The Washington Post - USA (2020-08-10)

MONDAY, AUGUST 10 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 B3

Recreational activities including fishing and boating will continue, the park agency said. Officials said parts of L ake Needwood and Lake Frank may be contaminated for the rest of the season. — Martin Weil

VIRGINIA

2 killed in single-car crash in Fairfax

Two people died in a single-car crash early Sunday in Baileys Crossroads, according to Fairfax County police. The crash happened about 1:35 a.m. in the 3400 block of Carlin Springs Road when the driver lost control of the vehicle and hit a tree, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Police said the passenger, 2 9-year-old Maria Crowder, was killed on impact, while the driver, 28-year-old Byron Hines, was taken to the hospital in life- threatening condition. He died later Sunday, police said. Both were from Maryland. Investigators think speed may have been a factor but said they are still investigating whether alcohol was involved. — Meagan Flynn

school, striking a traffic-light pole in a median, the sheriff’s office said. Investigators attributed the crash to “speed and driver error.” Payne said that after the crash reconstruction is completed, the sheriff’s office would launch an internal investigation into the chase if authorities think it is warranted. — Meagan Flynn

Potentially harmful algae seen in lake

Signs of dangerous algae have been found at a lake in Montgomery County, and officials have urged visitors to the vicinity to take precautions. Signs showed up at Lake Needwood of blue-green algae that produce microcystin, which can harm both people and animals, the Montgomery section of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission said. The toxin, if ingested in high concentrations, can harm the liver, the agency said. It said it was particularly concerned about dogs that were off leash and may swim in or drink from the lake, despite regulations.

MARYLAND

Man pursued in police

chase dies in crash

A man being pursued by
police in a high-speed chase died
Saturday when his vehicle hit a
pole in Calvert County, the
sheriff’s office said Sunday.
The driver, 34-year-old Hunter
Kristian Sondberg of
Sunderland, l ed police on a chase
for about seven miles before
losing control of his vehicle
about 5:45 p.m. a long Route 4
near Huntingtown High School,
according to Calvert County
Capt. David Payne. Sondberg
died at the scene, authorities
said.
Deputies began chasing
Sondberg following multiple 911
reports about a white Honda
Ridgeline driving erratically
south on Route 4 in Owings, the
sheriff’s office said.
When deputies located
Sondberg’s vehicle, he was
driving at “pretty significant”
speeds, and deputies tried to
initiate a traffic stop, Payne said.
Sondberg would not pull over,
according to the sheriff’s office.
Sondberg, who was alone in
the car, lost control i n the
intersection near the high

LOCAL DIGEST

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LOTTERIES

measured my spine. We estimated the displacement of my fat head and how much force it exerts when I relax my neck muscles and my skull falls back like a honeydew rolling off a kitchen counter. My wife and I both loved the minimalist Bauhaus chairs. There are a lot of these out there: tetrahedrons of chrome and leather and varnished hardwood. They are expensive, but stunning, like an hors d’oeuvre from a Michelin-starred restaurant. But I don’t want to sit on an amuse-bouche. Those chairs looked really uncomfortable. I worried that maybe I was too eager to embrace my senescence. Was it bad that I basically wanted an iron lung with a cupholder? Then I saw it, the perfect chair. It was from one of those fancy furniture websites. It was tall enough. It looked comfy. It even reclined. And it was on sale for more than half off. I think I know why it was so cheap: It didn’t look cool. Oh, the designer had tried to tart it up with chrome legs and fancy fabric, but when it was finally delivered and we set it up in the living room next to the couch and across from the flat-screen, I saw it for what it was: a hipster’s La-Z-Boy. I settled into the chair and told my wife to rotate me every so often. I don’t want to get bedsores. [email protected] Twitter: @johnkelly

 For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/john-kelly.

downward slope of my life. Like that newborn babe, I need something that supports my head. I know this because the first chair we bought had a back that stopped somewhere south of my neck and puny little arms that tapered to nothing. I sat on it and said, “Um. No. This isn’t going to work.” There’s something in counseling called “active listening.” This chair demanded “active sitting.” But I don’t want to have to engage my core when I’m watching “The Alienist: Angel of Darkness.” I just want to relax in a narcotized state, sipping my vinho verde. And so it was back to the Internet. This time, we paid more attention to the vertical dimensions of the lounge chairs, the geometry of their arms, the depth of their padding. We

from Ikea: rectilinear planes of black tufted leather. It looks cool — in a psychiatrist’s waiting room sort of way — b ut it doesn’t exactly scream: “Sit on me and take a load off! Sink into my deep, velvety folds!” No, it’s more a perching sofa than a lounging sofa. But that’s okay. I think it will impress company, if we ever get company again. And besides, I reasoned as we ordered it, I wouldn’t have to sit on it all the time. We were going to get a new chair, too, and I could relax on that. In my younger days, all I asked of a chair was that it be off the ground. A stool? Sounds good to me! Hey, I’m fine with an ottoman, tuffet or packing crate, too! I don’t even have to sit on it. I can crouch. Now I’m older, on the

