Former D.C. teacher acquitted of sexually assaulting 9-year-old student
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Version 0 of 1. A former District special education teacher was acquitted Thursday on charges he sexually assaulted a 9-year-old student at his Capitol Hill elementary school. After about a week of testimony, D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert E. Morin found Leroy Damien Ware, 34, not guilty of misdemeanor counts of sexual assault involving the alleged assault that occurred in late 2014 at Miner Elementary School in the 600 block of 15th Street NE. Prosecutors argued that the victim told his mother that the teacher twice touched the then-fourth-grader inappropriately, once while playing a game during recess and again in a computer lab. In court documents, Ware told police that he accidentally touched the boy while trying to correct the student’s disruptive behavior. Three construction workers were injured, two of them critically, when a brick-and-concrete wall collapsed along the front of a hotel in Northwest Washington on Thursday afternoon. An investigation is underway into the cause of the accident, which happened about 12:30 p.m. at the Savoy Suites Hotel in the 2500 block of Wisconsin Avenue, at Calvert Street near the Russian Embassy and the U.S. Naval Observatory. D.C. Fire Battalion Chief Timothy A. Jeffery said the eight-story hotel, which was occupied, can remain open. He said a 30-foot section of decorative brick veneer sheered off the side of the hotel next to the awning leading into the front entrance. Authorities said a 51-year-old man was killed early Thursday morning after a pickup truck struck him in a hit-and-run as he walked on U.S. 1 in Prince George’s County. Just after midnight, a 2015 GMC pickup truck was traveling north on U.S. 1 near Naples Avenue in Beltsville. The man was in a lane when the truck hit him, according to Maryland State Police. The pickup truck did not stop and left the area. Witnesses gave police a description of the vehicle, which had a snowplow on it, and Laurel police officers later stopped a pickup that matched the description. Officials said the snow plow was not in use at the time. Authorities said charges are pending against the driver of the truck. The collision happened as the Washington region had been hit with about two inches of snow and roads were icy and not well treated. Police later identified the man who died as Salvador Jeremias Rivera Loza of Beltsville. A Northern Virginia man accused of trying to fly overseas to join the Islamic State terrorist organization will be held without bond until a court appearance next month, a federal magistrate judge ruled Thursday. Deciding there were no conditions that could keep the community safe and stop Joseph Hassan Farrokh from absconding, Magistrate Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff ruled that the 28-year-old must remain in federal custody — at least until a preliminary hearing in his case on Feb. 1. Farrokh was arrested last week at Richmond International Airport, where authorities alleged he intended to fly out on the first leg of his overseas journey to join up with the Islamic State. He is charged with attempting to provide material support to terrorists. The capital murder trial of Joaquin S. Rams, accused of drowning his 15-month-old son in 2012 to collect more than $540,000 in insurance proceeds, has been postponed from its Feb. 1 start date in Prince William County Circuit Court. Rams, 43, has been in the Prince William jail without bond for three years in connection with the October 2012 death of his son Prince McLeod Rams. But on Wednesday, his attorneys asked for a continuance, and Prince William Circuit Court Judge Craig D. Johnston granted it. No new trial date was set, pending a hearing next week. Defense attorney Daniel Morissette said the court-appointed defense team was concerned about the availability of some out-of-state witnesses and whether they would be present in Manassas when the defense presents its case. Rams has maintained he is innocent in his son’s death. |