An 18-year-old Arlington woman is facing a litany of charges after an reported bike theft led to violence.
The incident happened Sunday evening near the intersection of S. Walter Reed Drive and S. Glebe Road.
Police say they were called after a woman entered a home and stole a bike. Confronted by a victim a couple of blocks away, the woman allegedly “assaulted him, attempted to steal his jewelry, damaged a watch and struck him with a bottle.”
The suspect is also accused of kicking two of the police officers who subsequently took her into custody.
More, below, from the latest Arlington County Police Department crime report.
ASSAULT ON POLICE, 2024-03170214, 1700 block of S. Walter Reed Drive. At approximately 7:15 p.m. on March 17, police were dispatched to the report of a burglary in progress. Upon arrival, it was determined the female suspect allegedly entered the victims’ home and was verbally confronted by Victim One. The suspect then stole a bicycle, exited the home and fled the scene. Victim Two located the suspect with the stolen bicycle at 18th Street S. and S. Monroe Street and approached her. The suspect subsequently assaulted him, attempted to steal his jewelry, damaged a watch and struck him with a bottle. The suspect then assaulted a witness who attempted to intervene. As responding officers were detaining the suspect, she kicked two of the officers. Victim Two reported minor injuries and did not require medical treatment. [The suspect], 18, of Arlington, Va. was arrested and charged with Assault on Police (x2), Assault and Battery (x2), Malicious Wounding, Burglary, Destruction of Property and Attempted Robbery. She was held without bond.
Another notable burglary incident happened early Sunday morning in the Cherrydale area. A man tried to force entry into four homes before police were called and a 38-year-old suspect was taken into custody, according to ACPD.
ATTEMPTED BURGLARY (Series) , 2024-03170063/2024-03170064/2024-03170087, 4000 block of Vacation Lane/3900 block of Lorcom Lane/3700 block of Lorcom Lane. At approximately 3:20 a.m. on March 17, police were dispatched to the report of a burglary in progress. Upon arrival, it was determined the female victim was inside her residence when she heard loud banging and observed the male suspect allegedly attempting to force entry into her home by kicking a door. The suspect then left the scene and a short time later, three additional victims in the area reported an individual matching the description of the suspect attempt to force entry into their homes before fleeing the scene. A lookout was broadcast and responding officers canvassed the area and located the suspect. The suspect ran from officers and was subsequently located in the 2400 block of N. Lincoln Street and taken into custody. [The suspect], 38, of Arlington, Va. was arrested and charged with Attempted Burglary (x4).
(Updated at 11:45 a.m.) A man accused of shattering dozens of Arlington car windows with a BB gun in 2022 is now participating in a court-appointed reform program.
The suspect, who may be responsible for damaging up to 91 parked, unoccupied vehicles, is on the county’s Behavioral Health Docket and returns to a judge in Arlington County District Court on a regular basis, a clerk informed ARLnow.
Arlington County established the Behavioral Health Docket in 2019 to divert people with mental health issues into treatment instead of jail. It waives jail time for eligible participants if they agree to an intensive care program supervised by a judge. Today, it serves just under 15 people.
Participants typically have a high risk of reoffending but were charged with crimes that come with little prison time, including vandalism, which typically comes with no more than a year of prison time or a $2,500 fine, or both, sources familiar with the program say.
The Dept. of Human Services, probation officers, prosecutors and judges all have a say in how the docket functions, according to Chief Public Defender Brad Haywood.
“We all have different ideas of how the legal system should work, probably, but somehow we found a program that we can all stand behind,” he said this week in a budget hearing. “It’s only a few years old, but we’re already seeing so many really inspiring success stories. Every day, every week, every month year, we are increasing trust in each other and it’s just great. Not only is it working just on that level, but there’s always interest in scaling up.”
Court records related to this particular suspect’s program and his alleged crimes are not publicly available. However, online Virginia Judiciary records indicate that the Maryland man was arrested a second time in July 2023 on 10 counts of destruction of property and nine counts of petty larceny.
The court clerk indicated that the suspect will likely be in his current program for a substantial stretch of time.
