B2 Thursday, July 16, 2009

The Region

FALLS CHURCH

Gunman Shoots Self After Police Standoff; Son, Woman Unhurt

By Tom Jackman and Emma Brown

Washington Post Staff Writers

A man who held Fairfax County police at bay for nearly 24 hours shot himself yesterday evening, and his 8- year-old son and a woman who were in the house with him were un- harmed. Two law enforcement sources said the gunman shot himself about 6:30 p.m. as police tried to enter the house with a remote-controlled ro- bot after communication with him had broken off. Police declined to identify the man, who was in critical condition last night at Inova Fairfax Hospital. The siege began after he shot a wom- an Tuesday evening in the Pimmit Hills area of Falls Church and then

walked into a nearby house. The woman, 36, was hospitalized in grave condition Tuesday night; po- lice declined to discuss her condition yesterday. They said she was the mother of the gunman’s 8-year-old son. Police did not identify the woman inside the house and declined to de- scribe her relationship with the gun- man. Police said the gunman and the

woman he shot had been arguing over their son when the shooting oc- curred.

The standoff unfolded near Fisher

Drive and Lisle Avenue, just east of Tysons Corner. Tactical teams, mo- torcycle officers, a command bus, de- tectives and negotiators descended on the neighborhood, staked out po- sitions and then sat and waited.

Police initially had trouble reach- ing the people inside the house in the 7600 block of Lisle Avenue. By yesterday morning, they had con- tacted the man and the woman in- side by phone, police sources in- dicated, but by mid-afternoon the conversations ended. Sheena Kelly, who lives two doors from the besieged house, said she was taking groceries into her house about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday when she heard “a pop. If I’d looked around, I probably would have seen him.” Instead, she went inside, and po- lice called 30 minutes later advising her to stay there. Kelly said she had family visiting from out of town and stayed home from work with them yesterday. Whenever someone’s head popped out for a look, SWAT officers

barked for onlookers to get back in- side. “We’re the hostages here,” Kelly said.

As the standoff dragged on through the clear, blazing afternoon, Deputy Chief Suzanne Devlin emerged from the police command bus. “I know it’s frustrating [to the neighbors]. It’s like we’re taking over their community,” Devlin said. Devlin said negotiating with someone in a standoff situation “takes hours and hours for a negotia- tor to develop a relationship. Thirty years ago, the police were storm troopers and we would have kicked the door down. We don’t do that any- more. And now people get frustrated when we don’t go in. We’re trying to strike a balance.” Family members of those inside the Lisle Avenue house huddled un-

der a canopy police built for them and sat waiting for news and smok- ing cigarettes. They declined to be interviewed.

Homicide detectives were among those waiting outside the house, with a search warrant in hand to look for evidence of the Tuesday shooting. According to an affidavit by Detective Mark P. Pfeiffer, a wit- ness called police and reported see- ing the shooting, in which a woman was shot in the upper body. The wit- ness then saw a man walk onto the property of the house that police soon surrounded.

Although reporters were kept a

block away from the house, small ro- bots — which police often use to de- liver cellphones, food, drink or mes- sages to people in standoff situations —could be seen in the street. Tacti-

cal officers hunched behind vehicles. But through the day there was very little movement and no traffic near the house.

The neighborhood was not evacu- ated. Residents were urged to stay inside, and movement to and from houses was tightly managed. George Chavis, who lives in the next block of Lisle Avenue, heard the gunshot Tuesday evening and thought it might be fireworks. He and Susan Chapins, a friend, then spent the night with another friend. They were allowed to return home yesterday to rescue their dog, Bosco, which had been home alone for 16 hours. They and other neighbors said the area was mostly crime-free.

Staff writer C. Woodrow Irvin contributed to this report.

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The Washington Post

ARLINGTON CIRCUIT COURT

Guilty Plea, No Jail Time In Erotic Services Killing

By Allison Klein

Washington Post Staff Writer

An Arlington County man who killed another man he met through an erotic encounter advertisement on Craigslist pleaded guilty yester- day to manslaughter, but he will not serve any jail time.

