in the newsroom rebecca cooper abc 7 news. >> d.c. police chief kathy lanier testified today in the trial in a whistle blower lawsuit. one of her officers claimed he was demoted by the chief after revealing that celebrities were receiving improper police escorts. sam ford is live in northwest with what happened in court. sam? >> yes maureen. since this trial began here nearly two weeks ago a parade of police -- current and former police brass have beening coming here testifying some saying that the chief is not telling the truth. today, chief who has been here every day since this began took the stand this afternoon as her own witness. >> this all started after public outrage that police escorted charlie sheen from the airport he tweeted out as speeds of 80

miles per hour. the special operations commander hilton burton testified before the city council that police did such free celebrity escorts all the time. contradicting his boss chief kathy lanier who said that the department did not. burton sued saying it was retaliation for his telling the truth. lanier said it was for his poor performance. today, she took the stand in her own defense listing several cases including two barricades where she said burton acted too quickly and people ended up dead. i felt he was not operating at the level of a commander. his judgment impaired his ability to lead that unit. when the chief side tried to blame burton for a 2007 barricade in which police ended up killing a man the judge refused to allow it. the judge told the jury when sued by his family in federal court, police won claiming the incident was handled properly. he said they cannot now switch and claim it wasn't to attack burton.

also being sued by burton is assistant chief lamar green. the trial resumes on monday with chief lanier still on the stand and facing cross-examination from burton's attorney. burton is seeking return of his position and punitive damages for what he's been through. reporting live from d.c. superior court, sam ford, abc 7 news. >> thank you sam. we're getting reaction to a judge's order in a fairfax county police involved shooting case. today, the judge ordered the police department to turn over internal affairs documents for officer adam torres. torres shot and killed john geer during a stand-off in august 2013. attorneys for geer's family argue officer torres had anger issues and questioned whether he should have been armed and working. a friend of geer says the family is pleased with the judge's order. >> i spoke to the family today after the hearing and we're all

very pleased with the judge's ruling. most of the information that was requested seems relevant in the case and i think the judge recognizes that. >> those internal affairs documents must have turned over to attorneys for the geer family by february 20th. the investigation into the shooting remains in the hands of the u.s. justice department. also new at 6:00 a car goes off the road and slams into the glass windows of a business sending one person to the hospital. it happened earlier this evening on eighth street northeast. police say a second car was involved but they're investigating what led to the incident. the victim was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. after another day of bitterly cold temperatures, a warmup is on the way. chief meteorologist doug hill joins us with a look at the weekend forecast. doug? >> hey, maureen. still kind of chilly outside of the belfort furniture weather center. mid 30's right now. warmup coming this way for the

weekend. current temperature, down to 31 at washington dulles and through the evening with some clouds overhead, most areas will drop into the 20's. the winds will be light. all things considered not a terrible night at all for early february and over the weekend, well, the warmup begins tomorrow. we're going to call for highs approaching 50 degrees with some sunshine. more sunshine returns on sunday with highs in the upper 50's and then we have to deal with a cold front and the storm center and some precipitation. we'll lay that out for you in detail in a couple of minutes for you, maureen. >> thank you so much. breaking news now of a boat fire in glen bernie newschopper 7 is live over the scene. anne arundel firefighters are also there and they say the fire appears to be out. there's no word on how many boats are affected or if anyone is injured. a judge has delayed the upcoming trial for jesse matthew in fairfax county. matthew is accused of attempted murder and sexual assault of a woman in 2005.

his trial was scheduled for march 9th. his lawyers want more time to review and analyze d.n.a. evidence. a judge will decide next week on a new trial date. matthew is also charged with the abduction of u.v.a. student hannah graham. her body you might remember, was found last october. one or two teenage boys wounded in a shooting outside of frederick high school is out of the hospital tonight. investigators say wednesday night's shooting appears to be gang related. but police haven't made any arrests. frederick high and neighboring west frederick high schools reopened today. the white house is looking into reports an american woman held hostage was killed in an air strike against isil in syria. isil says the strike was carried out byjordan. senior political reporter scott thuman is live in the newsroom. scott? >> maureen, there are a lot of questions tonight about this claim. if it's real or some ruse by the terror group. here's how this unfolded. around noon today, isil started

sending out photos of a building in syria that it claims was just bombed by jordanian fighter pilots seeking revenge for this week's terrible execution of the pilot. the terror group says that inside that building was the american hostage, 26-year-old kayla mueller of arizona who was an aid worker when she was kidnapped back in 2013. they did not show proof she had been killed. there was some skepticism tonight but clearly, u.s. intelligence agencies are trying to sort it all out as we speak. >> we're obviously very concerned about the reports that have come in in recent hours. we do not at the present have any evidence to corroborate isil's claims. we're just not going to get into the specifics about americans being held overseas for privacy of them of their families obviously, you can imagine these are very sensitive situations so we're not going to get into those details.

