District of Columbia
DC man charged with killing partner in gay domestic violence case
Charging document says victim, 58, stabbed to death
D.C. police announced they have arrested 54-year-old Ted Anthony Brown on a charge of second-degree murder while armed for allegedly fatally stabbing his domestic partner, Tommy Hudson, 58, inside Brown’s apartment at 517 Harvard St., N.W., on May 26.
A four-page arrest affidavit filed by police and prosecutors in D.C. Superior Court says police arrested Brown two days later on May 28 after an investigation by Metropolitan Police Department homicide detectives identified Brown as a suspect in the case through information provided by witnesses.
The affidavit says Brown, following his arrest, waved his Miranda rights to remain silent and confessed to having stabbed Hudson after the two got into an argument and after Brown claimed his partner punched him in the face.
“Brown reported that he and the decedent have been involved in a romantic relationship for a significant period and that he was very jealous of the decedent’s possible infidelities,” the affidavit states. “Suspect 1 [Brown] reported to detectives that he believed the decedent punching him to the face did not justify Suspect 1 stabbing the decedent, which ultimately killed him,” the affidavit continues.
“Suspect 1 reported that he had stabbed the decedent in the past and threatened to kill him if he learned of subsequent cheating within their relationship,” the affidavit says. “Suspect 1 reported that he was the aggressive and argumentative party in their relationship and that the decedent would never like to argue,” it says.
Court records show that a D.C. Superior Court Judge Renee Raymond ordered Brown held without bond pending a detention hearing scheduled for June 17.
A D.C. police statement says that at about 8:57 a.m. on May 26, police responded to a call for a stabbing on the 500 block of Harvard Street, N.W. The arrest affidavit says that upon their arrival, officers found a man later identified as Hudson unconscious while sitting on the steps leading up to the front door of one of two apartments located in a two-story attached row house at 517 Harvard St., N.W.
The affidavit says an autopsy conducted by a physician with the Office of the D.C. Chief Medical Examiner determined the cause of death was a stab wound to the right shoulder that severed an artery. The manner of death was ruled a homicide.
It says a crime scene investigation found a trail of blood leading from the apartment where defendant Brown had been living to the outside steps where Hudson was found and subsequently taken to Washington Hospital Center, where he was pronounced deceased.
The affidavit states that two witnesses told detectives that they knew Brown as a resident of the neighborhood and encountered Brown on the day of the murder. Both witnesses told detectives that Brown told them he stabbed Hudson during an argument.
“Witness 1 reported that IT asked Ted what had transpired inside his residence on Sunday, May 26, 2024, and Ted stated words to the effect of, ‘My boyfriend assaulted me, look at my head, and I stabbed him in the heart!’” the affidavit states.
The affidavit also states that Brown has a history of prior domestic violence complaints lodged against him and that he had been arrested at least once for a prior domestic violence incident targeting Hudson.
Neither the arrest affidavit nor the D.C. police report states whether Hudson had been living in Brown’s apartment. But the D.C. police report lists Hudson’s address as 1355 New York Ave., N.E. An online search by the Washington Blade of that address shows it is listed as a men’s shelter operated by Catholic Charities.
Todd S. Baldwin, Brown’s court appointed attorney, when contacted by the Blade, said, “Mr. Brown is pursuing all legal options and defenses, and he’s presumed innocent. And I would ask that the public and all news media allow the justice system to work its way to justice.”
Asked if his client might pursue an argument of self-defense after telling police he stabbed his partner Hudson after Hudson allegedly punched him in the face, Baldwin replied, “I think that’s certainly a possibility. But we’re waiting for a full investigation to take place.”
Local LGBTQ rights advocate Vincent Slatt, who serves as chair of the D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commissions’ Rainbow Caucus, which monitors crime targeting the LGBTQ community, said the murder of Tommy Hudson was yet another example of how intimate partner violence is an “alarming problem” in D.C.
“The vast preponderance of it is straight men beating and killing women,” Slatt told the Blade. “But this case demonstrates, yet again, that LGBTQ people also use violence against their partners, too,” he said. “More information on this case will come forward in the days and weeks ahead, but one thing is already clear from the charging documents,” Slatt said.
“This death was not the first domestic violence incident for this couple,” he noted. “It was the escalation of a pattern that went back several years. Obviously, they did not receive the intervention they needed to end the cycle of violence.”
