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Video shows woman shot IHOP victim after scuffle stopped

Lawyer tells judge defendant has medical problems related to pregnancy

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IHOP, gay news, Washington Blade

The International House of Pancakes restaurant in Columbia Heights (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

A video recording shows that the woman charged in the March 11 shooting of a gay man at the International House of Pancakes restaurant in Columbia Heights fired a handgun at the victim after an off-duty police officer broke up a scuffle and separated two groups that were fighting, according to a police affidavit filed in court.

An attorney representing Lashawn Yvonne Carson, 27, who was charged on Monday with aggravated assault while armed in connection with the shooting, told a D.C. Superior Court judge on Thursday that Carson is pregnant and was experiencing a pregnancy related medical problem.

The attorney, Patrick J. Christmas, said during a court hearing that Carson’s medical issues could require medical attention while she’s being held in jail without bond pending a preliminary hearing now scheduled for April 11. The hearing had been scheduled for Thursday, March 29, but Judge Frederick Sullivan agreed to Christmas’s request to postpone the hearing.

Assistant United States Attorney Lauren Bickie agreed to Christmas’s request for the postponement.

The police affidavit was filed in court at the time of Carson’s arrest on March 26. It says a surveillance camera at the IHOP restaurant captured an altercation between Carson and a male friend and the victim and his friends that began inside the IHOP shortly before 6:30 a.m. on March 11.

The affidavit says the video surveillance recording was obtained and viewed by police investigators shortly before the arrest. It says the video shows what appears to be a verbal altercation between the victim and a male subject who was with Carson.

ā€œCarson appears to be separating the complainant and the male subject,ā€ it says. ā€œThe complainant then appears to throw a glass at the male subject and then appears to throw a punch at the male subject, which struck Carson in the face,ā€ the affidavit says.

ā€œAt this a physical altercation ensued between the complainant, the male subject and Carson,ā€ says the affidavit. ā€œOther members of both parties began to engage in the fight. An off duty police officer intervened and separated the two parties from fighting,ā€ it says.

ā€œAfter the parties were separated, at the time stamped 06:27:17 to 06:27:20 on camera #6, Carson is seen standing near the window of the restaurant by what appears to be a hostess stand and firing a single shot that struck the complainant,ā€ the affidavit says. ā€œThe complainant appears to grab his right abdomen and stumble back and fall to the ground. Carson and the male subject then fled out of the restaurant. Carson as seen on the footage is a black female wearing a black jacket and blue jeans.ā€

The affidavit reports that police interviewed Carson about the incident on March 24 and she admitted to shooting the victim. It says she stated she fired a single shot at the complainant after the physical altercation broke out between the two groups. But it doesn’t say whether she disputes the police observation that the video shows her firing the shot after the off duty police officer broke up the fight and separated the two parties.

Christmas did not respond to a call seeking comment.

Matt Jones, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office, said he couldn’t comment further on the details about the allegations in the case. However, he said the case is still under investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s office has the option of filing additional charges, including a possible illegal gun possession charge and charge designating the shooting as a hate crime.

D.C. police listed the incident as a hate crime related to the victim’s perceived or actual sexual orientation at the time of the incident was reported. Jones said the U.S. Attorney’s office routinely waits for the conclusion of its own investigation before making a decision on whether to add a bias related designation to a case. Such a designation could result in a greater sentence, including a longer prison term, upon conviction of a defendant in such cases.

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Comings & Goings

Jimmy Alexander joins WTOP News as a feature reporter

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Jimmy Alexander (Photo courtesy of Jimmy Alexander)

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].Ā 

Congratulations to Jimmy Alexander who has been hired at WTOP News as a feature reporter. Over the last four years Alexander has been covering stories as varied as the Jan. 6 insurrection to the 17th Street High Heel Race. He has been working as a co-host on the Jack Diamond Morning show on Cumulus Media, Manning Media. On his acceptance of the new position Alexander said, ā€œI’m thrilled that at WTOP News, I will be able to focus on events and people that bring hope to your heart and a smile to your face.ā€

Alexander is a versatile multimedia broadcaster with more than two decades of experience covering both major news events in Washington D.C., and important human-interest stories outside the Beltway. He is an engaging interviewer with a track record of having compelling conversations with the biggest names in government and show business, from presidents to Paul McCartney. Prior to this he worked as a freelance feature reporter with WDCW50-DC News Now. He is also with Writer-20, Twenty Country Countdown, United Stations Radio Networks. There he developed a concept for a countdown show featuring country music’s weekly top songs on-air and online and prepared weekly scripts for a three-hour show. 

