Opinion ID: 1281213
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Applicant's Background and Underlying Felony Offenses

Text: The applicant was born in 1945 and was graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1968 with a bachelor of arts degree in history and double minors in government and business. He served in the United States Army from 1968 through 1969 as an infantry officer, volunteering for active duty in Vietnam and receiving an honorable medical discharge as a result of injuries sustained in combat. [1] Following his discharge from the military, Mr. Dortch returned to the Washington, D.C. area where, from 1969 through 1974, he enjoyed a successful career as a field underwriter for New York Life Insurance Company. He also became a registered representative with the National Association of Securities Dealers. In 1974, the applicant founded JCD Enterprises, an operational holding company. For various reasons, JCD Enterprises faced financial failure in its first year. The applicant made legitimate efforts to obtain a capital infusion from investment bankers and underwriters. When these efforts proved unsuccessful, the applicant, in his words panicked, and as a result, engineered a conspiracy to commit an armed robbery of the Columbia Federal Savings & Loan Association in Washington, D.C. On September 20, 1974, the applicant and one of the other seven co-conspirators he assembled, John W. Bryant, parked two blocks from the bank. The couple was dressed in construction gear, complete with hard hat, work clothing and work boots. [2] Underneath their work clothing, the men wore civilian clothing. Mr. Dortch carried a bricklayer's bag containing various weapons. While still approximately two blocks from the bank, the applicant was stopped on the sidewalk by a police officer in an unmarked cruiser who had apparently been alerted of the robbery scheme by an informant. Upon sensing that the applicant was carrying a weapon, the police officer tried to snatch it away, at which time the weapon, a sawed-off shotgun, discharged, causing powder burns under the applicant's eye. No one else was injured. In the midst of the commotion, both Mr. Dortch and Bryant fled, but in different directions. The applicant shed his construction clothing in a nearby warehouse and, in his civilian clothing, re-entered pedestrian traffic, caught a bus and escaped. In the meantime, Bryant was apprehended by a District of Columbia police officer, twenty-four year old Gail Cobb. Officer Cobb had not pulled her weapon on Bryant when he shot and killed her. She was one of the first female police officers in the United States to be killed in the line of duty. The applicant, who was not at the scene where Officer Cobb was killed, heard about it on the radio. He surrendered to police shortly thereafter. Mr. Dortch was subsequently indicted and tried on numerous counts related to the conspiracy, attempted bank robbery and felony murder. During the trial, however, the applicant entered a guilty plea to second degree murder, conspiracy and attempted armed robbery. He was sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison. During his incarceration, the applicant was, by all accounts, a model prisoner. He received numerous college credits as a student through Louisiana State University and training as an accountant in the UNICOR Federal Prison Industries. Upon his release in 1990, having served fifteen years in prison, Mr. Dortch worked as business manager for the Covenant Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. and then, in 1991, enrolled in law school at the District of Columbia School of Law. While in law school, the applicant was elected president of the Student Bar Association, Lieutenant Governor for the Student Division of the American Bar Association for the Eleventh Circuit, Chairman of the Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity and received the Dean's Cup for leadership at the law school. Mr. Dortch graduated in May of 1994 and has passed, in addition to the bar examination of West Virginia, the Maryland and District of Columbia bar examinations, though he has not been admitted in those jurisdictions. [3] Since graduating from law school, the applicant has been an adjunct professor at the District of Columbia School of Law, has worked as a paralegal at a Charleston, West Virginia law firm, and has volunteered with summer youth employment programs. He has also been active in local church functions, counseling and bible prayer sessions. The applicant had no criminal arrests or convictions prior to his criminal activities in 1974 and, likewise, has had no arrests or convictions since then.