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5 in state’s attorney race in Pr. George’s
pr. george’s from B1
dates say the vote Tuesday ap- pears to be shaping up as a head- to-head contest between Also- brooks and Dernoga. Alsobrooks, who has amassed the most cam- paign funds with $141,910, has the backing of several key political players, and Dernoga, who has solid financial support with $122,605, has widespread name recognition. Candidates and ob-
servers also say that Der- noga could win by peel- ing off white, Latino and Asian voters, while the other candidates, who are black, could split the African American vote. All but Dernoga have worked in the state’s at- torney’s office and pros- ecuted criminal cases. Wright, 42, says he is the most experienced trial lawyer in the field and the only one who has won a conviction against a county police officer for misconduct. As co-counsel, Wright helped obtain an invol- untary manslaughter verdict in February 2008 against former county police officer and home- land security official Keith Washington for fa- tally shooting a deliv- eryman and wounding another. “Even a lot of people in our of-
fice felt he shouldn’t be pros- ecuted, because he’s a police offi- cer,” Wright said in an interview. “But right is right, and wrong is wrong.” As for criticism that his résumé as a manager is thin, Wright said that as assistant chief of the Dis- trict Court division, he supervises 15 lawyers and support staff. Yet his boss, Ivey, endorsed Alsobrooks.
Alsobrooks, 39, who emphasiz- es her administrative record, said that as head of the Revenue Au- thority she oversees an annual budget of $11 million, whose rev- enue comes from parking opera- tions and county rents. When she took office, the agency had $18 million in uncollected park- ing violations. She helped launch a collection program using a self- releasing boot that has reduced the backlog by about $3.8 million. Alsobrooks has also served as an assistant state’s attorney, and she has picked up several en- dorsements, including Ivey’s and that of the county’s police union, FOP Lodge 89. Magee, 59, a single mother and
20-year U.S. Air Force veteran, managed 320 personnel in a maintenance squadron as first sergeant. She said her chances should not be discounted, be- cause she won the clerk’s office in 2006 despite being viewed as an underdog.
At the courthouse, Magee said she sees an ineffective prosecu- tor’s office that files many more cases than it tries because pros- ecutors cannot make their cases. “A lot of them don’t know how to present evidence,” Magee said. Having managed 180 employ- ees and a budget of about $13 mil- lion, Magee said she would bring the same managerial discipline to the state’s attorney’s of- fice that she brought to clearing a backlog of land-record filings in the clerk’s office. Spencer, 51, served as
Mark Spencer Joseph Wright
deputy state’s attorney under former state’s at- torney Jack B. Johnson, who is now county exec- utive. As Johnson’s No. 2, Spencer oversaw other trial lawyers and pre- sented cases before grand juries and trial courts. Spencer lost to Ivey in the 2002 Demo- cratic primary. As police inspector
Peggy Magee
general since 2004, Spencer said he has helped to implement practices that have re- duced excessive-force complaints. Spencer also said that only Wright has comparable trial experi- ence, which is still less than his. “The three African American opponents
that I have have all worked under my supervision,” Spencer said. As for Dernoga, Spencer ex- pressed amazement that the council member was in the race. “I find it troubling, also incred- ible, that a man who has no trial experience, who is not a law en- forcement executive and has no law enforcement experience, would tell this community he is fully prepared to be the chief law enforcement officer and chief prosecutor of this community,” Spencer said of Dernoga. “This is no time for on-the-job training.” Dernoga, 51, whose legal exper- tise has involved mostly land-use and tax law, acknowledges that the other candidates have more prosecutorial experience. But Dernoga, who is leaving the coun- cil because of term limits, said he sees the post as the equivalent of managing partner of a law firm. “I can make a better difference as prosecutor because I have a better understanding of the big- picture needs of the county, and of the office,” Dernoga said. He said he would expand the number of assistant state’s attorneys by 35 percent, using an insider’s knowledge of budgeting to create slots without stressing taxpayers. “Crime is eating at the county,” Dernoga said. “We have a hard time attracting business.”
kunklef@washpost.com
Staff writer Ruben Castaneda contributed to this report.
