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Nikki Lotze was included in the December 2017 Washingtonian list of “Top Lawyers in Washington
Washingtonian – 11/29/2017
Nurse not guilty of assault at Bowie Health Center
Capital Gazette – 2/17/16
A former nurse charged with sexually assaulting a female patient at the Bowie Health Center in 2014 was found not guilty last week in Prince George’s County Circuit Court. The jury acquitted Jared Nathan Kline, 38, of Springfield, Va. of second-degree assault and fourth-degree sex offense. Kline faces similar charges in Washington, D.C… “His defense was that it was accidental,” said Nikki Lotze, Kline’s lawyer. “Emergency rooms are very tight spaces and there was accidental contact between his groin and her hand.” (read more)
D.C. jury finds man not guilty in death of wife’s boyfriend in 2011
The Washington Post – 12/03/15
Federal prosecutors told jurors that a D.C. man lured his wife’s lover to an apartment building late one evening in January 2011 and fatally beat him in a jealous rage.
But after a two-week trial and nearly two days of deliberations, a D.C. Superior Court jury late Wednesday rejected the prosecution’s theory and acquitted 42-year-old Melvin Lamond Linkins in the death of 37-year-old D.C. firefighter Marc Emilio Dancy… Linkins’s attorney, Nikki Lotze, argued that her client was innocent of the charges and that there was no evidence Linkins used his wife’s cellphone to trick Dancy into going to the Northeast Washington apartment. (read more)
Defense Lawyers Press for Details in FBI Agent Misconduct Case
The Washington Post – 11/10/14
Days after federal prosecutors dismissed drug cases against nearly two dozen felons amid a misconduct investigation of an FBI agent, defense lawyers in other cases linked to the agent are pressing for similar consideration… The lawyer, Nikki Lotze, noted that her client, Joseph Borges, has been detained since March. In her appeal, Lotze wrote that Leon “erred in refusing to release Mr. Borges in a case which the government has determined should be dismissed.” (read more)
Drugs Are the Downfall of a Brilliant Law Student
The Washington Post – 1/31/13
He was Phi Beta Kappa at Georgetown, a top economics student and an award-winning debater. He won a scholarship to study at the University of California, Berkeley and returned to Washington for law school, dazzling professors and helping inmates at the D.C. jail. But Marc Gersen was leading a second, secret life that his teachers and old friends knew nothing about. …. It was not until graduate school at Berkeley, according to his attorney Nikki Lotze, that Gersen became addicted to and later began selling methamphetamine. He earned a master’s degree in economics but had trouble with his dissertation, according to his parents, and eventually dropped out of his doctoral program. (read more)
Murder Trial Begins in Case of D.C. Woman Who Vanished in 1999
The Washington Post – 3/30/10
It’s been nearly 11 years since Yolanda Baker’s family has seen her. So much time had passed that authorities declared her legally dead last year, although her body has never been found. This week, Baker’s family poured into three rows of Judge Michael L. Rankin’s third-floor courtroom in D.C. Superior Court, hoping for some closure in the death of the woman they nicknamed “Princess.” Last summer, authorities arrested Baker’s boyfriend, Terrence Barnett, 45, the father of the D.C. woman’s twin children. He has been charged with first-degree murder… The trial pits two of the District’s most formidable lawyers against each other…(referencing) criminal defense attorney Nikki Lotze. (read more)
New Evidence For Fourth Trial; D.C. Prosecutors Say Moore Admitted to 1994 Slaying
The Washington Post – 3/2/01
Moore is charged with second-degree murder and six other felonies. He could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. The stakes are especially high in Moore’s case, because FBI reports describe him as one of the District’s most lethal criminals. Moore has been charged with killing two men before Hammond, with trying to kill another man and with robbing yet another at gunpoint. Police documents also describe him as the suspect in the slaying of the lone eyewitness to one of those killings. But he has never been convicted of any of those crimes. His only adult conviction is for a gun charge, and he has completed that prison term. That earlier string of acquittals led to Moore’s arrest in Hammond’s slaying, said Nikki Lotze, his defense attorney. She told jurors that frustrated police and FBI agents considered it to be “payback time.” She said police dropped or greatly reduced charges against men already in custody in exchange for implicating Moore in Hammond’s slaying. They also gave signals to Jackson, the surviving eyewitness, during his videotaped statement to name Moore as the killer, Lotze said. “But you can’t persuade physical evidence to lie, and you won’t find any physical evidence that shows Mr. Moore was in the car that night,” she said…” Corey Moore is innocent,” Lotze repeated time and again to jurors yesterday. “The government wants you to think this letter is some sort of confession. That’s complete and utter hogwash. Mr. Moore could not confess to this crime because he didn’t commit it.” (read more)
Maximum Term Sought in Double Slaying; Men Plead Not Guilty to 10 – Count Indictments in Killing of Wilson High Couple
The Washington Post – 8/23/00
Prosecutors are seeking the harshest penalty allowed under D.C. law, life in prison without parole, for the alleged killers of Wilson High School students Andre Wallace and Natasha Marsh, government attorneys said yesterday during a D.C. Superior Court hearing. Carlton Blount, 19, and Jermaine A. Johnson, 25, are charged with ambushing the teenage couple Feb. 8, hours after Blount and Wallace got into a fistfight at a Wilson High basketball game. Blount and Johnson were formally charged yesterday with identical 10-count grand jury indictments, including two counts of first-degree murder. Defense attorneys Nikki Lotze, representing Johnson, and Tamar Meekins, representing Blount, asked the court for more time to prepare for what is likely to be a high-profile, weeks-long trial. “This is a monumental case and . . . I need more time. My investigation is nowhere near complete,” Lotze said. (read more)
Standout Lawyers and Judges
The Washington Post – 1/5/00
With more than its share of high-profile criminal and civil cases, Prince George’s County is a showcase for lawyers and judges. There are far too many in the county to recognize individually; what follows is a less than comprehensive list of lawyers to watch in 2000: Criminal defense attorneys: Wood’s associate, Nikki Lotze, 32, is considered one of the best young defense attorneys in the county. In November, she defended Jeffrey Williams, who was charged with first-degree felony murder, second-degree murder and other charges. Lotze persuaded Circuit Court Judge Joseph S. Casula to acquit Williams of everything except involuntary manslaughter. The jury deadlocked on that charge, 9 to 3 for conviction. Lotze aggressively cross-examined county homicide detective Troy Harding about his failure to find one witness and about statements he made about another witness. (read more)
