In a preliminary hearing on July 1, DC Superior Court Judge Dorsey Jones found probable cause for an attempted carjacking charge against Demond Robinson.
Robinson, 27, was originally charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and carjacking from an incident that occurred on June 11 at the intersection of Pennsylvania SE and Minnesota Avenues SE.
According to the prosecution, Robinson allegedly attempted to flee from police by recklessly driving through traffic. The alleged absconding resulted in a multiple car collision, with Robinson allegedly attempting to escape on foot after failing to enter a nearby vehicle.
The lead responding U.S. Park Police officer testified that while he responded to an unrelated incident, Robinson observed the marked police cruiser approaching a red light with activated lights and sirens–prompting him to run the red light and drive both on the opposite side of the road, and the wrong way down a one-way street resulting in a crash.
While questioning the officer, defense attorney Neveen Hammad asked if during the incident the officer had ever turned off the audio or visual capture features of his bodyworn camera. The officer acknowledged that he had turned off the audio capture of his bodyworn camera multiple times after Robinson was arrested.
Hammad cited Park Police orders that require officers to have both video and audio capture on their body cameras during incidents. The officer claimed he was able to turn off the audio capture for an “officer conference.” Hammad stated she had never heard of this exception.
Through the use of the body camera footage, Hammad was able to show the officer had turned off his audio on two separate occasions for a total of six minutes.
“It’s not the officer’s job to exclude audio whenever they feel like it,” said Hammad.
The footage also showed that the officer had lost sight of Robinson during the subsequent foot chase. The footage captures the officer yelling, “Where’d he go?”
Hammad insisted that Robinson was scared of the police thus justifying his response. She attempted to use portions of the body camera footage to support her argument.
Noting Robinson’s body language and actions while allegedly attempting to access a second vehicle following the crash, Hammad stated Robinson was “startled or in fear.” The footage shows Robinson using both hands to attempt to open the passenger side door of an already occupied stopped vehicle.
Because Robinson was attempting to enter from the passenger side of the vehicle, rather than the driver side like most carjacking cases, Hammad asked the officer if he had ever seen a carjacking occur in this manner, stating it looked m“like he was seeking refuge with a stranger.”
Judge Jones later responded to this theory by calling it “absurd,” and found probable cause for attempted carjacking.
However, Judge Jones found no probable cause for the unlawful possession of a firearm, citing a lack of evidence. Specifically, there was no evidence identifying the owner of the vehicle in which the firearm was found and, therefore, no basis to attribute ownership or possession of the items inside the vehicle.
The parties are scheduled to reconvene on July 16.
