The Gazette
C COMMUNITY OMMUNITY NE N NEWS EWS www.gazette.net
|
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
|
Page A-4
Novel ‘Moorish’ defense strategy fails in Montgomery courtroom Jury doesn’t buy man’s reasoning for breaking into, occupying Bethesda mansion n
BY
DAN MORSE
THE WASHINGTON POST
For the past several years, Lamont Butler has espoused beliefs that even those closest to him can’t understand. The 29-year-old claims to be a “Moorish American National,” with ancestors who were here long before the formation of the United States. The entire continent, in Butler’s telling, remains part of a vast Moroccan empire, rendering Moors like him the rightful heirs to huge swaths of land. A new group of people listened to Butler’s beliefs last week — 12 Montgomery County jurors — and on Friday passed judgment over one of the most bizarre burglary cases in the region in years. The question they faced: When Butler slipped into a $6 million, unoccupied mansion in Bethesda this year and claimed it as his own, how many crimes, if any, did he commit? Their answer: Five.
Butler now faces perhaps his most daunting audience yet, Montgomery Circuit Court Judge Terrence McGann, who indicated after the verdict that however zany Butler’s beliefs may be, his actions constituted a threat. McGann said that the same goes for Butler’s co-conspirator and girlfriend, Sakita Holly, 34, who was tried and convicted with him. “Under your set of rules, every house is fair game, you own the entire United States, you own the oceans, you own anything you want. And that’s not how a free, orderly society works,” McGann said. He ordered that Butler and Holly be held in jail and receive psychological evaluations ahead of their Nov. 14 sentencing. They were then led off in handcuffs, passing several supporters. “Let everybody know,” Butler said over his shoulder. “Barack Obama, Eric Holder. Everybody.” Butler attracted law enforcement attention this year because some of his beliefs are similar to the wider “sovereign citizen” movement that has adherents clogging court offices with endless paper filings and, in isolated incidents,
turning violent. “They declare themselves above the law,” Montgomery State’s Attorney John McCarthy said. “A clear message has to be sent.” The verdict against Butler and Holly — reached in less than two hours — was the latest chapter of a case that began in January. Police were called to a 35,000-square-foot estate along a winding, tree-lined road near the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm golf course. The mansion was on the market. In the driveway, the police ran into Butler, who had a convoluted yet simple message: This is my home. Butler, who represented himself in court, explained how he ended up there during a sweeping closing argument that capped the four-day trial. Wearing a suit and tie with his long dreadlocks, Butler spoke for 42 minutes seated at a defense table behind two tiny flags he’d set up, using a pair of inverted cups as little stands. One of the flags was Moroccan, the other American. “Good morning,” he told the jurors. “First off, I would like to say excuse my voice, because it’s very deep and heavy. So I don’t want you all to think I am
talking at you with force.” Butler spoke of graduating from high school, going off to college, obtaining a job with the federal government. Still, by 2006, he said, he was looking for answers in his life — and found them in studying Moorish American tenets. “My family and friends, when they saw what I was studying, they thought I was a part of some cult.” Butler acknowledged going to a tax office in Montgomery County to explain his right to the property. “I claimed the land and everything on the land. Why? Because the land is ours.” Mixing together case law, treatises on treaties, a reference to the movie “Wall Street” and the fallacy of deeds, Butler told jurors how he entered the mansion — through an unlocked back door. He called friends and family members to come check the place out. And why not? Its marble floors, 12 bedroom suites, six kitchens and indoor swimming pool were enough to host grand political fundraisers in the past, drawing the likes of Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Detectives caught on to Butler and Holly’s brief stay in the mansion, eventually leading to charges against each
for breaking and entering. Butler also was charged with attempted theft for trying to steal the home, among other counts. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree burglary, first-degree burglary, fourth-degree burglary, attempted theft and identity fraud. “It seemed like they were making up their own laws,” a 68-year-old juror said after Friday’s verdict. He asked to not be named to protect his privacy. Prosecutors called Butler’s father and a cousin — both of whom had gone to check out the house — to testify. In an interview afterward, his father, Maurice Whitfield, called Butler a regular kid who studied in college and was headed for success but stopped working to pursue his beliefs. Now, Whitfield said last week with regret in his voice, “He’s going nowhere fast.” Damon Butler, a cousin, said in an interview that Butler is at peace with himself and is not a danger. “This is not a threat guy,” he said. “This is not a guy who is trying to get 100 people behind him. This is not the guy to make an example of.” dan.morse@washpost.com
Parents seek answers to mold outbreak Seeing double
Computer glitch could mean a few taxpayers get duplicate bills from county n
Aging, broken HVAC system played part
n
BY
BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
