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Even before D.C. Councilmember Linda Cropp’s 21-year-old son Christopher Cropp was arrested last month on robbery charges, the police had his number. In early August, when queried by residents of the 16th Street Heights neighborhood, Fourth District Capt. Christopher Cooch acknowledged that the lawmaker’s son was under investigation. Cooch’s words prompted Linda and Dwight Cropp to fire off a letter threatening to sue the police captain, sources say, although no suit has been filed. On Aug. 28, police reports say that Cropp was one of a group of men who allegedly beat up a man and took his bicycle. He wasn’t arrested on the felony charge until Sept. 26. On that day, the police executed a search warrant of the house where Cropp lives with his parents, but no stolen items were recovered, according to police sources contacted by Washington City Paper. Those sources believe the Cropps may have been alerted by someone inside the department. Councilmember Cropp declined to be interviewed, but in a previously released statement said that “Christopher is entitled to the presumption of innocence as the law dictates. He has his father’s and my full love and support, and we wait for the judicial process to run its course.” Residents in the Cropps’ Crestwood neighborhood were not surprised by the arrest. Several neighbors had alerted Fourth District police to vandals breaking into cars and homes and fingered young Cropp. In at least one case, residents talked with his parents, both of whom said their son had been home at the time the incident occurred. Cropp was released on his own recognizance. He is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 16.