The Washington Post - 06.08.2019

KLMNO

METRO

TUESDAY, AUGUST 6 , 2019. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/REGIONAL EZ SU B

JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON

In 1969, a high school

prank bathed the

Washington Monument in

purple light. B3

OBITUARIES

Nuon Chea, the infamous

“Brother Number Two” of

the Khmer Rouge, was

convicted of genocide. B5

OBITUARIES

D.A. Pennebaker, an

Oscar-awarded creator of

documentaries, focused

76 ° 86 ° 89 ° 82 ° on politics and music. B6

8 a.m. Noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m.

High today at

approx. 3 p.m.

90

°

Precip: 40%

Wind: SSW

6-12 mph

BY SAMANTHA SCHMIDT

For nearly a decade after Jessi-

ca Tunon broke up with her

boyfriend, the messages kept ar-

riving.

She moved across the country

and asked him to stop contacting

her. She changed her email ad-

dress and phone number. She

temporarily deleted her Linked-

In account. She filed a civil

protection order against him,

hoping it would finally bring an

end to the stalking.

But Tunon still worried about

the information he might be able

to find about her online. When

she searched her name on

Google, her home address

popped up easily. Living alone in

the District and fearing for her

safety, Tunon set out to remove

her home address from public

records.

She quickly discovered that it

wasn’t simple. Unlike most

states, the District had no

streamlined process that allowed

victims of stalking or domestic

violence to keep their home ad-

dresses confidential.

“The fact that we don’t put

those connections together for

how to protect people online, I

don’t know how it’s taken so long

to do that,” said Tunon, a 42-year-

old business owner who testified

to the D.C. Council about her

experiences.

Now, D.C. officials will soon

launch a program to provide

address confidentiality for vic-

tims of domestic violence, sexual

crimes, stalking and human traf-

ficking, as well as employees of

organizations that serve those

victims. It will also apply to

workers at reproductive-health

clinics, who have historically

been targets of threats and vio-

lence.

A coordinator was recently

hired for the program, which

aims to begin offering applica-

tions for address confidentiality

by the fall.

The program, which will be

administered through the Office

of Victim Services and Justice

Grants, was created as part of the

Address Confidentiality Act,

which the D.C. Council passed

last year. In passing the legisla-

tion, the District joined 36 states

with similar address confidenti-

SEE ADDRESSES ON B4

New help

for those

stalked

or abused

BY DONNA ST. GEORGE

Gary Wilson is having a sum-

mer like no other — awake before

5 a.m., on the job before dawn.

One day, he is ankle-deep in

muddy water, helping to replace

a broken concrete storm pipe.

Another, he is wielding a jack-

hammer as though he has done it

for years.

It’s all a big change from

classes at Suitland High School

in Maryland, these weeks of work

as an apprentice to a master

plumber.

“We’ve been out there doing a

lot, and I’m picking it up,” Wil-

son, a rising senior, said more

than a month into the experi-

ence.

In a program described as a

first in the state, Wilson and

other teenagers in Prince

George’s County are paired with

employees from their school sys-

tem for an apprenticeship de-

signed to last several years. Their

work continues through August

and scales back to part time

during 12th grade. After gradua-

tion, the school system plans to

hire the students or place them

with industry partners as they

continue to train.

“Our goal is to get our students

fully licensed as journeymen to

work in their chosen trades,” said

Lateefah Durant, career and

technical education coordinator

for the school system, who hopes

some of the students have long

careers with Prince George’s.

“It’s an opportunity to grow

our own but also give our stu-

dents a set of skills and a licen-

sure that they can take any-

where,” she said.

The idea took shape at a time

when the school system’s build-

ing services staff had openings —

and high school students were

eyeing the job market. One of the

goals in career and technical

education is to connect students

to employment opportunities af-

ter graduation, Durant said.

“We had this mutual need, and

that’s how it started,” she said.

With the program’s launch in

June, the students began work-

ing full time for $15 an hour on

crews that maintain and repair

the system’s more than

200 schools and offices. Some do

SEE APPRENTICE ON B4

BY LYNH BUI

The money was supposed to be

for those who needed to rebuild

their lives.

In the wake of massive hurri-

canes and wildfires that pum-

meled the United States in recent

years, the federal government

made relief funds available for

those who found themselves up-

rooted amid the rubble of

charred or washed-out homes.

But in Maryland — far from

where the California wildfires

and Hurricanes Harvey, Irma

and Maria struck — a group of

residents managed to scam the

federal government out of

$8 million in relief funds desig-

nated for those who needed it

most, according to prosecutors.

Members of the group, prosecu-

tors allege, were part of a scheme

that stole the identities of disas-

ter victims and applied for vic-

tims benefits — to pay their own

rents, buy cars or make personal

purchases.

“While many come forward in

the wake of disasters to help

selflessly, some use disasters to

enrich themselves through theft

and fraud,” U.S. Attorney for the

District of Maryland Robert K.

Hur said in a statement Friday

announcing the arrest of two

men in the alleged conspiracy.

John Irogho, 38, of Upper

Marlboro, Md., has been charged

with conspiracy to commit wire

fraud and conspiracy to commit

money laundering, according to

federal prosecutors. Odinaka

Ekeocha, 33, of Laurel has been

SEE FRAUD ON B3

Yes, she did cry.

“I did. A little

bit,” said Abbey

Clements,

dabbing under

her eyes as she

left the backroom

of the tattoo

parlor, into a

cheering crowd of middle-aged

women crowding the lobby. “But

not because it hurt. Because,

well, because of everything. All

of it, it’s like this is my battle

scar.”

Because, as the artist was

piercing her 50-year-old skin for

the first time with an ink needle

to write “One Tough Mother” on

her back, Clements remembered

the sound of 20 first-graders

being slaughtered across the hall

while she sang Christmas carols

to her second-graders at Sandy

Hook Elementary nearly seven

years ago.

Because her fear that this will

keep happening was realized the

very next day when at least 31

people were killed and dozens

SEE DVORAK ON B2

The permanence of a protest

Petula

Dvorak

In Pr. George’s, a summer school for the future

County program, the first

in Md., helps high school

students learn trade work

Group accused of taking

$8 million in relief funds

PHOTOS BY EVELYN HOCKSTEIN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Gordie Jones inks “One Tough Mother” onto Abbey Clements’s left shoulder at a tattoo

parlor in Northwest Washington. Clements was a second-grade teacher at Sandy Hook

Elementary and is a member of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a group

fighting for public safety measures that had its annual meeting last week in the District.

D.C. PROGRAM SHIELDS

HOME ADDRESSES

Initiative to ease process

for aid workers, victims

DONNA ST. GEORGE/THE WASHINGTON POST

Gary Wilson is serving as an apprentice to master plumber Walter

Booker. “This young man, I’m very, very impressed,” Booker said.

Md. residents allegedly

used stolen identities to

apply for federal money