DC Superior Court Judge Robert Okun found a defendant guilty of assault with intent to commit first-degree sex abuse, burglary and kidnapping after the prosecution presented self-incriminating jail calls in a non-jury trial on Oct. 17.
Akiem Williams, 38, was detained and charged on Oct. 1, 2020, in connection with an incident that occurred on Sept. 6, 2020, on the 800 block of Quincy Street, NW. The complainant, Giselle Hartzog, passed away in 2021 for unrelated reasons, but she told detectives, at the time, that Williams followed her out of the nearby Metro station, chased her into the lobby of an apartment building, beat her and pulled at her clothing.
Hartzog, 30, told detectives that she was an escort and that Williams had been soliciting prostitution on the train.
According to court documents, both the victim and the defendant got off the train at the Georgia Avenue-Petworth station. Surveillance footage showed Hartzog and Williams hugging in the station. At one point, Williams appears to reach down and feel Hartzog’s groin area.
The timeline is also corroborated by recordings of Williams’ outgoing calls from jail, which were authenticated in court by a Department of Corrections monitoring specialist. In March 2021 Williams is heard telling a friend that he became outraged when he felt that Hartzog, who was a transgender woman, had a penis.
“He looked like a girl,” Williams said in the call.
As the two left the Metro station, Hartzog told detectives that Williams began following her, and eventually chased after her. According to court documents, Hartzog was scared, and yelled for help, eventually running into the lobby of a nearby apartment building after the door was held open by a resident.
The building’s lobby had surveillance footage, which the prosecutor admitted into evidence after having it confirmed to be unaltered by a property manager from the company that owned the building at the time. The footage showed Williams run up the stairs and grab the handle to a door of the bulding, opening it again just as it was about to automatically lock.
Once inside the lobby, he immediately attacked Hartzog, cornering her and striking her repeatedly in the head and body.
“He’s bragging at points to his friends and his sister” over the phone at the jail, the prosecutor said during closing statements.
“I beat the shit out of the f*g,” Williams said in one phone call. “I beat the shit out of him so bad.”
In another call, Williams seemed to be excited about the assault, saying, “did I tell you I seen the video? Oh my gosh! OMG! You shoulda seen me!”
One witness, a resident of the apartment building, called the police while another yelled at Williams to stop, according to the footage.
The second witness, who was in close proximity the whole time, testified earlier in the trial that Williams pulled up Hartzog’s shirt above her breasts, pulled Hartzog’s pants down, tried to pull his own pants down and got behind her so his groin was touching her buttocks. The two were out of frame in the footage when this happened, so this testimony could not be corroborated.
Williams and his co-counsel, Howard McEachern, contested this part of the story, saying there was nothing sexual about his assault of Hartzog. “Nobody can verify that, not even the footage,” Williams said during his closing statements. He also noted that the call to 911 did not mention any clothes being pulled.
“A little assault did happen,” Williams admitted, “but it was nothing life-threatening.”
McEachern also contested the burglary charge, saying that case law for burglary convictions did not qualify for nonviolent entry into common spaces like lobbies.
Judge Okun rejected this claim, though he noted that “it’s not a frivolous argument by any means.”
Judge Okun cited the credibility of the two witnesses, not knowing either Williams or Hartzog, and the fact that Williams did not dispute that the man in the footage was him.
Judge Okun said he did not find that the lack of video showing intent to commit sexual abuse damaged the prosecution’s case.
“[Williams] is right that you cannot see those things on the video, but the government does not need video to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Judge Okun said.
When the parties were asked about scheduling a sentencing hearing, Williams said, “can we do it today?” He expressed that he didn’t want it to take too long for him to be sent to prison.
“I’m tryna get out this jail,” Williams remarked. Judge Okun said sentencing could not be done because a pre-sentence report was needed.
The parties are scheduled to return to court on Jan. 27 for a sentencing hearing.
