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THE DISTRICT

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THE REGION

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2011

Ex-officer gets 15 years in robbery plot

Served as lookout during incident that killed co-conspirator
BY

K EITH L . A LEXANDER

A former D.C. police officer was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday in connection with the 2009 attempted robbery of an alleged drug dealer, which resulted in the fatal shooting of one of the co-conspirators during the botched crime. D.C. Superior Court Judge Michael L. Rankin told Reginald Jones, 42, that he betrayed his uniform when he served as a lookout in his police cruiser so that five other men could commit a robbery. Jones was on duty when the crime occurred on Dec. 1, 2009, at Fourth Street and Livingston Terrace SE. At one point, Tyrone Herring, whom authorities identified as a drug dealer, tried to fight off his assailants while his girlfriend ran to Joness squad car for help. Jones sped off. During a struggle during the robbery attempt, Arvel S. Alston, 40, was accidentally shot by his son, Arvel Crawford, 20, who was also part of the scheme. A police officer betrayed the public trust, tarnished the shield that every one of us looks to for safety and justice, Rankin said, at times pointing his finger at Jones. Jones, whose arms and ankles were shackled, wiped away tears during the sentencing. He had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit robbery. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Giovannelli read from the D.C. polices Oath of Honor in asking

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenn Kirschner points at Reginald Jones, right, in court. With them is a co-defendant, Arvel Crawford, who accidentally shot and killed his father during the attempted robbery.

A police officer tarnished the shield that every one of us looks to for safety and justice.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Michael L. Rankin

for a 20-year sentence. On my honor, I will never betray my badge, my integrity, my character or the public trust, Giovannelli read. Jones, he said, betrayed that trust. Joness attorney, Brian K. McDaniel, asked Rankin to sentence his client to 12 years or less and had initially asked for a three-year sentence. Law enforcement officers, like any individuals, make

mistakes, and this was a big one. He admits that, McDaniel said. Before Jones was sentenced, he apologized to the family of the victim, his own family and the citizens of the District and asked Rankin for a second chance. He was on the force for about six years and assigned to the 4th Police Districts gun-recovery unit. Jones was the last of the five men sentenced in the case. Roshun M. Parker, 29, was sentenced to three years in prison; Crawford was sentenced to 18 years; and Jarvis Clark, 20, was placed on supervised probation. Raylen D. Wilkerson, 34, the only defendant who did not plead guilty, was sentenced to 21 years after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, obstruction and related charges. Prosecutors said the men, along with Alston, devised a plan in Wilkersons Temple Hills auto

accessory shop to rob and kidnap Herring. Herring suffered minor injuries in the robbery attempt. Prosecutors say Jones, who grew up with Wilkerson, was brought in to serve as a lookout. His job was to sit in his patrol car and scare away witnesses. Jones was terminated from the force after his arrest. In a statement after Fridays hearing, D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said his sentencing reinforces to the community that people who commit crimes in this city will be treated equally. Weeks before his sentencing, Jones spoke to a Washington Post reporter from the D.C. jail. Jones, who grew up in Hyattsville, said he always wanted to be a police officer. It was in his family: Three uncles and three cousins were officers. He was sworn in on Jan. 25, 2004, and he had ambitions of becoming chief of police. It was a good feeling, being an officer, he said. But around November 2009, Jones said Wilkerson approached him about getting some money from a drug dealer. Wilkerson, Jones said, owed him $8,000, and Wilkerson told him it was the way to get the money back. I was reluctant. I didnt want to get involved in anything like this, Jones said. Court records show that Jones was having financial problems and that his four-bedroom home in Upper Marlboro was in foreclosure. Jones, who said he earned about $90,000 a year with overtime pay, said he planned to use the money to help him buy a six-bedroom home. Im not a dirty cop. I did a lot of positive things, Jones said. But theres a lot of pressure on police. We dont make a lot of money.
alexanderk@washpost.com