Under a plea agreement, Willie Donaldson, 35, was sentenced in Arlington Circuit Court to a three- year suspended sentence and three years’ probation.

Donaldson told police that he

was acting in self-defense when he shot and killed Matthew Hicks, 32, of Loudoun County on Dec. 8 in Donaldson’s home. “It was not easy for either side to agree to the compromise, but it was the best resolution,” said Don- aldson’s attorney, James G. Con- nell III.

BY FRANK AHRENS — THE WASHINGTON POST

Osama El-Atari, shown with a 2008 Lamborghini, owned four area steakhouses and was known for his fast-paced lifestyle, accruing many speeding tickets.

Creditors Seek Millions From Va. Businessman

EL-ATARI, From Page B1

ments that El-Atari used nonexist- ent life insurance policies to get mil- lions in loans. An insurance com- pany says the FBI is investigating at least one of those cases, involving Northern Trust Bank in Cleveland. Creditors are crying foul, asking that El-Atari cough up $41.6 million in unpaid loans. More banks are coming forward, too. “I’m just waiting to see what hap- pens,” said Kevin Korban, a Bentley dealer in Bethesda who says he lent El-Atari $230,000 in March for what he thought were real estate ventures. “I just hope all these bits and pieces about where he might be come together.”

The case has caught the attention of many residents in Loudoun, part- ly because of the staggering sum owed by El-Atari to his creditors and partly because of El-Atari’s flashy persona, which he routinely flaunted with his fleet of expensive sports cars. “He was far from normal. He was one of these larger-than-life charac- ters,” said Allie Ash, who met El- Atari through a Lamborghini deal- ership that Ash owned in Dulles. “He always talked a good game, but, then again, these guys always do.” El-Atari, 30, worked in the res- taurant business, owning four Orig-

inal Steakhouse & Sports Theatre locations in Maryland and Virginia. He bought the steakhouses in 2007 for $3.5 million. Creditors say much of his wealth was accumulat- ed through a series of bank loans, some totaling $12 million. He used some of the money to

make a series of campaign contribu- tions, including thousands to Lou- doun Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson since 2007. Simpson said that he met El-Atari during his reelection campaign last year and that the young businessman appeared “in- terested in what we wanted to do over the next four years.”

But Simpson said he has had lit- tle contact with El-Atari since and denied rumors that he helped the businessman avoid more problems with his spotty driving record. “It’s pretty obvious when you look at his record that no one was fixing his tickets,” he said. El-Atari has at least 11.

Things began to unravel for El- Atari in December, when Celebrity Ventures, the Florida company that owns the rights to the Original Steakhouse name, sued him in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale. The company alleged that El-Atari had failed to pay about $205,000 in royalty fees. The case was settled out of court. In May, United Bank pressed El-

Atari to repay about $13.8 million in loans, interest and lawyers’ fees. He promised to “come to the bank with payment, at least in part, with- in days,” according to documents filed in Loudoun Circuit Court. “He did not do so. The bank was told, one time, that he was in London.” Celebrity Ventures signed on to the bankruptcy court filing against El-Atari and is planning to termi- nate its franchise deals; El-Atari’s ex-business partner, former Wash- ington Redskins linebacker Marv- cus Patton, has taken ownership of the restaurants. He declined to comment on the case and the change in ownership. Fraud investigators with Allstate Insurance in Cleveland said the FBI field office there is investigating El- Atari, and creditors allege that El- Atari “committed various acts of fraud” with other lenders, including First Place Bank of Ohio and Clayton Bank of Tennessee. The FBI declined to comment. El-Atari was equally well known for his criminal and traffic court his- tory, with several convictions for reckless driving and driving with a suspended license in Arlington, Fairfax, Greene and Loudoun coun- ties, according to court records. El- Atari pleaded guilty two years ago to a more serious federal misde- meanor charge after a former coun-

terterrorism officer for the Defense Logistics Agency’s headquarters in Fort Belvoir supplied his part-time employer, El-Atari, with an official agency police badge “as a gift for fu- ture business opportunities.” El-Atari, who said he worked as a

