Local
Man who shouted slurs at Alexandria gay couple found not guilty of assault
But judge rules neighbor guilty of misdemeanor disorderly conduct
An Alexandria, Va., General District Court judge on Monday, Nov. 8, issued a verdict of not guilty for 57-year-old Thomas Wood on a charge of misdemeanor simple assault against a gay man that police and prosecutors listed as a hate crime.
Following a four-and-a-half-hour nonjury trial, Judge Thomas Kelley Jr. ruled that two video and audio recordings that captured Wood repeatedly shouting anti-gay slurs at his two next door neighbors, Kyle Metz and Metz’s husband, Leo Liu Metz, in a July 3 incident did not provide sufficient evidence to prove Wood physically assaulted either of the two gay men or committed a simple assault under Virginia law.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Cahoon, who acted as the lead prosecutor in the case, argued that both Kyle and Leo Metz testified at the trial that Wood raised and swung his arms over a fence that separated the properties of Wood and the Metz’s. He said Wood would have struck Leo Metz if Kyle Metz had not pulled Leo away from the fence.
In a separate verdict, Judge Kelley found Wood guilty of disorderly conduct, the second of the two charges filed against him by prosecutors in connection with the July 3 incident. The misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge was not classified as a hate crime under Virginia law.
Under Virginia law, misdemeanor cases such as simple assault or disorderly conduct are brought to trial before a judge without a jury.
While finding Wood not guilty of the hate crime assault charge, Kelley stated from the bench while delivering his verdict that he disagreed with arguments made by Wood in his testimony as a witness and by Wood’s attorney that the altercation was only and exclusively about a dispute over Wood’s parking space in an alley that separates Wood’s house from the house where Kyle and Leo Metz live.
“There is nothing that is said about parking,” Kelley said in referring to the two video recordings with full sound that captured Wood shouting the word “faggots” and asking which of the two gay men was the “wife,” among other insults.
“Are you the wife?” Wood is heard yelling on the video and audio recording. “Are you fucking him every night?” Wood shouts multiple times as captured by the recording.
“It is all about sexual orientation,” Kelley said from the bench while announcing his verdict, even though the hate crime designation ended when Kelley found Wood not guilty on the assault charge.
Minutes later, Kelley handed down a sentence for Wood on the disorderly conduct conviction that includes a $1,000 fine, 90 days in jail with all 90 days suspended, one year of unsupervised probation, and a requirement that Wood undergo counseling for anger management.
Under court rules, Wood could be ordered to serve some or all of the suspended 90 days of incarceration if he violates the terms of his probation.
At the request of Kyle and Leo Metz, and without objection from Wood’s attorney, B.R. Hicks, Kelley approved a stay-away protection order that prohibits Wood from threatening, intimidating or approaching the two gay men.
The dispute between Wood and Wood’s wife, Mary Wood, and the Metz’s began in April of this year, according to testimony at the Nov. 8 trial. Thomas and Mary Wood testified during the trial that the dispute began when the Metz’s moved into the house in Old Town Alexandria on Duke Street next door to the house they had been renting.
According to the Woods, the Metz’s placed a large planter at the edge of their property line that made it very difficult for the Woods to park their car in a space on their own property. Both Woods testified that in the weeks prior to the July 3 incident, they repeatedly and politely came to the front door of the Metz’s house to ask them if they could move the planter to make more room for them to park their car.
But the Metz’s testified that Thomas Wood yelled both anti-gay and anti-Asian slurs at them for at least a month or more prior to the July 3 incident that led to the assault and disorderly conduct charges against Thomas Wood. Leo Metz is Asian American.
The July 3 incident received widespread publicity on social media and on local TV news broadcasts when the Metz’s released the video and audio recording of the incident captured on their Ring camera video surveillance system. A second video of the incident was taken by another nearby neighbor, Julia Kennedy, who testified at the trial that she witnessed what she believed to be Thomas Wood subjecting Kyle and Leo Metz to homophobic slurs during the July 3 incident.
Prosecutor Cahoon played both videos on a large video screen several times during the trial. He noted that Thomas Wood’s loud and prolonged shouting of anti-gay slurs and other insults that the Metz’s interpreted to be threats reverberated across the neighborhood, creating a disturbance that clearly constituted disorderly conduct.
Defense attorney Hicks pointed to Thomas Wood’s testimony in which Wood claimed he was shouting the word “maggot” and not “faggot” most of the time when he became outraged that he could barely park his car in the space on his own property because of the Metz’s planter blocking access to his parking space. The Metz’s have said the planter was completely within their property line.