>> now, if these isil claims are true and keep in mind that is still a big if a lot to be sorted out here. she would be the fourth american hostage killed now by isil. maureen? >> thank you, scott. president obama today released an outline of his new national security strategy. he says the u.s. must resist the urge to, as he put it overreach abroad. susan rice the president's national security advisor commented on the 29-page document meant as a blueprint for the president's final two years in office. rice touched up on the plan to defeat isil. >> we have assembled a broad coalition that is confronting it from all angles from training the security forces to supporting the moderate opposition to encouraging political reforms in iraq that foster greater inclusion. >> president obama's national security strategy calls for boosting cyber security,

fighting climate change and promoting gay rights around the world. the escalating terror threat is the subject of a new town hall to air on our sister station, newschannel 8. "your voice, your future town hall fight for freedom" is on monday night at 7:00. you can signed up to be in the audience at wjla.com/town hall. coming up at 6:00, update to a story that we brought you first on abc 7. action against a man accused of squatting in an upscale home. the third request to move the trial of the boston marathon bombing suspect and find out how the army is paying tribute to the victims of the 2009

>> for a third time, a federal judge rejected a request to move the trial of the boston marathon bombing suspect outside massachusetts. lawyers for dzhokhar tsarnaev made the request. they argue he cannot get a fair trial in massachusetts because many people there were personally affected by the bombing and believe he's guilty. the judge ruled today the court has been successful in finding potential jurors. secretary of the army approved awards including the purple heart for some victims of the 2009 shooting at fort hood. 13 people were killed. more than 30 wounded in that attack. the army says it's possible to award the purple heart now that

congress has changed the criteria for the honor. still ahead at 6:00 the search for a man accused of trying to attack a woman inside a laundry room. the sketch police want you to see tonight. and doug has the weekend forecast to tell us how high the temperatures will rise. >> temperatures will rise tonight in the phone booth. caps and ducks in a playoff-type game. and i'll preview the georgetown-villanova rematch. wait until you hear what j.t. 3 has to say. as abc 7 new

>> a grand jury has taken action against a man accused of squatting in a luxury bethesda home with his family and pet dog. james crombie now faces several felony charges including burglary. montgomery county reporter kevin lewis brought you this story first on 7 and he's live outside that home tonight. kevin? >> maureen, police tell us that crombie, his wife children even the pet dog rolled right up this driveway back in august. they had a big boxruck that they were unloading all of their belongings and personal items. neighbors tell me that crombie even introduced himself as the

new home owner. that was until police arrived. >> hello. are you james crombie? >> yeah. who are you? >> abc 7 news. we want to speak with you about the allegations that y squatting in a home? >> it was new year's day, james crombie in no mood to talk about allegations he and his family squatted in this vacant luxury home which features a g kitchen and marble bathrooms. charles hill remains stunned. >> i did hear that the lock had been drilled and that they had moved into the house and introduced themselves and even scheduled some sort of entertainment with neighbors. >> crombie reportedly told police he bought the house using million dollar shares but didn't have a property title, sales contract or house keys to prove ownership. yesterday, a grand jury returned a seven count indictment against the 48-year-old accusing him of crimes like first degree burglary, felony theft and fraud. in reality the crombies live in this small kensington rental home where today, wife lynnette

answered the door. >> hi there kevin lewis abc 7. would you like to talk to us about the allegations against your husband? >> i haven't talked to him about it. >> jack kelly is crombie's real neighbor. >> he's been fine and he and h wife and three kids are good people. good neighbors. i am shocked. seem like nice people. >> after sitting on the market for months this home went under contract only weeks ago. crews were out here today performing the final inspection. we also spoke on the phone today with a seller who told us this has been very one very stressful ordeal one that he could never imagine being in himself. i'm kevin lewis, abc 7. >> thank you. montgomery county police have released sketch of a man accused of trying to attack a woman in silver springs. the victim says a man like the one in this composite approached her in the laundry room of an apartment on sleigel avenue.

when he pulled a pocketknife, the victim screamed and the man ran. anyone with information is asked to call police. parts of the west coast are bracing for a wet and windy weekend. near seattle, there was flooding after a landslide and four inches of rain overnight. parts of california are preparing for flooding, too. it doesn't appear the rain will help california's drought, though. nasa estimates the state needs 11 trillion gallons of water to recover. is that a lot of water? >> oh yeah. rm won't do that. but yes they got some part of san francisco, bay area a little bit of rain and the area near stanford a little north and pacific northwest. not so much for the southland. >> how about us? >> maybe rain monday and until then, pretty good stuff with the warming trend over the weekend. a little time lapse for you. start with the images from the h.d. weather camera and weather bug network in the district and the beautiful sunrise and the decks of clouds off again and all day, a little glimmer of sun. you'll notice as we come to an end of the motion here that the

