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President Trump granted full and unconditional pardons Wednesday to two Washington, DC, police officers sentenced to prison time for their roles in a deadly moped chase and a subsequent effort to cover it up.
Last September, former DC Metropolitan Police Department officer Terence Sutton was sentenced to 66 months in prison and ex-MPD Lt. Andrew Zabavsky received a 48 month sentence after an “unauthorized police pursuit” of Karon Hylton-Brown resulted in the 20-year-old man’s death.
The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit group that supported Sutton and Zabavsky in their efforts to fight the criminal charges, said it was “extraordinarily grateful” to Trump for the pardons.
“This unprecedented case was a miscarriage of justice from the beginning,” the group said in a statement.
“Anti-police bias and political expediency drove politicians and prosecutors to pursue these officers with reckless disregard for the facts of the case.”
“The death of Karon Hylton-Brown, while tragic, was a direct result of his decision to flee an entirely lawful stop. Neither officer caused or participated in his death and neither committed a crime.”
Hylton-Brown led the officers on a high-speed chase through DC in October 2020 and died after he crashed his moped into an innocent motorist as he exited an alley, with Sutton and Zabavsky in hot pursuit.
“Mr. Hylton-Brown, who was unarmed, ignored Sutton’s attempt to stop him and drove off,” according to federal prosecutors.
“Sutton then began chasing Mr. Hylton-Brown on neighborhood streets for minutes, over more than 10 blocks, at unreasonable speeds, and at one point proceeding the wrong way up a one-way street.”
After Hylton-Brown, who wasn’t wearing a helmet, wrecked his moped, “Sutton and Zabavsky, agreed to cover up what Sutton had done to prevent any further investigation of the incident,” the DC US Attorneys Office said in a statement released after their sentencing hearing.
“The jury found that Sutton caused Mr. Hylton-Brown’s death by driving a police vehicle in conscious disregard for an extreme risk of death or serious bodily injury to Mr. Hylton-Brown … The jury further found that Sutton and Zabavsky conspired to hide from MPD officials the circumstances of the traffic crash leading to Mr. Hylton-Brown’s death, thereby obstructing justice,” prosecutors added.
The deadly chase occurred just months after riots swept DC in the wake of the May 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Former US Attorney Matthew Graves argued that the actions of Sutton and Zabavsky eroded the public’s trust with law enforcement and represented a “disservice to the community and the thousands of officers who work incredibly hard, within the bounds of the Constitution, to keep us safe.”
On Inauguration Day, Trump, 78, teased that Sutton and Zabavsky would soon receive pardons, prompting Hylton-Brown’s mother to release a statement urging against the clemency.
“As a mother, I am asking you don’t pardon the murders (sic) of my baby Karon Hylton,” Karen Hylton said, according to NBC 4 Washington.
“President Trump as the mother of a baby whom I love, I am requesting to speak with you privately … Please don’t pardon Sutton and Zabavsky.”
Since his return to the White House, Trump has also pardoned more than 1,500 Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot prisoners, as well as Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.
