MICHAEL S. WIRTZ / Inquirer Staff Photographer
A long line outside the John F. Givnish Funeral Home on Tuesday night for the viewing of Philadelphia Police Officer Chuck Cassidy.
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Trial set to open in death of Officer Cassidy
It's hindsight, of course, but for many Philadelphia police officers, Oct. 31, 2007, is the day everything changed.
Philadelphia police had been killed before, but that day's shooting of Officer Chuck Cassidy echoes like the first muffled drumroll of a funeral cadence that continued through the killings of five more officers through February 2009.
Tomorrow, almost two years to the day after Cassidy's death, the man charged with shooting the 25-year veteran officer goes on trial for his own life in a Philadelphia courtroom.
John "Jordan" Lewis, 23, is charged with murder as well as counts related to six armed robberies - the last at a Dunkin' Donuts on Broad Street near 66th Avenue in West Oak Lane, which Cassidy interrupted when he walked through the door that morning and was shot in the head at point-blank range.
But the start of a trial does not mean the start of testimony, especially in a high-profile case such as this.
Lawyers say they don't believe opening statements will be delivered until next Monday.
Although a gag order has been imposed on the lawyers and others in the case, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Selber, who with fellow prosecutor Edward Cameron will represent the commonwealth, and defense attorney Michael Coard did outline how the trial likely would play out over the next few weeks.
Coard, a Center City criminal defense lawyer, is probably best known for his work getting the National Park Service to recognize the lives of George Washington's slaves in the continuing development of the President's House on Independence Mall.
First up tomorrow will be a pretrial hearing on Coard's motion to suppress a statement that Lewis allegedly gave homicide detectives in which he admitted shooting and killing the 54-year-old policeman.
But suppressing Lewis' statement could turn out to be more complicated than usual in this case because of the very public circumstances under which it became known.
On Nov. 3, 2007, after Lewis was publicly identified as a suspect in Cassidy's shooting, he was driven to Delaware by a cousin and boarded a Greyhound bus for Miami.
After wandering the streets a few days, Lewis checked into a Miami homeless shelter under an alias on Nov. 6. But his allegedly evasive and nervous behavior and his photo on a news broadcast led a shelter employee to call police, and Lewis was arrested the same day.
That night, as Miami police led him from headquarters to go to a courthouse jail cell, Lewis was besieged by reporters and film crews.
He told reporters he had confessed to shooting Cassidy, then faced the cameras and said: "I apologize to his family. I never meant anything to happen like this."
Coard said he could not discuss defense strategy without violating the gag order.
The usual challenge to a confession or statement involves whether the suspect was capable of understanding his or her constitutional rights and able to make a decision to waive the rights to stay silent and obtain a lawyer.
At his arrest, Lewis was a high school dropout with a history of drug offenses. He was tired after three days of living on the streets as a fugitive.
Selber and Coard said jury selection would begin Wednesday before Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart.
That process could take the remainder of this week. Unlike in most cases, the jurors and alternates who hear the case against Lewis must be questioned about whether they are open to use of the death penalty.
Equally important is finding jurors who feel they can be fair after the massive publicity surrounding the Cassidy killing - and the killings of five Philadelphia police officers since.
Finally, there is the practical matter of finding jurors who can serve on a trial that could last three weeks.
Selber said she was optimistic. "I think any big homicide has the same issues," she said. "We've picked juries for other cases just as big."
Big the trial will be. Last Friday, court employees began preparing to move Minehart from his usual sixth-floor courtroom to one twice as large on the third floor of the Criminal Justice Center.
Cassidy is survived by his wife, Judy, three children, and a large extended family, and many are expected to attend daily. So, too, with Lewis' family.
The trial also is expected to attract many citizen spectators and a large contingent of police. The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 has made a point of having a police presence in court at every hearing for anyone accused of killing a police officer.
FOP president John McNesby said Friday that either he or representatives of Lodge 5 would be present every day of the trial to provide whatever services the Cassidy family needed.
"I can tell you that every officer who will be in the building has been told to stop by and pay their respects to Mrs. Cassidy and the family," McNesby said.
For Minehart, 62, a former juvenile probation officer and trial lawyer who once was counsel to the city's firefighter and police unions, the trial may resonate in other ways.
Minehart, a judge since 2003, sentenced the last person convicted of murdering a Philadelphia police officer.
The officer was Gary Skerski, 46, a 16-year veteran. The killer, Solomon Montgomery, 25, pleaded guilty in a deal in which he exchanged a possible death sentence for life in prison without chance of parole.
Minehart accepted the plea and sentenced the same day, calling Montgomery an "urban terrorist."
It was the day before everything changed: Oct. 30, 2007.
Contact staff writer Joseph A. Slobodzian at 215-854-2985 or jslobodzian@phillynews.com.
