Trump, on Wednesday night, announced full and unconditional pardons for former officer Terence Sutton and Andrew Zabavsky, who was a lieutenant for the metropolitan police.
“I HEREBY DESIGNATE, direct, and empower, the Pardon Attorney, as my representative, to sign a grant of clemency to the person named herein. The Pardon Attorney shall declare that her action is the act of the President, being performed at my direction,” Trump declared in both pardons.
In a release published by then-President Joe Biden’s Justice Department in September 2024, prosecutors said on the night of October 23, 2020, Sutton pursued Hylton-Brown, who was operating a moped, in a vehicular chase after Hylton-Brown refused to stop for Sutton. WUSA reported the chase deviated from MPD policy.
Toward the end of the chase, Sutton followed Hylton-Brown down a narrow alley and turned off his lights and siren, prosecutors said. Sutton accelerated, and Hylton-Brown was struck by a third vehicle, which was not part of the chase, when he drove onto a street at the end of the alley, per the release.
Sutton was found guilty of second-degree murder. He and Zabavsky were both convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstructing justice for what jurors found was a conspiracy “to hide from MPD officials the circumstances of the traffic crash leading to Mr. Hylton-Brown’s death,” the Biden Justice Department release said. Sutton was sentenced to 66 months in prison in September 2024, while Zabavsky received a 48-month sentence.
At his press conference on Wednesday alongside tech leaders announcing a half trillion dollar investment in the artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States, Trump hinted that he would be pardoning both men:
In fact, I’m going to be letting two officers…I believe they’re from D.C., but I just approved it. They were arrested, put in jail for five years because they went after an illegal, and I guess something happened, where something went wrong, and they arrested the two officers to put them in jail for going after a criminal, a rough criminal, by the way.
A filing in the case from one of Sutton’s attorneys said that “on the day of his death, Hylton-Brown was identified in a ‘beat book’ prepared by DC Police’s Intelligence Unit as a verified member of KDY” or the Kennedy Street Crew gang, WUSA reported.
The attorney, J. Michael Hannon, “argued at trial that another officer had flagged suspicious behavior by Hylton-Brown earlier in the day and said Sutton and Zabavsky believed he had returned to Brightwood Park that evening to retaliate after a dispute,” per the outlet.
NBC News Washington obtained a statement from Zabavsky’s representation expressing his gratitude to Trump.
“Lt. Andrew Zabavsky thanks President Donald J. Trump for his decision to grant him a full and unconditional pardon,” the statement said.
Breitbart News
Read the full article .
