The Washington Post - 05.09.2019

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU B5

BY LYNH BUI

A Prince George’s County po-
lice lieutenant was indicted
Tuesday on a second-degree sex
offense charge in connection
with an incident in 2017, pros-
ecutors said.
Prince George’s police and
the state’s attorney’s office said
they have been investigating
allegations that Lt. Richard Ta l-
lant sexually assaulted a wom-
an he knew while he was off
duty in February 2017.
Ta llant, who has been with
the department since 1997 and
is assigned to the narcotics
enforcement division, was sus-
pended this April when county
police learned of the allega-
tions, police said.
The charge stems from a
social outing in Upper Marl-
boro two years ago with a
woman he was familiar with,
police said.
After learning of the allega-
tion, police began an investiga-
tion and brought the case to
prosecutors for review, police
said.
Prince George’s State’s Attor-
ney Aisha Braveboy (D) said
that she could not detail the
nature of the relationship be-
tween Ta llant and the victim
but that prosecutors with her
office’s public integrity unit
thought it was appropriate to
charge him and bring the case
to a grand jury.
“When we find there are
matters where an officer has
committed a crime, our job is to
at least investigate the allega-
tions and determine whether or
not there is truth,” Braveboy
said. “If so, that unit is charged
with moving forward to pros-
ecute those individuals.”
Ta llant, who is suspended
without pay, could not immedi-
ately be reached for comment,
and online court records did
not list an attorney for him.
[email protected]

MARYLAND

O∞cer

indicted on

sex o≠ense

charge

BALTIMORE SUN

baltimore — A new federal

“Strike Force” composed of de-

tectives, prosecutors and federal

agents from across the region

will soon begin work on a long-

planned effort to target Balti-

more drug gangs and their Mexi-

can and Dominican suppliers,

who have been flooding the city

with heroin, fentanyl and other

illicit drugs for years.

Hoping to reduce the record

number of homicides and over-

doses in the city, the team has

already begun working a handful

of cases together and this week

secured nearly 7 5,000 square

feet of office space in Southwest

Baltimore so its members can

move into a shared headquar-

ters. Officials say that will speed

up the identification, investiga-

tion and prosecution of some of

Baltimore’s most violent gang

leaders.

“We’re teaming up to go after

the b ad actors in t his city w ho are

threatening to destabilize it,”

said Don Hibbert, assistant spe-

cial agent in charge of the U.S.

Drug Enforcement Administra-

tion’s Baltimore field office and a

key organizer behind the effort.

“Simple as that.”

Baltimore is on course to r each

more than 300 homicides for the

fifth year in a row, with 232

killings through Wednesday

compared with 199 through the

same time last year. Overdose

deaths s lowed in the f irst q uarter

of this year after consecutive

years in which the state recorded

more than 2,000 such deaths —

with 2,385 total overdose deaths

around Maryland last year, many

of them in Baltimore.

Baltimore Police Commission-

er Michael Harrison said he was

“extremely pleased” with the new

Strike Force, which he said will

“enhance our ability to rid Balti-

more of its most violent offend-

ers” and interrupt the city’s

“long-standing culture of vio-

lence,” which he called a symp-

tom of “organized crime that

goes hand in hand with illegal

drugs.”

Hibbert and Harrison joined

Maryland U.S. Attorney Robert

K. Hur in his downtown offices

on Wednesday in announcing

the S trike Force, first hinted at b y

Gov. Larry Hogan (R) last year.

Also there were Baltimore State’s

Attorney Marilyn Mosby, Balti-

more County Executive Johnny

Olszewski Jr. and officials from

more than a dozen other partner

agencies.

“The idea behind the Strike

Force is straightforward,” Hur

said. “It takes the principle that

local, state and federal law en-

forcement are most effective

when working together, and it

goes all in on that idea.”

Officials said they hope the

effort will lead to entire criminal

organizations being indicted —

from big-time bosses to low-level

street dealers. They also said

they hope to see the local gangs’

overseas suppliers driven out of

the area or arrested alongside

their local counterparts.

Officials acknowledged other

efforts by local, state and federal

law enforcement agencies to col-

laborate in Baltimore in recent

years — such as the city’s “War

Room” initiative, or the “B-FED”

task force pairing city homicide

detectives with federal agents —

but s aid the S trike Force is differ-

ent, in large part because it is

permanent.

“This is not going to be some-

thing for six months or a year

and then we dissolve,” Hibbert

said. “No Strike Force in America

has ever gone out of business.”

