After one dropped case and one acquittal, seven of the remaining eight D.C. voting rights protesters put on trial for arrests at demonstrations in April were found guilty today of blocking traffic. One other protester was acquitted. more ›

Yonathan Melaku, the former Marine reservist who taken into custody in connection to shootings at five military sites around Virginia last fall, reportedly attempted to escape from his cell last week. more ›

If you're reading this right now and you live inside the District, you probably get a friendly visit in your mailbox (or your email inbox) from a Pepco bill every month. But even among an ocean of cable, internet, gas and cell phone bills which are bloated with all kinds of taxes and surcharges, Pepco's billing stands out. The news that the D.C. Public Service Commission has rejected the utility's request to add a proposed 15th surcharge to District customers' bills is incredibly good news -- as much for customers' ability to read and understand their bill as the small savings that it may mean. more ›

A quick update from today's proceedings in the Chandra Levy murder trial: Ingmar Guandique, who stands accused of killing Levy in Rock Creek Park more than nine years ago, told Judge Gerald Fisher that he will not take the stand and testify. In addition, the prosecution has dropped two more charges -- WTOP reports that the statute of limitations on attempted kidnapping and robbery charges against Guandique had expired. Earlier in the trial, prosecutors also dropped attempted sexual assault charges. Two charges of felony murder are the only remaining counts in the trial which the jury will consider. Closing arguments are scheduled for tomorrow. more ›

TBD is reporting that D.C. police have said that murder charges against the five DC9 employees, including co-owner Bill Spieler, who allegedly beat and killed a man outside of the club early Friday morning, might change. An arraignment in the case was originally scheduled to take place this afternoon, but has been postponed until tomorrow at 11 a.m. This apparently means that the five employees who were placed under arrest will spend the night in custody. more ›

The Washington Post's Clarence Williams and Paul Duggan are reporting that authorities may be considering dropping charges filed against the 14-year-old boy who was believed to be involved in the deadly March 30 shooting on South Capitol Street.

The full extent of the trouble with the case remains unclear, but one problem concerns insufficient evidence that the teenager was involved in the attack at all, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. more ›

The U.S. attorney's office filed a new indictment Thursday that spells out additional charges against Ted Loza, D.C. Council member Jim Graham's former chief of staff. Loza was arrested in September and charged with two counts of bribery on allegations he accepted $1,500 from taxicab industry lobbyist Abdulaziz Kamus. But as the Washington Post reports, Loza now stands accused of accepting a total of "more than $30,000 in benefits, including cash, trips, transportation and other gifts." The charges against the former staffer now include one count of conspiracy, an additional count of bribery, one count of extortion and one count of making false statements. more ›

Looks like a grand jury will soon hand down additional charges against former Jim Graham staffer Ted Loza, D.C. Wire reports. Loza was indicted on bribery charges last fall after he allegedly accepted $1,500 in cash and other favors and trips from a taxicab lobbyist. No word yet on what the new charges might look like, just that we should expect them in the "next two to four weeks." more ›

The man accused of killing Chandra Levy in Rock Creek Park in 2001 has pleaded not guilty to additional charges of threatening to kill a witness, the Associated Press is reporting. Prosecutors filed the additional charges against Ingmar Guandique earlier this month, citing evidence that Guandique wrote a threatening note to the witness and had someone deliver it. The AP updates that Guandique's lawyer entered a not-guilty plea for him to the new charges during an arraignment today in D.C. Superior Court. Guandique is already serving a 10-year sentence for separate assaults in Rock Creek Park, and is facing first degree murder charges in the death of Levy. more ›

Those new charges we'd been waiting on against Ingmar Guandique, the man accused of murdering Chandra Levy, were filed today in D.C. Superior Court, the Associated Press (via WTOP) is reporting. Initial speculation was that the new charges, which have pushed back Guandique's trial until much later in 2010, might have had something to do with another victim. Instead, it turns out he's being charged with threatening a witness.

According to the new indictment, Guandique wrote a note to a witness identified only as "J.G." and had someone deliver it. The note threatened to kill J.G. or J.G.'s family if J.G. cooperated with law enforcement in the case against Guandique. more ›

Federal prosecutors plan to file additional charges against Chandra Levy's accused killer, Ingmar Guandique, the Post is reporting. The move will push the trial, originally scheduled to begin in January, all the way back to October, 2010. There's still no word on exactly what these new charges might be, but the change in trial date could end up coinciding with the end of Guandique's current 10-year prison term, which he's been serving for attacking two other women in Rock Creek Park. As the Post notes, prosecutors have said they will seek to have Guandique held in the D.C. jail for his trial in the event he ends up being released before it concludes. more ›

Hey wow, we had almost managed to forget about the ongoing investigation into a bribery and shady contracting ring operating out of the D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer. The Post is reporting that a fourth person has been charged in the case. Sarosh Mir, 44, of Herndon was charged last week with conspiring to commit wire fraud. Mir worked for Sushil Bansal, the outside contractor who has been charged with conspiring with OCTO employees Yusuf Acar and Farrukh Awan to steer contracts to Bansal's company, in exchange for bribes. more ›