The Washington Post - 21.03.2020

B4 eZ sU THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAy, MARCH 21 , 2020

Northeast Washington. Earlier this week, leaders at rocketship rise Academy Public Charter School in Southeast Washington informed families that one of their students was suspected of having the coronavirus. The child later tested nega- tive, officials said. A D.C. police detective also has tested positive, and the department is looking at r elocating o ther detectives to a different facility, which h as yet to b e determined, so the homicide office can be deep- cleaned and disinfected, according to two officials with knowl- edge of the situation. Several first responders f rom the f ire and EmS Department have tested positive as well. maryland officials on friday reported 42 new coronavirus cases, including the first infant and first teenager known to have contracted the virus, bringing the state’s total number of known cases to 150. Hogan urged college students returning from s pring break vaca- tions to self-quarantine for two weeks and avoid senior citizens in case the students had contracted the v irus w hile traveling. The governor said even though most colleges have switched to online classes, students should not treat the time as an extended spring break. maryland i s also s hutting down motor Vehicle Administration of- fices friday evening, following Virginia and the District. People with expired driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations can wait until a month after t he state of e mer- gency is lifted to renew them. In montgomery County, a D.C. suburb with a third of the state’s known cases, officials are tapping reserves to launch a $25 million fund for small businesses, warn- ing the e conomic repercussions of covid-19 may outlast the v irus. Greg Wheelan, who co-owns mcGinty’s Public House in Silver Spring, said that without assis- tance from local, state or federal governments, he could rack up $80,000 in debt by April. on Wednesday, he said, he made $400 in sales and gave out $500 in wages. “ That’s when it hit me,” Wheelan said. “We’re not going to survive without help.” Virginia officials reported 22 additional coronavirus cases friday, b ringing the s tatewide total to 116. Northam h as taken t he g entlest approach to enforcing social distancing rules at businesses, im- posing a 10-person limit but not ordering restaurants and bars to stop serving customers on-site. on friday, he urged businesses to stop defying him. “We’re hearing reports of some businesses being noncompliant,” Northam s aid. “ our localities have the authority to enforce the 10- person l imit a t restaurants, fitness centers and theaters. And I fully expect them to use it when need- ed. But many businesses and many people are doing the r espon- sible thing and for that, I say, ‘Thank you.’ ” To help food and drink estab- lishments with declining revenue, Northam s aid he’s d irected V irginia’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority to allow restaurants to sell beer and wine as takeout or delivery orders. The District and maryland adopted similar rules this week. Northam, a physician, said he was “putting on my doctor’s hat for just a bit” as he warned about the financial and emotional stress the v irus i s inflicting. “I know this is hard on people’s morale,” Northam said. “It is very, very stressful. It i s scary. We are all experiencing big, unwanted changes, and we don’t know how long this w ill all last.” [email protected] darr [email protected] [email protected]

ovetta Wiggins, Perry stein, Keith l. Alexander, clarence Williams, Peter Herman, laura Vozzella, luz lazo and Justin george contributed to this report.

