New Investigative Reporting Details DC Police Department’s Systemic Refusal to Investigate Whistleblower’s Reports of Illegal Jump Out Tactics

SOURCE Bernabei & Kabat, PLLC

WASHINGTON, Feb. 06, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — WUSA-9 has produced two in-depth stories about District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department’s failure to investigate illegal jump outs in the District of Columbia, similar to the one that led to Memphis police killing Tyre Nichols. Sergeant Charlotte Djossou, an 18-year veteran of the department, reported to Chief Robert Contee that officers were instructed in roll call to conduct jump outs in poor neighborhoods, in the presence of top MPD management. After receiving this report, Chief Contee testified under oath that he did no investigation, and that “there….somebody could be doing a jump out right now and we may not know that.” Charlotte Djossou is represented by Lynne Bernabei at Bernabei & Kabat, PLLC, and Joe Caleb at CalebAndonian.

Sergeant Djossou’s reports were backed by former MPD detective Andrea Latson, who testified, “I’ve seen it myself when they just jump out on guys that are just standing there not doing anything.” She further testified that she reported jump outs to her manager on more than 20 occasions, but he did nothing and ridiculed her reports.

MPD retaliated against Sergeant Djossou after she made reports about illegal jump outs, and downgrading crimes to make the crime statistics look better than they were. The retaliation included retaliatory disciplinary investigations, downgraded performance evaluations, denials of promotion, and constant harassment by superiors.

The WUSA-9 reports can be found at the following links:

Deposition video raises question about DC Police jump out stops | wusa9.com
Deposition video raises questions about DC Police’s use of jump out tactics | wusa9.com

Contacts: Lynne Bernabei, 202-302-2247, [email protected]
Joseph Caleb, 202-953-9849, [email protected]