DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced Monday that the District of Columbia filed five lawsuits against drivers from Maryland and Virginia. The drivers, Schwalb says, haven’t paid fines that total more than $400,000 between them, which the District claims they racked up via “repeated dangerous and illegal conduct on DC streets.” The lawsuits were made possible by a law that went into effect last year that allowed such suits; previously, drivers from other states could practically ignore DC citations. These suits follow three suits filed in February against exclusively Maryland drivers.
The District says that Charles V. Sanders, Jr., of Brandywine, Maryland, owes DC $187,200 for 344 traffic citations accrued between May 2020 and July 2022. Most of the violations were for speeding, and 61 were for driving more than 30 miles per hour over the speed limit. It says Ayanna Khalya Wilson of Cullen, Virginia (which is southwest of Richmond) owes $77,100 for 244 citations accrued from August 2019 through August 2024, again mostly for speeding.
It further claims that Omar Rahmouni El Idrissi of Lorton owes $69,456 for 263 violations, largely issued for speeding, racked up between October 2015 and September of last year. Pedro James Baker of Alexandria owes $31,316, according to one suit, for what the District avers is a “wide array of traffic violations” including speeding, running red lights, and parking in bus zones. And Dejene A. Abebe of Herndon, it says, owes $58,608 for 197 citations, of which most were for speeding.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