Alexander conducted the only Jan. 6, 2021 interview with “The QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley. Since 2016, he has served by request of the D.C. mayor as official host of the 17th Street High Heel Race, the city’s second largest LGBTQ event of the year. He is featured in the documentary “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” and is a frequent guest on CNN’s Morning Show “New Day.” He covered White House visits by Queen Elizabeth, the Pope, and the yearly Easter Egg Roll. He also won $10,000 on the game show ā€œPyramid.ā€ 

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Maryland

LGBTQ University of Maryland students prepare to celebrate Hanukkah

Eight-day festival to begin Thursday night

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(Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

A number of Hanukkah events for LGBTQ students will take place at the University of Maryland this week.

Queer Jewish students and allies are welcome to attend Crazy Cozy Chill Chanukah Celebration on Sunday at the University of Maryland Hillel. Hamsa, home to queer Jewish life on campus, hosted a study break with hot drinks, snacks and games and a chance to welcome Hanukkah early.Ā 

The first night of Hanukkah is Thursday.

Chabad UMD is hosting a menorah lighting on Thursday in front of McKeldin Library and plans to mention the war between Israel and Hamas, according to Rabbi Eli Backman of Chabad UMD. The event is going to be a focus on the positivity and the message of the Hanukkah story.Ā Ā 

ā€œWe’ve been around for thousands of years and all those who’ve tried to make sure that we didn’t live to see the next generation (is) no longer here,ā€ Backman said. ā€œThat message will really resonate at home for the holiday.ā€

The story of the Maccabees is one of the few stories where Jewish people fought, Backman said. In Jewish history, people don’t see a military response in many of the other holiday moments. 

ā€œIt should give us a boost of energy,ā€ Backman said. ā€œA boost of strength (and) a boost of hope.ā€

Part of the Hanukkah story’s message is that Jewish people were in a position that they needed to form a military to secure their borders, Backman said. And they succeeded.Ā 

For some, celebrating Hanukkah depends on the people they’re around, Florence Miller, a sophomore English and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies who is Hamsa’s president, said.

Miller is agnostic and does not find themself to be a religious person, but the thing that has kept their Jewish faith is the people about whom they care are Jewish and the sense of community that comes from being Jewish.

ā€œI just wanted to do a Hanukkah event,ā€ Miller said. ā€œIt’s been a good refresher with how the semester has been.ā€

Miller last year attended a Hanukkah party and played a game of dreidel, a spinning top with four sides marked with a Hebrew letter. The people who were in attendance wanted to bet something, but the only thing they could find were pinto beans. 

ā€œWhen I took them out of my pocket one got stuck in there,ā€ Miller said. ā€œI still have that bean.ā€

For some Jewish students it’s important to go to Hanukkah events like Hamsa’s celebration to be around like-minded Jewish people, Yarden Shestopal, a sophomore American Studies major, said. 

ā€œWhich is why I like Hamsa,ā€ Shestopal said. ā€œSince we’re all queer people or allies we kind of share that mentality of acceptance.ā€

Being part of the Jewish community at the University of Maryland has opened Shestopal up to how diverse the LGBTQ and Jewish communities are. Shestopal this year, however, debated whether or not to put his menorah up on the windowsill of his apartment because of the rise in anti-Semitism due to the war in Israel.Ā Ā 

ā€œI’m pretty sure I am going to put the menorah in my window,ā€ Shestopal said. ā€œThe only way to combat anti-Semitism is to stay visible.ā€Ā 

Several University of Maryland students lived in Israel before or during their time at the university. 

Elisheva Greene, a junior animal science major, went to seminary, a school for women to learn about Torah, during the pandemic. Greene said celebrating Hanukkah while a war is happening is going to be a similar feeling.Ā 

ā€œI’m able to do what I can from over here by supporting my family and friends,ā€ Greene said. ā€œThe biggest thing I can be doing is living my life as a Jewish person and showing that I express my Judaism and I’m not afraid.ā€

Greene recalled they could not go more than 1,000 feet from home for two months and Hanukkah took place during that time. While it was difficult, Greene said people still put their menorahs on their windowsill.  

