Recently, while testifying before the D.C. Council’s Committee on Public Safety and Justice, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Pamela Smith confirmed that Terence Sutton and Andew Zabavsky—the men convicted for their coverup of the vehicular pursuit that killed Karon Hylton-Brown— were reinstated.
For Karen Hylton, the late Hylton-Brown’s mother, that revelation has further intensified her resolve to hold the Trump and Bowser administrations accountable for Sutton and Zabavsky becoming free men. Since Jan. 21, when President Donald J. Trump announced the pardons, Hylton’s been making the rounds at D.C. Council legislative meetings, mayoral press conferences and other events, asking D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) whether she falsely identified her son as an “illegal immigrant” to compel Trump’s pardon of the two beleaguered officers.
“I really and truly believe Bowser has a part in that,” Hylton told The Informer. “At the end of the day, Trump doesn’t know Karon. He doesn’t know what’s going on in D.C. In order for him to say what he said, someone had to tell him that.”
As Hylton recounted, Trump’s pardon of Sutton and Zabavsky happened amid what she described as her unsuccessful appeal of their sentences of five-and-a-half years and four years, respectively, which she said sparked concerns about whether Trump pardoned the two officers preemptively.
During Hylton’s March 19 exchange with Bowser in Room G9 of the John A. Wilson Building, Bowser denied misrepresenting Hylton-Brown’s citizenship status to Trump before uniformed officers forced Hylton out of the room. Since that episode, Hylton has been sending letters to the White House, U.S. Justice Department, and Supreme Court, all in criticism of an executive decision she said has no legal standing since Sutton and Zabavsky hadn’t yet spent a minimum of five years in federal custody.
“They’re all lawyers and each one of them knows about the law,” Hylton said in reference to U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi and Chief Supreme Court Justice John Roberts. “Sutton has been sitting at home all this time on bond. At the end of the day, it’s discrimination against Karon.”
Another pressing question that Hylton said sits at the front of her mind concerns whether Bowser and the council will eventually challenge the presidential pardon with the same level of vigor they’ve exhibited during other instances when Trump and Congress interfered in local affairs.
“It’s definitely unconstitutional and no one is saying anything,” Hylton said.
Questions Persist about Sutton and Zabavsky’s Status and Their Obstruction of Justice Charge
According to Smith, Sutton and Zabavsky, though reinstated, are not on patrol.
“Any type of additional training, mandatory training that they should have received during the time period that they were out, they have to go back through that,” Smith said to D.C. Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) on March 11, during an Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) oversight hearing conducted by the D.C. Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety. “Any other training based on our policy with respect to the number of years or the number of days or months a sworn employee…has been out of work.”
In 2022, a jury convicted Sutton and Zabavsky of second-degree murder, conspiracy to obstruct, and obstruction of justice. It was the first time in recent history that local law enforcement officers faced legal consequences for an on-duty death.
Prosecutors detailed a high-speed pursuit throughout the Brightwood community that ended in the Kennedy Street corridor in Northwest, where Hylton-Brown, a moped rider, exited an alleyway, crashed into a moving vehicle and sustained injuries that he would succumb to days later. Evidence showed that the then-former MPD officers cleared debris from the street on the night of the collision, allowed for the continuation of traffic, and declined to call colleagues tasked with preserving crash scenes.
In a moment that sparked criticism among Ward 4 community members, and at least one jurist, on March 11, Smith referenced an MPD Internal Affairs Bureau investigation as she denied that Sutton and Zabavsky obstructed justice in Hylton-Brown’s death.
“It’s my understanding that there was no cover up and there was no obstruction of justice…based on body worn camera footage [and] the fact when the officer responded to the station and spoke with his supervisor,” Smith said. “Also, the draft report that came out of it, there really was no cover up.”
The Informer recently filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for MPD internal affairs investigation.
Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Brendi Bluitt counts among those who continue to question the findings of MPD’s internal investigation into Sutton and Zabavsky’s actions on the night of October 23, 2020.
“To say there was no cover up or obstruction of justice when a jury found it was the case sows seeds of doubt and mistrust in the system,” said Bluitt, who’s in her first term as commissioner for Single-Member District 4D03. “I don’t understand how the internal investigation could’ve found there was no cover up or obstruction of justice when the opposite part was found during the trial.”
On March 19, Advisory Neighborhood Commission 4D approved a resolution that Bluitt, along with ANC 4D Chair Jenn Kauffman and Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Abel Amene drafted. They are demanding: Sutton and Zabavsky’s termination, clarification on the training and discipline that officers receive in violation of vehicular pursuit protocols, and data about MPD Fourth District’s vehicular pursuits and use of force during the last calendar year and the first quarter of 2025.
Bluitt, who also submitted testimony to the March 11 Committee of the Public Safety and Judiciary meeting, called the resolution part of an effort to boost MPD transparency.
“Residents are warranted in their concern that these officers are patrolling the Fourth District, and we have no clarity of whether they will be serving here or in another area, in public-facing roles or desk roles,” Bluitt said.
Time’s of the essence, she said.
“It’s unfortunate that we’re at this point,” Bluitt told The Informer. “A community, a mother, a family is hurting. The longer these officers sit with MPD, and the longer it takes for justice to be served, it’s going to continue causing pain and hurt.”
The D.C. Council Keeps Its Eyes on MPD, and Councilmember Lewis George Speaks
On Monday, D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) told The Informer that she’s been in communication with MPD Chief Smith, who she said mentioned a months-long process to determine Sutton and Zabavksy’s employment status.
“They won’t be returning to patrol duty, but they are going through…MPD administrative procedures to determine and then announce what the resolution of their cases will be, which can include termination,” Pinto said.
In recent weeks, as tensions increased around Sutton and Zabavsky’s status as freed, fully employed police officers, Pinto too counts among those asking MPD to keep residents in the loop about the two controversial officers.
“It’s [about] the importance of communicating with the public what is happening at the department in reviewing these cases and getting a final resolution out the door as quickly as possible.”
Hylton-Brown’s death at the age of 20 sparked nights of protests in front of MPD Fourth District Headquarters on Georgia Avenue in Northwest, and Lewis George’s shepherding of legislation that solidified MPD policy around vehicular pursuits.
For Lewis George, who, as a Democratic candidate for the Ward 4 D.C. Council seat, attended protests and gathered with clergy on the Kennedy Street corridor in the fall of 2020 after Hylton-Brown’s death, justice has always been a priority. While the final outcome of Sutton and Zabavsky’s return to the force remains to be seen, she still sees the Trump pardon and rehiring of the beleaguered officers as an affront to Hylton-Brown’s family, and most of her constituents.
“My community is deeply disappointed with this decision and…the lack of trust that that now gives them …not only our justice system in the District of Columbia,” Lewis George said on March 11 as she too called on MPD Chief Smith to be honest with Ward 4 residents.
“We would like full transparency about where they are going to be assigned, if assigned or where what will happen, because this is something that has truly impacted our community in a negative way and continues to have [an] impact.”
Wrong message. She should be warning young men to stop for police and take the ticket/charge instead of driving into SUVs at full speed.
@Mantikos: Karon was riding a moped not driving a car. MPD illegslychased him in /through the alley. After Karon was hit the cops planned the cover up. They did not perform life saving efforts nor phone paramedics. Next they lied to their supervisors.