Jan 02, 2009   | COMMENTS     

Local killings, election news and courtroom dramas were the focus of many headlines last year.

Killings draw attention to anti-gay violence in D.C.

The deaths of two gay men in Washington drew new attention last year to anti-gay violence in the nation’s capital.

Durval Martins, a 35-year-old gay D.C. man, was killed shortly after 3 a.m. Dec. 16 near Logan Circle in northwest D.C. Police said Martins was shot several times, yet the motive for the killing was unknown. Martins’ credit cards, cash, cell phone and jewelry were still in his possession when police found him.

The shooting came three months after gay Maryland resident Tony Randolph Hunter was killed after being attacked by a group of young men at Eighth and N streets, N.W., while walking with a friend to a gay club.

Police have said they do not consider the Hunter incident a hate crime because evidence has suggested the attack stemmed from an “altercation” between Hunter and 18-year-old Robert Hanna, who was charged with voluntary manslaughter in connection with the case.

But local activists, led by Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence, expressed concern that more than a half-dozen gay men were assaulted in 2008 in cases where they appeared to have been targeted because of their sexual orientation.

In a public hearing at year’s end, D.C. Council members Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) and David Catania (I-At-Large) said they were troubled over police and prosecutor handling of certain cases involving attacks on gay men in Washington. Law enforcement officials, however, told Council members that the hate crimes were being taken seriously.

Three gay men face charges following attorney’s death

The August 2006 murder of Washington attorney Robert Wone inside the Dupont Circle home of three gay men remained unsolved for more than two years. But in October and November, prosecutors shattered their two-year silence on the case with a burst of activity.

Joseph Price, Victor Zaborsky, and Dylan Ward — the gay residents of the Swann Street house where Wone was found stabbed to death in a guest bedroom — were charged with obstruction of justice in connection with the murder.

In a development considered highly unusual by legal experts, they released a detailed, 14-page affidavit in support of the obstruction of justice charge. The document cites an autopsy report indicating that Wone was restrained, incapacitated by a paralytic drug and sexually assaulted before being stabbed three times.

It also says the autopsy found needle puncture marks on Wone’s chest, right foot and left hand. And it says police found a large collection of S&M equipment Ward’s bedroom.

The three men have pleaded not guilty, saying that an unidentified intruder killed Wone after entering
the house while they were asleep.

In early December, the case took another turn when Ward’s attorneys denounced prosecutors in a court filing for allegedly basing their case on “speculation, innuendo, assumptions, and irrelevant inflammatory comments.” The same day, Robert Wone’s widow, Katherine Wone, filed a $20 million wrongful death suit against the three gay men, charging them with “intentional, reckless, and/or negligent acts” that caused her husband’s death.

A trial date for the obstruction of justice charge has not been set.

Same-sex marriage bill stirs debate in Washington

Local gay activists last year debated whether a gay marriage bill in Washington could survive a voter referendum or congressional opposition after gay D.C. Council member David Catania (I-At-Large) said he was planning to introduce such a bill.

During a community forum in December, activists could not reach a consensus on whether to ask the Council to pass a gay marriage bill in 2009. Nearly all activists have said they support marriage for same-sex couples in the nation’s capital. But many have said local gay groups aren’t ready for what would become an expensive, national campaign to counter congressional opposition and defeat a voter referendum aimed at banning same-sex marriage in the city.

D.C. For Marriage, which helped organize the December forum, issued a call for volunteers to help assemble what its leader, Michael Crawford, said would be a sophisticated campaign to educate the greater community on why gays should be allowed to marry.

Crawford was responding to concerns by forum participants that same-sex marriage advocates had yet to build alliances with the African American community, which makes up 57 percent of the city’s residents.

Obama sweeps gay precincts in D.C. primary ‘landslide’

As he worked his way toward the White House, President-elect Barack Obama swept D.C. precincts with large concentrations of gay voters during a February primary.

Obama won all of the city’s wards during the Feb. 12 “Potomac Primary” by margins ranging ...