District Man Indicted on Enhanced Second-Degree Theft Following Theft from Residential Front Porch in Northwest

            WASHINGTON –Ernest Persha, 62, of Washington, D.C., was indicted on February 21, 2024, by a grand jury in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on one count of felony second-degree theft stemming from events occurring on February 12, 2023, U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Chief Pamela Smith, of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) announced.

            Persha is to be arraigned on March 5, 2024, at a hearing before a Superior Court judge.

            According to the government’s evidence, on February 12, 2023, Persha took a package from the front porch of a residence in Northeast, Washington, D.C. Persha was immediately stopped and arrested by officers in the crime suppression unit of the Metropolitan Police Department, who were surveilling the property at the time of the crime.    

            Persha has two or more prior theft convictions, though not from the same occasion, and therefore is subject to enhanced penalties for his alleged theft, including a mandatory minimum sentence of one year in jail for each count of theft for which he is indicted.

            Since September 1, 2023, including the aforementioned case, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has indicted 27 cases involving a felony second-degree theft charge based on a defendant’s two or more prior theft convictions, not from the same occasion.

            This case was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. It is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Erika Norman.

            An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of criminal laws and every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.