The Metropolitan Police Department has reinstated two Washington, DC, officers weeks after President Donald Trump pardoned them for their role in the pursuit accident death of 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown in 2020.
Officer Terence Sutton and Lt. Andrew Zabavsky will have to go through extensive retraining before the department determines what their assignments will be, an MPD source told CNN. But they are now back on the job and being paid.
Before the Trump pardons, Sutton was found guilty of second-degree murder, conspiracy to obstruct and obstruction of justice and sentenced to 66 months in prison. The same jury found Zabavsky guilty of conspiracy to obstruct and obstruction of justice, and he faced 48 months behind bars.
Prosecutors argued that in October 2020, Sutton and Zabavsky spotted Hylton-Brown driving a moped helmetless and pursued him at “unreasonable speeds” until he was eventually struck and killed by an uninvolved motorist. They were also accused of attempting to cover up the incident.
Defense lawyers disputed details about the incident and argued the court threw out key evidence that gave the officers reasonable suspicion that Hylton-Brown was going to commit a crime.
