Sex Abuse Defendant Wants Judge to Reconsider Denied Motion

By D.C. Witness Staff - February 4, 2021
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Suspects |

During a Feb. 4 hearing that comes almost one year after a DC Superior Court judge denied a sex abuse defendant’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea, the case’s defense attorney said the defendant would like the judge to reconsider.

The defendant pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree sexual abuse while armed in 2019. As part of a plea deal, the prosecution agreed to drop all other charges in his case. 

Judge Julie Becker scheduled a status hearing for March 31 to check on the status of the case.

Should the case proceed to sentencing, defense attorney Madalyn Harvey said her client wishes to exercise his right to be sentenced in person, rather than remotely via video conference.

In the motion to withdraw the plea, the defense argues that the defendant’s plea was not made in a “knowing, intelligent, and voluntary manner,” as required by law.

“Specifically, at the time [defendant] entered the plea he had just been shown for the first time a grand jury exhibit that purported to depict him engaging in a sexual act with the third complainant in the case,” the motion stated. “Although [defendant’s] attorneys had been meticulous in sharing all discovery with him, this exhibit had not been turned over by the government with the other discovery materials. Upon learning of its existence, after a jury had already been selected and a day before opening arguments were scheduled to begin, [the defendant] felt pressured to plea rather than proceed to trial.”

The prosecution opposed the motion. “The defendant has altogether failed to express any defect in the Rule 11 proceeding nor provided the most basic showing as to why the demands of justice require withdrawal of the plea agreement he suggested, drafted, proposed and accepted,” the prosecutor said.

Rule 11 refers to a defendant’s right to withdraw a guilty plea before sentencing if the defendant “can show a fair and just reason for requesting the withdrawal,” according to the DC Courts’ website.

Alaina Provenza wrote this article.