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Trial begins in Wone murder case

Judge blocks evidence on alleged paralytic drug, S&M restraints

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A long-awaited trial opened this week for three gay men implicated in the murder of attorney Robert Wone, who was found stabbed to death inside the menā€™s Dupont Circle area townhouse in August 2006.

Joseph Price, 39, his domestic partner, Victor Zaborsky, 44, and the coupleā€™s roommate, Dylan Ward, 39, have been charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy and evidence tampering in connection with Woneā€™s murder. If convicted on all three charges, the men face a possible maximum sentence of 38 years in prison.

Authorities have yet to charge anyone with the murder itself, a development that has created an air of mystery and intrigue and has captured the interest of the gay community as well as local and national media.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys said they could present 80 or more witnesses and expect the trial to last as long as 10 weeks. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Wednesday at D.C. Superior Court, with opening arguments set for Monday.

Judge Lynn Leibovitz ruled Tuesday against the defense teamā€™s attempt to separate the joint case so that each defendant could be tried individually rather than together in a shared trial.

The defense argued that the men should be tried separately because it would be impossible for prosecutors to avoid violating constitutionally mandated rules of evidence that statements made by one defendant canā€™t be used against another defendant in a joint trial. But Leibovitz said the defendantsā€™ rights would be protected by strict limits she imposed on the prosecution concerning the introduction of the defendantsā€™ statements about each other.

Defense attorneys were especially concerned about prosecutorsā€™ plans to show jurors videotaped interviews of each of the defendants by homicide detectives conducted shortly after the murder. At Leibovitzā€™s instruction, prosecutors said they would edit the videos to remove any statements by the defendants that would incriminate a co-defendant.

After months of pre-trial wrangling over the admissibility of evidence, Leibovitz forced prosecutors in the days before the trial began to withdraw several key elements in their case, including allegations that the crime scene was cleaned of blood.

Under pressure that Leibovitz would rule against them and claims by the defense that the government lacked sufficient evidence, prosecutors also agreed not to introduce testimony that Wone may have been immobilized with a paralytic drug or restrained by S&M devices found in the menā€™s house before being stabbed three times in the chest.

Also excluded was any testimony by police regarding the collection of S&M devices they found in the house, including restraining harnesses, face masks, books about sadomasochism, and a device used to administer an electric shock to a person during sexual activity.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenn Kirschner, the lead prosecutor in the case, has said introduction of the S&M devices as evidence was intended to show that Wone might have been restrained at the time he was stabbed.

Kirschner has said the government nonetheless remains confident it has sufficient evidence to prove that the killer ā€œis someone known to the defendantsā€ and that the three men conspired to obstruct the police investigation into the crime.

Kirschner has said he also remains optimistic that the government will demonstrate to the jury that Wone was not murdered by some ā€œunknown, unseen, phantom intruder,ā€ as the defense has alleged.

In pleading not guilty to the charges, the three gay men have said through their attorneys that an intruder entered their house through a rear door while they were asleep and killed Wone.

Wone, a friend of Price since the two attended Virginiaā€™s College of William & Mary, spent the night at the menā€™s house on Swann Street, N.W., after working late at his nearby office. Woneā€™s wife, Kathy Wone, and family members have said Wone was straight.

The defendants have retained an experienced and highly regarded team of nearly one dozen defense attorneys, including former prosecutors such as the openly gay former D.C. Attorney General Robert Spagnoletti.

Since Price, Zaborsky and Ward were indicted in the case in 2008, the attorneys have methodically challenged nearly every piece of evidence and legal theory advanced by the government, accusing prosecutors of ā€œmanufacturingā€ a sensational case that isnā€™t supported by the facts.

In a final series of pre-trial hearings over the past month, Kirschner, chief of the homicide division at the U.S. Attorneyā€™s office, and his smaller team of prosecutors, have sought to defend a case built largely around the aspects of a stabbing death reportedly committed by an outside intruder that were conspicuously missing in the Wone murder.

Citing the autopsy and crime scene findings, prosecutors note that although Wone was stabbed three times in the chest area, including once in the heart, there was hardly any blood on the guest room bed where he was found or on the floor or walls. This prompted prosecutors to conclude in a lengthy arrest affidavit released in October 2008 that someone in the house had ā€œcleanedā€ the crime scene.

The affidavit points to an autopsy finding that the three stab wounds on Woneā€™s chest area were surgical-like and undistorted rather than the jagged cuts usually found on a stabbing victim, who would be expected to recoil in pain and move around in an effort to defend himself ā€” even if he were sleeping in a bed, as the defendants say was the case with Wone.

