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Prince George’s County Man, 19, freed after 7 months in jail; robbery testimony at odds

Man, 19, freed after 7 months in jail; robbery testimony at odds

By Ruben Castaneda

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 9, 2010

For nearly four hours in June, Eric W. Johnson insisted to Prince George’s County police detectives that the two armed robbery victims who had identified him as a culprit were wrong, that he was innocent.

For seven months, Johnson, 19, remained in the county jail in Upper Marlboro, awaiting a jury’s decision on charges of armed robbery, first-degree assault, using a handgun in a crime of violence, 17 offenses in all, carrying the possibility of decades of prison time.

The jury never weighed in. On Thursday, before what would have been the second day of Johnson’s trial, Assistant State’s Attorney Ada Clark-Edwards dropped all charges against Johnson.

About seven hours later, he was released from the jail and celebrated by devouring a Big Mac meal at a McDonald’s restaurant.

“I think the criminal justice system works in wrong ways,” Johnson said in an interview less than two hours after he was freed. “I’m completely innocent.”

Clark-Edwards referred questions to Ramon Korionoff, a spokesman for State’s Attorney Glenn F. Ivey. Korionoff said the state dropped the charges because its two key witnesses were contradictory in their testimony and prosecutors no longer had confidence in their case.

For example, one of the victims, Lillian Hall, testified that the attacker she thought was Johnson had dark skin. Johnson is light-complexioned, defense attorneys Andrew Jezic and David Moyse said. The other victim, Timothy Flemmings, told police that the attacker he thought was Johnson hit him in the head with a gun; on the witness stand, Flemmings did not remember that, the attorneys said.

It is highly unusual for prosecutors to drop charges against a criminal defendant in the middle of a trial. In July 2006, Prince George’s prosecutors dropped double-murder charges against Edgar “L.A.” Reyes when cellphone records provided by a homicide detective during the trial cast doubt on the veracity of the state’s lone witness.

At the outset of the Johnson trial, Hall and Flemmings took the stand and testified that Johnson was one of several men who robbed them at gunpoint about 10:30 p.m. June 7 in the 5600 block of Auth Road in Suitland.

According to police charging documents, one victim, Flemmings, surrendered a cellphone and an iPod. Hall gave the robbers her purse, her wallet and $22 in cash. A third victim, a woman, gave up her purse and wallet.

Johnson’s hairstyle — he wears dreadlocks — is a reason he became a suspect, Jezic and Moyse said. The victims of that robbery said one of the attackers had dreadlocks and a cap.

About 5 1/2 hours after the Auth Road robbery, about 4 a.m. June 8, police were called to the scene of a robbery about five miles away, Jezic said. Johnson, who had been out at a nightclub, was spotted walking with two other men about six blocks from that robbery, Jezic said. The victim of the later robbery was brought to the street where Johnson and his friends were detained and said Johnson was not his attacker, Jezic said.

Nonetheless, detectives put Johnson’s picture in a photo array, and Hall and Flemings identified him as one of the men who had robbed them. The third victim said she could not identify anyone from the photo array.


Former Md. trooper found not guilty of 3 sex offense charges in Montgomery County

By Dan Morse

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 20, 2010

A Montgomery County jury Monday acquitted former Maryland State Trooper Marlon Iglesias of three sex offense charges related to a woman handcuffed after a DUI stop but found the trooper guilty of a charge of misconduct in office.

Charges against the trooper hinged primarily on the word of the alleged victim, who nearly a year after the traffic stop told authorities Iglesias has inappropriately touched and fondled her after she’d been pulled over on Interstate 270, handcuffed and taken to a nearby station. But during testimony, the alleged victim’s record for honesty was cast in doubt.

At the trial, the alleged victim testified that Iglesias handcuffed her and placed her in the front seat of his police car. She said that on the way to the station, he touched her thigh. She alleged that after she’d gotten to the station, he touched or fondled her at least two more times. And as he was letting her go from the station, she said, he also kissed her.

The jury deliberated for about four hours Friday. Jurors came back Monday morning and deliberated for nearly an hour.

The split verdict may have reflected jurors’ thinking that something untoward happened after the stop but not enough to deliver a more serious finding.

“We are very pleased that the jury acquitted him of all three felony charges,” said Iglesias’s attorney, Andrew Jezic, adding he will appeal the guilty charge.

“We are quite pleased with the jury’s verdict,” said Montgomery County Deputy State’s Attorney John Maloney. “The jury did not hear about a very similar incident that former trooper Iglesias had with another female, whom he had in his cruiser in January of 2009, shortly before he resigned in April 2009. That previous incident will be addressed along with his misconduct with the victim in this case at sentencing.”

Jezic said the incident was “investigated fully” by the state police, and charges were never brought.


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