A wave of vandalism swept over much of Arlington starting sometime around the evening of Oct. 20, 2022. Over several bewildering days, numerous car owners, many concentrated in Clarendon and Ballston, discovered their windows shattered by BBs.
Video showing some of the damaged vehicles suggests that at least one car was damaged twice.
“No car owner has… reported anything stolen,” says the description of the video, which was shot during the week of vandalism incidents and posted on YouTube by local resident David Cheek. “One car owner told me their car was damaged 2 days ago then again last night. Owner said her car will have to be parked in a garage from now on.”
Police identified a suspect and pulled him over on Oct. 27, 2022. They said they found a BB gun inside his vehicle and arrested him.
Press releases about the vandalism did not provide a possible motive. Prior to the suspect’s 2022 arrest, court records did not report any criminal charges against him in Arlington.
(Updated 5:32 p.m.) A man accused of shooting wildly at law enforcement following a destructive, high-speed chase through Arlington and Fairfax County accepted a plea bargain on Wednesday.
Ricardo Singleton, 29, admitted in Arlington Circuit Court to firing a gun from his car while fleeing authorities — a pursuit that prosecutors claim ended after a gunfight in Fairfax County.
Singleton’s plea calls for him to spend no more than two years behind bars in exchange for pleading guilty to felony eluding and shooting a firearm from a vehicle. The 17 months he has already spent in jail following his Oct. 6, 2022 arrest would apply toward his total time behind bars.
Virginia sentencing ranges are between one and five years of imprisonment for felony eluding and one to 10 years in prison for shooting from a vehicle. Both crimes also come with an alternative penalty of one year behind bars or a $2,500 fine, or both.
However, the sentencing guidelines — a recommendation set by the Virginia Sentencing Commission based on factors such as criminal history — are more lenient in this case, Singleton’s attorney, Adam Krischer, said in an email. Singleton’s sentencing guidelines are between one day and six months of imprisonment.
There is no agreement regarding suspended time, the amount of time Singleton would serve if he violated the terms of his release. His sentencing is set for May 3.
Although Singleton may only have up to seven more months behind bars in Arlington, he still faces charges in Fairfax County. He is scheduled to appear for a four-day trial beginning on May 20 for several alleged crimes, including reportedly opening fire on officers in a foot pursuit at the intersection of Route 50 and Graham Road.
In Fairfax, Singleton faces two counts of assault of a law enforcement officer, one count of attempted maiming and one count of using a firearm in commission of a felony.
Singleton’s confrontations with law enforcement began many hours before his eventual arrest, according to a timeline of events compiled by the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office.
A sheriff’s deputy approached the suspect after he reportedly made an illegal U-turn outside the Arlington County courthouse around 8:45 a.m. The timeline describes Singleton then pointing a firearm at the ceiling of his vehicle before speeding away, disregarding orders to stop and striking another vehicle. That evening, police spotted the suspect and pursued him through Arlington — a chase during which Singleton, by his own admission, fired multiple shots from his driver’s side window.
Law enforcement caught up to the suspect along Route 50 in Fairfax County after he reportedly struck so many vehicles, authorities were still tallying up the number when they hosted a press briefing several hours later.
Bystander footage released by the Fairfax County Police Department shows a man running out of a vehicle and turning backwards with a gun as police pursue him. The muzzle flashes and gunshots can be heard.
A Fairfax officer returned fire and was legally justified in doing so, a use-of-force review found.
Singleton was arrested after his gun reportedly jammed.
The suspect originally faced a slew of charges for his actions in Arlington: three counts of assault on law enforcement, two counts of eluding police, brandishing, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, reckless handling, endangerment and damage exceeding $1,000.
A judge dismissed most of these allegations after not finding probable cause, sources previously told ARLnow. The Arlington Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office altered Singleton’s charges in response to this ruling and a grand jury returned an indictment in December.
Prior to the plea bargain, Singleton faced an additional charge of shooting a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school. Prosecutors dropped this charge as a condition of the agreement.