tal and a spike in coronavirus pa-
tients.
As of now, similar restrictions
in place in maryland and Virginia
are limited to this month.
Bowser (D) also closed play-
grounds and extended the city’s
prohibition of on-site service at
restaurants and bars and the clo-
sure of theaters, gyms and spas
until April 25. The measures un-
derscore a new reality for Wash-
ingtonians: No school, church,
dining out or visits to the movie
theater or gym for at least six
weeks.
“I cannot s tress enough that the
threat of this virus poses very s eri-
ous c onsequences for o ur commu-
nity,” the mayor said. “It does not
discriminate based on age, race or
gender. Everyone can get it and
pass it on.”
D.C. officials said the 59-year-
old man who died of the novel
coronavirus friday was admitted
to a hospital last week with fever,
cough and underlying medical
conditions. The man may have had
contact with a previous patient.
A Prince George’s man in his
60s died of the virus earlier this
week, and two men in their 70s
from eastern Virginia also have
died.
Bowser s aid the extension of t he
District’s public health emergency
is necessary to determine if social
distancing measures are succeed-
ing. D.C. government will run on
limited operations, with most em-
ployees working remotely. recre-
ational centers and libraries will
stay c losed until A pril 27, and gath-
erings of 50 or more are banned.
Bowser said she is considering
lowering t he threshold f or prohib-
ited gatherings to 10 in accor-
dance w ith federal guidance.
“We have virtually shut down our
thriving economy in Washington,
D.C., so that we can blunt the curve
and get back to regular business
just as s oon as possible,” s he s aid.
Public schools will use distance
learning, with classes resuming
April 27 instead of A pril 1. The city
will also add a n additional 10 meal
sites for students, bringing the
total to 29. The school closure
order does not formally apply to
public charter schools, but most
follow the s chool system’s l ead.
“Teaching and learning will
continue,” s aid Paul Kihn, the dep-
uty mayor f or education.
residents of the capital region
are heading into a weekend with
no friday happy hours, no Satur-
day night concerts and no Sunday
brunches. Large gatherings are
prohibited throughout the Dis-
trict, maryland a nd V irginia.
The regional metro transit sys-
tem announced late friday it
would curtail service further, run-
ning trains every 30 minutes and
operating buses on a Sunday
schedule.
N either Hogan (r) nor Virginia
Gov. ralph Northam (D) an-
nounced new major restrictions
or drastic m easures to keep people
apart — t hough officials reiterated
the need to stay indoors, avoid
crowds and stay away from their
favorite n eighborhood spots.
Health experts say such social
distancing can curb the spread of
the virus and prevent the health
care system from becoming over-
loaded. New York, Illinois and Cal-
ifornia — which have far more
cases and deaths than the Wash-
ington region so far — this week
took the even more drastic step of
ordering residents to stay indoors
as much as possible.
T he tally of known coronavirus
cases in the District, maryland
and Virginia r eached 3 47. D.C. offi-
cials say four cases in their juris-
diction occurred among people
who are not residents. maryland
says one reported case is of a wom-
an who splits her t ime in m ontana.
The District reported i ts l argest
single-day increase in known cor-
onavirus cases on Thursday, near-
ly doubling from 40 to 72. The
cases also included the first child
known to have the virus, later
identified as a n 8-year-old student
at maury Elementary School in

dmV from B1

D.C. has 1st death,

extends closures

obituaries

BY WASHINGTON POST STAFF

John “Jack” mcDonnell Jr., a Washington-area telecom entre- preneur who founded Transac- tion Network Services, which developed technology to handle the transmission of credit card and other sensitive financial transactions at the start of the Internet age, died march 1 at a hospital in fort myers, fla. He was 82. The cause was a heart attack, said his son-in-law matthew mudd. mr. mcDonnell started reston, Va.-based Transaction Network Services, also known as TNS, in 1990 and served as chief executive as it grew to include banks, Wall Street firms and telephone companies as clients. five years after taking the company public, he sold TNS in 1999 to the Internet service pro- vider PSINet for $720 million in cash and stock, creating one of the most lucrative mergers be- tween two Washington-area technology companies. forbes magazine valued his family’s 11 percent stake at $77 million. Ashburn, Va.-based PSINet collapsed in 2001 amid the dot- com bubble. mr. mcDonnell — who meanwhile tripled a $3 million investment in a small soft- ware company called Paylinx — bought TNS back with private- equity support. In early 2006, he made a bid to take TNS private, but his offer was rejected, and he was reportedly ousted by the board after the firm suffered a major decline in net income. He subsequently became chief executive of ExaDigm Inc., a payment-terminal development company based in Santa Ana, Calif., and Phoenix man- aged Networks, which handles credit-card payment transactions for large banks. John James mcDonnell Jr., the son of Irish immigrants, was born in mineola, N.Y., on oct. 31, 1937, and grew up in Queens. He studied electrical engineering,

receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1959 from manhattan College and a master’s degree in 1961 from rensselaer Polytechnic In- stitute in Troy, N.Y. After two years of Air force service — during which he trained as a pilot and designed satellite systems for the National Security Agency — he started a company selling technology pe- ripherals and ran an executive airline service. In 1 976, he was named director of technology and telecommuni- cations for the National Commis- sion on Electronic fund Trans- fers, a now-defunct federal body to keep Congress up to speed on developments in the industry. H e then spent seven years as a vice president of BT Ty mnet, a public data network that he reportedly helped lead into finan-