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL S. WILLIAMSON/THE WASHINGTON POST Detective Benjamin Brown lifts the manhole cover under which he found important evidence in the slaying of Antoinette Chase. Detective cracked the murder case detective from B1 them. Brown and his partner, Billy
Watts, are known for being thor- ough and well organized, Wag- ner-Stewart said. “Brown had all these files on Chase. If I couldn’t find something, all I had to do was ask him,” the prosecutor said. Everything about Brown sug-
gests precision and organization. He is as lean as a Marine drill ser- geant. On a hot, windless day, his gray pinstripe suit and white dress shirt are creased and wrin- kle-free. Brown joined the police force 16 years ago and has been a homicide detective since 2004. In an interview, Brown, 42, said he was merely following his instincts when he went out to look for the missing BlackBerry. “It didn’t sit well with me,” Brown said. “I figured if I searched, maybe I’d find it.” Antoinette Chase was stran- gled on the morning of May 20, 2008. Spencer Chase wasn’t an immediate suspect, Brown said, but it wasn’t long before he was. Spencer Chase called 911 short-
ly after noon to report that he had come back from running er- rands to find Antoinette face down on the floor with an exten- sion cord around her neck. (Brown thinks the cord found on the victim was not the one used to kill her.)
When he listened to the 911 re-
cording, Brown said, Chase didn’t seem emotional. “A normal
More fliers stir up Pr. George’s
Fake ballots appear to tie candidates to people they aren’t endorsing
by Miranda S. Spivack
Less than a week before the crowded Democratic primary, fli- ers labeled “official Democratic” ballot hit more mailboxes in Prince George’s County. And many of them are anything but of- ficial.
Residents from Greenbelt to
Fort Washington reported receiv- ing fliers in the mail Thursday that appear to associate candi- dates in Tuesday’s election with people whom they are not endors- ing, despite a judge’s order Tues- day banning one set of fliers circu- lating in the southern part of the county and allowing sheriff’s dep- uties to confiscate them. David Lange of Greenbelt, a re- tired Defense Department em- ployee who has lived in Prince George’s for 40 years, said he was troubled by a flier he received in the mail this week. Sent by Progress 2010 — a slate
associated with the campaign of Sheriff Michael Jackson, who is running for county executive — the flier endorses Sen. Paul G. Pin- sky and Dels. Anne Healey, Ta- wanna P. Gaines and Justin D. Ross, as well as Jackson. But the four Democratic lawmakers are backing former delegate Rushern L. Baker III in the county exec- utive’s race, which their fliers show.
“I have never seen anything like
this before. It is really outrageous and so contrary to our democratic
principles,” Lange said. “If they are doing this now, what are the dirty tricks planned for Tuesday?” Sample ballots in General As- sembly District 26, which sur- faced last week during early vot- ing at Oxon Hill library and ap- peared to have been mailed to hundreds of likely Democratic voters, showed Sen. C. Anthony Muse on a ticket with County Council member Samuel H. Dean (Mitchellville), who is running for county executive. But Muse is backing Baker. Those fliers were produced by a group that was not registered with the state, provid- ing Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler legal grounds to seek their removal. Also running for county exec- utive are Del. Gerron S. Levi and businessman Henry C. Turner Jr.. Another sample Democratic
primary ballot, also labeled “offi- cial,” is being circulated by a group known as County 1 Now, which has helped fund the Baker campaign. That flier also shows support for Angela Alsobrooks for state’s attorney and state Sen. Ulysses Currie. But Currie is back- ing state’s attorney candidate Thomas E. Dernoga, as are four other state senators. Dernoga said fliers that include misleading information “should be pulled. I think all of these are inappropriate and invalid.” The sample ballots appearing in the northern part of the county, Greenbelt and University Park ap- pear to have been produced by or- ganizations that have registered with the state, which a Gansler spokeswoman said makes it legal- ly difficult — but not impossible — for Gansler to pursue them. Meanwhile, fliers being circu-
lated by Service Employees Inter- national Union’s 1199 health-care workers union have drawn the ire of several Prince George’s law- makers who said they are a dis- tasteful attack ad unseen before in the county. Speaking at a news conference
Tuesday, Del. Doyle L. Niemann said the fliers appeared to be “per- fectly legal, but they are wrong. . . . Everybody should be upset about this. “You do it to manipulate and fool people,” he said. He showed a check for $1,000 that he said he was returning to the union. Del. Aisha N. Braveboy also de- cried the fliers, saying the union was “waging an unprecedented war in Prince George’s” and at- tacking lawmakers who have gen- erally had a pro-labor record. “This is wrong and will not be tol- erated,” she said. The fliers from SEIU, which is backing Baker, claims improper spending by state Sen. David C. Harrington and refer to “Sheriff Michael Jackson’s Brutal Record.” Pat Lippold, local political di-
rector for the union, did not re- turn a call seeking comment. Baker, meanwhile, picked up endorsements Thursday from for- mer governor Parris N. Glenden- ing and Winfield Kelly, both for- mer Prince George’s executives. He is also endorsed by former county executive Wayne K. Curry. Glendening said he thought the
county “has stalled. It seems to have lost its sense of direction. Rushern has a vision of what it can be.” Jack B. Johnson, barred by term limits from seeking another term, has stayed on the sidelines.
spivackm@washpost.com
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
Brown displays items he discovered in a storm drain after he found the victim’s cellphone.
person would be upset,” Brown said. Chase initially said he had left the home to run errands about 9 a.m. Then he told police that he had left about 11 a.m., arousing further suspicion, Brown said. Meanwhile, Antoinette’s daugh- ter, Monique Davis, 27, told Brown that her mother had re-
cently told Spencer that they were splitting up.