Additionally, there were no defensive wounds on Woneā€™s hands or arms that are normally found on victims stabbed more than once, who traditionally position their arms to deflect the path of a knife-wielding attacker, prosecutors have said.

The arrest affidavit citing these findings pointed to a theory by the medical examiner that Wone appeared to have been immobilized by a paralytic drug, which likely prevented him from moving during a violent stabbing attack. The autopsy also found several needle marks on Woneā€™s body that were inflicted before he died, further pointing to the possible injection of a powerful drug before the stabbing.

Yet another autopsy finding of semen in and around Woneā€™s genital area and rectum prompted prosecutors to initially assert that Wone had been sexually assaulted at the time of the murder.

All of this, prosecutors said, made it clear that Wone could not have been murdered by a burglar or home intruder who entered the house, stabbed Wone and quickly fled.

The defense, however, has argued in pre-trial hearings that the paralytic drug theory should not be introduced as evidence because no such drug could be detected in Woneā€™s body from chemical tests. The defense also argued that semen is normally found to be secreted when men die and that the government failed to present any evidence that Wone had been sexually assaulted or restrained at the time of the murder.

Instead, defense attorneys announced they plan to call a controversial cardiologist as a witness who will testify that a stab wound to the heart can instantly stop the heart and immobilize the person stabbed. This development, defense attorneys have said, would explain why Wone didnā€™t move or recoil when stabbed two more times.

The defense said it would also present expert witnesses who will claim the bleeding in Woneā€™s case was mostly internal, explaining why the crime scene lacked large quantities of blood.

Agreeing with the defense that the government failed to produce sufficient evidence that a paralytic drug was administered, and that Wone was sexually assaulted or restrained by S&M sex devices, Leibovitz either ruled against admission of these theories or persuaded prosecutors not to bring them up at trial.

Kirschner has said the governmentā€™s case nevertheless remains strong.

With no evidence of a forced entry, no evidence that anything was taken from the house and no signs that anything was disturbed or disrupted, he has said prosecutors will call on the jury to conclude that an intruder or burglar could not have killed Wone and that the defendants had to know who was responsible for the murder ā€” even if the government doesnā€™t have sufficient evidence to charge anyone with Woneā€™s death.

But in a comment at one of the recent pre-trial hearings, lead defense attorney David Schertler called the reasoning ā€œridiculous,ā€ saying people are killed in the city ā€œall the timeā€ by home invaders and during botched burglaries.

ā€œAll you have to do is read the newspapers,ā€ he said.

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Virginia

Va. House committee approves resolution to repeal marriage amendment

Two successive legislatures must approve proposal before it goes to voters

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(Bigstock photo)

A Virginia House of Delegates committee on Wednesday approved a resolution that seeks to repeal a state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

The Privileges and Elections Committee by a 16-5 vote margin approved state Del. Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax County)’s resolution that he introduced earlier this year. State Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) sponsored an identical resolution in the Virginia Senate.

Ebbin and Sickles are gay.

Voters approved the Marshall-Newman Amendment in 2006.

Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Virginia since 2014. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin earlier this year signed a bill that codified marriage equality in state law.

The General Assembly in 2021 approved a resolution that seeks to repeal the Marshall-Newman Amendment. It must pass in two successive legislatures before it can go to the ballot.

“Virginia is for lovers,” said the Virginia House Democratic Caucus on X after Wednesday’s vote. “Today, we advanced a Constitutional Amendment to overturn Virginiaā€™s ban on same-sex marriage. Itā€™s time our laws reflect our values of equality, inclusion, and dignity for all.”

The committee on Wednesday also approved resolutions that would enshrine reproductive rights and restore formerly incarcerated people’s right to vote in the state constitution.

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Maryland

At Salisbury University, an alleged hate crime shakes LGBTQ studentsā€™ sense of safety

Authorities have charged 12 men in connection with attack

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Supporters participate in a march organized by Salisbury University LGBTQ groups almost a month after an alleged hate crime took place. (Photo by Wesley Lapointe for the Baltimore Banner)

BY ELLIE WOLFE | Gigi Levin said she wasnā€™t particularly shocked when she heard a group of her classmates had been accused of luring a gay man to an apartment and attacking him.

