DC police officers sentenced in unauthorized chase that ended in fatal crash and subsequent cover-up

WASHINGTON ( DC News Now ) — Prosecutors announced that two former Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers were sentenced after an unauthorized chase that ended in a fatal crash and a subsequent cover-up.

An uninvolved car hit 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown during the chase on the evening of Oct. 23, 2020. Hylton-Brown died due to severe head trauma two days later.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for D.C. said in a news release Thursday that 40-year-old Terence D. Sutton Jr. was sentenced to 66 months in prison. Sutton, a Fourth District officer, was first found guilty of second-degree murder, conspiracy to obstruct and obstruction of justice on Dec. 21, 2022.

The USAO said that 56-year-old Andrew Zabavsky was sentenced to 48 months in prison. Zabavsky, an MPD lieutenant, was found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct and obstruction of justice.

The jury found that Sutton caused Mr. Hylton-Brown’s death by driving a police vehicle in conscious disregard for an extreme risk of death or serious bodily injury to Mr. Hylton-Brown. The jury further found that Sutton and Zabavsky conspired to hide from MPD officials the circumstances of the traffic crash leading to Mr. Hylton-Brown’s death, thereby obstructing justice.

U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia statement

Evidence presented during the trial showed that around 10 p.m. on that day, officers saw Hylton-Brown driving a moped without a helmet on a sidewalk near Brightwood Park in Northwest.

Sutton asked Hylton-Brown to stop, but Hylton-Brown continued driving.

The USAO said that Sutton chased Hylton-Brown for more than 10 blocks at “unreasonable speeds” and drove the wrong way up a one-way street.

Evidence showed that as the chase came to an end, Sutton turned off his cruiser’s emergency lights and siren and sped up behind the moped in an alley. Hylton-Brown reached a street at the end of the alley, where the other driver hit him.

“As Mr. Hylton-Brown lay unconscious in the street in a pool of his own blood, Sutton and Zabavsky, agreed to cover up what Sutton had done to prevent any further investigation of the incident,” the USAO’s statement said.

According to evidence presented during the trial, neither Sutton nor Zabavsky preserved the crash scene. They allowed the driver who hit Hylton-Brown to leave and turned off their own body-worn cameras before discussing and leaving.

Zabavsky did not have any other MPD official supervise the scene after he left, and Sutton compromised the scene by driving his cruiser over the scene of the crash.

The USAO said that neither Sutton nor Zabavsky contacted MPD’s Major Crash Unit or Internal Affairs Division to investigate.

After returning to the station, both officers denied that a chase had happened and did not mention Hylton-Brown’s serious injuries. The USAO said that Zabavsky implied that Hylton-Brown was drunk and hid their direct involvement. Sutton also wrote a police report with a “false narrative” that maintained the narrative that no chase had happened and continued to downplay Hylton-Brown’s injuries.

Both Sutton and Zabavsky will have to serve three years of supervised release after their prison terms.

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