Accused of beating graffiti artist, 2 ex-cops ordered to stand trial

Common Pleas Judge Frank Palumbo ate a little crow for breakfast yesterday.

During a morning court session, Palumbo ordered two former Philadelphia police officers - Sheldon Fitzgerald and Howard Hill III - to stand trial on criminal charges for their alleged beating of a graffiti vandal.

This was an about-face for Palumbo, who last year dismissed the charges after he concluded that prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to take the case to trial. The state Superior Court recently ruled that Palumbo was wrong and reversed his decision.

Yesterday, Palumbo set a July 13 arraignment. Hill and Fitzgerald are expected to enter "not guilty" pleas, and the case is likely to go before a jury next year.

"Officers Hill and Fitzgerald look forward to the opportunity to clear their good names so they can return to protecting the law-abiding citizens of the city they love," said Fortunato Perri Jr., who represents Fitzgerald.

In May 2008, Fitzgerald and Hill were charged with aggravated assault and other offenses for allegedly beating up David Vernitsky, busting his jaw, after catching him spray-painting the wall of a Feltonville business at 12:30 a.m. on Aug. 26, 2007. The cops let Vernitsky go.

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey fired the officers - both five-year veterans who worked in the 25th District on Whitaker Avenue near Erie.

After Vernitsky notified the city that he intended to file a civil suit, the Solicitor's Office settled for $35,000, city records show.

The district attorney's case against Hill and Fitzgerald is hardly a slam dunk. Vernitsky admits drinking three rum-and-cokes and six beers and smoking marijuana in the hours leading up to his run-in with Hill and Fitzgerald, who claim that Vernitsky broke his jaw when he fell while fleeing apprehension.

And Vernitsky, 39, a prolific graffiti "tagger" known as "OZ," readily acknowledges that he ran from the cops because he "was doing something illegal." He has a criminal record, mostly for vandalism, spanning nearly two decades.

"We believe that his history of defacing buildings . . . is relevant," said Brian McMonagle, who represents Hill. "We intend to question him at length about that history and about the alcohol and drugs that he was indulging in on the night in question."

Yet Hill and Fitzgerald have their own baggage. Besides Vernitsky, two other North Philly residents have claimed the officers brutalized them:

In June 2007, Joshua Pagan, then 16, said the officers stopped him for violating the city's 10:30 p.m. juvenile curfew and he tried to run away. Pagan said Hill punched him repeatedly in the face. The city settled that case - pre-civil lawsuit - for $14,500 last June.

In February, the city paid $25,000 to settle a civil lawsuit filed in federal court on behalf of Michael Higgins. Higgins, 31, claimed that in January 2008, Hill and Fitzgerald had beaten him with batons and stomped on his face, records show.