Four D.C. police officers are among nine people indicted Wednesday in an assault last year outside a K Street nightclub in which a man lost an eye.
The officers were off-duty on June 10, 2011, when a fight broke out between two women outside the Northwest nightclub Lotus, according to the Metropolitan Police Department and alcohol inspectors’ reports of the incident. When friends of the women tried to break up the fight, the situation escalated.
According to the indictment, seven men beat and kicked two men who had been at the club. Four men — 1st District officers Kenneth McRavin, 33, and Thaddeus Modlin Jr., 36, and civilians Timothy Brown, 41, of Hyattsville and Ivon Atkinson, 42, of Upper Marlboro — continued to kick one of the men, Walter Blair, even as he fell to the ground. As a result of the assault, Mr. Blair loss his right eye, according to his attorney, Ronald Karp.
“Until the indictment came out, we weren’t sure what their names were,” Mr. Karp said of Mr. Blair’s attackers, who he believed to be bouncers at the club. “It adds an extra level of outrage. One would think off-duty officers wouldn’t act this way.”
Police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump said the officers were not working as bouncers. It remains unclear whether the other men were working for the nightclub, but a report filed by D.C. alcohol inspectors says Mr. Blair was struck in the face by an Asian bouncer before the other men attacked him.
In addition to Officers McRavin and Modlin, who joined MPD in 2008 and 2000, respectively, 1st District police Officers Nikeith Goins and Yolanda Lampkin also were indicted.
The indictment charges Officer Goins, 36, who joined the department in 1999, with failure to make an arrest after he witnessed the assault.
Those three officers were identified as suspects after fellow 1st District officers who were investigating the incident recognized them on Lotus’ surveillance camera, according to police.
Officer Lampkin, 35, was charged with one count of perjury and one count of obstructing justice after she told a grand jury that Officer McRavin identified himself as a police officer. Neither police nor the indictment make clear how she was involved in the June 10 incident, other than to say that at some point her car was spit on. Officer Lampkin joined the department in 1998.
All four of the police officers were placed on paid administrative leave, Ms. Crump said.
In a statement issued shortly before midnight Wednesday announcing the indictment, Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said the case demonstrates that the police department does not make exceptions for officers who violate the law.
“This is a harsh reminder for all law enforcement personnel that just because we are trusted with enforcing laws, that doesn’t mean we are exempt from abiding by the same laws and standards as the people we serve, on or off duty,” Chief Lanier said.
The five others indicted in the attack were Mr. Brown and Mr. Atkinson, charged with assaulting Mr. Blair, and Vlade Jankovic, 33, of Germantown, Tho Nguyen, 32, of Gaithersburg, and Quinton Xavier Raines, 29, of Lorton, who are charged with assault.
As of Thursday, no attorneys were listed as representing any of the nine people indicted. None could be reached by telephone Thursday.
Arraignment in the cases is scheduled for July 11 in D.C. Superior Court.
Earlier this month, Mr. Blair filed a civil lawsuit against both Lotus and the District seeking $10 million in damages, Mr. Karp said.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.