Author: Colbert I. King
Publication: The Washington Post
Date: December 27, 2003
URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33313-2003Dec26.html
"Is there a branch of the Muslim
Brotherhood at the D.C. Jail?" I put that question to D.C. Corrections
Department spokesman Darryl Madden on Tuesday. He wasn't familiar with
the name but said he would check with the staff and get back to me.
There's a good chance that Givon
Pendleton, an inmate at the D.C. Jail, could have shed some light on my
question. Unfortunately, Pendleton is no longer accessible, his availability
having ended abruptly a year ago this month, specifically on the evening
of Dec. 11, 2002, in the dining room of the Southeast 1 cellblock of the
D.C. Jail, at 1901 D St. SE.
The autopsy performed on Pendleton
found nine stab wounds to his body, including one to the left temple, one
to the back of the neck on the left side, one to the lower end of the left
shoulder blade on the back, one to the lower back, one to a bicep on his
left arm, two wounds to the left front chest, one to the left abdomen and
one to the right abdomen. The stab wounds to the chest, having perforated
his heart, lung and stomach, are what killed him. Not surprisingly, Sarah
Colvin of the chief medical examiner's office ruled Pendleton's death a
homicide.
Thirteen days after responding to
the call about a stabbing at the jail, D.C. police detectives charged the
alleged assailant, Dominic Jones, aka "Twin."
At the time, Jones was in jail on
charges of shooting and killing two others in an unrelated case. According
to a police affidavit in support of the arrest warrant in Pendleton's case,
Jones admitted stabbing him multiple times but said it was in self- defense.
A sentence in the police affidavit
caught my eye: "The investigation also revealed that the defendant [Jones]
is a member of a group called the 'Muslim Brotherhood.' "
Now that rang a bell.
The Muslim Brotherhood movement,
known officially as Jamiat al-Ikhwan al- Muslimun, has been around since
1928, when it got started in Egypt. Best known for its opposition to secular
influences on Islamic societies, the Muslim Brotherhood has spread throughout
the world, including the United States. By thought, word and deed, it doesn't
exactly represent the peace-loving side of Islam. Its motto: "Allah is
our objective; The Prophet is our leader; Quran is our law; Jihad is our
way; Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."
Hence, my question to the Corrections
Department's Madden on Tuesday.
Beside my computer terminal is an
internal Corrections Department report about an incident that occurred
at the jail's Southwest 3 cellblock on April 10, 2002.
It involved the same Dominic Jones.
He and two other inmates had allegedly assaulted an inmate, sending the
victim to the hospital. The report said an informant told the correctional
staff that Jones and the other two assailants were Muslims who were strong-arming
inmates.
That April report brought to mind
the late Givon Pendleton's own encounter with Dominic Jones on Dec. 11,
2002.
On that fatal day, an eyewitness
told detectives, he saw Pendleton, a pretrial detainee, approach a table
in the dining room to get some milk to go along with his dinner. Jones,
according to the eyewitness, told Pendleton that the milk was reserved
for the Muslims.
Here's where it gets funky.
Pendleton is supposed to have said,
"I'm tired of you all in this Muslim [expletive]" and took some milk.
From the affidavit:
" 'Twin' [Jones] took the milk from
the decedent [Pendleton] and invited him into a jail cell to fight. The
decedent initially agreed, but did not enter the cell. Thereafter the defendant
called the decedent into the gym. When the decedent entered the gym, the
witness observed the defendant with something up his sleeve. The witness
then saw the defendant punch the decedent and then saw him stab him multiple
times with a knife. This witness never saw anything in the hands of the
decedent and never saw the decedent inflict any blows." Another eyewitness
saw pretty much the same thing, according to the affidavit.
Pendleton's mother, Pearl Beale,
is suing the District for millions. Through her lawyer, Douglas Sparks,
a board member of the D.C. Prisoners' Legal Services Project, Beale charges
the city with maintaining poor jail security, which allowed the knife,
or shank, that was used to kill her son to be brought into the jail. She
also charges the city with negligent supervision in that Jones, with a
history of assaulting and strong-arming pretrial detainees, was put in
charge of dispensing meals and milk to inmates. Her lawsuit also charges
the District with negligently and unconstitutionally allowing overcrowding
at the jail while failing to assign enough properly trained and supervised
guards to monitor the excessive number of inmates. How she will fare is
up to the judicial system.
How men and women in the care and
protection of the D.C. Jail are faring is an even larger mystery. Last
Saturday four inmates were shot and wounded. As of yesterday, no one had
been charged.
If the Corrections Department can't
explain how a gun got into the jail and, a week later, is also clueless
about who used it, is it any wonder that a report of predatory inmates
strong-arming detainees could escape the attention of higher-ups, or that
the Muslim Brotherhood could take up residence in the jail without catching
the leadership's attention? Yesterday Mr. Madden called to say, "There's
no organized identification of that group behind bars." He had not heard
about the statement in the police department's affidavit.