cial services, and later became head of communications for the Electronic Industries Associa- tion, making him a leading lob- byist for the telecom-hardware industry. Citicorp tapped him in 1987 to oversee its Digital radio Net- work project that used a form of radio transmission for credit card verification. He told Ameri- can Banker that it was successful on a technology level but “a marketing disaster. The banks just weren’t ready to embrace radio.” Not long after, he started TNS, capitalizing on newer, high- speed technologies used by phone companies. He was a founder of the Elec- tronic funds Transfer Associa- tion and won industry awards. He served on the board of the

Shakespeare Theatre and mary- mount University in Arlington, Va. The American Ireland fund honored him for helping support the development of religiously integrated schools in Northern Ireland. He also was a prolific corporate investor and adviser. He had homes in mcLean, Va., and fort myers, and his member- ships i ncluded Burning Tree Club in Bethesda, md. Survivors include his wife of 58 years, marian “Jackie” Hayes mcDonnell, who resides in a retirement home in Bethesda; four children, Sheila Bates and Kerry mudd, both of mcLean, John mcDonnell III of mill Val- ley, Calif., and Kevin mcDonnell of Washington; a brother; a sis- ter; 14 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. [email protected]

JOHN “JACK” MCDONNELL JR., 82

Founded, oversaw Reston-based telecom company

coUrtesy of tns John “Jack” mcdonnell Jr. in 1990 founded transaction Network Services, which developed technology to handle the transmission of sensitive financial transactions.

ney Gary Proctor happened to be outside the courthouse, trying to file an emergency motion to have a client released from a work-re- lease center owing to the man’s coronavirus concerns. He made his way to Storm’s courtroom, taking a seat about six feet from anyone else. “I wanted to see it with my o wn eyes,” Proctor said. family members of the shooting victims, like most everyone else, have altered their lives. Wanda and Donald roberts, the parents of Christian roberts, placed a “CoVID-19 Update” on the website of the foundation honoring their son, announcing that a planned “Sneaker Ball” fundraising gala would be post- poned. They were at the courthouse sitting through the trial, and they didn’t w ant to have to go through the process again. “A s a parent you just want to have resolution,” said Wanda roberts, sitting outside t he courtroom. Next to her was her hus- band, other relatives and a con- tainer of bleach wipes. on the other end of the eighth- floor lobby, news headlines — being pored over by one of the jurors waiting for deliberations to start — were terrifying. “Worse than a war,” announced a dis- patch from Italy. “Theaters shut down,” read another. By 9:40 a.m., he and his jury mates headed to deliberations. But by 4:30 p.m., no verdict. They returned Wednesday at 9 a.m., working until quitting for the most non-viral of reasons. “We appear to have a hung jury,” the panel wrote in a note at 4:20 p.m. “A nd no further deliberations will change the deci- sions.” Storm did not have to consider his options very long. It was clear the jurors were deadlocked. It was clear they had been commit- ted to their task. There had been a lone holdout for not guilty on felony murder, montgomery County State’s At- torney John mcCarthy would later say, adding that his office would retry the case. In the courtroom, after Storm declared a mistrial, Lawlor took two steps toward the prosecution table, extending his right hand. “You guys tried a really good case,” he said, shaking Larson’s hand. Hall demurred. “I can’t shake your hand during coronavirus time,” she said. “Sorry.” [email protected]

