Police say there are legal hurdles to securing convictions even when they recover a weapon; defense attorneys say they are bringing weak cases.
near Union Station, the White House, Capital One Arena and elsewhere. PoliceTo the frustration of police, the path from arrest to prosecution to prison is a difficult one.During the first half of 2021, the U.S. attorney’s office said prosecutors in D.C. Superior Court pursued 112 of the 186 felon-in-possession cases brought by police. Forty-five of the cases were considered still under investigation, and 29 were dropped altogether.
The U.S. attorney’s office has experienced losses in the appeals court, which officials said have shaped their strategies.D.C. police stopped the driver of a vehicle with a broken brake light in Southeast Washington and found suspected marijuana in the center console. The vehicle was registered to the driver’s girlfriend, and police got a warrant to search her home, finding a bag containing a Glock 9mm handgun, mail in the driver’s name and drawings by the couple’s child under a bed.
A person does not need to be caught holding a gun by authorities. But if a gun is found in the trunk of a car with five people inside, who can get charged?Police and prosecutors say they confer daily over gun arrests, reviewing body-camera video to help build cases or learn of unforeseen pitfalls. Prosecutors said they try to talk with the arresting officer before deciding to drop a case.
One juvenile in the group had a gun on him, police said. But the other unregistered firearms were found under seats or on the floorboards of the two vehicles. Sweta Patel, a defense attorney, said prosecutors are forced to drop gun cases “because of the lack of training that is taught to the officers who are in charge of making these arrests.”
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