volunteer interpreter for the agen- cy, later used the badge to apply for liquor licenses at two of his restau- rants. He paid a $500 fine. For all of the paperwork on El- Atari — his case file at the Loudoun Courthouse in Leesburg numbers several thousand pages — creditors and their attorneys have had little luck tracking him down. El-Atari’s $3.8 million Ashburn home sits empty, with a bankruptcy notice taped to the front door. The office listed on state forms for El- Atari’s company, El-Atari Holdings, is a post office box in a strip mall next to one of his old restaurants. The store manager said he hasn’t seen El-Atari in weeks. Employees at El-Atari’s Broad- lands steakhouse say they don’t know where he is. Bennett Law Of- fice, a group of Missoula, Mont., lawyers associated with a second firm in his name, Oeletari Invest- ments, declined to comment. The registered agent for that company, a fly-fishing charter company owner in Juneau, Alaska, said she had nev- er heard of El-Atari.

According to defense filings in court, Hicks and a woman posted a Craigslist advertisement for some- one to have sex with the woman while Hicks watched. Donaldson answered the ad, writing: “Would love to play! . . . I have a great private house, Jacuzzi, bar, etc. and I would love to host,”

according to a court document. The woman e-mailed back ask- ing for $500, and Donaldson re- plied that he had “like a hundred single bills” he would give to her during an erotic game. Hicks and the woman went to Donaldson’s home later that night, and before any sex acts occurred, she passed out in the hot tub, ac- cording to a defense filing. Hicks started to beat Donaldson, “break- ing his scapula and demanding money,” the document says. Hicks then threatened to kill Donaldson, which is when Don- aldson got his gun and shot Hicks, according to defense filings. At a previous court hearing, prosecutors played the 911 call Donaldson made after he shot Hicks. Donaldson said the person he killed with a 9mm handgun “at- tacked me and assaulted me and said he was going to kill me.” Donaldson was initially charged with second-degree murder, but an Arlington judge threw out the charge. A grand jury then indicted Donaldson on the same charge, but the count was reduced to man- slaughter yesterday when he plead- ed guilty.

Prosecutor Tells Horror Story;

Defense Says Jacks Not Guilty

JACKS, From Page B1

Nolan said the only evidence linking Jacks to the girls’ deaths was that she was at home when the mar- shals arrived. Nolan said that no wit- ness saw or overheard Jacks kill her children and that no scientific evi- dence linked her to their deaths. Judge Frederick H. Weisberg will decide the case because Jacks has waived her right to a jury trial. She is charged with 12 counts, including premeditated first-degree murder and cruelty to children. Because of the ages of the victims, Jacks, who rejected an insanity defense, faces life in prison without parole. The bodies were so badly de-

cayed, Sines said, that prosecutors had to consult with four medical ex- aminers, including one from the De- partment of Defense, FBI specialists and a forensic anthropologist to de- termine the causes of death. Even- tually, authorities declared that Brit- tany had suffered puncture wounds to her abdomen, Aja had been stran- gled and beaten, and the two other girls had been strangled.

Nolan disputed the prosecution’s assertions about the causes of death, saying the bodies were too badly decomposed to make a determina- tion of cause or time.

LOUDOUN COUNTY

Real Estate Agent Is Charged With Mortgage Fraud

By Kafia A. Hosh

Washington Post Staff Writer

An Ashburn real estate agent has been charged with several counts of mortgage fraud after helping more than 100 people buy houses they couldn’t afford and defrauding lend- ers of about $50 million, the Lou- doun County sheriff said yesterday. Diane H. Frederick Atari, 42, fixed her clients’ poor credit scores and inflated their incomes so they could qualify for mortgages they otherwise would not have gotten, county authorities said. The alleged fraud occurred between 2006 and last year. Many of the homes were bought in eastern Loudoun and in Fairfax County.

Authorities say they believe that Atari left the country last week for Jordan, where her ex-husband’s relatives live. The sheriff’s office has contacted Interpol to help them track her down.

