Monday’s motions hearing has been pushed back until Thursday, August 4. This is the first bit of news that’s been added to the Court docket since the end of May. Lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer? As if.
07/29/2011 Event Resulted:
Motion Hearing scheduled for 08/01/2011 at 1:45 pm has been resulted as follows:
Result: Event Cancelled–hearing vacated at parties request.
Judge: RANKIN, MICHAEL L Location: Courtroom 517

07/29/2011 Event Scheduled
Event: Status Hearing
Date: 08/04/2011 Time: 1:45 pm
Judge: RANKIN, MICHAEL L Location: Courtroom 517

 The Long, Hot Summer

There’s been zero movement or any new filings made to the Wone docket on the Superior Court public database since May 25.  A few deadlines have passed since then: June 1 – all discovery was to have closed, and July 1 was to have been the deadline for filing motions.

One more deadline looms, August 1 for all dispositive motions to be decided. 

Next Monday, a day before the 5th anniversary of Robert’s murder is also a key date on the schedule calendar; there is a motions hearing scheduled before Judge Michael Rankin at 1:45pm. 

That hearing was added to the calendar back on May 5 and with news of a possible settlement and no new motions added to the database, we wondered whether or not the session would take place.

Court staff confirmed that the motions hearing is still a go.  Perhaps that afternoon we’ll have some indication of what the next few months look like, if settlement negotiations are still ongoing, and if we should prepare for an October trial.

There’s been a lot of talk about a possible settlement with very little news or comment to go by.  Some feel that an agreement may be in the works, but it isn’t global – meaning one or two of the threesome has cut a deal, leaving only one or two to face trial this fall. If that’s the case, the planned 4-5 week October trial could be truncated and far shorter than expected.  Who knows? Monday could provide some answers.

The Cat is Back

Thanks again to everyone’s favorite Cat (from Cleveland) – a longtime and trusted attorney voice here, she sends us this:

“I have no knowledge of anything having to do with this case that is not in the public domain. I’ve never met any of the people involved. I’ve never been to Swann Street. I haven’t even viewed the Florida residence on Google Maps. After reading everything there is to read for more than a year, I still don’t know who murdered Robert Wone. The following is purely hypothetical:
 
Three guys live together in a love triangle (I’ll call them Tom, Dick and Harry). Tom portrays himself as a strong, confident power broker.  Dick is unable to conceive of his life without Tom. Harry is a functioning sociopath whose behavior cannot be rationally explained.
 
Tom invites an old friend to spend the night. Harry decides to kill him. Why? Because Harry has long resented the friend? Because Harry has come to hate Tom? Because the friend once criticized his cooking?

Because Tom has pushed Harry to become his dominatrix while constantly criticizing him as not violent enough, and he wants to show Tom how violent he can be (perhaps he is still angry that, in an act of incredible condescension, Tom once bought him a book called “S&M for Dummies”)? To see what it feels like? For another reason?  Because Harry is a sociopath whose behavior cannot be rationally explained.

Read more »

Where We’re At, And What May Come

Many have asked us of late for any news of a settlement in the case, or even if any settlement has actually been reached.

While we have nothing new we can share, we will note this: it’s been six weeks since there was any filing whatsoever in the case.  In our two and a half years of following the criminal and now civil trial, that’s never happened before.

Of course, absence of a thing is not proof of its opposite – argumentum ad ignorantium is something that the defendants may have tried (“It can’t be one of us so it must be an intruder”) but we were instructed better in logic.  Still, for the present we’re sticking to the story that a settlement has largely been reached.

Of course, what kind of settlement, and involving who specifically, might be the better questions now.  Would the Wone family agree to a mere financial agreement in light of their (arguably) stronger position in the civil trial than the criminal?  And which defendant(s) may have reached a deal?

Is it possible that one or two of the defendants have decided to take their losses now at the expense of one of their former partners?  Yes, it’s very possible.  And more importantly, could any deal reached possibly begin to break new ground in the DC Police Department’s murder investigation?

We noted with interest a small item this Saturday in the Washington Post.  “Ft. Washington Man Arrested in Two DC Homicides From Late 90’s” read the headline to Matt Zapotosky’s story, detailing the arrest of Cederick Shuler, 35, in connection to two homicides from 1998 and 1999.  “Police did not say why they believed Shuler was responsible or what they believed his motive was,” was the sentence that caught our eye.

We’ve always found it a little hard to just accept Chief Lanier’s comments that the Wone case remains “very active” and just move on.  But there is no statute of limitations on murder, and there’s no telling what may dislodge over the coming months.  As we said before – settlement doesn’t mean it’s over.

Penguins Are People Too

While we wait for more news, if any, on the possible settlement, we’ll kick off another post with a question posed by everyone’s favorite cat (or penguin), Cat from Cleveland.  She may not sparkle, but ever since joining us here, she has certainly shined:
“I’m not much for party games, but reading the back and forth here about the New Yorker article, the spider, whether the knife was the murder weapon, and all of the less important details, as well as all of the things we suspect, but don’t know, leaves me trying to focus on what facts are known, and what I consider most important of those facts.

I’m interested in other’s opinions: what are the top two or three facts that lead you to your conclusion (whatever that is) about what happened that night?

For me, I don’t know what happened, and if I were a juror and everything I now know was learned from the evidence, I could not convict anyone of murder.

I agree with those that have noted that in times of high stress, people act in bizarre ways. Personally, I am calmer in a real crisis than I am when some little thing happens to disrupt my day (I’ve not encountered any dead or dying bodies in my guest room, but I suspect I’d be more like Dylan than Victor).

That said, the fact that Joe and Victor repeatedly insisted they were afraid the murderer was still in the house, but never called out to Dylan or expressed any concern for his well being, is pretty hard to explain. It leads me to conclude that they knew they weren’t in danger. And there is only one way they would know that.

Also, given that nothing was taken and anyone breaking into the house that night would have had to pass Dylan’s room to get to Robert, I’m left feeling that either Robert was a paid hit, or one of the housemates was involved.

That’s my summary. There are a lot of other facts and suspicions I find relevant, but if I had to pick a few facts that jump out to me, I guess those are it.”

The Civil Trial That May Never Be

We’ve heard from a source that a settlement has been reached in the civil trial between Kathy Wone & family, and defendants Joe Price, Victor Zaborsky and Dylan Ward. We’re trying to confirm this with the case principals.

This tip comes just one day after a private mediation session held with retired Judge Howard Chasanow yesterday, instead of the earlier June 14th mediation lifted by Judge Michael Rankin.  Arguments in the case were slate for later this October.

Kathy Wone originally brought the $20 million dollar wrongful death suit on November 25, 2008, around the same time the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed criminal charges of evidence tampering, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy first against Ward, and later with his two Swann Street house-mates.

On June 29, 2010, Judge Lynn Liebovitz foundPrice, Zaborsky and Ward not guilty of all charges. However, mere hours after the surprise verdict, attorneys on both sides of the civil case were hard at work for what was to be this October’s trial.

No details have been released on this possible settlement.  A call to plaintiff’s counsel yielded no comment, and calls to defense attorneys have yet to be returned.

This Still Coming In

We’re expecting that news could break in the Wone civil trial slated for later this October.

Watch this space.