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By
Becca Parnass
- March 13, 2025
Daily Stories
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stabbing
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DC Superior Court Judge Carmen McLean criticized the prosecution for failing to provide eyewitness testimony to the defense in a stabbing case on March 7.
Dontrell Harrison, 47, is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and assault with significant bodily injury for his alleged involvement in a stabbing that occurred on April 22, 2024 on the 300 block of Livingston Terrace, SE.
The prosecution indicated they were ready to proceed with trial on March 31, but Harrison’s attorney, Christen Philips, informed Judge McLean that the defense received new information about witness testimony on March 6 that hadn’t been reviewed.
Phillips received the transcript submitted to the grand jury from an eyewitness who claimed to have seen the entire altercation between Harrison and the victim. The transcript is dated June of last year– before the case was indicted.
There are reportedly three additional testimonies from the grand jury dated June, 2024, that were never disclosed to the defense, according to Phillips, including from a detective and a witness who claimed to have entered the apartment where the altercation took place.
Phillips said, “It is essentially a selective withholding of certain transcripts in the case, where it is the routine practice of this United States Attorney’s Office to turn over all grand jury transcripts after a case is indicted, sometimes even before.”
According to Phillips, the eyewitness to the crime was allegedly intoxicated at the time. Additionally, Phillips reported inconsistencies between the eyewitness’s testimony to the grand jury and his statements to police at the crime scene of the crime.
The prosecution said three of the statements were on servers not accessible to the prosecutors and that were never incorporated into the file. They further clarified that it was “absolutely an oversight by the [prosecution].”
Judge McLean cautioned the prosecution, “that your credibility before me is very important and that you should be really considerate about what you choose to say and how you choose to characterize things.”
Judge McClean worried that the prosecution has had transcripts for eight-to-nine months for a trial that is supposed to happen in three weeks which needs to be fair to the defendant.
She may come up with a new trial date depending on what’s in the previously unreleased transcripts.
The judge said the prosecution must provide the transcripts to the defense no later than March 11, and the defense has to issue the brief by March 19, discussing what remedies might be required.
Parties are slated to reconvene March 31.