The Washington Post - 06.08.2019

TUESDAY, AUGUST 6 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 B3

case, according to his indict-

ment. Investigators with the

U.S. Secret Service said he used

some of the fraudulently ob-

tained money to buy cars and

ship them to Nigeria.

After the cards contained

funds, members of the group

cashed them out and tried to

obscure where the money went

by using multiple bank ac-

counts or using various names

and entities to create money

orders, prosecutors allege.

Okirika is scheduled to be

sentenced in October.

[email protected]

cery or convenience stores and

registered to receive cash, court

documents state.

Between 2016 and 2018, the

group filed false claims for

disaster relief and purchased

hundreds of Green Dot cards to

claim the money using the

stolen identities of victims af-

fected by disasters across the

country, the government said.

The documents do not detail

how the stolen identities were

obtained.

At least 16 victims from Cali-

fornia, Georgia, Florida and

Texas were listed in Okirika’s

ment Monday. Udy Ubom, an

attorney for Irogho, declined to

comment. Irogho had been

scheduled to appear for a de-

tention hearing in U.S. District

Court in Greenbelt on Monday,

but the proceeding was post-

poned.

The scheme relied heavily on

Green Dot prepaid cards, ac-

cording to prosecutors and

court records. Those eligible for

emergency benefits from the

Federal Emergency Manage-

ment Agency could opt to claim

the funding through the cards

that can be purchased at gro-

charged with conspiracy to
commit money laundering.
Their arrests come a few weeks
after another man, Tare Stanley
Okirika, 30, of Laurel pleaded
guilty to wire fraud conspiracy,
admitting that he fraudulently
obtained government benefits
to pay his rent and for other
expenses, according to court
documents.
Online records did not list an
attorney for Ekeocha, and an
attorney for Okirika did not
respond to a request for com-

FRAUD FROM B1

St. John’s won, 13-0. School spirit

can take you only so far.

Reunited, and it feels so good

Speaking of high school, these

local schools are gathering in the

coming months.

Anacostia High Class of 1969

— Oct. 11-13. Email

[email protected].

Bethesda-Chevy Chase Class

of 1969 — Oct. 11-12. Visit

http://www.bcc1969.org or email Bob

Goss at [email protected].

Groveton High (Alexandria)

Class of 1969 — Oct. 12. Email

[email protected] or

search “Groveton High School

Class of 1969” on Facebook.

Northwestern High

(Hyattsville) Classes of 1952-

1969 — Sept. 28. 14th Annual

Golden Wildcats Reunion.

Contact Barbara Torbert at 301-

927-6029 or email

[email protected].

Season’s leavings

The season is looking interesting

for the Washington Nationals,

who find themselves contending

for a spot in the playoffs. So it

may seem uncharitable for me to

point out that if you have a season

ticket package that you don’t

want to renew for next year, now

is the time to cancel it.

In January, I wrote about how

irritated my wife was when

season ticket renewals switched

from opt-in to opt-out, a fact that

was communicated in emails

whose language some found

opaque.

I’m glad to say that this year’s

email was much clearer, with the

subject heading “Your Opt-Out

window starts on Monday.”

Information on how to opt out

should be arriving shortly, the

email said.

Go Nats.

[email protected]

Twitter: @johnkelly

 For previous columns, visit

washingtonpost.com/john-kelly.

necessity be closely screened and

documented.”

Mastermind Mark Smith —

who passed away two years ago —

felt the prank ranked among his

life’s greatest achievements.

“This was a really huge thing

on so many levels,” author

Farquhar (Gonzaga Class of 1982)

told me.

Things were grim around

Gonzaga at the time, he said. The

fires and looting after the

assassination of the Rev. Martin

Luther King Jr. had decimated

downtown neighborhoods. Some

suburban parents weren’t sure

why they were sending their sons

into a city that seemed on the

brink of collapse. The successful

prank was a much-needed shot of

school spirit.