Metro riders could see drop in pretax benefits

BY

D ANA H EDGPETH

THE DISTRICT

Metro riders will soon see a change in how their SmarTrip accounts store value and might face a reduction in their pretax transit benefits if Congress doesnt take action. Commuters now can set aside as much as $230 a month in pre-tax income for use in transit, but that limit is set to fall to $125 a month at the end of the year. Parking benefits would rise from $230 a month to $240 a month. Last year, Congress approved a last-minute fix that kept the $230-a-month transit commuter benefit in place through 2011. The transit allowance was originally increased from $120 a month as part of the federal stimulus plan. Metro and transit advocacy groups have said the pre-tax benefits keep more riders on buses and trains and out of cars. At the end of this year, federal tax policy will provide more benefits for somebody who wants to drive in versus somebody who wants to take public transportation, said Brian Tynan, director of government relations for the American Public Transportation Association. This is an incentive for people to take public transportation, he said. Theyve shown that when this benefit is available, [people] choose to take public transportation more often. Metro said about 256,000 area employees are registered for its SmartBenefits program. Of that, about 86,000 are in the private sector and 170,000 are federal workers. The transit authority is working to advocate for an extension on behalf of thousands of our customers who would be adversely impacted if the transit benefit

is not extended, said Dan Stessel, Metros chief spokesman. Metro also has to make changes to comply with rules from the Internal Revenue Service that require it to separate parking and transit funds in SmartBenefits accounts. The program requires commuters who receive both parking and transit benefits to decide how much pretax income they want to set aside monthly for each type. It is like having two separate buckets of value on your SmarTrip card, Stessel said. The IRS decided in 2006 that commuter benefit accounts should be kept separate. The rule was supposed to take effect in 2008, but the IRS granted transit agencies, which have not been able to update their systems, until Jan. 1, 2012, to comply. Under the new system, employers or third-party providers that sometimes manage the commuter benefits can decide if any unused amounts will carry over to the next month or whether riders could lose the funds. The changes will take place over the coming months and riders will receive e-mail notifications of when their companies will do the update, Metro said. Riders need to tap their SmarTrip cards to a fare machine, fare box, fare gate or parking garage exit for an automatic update that will reflect the separation of parking and transit funds. Riders then do not have to load benefits at SmarTrip machines. Instead, they can tap their cards at the fare box on buses, fare gates at rail stations, or at parking lot exits and the payment will automatically be processed from the correct account.
hedgpethd@washpost.com

Two arrests announced amid rash of D.C. killings A plush view of bus transit
AND BY J IMM P HILLIPS T HEOLA L ABB- D E B OSE

D.C. police announced arrests Friday in two recent homicides, including a killing late Thursday in the Barry Farm area that was the seventh homicide in the city in a week. In Thursdays slaying, Jodie Ward, 30, was found fatally stabbed in the 1100 block of Eaton Road SE, police said. They said Ward had no fixed address. Felicia Dianne Jones, 30, of Southeast was arrested Thursday night and charged with second-degree murder while armed, police said. In a second homicide arrest reported Friday, police said a suspect had been taken into custody in connection with the fatal shoot-

ing of Davon Paul Gray last Saturday in Anacostia. Police said members of a regional fugitive task force arrested Antonio Jones of Boyds on Friday morning. Jones, 19, was charged in a warrant with second-degree murder while armed. D.C. police found Gray, 21, in the 2500 block of High Street SE, about 11 p.m. last Saturday. His death was the first of the seven homicides in a week. In the next reported homicide, according to police, Jawan Parker, 31, of Northeast was stabbed in the 1900 block of I Street NE about 8:20 p.m. Sunday. Police said they were looking for a female suspect, but no name was given. Antonio Headspeth, 25, was fatally shot about 1:30 a.m. Monday

in the 1100 block of Stevens Road SE. Headspeths sister, Kathleen McCoy, pleaded via the Homicide Watch D.C. blog for the killer to come forward. Eric Kearney, 22, died after being shot in Truxton Park about 8:20 p.m. Monday. He was found in 1600 block of Lincoln Road NE with gunshot wounds. Mohammed Abduselam, 37, was shot to death about the same time Monday night outside the gas station and convenience store where he worked in the 2900 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE. Two men had just entered the store, and Abduselam stepped out to call 911 when he saw that one of them was carrying a gun. Demetrius Emmanuel Thomp-

son, 22, died early Thursday after being fatally shot on a Metrobus heading east on Alabama Avenue SE. Police found Thompson very early Thursday, just after midnight, in the 2100 block of Alabama Avenue SE. Police said they were searching for two persons of interest who they said were shown on surveillance video boarding the bus. As of 6 p.m. Friday, 93 homicides had been reported in the District since the beginning of the calendar year, according to police statistics. The city had 106 homicides at that point last year.
phillipsj@washpost.com labbet@washpost.com Staff writer Mary Pat Flaherty contributed to this report.