Slatt also noted that the Hudson murder underscores the need for more social services to address the issue of domestic violence. He said D.C. Mayor Muriel Bower’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs includes a Violence Prevention and Response Team that provides services for LGBTQ people who experience domestic violence, but he said that program is underfunded. Slatt called on the mayor’s office and the D.C. Council to add additional funds for that program and other domestic violence response programs in the city’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
District of Columbia
D.C. police arrest man for burglary at gay bar Spark Social House
Suspect ID’d from images captured by Spark Social House security cameras
D.C. police on Feb. 18 arrested a 63-year-old man “of no fixed address” for allegedly stealing cash from the registers at the gay bar Spark Social House after unlawfully entering the bar at 2009 14th St., N.W., around 12:04 a.m. after it had closed for business, according to a police incident report.
“Later that day officers canvassing for the suspect located him nearby,” a separate police statement says. “63-year-old Tony Jones of no fixed address was arrested and charged with Burglary II,” the statement says.
The police incident report states that the bar’s owner, Nick Tsusaki, told police investigators that the bar’s security cameras captured the image of a man who has frequently visited the bar and was believed to be homeless.
“Once inside, the defendant was observed via the establishment’s security cameras opening the cash register, removing U.S. currency, and placing the currency into the left front pocket of his jacket,” the report says.
Tsusaki told the Washington Blade that he and Spark’s employees have allowed Jones to enter the bar many times since it opened last year to use the bathroom in a gesture of compassion knowing he was homeless. Tsusaki said he is not aware of Jones ever having purchased anything during his visits.
According to Tsusaki, Spark closed for business at around 10:30 p.m. on the night of the incident at which time an employee did not properly lock the front entrance door. He said no employees or customers were present when the security cameras show Jones entering Spark through the front door around 12:04 a.m.
Tsusaki said the security camera images show Jones had been inside Spark for about three hours on the night of the burglary and show him taking cash out of two cash registers. He took a total of $300, Tsusaki said.
When Tsusaki and Spark employees arrived at the bar later in the day and discovered the cash was missing from the registers they immediately called police, Tsusaki told the Blade. Knowing that Jones often hung out along the 2000 block of 14th Street where Spark is located, Tsusaki said he went outside to look for him and saw him across the street and pointed Jones out to police, who then placed him under arrest.
A police arrest affidavit filed in court states that at the time they arrested him police found the stolen cash inside the pocket of the jacket Jones was wearing. It says after taking him into police custody officers found a powdered substance in a Ziploc bag also in Jones’s possession that tested positive for cocaine, resulting in him being charged with cocaine possession in addition to the burglary charge.
D.C. Superior Court records show a judge ordered Jones held in preventive detention at a Feb. 19 presentment hearing. The judge then scheduled a preliminary hearing for the case on Feb. 20, the outcome of which couldn’t immediately be obtained.
District of Columbia
Judge rescinds order against activist in Capital Pride lawsuit
Darren Pasha accused of stalking organization staff, board members, volunteers
A D.C. Superior Court judge on Feb.18 agreed to rescind his earlier ruling declaring local gay activist Darren Pasha in default for failing to attend a virtual court hearing regarding an anti-stalking lawsuit brought against him by the Capital Pride Alliance, the group that organizes D.C.’s annual Pride events.
The Capital Pride lawsuit, initially filed on Oct. 27, 2025, accuses Pasha of engaging in a year-long “course of conduct” of “harassment, intimidation, threats, manipulation, and coercive behavior” targeting Capital Pride staff, board members, and volunteers.
In his own court filings without retaining an attorney, Pasha has strongly denied the stalking related allegations against him, saying “no credible or admissible evidence has been provided” to show he engaged in any wrongdoing.
Judge Robert D. Okum nevertheless on Feb. 6 approved a temporary stay-away order requiring Pasha to stay at least 100 feet away from Capital Pride’s staff, volunteers, and board members until the time of a follow-up court hearing scheduled for April 17. He reduced the stay-away distance from 200 yards as requested by Capital Pride.
In his two-page order issued on Feb. 18, Okun stated that Pasha explained that he was involved in a scooter accident in which he was injured and his phone was damaged, preventing him from joining the Feb. 6 court hearing.
“Therefore, the court finds there is a good cause for vacating the default,” Okun states in his order.
At the time he initially approved the default order at the Feb. 6 hearing that Pasha didn’t attend, Okun scheduled an April 17 ex parte proof hearing in which Capital Pride could have requested a ruling in its favor seeking a permanent anti-stalking order against Pasha.