I’m turning back into a baby. I shouldn’t be surprised. That’s what humans do. We bookend our lives in the same needy state. We come into the world helpless, our grotesquely huge heads teetering on our weak necks. “Support the baby’s head!” parents command as they hand you a newborn, its wispy-haired noggin lolling around like an errant tetherball. “That’s it,” Mom says when you’ve properly cradled the infant, its neck and head safely ensconced in the safety of your elbow crook. Well, I demand my e lbow crook. I demand my head support. I demand a comfy chair. My Lovely Wife and I have been spending the pandemic replacing our ratty living room furniture: the lounge chair with an arm disfigured by a spilled cup of coffee, the leather couch stained with the “product” I used to slather on my hair back in the VH1 ’90s. Shopping’s not so easy these days. It used to involve actually seeing and touching the things you wanted: palpating a pomegranate, stroking the lining of a suit, sitting in a chair. Not anymore. Now we shop online, scrolling and clicking and trying to decide how something will fit or feel or taste. For me, that’s meant trying to discern whether a chair will support my head. I gave up on the couch. It’s

Finding the perfect easy chair is surprisingly difficult

John Kelly's Washington

JOHN KELLY/THE WASHINGTON POST The older I get, the more I crave a comfortable chair. So many fancy, high-end chairs seem designed to look good, not feel good.

cannot even imagine, let alone begin to understand: sexual abuse, physical assaults, home- lessness, drug addiction, depres- sion, anxiety.” Larson said Armstead “target- ed these women, he relentlessly pursued them, he recruited them, he used them, abused them, as- saulted them,” according to a tran- script. “He used every tactic and tool that he could think of to trick, manipulate, coerce a nd force them into working for him in a manner that is dangerous, de- grading and dehumanizing.” The prosecutor said he “count- ed on the fact that if these women ever told anybody, that they would not be believed.” She recalled one young woman who testified that she took in $1,000 a night but had to ask the defendant permission to buy a pack of cigarettes. Armstead’s attorney, Jonathan Zucker, told jurors that “there was no dispute” that his client was a pimp involved in prostitution. But he challenged them to find credi- ble evidence to back the testimo- ny from the alleged victims. In one case, he said prosecutors could not prove Armstead knew one was a minor. Zucker told jurors that prosecutors were trying “to get you to hate him so much that you would convict him no matter what the evidence shows.” “I don’t expect your approval of Mr. Armstead’s lifestyle choices, I don’t expect you to condone them. I do expect... you judge him fairly based on the evidence,” he said, adding: “Pimps and saints get the same treatment in a courtroom.” Zucker told jurors that it was Gray who was in charge, noting an instance in a hotel where prosecutors alleged Gray photographed women and put ads on the Inter- net. Prosecutors allege that Gray reached out to a woman who had worked for both suspects, starting when she was 17 years old, and tried to intimidate her into not cooperating with authorities. “I hope you didn’t lie in the things you said because I will do life to tell the truth about every- thing that happen,” the message on Facebook said. “Are you willing to do the same.” The court document said Gray wrote: “God bless you with twins and future.” In the Armstead case, prosecutors said “twins” was the defendants’ code for guns. [email protected]

women caught up in sex work.
Gray’s attorney, Ubong Akpan
with the Federal Public Defend-
er’s Office, argued the prior cases
involving her client were years old
and said he has family in the area,
a job and a fiancee. Akpan also
noted that while prosecutors in
charging papers frequently dis-
cussed violence pertaining to the
sex trade, Gray does not face any
charges related to firearms.
In March, one of Gray’s alleged
accomplices, Terrell “Supreme”
Armstead, 27, was convicted in
federal court of one count of sex
trafficking by force, fraud or coer-
cion. The jury deadlocked on sev-
eral other counts, and his defense
attorney and prosecutors are try-
ing to negotiate a plea deal before
a new trial on those counts in
October.

Armstead’s case revealed a
shadow world in which prosecu-
tors said young women and girls
from across the country were
lured to Maryland and the Dis-
trict and put out on the streets or
into hotel rooms as prostitutes.
Court documents said they
were monitored constantly by
GPS devices, some were branded
with tattoos, and many were
promised that street work was the
first step to a lavish lifestyle work-
ing at upscale clubs or as exclusive
“girlfriends” for rich benefactors.
Several young women testified
against Armstead.
Larson, the prosecutor, told ju-
rors during her closing argument
at the trial in March that the
women who told their stories had
been through “horrible, traumat-
ic experiences that most of us

CHARGES FROM B1

Prosecutors: Men lured

women into prostitution

Court documents said

many women and girls

were promised that

street work was the first

step to a lavish lifestyle

working at upscale

clubs or as exclusive

“girlfriends” for rich

benefactors.

white N95 mask. The officer didn’t see a gun but said he saw the man repeatedly reach into his pocket. The officer drew his service weapon and pointed it at the man.

