Judge Sentences Defendant on New Charges, Allowing Him to Start Nonprofit for Children in Community

By Hunter Fernandez [former] - March 20, 2023
Court | Daily Stories | Sex Abuse | Sexual Assault | Suspects |

At a sentencing on March 17, DC Superior Court Judge Milton Lee let Verazzano Porter  plead to a lesser offense in order to create a nonprofit organization that would teach children in the community how to cook.

Porter, 29, was sentenced on charges of second-degree attempted burglary and simple assault for inappropriately touching an unconscious woman while recording a video on April 28, 2022, on the 1400 block of R Street, NW. 

Porter originally accepted a plea deal on Dec. 6, 2022, pleading guilty to attempted fourth-degree sex abuse. 

However, after discussing plans to create a nonprofit in which he would help children in his neighborhood become more familiar with cooking, the prosecution and defense negotiated a new plea deal that would not require Porter to become a registered sex offender. The new deal would allow him to pursue this nonprofit plan.

Porter currently works at a five-star restaurant as a chef. 

“He is an artist in the kitchen,” stated Todd Baldwin, Porter’s defense attorney, on multiple occasions during the proceeding.

Before a sentence was given, Porter gave an emotional reading of a poem about second chances that his mother wrote before she passed away. 

When Judge Lee asked Porter what his late mother would think of his actions, he responded “she would smack the black off me.” 

Judge Lee sentenced Porter to 15 months of supervised probation for second-degree attempted burglary and three months supervised probation for simple assault, which would be served consecutively.

Judge Lee also required that Porter stay employed, regularly drug test, and put in place a stay away order from both the location of the incident and the victim.