Another thing that raised
Brown’s suspicion as weeks went on: Chase never called to ask how the investigation was going. Three months after Brown found the evidence, forensic tests found DNA from Antoinette and Spencer on the work gloves, and
PETULA DVORAK
Adults could learn much from Centreville High kids dvorak from B1
and South Korea, Pakistan, Albania, Afghanistan. Two Sikh boys with turbans,
huge backpacks, sagging board shorts and iPod earbuds hanging from their necks shoved each other as they got off a bus. The girl with a hijab and a leopard print bag plopped down at her desk, gabbing with her friends. She was excited about getting lots of money during her family’s Eid party this week. Oh, what will she buy? They seem relatively oblivious
to outward differences. Nine years ago, things weren’t so friendly in the lunchroom at many schools. Added to the geeks, the jocks and the skater cliques were “the terrorists.” “At first, right after the attacks,
I’d hear it in the hallways and stuff. Some of these kids, the Muslims, would get teased, called terrorists,” said Joseph Radun, who is teaching at Centreville but was working at Washington-Lee High School, near the Pentagon, on Sept. 11, 2001. The attacks were raw and horrible for his students back then. They huddled in horror as they watched the devastation unfold on television, many of them wondering if their parents were alive or dead inside the Pentagon. And the anger and fear were palpable, Radun told me. “I used to get that kind of stuff
a lot,” said Megan, 18, who left Afghanistan when she was 4 years old and is now a senior at Centreville High. “People would
call me a terrorist. But I’m, like, more American than I am a girl from Afghanistan. I mean, I’ve been in America way longer. “Whatever.” She rolls her eyes. For the most part, today’s teens seem to view Sept. 11 as gauzy history. In his class, Radun serves up a
rat-a-tat, in-your-face lesson about the attacks. It’s how he starts every school year. “You’ve gotta know what really happened. What it was like that day,” he told the students. “The radicals? If they could, every day would be like 9/11 in America.” He tried to use the day to
explain the civic values of courage, respect, perseverance, responsibility, justice, initiative, moderation and integrity. He explained that then-New
York Mayor Rudy Giuliani showed great leadership that day. “Is he the guy who stopped
that plane from going into the White House?” one of his students asked.
Radun showed the class “9/11,” the emotional documentary by French brothers Jules and Gedeon Naudet, who were with firefighters in the World Trade Center that day. In the classroom, the shuffling stopped, the scribbling ended. They were riveted. Afterward, one tear-streaked student said, “That was way worse than what I thought happened.” They talked about national
security and the Patriot Act. Not a single student condemned Islam. No one turned to look at Megan, in her hijab.
If kids can get it right, what happened to us?
America, as a whole, was at its best right after the attacks. Our nation didn’t repeat history’s atrocities with the callous internment of Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Then, and in the years come,
President George W. Bush tried to calm Americans and quell hatred. “I believe that the terrorists have hijacked a peaceful religion in order to justify their behavior,” he said. Undoubtedly, there were incidents of Muslims discriminated, mistreated and judged. But the general atmosphere, as America was still reeling from an attack, was kinder than what we have today. Fueled by the painful debate over a mosque and Islamic center planned for Manhattan near Ground Zero, a Washington Post-ABC poll conducted last week found the country’s mood toward Muslims increasingly hostile. The poll said that 49 percent of Americans view Islam unfavorably. “I don’t understand that. I
didn’t do that. My family didn’t do that. All the Muslims didn’t do those attacks,” Megan told me in the hallway after class, where the jocks, the geeks, the cheerleaders and the Muslims seem to get along fairly well. I think 49 percent of
Americans need to a lesson from the kids at Centreville High.
E-mail me at
dvorakp@washpost.com.
Chase was arrested. A first trial ended in a mistrial when the jury was unable to reach a verdict. In June, a second Circuit Court jury convicted Chase.
Brown lives in Southern Mary- land with his wife and three sons. The older sons are Boy Scouts. The youngest is a Cub Scout.
castanedar@washpost.com
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