Two Arlington attorneys are suing a Virginia sheriff’s office over a brutal triple homicide carried out by a deputy who, court documents allege, was hired illegally.
The deputy, 28-year-old Austin Edwards, reportedly lied about his age while soliciting sexual photos from a 15-year-old girl in California in 2022. When the teen rejected Edwards’ advances, he drove to California, claimed authority as a deputy to gain entry into a home and killed her mother and grandparents, according to legal filings.
After setting the house ablaze, Edwards, per lawsuits filed earlier this month, kidnapped the teenager and fled. He died during a shootout with law enforcement in the Mojave Desert that same day.
Ballston-based attorneys Scott Perry and Nicholas Stamatis and Virginia Beach attorneys Kevin Biniazan and Jeffrey Breit, of the firm Breit Biniazan, are suing the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in federal court on behalf of the teenage victim and the administrator of her mother’s estate.
The suits condemn the law enforcement agency, located in a Virginia county about two hours from Knoxville, Tenn., for its alleged liability in the killings.
The filings accuse the sheriff’s office of failing to conduct a complete background check on Edwards which, attorneys say, would have revealed that he had been barred from owning a gun after threatening to kill his father in 2016.
Perry hopes these lawsuits — which name the Washington County sheriff, a detective and the administrator of Edwards’ estate in addition to the sheriff’s office — bring some amount of justice for his clients. He told ARLnow that he sees them as victims not only of Edwards but of everyone who should have stopped him from becoming a sheriff’s deputy.
“Without a badge and without a gun, and without being able to say he was an officer, this wouldn’t have happened,” the attorney said.
The two nearly identical lawsuits, representing the teen and the mother’s estate, each seek $50 million in damages.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment. In response to a similar lawsuit filed on behalf of the teenager’s aunt and sister in November, the agency pointed out that Edwards had been employed with the Virginia State Police immediately before the sheriff’s office hired him.
“As a matter of law, it is neither unreasonable nor negligent for the WCSO to rely on the verification processes of the Virginia State Police in hiring Edwards,” the sheriff’s office said in a motion to dismiss.
Hired because of ‘human error’
Edwards, according to court documents, found his teenage victim through Instagram in the summer of 2022. As part of a “catfishing” scheme, he posed as a 17-year-old, reportedly sent her gifts and money, paid for food deliveries and helped her buy birthday gifts for her friends.
The victim broke off their relationship that November after Edwards allegedly began trying to make her to send nude photos.
It was around this point that Edwards applied to be a sheriff’s deputy.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office, according to the suit, hired Edwards despite the fact that he left “significant portions” of his employment application blank. This included questions about whether he had ever been detained or had his weapons permit revoked.
In reality, the Los Angeles Times reported, a judge had revoked Edwards’ right to own a firearm after he was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility in 2016.
Neither the sheriff’s office nor state police noted that fact — a failing that a Virginia State Police spokesperson blamed on “human error,” according to the Associated Press.
“All of this information was easily discoverable by the sheriff’s office, had they looked at it,” Perry said.
As a 15-year-long project to rebuild Columbia Pike with wider sidewalks and underground utilities enters its last construction phase, county leaders say they are seeing early signs of a promising future.
On Thursday, the Columbia Pike Partnership held its third annual “State of the Pike,” during which Arlington County’s department heads delivered a comprehensive overview of the Pike’s housing market and local economy via Zoom.
Despite the construction’s impact on walkability and traffic flow, officials noted that the area’s retail, office and multifamily apartment vacancies fall well below the county average. Still, they say, neighborhoods on the Pike still face persistent challenges, such as addressing graffiti and revitalizing a stagnant office market.
For nearly two decades, construction along the Pike has been a constant presence for businesses, residents and commuters alike. The constant construction thrum is not likely to abate until late 2025, according to County Deputy Director of Transportation Hui Wang.
While these improvements have made the Pike more walkable and leafier, some county officials have noted that they have also hurt some businesses. At the same time, other business owners are finding it difficult to secure retail space, notes Arlington Economic Development Deputy Director Kate Ange.
