A D.C. Superior Court judge won’t impose a gag order in the wrongful death suit filed by the widow of slain D.C. lawyer Robert Wone.
Attorneys for Joseph Price, Dylan Ward and Joseph Zaborsky had requested the order after a lawyer for Katherine Wone said after an earlier hearing that “Defendants don’t assert their Fifth Amendment rights if they are not guilty of something.”
Judge Brook Hedge ruled on the gag order at a Wednesday hearing, in which she also said the three defendants must say they are invoking their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if they want to avoid answering a deposition question.
Defense attorney Robert Spagnoletti argued that defense lawyers could say for their clients that they were advising the men not to answer.
But Hedge ruled that defendants must assert the Fifth Amendment themselves. In civil cases, a jury can be instructed that a defendant’s refusal to answer questions means the responses could be incriminating.
Robert Wone was found stabbed to death in the trio’s Dupont Circle townhouse on Aug. 2, 2006. The defense argued that Katherine Wone’s November 2008 lawsuit was filed after the statute of limitations had expired and filed a motion to dismiss the suit on those grounds. Hedge denied the motion Wednesday.
