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'Grandma, why are you in here?' | 76-year-old woman sues DC government after arrest on gun charge

The District paid a six-figure settlement after a senior citizen claimed her civil rights were violated by an Metro Police Department detective.

WASHINGTON -- Getting guns off the street is a top priority for the Metropolitan Police Department.

A churchgoing grandmother of two found out just how far one MPD detective would go to charge her with a gun crime.

"How did I get here? How did this happen? What in the world happened?" Vashti Sherrod said of her arrest for felony assault with a dangerous weapon.

MPD Detective Phillip McHugh launched an investigation into the then 75-year-old in May 2015.

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A woman called the First District and reported that the of two pulled out a big, black handgun and threatened to shoot her as Sherrod's 72-year-old husband Gene, stood by.

The couple said the have never owned, shot or even held a gun.

"It was shocking," Sherrod said.

"Unheard of," her husband added. "Never ever."

The alleged incident happened outside Ginko Gardens garden store on 11th Street in southeast D.C.

The Sherrods were sitting in their Mercedes when an SUV backed into them, causing minor damage.

As the Sherrods exchanged information with the other driver, tempers flared. Insults hurled both ways and eventually, the other driver left. 

But seven hours later, the driver of that SUV called D.C. police with an allegation the Sherrods said they never saw coming.

"You pointed a gun at a lady," she remembered police telling her. "And I said, 'That's not true. That's not true. That's not true.'"

McHugh took on the investigation checking with state and federal law enforcement databases to see if either of the Sherrods had a firearm registered to them. They didn’t, so he put out a high alert to local and even national law enforcement to be on the lookout for the Sherrods car.

McHugh's entry in the Washington Area Law Enforcement System (WALES) and the National Crime Information System (NCIS) warned officers the Sherrods' car may have been involved with a felony assault with a dangerous weapon.

Six weeks later, as the Sherrods neared the Library of Congress on Independence Avenue, Capitol Police who had received that alert pulled the couple over.

"All of a sudden, we heard police officers yelling, 'Stop. Stop. Stop the car. Stop the car,'" Vashti Sherrod said. "And then I looked at the rearview mirror and there were at least three shot guns pointed at our heads."

Even Gene Sherrod, who is legally blind, could feel the police officers meant business.

"I was crying. I couldn't believe those long shot guns they were pointing at us," he said. 

The elderly couple sat on the curb of Independence Avenue as McHugh searched their car, but he didn't find a gun so he asked Vashti Sherrod to voluntarily come back to his office for further questioning, which she was not legally required to do.

"And I didn't trust him, so, I told him no," Sherrod said.

Two weeks later at around 9 p.m., as the senior citizens sat at home in their pajamas, the doorbell rang. A team of police officers were at the door with a warrant to search the house, led by McHugh.

"They had their pistols drawn," Vashti Sherrod said. "They grabbed Gene, put handcuffs on him, told me, 'Put your hands on your head.' And I'm like [gasp], 'Oh my God. Oh my God.'"

Vashti Sherrod said her husband, Gene, was once again in tears as the officers demanded they tell them if there was a gun in the house.

"And they said, 'Give us the gun. Give us the gun. Where's the gun?'" Vashti Sherrod said. "And they were yelling at us. I was like, 'We don't have a gun. We don't have a gun.'"

The Sherrods took photos of what their home looked like after police turned it upside down looking for the gun but didn’t find one.

McHugh later acknowledged in court proceedings police left the Sherrods' house in "disarray."

"No gun," Sherrod said. "I told them there was no gun."

That was not enough to end McHugh’s investigation. Despite not finding any evidence the Sherrods owned or had access to a gun during his searches, he issued a warrant for Vashti Sherrod's arrest.

In a case full of twists and turns, the biggest surprise was yet to come. McHugh suddenly revealed he had surveillance video that he claimed, backing up that drivers' allegation that Vashti Sherrod threatened her with a gun.

That video, taken from a surveillance camera outside Ginko Gardens and obtained by WUSA9, is grainy and shot from about 50 feet from the alleged incident. In a sworn affidavit, McHugh admitted the video is not clear enough to see what, if anything, Sherrod has in her hand.

But McHugh said Sherrod's arm was stretched in front of her body, which he was an indication of someone pointing a gun.

