The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia is expected to offer a plea deal within the next week to Kenneth Furr, the off-duty Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer who allegedly shot at a car containing five individuals, including transgender women, according to the attorney prosecuting the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Worm told Judge Ann O'Regan Keary at an April 13 status hearing that the government has not yet approved a plea deal that Worm hopes to offer within the week.
Because nothing has been offered yet, Furr's newest lawyers, Kia Sears and David Knight, asked if they could schedule a trial date for Furr in July. They told Keary that if the trial, which is expected to take anywhere from a week-and-a-half to two weeks, was not done in July, they would not be available until February 2013.
But Keary asked the three lawyers to approach the bench and work out an acceptable compromise, citing the length of time that has elapsed since Furr was initially charged with one count of assault with a dangerous weapon in August. Since then, Furr has gone through two attorneys and has been charged with five additional counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, two counts of sexual solicitation and one count of assault with intent to kill while armed.
''I'm a little loathe to set that date in the summer, and I certainly don't want to wait until February,'' Keary told the lawyers. The parties eventually agreed to scheduled a status hearing for April 27 at 10:30 a.m. and said they would try to find an acceptable trial date prior to February if a plea deal was not offered.
Furr was arrested in the early morning hours of Aug. 26 after pulling out his handgun and firing at a car containing five other individuals, including transgender women, near the corner of First and Pierce Streets NW, in the city's Sursum Corda neighborhood.
According to charging documents, the shooting occurred as the result of an escalating fight between Furr and the group, which started after Furr allegedly propositioned one of the transgender women at a CVS store, and, after she rejected his advances, pulled out his handgun and threatened to shoot her and two of her companions. The group of five later trailed Furr's vehicle, claiming they were trying to flag down a police car to arrest Furr for his earlier threat.
Following his arrest, Furr submitted to a breathalyzer test that showed, five hours after the shooting, that his blood-alcohol content was .15, almost twice the legal limit.
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