Local

Sexual assault may be dropped in Wone murder case

The lead prosecutor in the Robert Wone murder case startled courtroom  spectators last

Published

15 years ago

March 13, 2010

The lead prosecutor in the Robert Wone murder case startled courtroom  spectators last week when he said the government would likely drop its theory that Wone was immobilized by a paralytic drug and  sexually assaulted before being stabbed to death in the Dupont Circle  home of three gay men.

The disclosure by Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenn Kirschner at  a D.C. Superior Court hearing March 12 drew visible sighs of relief from  defendants Joseph Price, Victor Zaborsky and Dylan Ward. Price gave a  thumbs-up signal to his attorney, Bernard Grimm.

“This appears to be a major victory for the defense,” said D.C.  attorney Dale Sanders, who practices criminal law in the District.

Sanders said that by withdrawing its earlier contention that Wone was  sexually assaulted and drugged, prosecutors would make it easier for  the defense to promote their own contention that an unidentified  intruder killed Wone after entering the home of the three gay men  through a rear door.

The men have been indicted on charges of obstruction of justice,  conspiracy to obstruct justice, and evidence tampering in connection  with the August 2006 murder. Authorities have yet to charge anyone  with the murder itself. The trial is scheduled to begin May 10.

Kirschner told D.C. Superior Court Judge Lynn Leibovitz that  prosecutors were still considering introducing other evidence at trial  considered highly controversial: a collection of S&M sex toys seized by  police from Ward’s bedroom, which prosecutors have said was located  across the hall from where Wone was found stabbed in a second-floor  guest bedroom.

Wone, a prominent Washington attorney, was friends with the three men  and spending the night at their home after working late in his  downtown office, the men and members of Wone’s family have said. Wone  was married to a woman, and his family members said he was straight.

Leibovitz said she had yet to see sufficient evidence presented by  prosecutors to justify the introduction of the “devices” at trial. She  noted that defense attorneys presented arguments as to why such  evidence was not relevant to the case and how it would be prejudicial to the jury.

She directed prosecutors to file a motion before April 2 explaining  their rationale for introducing such evidence and said she would rule  on its admissibility at that time.

Leibovitz denied a motion by the defense asking the court to order  prosecutors to release more details surrounding their evidence and  theories in the case, saying the government has complied with all  “discovery” requirements for informing the defense of its evidence.

Last week’s hearing followed a court motion filed by prosecutors in  February seeking permission to introduce evidence at trial that Price,  Zaborsky and Ward engaged in possible criminal conduct not  identified in the charges pending against them. Some of the alleged  conduct cited in the court filing pertained to the use of S&M-related  restraining devices as well as devices used to administer electrical  shocks to a person’s genitals.

“Are you planning to tell the jury that he was sexually assaulted,  restrained,” that sex toys were used on him and he was injected with  something? Leibovitz asked Kirschner.

“We’re moving away from the sexual assault proof,” Kirschner replied. But he said prosecutors still planned to offer some evidence that  “restraints” were found in Ward’s bedroom.

In response to another assertion made by prosecutors in their February  court filing — that “the killer is someone known to and being  protected” by Price, Zaborsky and Ward — Leibovitz asked Kirschner, ” Do you plan to say one or all of these men killed Wone?”

“Not directly,” Kirschner replied.

He said prosecutors also plan to present evidence from the autopsy of  needle marks on Wone’s body, including marks he noted the government’s  medical experts would show were not made by emergency medical  technicians who arrived at the scene and tried to revive Wone.

Kirschner disclosed at the hearing that he had submitted a letter to  the defense earlier in the day, which he also filed with the court,  saying that the government obtained new information from medical  experts that appeared to raise doubts over whether Wone had been  sexually assaulted or immobilized by a paralytic drug.

Authorities first raised that theory  in a lengthy criminal complaint filed at the time police brought  criminal charges against the three men for obstruction of justice and  evidence tampering.

The complaint cited an autopsy finding showing that Wone suffered  three surgical-like, clean stab wounds in the chest and abdomen that  could only have occurred if he were lying completely still. The  complaint, and subsequent arguments by prosecutors, claimed that a  person being stabbed would be expected to recoil in pain or move in a  defensive way, causing the wounds to be jagged or distorted.