"I pointed my hand at her," Vashti Sherrod explained. "Like, 'Go, just go,' like that, with my hand."

McHugh also said the other driver made a damming statement, telling him that while exchanging information after the fender bender Vashti Sherrod told her, "I'm not going to give you my license. I'm going to give you the barrel of my gun."

Sherrod denied making that statement, and despite the fact the case amounted to one side's word against the other, McHugh arrested Vashti Sherrod on suspicion of assault with a dangerous weapon -- a gun.

At 5 a.m. with her pastor by her side, Vashti Sherrod turned herself in to police.

"I just had no idea," she said. "I went to the jail in a Saint John dress with T-strapped shoes. They fingerprinted me. They took a mug shot of me."

Then, Sherrod said she was transported by police van to the central cell block downtown before finally being released on her own recognizance. She said even the other inmates seemed bewildered.

"They were like, 'Grandma, why are you in here?'" Sherrod said. "'Why are you in here? You all dressed up in jail. Why are you in here, grandma?'"

Why was McHugh so determined to arrest Vashti Sherrod?

WUSA9 asked McHugh and the D.C. MPD for an interview, but neither would answer that question.

 MPD spokesperson Kristen Metzger responded to WUSA9 in an email, writing, "What is clear, is that applications for warrants are always reviewed and approved by prosecutors and a judge. In this case, judges in two jurisdictions approved the warrants."

"Moreover, the warrant affidavit describes precisely what could and could not be seen in the security video, including the statement that, 'the video quality is not clear enough to see what the subject has in her hand, but the victim described it as a black pistol.'"

Vashti Sherrod has her own theory about why the investigation went so far.

"She was white. We were black," Vashti Sherrod said. "All throughout his deposition, I believed her. I believed her, but never believed me. I told him many times, 'I don't have a gun. We didn't do this.'"

When it was finally time for the grand jury to review the evidence against Vashti Sherrod, McHugh's case quickly unraveled, according to court documents obtained by WUSA9.

The other driver met with prosecutors and details suddenly changed. That alleged gun wasn't a black semi-automatic. It was actually a silver revolver. Then, the driver changed her story a third time, saying she simply saw, "The glint of a metal object in Mrs. Sherrod’s hand."

The driver also revealed she suffers from mental health issues, and the medication she takes causes memory lapses.

"I can tell you right now, if that woman had actually had a gun pointed at her, she would have run for her life. That’s not what happened," said David Benowitz, a Washington, D.C. criminal defense attorney and partner at Price Benowitz LLP.

Benowitz, who is not directly involved with the case, reviewed the investigation at our request.

"I've seen situations like this before," Benowitz said. "Where a police officer or a detective, a case just gets under their skin for no good reason, and they just take it too far. And I've seen that happen. That appears to be what's happening here."

In January 2016, the grand jury dropped all charges against Vashti Sherrod, clearing the couple's name, but not the memories of this eight month ordeal.

"It hurts," a distraught and tearful Gene Sherrod said before his wife asked a reporter to move on with his questions.

In February, D.C. government awarded the Sherrods a six-figure settlement to end a lawsuit they brought against McHugh and the MPD for what happened. That's a bill paid for by taxpayers.

"This case illustrates the harm that may arise from even the most trivial traffic dispute, when the full weight of the justice system is brought to bear on that dispute," a judge noted in his opinion on the case. 

It is unclear if McHugh ever faced discipline for this case. Court documents show he has been disciplined once before, around 2014, for an unauthorized vehicle chase. McHugh lost a day of vacation in lieu of a formal suspension.

McHugh has now been promoted to the position of homicide detective for D.C. MPD. According to his LinkedIn page, he is now responsible for instructing newly-promoted detective's on search and arrest warrants.

You can read MPD's full statement on the incident here:

"While there were disputed facts as part of the civil suit, what is clear is that applications for warrants are always reviewed and approved by prosecutors and a judge. In this case, judges in two jurisdictions approved the warrants. Moreover, the warrant affidavit describes precisely what could and could not be seen in the security video, including the statement that 'the video quality is not clear enough to see what the subject has in her hand, but the victim described it as a black pistol.' Additionally, it would be inaccurate to state that the member you have referred to has been 'continuously promoted.'"

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