District of Columbia
Judge postpones decision on whether Corado should be held while awaiting trial
Former Casa Ruby director charged with bank fraud, money laundering
A United States District Court Judge on Friday postponed a decision on whether Ruby Corado, 53, the founder and former executive director of Casa Ruby, should be held in custody while she awaits a trial following her arrest on March 5 on multiple charges related to allegations that she embezzled at least $150,000 from Casa Ruby.
The decision by U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Robin M. Meriweather to postpone this decision came during a dramatic detention hearing in which Corado’s court appointed Federal Public Defender Service attorney and the lead prosecutor with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C. presented opposing arguments over whether Corado should be held in custody or released while awaiting trial.
Meriweather said she needed more information about a proposal by defense attorney Diane Shrewsbury that Corado, if released, could be placed in the custody of a family member in Maryland. The judge ordered that the detention hearing would resume on Tuesday, March 12, when she expects to issue her final ruling.
The judge ordered that Corado, who has been held in custody since her arrest on March 5, remain in custody until at least the Tuesday hearing.
The Friday hearing came one day after prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a 12-page Memorandum In Support of Pretrial Detention that called for Corado to be detained on grounds that chances are significant that she would flee to El Salvador if she were to be released.
“Defendant Ruby Corado poses a unique and serious flight risk,” the prosecutors’ memorandum states.
It points out that the charges pending against her include Bank Fraud, Wire Fraud, Laundering of Monetary Instruments, Transportation with Criminally Derived Proceeds, and Failure to File Report of Foreign Bank Account – all related to allegations that she embezzled funds from Casa Ruby that came from at least two federal COVID pandemic relief programs.
The memorandum also states that Corado fled to El Salvador in 2022 shortly after news media reports surfaced that she was being investigated for financial improprieties and the Office of the D.C. Attorney General filed civil charges against her for alleged violations of the DC Nonprofit Corporations Act.
The March 7 memo says prosecutors believe Corado fled to El Salvador in 2022 knowing she would face criminal charges related to absconding with Casa Ruby funds.
“On February 25, 2024, the defendant returned to the United States from El Salvador,” the prosecutors’ memorandum says. “Law enforcement promptly sought the instant arrest warrant for the defendant, which this Court issued on March 1, 2024,” it says.
“On March 5, 2024, the defendant was arrested on that warrant in a hotel located in Laurel, Maryland. The defendant was alone at the hotel,” it says. “At the time of the arrest, the defendant was in possession of a passport issued by the Republic of El Salvador which had been issued on February 23, 2024.”
Prosecutors have not disclosed whether they know why Corado returned to the U.S. and how the FBI, which is leading the investigation that led to Corado’s arrest, learned of her return and her lodging at the hotel in Laurel, Md.
“Today, the defendant owns no property – not even a vehicle – in the United States,” the memorandum continues. “The defendant has no employment or other source of income,” it says, adding that Corado maintains citizenship in El Salvador. “She has bank accounts of unknown balances in El Salvador which she has failed to disclose to the U.S. government,” it says.
“And her spouse lives and works in El Salvador. The Court simply cannot be confident that the defendant will not flee the country again should the Court release her pending trial,” the memorandum concludes.
But in a court motion she filed on Friday and in her arguments at the Friday hearing, defense attorney Shrewsbury disputed the prosecutors’ claims, saying Corado would absolutely not be a flight risk. Shrewsbury disclosed that Corado returned to the U.S. last week with the intention of remaining in the D.C. area, where she has lived for at least 35 years.
The attorney said Corado came back to the D.C. area to take a job, the details of which Shrewsbury did not disclose. But the attorney said Corado has long standing family ties and many friends in the D.C. area and very much wants to fight the charges against her in court.
One more reason for releasing Corado from jail while she awaits trial is that she has been currently placed in the D.C. Jail’s male residential section under rules, according to Shrewsbury, that require inmates to be placed in a residential section based on their birth gender. This placement has endangered Corado’s safety, the attorney’s court document says.
Corado identifies as a transgender woman and for many years since founding Casa Ruby became known as an outspoken and admired advocate for LGBTQ rights. Under her leadership, Casa Ruby, as a nonprofit organization, among other things, provided transitional housing and related support services to LGBTQ youth with an outreach to transgender women of color.
However, local transgender rights advocates Earline Budd and Jeri Hughes told the Washington Blade the D.C. Jail has changed its policy and now allows transgender inmates to choose which section of the jail they prefer to be placed. Budd and Hughes, who are members of a special jail committee that reviews placement of trans inmates, said Corado was scheduled to come before the committee on Monday, March 11, to present her preferences on where to be placed.
