Local
Trial begins in Wone murder case
Judge blocks evidence on alleged paralytic drug, S&M restraints
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 men’s Dupont Circle area townhouse in August 2006.
Joseph Price, 39, his domestic partner, Victor Zaborsky, 44, and the couple’s roommate, Dylan Ward, 39, have been charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy and evidence tampering in connection with Wone’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 team’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 can’t be used against another defendant in a joint trial. But Leibovitz said the defendants’ rights would be protected by strict limits she imposed on the prosecution concerning the introduction of the defendants’ statements about each other.
Defense attorneys were especially concerned about prosecutors’ plans to show jurors videotaped interviews of each of the defendants by homicide detectives conducted shortly after the murder. At Leibovitz’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 men’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 “is someone known to the defendants” 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 “unknown, unseen, phantom intruder,” 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 Virginia’s College of William & Mary, spent the night at the men’s house on Swann Street, N.W., after working late at his nearby office. Wone’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 “manufacturing” a sensational case that isn’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. Attorney’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 “cleaned” the crime scene.
The affidavit points to an autopsy finding that the three stab wounds on Wone’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 — even if he were sleeping in a bed, as the defendants say was the case with Wone.
Additionally, there were no defensive wounds on Wone’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 Wone’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 Wone’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 Wone’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 didn’t move or recoil when stabbed two more times.
The defense said it would also present expert witnesses who will claim the bleeding in Wone’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 government’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 — even if the government doesn’t have sufficient evidence to charge anyone with Wone’s death.
But in a comment at one of the recent pre-trial hearings, lead defense attorney David Schertler called the reasoning “ridiculous,” saying people are killed in the city “all the time” by home invaders and during botched burglaries.
“All you have to do is read the newspapers,” he said.
The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected].
The Comings & Goings column also invites LGBTQ college students to share their successes with us. If you have been elected to a student government position, gotten an exciting internship, or are graduating and beginning your career with a great job, let us know so we can share your success.
Congratulations to Jamie Leeds, chef extraordinaire, and owner of Hank’s Oyster Bars, as she ventures into some new areas. Leeds is an award-winning Washington, D.C.–area chef, restaurateur, and entrepreneur with more than three decades of experience shaping the region’s dining scene.
Her first new venture is a restaurant opening in Alexandria this week. It will be called Hank’s Pasta Bar, bringing a personalized twist to classic Italian dining with a hiddenrestaurant-inside-a-restaurant in Old Town, Alexandria. The new trattoria is above Hank’s Oyster Bar, and will feature a build-your-own menu, marking a new direction for Leeds in partnership with chef Darren Norris. Norris brings more than three decades of experience to Hank’s Pasta Bar, with a foundation grounded in Italian cooking. The grand opening was scheduled for May 14. The elevated casual eatery blends an inventive chef-driven menu with an easy-going, sit-down dining experience that puts guests in charge. Hank’s Pasta Bar bridges the gap between elevated fast casual, like Norris’s Shibuya, and full-service dining, like Leeds’s Hank’s Oyster Bar. Diners order electronically at the table, but unlike fast casuals, food and beverages are delivered on plate ware, and a server is on site at all times.
The restaurant-inside-a-restaurant, welcomes guests to dine in with a full bar, including Italian wines and craft cocktails, maintaining its focus on traditional Italian fare with contemporary touches, including a build-your-own pasta bowl experience starting at $16. Create your own pasta bowl from seven artisanal pastas (including gluten-free), nine made-in-house sauces, proteins, vegetables, and toppings. Leeds said, “It’s the kind of place you’d find down a side street in a Tuscan hill town, after being tipped off by a friend who says, ‘trust me.’ If you know, you know.”
The restaurant will continue Hank’s community partnerships, including with Real Food for Kids, supporting programs that improve school food and nutrition equity.
In addition to this you should try Jaimie’s other new venture. Back Door Taco at Hank’s in Dupont Circle. You walk down the alley from 17th Street to the back door of Hank’s, and enter a small patio to partake of great tacos and interesting cocktails.
District of Columbia
HIV Vaccine Awareness Day set for May 18
Whitman-Walker joins nationwide recognition of efforts to develop vaccine
Whitman-Walker Health, the D.C.-based community healthcare center that specializes in HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ-related health services, will join health care advocates from across the country to support efforts to develop an HIV vaccine on HIV Vaccine Awareness Day on May 18.
“HIV Awareness Day, observed annually on May 18, was established to recognize and thank the volunteers, scientists, health professionals, and community members working toward a safe and effective prevention HIV vaccine,” Whitman-Walker said in a statement.
“Led by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the day is also an opportunity to educate communities about the critical importance of preventive HIV vaccine research,” the statement says.
It adds, “The reality is that any new vaccine discovery must be built community by community, institution by institution, and then it must reach everyone – especially the communities who have carried the heaviest burden of this epidemic.”
On its own website, the National Institutes of Health says HIV Vaccine Awareness Day also highlights its longstanding efforts, coordinated by its Office of AIDS Research, to support researchers’ efforts to develop an HIV vaccine.
