Detention continued for suspect in alleged taxi bribery

A federal judge ordered the pretrial detention of a suspect in an alleged D.C. taxi bribery scheme, saying the man was a danger to the community because he threatened the life of a government witness.

In ordering Yitbarek Syume's continued detention, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman reversed an order by another judge to free the suspect. U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson ordered Syume freed to a halfway house Oct. 9 because she thought that the government's evidence was too weak to justify his confinement. Prosecutors appealed the decision.

Syume, 52, is accused of giving more than $300,000 in bribes to the chairman of the D.C. Taxi Commission in exchange for taxi licenses. Thirty-eight other people have been charged in the alleged scam. In the District's federal court Monday, prosecutors played a recording of a meeting between Syume and the commission chairman, Leon J. Swain Jr. That meeting took place at a parking lot in Southeast Washington last month, the day after a D.C. Council staffer was arrested on bribery charges, prosecutors said.

On the tape, Syume says he will "eliminate" a government witness who was identified in a newspaper story that morning. Unbeknownst to Syume, Swain was also working as a government informant and was wearing a recording device. Swain had been cooperating with federal authorities for about two years in their probe of taxi corruption.

Friedman said "the tape is clear" that Syume's "intent was to kill" the witness. No trial date has been set. Syume's attorney, Thomas Abbenante, argued that his client, a U.S. citizen, was not a flight risk and had no history of violence. "We are obviously disappointed with the decision but we fully understand the judge's ruling," he said.