An arrest affidavit filed in court on March 6 says the federal charges pending against Corado came about after FBI investigators learned that Corado received through Casa Ruby more than $1.3 million over a two-year period from the federal Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. Both were COVID-19 pandemic related programs.
The arrest affidavit says she allegedly stole at least $150,000 of those funds by transferring the money to bank accounts she held in El Salvador that she opened under her birth name.
Casa Ruby shut down its operations in July 2022 after Corado’s departure to El Salvador and after it failed to pay its employees and was being evicted from its headquarters building and several of its other properties for failing to pay rent.
District of Columbia
Push to elect more LGBTQ ANC members yields results
31 of 43 known LGBTQ ANC members elected in 2024 seeking re-election
A 2026 list of candidates released by the D.C. Board of Elections shows that 31 of the 43 known LGBTQ candidates who won election in 2024 as Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners have filed the required petition signatures to be placed on the ballot this year to run for re-election.
The Washington Blade reported in 2024 that 43 known LGBTQ candidates won election to ANC seats that year in the November election
In a related development, the president of Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political group, said the group this year has recruited at least 39 LGBTQ candidates to run for Advisory Neighborhood Commission seats in the city’s Nov. 3 general election.
The group’s president, Stevie McCarty, an incumbent ANC member in the city’s Shaw neighborhood who is running for re-election, said the 39 candidates and possibly more responded to the group’s Queering ANCs campaign launched on July 7 that includes a website with detailed instructions for how best to run for an ANC seat.
“Since launching in early July, the site has drawn more than 20,000 views, and 39 candidates have used it to actually run,” McCarty said in a statement. He said he wasn’t sure if all the 39 candidates wanted to be identified as LGBTQ, and he was reviewing the list of incumbent LGBTQ ANC members who won election in 2024 to determine if any of the 39 candidates recruited were among those incumbents. He said he was not ready to release the names of the 39 candidates he said his group recruited to run for an ANC seat.
If none of the 39 candidates recruited by Capital Stonewall Democrats are among the 31 known LGBTQ ANC incumbents running for re-election, it would mean at least 70 LGBTQ ANC candidates will be on the city’s November election ballot.
McCarty said Capital Stonewall Democrats will send candidate questionnaires to the known LGBTQ ANC candidates as part of its process for endorsing candidates in the November election. He said he expects the group to help campaign for and provide financial support for the ANC candidates it endorses.
The D.C. local government is believed to be unique among U.S. cities in currently having 46 Advisory Neighborhood Commissions consisting of 345 single member districts in neighborhoods throughout the city in which unpaid Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners are elected for two-year terms.
The commissions are charged with considering a wide range of policies and programs impacting their neighborhoods, including traffic, parking, recreation, street improvements, zoning, liquor licenses, and economic development. Although ANCs do not have authority to set or reject policies or actions by city agencies, the agencies are required to give “great weight” to ANC recommendations, according to the law creating the ANCs.
“As an ANC member, I know firsthand how these seats shape our neighborhoods, from housing and public safety to sanitation,” McCarty said in the Capital Stonewall Democrats statement announcing the launch of the Queering ANCs campaign in July. “I’m proud to lead this effort to ensure more LGBTQ+ Washingtonians see themselves as leaders in their communities,” he said.
Some local LGBTQ activists, who asked not to be identified, said they were not aware of a significant boost in new LGBTQ ANC candidates from the Queering ANCs campaign. However, they praised the effort to recruit more LGBTQ ANC candidates and said the campaign could have yielded more candidates if it had started sooner than less than a month before the deadline for becoming a candidate.
McCarty said Capital Stonewall Democrats will continue to recruit LGBTQ D.C. residents to run as write-in candidates for ANC seats, especially in the 45 single member districts in which no candidate will be on the ballot. The Board of Elections candidate list shows many ANC single member districts that have just one candidate running without an opponent.
Following is a list of 33 known LGBTQ ANC candidates running in D.C.’s November 2026 election and the single member districts and neighborhoods in which they are running. All but two – Vida Rangel and J. Swiderski – are incumbents running for re-election. The Washington Blade will update this list if and when more LGBTQ ANC candidates become known.