A month after the game, a

letter from a group of St. John’s

cadets appeared in the Star’s Teen

section: “Gonzaga students spent

their time decorating the

Washington Monument and

posting signs throughout the city.

But when it came down to playing

the game itself, they could not

paint that game purple.”

The students pointed out that

The semipermeable

membranes were sheets of purple

celluloid Gonzaga students had

ordered from England, 135

square yards of it, at a cost of

$300. They affixed the plastic gels

over wooden frames and at 7 p.m.

on Nov. 11 positioned them over

the massive flood lights that

illuminated the monument.

Wrote the Star: “The Gonzaga

colors tinted the Monument from

7 to 7:35 p.m. Tuesday until park

police suggested the time was up

because phone calls were coming

in.”

The jig was up.

After the Park Police shut the

students down at the Washington

Monument, the teenagers went to

the Lincoln Memorial, where

they unfurled a banner that read

“Abe Says Beat St. Johns.”

All in good fun or an act of

vandalism?

Spiro Agnew thought it was

the latter. He dispatched an angry

letter to the headmaster of

Gonzaga. U.S. Park Police

Superintendent William Failor

also blasted the school. “In the

future,” he wrote, “any requests

from your institution will of

A few weeks ago,
the 50th
anniversary of the
first moon landing
was celebrated in
a unique way:
Images of Apollo
11 were projected
onto the
Washington
Monument. By all
accounts, it was pretty cool.
But it wasn’t the first time a
stirring light show danced upon
the obelisk’s blank stone surface.
Longtime Washingtonians
may recall its role in one of the
most audacious pranks ever
played in town. It was by the
students of Gonzaga, the Catholic
high school just off North Capitol
Street. In 1969, ahead of their
school’s big football game against
rival St. John’s, they turned the
Washington Monument purple.
“It was the latest in a series of
annual shenanigans (by Gonzaga,
whose colors are purple and
white) that have set the stage for
the yearly combat on the gridiron
by the two schools,” wrote the
Washington Evening Star’s Teen
page editor, Fifi Gorska, in her
full-page story a few days after
the gag.
The Gonzaga pranksters didn’t
use paint, but light.
Mark Smith was the Gonzaga
junior who organized the
operation, inspired by his older
brother Michael. Author Michael
Farquhar interviewed Smith for
his 2005 book “A Treasury of
Deception: Liars, Misleaders,
Hoodwinkers and the
Extraordinary True Stories of
History’s Greatest Hoaxes.”
“We convinced the
[Department of the Interior] that
we were doing a science project
which tested the effects of casting
light through a semipermeable
membrane on a white oblique
object,” Smith told Farquhar.
To make the request look legit,
they’d forged a note on a
purloined piece of school
letterhead.

handcuffed him with the help of

two off-duty officers.

Black became unresponsive

and died. His family says that

Black had mental health issues

and that officers used excessive

force.

— Associated Press

Overturned truck

closes I-270 lanes

Northbound and southbound

lanes of Interstate 270 were

closed for about an hour Monday

after a dump truck overturned

near the Montgomery-Frederick

county line.

Montgomery County fire

spokesman Pete Piringer said

hazmat crews cleared fuel that

spilled after the crash, which

happened about 1 p.m. near

Route 109, also known as Old

Hundred Road.

— Justin Wm. Moyer

VIRGINIA

Legion post overhaul

receives $1.5 million

A project to turn an American

Legion post in Arlington County

into a center that will include

apartments for military veterans

has received a $1.5 million boost

from the family foundation of

retired real estate developer

Ron Terwilliger, the nonprofit

group handling the

redevelopment announced

Monday.

The Terwilliger Family

Foundation contribution will

help turn the American Legion

Post 139 site in Virginia Square

into 160 apartments and a

6,000-square-foot facility for the

organization serving military

veterans, the Arlington

Partnership for Affordable

Housing said in a news release.

The $72 million overhaul is

scheduled to break ground next

spring, with military veterans

getting priority placement in

half of the new apartments

when the project is complete,

the partnership said.

