Fired D.C. firefighter to get $390K from Fairfax County over wrongful arrest
Elon Wilson spent 21 months in prison after his arrest by
former Fairfax County Officer Jonathan A. Freitag
Oct 11, 2021
By
Janelle Foskett
WASHINGTON
— A former D.C. Fire and EMS firefighter will receive nearly $390,000 from
Fairfax County, Virginia, to settle a lawsuit alleging a wrongful arrest that
resulted in his 21-month imprisonment.
Elon
Wilson filed a federal lawsuit in July, three months after a judge vacated his
convictions and ordered him freed. The judgment followed an internal
investigation into Jonathan A. Freitag, the Fairfax County officer who arrested
Wilson
The
lawsuit stemmed from an April 2018 incident in which Freitag pulled over
Wilson, ostensibly for crossing a yellow line on the road, failing to pull over
when signaled and having illegally tinted windows, according to court records.
Freitag arrested Wilson after finding oxycodone and handguns in the car. Wilson
said they were not his.
Wilson
was subsequently fired from D.C. Fire and EMS.
In
July 2019, Wilson was sentenced to a little over three years in prison.
Around
the same time, Fairfax internal affairs investigators began reviewing Freitag’s
traffic stops. Freitag ultimately admitted that he had made “pretextual”
traffic stops, using a false reason to pull over a vehicle. In February 2020,
Wilson’s lawyer, Marvin D. Miller, filed a motion seeking information about the
internal affairs investigation.
The Washington Post reported that, in
April 2021, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Daniel E. Ortiz vacated Wilson’s
convictions and ordered him freed, saying “Freitag’s fabricated grounds for the
stop, police report, and warrant made under oath fundamentally tampered with
the judicial machinery and subverted the integrity of the court itself.”
Following
Wilson’s release, Miller and civil rights lawyer Victor M. Glasberg filed a
federal suit against Fairfax on Wilson’s behalf. Fairfax began settlement
negotiations and, on Oct. 7, agreed to pay Wilson $390,000.
Freitag
had defended his actions in multiple interviews.