Prosecuting hate crimes in D.C. is more than just a numbers game, according to U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jessie Liu, who’s defending her office’s record after D.C. Council members this week questioned whether it’s doing enough to stem a rise in bias-motivated violence.
When no one from Liu’s office attended the D.C. Council’s Judiciary and the Public Safety Committee hearing on hate crimes Oct. 23, committee chairman Charles Allen didn’t mince words.
“It is just an absolute shame, and it is insulting to the residents of the District of Columbia that they can’t be here,” Allen said in the public hearing.
Liu told WTOP she had never agreed to testify.
“I saw the day before that there was a draft witness list with my name on it,” she said. “We had not indicated that we would attend and had not planned to attend.”
She said her office prepared a letter detailing its work on the issue, which is the extent to which it intended to engage with the council.
Not only is it abnormal for her to attend council hearings, Liu said she thinks the numbers discussed at the committee hearing on a failure to prosecute hate crimes are inflated.
During the hearing, council members cited the 204 hate crimes that were reported by D.C. police last year and noted the very low rate at which they were prosecuted.
“The number I think we should be more focused on is the number of arrests that were actually presented to my office for potential prosecution, and in 2018 that was 59,” Liu said.
Of those, Lui said her office filed criminal charges in 52 cases. Three had an added bias enhancement.
“We are bringing criminal charges,” she said. “I think there’s potentially a misconception out there that when we don’t bring the hate crimes enhancement, we’re not prosecuting the case at all and that’s just not true.”
The city has seen a consistent rise in hate crimes with a doubling in reported cases between 2011 and 2018.
The majority of the bias-motivated crimes in 2019 are against a victim’s sexual orientation, according to D.C. police statistics. The numbers show there have been 49 reported hate crimes based on sexual orientation to date this year.
“In order to charge the bias, we have to be able to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, so we’re working with a higher standard,” Liu said. “That accounts for the difference between the 59 number and the number of cases in which we actually charged the enhancement.”
And even if a prosecutors adds a bias enhancement to a criminal charge, that doesn’t mean a jury will convict on that enhancement nor does it mean the judge will decide to sentence the maximum time and a half based on that conviction, she said.
D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham’s officers are responsible for flagging crimes they believe to be bias-related. He said he believes Liu’s office is doing the best it can but thinks the city’s hate crimes are underreported.
“There are a lot of people that I’m convinced don’t report things to the police because they don’t trust police, which is understandable based on their past experiences. But I also think they’re like, ‘Why bother if this isn’t going to result in someone being brought to justice?’ We collectively have to change that message,” Newsham told WTOP.
D.C. Police and the U.S. attorney’s office are working together to do just that, but council members, such as council Chair Phil Mendelson, Vincent Gray (D-Ward 7) and David Grosso (I-At Large) who sat in on the public hearing indicated they want to see more done.
Speaking ahead of the hearing, Mendelson said curbing hate crimes in the District has to be treated as an important problem.
“That means that prosecutors need to be aggressive in how they prosecute them and whether they prosecute them,” said Mendelson said. “The value of this hearing is to bring attention to that and to do what we can to ensure that the executive, including prosecutors, are doing their job to reduce hate crimes in this city.”
