The D.C. police laid to rest Officer Paul Dittamo yesterday at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Lake Ridge.
Dittamo died on duty last Saturday when his police cruiser crashed into a utility pole. He had been on the beat for just more than a year. He was the first D.C. cop to die in the line of duty since 2007.
Dittamo was a well-loved local. He graduated in 1997 from Woodbridge Senior High. Shana Condie Dittamo, his wife, attended the funeral. She’s pregnant with their first child. His parents, Hector and Theresa, were in the pews. Dittamo was also a chef. His customers at Fox’s Pizza Den in Lake Ridge came to pay their respects.
But Dittamo got no respect from city leaders. No Vincent Gray. Not one city council member. Lame-duck Mayor Adrian Fenty showed up more than an hour late.
“It was a resounding message to us as police officers that will not be forgotten,” police union chief Kristopher Baumann told me.
But cops don’t have to make the ultimate sacrifice to get the message that the powers that be don’t give a damn. Officer Leon Cureton learned that lesson of disrespect on the night of Sept. 10.
Cureton, attached to the school security division, went out for dinner that Friday night. He brought his wife, Patrice; her cousin, Damon Adams; and a friend. The four were seated at a booth at Indulj, a restaurant and club at 12th and U streets NW.
When Cureton got up to go to the bathroom, a woman took his seat and made herself comfortable. Her name was Lakia Barry; no relation to the former mayor and current council member.
Cureton asked her to leave, and she did.
At which point one of Barry’s friends began hurling epithets at the Cureton table. Barry grabbed a glass, shattered it on Patrice Cureton’s face, knocked her to the floor, and continued to slash at her face, according to a police report.
Officer Cureton freed his wife. Indulj bouncers removed Barry, who was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, and her friends. Patrice Cureton was rushed to Georgetown Hospital. She received more than 100 stitches.
Lt. Madeline Timberlake, the watch commander, arrived and told Cureton to go to the district office and complete paperwork.
“Lieutenant,” he said, “with all due respect, my wife is being rushed to the ER. That report is administrative and can wait.”
“Well,” she said, “if you value your job, you will do what I told you to do.”
Timberlake and Sgt. Andre Suber forced him to leave his car and ride in a cruiser. At 3rd District headquarters, Cureton waited and filled out forms for three hours.
“Neither official asked whether I was injured or how my wife was making out,” he wrote in a statement. “Neither official offered to drive me to the hospital.”
Patrice Cureton is healing. But anger over how his family was treated by the department lingers for Cureton.
“I will never forget how the department treated my family and I,” he wrote.
Paul Dittamo’s family might second that emotion about city leaders.
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Tuesday and Friday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
