Earlier this week, the D.C. Superior Court dropped the charges against Lt. Dan Choi and James Pietrangelo. Many folks questioned why this was done, some went a bit far saying the Government was embarrassed for something that really didn't make any sense (Paul Yandura).
But MetroWeekly provided some idea on what happened:
Lt. Dan Choi and James Pietrangelo didn't break the law they had been charged with breaking, and it is for that reason, according to a District spokesperson, that the charges they faced on July 14 were dismissed.
District Mayor Adrian Fenty's communications director, Mafara Hobson, responded on Thursday afternoon, July 15, to Metro Weekly's inquiry about the dismissals, which were announced just moments before D.C. Superior Court Judge Fredrick J. Sullivan was to hear the men's cases.
Hobson wrote that the Criminal Section of the D.C. Attorney General's Office considered the ''Failure to Obey'' charges. ''After carefully examining video and speaking with the officers involved, it was determined that the charge couldn't be maintained,'' she wrote. ''While chained to the fence, the defendant was standing on a ledge – NOT – the sidewalk. As such, he was not blocking pedestrian traffic," Hobson wrote. "Once that was realized, the focus of the investigation shifted to what happened immediately prior to his handcuffing himself (i.e., was he blocking the sidewalk at that time and did an officer ask him to move on). After interviewing law enforcement, it was determined that the defendant had not been asked to move on at that point. Therefore, he could not be prosecuted for any activity prior to the handcuffing either.''
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