brt from B1 planners have proposed building a network of high-occupancy toll lanes along local highways and major arterial roads that buses and toll-paying vehicles would use. Toll revenue would pay for construction and subsidize the express bus service, said Ronald F. Kirby, transportation planning director for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The driver here, really, is what can we do in the next 20 years that would make a significant impact? Kirby said. These are things that are doable not easy, but doable. If Montgomery officials find the money for their own local network and thats a big if in todays tight economic climate they say all 150 miles of busway could be operating within a decade. One preliminary study predicted that the network would cost $2.5 billion in todays dollars to build, excluding land acquisition. Although that price would make it one of the more costly transportation projects in the Washington region, supporters say, the money would spread further. Its estimated per-mile cost of $16.6 million would pale in comparison to about $120 million per mile to build light rail and $230 million to $270 million per mile to extend Metrorail. The idea is gaining traction among key political players who are frequently at odds on transportation solutions. They include planners seeking to accommodate population growth, local officials hoping to lure new jobs, environmentalists trying to reduce carbon emissions, civic groups wanting traffic relief, businesses trying to improve workers commutes and developers who want to get building plans approved. Montgomery officials say they also fear the county will lose jobs and investment to Northern Virginia, where a Metrorail extension is under construction, the Capital Beltway is getting 14 miles of new high-occupancy toll lanes and Tysons Corner is being redeveloped into a more walkable, transit-oriented community. Supporters say Montgomery could form a Science & Health Triangle with BRT connecting major employers, such as the National Institutes of Health and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, the emerging science city in Gaithersburg and the Food and Drug Administration complex in the White Oak area of Silver Spring. Developers in North Bethesdas White Flint area say BRT would attract businesses and residents to clusters of high-rises being planned. People in high-rise buildings expect to drive less, and they need accessibility, said Evan Goldman,

MARYLAND

Man killed after deputy responds to domestic violence report

BY

M AGGIE F AZELI F ARD

A St. Marys County man suspected of domestic assault was killed by a sheriff s deputy Thursday after a violent struggle, officials reported. Kotrell Omar Newsome, 38, of Spinnaker Circle in Lexington

Park was shot by Deputy Robert Gill shortly after 3:19 p.m., according to authorities. Deputies received a report of a domestic assault, authorities said. Gill went to the townhouse and determined that Newsome had assaulted his wife, according to authorities.

They said Newsome became aggressive towards the officer and his own family. Gill attempted to arrest Newsome, according to authorities, but he resisted. A Taser did not subdue Newsome, authorities said, and after a struggle, Gill drew his gun and

shot Newsome. Newsome died at the scene, investigators said. Gill, a six-year veteran of the sheriffs office, has been placed on routine administrative leave. The alleged domestic assault and the shooting are both under investigation, according to authorities.
fazelifardm@washpost.com

Task force works to curtail financial crimes in Virginia

fraud from B1 focused on financial crimes. He and other prosecutors said it has already produced results. Last month, for instance, a 46-year-old Michigan man admitted in Alexandrias federal court to stealing $40 million from 750 members of his investment club. Federal prosecutors say the recently concluded investigation into the life insurance scam provides a blueprint for other task force cases. settlement money and pass along a share to investors. A&Os sales force worked hard; Bromseth even joined his victims in prayer to persuade them to turn over their cash. During a four-year span that who would form the nucleus of the task force when it was officially created in 2010 persuaded Bromseth to spill what he knew and to make calls to other conspirators. Then they began to untangle A&Os finances. Within victed of mail and securities fraud and money laundering in a Richmond federal courtroom. Last month, U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne sentenced Adley H. Abdulwahab, 36, to 60 years in prison, and Christian Allmendinger, 40, to 45 years.

