The Prosecutors: Glenn Ivey, William Moomau, and Joseph Wright

Throughout Keith's trial the State, led by prosecutors and Assistant State’s Attorneys (ASA) William Moomau and Joseph Wright and overseen by State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey, consistently pursued an improper line of questioning, mischaracterized and lied about the evidence and testimony as well as the criminal history of Robert White, and made numerous improper remarks that were consistently beyond the scope and latitude used to secure a just and proper verdict. The State is specifically barred from such conduct and from making improper statements solely for the purpose of producing a verdict that, on its face, lacks both a factual and evidentiary basis for its conclusion. There were not just one or two remarks, but a pattern of remarks made by the prosecutors that they knew to be improper, false and misleading that were sustained by the judge. There were at least thirty-one false and misleading statements made throughout the trial that were objected to and sustained to intentionally poison and mislead the jurors. During Keith's cross examination by the State, there were twenty-two sustained objections for improper questions, ranging from facts not in evidence, mischaracterization of evidence and testimony, misleading statements, improper impeachment, and general inadmissible statements and questions on the part of the State. During the closing argument alone, the trial court sustained nine additional objections to statements made by ASA Joseph Wright that were improper.  Prosecutors are specifically barred from making remarks during closing arguments that address facts not in evidence and making statements intended to generate unfair prejudice against the defendant. Below are two patently false statements made by Joseph Wright over the course of the criminal trial.

(UPDATE: Joseph Wright (who became a District Court Judge after prosecuting this case) has since lost the judgeship and was found guilty of falsifying official government documents under the penalty of perjury.)

“Robert White only had one conviction."

“There was no cocaine test given to Robert White.  White never tested positive for cocaine.  We do not know who took the cocaine test for Robert White.” 

Joseph Wright and William Moomau prosecuted the case against Keith Washington knowing that the State's sole fact witness, Robert White, was a career criminal who was high on cocaine the night of the incident and had lied and made false statements in every legal proceeding.

“We put [Robert White] on the stand; he was a witness of ours but you’ll never see me standing in front of a jury saying what this witness says is the truth.” - William Moomau

The prosecutors were also well aware that ALL of the physical and forensic evidence supported Keith Washington's statement of the incident. ASA Moomau met with Lt. Charles Walls, the lead investigator in the case, at least four times, during which Moomau was informed him that NONE of the evidence supported Robert White's version of the incident. During one such meeting, Walls informed the prosecutors that a witness was not telling the truth based on the witness' previous written statements and interviews. Lt.Walls was then told to leave and was effectively removed from the case, an occurrence never experienced by Lt. Walls in his twenty-five-plus years as a police officer

The members of the prosecution all had political motives as well and were hoping to use the conviction from this high-profile case to advance their careers. Joseph Wright publicly announced on several occasions to various individuals that convicting Keith Washington would make him the next Prince George's County State's Attorney, and in the opinion of many, he was clearly willing to lie and manipulate the facts to make that happen. In fact, a complaint was filed with the Attorney Grievance Commission by a public official to whom Wright made that statement. Wright followed through and ran for office in 2010 allegedly believing he would win on the back of this conviction; however, Wright lost the election, despite the endorsement from State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey. Wright did, however, become a district court judge. Ivey himself ran for Congress in 2016, but lost. William Moomau became an Assistant U.S. Attorney. All of these individuals received significant pay increases and more prestigious jobs after lying about and misrepresenting the evidence in this case.