Prosecutors said a paralytic drug must have been administered to  Wone to render him immobile, but they acknowledged that the autopsy  and subsequent chemical tests could not find traces of such a drug in  Wone’s body. They argued that the type of anesthesia-like drug in  question usually dissipates quickly and cannot be detected in tests.

But defense attorneys say in their own court filings that they  would present expert witnesses to show that such drugs are detectable  in tests, and the government’s inability to detect such a drug shows  it was never administered.

According to prosecutors, the sexual assault theory was based on  another finding in the autopsy that traces of Wone’s semen were  found inside his rectum. The defense later argued that its own experts  would show that the semen had no sperm cells, indicating it was  secreted naturally by the body after Wone died, as muscles relax during  the post mortem processes.

Sanders said that although the apparent decision by prosecutors to put aside their earlier sexual assault and paralytic drug theory is a blow to the prosecutors’ case, other evidence obtained against the three men remains significant and strong.

He noted, among other things, that investigators found traces of blood in the lint trap of the men’s clothes dryer and in a drain outside the house; findings by evidence technicians that someone cleaned the crime scene by attempting to wipe blood spattered near the body; and that the bloody kitchen knife that the men said they found near Wone’s body bore fibers from a towel, indicating to evidence experts that Wone’s blood was wiped onto knife blade by someone, with another knife likely used to kill Wone.

Authorities also have said Wone appeared to have been dead a significant period of time before Zaborsky called 911 to report a stabbing; and rescue workers reported finding very little blood on Wone’s chest and body, indicating that someone cleaned the body before police and rescue workers were called, according to the police affidavit.

“They won this battle, but the war doesn’t look good for them,” Sanders said. “You can’t lose track of the big picture, which doesn’t look good for these guys.”

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District of Columbia

Harvey Fierstein says he was banned from Kennedy Center

Gay icon called out President Donald Trump

Published

1 day ago

March 19, 2025

Joe Reberkenny

Harvey Fierstein (Photo courtesy of Knopf)

Gay icon and film legend Harvey Fierstein, 72, announced in an Instagram post on Tuesday that he was banned from the Kennedy Center as a result of President Donald Trump’s sweeping anti-LGBTQ measures in the performing space.

Fierstein, who is a longtime fixture of queer storytelling both on screen and on stage, took to social media to criticize Trump for his recent decisions to take control of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and to hide — if not erase — LGBTQ art, and sounds the alarm for the future of the United States.

In the picture posted on Instagram, Fierstein alongside LGBTQ rights activist Marsha P. Johnson is walking in the Christopher Street Liberation Day parade in 1979, with the caption beginning with “I have been banned from THE KENNEDY CENTER.”

The multiple Tony Award-winning artist, who may be best known for “Torch Song Trilogy,” “La Cage aux Folles,” and “Kinky Boots,” to name a few, went on to explain his thoughts on Trump’s very public takeover of the national cultural center.

“A few folks have written to ask how I feel about Trump’s takeover of The Kennedy Center. How do you think I feel? The shows I’ve written are now banned from being performed in our premier American theater. Those shows, most of which have been performed there in the past, include, KINKY BOOTS. LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, TORCH SONG TRILOGY, HAIRSPRAY, SAFE SEX, CASA VALENTINA, SPOOKHOUSE, A CATERED AFFAIR, THE SISSY DUCKLING, BELLA BELLA and more.”

“I have been in the struggle for our civil rights for more than 50 years only to watch them snatched away by a man who actually couldn’t care less,” the post continued. “He does this stuff only to placate the religious right so they’ll look the other way as he savages our political system for his own glorification. He attacks free speech. He attacks the free press. He attacks America’s allies. His only allegiance is to himself – the golden calf.”

Fierstein then issued a warning for Americans, remarking that removing works that don’t align with Trump’s personal agenda represents a slippery slope that can lead to the erosion of democracy and emergence into fascism.

“My fellow Americans I warn you – this is NOT how it begins. This is how freedom ENDS!”

He finished the post with a call to action for Americans to recognize and confront Trump’s injustice.

“Trump may have declared ‘woke’ as dead in America. We must prove him wrong. WAKE THE HELL UP!!!!!”

The post seemingly also pushes back on the Trump administration’s choice to remove any mention of transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument’s website by including Marsha P. Johnson in his post.

