Water supervisor pleads guilty to conflict-of-interest charge
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Version 0 of 1. A D.C. Water and Sewer Authority permitting supervisor pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal conflict-of-interest charge for approving work applications prepared by his own private company, named after his first name spelled backwards, according to court records. Londra S. Watson, 53, of the District, faces up to a maximum of five years in prison at sentencing June 27 before Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan of the District, prosecutors said. Federal sentencing guidelines, however, call for up to six months incarceration, they said. Watson, a 35-year utility veteran, started Ardnol of DC LLC in November 2007 and did not disclose his interest in the company to WASA, according to court papers. Through February 2012, applicants seeking to modify plumbing connections to utility lines provided checks totaling $141,066 to Watson’s company, which prepared permit packages that the applicants then submitted to Watson’s office for approval, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District. — Spencer S. Hsu A District man pleaded guilty Wednesday to assault charges and driving under the influence following a New Year’s Day crash that injured 13 people standing on a sidewalk outside of Barcode, a downtown Washington nightclub. Malik Lloyd, 25, pleaded guilty in D.C. Superior Court to three counts of assault with significant bodily injury, one count of destruction of property and one count of driving under the influence in the Jan. 1 crash. Three times in a month, a Howard County man met with the potential hit man, police say. He had a job for him: Kill his wife and make it look like a robbery gone bad at his home on Polished Pebble Way in Laurel. Price: $15,000. But it turns out the possible hit man was an undercover detective, police say, and Aafaq Manejwala has been arrested and charged with solicitation of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. According to Howard County police, they received a tip that Manejwala, 36, was looking for someone who would be “willing to kill his wife for money.” With an informant’s help, Manejwala and an undercover police detective posing as a hit man were introduced. On Tuesday, police said, Manejwala met with the officer and paid him $100, according to court documents. Authorities then took Manejwala into custody and charged him. He is being held without bond at the Howard County jail. A body was found along a creek bed in Woodbridge, a Prince William County police spokesman said Wednesday. Authorities said a citizen who was walking by made the grim discovery at 12:51 p.m. The body was found along the edge of Powells Creek , which lies just below a bridge on Jefferson Davis Highway, said Officer Nathan Probus, a department spokesman. — Victoria St. Martin Two people were found dead after house fires in Montgomery County and the District, authorities said Wednesday. In Montgomery County, officials said the blaze began about 10 p.m. Tuesday in the 1800 block of Windjammer Way. More than 100 firefighters were called to the scene. The man’s body was found in the basement. His name was not immediately released, and it was not immediately known what started the fire. The fire in the District occurred early Wednesday in a house near American University, at 45th and Sedgwick Streets. A male occupant, whose age and name were not immediately released, was pulled from the house by firefighters but died at an area hospital. — Dana Hedgpeth and Peter Hermann |