Hibbert said the Baltimore

Strike Force features seven indi-

vidual groups, one each led by

the Baltimore police, Maryland

State Police, DEA, the Bureau of

Alcohol, To bacco, Firearms and

Explosives, the FBI, Homeland

Security Investigations and the

U. S. Marshals Service. Personnel

from each of those agencies and

the other partner agencies will

be intermixed within the groups

so that each one has a broad

range of skill sets, he said.

In a ddition to federal and state

partners, personnel will be pro-

vided by Baltimore County po-

lice, Anne Arundel County police

and the Baltimore City Sheriff’s

Office. Prosecutors will come

from Hur’s and Mosby’s offices.

The Baltimore County Council

agreed last month to allow the

county to serve in the fiduciary

role and on Tuesday approved a

10-year rental agreement for the

Strike Force’s new headquarters

worth more than $16 million. An

earlier proposal to have the city

of Annapolis serve the fiduciary

role fell apart, delaying the proj-

ect, officials acknowledged.

A copy of the Baltimore team’s

application to create the Strike

Force, obtained by the Baltimore

Sun, outlines the challenges the

teams will face.

A major focus of the Strike

Force will be disrupting long-

standing relationships between

wholesale drug suppliers from

Mexico and the Dominican Re-

public and an “upper echelon” of

Baltimore gang leaders who offi-

cials said “exert near-complete

control over the supply and dis-

tribution of heroin, fentanyl, co-

caine, and marijuana in the Bal-

timore region.”

Mexican cartels use long-

standing relationships with

some of Baltimore’s “largest and

most violent street gangs” to

supply the region with drugs, the

application said, while Domini-

can wholesalers use distribution

cells along Interstate 95 to push

drugs to larger Baltimore gangs,

who in turn supply the city’s

“pervasive heroin and crack co-

caine shops and street corners.”

Those smaller distributors,

the application said, “engage in

violence and stockpile weapons

to further their business” and

maintain territory.

Hibbert estimated that it will

take about four to six months to

complete the new office space for

the Strike Force, after which he

expects more cases to be brought

and at a quicker clip.

A few cases have already been

filed.

Last month, 25 defendants

were accused of selling heroin,

fentanyl and crack and powder

cocaine to individual drug users

in East Baltimore and in bulk to

other distributors. Investigators

seized nine guns, about 20 kilo-

grams of cocaine, heroin and

fentanyl, nearly half a million

dollars in cash and jewelry and

another half a million dollars

worth of cars.

The Baltimore Strike Force,

like those in other cities, will

recoup costs and share any addi-

tional proceeds gained through

asset forfeiture in big criminal

cases, officials said.

MARYLAND

Baltimore partnership takes aim at illicit drugs

‘Strike Force’ combines

local, federal groups to

target gangs, suppliers

BALTIMORE SUN

Maryland U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur, flanked by regional law enforcement officers, on Wednesday

announces an initiative designed to reduce violent crime and overdoses by focusing on “bad actors.”

Count relates to off-duty

incident with a woman

he knew, police say

BY MARISA IATI

When Phil Colbert moved into
his home in Northwest Washing-
ton in January, all he had was a
few blankets and a Panasonic
stereo.
His second-floor studio was
mostly bare — a reminder that he
hadn’t had a stable home in
years. He f irst experienced h ome-
lessness when he voluntarily fol-
lowed his sister into the s treets to
protect her. Then, he said, he
became involved with alcohol,
drugs and a life of petty crime.
Soon, he found himself with an
arrest record for misdemeanor
drug crimes, and he ended up
serving a 15-month jail sentence
for a parole violation.
Colbert, 52, had almost forgot-
ten what it felt like to have a
home. But he recently got one,
and the memories came flooding
back. His home got a futon, a
flat-screen T V, c ookware and oth-
er items, courtesy of the Capitol
Hill garage-turned-furniture-
shop the Shed D.C.
“I’m just very grateful because
it could have been worse,” Col-
bert said as he looked around his
apartment. “I could have been
still out in the streets.”
Rebecca Margao, owner of the
Shed D.C., galvanized communi-
ty members to completely rede-
sign Colbert’s apartment this
summer. She and five other vol-
unteers rolled up their sleeves
and transformed the apartment
from a blank canvas into a com-
fortable liv ing space.
Margao, 33, knew what it was
like to be displaced. She said she
was living with a partner last
year when a conflict occurred,
and she got pushed out. After she
moved into a condo, she spent a
year trying to re-create the feel-
ing of home.
The experience made Margao
want to help someone else —
ideally, a person transitioning
out of homelessness o r incarcera-
tion — so they could avoid the
same feeling, she said. Pathways
to Housing D.C., a nonprofit
group that combats homeless-

ness, connected Margao with

Colbert in May.