1A04 – (Columbia Heights) Jeremy Sherman, he/him
1A10 – (Columbia Heights) Vida Rangel, she/they [non-incumbent candidate]
1B03 – (Columbia Heights/U Street) J. Swiderski, they/he [non-incumbent candidate]
Jamie S. Sycamore, he/him
1B06 – (Columbia Heights/Meridian Hill) Miguel Trindade Deramo, he/him
1B07 – (U Street) Matthew Holden, he/him
1E01 – (Park View) Brad Howard, he/him
2B02 – (Dupont Circle) Jeffrey Rueckgauer, he/him
2B03 – (Dupont Circle) Vincent Slatt, he/him
2C01 – (Penn Quarter) Michael D. Shankle, he/him
2F05 – (Logan Circle) Christopher Dyer, he/him
2F07 – (Logan Circle) Kevin Cataldo, he/him
2G01 – (Shaw)Parker Griffin, he/him Howard Garrett, he/him
2G02 – (Shaw) Alexander ‘Alex’ Padro, he/him
2G04 – (Shaw) Steven McCarty, he/him
3B06 – (Wesley Heights) S. Robert Rodriquez, he/him
3F05 – (Van Ness/Cleveland Park) Adrian Jesus Iglesias, he/him
4B01 – (Takoma) Doug Payton, he/him
4B10 – (Lamond Riggs) Jinin Berry, she/her
4C06 – (Petworth) Christen Boss Hayes, they/them
4E02 – (16th Street Heights) Vince Micone, he/him
5B04 – (Brookland) Ra Amin, he/him
5B05 – (Brookland) Mónica Martínez López, she/her
5D05 – (Trinidad) Salvador Sauceda-Guzman, he/him
5F06 – (Eckington) Joe Bishop-Henchman, he/him
6B03 – (Capitol Hill) David Sobelsohn, he/him
6B09 – (Capitol Hill/Barney Circle) Karen Hughes, she/her
7C01 – (Deanwood) Brian Glover, he/him
7C03 – (Lincoln Heights) Carlos Richardson, he/him
7C04 (Deanwood) Anthony Lorenzo Green
7C08 – (Capitol View) Brandon M. Scott, he/him
8A01 – (Fairlawn) Tom Donohue, he, him
8B06 – (Garfield Heights) Marcus Thomas Hickman, he/him
District of Columbia
Gay-owned pizzeria in Dupont Circle burglarized
Protest Pizza owners say community has expressed support
Gay activist Randy Downs said he and his business and life partner Ricky Bennett are grateful for the support they have received from the Dupont Circle community after they released a video showing a suspect breaking into their recently opened pizza shop and taking money from a cash register shortly before 3 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 21.
The surveillance video shows a man wearing black clothing with his face covered, smashing the glass front door of Protest Pizza, located at 1633 ½ P St., N.W. The video, which Downs and Bennett provided to D.C. police, also shows the suspect climbing over the bar to get to a cash register, which he opened to take out cash.
A D.C. police report obtained by the Washington Blade lists the incident as a Burglary in the Second Degree and says the owners reported “approximately $78 in cash” was taken from the cash register. The report says the incident is not listed as a suspected hate crime.
Downs told the Washington Blade that after he and Bennett reported the break-in and theft on social media, they received an overwhelming showing of support from neighbors and others, including business owners, from across the nation.
“The break-in was upsetting, but it is not what will define Protest Pizza,” Downs said. “What defines us is how quickly people showed up,” he told the Blade. “One person came looking for a cash register; our community saw a gathering place worth protecting. The response reminded us that Protest’s real value was never in the register.”
Downs said he and Bennett, who live around the corner on the section of 17th Street, N.W., near several other bars and restaurants, including the gay bar JRs are located, opened Protest Pizza in November 2025.
“Ricky and I built Protest Pizza as a positive, welcoming, queer owned neighborhood restaurant and bar — a space for protest and joy,” he said.
A D.C. police spokesperson said police offer a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction of a suspect responsible for the type of burglary and theft that occurred at Protest Pizza. Police say anyone with information to help solve this type of crime should call the police tipline at 202-727-9099.
District of Columbia
Advocates honored at Engendered Spirit Awards
Annual ceremony held at conclusion of Trans Pride DC
The 2026 SaVanna Wanzer Engendered Spirit Awards ceremony took place at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in D.C. on Saturday. The ceremony was held at the conclusion of the day-long Trans Pride DC: Encore.
Honorees included D.C. Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs Deputy Director Vida Rangel; the LGBT+ Counseling Collaborative, Inc.; and Connor Keuntje, CLP, CLPC.
Trans Pride DC: Encore was held throughout Saturday with several workshop sessions and a virtual conversation with actress and advocate Dominique Jackson.
The annual Engendered Spirit Awards were renamed the “SaVanna Wanzer Engendered Spirit Awards” in honor of SaVanna Wanzer, founder of D.C. Trans Pride. Wanzer died on April 24 of this year.
Speakers at the ceremony included Japer Bowles, director of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and Bianca Sprague, executive director of D.C. Trans Pride.
“The intent behind this award and honoring members of our communities, organizations, and allies, is to really elevate all of the work that they’re doing to provide resources, tools, learning opportunities and connections: centering trans folks, gender non-conforming, and gender diverse individuals,” Sprague said.
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