NOTE: This article was updated at 5:05 am EST on Jan. 27, 2025 to include a statement from Metropolitan Police Department.
President Donald Trump’s latest pardon reverses what several local advocates, just months ago, heralded as a critical milestone in their crusade for police accountability.
On Wednesday, during his second full day in office, Trump pardoned Terence D. Sutton Jr. and Anthony Zabavsky, two former Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers convicted for their role in the unauthorized pursuit that led to the death of 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown.
Hylton-Brown, a moped rider, died at the height of the pandemic from injuries sustained while evading vehicles operated by then-MPD Officer Sutton and supervised by then-MPD Lt. Zabavsky. In the weeks that followed, Hylton-Brown’s family, along with friends, community members and activists, protested in front of MPD Fourth District Station, located on Georgia Avenue in Northwest.
These acts of civil disobedience, which mostly took place during the night, resulted in several arrests and what protesters allege as physical harm inflicted on dissidents. They also led to a civil suit that Hylton-Brown’s girlfriend filed against MPD, and the District, along with what ultimately became the only criminal trial in recent memory to result in at least one officer conviction.
For D.C. Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4), Trump’s pardon of Sutton and Zabavsky is an affront to community members who, to some degree, worked within the proper channels to avenge Hylton-Brown.
“I’m devastated for the friends and family of Karon Hylton-Brown and everyone in our community who is still mourning his loss,” Lewis George said on Jan. 22. “I’m devastated for the community members who united and fought valiantly for justice. I’m devastated that after four years of fighting for accountability, justice may be taken away.”
At the time of Hylton-Brown’s murder, Lewis George was on her way to becoming council member for Ward 4, a jurisdiction that includes Hylton-Brown’s stomping grounds of Brightwood Park, where the unauthorized police chase happened during the fall of 2020.
In her first term, Lewis George introduced, and secured the passage of, legislation reinforcing MPD’s “no chase” policy. A couple years later, emergency public safety legislation passed by the council weakened that law.
For Lewis George, Zabavsky and Sutton’s status as free men jeopardizes the local public safety ecosystem.
“[It] puts political agenda above the integrity of our justice system and deepens the wounds of our community,” she said. “Decisions like this make our community less safe and send a dangerous message that justice can be undermined.”
During a nine-week trial in 2022, prosecutors provided evidence showing that Sutton and Zabavsky, then members of MPD Fourth District’s Crime Suppression Team, chased a helmetless Hylton-Brown for several minutes and nearly a dozen blocks.
Prosecutors said that, toward the end of the pursuit, as Hylton-Brown made his way through an alley and onto Kennedy Street in Northwest, Sutton turned off his sirens and crept on the heels of his moped. Minutes later, Hylton-Brown exited the alley and entered the thoroughfare before a car struck him. Sutton and Zabavsky, prosecutors said, told neither MPD’s Major Crash Unit or its Internal Affairs Division about the police chase or Hylton-Brown’s injuries.
Evidence also showed Zabavsky leaving the crash scene without designating an MPD official to supervise it. The officers destroyed crash debris, released the driver that struck Hylton-Brown, and turned off their body-worn cameras as they devised their plot to bury the incident, prosecutors said. Sutton and Zabavsky’s written report, they pointed out, didn’t include details about the incident, and even went as far as to suggest that Hylton-Brown suffered his injuries independently.
During the latter part of 2022, a jury found Sutton guilty of second-degree murder, conspiracy and obstruction of justice, while Zabavsky received a conviction for conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Last year, Sutton and Zabavsky received a sentence of three years of supervised release that would come at the end of their respective prison terms of 66 months and 48 months.
However, that’s no longer the case.
The D.C. Police Union immediately recognized the pardon as a victory for police officers.
“Officer Sutton was wrongly charged by corrupt prosecutors for doing his job,” the union wrote on the platform formerly known as Twitter on Jan. 22. “This action rights an incredible wrong that not only harmed Officer Sutton, but also crippled the ability for the department to function.”
MPD circulated a similarly worded statement expressing gratitude for what the department called Trump and Attorney General Edward Martin’s support of police officers.
“Never before, in any other jurisdiction in the country, has a police officer been charged with second-degree murder for pursuing a suspect. These members could never have imagined that engaging in a core function of their job would be prosecuted as a crime,” MPD’s statement read. “The [d]epartment recognizes the risks involved in vehicle pursuits, which are reflected in our pursuit policy. But violations of that policy should be addressed through training and discipline – not through criminal prosecution.
Trump’s pardon of the two former MPD officers represents the first instance, since his return to office, that the president has infringed on local affairs. It also follows similar action he took for the nearly 1,600 people who were either convicted or facing trial for their alleged involvement in the January 6, 2021 attacks on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.
Monica Hopkins told The Informer that Trump’s latest pardon threatens to undo some of the progress that local advocates and elected officials alike have been making to make the public safety ecosystem more equitable. At a time when District residents are at the mercy of the federal courts and prison system, she cautioned against the further decimation of the public trust.
“When police officers are allowed to abuse their power without facing consequences, the public can understandably grow reluctant to interact with the criminal justice system at all,” said Hopkins, executive director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia, on the night of Jan. 22. “People across the political spectrum want our leaders to prevent police misconduct and to hold officers accountable when they break the law, and especially not when they are convicted of murder and obstruction of justice.”