This will allow us to increase the volume and complexity of such cases.
U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride

The human toll

At the sentencings, the human toll of A&Os scam was apparent as a handful of victims testified in gut-wrenching fashion about how the fraud had wrecked their lives and destroyed their dreams. One spoke through tears of living frugally only to lose her savings to men who promised that safety is the cornerstone of our philosophy. Another said he felt a great deal of shame for not being smarter about investing 95 percent of his retirement with A&O. A 65-year-old retiree requested that his name not be reported because he worried that it might cause his elderly mother to have a heart attack if she learned he had lost his savings. Through it all, prosecutors and agents watched and nodded their heads. They had heard the same stories from hundreds of A&Os victims, and they will hear them again when they start to unravel the next big scam.
wilberd@washpost.com

It began with a tip

Like many other investigations, this one began with a tip to Virginia regulators in 2008 about a smooth-talking con artist named Tomme Bromseth, 69, who was selling the fraudulent investments to people in Virginia. Soon, federal investigators learned that Bromseth was targeting retirees with a slick pitch about a guaranteed investment in life insurance settlements for his Houstonbased firm, A&O Resource Management. It worked this way: Bromseth told potential investors that they would hand over cash to A&O, which would buy life insurance policies and pay the premiums. When the insured person died, A&O would collect the insurance

ended in 2008, Bromseth and others helped A&O collect more than $100 million from 825 people, many of them retirees, prosecutors say. Meanwhile, A&Os leaders in Houston didnt invest the millions of dollars as promised. Instead, they spent it on such things as fancy trips, mansions, a Lambor ghini, a Bentley and expensive jewelry, including a 15-carat diamond ring, prosecutors say. After the initial tip, two assistant U.S. attorneys, Michael Dry and Jessica Brumberg, began digging into the case with FBI agent Sherri Onks, Postal Inspector Marydith Newman, and John Norton, a criminal investigator with the Internal Revenue Service. The prosecutors and agents

months, they were confronting key players in the scheme and getting them to admit their involvement. For nearly three years, prosecutors and agents interviewed cooperating witnesses and victims while reviewing hundreds of thousands of pages of records (they ended up collecting 1.1 million documents). The joke here was that there were no federal holidays on the task force, Dry said.

a vice president for Rockvillebased Federal Realty, which plans to redevelop the Mid-Pike Plaza shopping center in North Bethesda into about a dozen high-rises. Even with growing support, Montgomerys BRT proposal is still in its infancy, and much more detailed engineering will be necessary to determine routes and station locations as well as whether streets could accommodate a single, reversible bus lane or a double busway. Opposition often surfaces during that more detailed phase of planning, when residents learn who would lose parts of front yards. Task force members said they will recommend that bus lanes not take asphalt from motorists, which would snarl traffic even more. The biggest question will be how to pay for it. The task force appointed by Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) is expected to have a financial plan ready by February. Elrich said he expects most of a BRT network would be paid for with local money. That would include paying off longterm bonds through an additional tax on commercial property owners who would benefit from the system, similar to special taxing districts in Northern Virginia that are helping to fund construction of the Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport. The BRT plans are separate from a proposed 16-mile Purple Line light rail link between Bethesda and New Carrollton and a 14-mile Corridor Cities Transitway being planned for the Interstate 270 corridor in upper Montgomery. State transit officials plan to compete for federal and state funding for both. Key to BRTs success, local officials say, will be finding enough money to build and operate a system that will remain fast and reliable enough to lure motorists onto buses. Critics of BRT have said some of the 20 or so other U.S. transit agencies that operate what they call BRT lines erred on the cheap side, such as leaving buses mixed with traffic and giving riders little extra comfort or convenience. Montgomerys BRT advocates say they would market their BRT as premium public transit. David Anspacher, a senior planner on one of the countys BRT studies, said that built correctly, BRT shouldnt be a tough sell. When folks see buses running down Rockville Pike while traffic is stopped, Anspacher said, that will be our best marketing.
shaverk@washpost.com The Montgomery County Planning Department will hold a community meeting about its BRT study from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 24 at its headquarters, 8787 Georgia Ave. in Silver Spring.

Guilty pleas
In all, five men pleaded guilty to various fraud-related charges and were sentenced to prison terms (Bromseth got three years). In trials this year, two principals in A&O, both of Houston, were con-