When students and staff returned to Rolling Terrace Elementary School in Takoma Park after the Labor Day weekend, they were met with classrooms sporting growth more suited to a science experiment petri dish. On Sept. 3 and 4, mold was found in more than 30 rooms — “the majority of the building,” Principal Jennifer Connors said. Weeks later, Rolling Terrace parents say they are frustrated by a lack of communication from the school and concerned that some students have shown allergy and asthma symptoms. School officials attribute the mold outbreak to a combination of factors, including the humid summer and an old, malfunctioning heating, ventilation and air conditioning system that’s more than 25 years old. Mold has been cleaned from classrooms and other areas. After testing the building’s air quality, school system staff are monitoring the building’s temperature and humidity. Renovations have been moved up in the county’s capital budget, said James Song, director of the school system’s Department of Facilities Management. Some parents, however, said they think the school has not provided enough information and want the school to survey families to see how many students are experiencing symptoms. Rolling Terrace parent Bridgette Kaiser said her fourth-grade son’s allergies have gone “out of control” since he returned to school after the Labor Day weekend. He has mild asthma, she said, and this was the first time his normal treatment couldn’t get it under control so she took him to an urgent care center. Kaiser said she doesn’t know if her son reacted to the mold or the cleaning the agents the school used. Some teachers found a few spots of mold they returned from summer vacation on Aug. 21 and 22, but the spots did not seem to be a cause for
DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
Spanish immersion teacher Sandra Castellon teaches science Monday in a fourth-grade class at Rolling Terrace Elementary School in Takoma Park. a concern, Connors said. The school was cold with a lot of moisture that made the floors damp, Connors said, so staff used dehumidifiers, opened doors and raised the thermostats. Then they returned from the Labor Day weekend. “It was pretty intense,” she said. The day after Labor Day, after the kids left, a school system mold remediation team cleaned the building until around 3 a.m., she said. The next day a few more classrooms had mold, she said, bringing the total to about 30 affected classrooms. The staff lounge, two offices and the art room were also affected. The school sent a letter home in both English and Spanish to families on Sept. 6, Connors said, and a meeting was held for parents and school staff to discuss the issue on Sept. 16. Days after the meeting, PTA
THINK YOU’RE PREGNANT? A licensed medical clinic offering
real care.
Private. Holistic. Supportive.
Call us:
1907052
ALINE BARROS STAFF WRITER
301-770-4444
president Mindy Kassaraba — whose son has recently experienced flare ups of eczema — said parents still don’t know what kind of mold was found and what cleaning products were used. She also felt the school system was responding too slowly. Connors said the school started drafting its letter on Sept. 4 and she wasn’t sure it could have sent the letter to parents any sooner than it did. “Upon reflection, we certainly could have tried to get it out sooner,” she said. Song said the school will see several steps of work to replace old equipment. While they have already been repaired, a few HVAC controls that had malfunctioned will be replaced within a month, Song said. More comprehensive renovation will take place within a year, Song said. The school is scheduled
to see new boilers and chillers in several years. Given the number of buildings in the school system, Song said, mold growth is not unusual and similar cases have occurred in the past. However, the school’s problems with its HVAC system point to a larger issue, he said, as the school system is also dealing with “an extensive amount of backlog” when it comes to replacing outdated HVAC equipment, he said. Much of the school system’s focus has been directed toward adding classrooms to accommodate its growing enrollment, Tofig said. “Now we are reaching the point where the infrastructure needs are crying out for attention,” said state Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Dist. 20) of Silver Spring. lpowers@gazette.net
It’s hard enough to pay one tax bill, but Mark Lipowsky was seeing double when he got two identical tax bills from the county this month. The North Potomac resident says he got the two identical bills in the mail for his 2013 Personal Property Tax on Sept. 12. “I checked the year, the phone number ... to me it was identical,” he said, adding that he got a little upset after contacting the county’s general information hotline only to be told to ignore the additional bill. Turns out the double billing was just a computer glitch. The county sends an electronic file of the bills that need to be printed to Foremost Printing Inc., a local printing company hired to do the county’s tax bill printing and mailing. Each printing machine holds between 2,400 to 4,800 pages, and when there is a need to add paper to each machine the company rolls back one or two bills from the file to make sure every resident receives the mailing, said Mike Coveyou, chief of the Division of Treasury in the Montgomery County Department of Finance. “It doesn’t happen a lot,” said Coveyou. “We only pay for the ones we ask them to print.” According to Coveyou, the department splits the mailing of property tax bills in two cycles. They mail 300,000 in the beginning of July and the remaining after the end of July. “That way 311 people don’t get hundreds of calls [from people with tax bill questions],” he added. It costs the county 53 cents for each letter, which includes printing, return envelopes and postage, but if the double printing is not the county’s fault then taxpayers do not need to pay for extra mailing costs. Coveyou also said the county’s Information Technology Department checks the file before submitting to the printing company to make sure mistakes are not made. Coveyou could not confirm, however, if any resident had paid a tax bill twice due to duplicate bills. “I honestly doubt that has ever happened,” he said. The county is now taking measures to avoid any double billing in the future. “We’ve talked to the printer after this and they have something in their end [that can avoid duplicates],” said Coveyou, but he is not sure how much extra that process will cost the county taxpayers or “whether it works or not.” But, “it is something that we are looking into right now,” he said. abarros@gazette.net