“So, there is strong demand for retail, which means there’s not a lot of space,” she told attendees of the 2024 State of the Pike forum. “And that’s both an opportunity, but also could be a challenge.”
In the first quarter of 2023, the retail vacancy rate along Columbia Pike was approximately 2%, which previous studies of the Pike attributed to the Pike’s legacy businesses — now becoming a threatened breed — leasing older, less expensive storefronts. In contrast, the county’s overall retail vacancy rate was about 5%.
Ange highlighted the low retail vacancy rates as a clear sign that the local economy is on the mend post-pandemic, crediting a surge in consumer spending.
The same cannot be said for the office vacancy rate in Arlington, which was at nearly 25% as of last month. Ange acknowledged hybrid and remote work continues to affect commercial office space across the county, and Columbia Pike, which has approximately a 7% office vacancy rate, is no exception.
That being said, she noted that the demand for office space along the Pike is still “high” compared to other commercial districts.
A new program diverting teens from the criminal justice system has seen 27 referrals for a variety of criminal offenses, largely related to theft, assault and drug and alcohol violations.
Shoplifting and physical disagreements with peers are exactly the kinds of crimes Devanshi Patel expects to see go through the program, run by the nonprofit she leads called the Center for Youth and Family Advocacy (CYFA).
The organization is one of two in Arlington County attempting to keep juveniles out of the criminal-legal system — the other being Restorative Arlington. Leaders of both say they offer an alternative to the traditional, adversarial court process that takes into account the needs of victims of crimes as well as the youth who commit them.
“When a kid has a relational issue, whether it’s with a peer or family member, there are better ways to help that kid understand what is going on or why they’ve engaged in that type of response or where their actions come from… so they don’t make that same decision again in the future,” says Patel, who is also a substitute judge in Arlington. “This type of program is different because we’re not using the legal system to provide those resources.”
Between August and October, CYFA reports ACPD responded to 71 incidents of youth-based harm, of which 24 involved offense types not eligible for referral to CYFA and another 21 that were not referred. In 13 eligible cases, the victim wished to seek legal redress through the courts.
CYFA received 13 referrals, of which 11 came from ACPD, before the juveniles were charged while two came from the Arlington Juvenile Court Services Unit, after they were charged. Since then, the total number of referrals has gone up to 27, as of this month.
Of the cases CYFA has opened, nine have been closed.
“We’re actually a little surprised at how well it’s gone,” said ACPD Deputy Chief Wayne Vincent, in a recent video CYFA produced.
“Some people may argue, ‘Well, just hold them accountable and send them off to the detention center or have the courts deal with it,'” he continued. “It’s very traumatizing. I think the studies are very clear that you know, the less that we can have a child go through the criminal justice system, at least in the early stages, I think the better for them.”
So far, CYFA has received $100,000 from Arlington County to support this work. For the last few years, the county has involved itself in the creation of programs that use restorative justice principles, such as voluntary conferencing between victims and offenders, to divert young people from the criminal-legal system, before or after they have been charged with a crime.
It stood up Restorative Arlington, now a separate nonprofit, and funneled support to community-based programs, including that of CYFA.
The county says its backseat role allows it to also fund a broader range of “innovative programs that further advance restorative justice.”
Restorative Arlington offers conferencing while CYFA offers both conferencing and a “Youth Peer Court” program, where participants sit down with “peer ambassadors” who take the positions of defense attorney, prosecutor and judge. There are at least one thousand different peer courts across the country but some practitioners say conferencing is truer to the roots of restorative justice than peer courts that borrow the structure of the judicial system.
The Arlington County Police Department has ramped up efforts to curb public intoxication and other illegal behavior near a Green Valley elementary school.
Despite these efforts, however, some of that behavior persists, according to some community members and ARLnow’s observations.
Police, true to their word, have increased foot patrols and community engagement in Drew Park and John Robinson, Jr. Town Square after the neighborhood heard shots fired and witnessed a shooting over one week in December, among other 2023 incidents.
