Two D.C. police officers involved in a pursuit that left a moped driver dead are now back on the force after being pardoned by President Donald Trump in January.
Lt. Andrew Zabavsky and officer Terence Sutton had been convicted on charges related to a 2020 pursuit that ended with 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown crashing his moped.
“Officer Sutton and Lt. Zabavsky have been reinstated. MPD does not comment on personnel matters,” a spokesperson for D.C. police told WTOP in an email Tuesday.
Protests broke out in the fall of 2020 over Hylton-Brown’s death, around the same time as demonstrators nationwide called attention to police violence and the killing of George Floyd.
Sutton was convicted of second-degree murder in Hylton-Brown’s death. Both officers were also convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice for trying to cover up Hylton-Brown’s death.
One day after his inauguration in January, Trump granted the officers a “full and unconditional pardon.”
Prosecutors said Hylton-Brown was riding a rental scooter without a helmet in the Brightwood neighborhood, a violation of D.C. traffic rules, on Oct. 23, 2020. Sutton followed Hylton-Brown down an alleyway, without his police lights or siren activated, and sped up behind his scooter.
As Hylton-Brown drove out of that alley, he was struck by another car and later died.
Zabavsky, Sutton’s supervisor, tried to cover up the crash. He falsified reports to allege Hylton-Brown was driving under the influence, according to the Department of Justice.
D.C. police are not allowed to pursue a vehicle if the only reason is to make a traffic stop.
Prosecutors had argued Sutton knew Hylton-Brown as a member of a violent street gang and had reason to try to stop him.
Sutton had been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for the murder conviction and four years for the conspiracy and obstruction convictions, which would have been served at the same time as the sentence for murder. Zabavsky had been sentenced to a total of four years in prison.
Monica Hopkins, executive director of the D.C. chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, called the move to reinstate the officers “an affront to public safety,” in a statement Tuesday.
“For years community members sought justice in this case — only to have the unanimous verdict overturned and these officers be reinstated,” Hopkins wrote. “How are D.C. communities supposed to trust law enforcement when officers can abuse their power and not face consequences?”
The mother of Hylton-Brown’s daughter, Amaala Jones-Bey, filed a lawsuit in 2021 against the department and the officers involved. At the time of the pardons, an attorney representing Jones-Bey, David Shurtz, told WTOP the family planned to go forward with the civil suit.
An attorney for Sutton praised the presidential pardons in January.
“We’re very appreciative that he’s finally achieved what a status of innocence that never should have been jeopardized or in question over these past five years,” Hannon told WTOP in January.
WTOP’s Luke Lukert contributed to this report.
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