The name of the judge, which police would not release, was found on a note inside the skull during the raid Thursday night. Police have asked the Marshals Service, which provides protection for judges in the District, to inform the judge.
"We're treating
it as a legitimate threat," said Assistant Chief Ronald C. Monroe. "We
believe the judge may have rendered some kind of ruling that they didn't
particularly like." John Sterling, a suspected drug dealer, was arrested in the raid.Police are not sure who participated in the suspected ritual, but they are trying to find them to learn of their intentions, Monroe said. "The primary concern is the protection of the judge," he said. Marshals Service officials could not be reached for comment on how security for the judge is being handled.
"There was a request for extra security for a judge, which I approved," Rufus G. King III, chief judge of Superior Court, said yesterday. "But I don't have any information on any particular case, or any other issue, that this might be about." King also declined to identify the judge.
Monroe said possession of a human skull, unless it is associated with foul play, is not illegal. He said that the note inside the skull, naming the judge, also is not necessarily illegal but that the investigation into where the skull came from is continuing.
"Obviously it sat on someone's shoulders at one time," said Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey. "The question is how it ended up in someone's house. We really don't know what we have, quite frankly."
D.C. Chief Medical Examiner Jonathan L. Arden said the skull appears to be old and was almost certainly used in some kind of religious ritual held in the home's basement. Police said that the room was full of candles and that a dead cat was found near the skull.
A skull used in a similarly ritualistic setting was discovered last year in the District, Arden said, but it is unclear if there is any relation. He said an anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution will examine the skull to determine its age. "It's clear that this is not someone who died recently," Arden said.
Monroe said there were no obvious traumatic markings on the skull to indicate foul play. "It could be a skull from an anatomy class, for all we know," he said.
Police, according to Monroe, are exploring the possibility that the ritual performed in the home was Santeria, an Afro-Cuban faith that uses animals for sacrifices. Santeria, once largely unknown in the metropolitan area, venerates saints and incorporates a belief in divination, spirit possession and the sacrifice of animals to appease the gods.
The raided home, a two-story row house, is in the 3000 block of 13th Street NW. A resident of the neighborhood said he visited its dark basement about a year ago and saw all the trappings of a ritual, including a seating area surrounding an altar on which there were several candles and bizarre pictures. He said he often saw people slip in the front door and head straight for the basement.
D.C. police Inspector Hilton Burton, of the Major Narcotics Strike Force, which executed a search warrant on the home, said a dead cat was found next to the altar. It was unclear if the cat was killed or if it was used in any ceremony, he said. The neighborhood resident, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified, said the landlord's cat has been missing for about a month.
Burton said a tipster told police
that Sterling, 46, manufactured and stored drugs, including crack and
powder cocaine. The tipster also told police that Sterling lived in the
13th Street NW row house, according to the arrest warrant.Police searched the home and found cocaine, marijuana and about $3,000 in Sterling's possession. He was charged with possession with the intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana and is expected to be arraigned this week, said a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office. Staff writers Neely Tucker and Martin Weil contributed to this report.