Since its upload on Tuesday, the post has gained more than 14,000 likes and 300 comments supporting Fierstein.

Trump’s reported banning of Fierstein from the Kennedy Center comes amid the president’s drastic overhaul of the cultural venue after calling out “woke” programming on its stages, including a drag show. His actions signal a broader effort to reshape the nation’s artistic landscape to align with his administration’s ideology.

The Kennedy Center couldn’t immediately be reached to confirm Fierstein’s claims. This post will be updated.

Local

D.C. LGBTQ rights advocate Jeri Hughes dies at 73

‘Force of nature’ credited with pro-trans policy at city jail

Published

1 day ago

March 19, 2025

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Jeri Hughes (Washington Blade photo by Pete Exis)

Jeri Hughes, a longtime D.C. transgender rights advocate who has worked closely with activists in support of the local LGBTQ community, died March 18 at her home after a seven-year battle with lung cancer. She was 73.

Hughes, who has worked for the past 11 years at the D.C. Department of Employment Services, most recently as a Workforce Development Specialist, became involved in local LGBTQ rights and transgender rights endeavors since she moved to D.C. around 2005.

Among other endeavors, Hughes, along with D.C. transgender rights advocate Earline Budd, has served for more than a decade on the D.C. Department of Corrections’ Transgender Housing and Transgender Advisory committees.

Budd this week said Hughes played an important role in ensuring that Department of Corrections officials continue to follow a 2009 policy of allowing transgender inmates to choose whether to be placed in the men’s or the women’s housing units at the D.C. jail.

“In her toughness and determination, Jeri was a force of nature,” said Rick Rosendall, former president of the D.C. Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance. “She pressed the D.C. Department of Corrections for more humane and respectful treatment of transgender inmates,” Rosendall said.

“She pressed the D.C. government to set an example by hiring more trans people,” according to Rosendall, who added that Hughes interacted with D.C. police officials, including former D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham, to push for respectful treatment of trans people by the police.

Hughes’s LinkedIn page shows that prior to working at the D.C. Department of Employment Services she served as housing coordinator for a local social services organization called T.H.E. Inc., where, among other things, she “monitored and mentored a diverse population of LGBT youth.”

Her LinkedIn page shows she also worked from June 2009 to May 2010 as an administrative assistant at the D.C. Anacostia Watershed Society.

Hughes’s brother, Lou Hughes, who said the Hughes family is originally from Ohio, told the Washington Blade Jeri Hughes served in the U.S. Navy after high school as a torpedo operator in a submarine in the South Pacific. He said a short time later Jeri Hughes moved to New York City, where she operated a company that provided commercial laundry service to restaurants and hospitals.

Lou Hughes said his sister Jeri moved to D.C. around 2005 and initially lived with him and his wife in a basement apartment in their house before moving to her own apartment in Northwest D.C. where she remained until her passing.

He said it was around 2005 that his sister informed her family that she planned to transition as a transgender woman at the age of 54. “And our family fully supported her decision, helped her finance the various surgeries,” Lou Hughes said. “And once she went through the transition it was like she was fully reborn.”

“And that’s why all these negative comments about transgender people right now – it’s very hurtful to our family because she was really the classic transgender person who was really simply born in the wrong body and gave our entire family a real sensitivity and understanding of what that meant,” Lou Hughes said.

Denise Leclair, one of Jeri Hughes’s closest friends and former roommate, said among Jeri Hughes’s many interests was boating. Leclair said Hughes persuaded her to join Hughes in purchasing a 45-foot sailboat in 2019, shortly after Hughes was diagnosed with lung cancer.

“We spent the next two months getting it fixed up and we started sailing,” Leclair recalls. “And we did quite a bit of sailing, so she really put her heart and soul into restoring this boat.”

Leclair said the boat was docked in a harbor in Deale, Md., just south of Annapolis. She said up until a few months ago, after her cancer prevented her from working full-time, Hughes spent most of her time living on the boat until her illness forced her to return to her D.C. apartment.

“My Dearest Sister Jeri, born April 30, 1951, left our restless Earth in the early morning of March 18, 2025, succumbing to the lung cancer which she battled against so bravely for seven years,” Lou Hughes says in a statement. “As we all know, Jeri was a person of high intellect, incredible energy and fearless in the face of adversity,” her brother wrote.

