On day one, President Donald Trump’s administration may issue immediate clemency to Washington, D. C., Police Officers Terence Sutton and Andrew Zabavsky.
Due to a gang member’s death while attempting to flee police, Sutton, a black 13-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department ( MPD), was given a five-year sentence. Zabavsky was convicted of crime to hinder and obstruction of justice, receiving a four-year statement.
A pardon may convey that the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office is changing and that the incoming Trump presidency is supporting the blue. MPD officials will concentrate on preventing violent crooks without being alarmed by the possibility that some liberal prosecutor will perceive them as the defendant.
Joe Biden’s Justice Department presided over D. C.’s deadliest time in more than two years. According to murder information, 274 people were murdered in our government’s money, many of whom were innocent children. Compared to another big cities, D. C. had the fifth-highest death rate. Armed carjackings, one of the most violent acts imaginable, almost doubled from the previous month. In the face of a skyrocketing outbreaks of violent crime, the city that fiercely fought defunding the policeman was forced to peacefully pass emergency pro-law police legislation.
What has America’s largest U. S. prosecutor’s office done to answer to this harsh pandemic?
Short answer: certainly many.
In Sutton’s situation, after a nine-week jury trial in D. C. in December 2022, the U. S. defendant’s company made the unfathomable decision to prosecute Sutton for second-degree death. It recommended an 18-year jail word.
Sutton’s Event
On October 23, 2020, Sutton (” the defendant”, according to the DOJ) was on routine patrol on Kennedy Street, N. W. That night, a female MPD official informed Sutton that she observed Karon Hylton-Brown (” the victim”, according to the DOJ) in an altercation earlier that day and was concerned Hylton-Brown would return with a gun to finish the fight.
Times later, Sutton and three additional MPD members attempted to speak with Hylton-Brown to make sure he did not own a firearm after they learned he was riding an electric scooter. Instead of stopping, Hamilton-Brown drove through a red light, forcing the approaching car to stop in order to avoid hitting him. For the next three days, legislation enforcement pursued Hylton-Brown. During that time, he blew past prevent symptoms, drove the wrong way on one-way streets, and devoted other traffic infractions. Another official observed Hylton-Brown “blading” his figure, a technique in which crooks turn their brain to conceal their weapon. Finally, Hylton-Brown failed to produce the right of way and was killed by an oncoming car.
Sutton always made actual contact with Hylton-Brown. Also, Hylton-Brown fled officers, committed many visitors transgressions, appeared to be holding a rifle, and may have been intoxicated. But the D. C. U. S. Attorney’s Office charged Sutton with second-degree death.
The assistant U. S. lawyers prosecuting the case, Risa Berkower and Ahmed Muktadir Baset  , — who referred to alleged gang member Hylton-Brown as” no very dangerous” — wildly accused Sutton of killing Hylton-Brown “in cold body”. Berkower was a member of the Fraud, Public Corruption, and Civil Rights group in the D. C. U. S. Attorney’s Office. The section’s purported mission is to prosecute fraud and corruption. In reality, it serves to satisfy the whims of the political left. To combat violent crime, it should be reassigned.
Double Standard
This attorney’s office used thousands of taxpayer dollars to prosecute two of President Trump’s closest allies, Steven Bannon and Peter Navarro, and request that both defendants receive six months of federal incarceration. The same group that sent four prosecutors, including Berkower, the prosecutor from the Sutton case, to Jack Smith’s failed special counsel team. This “elite” group of prosecutors has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars.
Even after securing a quick conviction of Sutton, the DOJ was not satisfied. The same Jack Smith acolyte demanded that Sutton spend 18 years in prison, which is a sentence that convicted murderers typically receive in D.C. courts. Ultimately, even leftist D. C. Judge Paul Friedman found the recommendation too much, deciding on five years of incarceration for Sutton, a sentence he’s currently serving.
While the DOJ watched D. C. burn to the ground, years and years of taxpayer money helped fund the prosecution of a police officer.
Who Is Harmed?
The city is owed better. Our nation’s capital is rife with gangs, carjackings, and shootings. Due to the criminal justice system’s high volume, trials for murders and rapes are frequently delayed for years, delaying justice for victims and their families while significantly lowering the likelihood of conviction.
Corrupt prosecutors prefer to grab the low-hanging fruit of prosecuting cops for an all-too-happy leftist audience rather than concentrate on violent crimes.
After all, who benefits from the conviction of Sutton? not the residents of Kennedy Street. These residents are subject to uncountable violence and crime every day, with the majority of them black. This appalling prosecution encourages law enforcement to turn the other way and not pursue criminals who are known to be armed and dangerous. Only publicity-seeking prosecutors, who are interested in achieving fame for their progressive prosecutorial roles, reap the rewards. The residents of Washington suffer as a result.  ,
The current state of the D.C. community is aptly summarized in a letter sent in support of Sutton at his sentencing. The drug dealers, violent offenders, and other nefarious characters feel emboldened to operate with impunity. Every day is a zero-consequence holiday for them. For the community they feed off of and terrorize, it’s another day of fear and pain”.
Change is coming. Beginning on January 20, 2025, the four-year, zero-consequences nightmare is over. On alert should be the political enablers behind violent crime terrorists.
The Article III Project was founded and led by Mike Davis.