ā€œKnowing the resilience the Israelis have and the fact people like to show their Jewishness (is not) gonna stop me,ā€ Greene said. ā€œLike there’s a war going on but you’re gonna be a Jew and you’re gonna flaunt that.ā€

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District of Columbia

Hearing postponed for gay D.C. gym owner charged with distributing child porn

Prosecutors call for Everts to be held in jail until trial

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Michael Everts will likely remain in jail until a Jan. 10 hearing in his case. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

A detention hearing scheduled for Monday, Dec. 4, in which a judge would decide whether gay D.C. gym owner Michael Everts should remain in jail or be released while he awaits a trial on a charge of distribution of child pornography was postponed with no immediate date set to reschedule it.

However, records with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, before which the case is being held, show that Everts’s defense attorney later in the day on Dec. 4 filed a motion in which Everts waived his right to a detention hearing and requested that a preliminary hearing be scheduled on Jan. 10, 2024.

In his motion, defense attorney David Benowitz says the lead prosecutor with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C. does not oppose this request. As of Tuesday morning, the magistrate judge presiding over the case had not ruled on Benowitz’s motion.

But an entry in the court record on  Wednesday, Dec. 5, states that Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey approved the motion and agreed to set the date for the preliminary hearing on Jan. 10 at 4 p.m. The court record shows that Magistrate Judge Robin M. Meriweather will preside over the preliminary hearing, in which prosecutors must present evidence, sometimes through testimony by witnesses, that probable cause or sufficient evidence exists to proceed to a trial. Meriweather will issue a ruling on whether probable cause exists.

Everts has been held without bond since the time of his arrest on Nov. 29 on a single charge of distribution of child pornography following a joint D.C. police-FBI investigation that led to his arrest.

He has owned and operated the FIT Personal Training gym located at 1633 Q St., N.W., near Dupont Circle since its opening in 2002.

Court records show that Benowitz filed a motion on Dec. 3 seeking a one-day postponement of the detention hearing to give him time to review the evidence presented by prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s office. But Benowitz’s second motion waiving Everts’s right to a detention hearing and calling for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 10 appears to have voided his first motion and will result in Everts being held in jail until at least the time of the preliminary hearing in January.  

“Mr. Everts has been advised of his rights under the Speedy Trial Act (“STA”) and agrees to toll the time under the STA until the next hearing in this matter,” Benowitz’s second motion states.Ā 

On Dec. 1, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Bond, the lead prosecutor in the case, filed a 20-page Memorandum In Support of Pretrial Detention that describes the government’s evidence against Everts and argues strongly in favor of having Everts held in custody at least until the time of his trial.

ā€œDistribution of Child Pornography is a crime of violence and there is no condition or combination of conditions that will reasonably assure the safety of children in the community – both in the physical world and online – if Mr. Everts is released,ā€ the memorandum states.

The memorandum notes that Everts’s arrest came about after an employee at the gay and bi hookup site Sniffies alerted the FBI that a Sniffies user was exchanging messages with other users expressing an interest in images of underage boys for sexual gratification. A joint FBI and D.C. police investigation traced the messages to Everts, according to an arrest affidavit and the U.S. Attorney’s memo.

The affidavit and memo point out that an undercover D.C. police detective working with the FBI and posing as someone interested in underage boys contacted Everts through the Sniffies site and a social media messaging address of @ethaneffex. The undercover detective, who is identified in charging documents as the ā€œonline covert employeeā€ or ā€œOCE,ā€ engaged in messaging with Everts that prompted Everts to send the OCE video and photo images of child pornography, the arrest affidavit and memo state.

The memo seeking pretrial detention for Everts says Everts went beyond just expressing interest in viewing or sending the OCE child porn videos or photos but also described his interest in interacting with and possibly having sex with underage boys he knew.

ā€œOn multiple occasions he discussed his sexual interest in actual children that he encountered in his life, particularly emphasizing his desire to sexually abuse Minor 1 and noting that he had surreptitiously recorded Minor 1 at the playground in the past,ā€ the memorandum says.

ā€œNot only did he send photos of these children to someone whom he had reason to believe also had a sexual interest in children,ā€ the memo states, ā€œbut he sent multiple voice messages to the OCE reiterating his sexual interest in Minor 1 – as well as in Minor 2 and other unknown minors — and describing the specific sexual acts he wanted to engage in with these minors.ā€

The memo adds, ā€œOnly amplifying his danger to children, Everts then bragged about having previously engaged in sex with a minor and his willingness to sexually abuse a child as young as 10 years old.ā€

Benowitz, Everts’s attorney, didn’t immediately respond to a request by the Washington Blade for comment on the case and whether he or his client dispute any of the allegations against Everts brought by prosecutors.

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