Two teenagers who assaulted an ex-Department of Government Efficiency staffer in August were sentenced to probation at a Washington, D.C., court on Tuesday.
The 15-year-old girl and 15-year old boy, both Hyattsville, Maryland residents, pleaded guilty to simple assault and were sentenced to nine and twelve months probation respectively. The attack, which left 19-year-old Edward Coristine with a broken nose and a concussion in the streets of Northwest D.C., spurred President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department and his deployment of the National Guard to D.C.
The teens were ordered to have no contact with each other. The boy has returned home under strict house arrest and the girl was placed in a local youth shelter; neither teen is allowed to spend time in D.C. apart from school, work, or family commitments.
“I hope you can figure things out and be ready for the consequences,” the victim reportedly told the defendants over video conference on Tuesday.
Coristine and his girlfriend were assaulted around 3 a.m. on a Sunday in an attempted carjacking. A “group of ten guys” were involved, Coristine has said, but the other perpetrators are still at large.
“As we get to the car and she begins to fumble for the keys, they begin to shout at us, and really quickly I knew something was really off about this situation,” Coristine said in a Fox News interview. “So she unlocks the car, I rush her into the driving seat. I close the door behind her and she’s able to lock the doors. Right as I turn around, they’re right up on me – just a few feet away.”
“They slammed me against the car and started throwing a bunch of punches,” he continued. “I keep my hands up. I’m getting a lot of punches here and I’m just trying to protect my head the best way that I can.”
President Donald Trump posted a now-infamous photo of a bloodied Coristine shortly after the attack, bashing D.C.’s rising crime rates, and calling for teens like the ones who assaulted Coristine to be charged as adults in certain cases.
“If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore,” Trump said on Truth Social in August.
U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro has also advocated for lowering the age of criminal responsibility in D.C., as the city grapples with an increasing youth crime problem.
Over the last few years, D.C. has seen a spike in juvenile crime, especially robbery and carjacking. About 200 juveniles arrested for violent crimes in 2024 had prior violent crime arrests, according to police.
“The gangs and the crews are 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 years old, I can’t touch them,” Pirro said. “If someone shoots someone with a gun and they’re 17 years old and that person does not die, I can’t prosecute them. I can’t get involved with them.”