Trial Tests Courthouse's Neighbors
Moussaoui Case a Big Presence In a Dense Area of Alexandria

By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 2, 2006

As Zacarias Moussaoui was thrown out of a federal courtroom in Alexandria one recent Monday, police blocked off streets surrounding the courthouse that will host his long-awaited death-penalty trial.

Just outside the blockade zone, traffic crept along in single lines. A bevy of television trucks sat along Eisenhower Avenue, part of the worldwide media contingent covering the highly publicized case.

The federal courthouse itself resembled an armed camp. Snipers patrolled nearby roofs, while bomb-sniffing dogs inspected bags. The signs of gridlock mixed with the sounds of construction emanating from a neighborhood undergoing heavy development.

It was the beginning of jury selection in the penalty trial of Moussaoui, the only person convicted in an American courtroom on charges stemming from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Moussaoui, 37, pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al-Qaeda and said Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda's leader, had instructed him to fly an airplane into the White House. He denied being part of the events of Sept. 11.

An anonymous jury, amid extraordinary security, will hear opening statements Monday and ultimately will decide whether Moussaoui lives or dies. The trial is expected to last one to three months.

Moussaoui's antics have enlivened a case that centers on the most serious of crimes: the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. He has erupted repeatedly in court and filed jailhouse motions taunting prosecutors and the judge. He was ejected four times on the first day of jury selection for disavowing his attorneys and calling his trial a circus.

But the case has been no laughing matter for residents of the densely packed neighborhood surrounding the federal courthouse. Ever since Moussaoui was charged in December 2001, some residents -- especially at the Carlyle Towers condominium complex across the street -- have expressed concerns about the trial. They worried about being able to take a simple walk to the store amid the media onslaught, along with the possibility of terrorist reprisals against their neighborhood.

With the passage of time, residents said recently, those fears have quieted.

"For us, at this point, it's a big nonevent. We're just sort of shrugging our shoulders," said Kim Uttenweiler, a Carlyle Towers resident.

For security and logistical reasons, authorities are closing four nearby streets from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on days when the trial is held. They are Courthouse Square; Jamieson Avenue from Englehardt Lane to Mill Road; Elizabeth Lane from the guard post to Courthouse Square, and Ballenger Avenue from the construction site to Courthouse Square. The trial will run Mondays through Thursdays, with an occasional Friday session.

For Uttenweiler, what's most important is that Carlyle residents can "sneak in" a side entrance and avoid the main entrances on Jamieson. "As with everything, when you get a little further away, you realize maybe your worries were a little over-the-top and there's not a whole lot you can do except to go on," she said.

Carlyle resident Bill Harvey attributed much of the earlier concern to the tumultuous atmosphere in the days after Sept. 11, 2001. He said the Moussaoui case itself seemed more important then, pointing out that since Moussaoui was first charged, a number of top al-Qaeda leaders, including former operations chief Khalid Sheik Mohammed, have been captured.

"We have found out about a lot of other people who are probably a lot more dangerous than Moussaoui," Harvey said. "He's not the big Kahuna anymore. He was just kind of first in line."

"I don't think folks are expecting the trial to be so bad," Harvey added. "I think there was a lot of overreaction on everyone's part."

A recent stroll through the neighborhood, however, revealed some lingering concerns.

The area around the courthouse has been transformed in recent years into a bustling commercial center, filled with new businesses and the sounds of construction equipment. Since the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and its 7,100 employees finished moving into its new complex down the street last year, traffic has become steadily worse. It can sometimes take 20 to 25 minutes to drive from the courthouse area to Old Town during rush hour, depending on the weather.

Across the street from the courthouse, a new Westin hotel and 79 condominium units are rising. Also under construction or about to start construction, city officials say, are a Marriott hotel at the intersection of Mill Road and Jamieson; two small office buildings with street-level retail space on Jamieson in front of the Patent Office; an office building with a parking garage behind the courthouse, and two condominium towers at the intersection of Mill Road and Eisenhower Avenue.

On Jamieson, Jane Mo recently opened the Cafe Gallery Market, a coffee bar and gourmet market that serves cappuccino and grilled panini. Mo said the trial has brought more business. But she said she feels "it's a little dangerous."

"You never know who is a terrorist," Mo said.

Down the street, at the PTO Coffee House, a cashier said customers were complaining on the first day of jury selection about the lack of parking in the area. "Everyone thinks it's going to be a problem," said the cashier, who declined to give her name. "People had a hard time getting down the street."

Those are the kinds of problems residents expected back in December 2001 when Moussaoui was indicted on charges of conspiring with al-Qaeda in the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

In the 1990s, most major terrorism trials had been in New York. But the Justice Department decided to bring the Moussaoui case to Alexandria, in part because Northern Virginia's jury pool is viewed as more conservative than New York's and because the Richmond-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit is considered the nation's most conservative appellate court.

The growing affinity for Alexandria soon led to a second high-profile terrorism case being brought here: the prosecution of John Walker Lindh, a Californian accused of fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan. At one point, the city faced the prospect of both trials being scheduled to start within days of each other in the fall of 2002.

Officials increased security around the courthouse. Jersey barriers were erected around the guard booths, hydraulic traffic barriers were implanted and parking on nearby streets was nearly eliminated.

In June 2002, the Alexandria City Council voted to install as many as 17 trailers near the courthouse to accommodate the hundreds of journalists expected to cover the trials. The cluster of trailers, on a grassy 1.2-acre lot in front of the courthouse, was to include ports for laptop computers, telephones, restrooms and a concession stand.

In July 2002, workers began removing sod from the field in preparation for installing the trailers. By that time, Lindh had short-circuited his trial by pleading guilty.

Then, the Moussaoui case went into a legal deep freeze, delayed for more than three years by complications that included a heated debate over whether Moussaoui would have access to top al-Qaeda detainees in U.S. custody.

In the spring of 2004, the media center site was purchased by the company now erecting the Westin Hotel.

City officials defend the earlier preparations and say that no one overreacted. "We were very concerned about any inconvenience these trials would cause the citizens, particularly of Carlyle Towers," said Steven Mason, a city spokesman. "We always err on the side of, if nothing else, being totally prepared. These security measures are necessary to ensure the safety of the public."

City and federal officials have been preparing intensively in recent months as well. Mason said representatives of the city and the major television networks held a brainstorming meeting to figure out where TV satellite trucks would be parked in the absence of a media center. Eisenhower Avenue was chosen as the least disruptive spot.

The city also met with officials from Regent Partners LLC, the Atlanta-based company building the Westin, to coordinate when the construction site should receive its deliveries of building materials. "It's been very cooperative," said Jim Feldman, a Regent Partners senior vice president. "There's been a lot of planning and discussing and talking."

As for the road closures, Alexandria Police Department representatives recently met with property managers in the area near the courthouse to make sure the word gets out. "I send them periodic e-mails to let them know that this day changed, that day changed, what road closure will be at what time," said Capt. Tim Dickinson, commander of the police department's special operations division.

"That's the balance you need in these kinds of cases; the need for security, but you have to balance that against the need to let people conduct their everyday lives," he said.

Despite the preparations, city officials are urging motorists to stay away from the courthouse area on days when the trial is in session.

"Obviously, traffic is already very congested," Mason said. "We have publicized, gotten the word out as best we can. But traffic is going to be an issue.''