— Antonio Olivo

Sailor shot after traffic

stop is identified

The Navy has named the

sailor who was fatally shot by

security personnel at a Navy

base in Virginia Beach after a

traffic stop and struggle.

They said Juan Gerardo

Medina-Reynaga, 25, a Kansas

native, was assigned to the USS

George H.W. Bush.

— Associated Press

THE DISTRICT

Police identify two

struck on park bench

U.S. Park Police have

identified two people who died

last month when a vehicle struck

them as they were sitting on a

park bench in downtown

Washington.

Thomas Dwight Spriggs, 42,

and Jesus Antonio Llanes-Datil,

63, were in James Monroe Park

around 11:30 p.m. on July 10

when an SUV veered off the road

and hit them, officials said.

The men didn’t appear to have

fixed addresses, police said.

An initial investigation

showed speed to be a factor in

the crash, said Sgt. Eduardo

Delgado, spokesman for the Park

Police. Two weeks after the

crash, a memorial for the two

men sprouted on Pennsylvania

Avenue and 21st Street NW.

— Laurel Demkovich

MARYLAND

Two motorcyclists

killed in crashes

Two people were killed in

motorcycle crashes Sunday.

Maryland State Police said

Jared Stewart, 26, was killed

when he lost control and

crashed on the ramp from Harry

S. Truman Drive to Central

Avenue in Upper Marlboro.

In the other incident, police

said Brian Okeith Norris, 34, of

Parkville crashed near Interstate

695 and Route 2 in Glen Burnie.

— Dana Hedgpeth

Police decertify officer

involved in fatality

A Maryland police officer

involved in the death last year of

a 19-year-old black man who had

been handcuffed has lost his

police certification.

The Easton Star Democrat

reported that Maryland’s Police

Training and Standards

Commission decertified Thomas

Webster IV on July 26.

Greensboro Police Chief Eric

Lee announced at a town

meeting Thursday that Webster

is no longer on the force.

Webster’s certification came

into question when state officials

said he failed to disclose nearly

30 use-of-force reports from his

police career in Dover, Del.

In September, Webster

confronted 19-year-old Anton

Black in Caroline County after

receiving a 911 call about a

possible abduction. Webster

chased Black, then arrested and

LOCAL DIGEST

Results from Aug. 5

DISTRICT

Mid-Day Lucky Numbers: 4-4-1

Mid-Day DC-4: 9-0-7-7

Mid-Day DC-5: 3-7-5-3-2

Lucky Numbers (Sun.): 3-0-0

Lucky Numbers (Mon.): 8-8-8

DC-4 (Sun.): 7-1-9-3

DC-4 (Mon.): 9-4-5-7

DC-5 (Sun.): 5-7-0-5-4

DC-5 (Mon.): 9-3-9-4-7

MARYLAND

Mid-Day Pick 3: 9-6-4

Mid-Day Pick 4: 2-6-0-6

Night/Pick 3 (Sun.): 5-8-1

Pick 3 (Mon.): 6-8-7

Pick 4 (Sun.): 3-6-7-8

Pick 4 (Mon.): 5-6-5-3

Multi-Match: 3-7-8-13-26-30

Match 5 (Sun.): 5-8-15-17-34 *7

Match 5 (Mon.): 5-10-16-33-37 *34

5 Card Cash: 8H-2S-2C-KC-6H

VIRGINIA

Day/Pick-3: 1-2-8

Pick-4: 5-5-8-7

Cash-5: 6-13-24-26-34

Night/Pick-3 (Sun.): 9-6-6

Pick-3 (Mon.): 9-0-4

Pick-4 (Sun.): 0-5-6-5

Pick-4 (Mon.): 5-2-1-9

Cash-5 (Sun.): 4-5-10-11-32

Cash-5 (Mon.): 1-4-14-21-29

MULTI-STATE GAMES

Cash 4 Life: 9-19-24-34-56 ¶3

Lucky for Life: 20-30-37-42-47 ‡10

*Bonus Ball ‡Lucky Ball ¶Cash Ball

For late drawings and other results, check

washingtonpost.com/local/lottery

LOTTERIES

In ’69, the Washington Monument had a purple phase

John
Kelly's
Washington

Group is accused of using victims’ stolen identities

COMPOSITE IMAGE BY OLIVER CONTRERAS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

The Apollo 11 anniversary lit up the Washington Monument last

month. Gonzaga students used the obelisk for a prank 50 years ago.