During an Arlington County Board meeting last Tuesday, County Manager Mark Schwartz said that authorities have “seen a difference in some of the behaviors,” including drinking in public, in the area near Dr. Charles R. Drew Elementary School, and announced other forthcoming measures to curb this activity.
County Board member Matt de Ferranti applauded police on three arrests in connection with the incidents, along with outreach such as conducting security surveys and hosting a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus.
“The residents who have sat there and said, ‘We want results’ — you have pulled through and so has ACPD,” de Ferranti said.
Around 1 p.m. Friday, however, at least one person on a sidewalk within eyesight of Drew Elementary was visibly drunk. He had an empty beer bottle in his hand and was dancing energetically to music.
From reiterating demands for public restrooms to calling for more investment in area businesses, some community members said Green Valley has a long way to go.
“I will say, the county has been very empathetic to the situation,” said Yordanos Woldai, co-founder of the public safety advocacy group Green Valley Matters. “But I want to judge by the action.”
Striking the right enforcement balance
Among the complexities of intervening in Green Valley is how to do so while being sensitive to the area’s strong hangout culture. The drunk person was dancing next to several other people who sat in lawn chairs outside The Shelton, an affordable housing building.
A middle-aged woman enjoying the warm weather was dismissive when asked whether she has seen any changes in how the county approaches her neighborhood.
“Nope,” she said. “I’m keeping it real with you right now. All they do is talk.”
The woman, who declined to give her name, called the town square’s lack of restrooms, shade and functional water fountains “disrespectful” and scoffed at the suggestion that police have redoubled efforts to keep her community safe.
“If it wasn’t for these older guys that they complain about out here? They look out for us,” she said.
For Schwartz, the focus on Green Valley goes beyond the public nuisance crimes to more serious offenses. The neighborhood is among the “top three or four” in Arlington for firearms offenses and is in the top 12 neighborhoods for a category of offenses that includes weapon law violations, theft, assault and homicide, he noted.
“I’m not going to sit here and tell you that all civic associations are created equal. Some are in more urban areas; some are in less urban areas,” Schwartz said. “But the reason we’re focusing on Green Valley has to do with firearms crimes.”
One approach will be to improve tracking and public reporting of crimes at the neighborhood level. Schwartz announced last week that a new dashboard displaying crime numbers, broken down by civic association, should go live in the near future.
A former board president of the Arlington Aquatic Club pled guilty today to conspiring to sexually exploit several children.
Mark Black, 50, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to produce child pornography and one count of coercion and enticement one month before he was set to go to trial in federal court on Feb. 27, according to a press release from the U.S. Dept. of Justice.
He is set to be sentenced on April 30 and faces a mandatory minimum term of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison.
From January 2018 to October 2021, Black was part of two groups that found prepubescent girls online and convinced them to livestream themselves engaging in sexually explicit conduct, the release says. Black and his co-conspirators would secretly record so they could share the videos with each other.
Last November, a grand jury returned an indictment charging Black with six counts of creating, advertising, distributing and receiving child pornography between 2018 and 2023.
Black was one board president of AAC, an elite swimming program notable for producing a Tokyo Olympian two summers ago, and also worked as a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) attorney.
More, below, from the Justice Department press release.
A Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) attorney pleaded guilty today to conspiring to sexually exploit numerous children.
According to court documents, between January 2018 and October 2021, Mark Black, 50, of Arlington, was a member of two online groups dedicated to exploiting children. The goal of the two groups was to locate prepubescent girls online and convince them to livestream themselves engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Black and his co-conspirators would covertly record this conduct and share the videos with each other.
In July 2019, Black induced a prepubescent minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct on a live-streaming application while screen-recording that activity. That same month, Black and a co-conspirator also groomed another prepubescent minor to engage in sexually explicit acts on a photo and video-sharing application. The co-conspirator surreptitiously hacked into this girl’s live-video feed and recorded the sexual acts before sending them to Black.
Black was formerly the Arlington Aquatic Club (AAC) board president.
