THE SCOOP

The Devils opened their five-game road trip with a 6-3 victory at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night. New Jersey’s faces Washington on the second leg that includes stops in Dallas, Nashville and Carolina.

New Jersey is now 7-2-0 in its past nine games. The Devils are enjoying an offensive explosion of late. During their past nine games, New Jersey has totaled 4.11 goals per game. And they’ve scored 10 power-play goals on 24 opportunities (42%).  

The Caps head into the back half of their season-long four-game homestand on Friday night when the New Jersey Devils make their second visit of the season to DC. Washington has earned at least a point in each of the first two games of the homestand, taking a 3-2 shootout loss to the Bruins last weekend before beating the Senators by a 4-1 count on Wednesday.

Wednesday’s win still leaves the Caps with less than a 10-percent chance of slinking their way into the Stanley Cup playoffs. With just 13 games remaining on the season, the Caps will likely need to win at least nine – and likely 10 or 11 – of those games to have a viable chance of getting in.

Rookie Cole Hutson, who made his NHL debut Wednesday night, also picked up his first career NHL goal with an empty-netter. Hutson was a second-round pick (43rd overall) in 2024.

A new state law aims to erase any confusion about Washington’s ban on voting more than once in an election.

Its approval follows a court decision that officials warned could incite voter fraud.

Longstanding Washington law makes it illegal for a person to cast more than one ballot in any election in the state, or to vote in any election in this state and another state during the same period.

But a state appeals court in January overturned the felony conviction of a Lewis County resident found guilty of voting twice in November 2022 — once in Washington and once in Oregon. The court concluded that because the candidates and measures differed on the two ballots, one could interpret them as different elections under Washington law.

“This fixes an ambiguity in state law,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said Tuesday before signing Senate Bill 6084. It contains an emergency clause and took effect immediately.

“Voting more than once in an election is an affront to everyone who participates in our democracy,” Ferguson later wrote on X. “This bill makes it clear that double voting is illegal.”

The legislation sponsored by Sen. Adrian Cortes, D-Battle Ground, adds language to existing law to spell out that “election” refers to any general, primary, or special election.

“An election is the ‘same election’ if the election date is the same, regardless of the candidates, offices, issues, or measures on the ballot and regardless of the date on which ballots are mailed or returned,” reads the bill.

Secretary of State Steve Hobbs asked lawmakers to act swiftly, worried the court ruling opened the door to the potential of voters casting more than one ballot in November.

“This legislation helps to ensure that Washington’s elections remain secure, accurate and fair,” Hobbs said in a statement.

In Washington, voting more than once in an election is a class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Meanwhile, Lewis County is appealing the January decision to the Washington Supreme Court.

This story was originally published by the Washington State Standard.

The murder trial of a man accused of killing a teacher on the campus of Catholic University in 2023 was supposed to start Wednesday. But that case has been thrown into turmoil after defense attorneys say the lead D.C. police detective was removed from the case and charged with misconduct.

New court documents reveal the detective is accused of having sex on the job and recording it on a police-issued cellphone.

In a hearing one of the supervisors admitted was highly unusual, the judge and the defense attorneys wanted to know why the U.S. Attorney’s office did not disclose until last week that the lead detective in the murder of 25-year old Maxwell Emerson was removed from the case just weeks after an arrest was made and placed under investigation for alleged misconduct.

In a motion filed Tuesday, the defense said, in part “The government withheld evidence that its lead detective, Detective Thomas Roy, had engaged in conduct so concerning that the Metropolitan Police Department proposed his termination, removed him as a lead detective, transferred him out of the homicide section and instituted a last chance agreement”.

The defense attorneys wrote in their motion that Roy neglected his duties in Aug. 2022 “when he engaged in sexual intercourse with another homicide detective in his unit at her home while on duty and recorded two videos of their sexual encounter on an MPD issued cell phone.”

According to the motion filed by the defense, the detective was not placed under investigation until after Jaime Macedo was charged with the murder that occurred on catholic university campus back in July 2023.

News4 reported extensively on the case at the time. Police say Macedo is accused of following Emerson from the Brookland metro station on the morning of July 5. Surveillance video released by police show Emerson at one point walking with his hands raised in the air before the two ended up in a park near Alumni Lane.

Police say the two got into a struggle before Macedo is accused of shooting Emerson one time in the abdomen.

Emerson was a Kentucky teacher visiting D.C. for a conference at the Library of Congress Teacher Institute.

In the motion filed by the defense, in which they argue the indictment should be dismissed, the attorneys cite an internal affairs document that says, “Detective Roy’s misconduct had cast a shadow over his credibility and reputation as a law enforcement officer.”

It’s unclear when this case may go to trial. The judge still must rule on the motion by the defense.
D.C. police say Roy was disciplined and lost his job in homicide but is still employed as a detective.