“Whether through acts of quiet charity, tireless advocacy, or simply offering a listening ear, Jeri made it a mission to uplift, support, and care for every person she encountered,” his statement says. “Her life was a testament to empathy in action, leaving a lasting legacy of love, hope, and selflessness that will continue to inspire all who knew her.”

In addition to her many friends and colleagues in D.C., Jeri Hughes is survived by her brother, Lou Hughes; sister-In-law Candice Hughes; daughter, Casey Martin; son-in-law Wally Martin; grandson Liam Martin; granddaughter, Mirella Martin; niece, Brittany Hughes; and nephew Klaus Meierdiercks.

A memorial service and celebration of life for Jeri Hughes is scheduled to be held May 10 at D.C.’s Metropolitan Community Church at 1 p.m., according to Earline Budd.

District of Columbia

Town nightclub lawsuit against landlord dismissed in September

Court records show action was by mutual consent

Published

3 days ago

March 18, 2025

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

The former St. Phillips Baptist Church at 1001 North Capitol St., N.E., was slated to be the new home of Town 2.0. (Washington Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro, Jr.)

A lawsuit filed in April 2024 by Town 2.0, the company that planned to reopen the popular LGBTQ nightclub Town in a former church on North Capitol Street that accused its landlord of failing to renovate the building as required by a lease agreement was dismissed in a little-noticed development on Sept. 6, 2024.

A document filed in D.C. Superior Court, where the lawsuit was filed against Jemal’s Sanctuary LLC, the company that owns the church building, shows that a “Stipulation of Dismissal With Prejudice” was jointly filed by the attorneys representing the two parties in the lawsuit and approved by the judge.

Jemal’s Sanctuary is a subsidiary of the Douglas Development Corporation, one of the city’s largest real estate development firms.

An attorney familiar with civil litigation who spoke to the Washington Blade on condition of not being identified said a stipulation of dismissal indicates the two parties reached a settlement to terminate the lawsuit on conditions that are always confidential and not included in court records.

The attorney who spoke with the Blade said the term “with prejudice” means the lawsuit cannot be re-filed again by either of the two parties.

The public court records for this case do not include any information about a settlement or the terms of such a settlement. However, the one-sentence Stipulation Of Dismissal With Prejudice addresses the issue of payment of legal fees.

“Pursuant to Rule 41(a) of the District of Columbia Superior Court Civil Rules, Plaintiff Town 2.0 LLC and Defendant Jemal’s Sanctuary LLC, by and through their undersigned counsel, hereby stipulate that the lawsuit be dismissed in its entirety, with prejudice, as to any and all claims and counterclaims asserted therein, with each party to bear its own fees and costs, including attorneys’ fees.”

The Town 2.0 lawsuit called for the termination of the lease and at least $450,000 in damages on grounds that Jemal’s Sanctuary violated the terms of the lease by failing to complete renovation work on the building that was required to be completed by a Sept. 1, 2020 “delivery date.”

In response to the lawsuit, attorneys for Jemal’s Sanctuary filed court papers denying the company violated the terms of the lease and later filed a countersuit charging Town 2.0 with violating its requirements under the lease, which the countersuit claimed included doing its own required part of the renovation work in the building, which is more than 100 years old.

Court records show Judge Maurice A. Ross, who presided over the case, dismissed the countersuit at the request of Town 2.0 on Aug. 20, 2024, on grounds that it was filed past the deadline of a three-year statute of limitations for filing such a claim.

Neither the owners of Town 2.0, their attorney, nor the attorney representing Jemal’s Sanctuary responded to a request by the Washington Blade for comment on the mutual dismissal of the lawsuit.

Town 2.0 co-owner John Guggenmos, who also owns with his two business partners the D.C. gay bars Trade and Number Nine, did not respond to a question asking if he and his partners plan to open Town 2.0 at another location.

What was initially known as Town Danceboutique operated from 2007 to 2018 in a large, converted warehouse building on 8th Street, N.W., just off Florida Avenue. It was forced to close when the building’s owner sold it to a developer who built a residential building in its place.

It was the last of the city’s large LGBTQ dance hall nightclubs that once drew large crowds, included live entertainment, and often hosted fundraising events for LGBTQ community organizations and causes.