Black pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to produce child pornography and one count of coercion and enticement. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 30 and faces a mandatory minimum term of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Nicole M. Argentieri, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Michael D. Nordwall, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division; and Shimon Richmond, Assistant Inspector General for Investigations of the FDIC Office of Inspector General (FDIC-OIG), made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema accepted the plea.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Halper and Trial Attorneys McKenzie Hightower, Kaylynn Foulon, and James E. Burke IV of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section are prosecuting the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. […]
Any individuals who believe they or someone they know may have been victimized by Black are encouraged to contact the FBI at 202-278-2000 and ask to speak to the Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force.
Still reeling from recent shootings, a Green Valley resident took the dais during Saturday’s Arlington County Board meeting to ask the county and police for a plan to address public safety concerns.
Yordanos Woldai, co-founder of Green Valley Matters, a new resident group focused on public safety, says this plan should include regular police patrols and stepped up enforcement of illegal activities.
This includes crimes such as drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, urinating and selling drugs in public around the John Robinson, Jr. Town Square — crimes which she said are largely committed by people who do not live in the neighborhood.
“The illegal activities happen in the open, on a consistent basis, starting in the afternoon when children are walking home from Drew,” she said. “This continued policy of inaction and looking the other way is not only dangerous, but it is inequitable. Nowhere else in Arlington County is a residential neighborhood — within feet of an elementary school — subjected to open and persistent, illegal activities that go unaddressed, except in this mostly Black and brown community.”
Neighbors have been raising these and other quality of life issues for several months. While there have been small fixes, including temporary bathrooms, Woldai says residents have exhausted public engagement methods — signing petitions, attending meetings and sending letters and emails — with little to show for it.
“The lack of enforcement has made our neighborhood attractive to people who want to openly engage in illegal activities without any consequence,” she said, tying these to more serious crimes Green Valley has witnessed.
The neighborhood has logged a number shots fired calls in recent years, including two in the summer of 2021, two in 2022 and this year so far, four in 2023. That’s in addition to several shootings, including one on Dec. 9.
It is a nuanced issue but, ultimately, residents want equitable policing that reduces crime and makes their community safer, says Arlington County’s Independent Policing Auditor, Mummi Ibrahim.
She says the county’s Community Oversight Board, which reviews public complaints of officer behavior, can help ensure this happens. Right now, she is focused on understanding what has been done so far.
“In my opinion, the best way a police department can strike this balance is to engage with the community as partners,” Ibrahim said. “This means actively listening and being guided by community in learning what is needed to address the problems, and to continue consulting with the community when determining the police department’s response to ensure police actions are properly measured, effective and equitable.”
Woldai agrees. In a follow up communique to the County Board after her remarks, she stressed the community wants “a middle ground between the current policy of inaction and over-aggressive police tactics,” not “a militarized police state.”
When residents came to the County Board this spring, decrying similar problems, County Manager Mark Schwartz said he would have a few recommendations for new technology, like gunshot detection, by the summer. He said adding patrols would be difficult — given vacancies within ACPD — but remains an option.
Seven months later, Schwartz said ACPD will be adding those patrol officers.
“You should start seeing visible Arlington County police presence, not just a cruiser, I’m talking about police officer or officers on foot starting this coming week,” the County Manager said.
Schwartz said he has also authorized Police Chief Andy Penn to purchase a gunshot detection device. ACPD told ARLnow today that these technologies are being considered across county agencies but none have been purchased yet.
“The Arlington County Police Department remains committed to our key initiatives of crime prevention and control, transportation safety, and community engagement as we continue to work with all stakeholders in the Green Valley community to address public safety concerns and identify solutions,” the department said in a statement.
Schwartz said ACPD will also deploy portable cameras with a license plate reader function around the town square and elsewhere in the neighborhood once the county wraps up their purchase, using $80,000 in closeout funds.
A grand jury has returned an indictment for a man on felony charges in connection to a wild police chase in October 2022.
The indictment against Ricardo Singleton, returned last Monday, included charges for eluding police and shooting a firearm from a vehicle within 1,000 feet of a school. They follow a bizarre crime spree for which Singleton was arrested on Oct. 6, 2022.