BY JENNA PORTNOY

Several hundred protesters
gathered Monday night in front of
the headquarters of the National
Rifle Association in Fairfax Coun-
ty to play out what by now has
become a routine: Call for stron-
ger gun laws. Repeat.
Days after two mass shootings,
Northern Virginia chapters of
Brady and March for Our Lives
organized the “Vigil for Remem-
brance and Change.”
Students read the names of the
El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, victims
followed by moments of silence.
Activists chanted “Enough is
enough! Not one more” and held
homemade signs. One read, “If
only thoughts and prayers were
bulletproof.” Another read, “NRA,
take their tax exempt away.”
They also decried inaction on
Capitol Hill, where the Republi-
can-controlled Senate has de-
clined to consider legislation
passed by the majority-Demo-
cratic House that would strength-
en background checks for gun
purchases.
“Is it political to say I’m tired of
coming to this building and the
only thing that has changed is the
body count?” Rep. Jennifer Wex-
ton (D-Va.) asked the crowd. “No!”
they responded. Cars driving by
honked support, and activists re-
sponded with raised fists and the
peace sign.

The protest included people

who go to the site on the 14th of

each month in remembrance of

the massacre at Sandy Hook El-

ementary on Dec. 14, 2012.

That includes retirees John

Sterling, 64, and Michelle Crouch,

57, who go on mornings, hoping

NRA employees inside the build-

ing will hear them.

“We’re adding to the number of

people standing here,” Sterling

said. “Instead of declining over

time, it’s growing.”

The NRA on Sunday tweeted a

statement of sympathy for the

families and victims of the shoot-

ings and appreciation for first

responders.

“The NRA is committed to the

safe and lawful use of firearms by

those exercising their Second

Amendment freedoms,” it said.

“We will not participate in the

politicizing of the these tragedies,

but, as always, we will work in

good faith to pursue real solutions

that protect us all from people

who commit these horrific acts.”

[email protected]

VIRGINIA

Protesters at NRA demand stronger gun laws

MICHAEL A. MCCOY FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Gun-control advocates at the NRA’s Fairfax headquarters remember victims in Texas and Ohio.

BY MARTIN WEIL

The woman was on the bus

Monday on Capitol Hill and sud-

denly realized that she would have

to get off. She was pregnant and,

according to a D.C. fire depart-

ment spokesman, she recognized

that she was about to deliver.

Fortunately, a D.C. fire station

was nearby, and so a baby girl was

born inside the building, in what

fire department spokesman Vito

Maggiolo said was the first such

incident that he could recall.

It’s well known that firefighters

bring newborns into the world in

many places and on many types of

conveyances.

But right inside the firehouse —

that seemed a new one for several

firefighters who told the story

Monday outside their building in

the 400 block of Eighth Street SE.

The delivery occurred quickly,

on a floor inside an office, fire-

fighters from the station said.

It happened to be his first deliv-

ery, said firefighter Zeek Dziekan.

“It was absolutely amazing.”

Shortly afterward, the baby,

who seemed healthy, her mother

and father, and a 2-year-old sib-

ling continued their journey to a

hospital. In an ambulance.

[email protected]

THE DISTRICT

Woman gives birth inside firehouse

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Better Than Sax: Free Tickets to Kim Waters

on August 17 at The Birchmere

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No Strings Attached: Free Tickets to TiffsBass

on August 20 at City Winery

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While on a dig for diamonds,

teacher Josh Lanik found the

largest gem to date at which state

park in Arkansas?