They testified that the incident began about 9:30 p.m. on July 3 when they heard a loud crashing sound outside their house and became worried that someone hit their own car. Before going outside, they said they watched the video from the Ring camera linked to their cell phones and saw Thomas Wood shouting insults over the fence that separates the two houses.
The two gay men testified that they then went outside to find out what was happening, and immediately were subjected to anti-gay insults by Wood.
In response to questions from defense attorney Hicks, Wood insisted he is not homophobic and his anger on the night of the incident was based completely on the parking dispute and not on the sexual orientation of Kyle and Leo Metz.
“He is not a homophobe at all,” defense attorney Hicks told the Washington Blade after the trial.
A friend of the Metz’s who attended the trial told the Washington Blade that the parking space on the Wood’s property was too small for their car and that they, not the Metz’s, were responsible for their parking problems.
Although Kyle and Leo Metz testified that Wood reached over the fence and attempted to assault Leo, which prosecutor Cahoon said constituted a simple assault under Virginia law, defense attorney Hicks argued that nowhere on the two videos was there any image showing an assault or an attempted assault.
Prior to the judge’s verdict, Hicks argued that Wood should not be convicted of a hate crime because his words of “anger” were protected under the free speech provisions of the U.S. Constitution, even though his words were not “politically correct.”
Hicks couldn’t immediately be reached after the trial to determine if Wood plans to appeal the verdict finding him guilty of disorderly conduct.
District of Columbia
‘Sandwich guy’ not guilty in assault case
Sean Charles Dunn faced misdemeanor charge
A jury with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday, Nov. 6, found D.C. resident Sean Charles Dunn not guilty of assault for tossing a hero sandwich into the chest of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent at the intersection of 14th and U streets, N.W. at around 11 p.m. on Aug. 10.
Dunn’s attorneys hailed the verdict as a gesture of support for Dunn’s contention that his action, which was captured on video that went viral on social media, was an exercise of his First Amendment right to protest the federal border agent’s participating in President Donald Trump’s deployment of federal troops on D.C. streets.
Friends of Dunn have said that shortly before the sandwich tossing incident took place Dunn had been at the nearby gay nightclub Bunker, which was hosting a Latin dance party called Tropicoqueta. Sabrina Shroff, one of three attorneys representing Dunn at the trial, said during the trial after Dunn left the nightclub he went to the submarine sandwich shop on 14th Street at the corner of U Street, where he saw the border patrol agent and other law enforcement officers standing in front of the shop.
Shroff and others who know Dunn have said he was fearful that the border agent outside the sub shop and immigrant agents might raid the Bunker Latin night event. Bunker’s entrance is on U Street just around the corner from the sub shop where the federal agents were standing.
“I am so happy that justice prevails in spite of everything happening,“ Dunn told reporters outside the courthouse after the verdict while joined by his attorneys. “And that night I believed that I was protecting the rights of immigrants,” he said.
“And let us not forget that the great seal of the United States says, E Pluribus Unum,” he continued. “That means from many, one. Every life matters no matter where you came from, no matter how you got here, no matter how you identify, you have the right to live a life that is free.”
The verdict followed a two-day trial with testimony by just two witnesses, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent Gregory Lairmore, who identified Dunn as the person who threw the sandwich at his chest, and Metro Transit Police Detective Daina Henry, who told the jury she witnessed Dunn toss the sandwich at Lairmore while shouting obscenities.
Shroff told the jury Dunn was exercising his First Amendment right to protest and that the tossing of the sandwich at Lairmore, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, did not constitute an assault under the federal assault law to which Dunn was charged, among other things, because the federal agent was not injured.
Prosecutors with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C. initially attempted to obtain a grand jury indictment of Dunn on a felony assault charge. But the grand jury refused to hand down an indictment on that charge, court records show. Prosecutors then filed a criminal complaint against Dunn on the misdemeanor charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers of the United States.
“Dunn stood within inches of Victim 1,” the criminal complaint states, “pointing his finger in Victim 1’s face, and yelled, Fuck you! You fucking fascists! Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!”
The complaint continues by stating, “An Instagram video recorded by an observer captured the incident. The video depicts Dunn screaming at V-1 within inches of his face for several seconds before winding his arm back and forcefully throwing a sub-style sandwich at V-1.
Prosecutors repeatedly played the video of the incident for the jurors on video screens in the courtroom.