Atari has been charged with 10 counts of false statements to obtain credit, and each count carries a max- imum 20-year prison sentence if she is convicted. She also has been charged with one count of money laundering and one count of racket- eering, which each carry sentences of up to 40 years in prison. Atari owns and operates ACR Consulting and Atari Management in Loudoun. Her scheme involved preying on “hard-working people” who had low-paying jobs and poor

credit, said Howard M. Mulholland, an investigator with the Virginia at- torney general’s office. Investigators said Atari falsified

employment documents to show that her clients had higher-paying jobs than they really had and in some cases deposited her money into their bank accounts to show higher balances.

She also is accused of boosting her clients’ credit scores so they could qualify for mortgages, sheriff’s officials said. Atari would advise credit card firms to add her clients as “authorized users” of cards that belonged to her associates who had excellent credit, authorities said. “She would advertise that if you had bad credit you could come to

her,” Mulholland said.

Many of her clients could not af- ford their monthly mortgage pay- ments, and their homes went into foreclosure. Investigators said they believe Atari made about $1 million from the mortgage scheme. That money came mostly from commissions on the sale of the homes. Authorities are investigating other people pos- sibly involved in the scheme. Diane Atari was married to Ali H. Atari, an Ashburn restaurateur who is believed to be a distant relative of Loudoun businessman Osama El- Atari. El-Atari is suspected of in- volvement in a fraud scheme, his creditors and a Loudoun County Circuit Court judge say.

During Sines’s opening state- ment, Jacks, 35, dressed in a navy- blue prison jumpsuit, often shook her head and pursed her lips. But she kept her eyes forward, away from Sines. As was the case at earlier hearings, Jacks was an active partici- pant in her defense. She wrote notes or used a yellow highlighter to com- municate with her attorneys, who sometimes whispered to ask wheth- er she had additional questions. Sines spent most of her opening describing the girls’ bodies and the home. All furniture, food and other household staples were gone, she said. In one bedroom, the bodies of the three youngest sisters, each dressed in a white T-shirt, were lined up in order of age. A “couple pairs of tiny flip-flops” were the only other things in the room, she said. Sines said medical examiners de- termined that Brittany was killed first. Brittany’s nude body was found in a pool of blood in another

bedroom. A T-shirt had been placed over it. Sines said the decomposed body was “melting into the floor.” Sines said it appeared that Britta- ny had been held hostage in the room because the door was locked from outside with a key that Jacks kept on top of the door frame. A bed- sheet covered a bedroom window that overlooked an alley. Feces and urine were found in the closet. “She wouldn’t even allow her own teenager out to use a bathroom,” Sines said of Jacks.

The prosecutor said she plans to call as witnesses relatives, friends, the children’s godparents, social workers and neighbors who will tes- tify that Jacks verbally abused Brit- tany or that she withheld food from the children as punishment. Sines said one of Jacks’s friends even drafted a custody agreement, hop- ing to take Brittany out of Jacks’s home.

Authorities say they think Jacks began isolating her children from friends and family as early as April 2007, when she had Brittany’s cell- phone disconnected. “By April 3, no one talked to Brittany again,” Sines said. Then, through the summer, neighbors saw three, then two, then one child outside with Jacks. Before the trial began, Weisberg spent three days watching eight hours of videotape of Jacks being in- terrogated by D.C. detectives. Dur- ing the interviews, Jacks spoke of her children as “having demons” and referred to herself as Mary Mag- dalene and to her dead boyfriend as Jesus Christ. Weisberg ruled that the videos could be used in the trial. The first witness was Deputy U.S. Marshal Nicholas Garrett, who was assigned to carry out the Jan. 9 evic- tion. Garrett said Jacks answered the door wearing only a white T- shirt and a white head covering. She spat on the ground and wouldn’t let him and the other marshals in, he said. After the marshals pushed the door open, Garrett said, he had to cover his face because of the stench. “It smelled like rotting meat, like stink bait,” he said. “I just thought it was rotten or spoiled food.” After finding the bodies, the marshals or- dered Jacks out of the house and handcuffed her. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66