Support for District Heights mayor continues following arrest

Walls charged with solicitation

According to Metropolitan Police Department charging documents, police in the Prostitution Enforcement Unit of the Narcotics Special Investigation Division were working undercover at the corner of 6th and F streets in Northwest Washington in response to complaints of prostitution in the area. Police arrested Walls, 30, around 12:36 a.m. near the intersection for solicitation for lewd and immoral purposes after he ‘‘entered into a verbal agreement with [an] undercover police officer for [a] sex act in exchange for money.”

Walls declined to comment and deferred all questions to his attorney, Michael Worthy, Friday. Worthy said because he just received the case, all he knows so far is Walls received a citation. Worthy said he does not yet have information ‘‘as it relates to the nature of the offenses.”

‘‘We just want to make sure everyone understands he’s innocent until proven guilty and that no one should make assumptions about him until all the facts have come out,” Worthy said.

Walls is scheduled to appear in D.C. Superior Court on May 15.

Vice Mayor Eddie Martin (Ward 2) said initial television reports of the incident that said Walls was detained and arraigned were false, and he only received a citation and court date. Martin said Walls told him he never initiated conversation that night but was instead approached as he went back to his car following dinner in Chinatown.

‘‘I’m sort of disappointed—not in him, but how the press is handling this,” Martin said. ‘‘They are coming at him like he’s guilty and he hasn’t even had his court date yet.”

Martin said he and the remaining commissioners—Jack Sims (Ward 1), Willie Calhoun (Ward 1) and Lee Collins (Ward 2)—will ‘‘stay right there with him until this case is solved.”

‘‘Yes he’s still the mayor,” Martin said. ‘‘We’re going to support him. We’re not going to remove him from office. We’ll just all wait and see what happens.”

Walls, who graduated from Brandywine’s Gwynn Park High School in 1995 and Bowie State University in 1999, is the city of District Heights’ youngest mayor, elected in May 2006. Walls is also Fairmount Heights’ acting town administrator, a former assistant pastor for Capitol Heights’ Greater Light Missionary Baptist Church and current assistant pastor at the Forestville New Redeemer Baptist Church on Marlboro Pike. The Rev. Nathaniel B. Thomas of New Redeemer could not be reached for comment by the Gazette deadline.

Walls is also president of the Maryland Black Mayors Association, chairman of the National Conference of Black Mayors’ small town and rural development committee, and vice president of tourism for the World Conference of Mayors.

Calhoun said he did not know about the incident before receiving a phone call about 11 a.m. April 24 from a television news station about the charges.

‘‘The whole commission found out the same day the news broke,” Calhoun said. ‘‘We all agreed we’d stand behind our mayor 150 percent.”

Calhoun added residents who have called him or bumped into him at the local grocery store since the story broke are supporting Walls.

Resident Betty Hyater said she refuses to pass any judgment on Walls and is waiting for all the information to come out.

‘‘My point of view [is] he’s an excellent mayor,” Hyater said. ‘‘He’s always been very positive and respectful when I’ve been around him.”

E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.