In his Feb. 18 ruling rescinding the default order Okun changed the April 17 ex parte proof hearing to an initial scheduling conference hearing in which a decision on the outcome of the case is not likely to happen.
In addition, he agreed to consider Pasha’s call for a jury trial and gave Capital Pride 14 days to contest that request. The Capital Pride lawsuit initially called for a non-jury trial by judge.
One request by Pasha that Okum denied was a call for him to order Capital Pride to stop its staff or volunteers from posting information about the lawsuit on social media. Pasha has said the D.C.-based online blog called DC Homos, which Pasha claims is operated by someone associated with Capital Pride, has been posting articles portraying him in a negative light and subjecting him to highly negative publicity.
“The defendant has not set forth a sufficient basis for the court to restrict the plaintiff’s social media postings, and the court therefore will deny the defendant’s request in his social media praecipe,” Okun states in his order.
A praecipe is a formal written document requesting action by a court.
Pasha called the order a positive development in his favor. He said he plans to file another motion with more information about what he calls the unfair and defamatory reports about him related to the lawsuit by DC Homos, with a call for the judge to reverse his decision not to order Capital Pride to stop social media postings about the lawsuit.
Pasha points to a video interview on the LGBTQ Team Rayceen broadcast, a link to which he sent to the Washington Blade, in which DC Homos operator Jose Romero acknowledged his association with Capital Pride Alliance.
Capital Pride Executive Director Ryan Bos didn’t immediately respond to a message from the Blade asking whether Romero was a volunteer or employee with Capital Pride.
Pasha also said he believes the latest order has the effect of rescinding the temporary stay away order against him approved by Okun in his earlier ruling, even though Okun makes no mention of the stay away order in his latest ruling. Capital Pride attorney Nick Harrison told the Blade the stay away order “remains in full force and effect.”
Harrison said Capital Pride has no further comment on the lawsuit.
District of Columbia
Trans activists arrested outside HHS headquarters in D.C.
Protesters demonstrated directive against gender-affirming care
Authorities on Tuesday arrested 24 activists outside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services headquarters in D.C.
The Gender Liberation Movement, a national organization that uses direct action, media engagement, and policy advocacy to defend bodily autonomy and self-determination, organized the protest in which more than 50 activists participated. Organizers said the action was a response to changes in federal policy mandated by Executive Order 14187, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”
The order directs federal agencies and programs to work toward “significantly limiting youth access to gender-affirming care nationwide,” according to KFF, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that provides independent, fact-based information on national health issues. The executive order also includes claims about gender-affirming care and transgender youth that critics have described as misinformation.
Members of ACT UP NY and ACT UP Pittsburgh also participated in the demonstration, which took place on the final day of the public comment period for proposed federal rules that would restrict access to gender-affirming care.
Demonstrators blocked the building’s main entrance, holding a banner reading “HANDS OFF OUR ‘MONES,” while chanting, “HHS—RFK—TRANS YOUTH ARE NO DEBATE” and “NO HATE—NO FEAR—TRANS YOUTH ARE WELCOME HERE.”
“We want trans youth and their loving families to know that we see them, we cherish them, and we won’t let these attacks go on without a fight,” said GLM co-founder Raquel Willis. “We also want all Americans to understand that Trump, RFK, and their HHS won’t stop at trying to block care for trans youth — they’re coming for trans adults, for those who need treatment from insulin to SSRIs, and all those already failed by a broken health insurance system.”
“It is shameful and intentional that this administration is pitting communities against one another by weaponizing Medicaid funding to strip care from trans youth. This has nothing to do with protecting health and everything to do with political distraction,” added GLM co-founder Eliel Cruz. “They are targeting young people to deflect from their failure to deliver for working families across the country. Instead of restricting care, we should be expanding it. Healthcare is a human right, and it must be accessible to every person — without cost or exception.”
Despite HHS’s efforts to restrict gender-affirming care for trans youth, major medical associations — including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Endocrine Society — continue to regard such care as evidence-based treatment. Gender-affirming care can include psychotherapy, social support, and, when clinically appropriate, puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
The protest comes amid broader shifts in access to care nationwide.
NYU Langone Health recently announced it will stop providing transition-related medical care to minors and will no longer accept new patients into its Transgender Youth Health Program following President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order targeting trans healthcare.
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