Thread by @glennkirschner2

Hey #TeamJustice,
Hope you don’t mind if I share a personal story and rememberance. We buried an extraordinary man last Saturday: retired MPD Homicide Detective Lorren Leadmon. Lorren taught me so much about how to investigate AND prosecute murder cases in Washington, DC. ...

Indeed, he taught several generations of Assistant US Attorneys how to do the job . . . and many of them didn’t even realize they were being schooled.
Two quick stories: I was prosecuting a murder case in the 1990s and we were litigating a motion to suppress evidence. ...

The Judge was a strong, smart, fair, no-nonsense judge who I liked, respected and admired. Many years earlier, she had been a prosecutor in my office - the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia - and had worked cases with Lorren. ...

I called Lorren to the stand as my witness on the motion, but before I could begin asking him questions, the Judge interjected, saying, “I want to give the defense attorney an opportunity to object to me presiding over the case.” I was taken aback as I had no idea what was ...

happening. In that moment I felt like I must have missed some important development in the case. Why in the world would the judge feel like she could no longer preside over this trial? The judge then clarified, “years ago, I worked many cases with Detective Leadmon. ...

Given my professional experiences with him and my familiarity with his work, I don’t know if I can judge his testimony fairly and objectively, because I don’t think I could ever find his testimony anything less than entirely credible. Accordingly, I want to give the defense

attorneys an opportunity to challenge me for cause & I will assign this case to another judge.” This may be the single greatest tribute to a law enforcement office: being so honest, honorable, ethical & truthful that a judge could not envision herself finding anything you say ...

unworthy of belief.
One more story: some years later, Lorren & I had a case in which a young lady (we’ll call her Susan) - the 16-year-old girlfriend of the murder defendant - had the misfortune of 1. being in “love” w/a man who was in the habit of shooting & robbing people &...

2. being a witness to one such shooting that resulted in a murder. Susan ended up as a testifying witness at trial against her boyfriend. Not surprisingly, she was upset & terrified at the prospect of testifying. But she was determined to do the right thing. We moved Susan ...

and her family for their safety. On the day of her trial appearance, Susan was petrified, almost unable to communicate. During her testimony, she sobbed loudly and openly, devestated at having to implicate her boyfriend in a murder AND terrified at the prospect of being ...

perceived as a “snitch.”Indeed, several of the defendant’s criminal associates had packed the public courtroom in an obvious attempt to intimidate Susan.
As excruciating as it was for her, Susan made it through her testimony. She left the courtroom exhausted, ..

drained and despondent. It seemed like she struggled just to travel the 75 feet from the witness stand to the witness room adjacent to the courtroom.
Lorren and I entered the witness room to see how she was doing. She was sitting on the floor, crying uncontrollably.

We told her what a good, honorable and important thing she had just done. We tried to console her. We told her how proud we were of her. She remained upset, her crying continued unabated.
Lorren then said to her, “young lady, what might make you feel better right about now?”

Susan tried to collect herself, thought for a minute, then said through her tears, “I could use some new shoes.”
Without missing a beat, Lorren said, “darlin’ let’s get you some new shoes.” He then took Susan shoe shopping, got her some lunch and delivered her home safely.

Lorren Leadmon served the people of the District of Columbia for 38 years, then served as an intelligence analyst with ATF for another 12 years. He was a man of extraordinary decency, integrity and empathy. I was so lucky to have him as a friend and a mentor.

We have to work tirelessly to rid our law enforcement agencies of the Derek Chauvins of the world. But we could sure use many more Lorren Leadmons protecting and serving We The People. Thanks for listening friends.