Local
Wone trial video shows interrogation of Price, Ward
Gay defendants insist intruder killed Wone
As the conspiracy trial continued this week for three gay men implicated in the 2006 murder of Washington lawyer Robert Wone, it remained unclear whether the men would take the witness stand to testify.
But defendants Joseph Price and Dylan Ward effectively appeared as virtual witnesses Monday and Tuesday as prosecutors showed in the courtroom a police video of homicide detectives questioning the men about the murder.
The interrogations took place in the early morning hours of Aug. 3, 2006, a few hours after Wone was found stabbed to death in a second-floor guest room at Price, Ward and Victor Zaborsky’s upscale townhouse on Swann Street, N.W., near Dupont Circle.
“At no time did Price appear very emotional or upset,” reported Craig Brownstein, a writer with the Who Murdered Robert Wone blog, which described Price’s responses to questions by two detectives sitting beside him in the interrogation room.
Brownstein reported that Ward watched the video intently while sitting behind the defense table, but Price looked straight ahead at the lawyers and never looked at the video.
The men have been charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice and evidence tampering. If convicted on all three counts, they face a possible maximum sentence of 38 years in prison. No one has been charged with Wone’s murder.
Transcripts of the videotaped interrogations of Price and Ward show that detectives repeatedly challenged their claim that an unidentified intruder killed Wone after entering their house from a rear door while they were asleep in their respective bedrooms.
Wone’s wife testified last week that her husband, a longtime friend of Price from their days as students at the College of William & Mary, spent the night at the men’s house after working late at his nearby office.
The detectives noted that they found no evidence of a forced entry into the house. They said nothing was taken or disturbed, including valuable items in clear view on the first floor, including a flat screen television. Why would an intruder presumably arriving to burglarize the house bypass expensive items, go upstairs, walk past Ward’s bedroom and enter the room where Wone was sleeping and stab him, the detectives wanted to know.
“I understand it doesn’t make sense,” Ward told them.
Defense attorneys, including gay former D.C. Attorney General Robert Spagnoletti, asked the detectives during their cross examination whether investigators and prosecutors “jumped to conclusions” that the three men were implicated in the murder because of their sexual orientation and their three-way romantic relationship.
The defense has repeatedly referred to Det. Sgt. Daniel Wager’s questioning of Price about why Wone, whose family says he was straight, wanted to stay at their house.
“I got three homosexuals in a house and one straight guy,” he told Price in the interrogation room. “What is he doing there?” Wagner added, “I think you were all drinking wine and you know what’s going to happen tonight.”
Price responded by calling what he considered Wagner’s suggestion that the gay housemates were interested in a sexual encounter with Wone as being “insulting.”
Spagnoletti and defense attorneys David Schertler and Bernard Grimm each pressed the detectives in cross examination about whether they pursued other scenarios in the investigation, including Price’s claim that other people such as contractors had keys to the men’s house. Grimm repeatedly asked Wagner whether his approach to the investigation was shaped by his “attitudes” toward homosexuals.
The detectives replied that, after what they called a thorough assessment of the evidence, they concluded that no intruder entered the house on the night of the murder.
Police and prosecutors say they have evidence showing the three men delayed calling 911 to report the stabbing and appeared to have tampered with the crime scene and covered up evidence to protect the killer. Prosecutors say they believe one or all three of the men know the killer’s identity.
Defense attorneys say they will show that police botched the investigation by failing to pursue and identify the intruder that the defense says murdered Robert Wone.
The trial is expected to continue for at least another three weeks. Judge Lynn Leibovitz, who is presiding over the trial, will decide the defendants’ guilt or innocence following their decision to give up their right to a jury trial.
Local
Local LGBTQ groups, activists to commemorate Black History Month
Rayceen Pendarvis to moderate Dupont Underground panel on Sunday
LGBTQ groups in D.C. and elsewhere plan to use Black History Month as an opportunity to commemorate and celebrate Black lives and experiences.
Team Rayceen Productions has no specific events planned, but co-founder Rayceen Pendarvis will attend many functions around D.C. this month.
Pendarvis, a longtime voice in the LGBTQ community in D.C. will be moderating a panel at Dupont Underground on Sunday. The event, “Every (Body) Wants to Be a Showgirl,” will feature art from Black burlesque artists from around the country. Pendarvis on Feb. 23 will attend the showing of multimedia play at the Lincoln Theatre that commemorates the life of James Baldwin.
Equality Virginia plans to prioritize Black voices through a weekly online series, and community-based story telling. The online digital series will center Black LGBTQ voices, specifically trailblazers and activists, and contemporary Black queer and transgender people.
Narissa Rahaman, Equality Virginia’s executive director, stressed the importance of the Black queer community to the overall Pride movement, and said “Equality Virginia is proud to center those voices in our work this month and beyond.”
The Capital Pride Alliance, which hosts Pride events in D.C., has an alliance with the Center for Black Equity, which brings Black Pride to D.C. over Memorial Day weekend. The National LGBTQ Task Force has no specific Black History Month events planned, but plans to participate in online collaborations.
Cathy Renna, the Task Force’s director of communications, told the Washington Blade the organization remains committed to uplifting Black voices. “Our priority is keeping this at the forefront everyday,” she said.