sky is starting to clear. made for a gorgeous sunset over the nation's capital and now we're looking at temperatures that will start to fall just a bit tonight. 38 and 17 the change of temperatures. the morning low and the afternoon high. the average is 45 and 30 now. we're not going to be near 17 in the city. we'll be near 28 downtown. after sunset with a little bit of clearing overhead temperatures will fall. only in the 20's we think with an average wake-up temperature of 28 degrees by tomorrow morning. cloudiness is pretty much visible in the satellite image here. watch the cloud bands come across the area. clouds thinned out before sunset. go partly cloudy at times tonight and tomorrow, we'll have the same kind of weather patternwith partly cloudy conditions. the air is a little colder to the north and west. but not dramatically so. the real cold air is to the north. what you'll see is a boundary setup over the weekend where the milder temperatures to the south and west will move in and we'll kind of set up cold and mild and that will be our story. so we're on the good side of that equation over the weekend. by monday is when we think we'll

see the frontal system sink south and that's when we'll pick up the chance of some rain. futurecast shows through midday tomorrow, sunshine and cloudy well to the north. we'll have some periods of clouds and sunshine. to the north, large area of snow developing. mix and then a few showers possible as we get through the day on monday here. again, kind of getting off lucky. more measurable snow through interior new england, maybe six, 10, 12 inches or more in spots. for us forecast tomorrow chilly start and warm to near 50 with partly cloudy skies in the afternoon. and then near 57 nice on sunday! and great outdoor weather day. but by monday it all changes and that's on the seven-day outlook. let me do my vanna white. go through the next seven days for you. temperatures warming up a bit. theain goes 30% chance may end as a flake somewhere as the colder air comes in monday evening. clearing skies tuesday and wednesday. look at the end of the line there. on friday highs only in the 20's. back in the deep freeze by this time next week.

maureen and timmy? >> ouch. thanks for preparing us. time to talk about college basketball. >> absolutely. as we head towards march madness, georgetown hoyas say get on the bus gus. time to go philly for a showdown with nova while the caps gear up for the anaheim ducks. now he's

>> remember former caps coach bruce boudreau. gabby is back in town tonight with his anaheim ducks ready to play the caps and the ducks are alone at the top of the nhl. braiden holtby will get the night off after getting the win last night in ottawa. this game should have a playoff type atmosphere. ducks have won eight of their last 10 games. alex ovechkin leads the league in goals and has seven goals with eight assists in nine career games with the ducks. robert burton caught up with the head coach a moment ago. >> alex ovechkin, how hot is he right now? >> he's been going good. he's hot. he's scoring 5-on-5 and scoring from tips in front of the net to rebounds. those are the things that make those guys have those runs where they can pluck a lot of goals. >> let's stay with hockey. did you see what happened to rangers goalie henrik lundquist? he took a brad malone

80-mile-per-hour wrist shot to the throat. it was brutal. i thought it killed him. but now, the good news is the rangers say lundquist will be back. but he'll be out three to four weeks with a very, very serious vascular injury. a puck to the throat. tgif. it is friday and this should be a great weekend of college basketball. 17th ranked maryland plays at iowa on sunday while tomorrow 24th ranked georgetown tries to sweep the season series at number seven villanova in philly. the hoyas beat nova by 20 in the phone booth january 19th. now they'll try it again. but that first game, that was a mismatch, john thompson. >> in many ways, you can throw the last game out the window because they played -- they didn't have one of their better days and we played well. we forced them into a lot of things but they didn't play well. and so you can't just look at that and say ok let's do that again. >> and finally, the acc had to change its basketball tournament format with that self-imposed

post-season ban by syracuse there are now only 14 teams instead of 15. the tournament will go from tuesday to saturday this year. tuesday will have the two play-in games. and finally, for golf fans it doesn't look like leftie is going to make it. phil mickelson is not going to make the cut at torrey pines. >> ooh, another one bites the dust. >> he and tiger both. >> what's the latest sir? >> weekend looks good. let's get to it. forecast, a little bit of cloudiness and a little bit of sunshine. near 50 tomorrow afternoon and a little more sunshine mixed with the clouds and 57 degrees for a high on sunday. with the rain holding off until monday. steve rudin will more on the timing of that and e next chance of rain. give you the details of that as you make the weekend plans tonight. >> "world news tonight" is coming up next. have a good night. and good weekend.

on this friday night, breaking news on two fronts. the young american woman being held hostage by isis. brian ross standing by. also tonight, the massive pileups, and the massive snow storm that could last for days. and the major new development in the plane crash. what the pilots did, a tragic mistake. and the nba star, and what he said about this female ref. the giant surprise who is our person of the week?