of the victims, detectives and medical examiners. The world outside was turning worse by the moment. on Thursday, march 12, the fourth day of the trial, Hogan announced the state’s first case of community transmission. He banned gatherings of more than 250 people. He announced that schools would be closing. The court system weighed in as well, suspending all trials set to start the following monday. In court the next day, Lawlor made his move and requested a mistrial owing to virus angst weighing on jurors. He was denied. over the weekend, jurors f aced unending, alarming developments involving the virus. But they showed up on time monday, taking in closing arguments. Hall highlighted the testimony of Hunt, and how the defendant’s DNA was found on the outside of the car where the shooting erupt- ed. “Ladies and gentlemen, Andy Panton executed these two men in cold blood,” she said. The jury went off to deliberate in their large conference room. But without a verdict, Storm let them leave for the day. All 12 filed out — none coughing, none looking sick, and none wearing masks. The montgomery County Cir- cuit Courthouse is typically buzz- ing with activity: trials, plea hear- ings, weddings in the first-floor chapel. on a typical day, 1,500 to 2,000 members of the public arrive for various matters, according to montgomery County Sheriff Darren m. Popkin. This week, hallways, corridors, waiting areas and courtrooms stretched out in isolation. By Tuesday morning, as Law- lor renewed his request for a mistrial, word of montgomery’s lone trial had spread among law- yers in the state. Baltimore attor-

limited to typical trial stuff: possible connections to witnesses, personal beliefs they held. None shared worries about a virus spreading, a ttorneys would recall later. That same monday, maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (r) was pro- jecting calm. “A ll of our cases at this point are related to foreign travel,” Hogan said. “So far we have no cases of transmission here in the state of maryland.” The next day, the 12 jurors and two alternate jurors settled into their jury sections and the pro- ceedings began. Storm’s courtroom, on the eighth floor, is roughly 40 feet wide and 80 feet long, with high ceilings. The jurors sat along two tiers, their heads about four feet from one another. During the prosecution’s o pen- ing statement, they heard stun- ning allegations that would cap- ture anyone’s attention. The man on trial, Andy Panton, 21, was allegedly part of a plan to lure a young man to a dark spot in the county’s White oak area on the night of Jan. 28, 2019. Under the guise of paying the man $550 for marijuana, prosecutors s aid, Pan- ton intended to rob him. The target pulled up with a friend in the passenger seat, according to prosecutors. Panton and an alleged accomplice, Don- taye Hunt, got into the back seat. But things went terribly wrong. Panton ended up firing four shots, according to prosecutors, killing both men — Jordan rad- way and Christian roberts — in the front seat. Lawlor told the jury to scruti- nize the state’s key witnesses. “You’ll have only doubt about their credibility, and with that I’m going to ask you to find mister Panton not guilty of these offenses,” he said. for several days, jurors heard from witnesses, family members

official Becky feldman said they were down to one trial — a rape case in Anne Arundel County, which concluded Thursday with a split verdict. “It’s obviously a difficult situation that all of us are in,” montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Harry Storm said in re- sponse to Lawlor’s argument. Storm noted how much time everyone had invested in the trial: a day of jury selection, four days of witness testimony, s everal hours of closing arguments. He cited a big precaution that had been taken: allowing jurors to deliberate in a conference room — one twice the size of a typical jury deliberation room — on the other side of the courthouse to allow social distancing. Then Storm denied Lawlor’s request. “Please know that I am very mindful of all the concerns,” the judge said. His decision, as it turned out, seemed welcomed by the jurors. They ended up deliberating over three days, airing not one word of health worries. “I know it’s been trying cir- cumstances,” Storm told the panel, thanking them for their service. Lawlor, too, was impressed by their sense of civic duty. “With everyone on edge, they not only showed up every day but did so without complaint,” he said. Two jurors who spoke briefly afterward said they were relative- ly comfortable meeting together in the courthouse. As one said, the very nature of the case — two young men killed, another facing the prospect of life in prison — was so serious that it command- ed their attention. “We wanted to keep trying,” she said. When 380 prospective jurors were called to the courthouse on march 9, the coronavirus had not yet upended American life. maryland’s schools, bars and restaurants were open. News of the state’s first cases of coronavirus was just three days old, and those three people were reportedly doing well. About 85 of the prospective jurors were sent to a courtroom for the double-homicide trial. They sat inches from one another in chairs, waiting their turns to walk up to the judge’s bench to answer questions in a huddle with Lawlor and assistant state’s attorneys Jessica Hall and Peter Larson. The prospective jurors’ concerns and comments seemed

trIAl from B1

In an empty Md. courthouse, one trial carried on

montgomery coUnty PolIce A ndy Panton, left, was tried before a jury this week on two counts of homicide. Alleged accomplice dontaye Hunt, right, testified.

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The Washington Post - 21.03.2020

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