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Wednesday, October 1, 2008

House arrest for thug who vowed to kill cop

This one will surely get some folks' blood boiling:

It looked like Edward Burgess had gained the upper hand during a life-or-death struggle with Officer Stephen Mazzoni in a dank North Philadelphia alley last Nov. 11.
After beating Mazzoni senseless, Burgess leaned on top of the cop and tried to grab his gun, according to police records obtained by the Daily News.
Then the 38-year-old career criminal made himself perfectly clear: He would kill Mazzoni before ever being hauled back to jail, the records state.
Luck was on Mazzoni’s side that day, as backup officers arrived and arrested Burgess before the showdown could get any worse. It’s unclear, though, if justice is on the veteran cop’s side.
On Sept. 22, Common Pleas Judge Rosalyn K. Robinson ordered Burgess, who had 13 prior arrests, to be released on house arrest to await the start of his trial, which is scheduled for March 25, 2009.
The judge’s decision — which came just a day before Highway Patrol Officer Sgt. Patrick McDonald was slain by convicted felon Daniel Giddings in North Philadelphia — infuriated police officials and union leaders already at their wit’s end over the rising tide of violence aimed at police.
Law enforcement sources said that the District Attorney’s Office immediately filed a detainer to keep Burgess behind bars, and is preparing to file a motion for reconsideration.
“This is one more example, I think, of a judge not making the right decision,” Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said in an interview last night.
“This person assaulted a police officer, tried to take the officer’s gun and threatened to kill him, and he was put on house arrest? It’s ridiculous.”
Burgess — whose arrest record stretches back to 1988 and includes seven convictions — was pulled over by Mazzoni and his partner on Westmoreland Street near Germantown Avenue in November, for a traffic violation, according to police.
The cops allegedly found a crack pipe and several empty crack bags in Burgess’ car and ordered him to get out. He fled down an alley, where he beat Mazzoni and punched another officer, while stating that he had AIDS, police records show.
The sources said that Robinson’s decision was likely prompted by Rule 600, a state criminal-procedure regulation that maintains that no defendant should be held in pre-trail incarceration for more than 180 days. Burgess’ case has been plagued with several continuances since February, including some that were attributed to Mazzoni not being well enough to make it to court, sources said.
“That right there tells you this was no minor incident,” Ramsey said. “If anything, it’s all the more reason to hold the guy and not trust him to abide by some house-arrest rules.”
Robinson did not return a phone call to her office from the Daily News late yesterday. A former prosecutor, she was elected to the bench in 1997 and earned another10-year term last year with the blessing of the Philadelphia Bar Association, which recommended her retention.
Earlier this week, leaders of the city’s Fraternal Order of Police sounded a warning to judges they deemed as too lenient.
“That wasn’t just for show. We’re going to take a proactive approach and hammer judges who let people like [Burgess] go,” FOP President John McNesby said last night.
“We’re going to assign someone to watch the courts and work with the D.A.’s office. We’re going to make sure our officers and our citizens are protected.”
In response to the FOP’s salvo on some judges, Common Pleas President Judge C. Darnell Jones II said that “blaming the judiciary is not an appropriate response to this type of terrible criminal conduct.”
Posted by David Gambacorta @ 11:41 PM  Permalink | 3 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:15 AM, 10/02/2008
    Blaming the judiciary for not keeping us safe from this kind of criminal is an entirely appreopriate response to this kind of terrible criminal conduct. What was Judge Robinson thinking? Please make a poster out of this issue when she runs for reelection.
    — voiceofreason
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:37 PM, 10/02/2008
    Lets see beats up a cop, tries to take the cops weapon, also mention will not be taken to jail and threatens to kill cop. Great judge when this same man breaks house arrest and robs, then beat you in the streets blame yourself for not keeping him in jail
    — MIKEPETERS
  • Comment removed.


3 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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