Virginia
Charges dropped against soldiers arrested for stealing Pride flags from lesbian couple’s house
Arlington prosecutors say suspects successfully completed ‘restorative justice’ program
The Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Arlington County, which prosecutes crimes, confirmed last week that charges were dropped against two U.S. Army soldiers arrested in February 2024 for allegedly stealing Pride flags from the home of a lesbian couple on five separate days between September 2023 and January 2024.
According to Arlington Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghni-Tafti, the charges against the two men — Specialist Matthew Henshaw, 21, and Private First Class Joseph DiGregorio, 23, — were dismissed after they successfully completed a recently initiated program called the Heart of Safety Restorative Justice Conferencing Program.
Under the program, the two men attended counseling sessions with facilitators associated with the program over a period of six months before meeting with the two women whose Pride flags they allegedly stole — Michelle Logan and Jenna Burnett.
In statements released to the news media, Logan and Burnett said the two soldiers appeared to have expressed remorse for their actions of repeatedly pulling down and stealing the couple’s Pride flags. Following their face-to-face conversations with Henshaw and Gregorio, the two women said the men also appear to have gained an understanding of the issues and concerns of the LGBTQ community and the need for ending anti-LGBTQ bias and discrimination.
“We believed they could potentially be amenable to change and also felt that simply putting charges on their records didn’t necessarily feel like enough,” Logan told the online news publication ARL Now. “We wanted them to try to educate themselves and understand why stealing a Pride flag isn’t just a felony but a hate crime against two people who had to live through it,” she told ARL Now.
At the time of their arrest, Henshaw and Digregorio were members of the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Regiment, also known as the Old Guard, an elite ceremonial unit that participates in burials at Arlington National Cemetery.
Dehghni-Tafti told media outlets, including the Washington Blade, that the objective of the restorative justice conferencing program is to provide an alternative to incarceration for people charged with a crime if they voluntarily participate in the program and if the victim of the crime also agrees to participate in the program.
“It really requires people to think about what they did to the victim and explain to the victim, face to face often, why they did it and make a promise to the victim that they are going to be different and not do it again,” Dehghni-Tafti told the Blade.
According to Dehghni-Tafti, admission into the program also requires a person charged with a crime to admit to having committed the crime.
She said the program has a preference, but not a requirement, that people charged with a crime who are accepted into the program are between the age of 16 and 26. She said people charged with certain violent crimes, such as intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and murder are not eligible for admission to the program.
Also, at the time of their arrest, Arlington police said the two soldiers were stationed at the Army’s Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington. One of the base’s entrances is located about two blocks from the 200 block of South Courthouse Road, where police said the two women’s house is located and where their Pride flags had been displayed.
According to court records, Henshaw, who was 20 at the time of his arrest, was charged with three counts of Unlawful Entry — Bias Motivated — and three counts of Petit Larceny for the flag thefts that police said occurred Sept. 16, Sept. 30, and Jan. 27. The records show that DiGregorio was charged with one count of Petit Larceny for the flag theft that occurred Jan. 21.
Police have said a view of the perpetrator of the flag theft on Sept. 16 was captured on a doorbell camera on the women’s house. The couple also went public with their plight on social media, which raised public awareness of the flag thefts and generated tips that helped police identify the two soldieries, who were arrested on Feb. 2.
The records show the single charge against DiGregorio was dropped on Sept. 9 and each of the charges against Henshaw were dismissed on Dec. 23.
In a show of support and solidarity for Logan and Burnett, who are out as a lesbian couple, at least a half dozen or more residents of nearby houses displayed Pride flags on their homes after learning that the couple’s flags had been repeatedly stolen.
Virginia
Mark Levine loses race to succeed Adam Ebbin in ‘firehouse’ Democratic primary
State Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker won with 70.6 percent of vote
Gay former Virginia House of Delegates member Mark Levine (D-Alexandria) lost his race to become the Democratic nominee to replace gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) in a Jan. 13 “firehouse” Democratic primary.
Levine finished in second place in the hastily called primary, receiving 807 votes or 17.4 percent. The winner in the four-candidate race, state Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, who was endorsed by both Ebbin and Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger received 3,281 votes or 70.6 percent.
Ebbin, whose 39th Senate District includes Alexandria and parts of Arlington and Fairfax Counties, announced on Jan. 7 that he was resigning effective Feb. 18, to take a job in the Spanberger administration as senior advisor at the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority.
Results of the Jan. 13 primary, which was called by Democratic Party leaders in Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax, show that candidates Charles Sumpter, a World Wildlife Fund director, finished in third place with 321 voters or 6.9 percent; and Amy Jackson, the former Alexandria vice mayor, finished in fourth place with 238 votes or 5.1 percent.
Bennett-Parker, who LGBTQ community advocates consider a committed LGBTQ ally, will now compete as the Democratic nominee in a Feb. 10 special election in which registered voters in the 39th District of all political parties and independents will select Ebbin’s replacement in the state senate.
The Alexandria publication ALX Now reports that local realtor Julie Robben Linebery has been selected by the Alexandria Republican City Committee to be the GOP candidate to compete in the Jan. 10 special election. According to ALX Now, Lineberry was the only application to run in a now cancelled special party caucus type event initially called to select the GOP nominees.
It couldn’t immediately be determined if an independent or other party candidate planned to run in the special election.
