Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Court convicts man again in 2005 beating, robbery of Foggy Bottom vendor

A man was again convicted Wednesday of beating and robbing an elderly woman near Amsterdam Hall in May 2005, the Washington Post reported.

One year after the D.C. Court of Appeals overturned a 2006 conviction, a jury found James Dorsey, 54, guilty of assaulting and robbing Vasiliki Fotopoulos, an 83-year-old woman who sold umbrellas at the time of the attack.

Judges on the appeals court said detectives violated Dorsey’s rights when they handcuffed him to a chair and questioned him for 13 hours while Dorsey demanded to see a lawyer.

In the retrial, Dorsey’s confession from that interrogation was unusable, but prosecutors secured a conviction with surveillance footage of the attack, DNA evidence and three witnesses who backed up prosecutors’ claims.

Dorsey’s DNA was found on a sock that the assailant had allegedly wrapped around his hand before attacking Fotopoulos, the Post reported.

During his first trial, Dorsey was sentenced to serve 14 years in prison for attacking the street vendor and robbing her of about $300. Dorsey’s new sentencing is scheduled for August.

Fotopoulos continued to work after the attack, but moved to a nursing home when her health declined several years later. She died two weeks before Dorsey’s retrial at age 92.

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