Maryland’s highest court has ruled the state is not financially liable for a sex offender who police say killed a 15-year-old in the District after being released from prison, even though authorities admitted to not monitoring the child rapist as required.
Robert Crosby admitted to strangling Dominick Dixon to death in Northeast D.C. in 2006, after leaving prison following a two-decade stint behind bars for the rape of a 13-year-old girl in Baltimore.
Recommended Stories
Dixon’s family sought monetary damages from the state, pointing out that officials were required to ensure Crosby was at his Baltimore home and had no contact with minors. In court documents, public safety officials admit they did not verify Crosby’s home address, as required, for months or make sure he attended face-to-face meetings with officers.
Yet, judges said it was not in their purview whether the “inept supervision” of Crosby, which they condemned as “lackadaisical,” caused the D.C. teenager’s death.
“Despite the tragedy that occurred, that question is not ours to answer,” reads the decision by the Maryland Court of Appeals. “Instead, we must hold that because the state owed no tort duty to the appellants, it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”
According to the state’s case, Maryland officials had “no duty to protect Dominick Dixon or any other member of the general public from harm upon Crosby’s release.”
Though a jury found Crosby not guilty of the murder, Maryland conceded, for purposes of the family’s case, that Crosby killed Dixon. The videotaped confession by Crosby was tossed during the trial for procedural reasons.
Court documents show that a then-51-year-old Crosby confessed to killing Dixon, saying he dumped the teenager’s body at a nearby construction site after a dispute over a $10 purchase of crack cocaine.
Crosby accused Dixon of selling him too little product, at which point Dixon revealed a knife and tried to stab him, the documents said. Prosecutors said Crosby warded off Dixon by wrapping a television cable around his neck and strangling the teenager to death.
Dixon was found by police wearing just boxer shorts, but Crosby said he removed the boy’s clothes out of fear that his blood was on the garments.
Attempts to reach Dixon’s family Monday were unsuccessful, but they contended at the time of the trial that Crosby’s version of events could not be trusted, saying the word of a convicted sex offender was unreliable.
Crosby apparently had moved to the District without notifying those in charge of monitoring his parole.
