D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson wants criminals who push, punch or spit on someone to face harsher penalties if they’re convicted of those actions three times. Those crimes are typically categorized as simple assaults, a misdemeanor that’s punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to 180 days in jail. But under a bill the at-large councilman is pushing, a third simple assault conviction would automatically become a felony assault, which raises the stakes to a $3,000 fine and up to three years in prison. In the case of a third simple assault charge, the U.S. Attorney’s Office also wouldn’t be able to lower the charge in a plea deal.
Mendelson said that’s key.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office routinely lowers charges in plea deals,” he said. “This will keep them from doing that when someone has three simple assaults These can be dangerous people that we don’t want on the streets.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Mendelson said the bill’s inspiration were two cases involving 20-year-old Robert Hannah. In September 2008, Hannah was accused of punching a 37-year-old homosexual man in the head. Tony Hunter fell, hit his head on the sidewalk and later died in a hospital. Hannah was originally charged with involuntary manslaughter. But after a nine-month investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reduced the charge to simple assault and Hannah pleaded guilty to it. He spent six months in jail. The change in the charge led to outcry from members of the city’s homosexual community, many of whom believed Hannah had targeted Hunter because of Hunter’s sexual orientation.
In June, police arrested Hannah again after officers spotted him grabbing his girlfriend by the arm on Seventh Street NW. He pleaded guilty to a simple assault charge on July 19 and was sentenced to 100 days in jail.
Under Mendelson’s bill, if Hannah were convicted again of a simple assault, “he’d have three strikes and be out,” Mendelson said.
Police Chief Cathy Lanier did not respond to a request for comment.
Police union chief Kris Baumann said the bill would require the police department to report a third simple assault conviction as a violent crime in its statistics. He said currently the misdemeanor charge doesn’t make the cut. While supporting the bill, Baumann accused Mendelson of playing political favorites with the city’s gay community. “It would be nice to see Mendelson get serious about crime for everybody in the District, rather than just groups he feels the need to pander to,” he said.