“Get your hands out of your pocket right now!” Gribble yelled, his words partially picked up over the police radio. “Get on the ground!” “I’m a customer,” the man said, according to Gribble. “I’m sorry, sir. I need you to listen,” Gribble recalled saying. “Don’t make me shoot you! Please don’t make me shoot you!” Gribble wrestled the man to the ground, he recalled, and a small pistol fell from the man’s pocket to the pavement — a weapon later described in police records as a Walther 6.35mm. A person exited the bank and helped Gribble get the man into handcuffs. The officer found several knives the robber had stored inside a Lowe’s Home Improve- ment apron that he was wearing, Gribble said. “It happened pretty quick,” Gribble said. “And he wasn’t mov- ing very fast.” [email protected]

bait or GPS, I’ll get you and I’ll get the whole family!” The man walked out with near- ly $5,600, police said, but was followed into downtown Kens- ington’s historic district by a brave customer trying to call 911. As that customer rounded the sharp corner of a building, he was confronted by the man pointing a gun at him, police said. “Come here!” the man shouted. The customer ran back toward the bank. Then, just like that — the morning of Feb. 13, 2016, according to the affidavits — the robber stopped. Detectives worked up the best description they could of the similar robberies: White male, about 6 feet tall, average weight and around 50 years old. Media outlets covered their search, including accounts in The Washington Post and on NBC4, where longtime reporter Pat Col- lins assigned possible names for the robber: “Mime man,” “Um- brella man,” “Bundled-up man.” Then, Tuesday morning — four years later — the longtime patrol officer in the Potomac parking lot, Gribble, heard the armed robbery call. He zipped out of the parking lot he was in, blipped his siren to get across Falls Road and pulled up to the PNC parking lot within 30 seconds. “I’m on scene,” Gribble said into his radio, according to police audio recordings captured by OpenMHz.com and confirmed as accurate by Gribble. The officer saw a man fitting the robber’s general description exit the front door of the bank. The man took a quick right and slowly walked down a long ramp. He wore a large black hood, eye- glasses and what looked to be a

ing from his neck, possi- bly holding a police scan- ner, with a wire leading to an ear- piece. Fourteen months later, police said, the man struck again — this time at a PNC branch in Bethesda and in a manner suggesting that he was ratcheting up efforts not only to intimidate tellers, but also cus- tomers. He pointed his gun from person to person, detectives alleged in the affidavit, and yelled “at everyone in the bank to sit down or, if not, he would shoot them.” Then, as the robber spoke with a teller, he saw two $50 bills, became suspicious she was trying to furtively hand him a tracking device and demanded she hand the bills over. The robber quickly found a GPS tracker device that had been concealed in the money, pulled it out, broke it apart and threw it on the floor, police said. He left that bank, police said, with $679. Just 30 minutes later — and just three miles away — the robber entered the same M&T branch in Kensington he had robbed years earlier, police said. He wore a hooded jacket, a cam- ouflage scarf and sunglasses. He pointed his gun, demanded large denominations and said he knew how to get to the teller’s relatives, police said in court records. “Hundreds, fifties and twen- ties!” the robber yelled, according to a court affidavit. “I know where you live! If you give me a dye pack,

visited the address on his driver’s license last week, they arrived at a P.O. box in the middle of a shopping center in Germantown, according to court records. They soon learned he had applied for the box in 2003 and could not find a permanent address for him. S imms said Wersick holds a previous conviction for assault- ing a federal agent, though no details were provided in court or available in online filings. Wersick’s attorney during the hearing, Selena Alonzo, said her client’s only previous criminal offense dates to 1979. She did not address the new allegations. Those allegations, spelled out in two affidavits signed by Mont- gomery d etectives and filed in court last week, start on a winter morning in 2012 inside an M&T Bank branch, also in Potomac. A man walked inside wearing a stunning outfit: white jacket with hood, brimmed cap under the hood and a white, mime-styled mask under the cap. He carried a small umbrella and a compact semiautomatic pistol, the court documents said. He demanded money, handed the teller a green mesh bag and left with $3,444, according to one of the affidavits. In early 2014, a similarly be- haved robber hit a Capital One branch in Bethesda, and then 11 months later an M&T branch in Kensington — this time in a black balaclava. In the Kensington heist, detectives say, the man also had a slender leather case hang-

ROBBERIES FROM B1

Man, 71, charged in six Montgomery bank robberies

James Clyde Wersick

Detectives say Wersick

told them that he

robbed the banks

because he

was hungry and

had bills to pay.

Offer valid for blinds, shades and shutters only. Excludes awnings. Same as cash fi nancing based upon approved credit, and also excludes awnings. Buy 3 blinds, shades or shutters, and get the 4th one of equal or lesser value free. Not valid on previous purchases or with any other offers.

BUY 3, GET

THE 4

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The Washington Post - USA (2020-08-10)

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