“Researchers are making promising headway in efforts to develop a safe, effective HIV vaccine,” it says in a statement on its website.
A Whitman-Walker spokesperson said Whitman-Walker was not holding a specific event to observe HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, but it will recognize the day as a way of encouragement for its ongoing work to address the AIDS epidemic and support for vaccine research.
“Today, no one has to die from HIV,” said Whitman-Walker’s Health System division’s CEO, Dr. Heather Aaron in the Whitman-Walker statement. “We have the treatments, the technology, and the research to change outcomes, and yet people in our community are still dying from HIV//AIDS,” she said in the statement.
“That is unacceptable, and it is exactly why our work continues,” she added. “Here in D.C. with more focus on Southeast D.C., the Whitman-Walker Health System remains committed to making a difference through cutting-edge research, policy advocacy, and philanthropy, because fair access to life-saving treatment is not a privilege. It is a right.”
District of Columbia
Capital Stonewall Democrats endorses Janeese Lewis George for D.C. mayor
Group also backed D.C. Council, Congressional delegate, AG candidates
The Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political organization, announced on May 14 that it has endorsed D.C. Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) for mayor in the city’s June 16 Democratic primary.
Lewis George along with former D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D-At-Large) are considered by political observers to be the two leading candidates among the seven candidates competing in the Democratic primary election for mayor.
Both have strong, long-standing records of support on LGBTQ issues, indicating Capital Stonewall Democrats members, like LGBTQ voters across the city, are likely choosing a candidate based on non-LGBTQ related issues.
In a May 14 statement, the group announced its endorsements in seven other Democratic primary races, including D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson, who is running unopposed in the primary. Also endorsed is D.C. Councilmember Robert White (D-At-Large), who is one of five Democratic candidates competing for the position of D.C. delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.
D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) is among the four candidates competing with White for that post, and who like White has a strong record of support on LGBTQ issues.
In the At-Large D.C. Council race for which incumbent Anita Bonds is not running for re-election, Capital Stonewall Democrats has endorsed community activist and LGBTQ ally Oye Owolewa in a nine candidate race.
For the Ward 1 D.C. Council election, in which five LGBTQ supportive candidates are competing, the group did not make an endorsement because none of the candidate received a required 60 percent of the endorsement vote cast by Capital Stonewall Democrats members, according to the group’s former president, Howard Garrett.
The statement announcing its endorsements shows that it decided to list its “Preferred Ranking” of each of the Ward 1 Democratic candidates as part of the city’s newly implemented ranked choice voting system. It lists gay candidate Miguel Trindade Deramo as first, bisexual candidate Aparna Raj second, Jackie Reyes Yanes third, Rashida Brown fourth, and Terry Lynch fifth.
In the remaining ward Council races, Capital Stonewall Democrats endorsed Councilmember Matt Fruman (D-Ward 3), who is running unopposed for re-election; Councilmember Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), the Council’s only gay member who is being challenged by two opponents; and Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who is running unopposed for re-election.
The group also chose not to make an endorsement in the special election for another At-Large D.C. Council seat that became vacant when then-Independent Councilmember McDuffie resigned to enable him to run for mayor as a Democrat. Under the city’s Home Rule Charter adopted by Congress, that at large sweat is restricted to a “non-majority party” candidate, meaning a non-Democrat.
The three candidates running for the seat, all Independents, include incumbent Doni Crawford, who was appointed to the seat earlier this year; former D.C. Councilmember Elissa Silverman; and Jacque Patterson. All three have expressed support on LGBTQ related issues.
“The organization’s endorsement process included candidate questionnaires, public forums, and direct voting by active CSD members,” the statement announcing its endorsements says. “Each endorsement reflects the collective voice of 173 LGBTQ+ Democrats who voted in the process and are committed to building lasting political power in the District,” according to the statement. “Candidates that reached 60 percent support received the endorsement.”
Garrett, the group’s former president, acknowledged that with nearly all candidates running in D.C. elections expressing strong support for the LGBTQ community, many if not most of the group’s members most likely chose a candidate based on issues other than LGBTQ related issues.
He said he believes Lewis George, who he is supporting and is viewed as a progressive candidate who self-identifies as a Democratic Socialist, compared to McDuffie, who is viewed as a moderate Democrat, captured the group’s endorsement based on the view that she is the best person to lead the city going forward.
“I believe that Capital Stonewall members voted for Janeese Lewis George because we’re tired of the status quo and we need a new, bold leader to not only move our city forward but also to stand up to Donald Trump and his administration,” Garrett told the Washington Blade.
McDuffie’s LGBTQ supporters, including former Capital Stonewall Democrats presidents David Meadows and Kurt Vorndran, have argued that McDuffie’s positions on a wide range of issues, including LGBTQ issues, show him to be the best candidates to lead the city at this time and In future years.
The group’s endorsement of Lewis George comes one week after GLAA DC, a nonpartisan LGBTQ advocacy group, awarded her its highest candidate rating of +10.
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