A matter of common sense or scientific research?

A study by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing has found that victims of sexual assault who have dark skin are less likely to have their injuries identified, documented and treated. Researchers examined 120 volunteers after they had had consensual sex. They found that 68 percent of white women with at least one external injury incurred during sex. They identified the same injuries in only 43 percent of dark-skinned women.

The results indicated that assault victims with dark skin may be disadvantaged in clinical assessments and in the criminal-justice system, although cases of rape and assault occur more often to dark-skinned women, the American Journal of Emergency Medicine reported.

Highway Patrol Officers Joe Moore and Bruce Cleaver were riding through North Philadelphia on Thursday when a red Chevy Impala caught their eye. They flipped their domelights on when the driver failed to use his turn signal and he turned onto North 22nd Street from Berks.

The Chevy came to a stop. The driver did not. Orlander Warren, 28, took off running, and Moore and Cleaver jumped out of their patrol car and gave chase, said Highway Patrol Capt. Michael Cochrane.

It was, in a sense, deja vu all over again. Highway Patrol Officer Pat McDonald ran through the very same motions on Sept. 23, when he pulled a car over near 17th and Dauphin and chased after a passenger who jumped out of the car and ran. Of course, McDonald lost his life in the chase when the fleeing man, Daniel Giddings, turned and fatally shot the 30-year-old cop.

This time, the bad guy in question was unarmed. Warren ran into a building on 22nd Street and was eventually subdued and arrested by Moore and Clever, Cochrane said. The cops found $36,000 worth of marijuana in Warren’s car. He was charged with drug possession charges and resisting arrest.

But something else happened when the police chased and scuffled with Warren: a neighbor reached out. Cochrane said an unidentified resident called 9-1-1 and asked that backup be sent for the officers, who couldn’t get to their radios during the incident. “The officers were really happy about that part of it,” Cochrane. “It made them feel good to know someone was watching out for them and tried to help.”

In what will no doubt be an emotional ceremony at City Hall Friday morning, 12 cops -- including slain Highway Patrol Officer Patrick McDonald -- will be promoted to the rank of sergeant. McDonald. 30, was gunned down by convicted felon Daniel Giddings in North Philly on Sept. 23. Giddings was later shot dead by police.

McDonald's father, retired Fire Department Capt. Larry McDonald, is expected to stand in for his son at the ceremony. Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, Mayor Nutter and other officials will be on hand. 

The rest of the promoted include:

* Officer Rosemary Petro, 22nd District

* Corporal Jeffrey Hickson, Traffic Court

* Officer Kenneth Gill, 9th District

* Officer Nashid Akil, 25th District

* Det. Christopher Morton, Major Crimes

* Det. George Mullen, East Detectives

* Corporal Mark Palma, Narcotics Field Unit 2

* Officer Marc Hayes, 26th District

* Officer Benjamin Baynard, 35th District

* Officer Andrew Horn, 14th District

* Officer Christopher Binns, SWAT

* Officer Patrick McDonald, Highway Patrol

Sad story out of the Mill Creek section of West Philly tonight. A physically disabled 80-year-old woman died in a fire that started when she microwaved a sandwich that was wrapped in aluminum foil and paper.

Nicole Swaayze lived alone in her 4th floor apartment at Katie B. Jackson Plaza, a seniors-only facility run by the Philadelphia Housing Authority at 50th Street and Haverford Avenue, said PHA spokesman Kirk Dorn.

Dorn said Swaayze relied on an aide to cook her dinner everyday. When the aide didn't show up today, Swaayze tried to fix herself dinner. Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said the elderly woman pulled the sandwich out of the microwave when it caught fire, and the flames spread onto her clothes as well. Swaayze became the 23rd person to die in a city fire this year. Ayers said the number of fatal fires stood at 37 at this point a year ago. Two other elderly residents at Jackson Plaza had to be treated for smoke inhalation, Ayers said.

It was unclear why Swaayze's aide -- who did not work for PHA -- never showed up, Dorn said.

Sad story out of the Mill Creek section of West Philly tonight. A physically disabled 80-year-old died in a fire that started when she microwaved a sandwich that was wrapped in aluminum foil and paper.

Looks like FOP officials are still making good on their earlier promise to start calling out judges who they feel are too soft on repeat offenders. This time out, Judge Teresa Carr Deni is taking heat. (Nothing new for Deni, who found herself at the center of national firestorm last year when she dismissed rape charges and sexual assault charges against a man who allegedly raped a 20-year-old prostitute. Deni went on to tell the Daily News' Jill Porter that the prostitute's claims "minimizes true rape cases." Oy.)

Anyway, the new controversy:

Salim Walls had a special fondness for Center City businesses.
Police officials said the 26-year-old had long terrorized store employees and had stolen from retail shops near Broad and Walnut streets.
On Aug. 17, a plainclothes police officer who was downtown recognized Walls — who has 24 prior arrests, including eight on retail-theft charges — from a wanted poster and attempted to apprehend him, said police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore.
Walls violently attacked the officer and tried unsuccessfully to grab the cop’s gun in the struggle, Vanore said.
But on Tuesday, Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni cut Walls a break.
Walls was facing 10 charges from his late-summer scuffle with police, including aggravated assault, disarming a law-enforcement officer, robbery and inflicting serious bodily injury, according to court records.
The judge tossed out nine of the charges, and opted to hold Walls only on resisting arrest.
The District Attorney’s Office has vowed to have Walls rearrested on all of the original charges, said Fraternal Order of Police vice president John McGrody.
Deni’s decision incensed FOP leaders, who last month all but declared war on judges who they feel are soft on violent, repeat offenders.
“Our main concern is protecting our police officers and the citizens of this city,” McGrody said.
“We’re not going to hold a press conference over every decision, but we’re trying to highlight the worst ones.”
The judge could not be reached for comment last night.