The D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center is also hosting a series of Black History Month events.
The D.C. Public Library earlier this year launched “Freedom and Resistance,” an exhibition that celebrates Black History Month and Martin Luther King Jr. It will remain on display until the middle of March at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library at 901 G St., N.W.
District of Columbia
U.S. Attorney’s Office drops hate crime charge in anti-gay assault
Case remains under investigation and ‘further charges’ could come
D.C. police announced on Feb. 9 that they had arrested two days earlier on Feb. 7 a Germantown, Md., man on a charge of simple assault with a hate crime designation after the man allegedly assaulted a gay man at 14th and Q Streets, N.W., while using “homophobic slurs.”
But D.C. Superior Court records show that prosecutors with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C., which prosecutes D.C. violent crime cases, charged the arrested man only with simple assault without a hate crime designation.
In response to a request by the Washington Blade for the reason why the hate crime designation was dropped, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office provided this response: “We continue to investigate this matter and make no mistake: should the evidence call for further charges, we will not hesitate to charge them.”
In a statement announcing the arrest in this case, D.C. police stated, “On Saturday, February 7, 2026, at approximately 7:45 p.m. the victim and suspect were in the 1500 block of 14th Street, Northwest. The suspect requested a ‘high five’ from the victim. The victim declined and continued walking,” the statement says.
“The suspect assaulted the victim and used homophobic slurs,” the police statement continues. “The suspect was apprehended by responding officers.”
It adds that 26-year-old Dean Edmundson of Germantown, Md. “was arrested and charged with Simple Assault (Hate/Bias).” The statement also adds, “A designation as a hate crime by MPD does not mean that prosecutors will prosecute it as a hate crime.”
Under D.C.’s Bias Related Crime Act of 1989, penalties for crimes motivated by prejudice against individuals based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and homelessness can be enhanced by a court upon conviction by one and a half times greater than the penalty of the underlying crime.
Prosecutors in the past both in D.C. and other states have said they sometimes decide not to include a hate crime designation in assault cases if they don’t think the evidence is sufficient to obtain a conviction by a jury. In some instances, prosecutors have said they were concerned that a skeptical jury might decide to find a defendant not guilty of the underlying assault charge if they did not believe a motive of hate was involved.
A more detailed arrest affidavit filed by D.C. police in Superior Court appears to support the charge of a hate crime designation.
“The victim stated that they refused to High-Five Defendant Edmondson, which, upon that happening, Defendant Edmondson started walking behind both the victim and witness, calling the victim, “bald, ugly, and gay,” the arrest affidavit states.
“The victim stated that upon being called that, Defendant Edmundson pushed the victim with both hands, shoving them, causing the victim to feel the force of the push,” the affidavit continues. “The victim stated that they felt offended and that they were also gay,” it says.
District of Columbia
Capital Pride wins anti-stalking order against local activist
Darren Pasha claims action is linked to his criticism of Pride organizers
A D.C. Superior Court judge on Feb. 6 partially approved an anti-stalking order against a local LGBTQ activist requested last October by the Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based LGBTQ group that organizes the city’s annual Pride events.
The ruling by Judge Robert D. Okun requires former Capital Pride volunteer Darren Pasha to stay at least 100 feet away from Capital Pride’s staff, board members, and volunteers until the time of a follow up court hearing he scheduled for April 17.
In his ruling at the Feb. 6 hearing, which was virtual rather than held in-person at the courthouse, Okun said he had changed the distance that Capital Pride had requested for the stay-away, anti-stalking order from 200 yards to 100 feet. The court records show that the judge also denied a motion filed earlier by Pasha, who did not attend the hearing, to “quash” the Capital Pride civil case against him.
Pasha told the Washington Blade he suffered an injury and damaged his mobile phone by falling off his scooter on the city’s snow-covered streets that prevented him from calling in to join the Feb. 6 court hearing.
In his own court filings without retaining an attorney, Pasha has strongly denied the stalking related allegations against him by Capital Pride, saying “no credible or admissible evidence has been provided” to show he engaged in any wrongdoing.
The Capital Pride complaint initially filed in court on Oct. 27, 2025, includes an 18-page legal brief outlining its allegations against Pasha and an additional 167-page addendum of “supporting exhibits” that includes multiple statements by witnesses whose names are blacked out.
“Over the past year, Defendant Darren Pasha (“DSP”) has engaged in a sustained, and escalating course of conduct directed at CPA, including repeated and unwanted contact, harassment, intimidation, threats, manipulation, and coercive behavior targeting CPA staff, board members, volunteers, and affiliates,” the Capital Pride complaint states.
In his initial 16-page response to the complaint, Pasha says the Capital Pride complaint appears to be a form of retaliation against him for a dispute he has had with the organization and its then president, Ashley Smith, last year.
“It is evident that the document is replete with false, misleading, and unsubstantiated assertions,” he said of the complaint.
Smith, who has since resigned from his role as board president, did not respond to a request by the Blade for comment at the time the Capital Pride court complaint was filed against Pasha.
Capital Pride Executive Director Ryan Bos and the attorney representing the group in its legal action against Pasha, Nick Harrison, did not immediately respond to a Blade request for comment on the judge’s Feb. 6 ruling.
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Local LGBTQ groups, activists to commemorate Black History Month