Bennett-Parker is considered the strong favorite to win the Feb. 10 special election in the heavily Democratic 39th District, where Democrat Ebbin has served as senator since 2012.
Virginia
Woman arrested for anti-gay assault at Alexandria supermarket
Victim recorded video of Christmas Day attack
Alexandria police announced on Jan. 12 that a Maryland woman has been arrested for allegedly assaulting a man while shouting anti-gay slurs at him at a Giant supermarket in Alexandria on Christmas Day.
The arrest came after a video of the assault that the victim captured with his phone and on which the woman can be heard shouting anti-gay slurs went viral on social media.
Police identified the woman as Shibritney Colbert, 34, of Landover, Md. Alexandria Police Chief Tarrick McGuire stated at a news conference that police responded to a 911 call placed by the victim and attempted to apprehend the woman, but she drove off in her car before police could apprehend her.
He said following an investigation, Colbert was apprehended and arrested in Prince Goerge’s County, Md., on Jan. 8. He said arrangements were being made for her to be brought to Alexandria where she was expected to face charges of assault and battery, destruction of property, felony eluding, and driving an unregistered vehicle.
The video of the incident shows Colbert pushing a shopping cart she was using in an aisle at the Giant store, located at 3131 Duke St., into the victim and another woman who was trying to help the victim. She can be seen throwing groceries at the victim while shouting anti-gay names. “Boy, get out of here with your gay ass,” was among the words she yelled at him that could be heard on the video.
The victim, who police identified only as a 24-year-old man, could be heard on the video saying he does not know the woman and urging her to “please back up.”
“Based on the victim’s statement, comments exchanged prior to the assault, and the totality of the circumstances, investigators believe the victim was targeted because of his sexual orientation,” police said in a statement.
Tarrick said Colbert’s arrest came at a time when Alexandria police were completing a strengthened hate crime policy calling for detectives to investigate crimes based on hate and for the department to prepare reports on hate crimes twice a year.
“Hate crimes are not just crimes against individuals, they are offenses that threaten the entire community and undermine the fundamental principles of dignity, equality, and safety,” Tarrick said.
Alexandria police didn’t immediately respond to a request from the Washington Blade for a copy of the official police report on the incident.
A link to the video posted on the social media site Reddit in which an unidentified man provides some details of the attack, can be accessed here:
Virginia
Mark Levine running in ‘firehouse’ Democratic primary to succeed Adam Ebbin
Outgoing gay Va. state senator has endorsed Elizabeth Bennett-Parker
Gay former Virginia House of Delegates member Mark Levine (D-Alexandria) is one of four candidates running in a hastily called “firehouse” Democratic primary to be held Tuesday, Jan. 13, to select a Democratic nominee to replace gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria)
Ebbin, whose 39th Senate District includes Alexandria and parts of Arlington and Fairfax Counties, announced on Jan. 7 that he was resigning effective Feb. 18, to take a job in the administration of Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger.
The Jan. 13 primary called by Democratic Party leaders in Alexandria and Arlington will take place less than a week after Ebbin announced his planned resignation.
According to the Community News of Alexandria publication, a public debate between the four candidates was scheduled to take place one day earlier on Monday, Jan. 12, from 7-9 p.m. at the Charles Houston Recreation Center in Alexandria.
The winner of the so-called firehouse primary will compete in a Feb. 10 special election in which registered voters in the 39th District of all political parties and independents will select Ebbin’s replacement in the state Senate.
The other candidates competing in the primary on Tuesday, in addition to Levine, include state Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, former Alexandria Vice Mayor Amy Jackson, and World Wildlife Fund executive Charles Sumpter.
Another Alexandria news publication, ALXnow, reports that Ebbin, Spanberger, and at least four other prominent Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly have endorsed Bennett-Parker, leading political observers to view her as the leading contender in the race.
“I have worked alongside Elizabeth and have seen her fight for the values of our community,” Ebbin said in a statement, ALXnow reports.
Arlington gay Democratic activist TJ Flavall said Parker-Bennett has attended LGBTQ community events and is known as an LGBTQ ally.
Ebbin’s endorsement of Bennett-Parker over fellow gay politician Levine in the Jan. 13 firehouse primary follows what observers have said is a longstanding rivalry between the two over disagreements around legislative issues.
In 2021, Ebbin endorsed Parker-Bennett when she challenged Levine in the Democratic primary for his House of Delegates seat in the then 45th House District in Alexandria.
Parker-Bennett defeated Levine in that race at a time when Levine, in an unusual move, also ran for the position of lieutenant governor. He also lost that race.
ALXnow reports that in his Facebook announcement of his candidacy for Ebbin’s state Senate seat Levine discounted the relevance of the large number of prominent endorsements that Parker-Bennet has received. In campaigns that last for just a few days rather than weeks or months, “it’s about turnout,” ALX now quoted him as saying.
Levine, an attorney, has a longstanding record as an LGBTQ rights advocate. He worked as a legislative counsel to gay former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) before becoming a radio talk show host and TV political commentator in Virginia prior to his election to the Virginia House of Delegates.
The firehouse primary on Jan. 13, which is open only to voters with identification showing they live in the 39th District, will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. in these locations:
Alexandria: Charles E. Beatley, Jr. Public Library, 5005 Duke St.; and the Charles Houston Recreation Center, 901 Wythe St.
Arlington: Aurora Hills Library, 735 18th St. S.
Annandale: New John Calvin Presbyterian Church, 6531 Columbia Pike
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