A Capitol Police officer has been indicted on federal charges in an alleged hit-and-run in D.C.’s Georgetown area.
Thomas Smith, 44, has been charged with violating a man’s civil rights, obstructing justice and falsifying records in connection with a crash on Wisconsin Avenue in June 2020.
The indictment says Smith was performing a “dignitary check” — checking on the security of the homes of members of Congress — at about 11:30 p.m. June 20, 2020, when he pursued two “motorized cycles” down Wisconsin Avenue “at a high rate of speed.”
The Capitol Police are not allowed to pursue vehicles outside the grounds of the Capitol except in an emergency, and even then, only with permission from a supervisor, the indictment said.
At the intersection with M Street, Smith swerved toward one of the cycles, causing the man on it to crash, knocking him into the air in the process, the indictment said. Smith then allegedly drove around the man without stopping to check on him and continued down Wisconsin Avenue toward the waterfront, then to the Capitol Police station in Southeast.
Smith then allegedly lied in log postings — and verbally to his supervisors, who questioned him after they got a call from D.C. police — as to where he had been and what police vehicle he had been driving at the time of the crash.
