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Thursday, October 9, 2008

Another clash for FOP, judge

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.
Posted by David Gambacorta @ 12:48 AM  Permalink | 2 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:21 AM, 10/09/2008
    Why are these morons on the bench? What possible motive could this incompetent judge have had for dismissing the other charges? The FOP should print up decks of playing cards with these stories and give them away at re-election time.
    — voiceofreason
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:21 PM, 10/09/2008
    whatever...anymore, can you be surprised to what goes on? it's like the judges work for the defendents.
    — OgieOglethorpe


2 comments
About The PhillyConfidential team

Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.

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Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.

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Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.

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Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.

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