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Sorry I'm just getting this up on the blog now, folks.

Our Marvin Harrison lawsuit story (click here to read the full version) caught a lot of people by surprise today. Curious types -- namely reporters and radio personalities -- who long figured the case was closed or forgotten were abuzz over the new development. Admittedly, there's little to really get worked up about. Dwight Dixon's civil lawsuit against Harrison is months away from kicking off, and the District Attorney's Office is still mum about the state of criminal investigation into the shooting.

Rehashing the alleged facts of the case got a lot of people wondering just what the DA's Office is up to. The witness statements and ballistic evidence certainly seemed to suggest that Harrison was, in fact, the triggerman. But if Harrison is right, and someone else put a bullet in Dixon's hand, police say the NFL star would still face charges for allowing his gun to be used in a crime.

I'm sure there will be some more developments in the not-so-distant future. In the meantime, check out the Joe Kaczmarek slide show of investigators searching for -- and finding -- evidence on Thompson Street in North Philadelphia.

Residents in a humble Port Richmond witnessed a rare scene on their block yesterday when a confrontation between two cops and two suspects, left one bad guy with a bullet in his stomach and a cop banged up.

Two 24th District cops responding to a call of an armed man, encountered two men in a red Pontiac van parked near Clearfield and Memphis streets, police said. When the cops, from the 24th District, with headquarters at Whitaker Avenue near Erie, approached the vehicle, the suspects drove off and crashed into a tree a short distance away. Moments later, the passenger, identified by police as Israel Perez, tried to flee, but the responding officer caught up to him, and the two struggled over the officer’s gun, said spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore. During the struggle, rounds in gun’s magazine fell to the ground, but as the suspect tried to grab the weapon, a bullet in the chamber discharged, striking Perez him in the abdomen, said Vanore. The suspect was listed in stable condition at Temple University Hospital . The officer wasn’t injured. Meanwhile, the other officer was chasing the driver of the van, identified as Ronald Williams, whom he caught soon after. Williams was treated for a minor head injury that police say he incurred during the pursuit, and was released into police custody. The officer who had chased him was treated for a knee injury.

Police later found what they said was a large quantity of cocaine on top of a nearby garage roof onto which the suspects had thrown during the chase. The suspects were charged with aggravated assault, drug possession and related offenses, said police, who did not disclose their ages or addresses. Perez had two outstanding warrants for prior drug-related offenses. Vanore credited the quick thinking of the officer who held on to his gun — who is on administrative duty pending an Internal Affairs investigation — with averting a potentially tragic outcome. “His training kicked in,” he said. “He was able to keep [the weapon].”

Way back in late April, local and national reporters couldn't get their pens and microphones together fast enough when word broke that Colts wide receiver Marvin Harrison was linked to a North Philadelphia shooting. When the case failed to develop -- that is, when Harrison was never charged and the police publicly never mentioned him as suspect or person of interest -- the story faded away.

Guess who's back.

I started rooting around a few weeks ago to see if anything new was brewing in the case. Presto:

Marvin Harrison’s life just got more complicated.
The NFL star — who was linked to a springtime North Philadelphia shooting that left one man wounded — is now being sued by the alleged victim, Dwight Dixon.
Harrison was never charged with the April 29 shooting, which occurred after he and Dixon exchanged blows near an auto garage shop that Harrison owns on Thompson Street near 25th, according to police sources.
The case is still considered an open investigation, said Assistant District Attorney Christopher Diviny.
While Harrison, 36, admitted to members of Central Detectives that he was involved in the fight, he insisted he had nothing to do with the shooting, the sources said.
His handlers maintained his innocence during the ensuing media firestorm. The case eventually stopped generating headlines, and Harrison went back to his lucrative day job as a wide receiver for the Indianapolis Colts.

But over time, the investigation uncovered evidence that seemed to point back in Harrison’s direction:
*Harrison and Dixon squabbled for two weeks prior to the shooting after they exchanged words in Harrison’s bar, Playmakers, on 28th Street near Cambridge.
*Ballistics tests proved shell casings found at the shooting scene were fired from Harrison’s gun, a Belgian-made FN5.7, law enforcement sources said.
*Detectives found the firearm in Harrison’s garage on Thompson Street.
*Witnesses and Dixon separately identified Harrison as the shooter, the sources said.
The lawsuit, which was filed Sept. 2, is worded in a way that would find Harrison liable regardless of the outcome of the criminal investigation.
“The defendant intentionally and outrageously shot the plaintiff,” reads one portion of the lawsuit, while another section states Dixon, 32, was shot by someone else who used Harrison’s gun.
“Look, it’s our position that Marvin Harrison was the shooter,” said Robert M. Gamburg, Dixon’s attorney.
“But even if you believe the other theory, Marvin’s gun was still used in the shooting, so he was negligent for leaving the weapon where someone else could obtain it.”

I'll try to post the rest of the story up when I get in on Wednesday. Stay tuned!