Romeo Morgan, the business owner who says an internal affairs cop assaulted him with a BMW Friday, said he met with investigators from the Metropolitan Police Department about the incident this morning.
At a 9:30 a.m. meeting, he said, cops asked him about his claim that IAD Detective Leon Epps accelerated into him after Morgan, who was standing in the street outside his Georgia Avenue restaurant guiding a truck into a parking spot, refused to move. The District resident told his story. He told police he was just trying to help the flow of traffic by guiding the truck out of the way, and how everyone trying to get by had waited patiently except Epps. Instead of waiting, Epps argued with Morgan, then allegedly hit him with his car seven times. During the dispute, Epps identified himself as a cop, Morgan remembers.
Morgan said investigators asked him why he refused to move once Epps said he was a police officer. Morgan explained it wouldn't have been fair to the other drivers.
While at the meeting, Morgan got a chance to ask why he hadn't been taken seriously when, later, he asked cops to arrest Epps. Epps wasn't arrested, and Morgan wasn't given a police report number. Morgan said he was told the incident wasn't given such official treatment because they were going "to try to handle it internally."
Morgan was told his case has been referred to prosecutors, who are deciding whether to press charges against Epps. "It's procedural," he said. "There's nothing I can do." He says he wasn't told how long the process might take. MPD didn't return a request for comment.
Police Investigating Georgia Avenue Traffic Blow-Up was originally published by Washington City Paper on Mar 22, 2011
