Colbert King's Digging Helped Lead to Lawsuit By Family of Slain 'NY Times' Reporter

By: Joe Strupp "Had Colby not kept up the pressure," says Marcus Rosenbaum, "we would not have found out things. It is playing into this big cover-up." Earlier this year, while Washington, D.C. police focused on finding the killers of Marcus Rosenbaum's brother -- former New York Times reporter David Rosenbaum -- Colbert King, editorial writer and columnist for The Washington Post, dug into finding the other wrongdoers in the case: the D.C. police, fire and EMS, as well as Howard University Hospital.

Almost immediately after Rosenbaum was beaten and murdered on Jan. 6 just blocks from his home, King began digging into the case, raising questions about everything from the ambulance delays to initial treatment at the hospital. Eventually, King penned more than a dozen columns on the case, which helped trigger and extend a variety of government investigations.

Nearly eleven months later, as the family of Rosenbaum files a $20 million lawsuit against the District and the hospital, it is clear that much of the evidence they will use in court came by way of King's work.

"He's clearly helped keep the pressure on and we have learned a lot from him," says Marcus Rosenbaum. "He keeps finding stuff."

King, who recently announced he would leave the paper's editorial board but continue his weekly column, said the lawsuit would help hold the city accountable, something he contends has been his overall goal.

"I feel good about the possibility of having some real institutional change," King told E&P. "The upshot is to change the way the city functions." When asked what role his work may have played in forming the basis for the lawsuit, he said only "I let the columns speak for themselves. People can read the columns and read the history and make their own judgments."

But Rosenbaum helped make the case for him, pointing to a column King penned just last month that revealed for the first time that two EMS supervisors had been called to the hospital the night of Rosenbaum's attack after an official in the emergency room determined mistakes had been made by the EMS unit that brought him in.

King, 67, said his pursuit of the case was just basic journalism, asking questions and digging for truth. "This is what we're supposed to do," he said. "It means getting out of the ivory tower with a healthy skepticism."

King and Rosenbaum both also credited the D.C. Inspector General's Office for its own in-depth review, which began shortly after the murder and eventually resulted in a scathing report that found fault with both emergency response crews and hospital staff. "It is important to keep the pressure on people so they will do the right thing," Rosenbaum said.

Shortly after Rosenbaum's murder, police arrested two suspects in the case, cousins Percey Jordan and Michael Hamlin. Jordan was found guilty last month of first-degree murder, while Hamlin pleaded guilty in September to second-degree murder and two counts of conspiracy.

As for the impact on the D.C. police and EMS procedures, as well as those at Howard University Hospital, King believes the lawsuit will help tighten accountability of their services. "They are trying to hold the system accountable for what they failed to do," he said of Rosenbaum's family. "The only way you're going to cause the city to recognize what they've done is to make them pay for it."

King said he has had no involvement in the lawsuit, and turned down the chance to comment on it prior to its filing, he said. "As a journalist, I can't take a side in a lawsuit, that is not my job," he said, noting he would testify about his columns if need, but has not been approached. "I have not heard anything about that. I don't know if they want me to."

Either way, King says he will continue to pursue facts in this case and others related to government accountability and carelessness. "I am going to keep pressing," he vowed.