Police-Probe Gaps Cited In Jury's Acquittal of Mayor

Prince George's County prosecutors thought they had a solid case against Nathaniel R. Mines Jr., the mayor of Fairmount Heights who was accused of impersonating a police officer and illegally transporting a firearm.

In court, Mines's defense attorneys acknowledged that their client was not a sworn police officer and that the loaded 9mm handgun police recovered from his Cadillac Escalade belonged to him.

A police officer testified that in February, Mines, 40, had identified himself as a police officer outside a social hall where a dance was being held. Prosecutors presented evidence that Mines's Escalade had Fraternal Order of Police plates and displayed a placard from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that said "vehicle on official business" and that he had a police traffic-control vest inside the SUV.

But after deliberating for about 3 1/2 hours, a county jury on Thursday acquitted Mines of both charges.

In interviews, two jurors said the state failed to prove its case because, in their view, aspects of the police investigation were lacking. Both jurors cited the fact that no police officer testified to retrieving the handgun from Mines's Escalade or witnessed another officer doing so.

"Nobody knew who picked up the handgun," said one juror, a woman who asked not to be identified to protect her privacy.

That juror and another, a 57-year-old man who also declined to be named because of privacy concerns, said they were also disturbed that the lead county police investigator, Lt. Jason Bogue, testified that he did not have his notes of the probe with him when he first took the witness stand.

In response to written questions, Ramon Korionoff, a spokesman for State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey, said the information in Bogue's notes had been turned over to defense attorneys Rosalyn E. Pugh and Darnell Robinson. The trial judge instructed the jury that everything in the notes had been turned over to the defense, Korionoff wrote.

Regarding the gun, Bogue testified that it was recovered from the console of Mines's Escalade, Korionoff wrote. Bogue testified that he did not see who recovered the weapon.

The case is at least the second this year in which jurors acquitted a defendant because of what they considered an inadequate police investigation.

In February, a county jury acquitted a man charged with the armed robbery of a Subway sandwich shop after the lead detective testified that investigators did not collect evidence from the surveillance cameras at the business and did not canvass the area for witnesses.

Maj. Andy Ellis, a Prince George's County police spokesman, said investigators are willing to do additional work after an arrest to shore up a case, if prosecutors ask them to. Ellis said he was not criticizing the state's attorney's office. "It's hard sometimes to understand why jurors make the decisions they make."

Mines was accused of impersonating an officer as he worked security outside a Knights of Columbus hall where he is a member. According to trial testimony, Mines was the Fairmount Heights police commissioner and had a badge to prove it.

A Fairmount Heights official testified that the commissioner's job is to serve as a liaison between the police department and elected officials, according to Korionoff. He does not have police powers.

The accusations apparently have not hurt Mines's political career in Fairmount Heights, near the border of Northeast Washington. In September, Mines, who was a town council member at the time of the incident, was elected mayor.