Three leaders of an anti-police group protesting President Donald Trump’s crackdown on violent crime in Washington, D.C., have criminal records in the district.
Free DC advisory council member Darrell Gaston served sentences of community service for two cases involving violence and threats in the past nine years, while the group’s executive director Keya Chatterjee and campaign director Alex Dodds both have misdemeanors on their records that were dismissed after they paid bond, court records show. Free DC organized a protest downtown on Monday and encouraged residents to “get visible,” “get loud” and “bang pots and pans” in response to Trump’s law enforcement agenda in the nation’s capital.
D.C. authorities charged Gaston, formerly a local politician, with simple assault and attempted threats to do bodily harm in 2016, according to court records. He later pleaded guilty to the second charge and received no jail time under a D.C. deferred sentencing program. He wound up in court on another simple assault charge in 2018 and was again sentenced to community service after pleading guilty.
Gaston also faced a civil complaint of harassment in 2012 and one of assault and battery in 2019 while he served as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in D.C., documents show. The first complaint involved a woman who accused him of trying to break into her home, and the second came from an individual alleging that he threatened assault over a disagreement. Both cases led to temporary restraining orders against Gaston but were later dismissed because the female plaintiff stopped bringing the case and because a judge refused the second plaintiff’s request for a permanent restraining order.
“The court should grant my request because I fear for my safety,” the second plaintiff wrote in May 2019. “The defendant has threatened to bring harm to me. I believe him because he has been found guilty of physical harm to others in the past.”
Dodds, Free DC’s campaign director, faced a charge of crowding, obstructing, or incommoding four times from July 2018 to July 2025, and the latest case is ongoing, court records show. The first three incidents are listed as “post and forfeit” cases, meaning that Dodds allowed the court to keep bond money she posted in exchange for no conviction. Dodds mentioned in a 2021 X post that she had previously been arrested during a protest against Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 nomination to the Supreme Court.
Chatterjee, the group’s executive director, also has two “post and forfeit” cases of unlawful assembly or disorderly conduct and crowding, obstructing, or incommoding since 2016, court documents show.
Free DC did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Gaston, Chatterjee and Dodds also did not respond to a request for comment.
Free DC is a “fiscally hosted special project” of two nonprofits that have received funding from large left-wing groups such as George Soros’s Open Society Foundations and the Tides Foundation, The New York Post reported.
Trump mobilized the National Guard and more federal law enforcement agents into D.C.’s streets following the Aug. 3 assault of a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer in the district and the president’s long-held complaints about violent crime. Trump also authorized Attorney General Pam Bondi to initiate a federal takeover of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
“The recent increase of federal law enforcement officers across Washington, D.C. has already stopped vicious criminals, the distribution of deadly narcotics, and the violent use of stolen handguns,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told the DCNF. “President Trump’s bold leadership and decisive action will make our nation’s capital beautiful and safe again for its residents and visitors from all the world. The President’s efforts to crack down on crime is an incredibly popular policy that everyday Americans support.”
Free DC, meanwhile, bills itself as a force for “racial justice” and against “attempts to further police or militarize our schools and communities,” its website says. The group traces its movement’s political roots to former Democratic D.C. mayor and convicted drug offender Marion Barry.
A crowd of protesters, including one with a “Free D.C.” sign, gathered in the streets on Monday night to oppose Trump’s actions against crime, just blocks away from where a man was fatally shot on 12th Street the same night.
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