The man allegedly made a U-turn in front of Arlington County police headquarters in Courthouse and brandished a gun at a sheriff’s deputy, later fleeing and striking a parked car. That evening, police chased the suspect vehicle through Arlington — where shots were fired along a residential street — and into Fairfax County. Singleton was arrested after his gun reportedly jammed.
Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano subsequent compiled a detailed timeline of the events. His use-of-force review found that a Fairfax officer fired shots at Singleton, but the officer acted properly in doing so.
Singleton had a court hearing in Fairfax General District Court this March. He was charged with three counts of attempted maiming of law enforcement officers and one count of using a firearm in the commission of a felony.
The court certified all these charges to Fairfax County Circuit Court. His trial in Fairfax is set to begin on May 20, 2024, according to Laura Birnbaum, the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Deputy Chief of Staff.
On Oct. 24, Singleton had a hearing in Arlington General District Court on a slew of charges: three counts of assault on law enforcement, two counts of eluding police, brandishing, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, reckless handling, endangerment and damage exceeding $1,000.
The Arlington court dismissed most of the charges after not finding probable cause, the standard of proof required for an indictment, sources say. To convict Singleton, the Commonwealth’s Attorney would have to meet a higher standard of proof, “beyond a reasonable doubt,” that he committed the crimes.
A felony eluding charge, meanwhile, was certified to Arlington County Circuit Court.
Last week, Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti presented the court with new felony charges — including shooting a gun from a vehicle, near a school — for which she says there is stronger evidence.
If he is found guilty, Singleton could face 2-10 years in prison for shooting a weapon within 1,000 feet of a school and 1-10 years for shooting a weapon from a car, according to state sentencing guidelines. The eluding police charges come with a jail sentence between 1-5 years.
On most of the charges — save for the one involving shots fired near a school — a jury or the court can opt for fewer than 12 months in jail, tacking on a $2,500 fine.
His next court appearance is today (Monday).
(Updated at 8:20 p.m.) A former board president of Arlington Aquatic Club is set to go to trial next year for child pornography and sexual coercion charges, according to court documents.
Mark Black, who is about to turn 50, according to public records, was arraigned in federal court last week. A trial date was set for Feb. 27, 2024.
Earlier this month, a grand jury returned an indictment charging Black with six counts of creating, advertising, distributing and receiving child pornography between 2018 and 2023.
His alleged crimes date back to January 2018 and continued up to June of this year, when, according to court documents, he was allegedly found in possession of child pornography, including at least one depiction involving a minor not yet 12 years old.
According to these charges, in July 2019, he coerced one victim, identified as “Victim 1,” to “engage in sexually explicit conduct” to produce child pornography.
He also faces a seventh charge of coercing a minor to engage in sexual activity to create child pornography, after allegedly coercing and enticing a second child victim to engage in sexual activity for this purpose between April 2022 and April 2023.
“He faces a mandatory minimum term of 15 to 30 years for conspiracy to produce child pornography,” a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia told ARLnow this evening, after publication.
He also faces “15 to 30 years for conspiracy to advertise child pornography, 15 to 30 years for production of child pornography, 10 to life for coercion and enticement, and 5 to 20 for both receipt and distribution,” she continued.
The average sentence on federal child pornography charges in fiscal year 2022 was 110 months, or just over nine years, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Trafficking child pornography typically carries longer sentences than reception or possession.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia filed an indictment against Black on Sept. 14, 2023. He was taken into custody at the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center in Alexandria the next day, according to court documents.
Later that month, swimming news outlet SwimSwam reported that Black was suspended indefinitely by the U.S. Center for SafeSport and USA Swimming “for unspecified allegations of misconduct.”
The outlet had previously reported Black was entered into SafeSport’s disciplinary database, around the same time he was allegedly found in possession of child pornography.
Black was prepared to enter a plea agreement for the first count, Conspiracy to Produce Child Pornography, however “the Court indicated that the plea would not be accepted at this time,” per court documents.
Neither the Arlington Aquatic Club (AAC) — an elite swimming program notable for producing a Tokyo Olympian two summers ago — nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office could be reached before deadline.