By Colbert I. King
Saturday, February 2, 2008
The following disturbing report appeared on Page B4 of The Post on Jan. 12: "Five teenagers were wounded in Southeast Washington yesterday in a drive-by shooting, D.C. police said. The shooting occurred about 4:30 p.m. in the 2600 block of Douglass Road. The wounds were not believed to be life-threatening."
End of story. No mention of the victims' names, ages or gender.
On Jan. 22, about two miles from the site of the Douglass Road drive-by shooting, four 16-year-old Ballou Senior High School students, described as bystanders, were shot and wounded as they walked home from school. The gunman got out of his car, fired a handgun, got back in the car and took off, a witness said.
The day after the Ballou shootings, the police arrested 17-year-old Deidrick Johnson and charged him as an adult with five counts of assault with intent to kill in the Douglass Road shooting.
Police also described Johnson as a "person of interest" in the shooting near Ballou.
When police searched Johnson's bedroom in Southeast, they found a loaded .40-caliber handgun that they tied to the Ballou shooting. Police also discovered 58 small bags containing crack cocaine, two large white rocks of crack cocaine and a vial of suspected PCP. Johnson was also charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine.
"D.C. court records show Johnson has not been charged with other adult crimes," The Post reported.
But let's not stop there.
The rest of the tale is shrouded in the confidential relationship between Johnson and the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services -- the D.C. agency that has had care and custody of him since December 2004.
That's when, according to a DYRS official who asked to remain anonymous because of confidentiality rules, Johnson was arrested and sent to the agency's Oak Hill Youth Center in Laurel on multiple charges of assault, sexual abuse and unlawful entry -- crimes he allegedly committed between May and September 2004. He was formally committed to Oak Hill by a judge in April 2005.
Johnson remained there until October 2005, when the department transferred him to a residential therapeutic services facility in the District. While in that facility, Johnson was charged with unlawful entry in November 2006 -- a crime he allegedly committed during a weekend home visit.
Still under DYRS supervision, Johnson was discharged in December 2006 from the therapeutic services facility to the custody of his family.
He was supposed to receive outpatient care at a local agency. Daily transportation to the facility had been arranged, but, according to the DYRS source, Johnson never showed up.
On Jan. 16, 2007, a DYRS official issued a custody order for Johnson's arrest for noncompliance with his rehabilitation plan.
Three days later a judge reportedly also issued a custody order for Johnson's arrest because of his failure to appear in court on the unlawful-entry charge.
There is some confusion over whether the DYRS unit that searches for youth "escapees" ever received the custody orders.
Which, of course, suited Johnson just fine.
A DYRS official familiar with the case said Johnson was on the loose or "in abscondence status" for almost a year. This much is clear: On Nov. 19, 2007, he was arrested and returned to Oak Hill.
No matter.
Eight days later -- Nov. 27 -- the DYRS released Johnson back into the community.
Within weeks he was charged with assault with intent to kill and possession with intent to distribute drugs.
Johnson's juvenile history is being kept from the public. Behind the scenes, however, the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services has found goats upon whose heads the agency's sins will be placed.
Johnson's case manager was placed on administrative leave with pay this week pending action to remove him from his position; the case manager's supervisor was terminated on Jan. 28.
"Inexcusable neglect of duty" is the charge leveled against the case manager in a written notice issued on Jan. 28 by David Muhammad, DYRS's chief of committed services.
Case closed? Only if your mind is closed to the stewardship of DYRS.
The case manager and a supervisor have come under fire for not properly attending to Johnson after his release from Oak Hill. But why was he out in the community in the first place?
After being a fugitive for 10 months, he's arrested and returned to Oak Hill. Eight days later he's back on the streets.
A few weeks after that, nine people get shot. Why was he released?
I put that question to DYRS on Thursday. The agency's spokesman, Reggie Sanders, responded in an e-mail: "We are prohibited by confidentiality laws from commenting on individual cases." Sanders said my inquiry was based on inaccurate information, but he would not say how the information was inaccurate.
My follow-up question was ignored -- par for the course.
A city hall that places a premium on public safety could unearth the truth in this case. It could also -- and ought to -- explore a possible connection between DYRS-committed young people and street crime.
But that would require city leaders to take off their blinders. They haven't yet. Maybe it's because they are afraid of what they might see.
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