WASHINGTON — A mother says her gut reaction to the verdict of a D.C. police officer being found guilty in her son's death landed her in jail. Now, she has been charged with assaulting an officer as a result of the outburst.
Karen Hylton was arrested last year after a jury announced that Officer Terence Sutton, 38, was guilty of second-degree murder in the death of her 20-year-old son Karon Hylton-Brown.
She told WUSA9 that the outburst that landed her in jail was her reaction to a decision that she's been waiting on for over two years.
"I knew he was guilty, you understand that, but I did not know he was still out being free. My thing is that it brings me back to justice being unfair," said Hylton, who was upset that Sutton was released by order of the judge.
According to charging documents, Hylton was first asked to leave, and court room security officers and Chief Deputy Aaron Smith of the United States Marshal Service moved to escort her out of the courtroom following the verdict.
The charging documents say Hylton yelled profanity and addressed the two defendants directly. One of the court room security officers says he saw Hylton charge toward Chief Deputy Smith and aggressively bump him in the chest. Several people in the court room said they saw Hylton step toward Smith, lunge and "violently push him with both hands," according to the court documents. The push caused Smith to fall back onto a bench.
Hylton was placed in handcuffs outside the court room.
Court documents say Smith went to urgent care about two days after the push with chest pains.
Karon Hylton-Brown died after crashing a moped in October 2020 during a police pursuit that prosecutors say violated policy. Sutton was driving an unmarked car, attempting to stop Karon Hylton-Brown before he collided with an SUV.
Sutton and his co-defendant Lt. Andrew Zabavsky were also convicted of conspiracy and obstructing justice for attempting to cover up the deadly police chase.
Sutton and Zabavsky were released pending their sentencing.
The charge of second-degree murder carries a maximum of 40 years in prison; the conspiracy charge is up to five years, and obstruction of justice charge carries a maximum of 20 years.