ā€œThis is a problem rooted in our campus culture,ā€ said Levin, a 24-year-old Salisbury University student from Montgomery County. ā€œThe administration can help, but ultimately we are responsible for our safety as LGBTQ+ students.ā€

Levin was one of the first to arrive at a vigil on Monday afternoon, planned by an LGBTQ faculty group after University President Carolyn Ringer Lepre announced inĀ an email to the campus last week that several students been arrested.Ā The Salisbury Police Department chargedĀ 12 men, all students between 18 and 21,Ā with first-degree assault, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment and associated hate crimes.

The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.

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District of Columbia

Two D.C. LGBTQ rights advocates stepping down from jobs

Crenshaw leaving Alston Foundation; Czapary departs mayorā€™s office

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June Crenshaw announced sheā€™s leaving the Wanda Alston Foundation. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Longtime D.C. LGBTQ rights advocate June Crenshaw announced she is stepping down from her position for the past nine years as executive director of the Wanda Alston Foundation, the local organization that provides housing and support services for homeless LGBTQ youth.

Around the same time, fellow LGBTQ rights advocate Salah Czapary announced he is stepping down from his position for the past two years as director of the D.C. Mayorā€™s Office of Nightlife and Culture.

Meanwhile, a third longtime local LGBTQ rights advocate, David Meadows, was unanimously confirmed on Nov. 1 by the D.C. Council for an appointment by Mayor Muriel Bowser as a member of the cityā€™s Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Board, which is responsible for administering, enforcing, and adjudicating the cityā€™s alcoholic beverage and medical marijuana laws.

Neither Crenshaw nor Czapary disclosed in announcing their departure from their jobs what their future career plans are, and the two didnā€™t immediately respond to a question from the Washington Blade asking about career plans going forward.

Crenshaw currently serves as co-chair of the committee organizing D.C. World Pride 2025, the international LGBTQ Pride celebration expected to draw a million or more visitors to the city for a wide range of World Pride events in late May and early June 2025.

ā€œAfter over nine years of unwavering dedication and visionary leadership, our beloved Executive Director, June Crenshaw, has decided to step into her next chapter,ā€ a statement released by the Wanda Alston Foundation board of directors says. ā€œWhile we will miss Juneā€™s daily presence, we are grateful that she will stay on through the transition to ensure a warm, seamless handover as we actively search for our next executive director,ā€ the statement says.

It adds, ā€œHer unwavering commitment to our mission, clients, and team has helped build a foundation of compassion, resilience, and excellence. This transition reflects her readiness to explore new paths and her belief in the bright future of the Wanda Alston Foundation.ā€

In his own statement, Czapary said he appreciated the opportunity his job gave him to serve the city and its residents and visitors.

ā€œOctober marked my last month in the Mayorā€™s Office and Iā€™m grateful to Mayor Bowser for giving me the opportunity to serve as the Districtā€™s Nightlife and Cultural Director, supporting our hospitality sector ā€“ the sector that makes the city a great place to live and visit,ā€ he said.

ā€œIā€™m proud of positioning the office as a responsive entry point for industry and residents to interact with government,ā€ he said in his statement. ā€œThe role deepened my understanding and love for D.C. in ways I couldnā€™t have imagined two years ago.ā€

Czapary added, ā€œAs for me, Iā€™m excited about whatā€™s next.ā€ But he gave no indication of his future career plans.

In the past 20 years or longer D.C. mayors have appointed an LGBTQ member of what used to be called the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board or ABC Board before its role was expanded to include marijuana regulations. It currently still uses the name ABC Board to denote Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Board.

LGBTQ rights advocates have called for at least one LGBTQ member of the board to provide representation for the important role that gay bars and other LGBTQĀ  establishments licensed to sell or serve liquor have historically played in the community.

The boardā€™s previous gay member, Edward Grandis, left the board earlier this year. In a statement released at the time of his confirmation by the Council, the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration, which works with the ABC Board on liquor and cannabis related regulations, issued a statement introducing Meadows as its new board member.

ā€œMr. Meadows is a long-time Ward 8 LGBTQIA+ community advocate with 30 years of extensive experience serving in leadership roles in District government and civic organizations,ā€ the statement says. ā€œMost recently, Mr. Meadows ran day-to-day operations in the Office of At-Large Councilmember Anita Bonds as her Chief of Staff and Senior Adviser,ā€ the statement continues.

It says Meadows previously has served as executive director of the D.C. Democratic Party and notes he began his career in the hospitality industry, including serving as events manager for the D.C.-based National Democratic Club. His appointment on the ABC Board is for a four-year term.

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