Dunn, who chose not to testify at his trial, and his attorneys have not disputed the obvious evidence that Dunn threw the sandwich that hit Lairmore in the chest. Lead defense attorney Shroff and co-defense attorneys Julia Gatto and Nicholas Silverman argued that Dunn’s action did not constitute an assault under the legal definition of common law assault in the federal assault statute.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael DiLorenzo, the lead prosecutor in the case, strongly disputed that claim, citing various provisions in the law and appeals court rulings that he claimed upheld his and the government’s contention that an “assault” can take place even if a victim is not injured as well as if there was no physical contact between the victim and an alleged assailant, only a threat of physical contact and injury.
The dispute over the intricacies of the assault law and whether Dunn’s action reached the level of an assault under the law dominated the two-day trial, with U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols, who presided over the trial, weighing in with his own interpretation of the assault statute. Among other things, he said it would be up to the jury to decide whether or not Dunn committed an assault.
Court observers have said in cases like this, a jury could have issued a so-called “nullification” verdict in which they acquit a defendant even though they believe he or she committed the offense in question because they believe the charge is unjust. The other possibility, observers say, is the jury believed the defense was right in claiming a law was not violated.
DiLorenzo and his two co-prosecutors in the case declined to comment in response to requests by reporters following the verdict.
“We really want to thank the jury for having sent back an affirmation that his sentiment is not just tolerated but it is legal, it is welcome,” defense attorney Shroff said in referring to Dunn’s actions. “And we thank them very much for that verdict,” she said.
Dunn thanked his attorneys for providing what he called excellent representation “and for offering all of their services pro bono,” meaning free of charge.
Dunn, an Air Force veteran who later worked as an international affairs specialist at the U.S. Department of Justice, was fired from that job by DOJ officials after his arrest for the sandwich tossing incident.
“I would like to thank family and friends and strangers for all of their support, whether it was emotional, or spiritual, or artistic, or financial,” he told the gathering outside the courthouse. “To the people that opened their hearts and homes to me, I am eternally grateful.”
“As always, we accept a jury’s verdict; that is the system within which we function,” CNN quoted U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro as saying after the verdict in the Dunn case. “However, law enforcement should never be subjected to assault, no matter how ‘minor,’” Pirro told CNN in a statement.
“Even children know when they are angry, they are not allowed to throw objects at one another,” CNN quoted her as saying.
Maryland
Democrats hold leads in almost every race of Annapolis municipal election
Jared Littmann ahead in mayor’s race.
By CODY BOTELER | The Democratic candidates in the Annapolis election held early leads in the races for mayor and nearly every city council seat, according to unofficial results released on election night.
Jared Littmann, a former alderman and the owner of K&B Ace Hardware, did not go so far as to declare victory in his race to be the next mayor of Annapolis, but said he’s optimistic that the mail-in ballots to be counted later this week will support his lead.
Littmannn said November and December will “fly by” as he plans to meet with the city department heads and chiefs to “pepper them with questions.”
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Democrats on Tuesday increased their majority in the Virginia House of Delegates.
The Associated Press notes the party now has 61 seats in the chamber. Democrats before Election Day had a 51-48 majority in the House.
All six openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual candidates — state Dels. Rozia Henson (D-Prince William County), Laura Jane Cohen (D-Fairfax County), Joshua Cole (D-Fredericksburg), Marcia Price (D-Newport News), Adele McClure (D-Arlington County), and Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax County) — won re-election.
Lindsey Dougherty, a bisexual Democrat, defeated state Del. Carrie Coyner (R-Chesterfield County) in House District 75 that includes portions of Chesterfield and Prince George Counties. (Attorney General-elect Jay Jones in 2022 texted Coyner about a scenario in which he shot former House Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican.)
Other notable election results include Democrat John McAuliff defeating state Del. Geary Higgins (R-Loudoun County) in House District 30. Former state Del. Elizabeth Guzmán beat state Del. Ian Lovejoy (R-Prince William County) in House District 22.
Democrats increased their majority in the House on the same night they won all three statewide offices: governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general.
Narissa Rahaman is the executive director of Equality Virginia Advocates, the advocacy branch of Equality Virginia, a statewide LGBTQ advocacy group, last week noted the election results will determine the future of LGBTQ rights, reproductive freedom, and voting rights in the state.
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2024 signed a bill that codified marriage equality in state law.
The General Assembly earlier this year approved a resolution that seeks to repeal the Marshall-Newman Amendment that defines marriage in the state constitution as between a man and a woman. The resolution must pass in two successive legislatures before it can go to the ballot.
Shreya Jyotishi contributed to this article.
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