“A person was killed,” attorneys for Taneja’s household wrote in a letter to prosecutors after studying this month that prison fees wouldn’t be filed. “Regulation enforcement and the prosecutors know who did it and have proof that identifies the killer because the aggressor, but he has not been arrested.”
Declining to prosecute, the letter says, “is a disservice to the residents of this metropolis, an insult to Taneja’s grieving household, and calls for quick rectification.” The household lawyer, Kaveh Noorishad, mentioned the U.S. lawyer’s workplace has not responded to a request {that a} new prosecutor evaluation the case.
Federal prosecutors, in a letter to police explaining their resolution to not file fees, assert that “Taneja made the primary bodily contact and threw the primary punch.” Prosecutors described a “full-on struggle” between the 2 males that lasted lower than 10 seconds throughout which every man knocked the opposite to the bottom.
Prosecutors argue that as a result of they suppose Taneja instigated the altercation, they “lack proof to disprove self-defense.” Which means they don’t suppose they’ve ample proof to show a criminal offense past an affordable doubt, and thus can’t file fees. Taneja’s household and attorneys disagree with this evaluation.
Authorities didn’t determine the person however verify he’s a former police officer in Virginia. Prosecutors mentioned it’s unclear in a surveillance video whether or not he made contact with Taneja within the ultimate punch that resulted in his demise or whether or not Taneja fell whereas making an attempt to dodge the blow. The prosecutor’s letter says Taneja’s blood alcohol content material was greater than twice the authorized restrict for driving whereas intoxicated in D.C. It was not clear whether or not the opposite man had been consuming.
Makes an attempt to succeed in him on Friday have been unsuccessful. Police in Arlington County, Va, mentioned that man had been on the drive from Could 2012 till he resigned in January 2014. The Washington Submit doesn’t usually determine suspects in prison instances who should not charged.
The altercation occurred after the person and Taneja had individually attended an invitation-only smooth opening for the restaurant, in response to Taneja’s household and testimony at a public listening to in April earlier than the town’s liquor board. The listening to was described as fact-finding solely, and the board took no motion in opposition to the restaurant.
Authorities mentioned they discovered no proof to counsel Taneja — the co-founder and president of Dynamo Applied sciences, an mental know-how agency in Northern Virginia — and the suspect had a run-in contained in the restaurant. They mentioned no matter led as much as the struggle occurred in a courtyard exterior, 300 ft from the 14-story Midtown Heart constructing. Akēdo was closed when the struggle occurred.
The preliminary D.C. police report says an argument was a “bodily altercation” and Taneja “was knocked to the bottom by the suspect and hit his head on the pavement.”
A server for Akēdo, who was exterior when the struggle occurred, instructed an investigator for the town liquor board that the suspect “was being bizarre” towards the ladies and “the sufferer instructed the person to sit back out.” One other server mentioned the ladies have been “being harassed by a random male,” and “because of standing as much as the suspect, [Taneja] was punched then fell to the bottom the place he hit his head.”
Taneja’s demise on the hospital on Feb. 7 was dominated a murder, and police distributed video of an individual of curiosity. After police recognized that man, attorneys for Taneja’s kin mentioned of their letter to prosecutors that D.C. police “assured the household and their counsel in a proper assembly that an arrest was inevitable and that, based mostly on their evaluation of the info and unanimous witness testimony, the assailant shouldn’t be in a position to assert a legitimate declare of self-defense.”
They mentioned police submitted an utility for an arrest warrant to the U.S. lawyer’s workplace, which was not signed. D.C. police didn’t immediately deal with that query. A division spokesman mentioned solely that detectives “offered all of the info and circumstances of the case” to prosecutors.
The U.S. lawyer workplace for D.C. usually doesn’t touch upon charging choices. However on this case, they offered a June 5 letter from Laura R. Bach, a prosecutor and deputy chief of the murder part, to police Capt. Jeffrey Wade within the Legal Investigations Division.
Bach wrote that surveillance video exhibits Taneja, the 2 ladies he was with and the suspect passing one another exterior the restaurant. The suspect turned and walked towards Taneja “with none apparent indicators of menace,” the letter says, including that Taneja appeared to put his fingers on the suspect’s chest as the 2 ladies tried to intervene. The video exhibits Taneja take off his jacket “as if he was making ready to struggle” after which punch the suspect, inflicting him to fall to the bottom, Bach wrote.
The suspect acquired up and punched Taneja, the letter says, and the 2 fought, culminating within the ultimate punch resulting in the deadly accidents.
“What occurred to Mr. Taneja was tragic,” Bach’s letter to police says. “We word that he was a cherished and revered member of the neighborhood, and any of the aggressive conduct he displayed on the evening of his demise was, by all accounts, completely out of character.”
The attorneys for Taneja’s household mentioned they reviewed two movies from completely different angles and assert prosecutors didn’t see the second video till after they made their conclusions and that the grand jury solely noticed one among them. The U.S. lawyer’s workplace mentioned it couldn’t remark; it’s unlawful for them to debate secret grand jury proceedings.
“By declining this matter and failing to current the case totally to a grand jury for a vote, the household was denied the chance to hunt a good and simply trial,” Noorishad’s letter to prosecutors says, including they “firmly consider that the assailant instigated and initiated the confrontation.”
The household attorneys say the second video gives context that may present Taneja’s punch as a defensive swing after the person approached, refused to depart and pushed him. The household mentioned in an announcement that video exhibits the alleged assailant “stepped over [Taneja’s] bloody and lifeless physique and left he scene with out serving to him.”
Within the assertion, Taneja’s kin described the household as “grief-stricken” and mentioned their mom raised them to be “type, productive members of society and to assist these in want.”
“We put our belief in prosecutors on this case and now really feel that the justice system has allow us to down,” they wrote.