Pathways contracts with the

Department of Housing and Ur-

ban Development, the Depart-

ment of Health and Human Ser-

vices and the D.C. Housing Au-

thority to get clients housing

vouchers that usually are worth

about $1,500 per month. If a

client has an income, they con-

tribute 30 percent of that money

to their rent. Vouchers cover the

entire cost of rent for clients

without an income, said Rachel

Pierre, Pathways’ chief operating

officer.

Colbert has no income, so his

rent is covered by a HUD vouch-

er. He gets groceries from the

food pantry Bread for the City

and from churches. Lina Permut,

donor relations officer at Path-

ways to Housing D.C., said some

of Pathways’ clients struggle to

find employment because of se-

vere mental illness or past incar-

ceration, though she did not

discuss Colbert’s situation specif-

ically.

After Pathways introduced

Margao to Colbert, she said she

talked with him about his style

and then got to work. She raided

the Shed D.C.’s furniture supply.

She asked the Capitol Hill loca-

tion of McCormick Paints to mix

custom paint colors. She collect-

ed seasonings and dish towels

from the Spice Suite in Ta koma

Park.

A dining room set that Margao

found abandoned on a curb

served as the centerpiece of her

design, she said, and she left in

Colbert’s apartment a beloved

desk and chairs that he already

owned. A plan came together for

the rest of the living space with

donations of furniture and mon-

ey.

On Aug. 6, Po’s Moving &

Storage donated its services to

transport the furniture to the

apartment while volunteers

cleaned. Someone swept and

mopped the bathroom. Another

person emptied the refrigerator.

Still another volunteer wiped

down the countertops.

The six women hung curtains

and music-themed artwork — a

painting of a boombox and an-

other of DJ equipment. The team

wanted to show Colbert that they

had accounted for his personal

style, Margao said.

“When you’re in a place of not

having a lot of good things hap-

pen to you, I think you automati-

cally think it’s not real or it’s not

going to happen,” Margao said.

“It’s so important for that popu-

lation of people to know that

people can come through for

you.”

Volunteer Lynette Jefferies, 47,

said she got involved in the

redesign when she went to the

Shed D.C. to drop off donations

and saw Margao staging the

furniture. Jeffries, of Baltimore,

said she didn’t want Margao to

take on all the labor, so the pair

worked together to devise a lay-

out for the apartment.

“This is an example of being

able to use your time and your

talent to do something that ulti-

mately is incredibly impactful,

even if it’s just one person,”

Permut said.

Colbert, who grew up in

Southeast Washington, said he

first walked into Pathways 14

years ago. The organization

helped him find an apartment in

Northeast, Colbert said, but the

situation didn’t stick. He said his

mental illnesses kept him mov-

ing between apartments, shelters

and the streets for about a dec-

ade.

When he finished serving time

for his parole violation in July

2018, Colbert said he struggled to

get back on his feet. Pathways

helped him get his studio apart-

ment in Manor Park, a neighbor-

hood whose diversity and family

culture appealed to him. After

several months, Colbert upgrad-

ed his sleeping quarters from

blankets on the floor to a rolla-

way bed.

When he met Margao, Colbert

told her about the things h e likes:

cooking and singing country, rap

and gospel music. (He calls him-

self a “walking jukebox” and, at

one point, paused a conversation

with this reporter to belt out a

Conway Twitty song.)

Colbert also told Margao what

he wanted in his apartment: a big

dining room table to host guests

and a PlayStation 4 to play

basketball and baseball games.

He got the table but not the

PlayStation. (“We had a limit on

miracles,” Margao said with a

laugh.)

Colbert, who has been married

and divorced twice, has two

grown sons he hasn’t seen in 18

years — and his greatest wish is

to reconcile with them. He wants

to get back to performing gospel

music, which he calls his “minis-

try.” G od, Colbert said, has gotten

him through a lot.

After Margao redecorated his

apartment, Colbert returned to

the revamped space on his birth-

day.

“For the first time,” Colbert

said, “I felt like I was at home.”

His younger brother came

over that night, and Colbert

cooked hamburgers. Then they

ate together at the dining room

table that Colbert h ad wished for,

in a home that was his own.

[email protected]

THE DISTRICT

O≠ the streets and in an apartment made homey by a D.C. furniture shop

PHOTOS BY MARISA IATI/THE WASHINGTON POST

Phil Colbert was homeless for about 10 years before moving into

an apartment in January with help from the nonprofit Pathways to

Housing D.C. A Capitol Hill furniture store, the Shed D.C., helped

redesign the space in August, with Colbert’s love of music in mind.

S0129-5x1.5

Retropolis

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