the 1799 New Castle Academy, and an 1809 U.S. arsenal. Delaware Pride is scheduled for June 7 in Dover.
Maryland
Annapolis Pride postponed due to weather
Parade and festival will not happen as scheduled, other events to take place
The annual celebration of the Annapolis LGBTQ community has been put on hold due to forecasted severe weather.
The Annapolis Pride parade and festival, both of which were supposed to take place on May 31, have been postponed until a later date.
Annapolis Pride Board Chair Joe Toolan announced the decision this afternoon, citing information given to the Pride board from emergency management agencies and weather forecasting models.
“The safety of our community comes first,” Toolan said. “Based on guidance from the Annapolis Office of Emergency Management and the National Weather Service, we’ve made the difficult decision to postpone the 2025 Annapolis Pride Parade and Festival due to the very real threat of severe thunderstorms, lightning, and flooding.
“We are hoping to reschedule for some time this fall,” he added.
The National Weather Service has issued tornado and flood watches for large portions of the Mid-Atlantic area, more specifically in areas of Virginia, D.C., and Maryland — including Anne Arundel County where Annapolis is located.
The tornado watch only lasts until midnight, but the impacts of heavy downpours in the area can already be seen where the parade and festival were set to take place. The festival grounds at Bates Middle School are already experiencing flooding and over-saturation, and a flood watch remains in effect with more rain forecast for tonight and tomorrow.
“We are all sad and terribly disappointed that we cannot proceed with the parade and festival on Saturday,” Toolan said. “Hundreds of hours have been spent on planning and coordination, and we were expecting tens of thousands of attendees. But at the end of the day, safety concerns outweigh all other concerns.”
Toolan said the Pride board will announce a rescheduled date as soon as it is confirmed.
Even though the Annapolis Pride parade and festival have been postponed, there are a slew of other planned Pride events that will go on as scheduled:
May 30 – Ladies Night – SOLD OUT
6–10 p.m., Eastport Democratic Club, Annapolis
June 1 – Drag Brunch at Leo – SOLD OUT
10 a.m., Leo Annapolis Restaurant, 212 West St.
June 1 – Ecumenical Pride Worship Service
3 p.m., Eastport United Methodist Church, Annapolis
June 3 – Annapolis Pride Beer Launch
4–7 p.m., Forward Brewing, Annapolis
June 5 – Pride on the Pier
6–9 p.m., Bread and Butter Kitchen, Annapolis
June 6 – Big Gay Dance Party
10 p.m.–close, Tsunami Restaurant, 51 West St., Annapolis
June 7 – Pop-Up Market: Benefiting Annapolis Pride
10 a.m.–3 p.m., Annapolis Town Center
Special discounts @Kendra Scott 6/7–6/8
June 14 – Silent Disco
7–11 p.m., Eastport Democratic Club, Annapolis
June 21 – Teen Dance Party
6–9 p.m., Art Farm, Annapolis
For high school freshmen – juniors
*ticketed event
For more information on the postponement of Annapolis Pride, visit https://annapolispride.org/
District of Columbia
Bowser raises Pride flag over Wilson Building
Council members joined mayor to welcome WorldPride to D.C.
Close to 200 people turned out on Thursday, May 29, to watch D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, joined by members of the D.C. Council and officials with the Capital Pride Alliance, raise a large Pride flag on a tall flagpole in front of the John Wilson D.C. City Hall building.
The mayor, who joined others in speaking from a podium on the front steps of the Wilson Building, called the event the city’s official welcoming ceremony for hosting WordPride 2025 DC in the nation’s capital.
World Pride events, which began May 17, continue through June 8.
“Happy WorldPride in the gayest city in America,” Bowser told the crowd to loud cheers and applause.
Joining Bowser were five members of the D.C. Council, including gay Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), who was among the Council members who also spoke at the event.
Also speaking were Ryan Bos, executive director of Capital Pride Alliance, the local LGBTQ group serving as lead organizer of WorldPride 2025, and Capital Pride Alliance Deputy Director June Crenshaw.
“This flag tells a story of love without apology,” Crenshaw said in her remarks at the podium. “Our community has never backed down, and we will not at this time of challenge,” she said.
Japer Bowles, director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, told the gathering that the city and especially Bowser and all city officials were proud to host WorldPride at the time of the 50th anniversary of Pride celebrations in D.C.
Among those attending the event and sitting in a front row seat was longtime D.C. gay activist Deacon Maccubbin, who organized the city’s first Gay Pride Day celebration in 1975. He was joined by his husband, Jim Bennett.
During the ceremony Bowser also presented Capital Pride Alliance officials with a mayoral proclamation proclaiming Thursday, May 29, 2025, as “A Day of Remembrance For Bernie Delia in Washington, D.C.” Delia, a longtime Capital Pride Alliance official and one of the lead organizers of WorldPride 2025, died unexpectedly of natural causes June 21, 2024
The other Council members participating in the event in addition to Parker were Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1), Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), Matthew Ruman (D-Ward 3), and Charles Allen (D-Ward 6)
The Council members, Capital Pride officials, and LGBTQ community members stood next to Bowser as she raised the large Pride flag on a pole located to the right of the front steps and main entrance of the Wilson Building.
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