A former D.C. prosecutor accused of ethics violations for authorizing payments to informants in a series of murder cases in the mid 1990’s may be disbarred for his conduct.
According to a report by USA Today, regulators have asked the D.C. Court of Appeals to take away former assistant U.S. attorney G. Paul Howes’ law license. If the Court does so, it will be the first time a prosecutor will have been disbarred in more than a decade, USA Today reports.
Tuesday’s hearing came 15 years after Howes was first accused of misusing thousands of dollars of witness vouchers in high-profile homicide cases here. The vouchers are supposed to be used to reimburse witnesses for costs associated with testifying in court, but Howes authorized payments to relatives and girlfriends of informants, an internal Justice Department investigation found. The informants helped him in an investigation of a gang implicated in a series of murders in a neighborhood 3 miles from the White House.
Ronald Pickett was ordered held this afternoon on suspicion of second-degree murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend, Vanessa McGee, at their home in Southeast D.C. early Saturday morning.
Pickett appeared in court wearing jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt. A preliminary hearing in the case was scheduled for March 17 at 9:30 a.m. in Judge Gerald Fisher’s courtroom.
According to charging documents in the case, a witness heard Pickett and McGee return home having an argument before the witness heard what sounded like a gunshot or a firecracker. Pickett then came to the witness and told it that he “had just accidentally shot” McGee.
In an interview with police Pickett offered that McGee “knocked on the door of their residence… [and] stated words to the effect of: ‘Call the ambulance, I’ve been shot!’” He also told police that McGee had ordered him to leave the home and as he was packing his belongings she pushed him as he was holding a gun, causing him to fire the weapon.
Charging documents follow after the jump. Read more
Ronald Pickett, arrested Saturday in the fatal shooting of 36-year-old Vanessa McGee, is expected in court this afternoon on a charge of second degree murder. His case is expected to be heard in courtroom 201 sometime after 1 p.m.
Violence in D.C. left three people dead this weekend, bringing the annual homicide count to 18. As Emily Babay at the Washington Examiner reports, that’s nearly 30 percent over the death toll at this time last year.
Three people were slain in D.C. late Friday and early Saturday, pushing the District’s homicide total up nearly 30 percent over this time last year. All of the homicides in the unusually violent night took place in Southeast Washington, east of the Anacostia River, but there are no indications that they are related, said Officer Istmania Bonilla, a D.C. police spokeswoman. Read more
Two women killed in separate slayings in Southeast D.C. this weekend may have known their attackers, according to the Washington Post.
In the first incident, emergency responders found 36-year-old Selina Knight dead and with multiple stab wounds inside a home in the 3000 block of Nelson Place SE just after 11:50 p.m. Friday. No arrests have been made in the case, but MPD Lt. Robert Alder told the Post Knight and her attacker “may have known each other.” Read more
UPDATED: Twenty-year-old Henry Kelly of Southeast D.C. was the man killed near Buena Vista Terrace early Saturday morning, according to a Washington Post report.
The Post also is reporting that Kelly was shot, not stabbed as initially reported.
Police say a man died in a stabbing shooting in the 3100 Block of Buena Vista Terrace SE around 3:28 a.m., WUSA reports.
This death, according to the report, appears unrelated to the two women killed earlier Friday night.
Buena Vista Terrace SE is in Ward 8 and and MPD’s Seventh District.
We will update this post as more information becomes available.
UPDATE: Ronald G. Pickett, a 26 year old Southeast D.C. man was arrested today on suspicion of shooting and killing 36-year-old Vanessa McGee of Southeast, D.C. early Saturday morning, MPD authorities say.
McGee was found injured inside a home in the 4700 block of B Street SE at about 3:25 Saturday morning. Pickett was arrested eight hours later on suspicion of second-degree murder. Read more
UPDATE: Metropolitan Police have identified the woman killed on Nelson Place Friday night as 36-year-old Selina J. Knight of Southeast, D.C. Knight was fatally stabbed, not shot, as initial reports indicated, police said. Read more
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