Cop-friendly lawyer fights department over 'loose cannon'

LAWYER JIMMY BINNS, a friend to cops and an honorary Philadelphia police commissioner, will be pitted against city police in federal court Monday when he represents the family of a slain man who is suing the department and the former cop who shot him.

Binns is representing the family of William Panas Jr., who was shot to death by former Philadelphia police officer Frank Tepper following a neighborhood argument on Nov. 21, 2009.

Tepper, who was drunk at the time of the shooting, was found guilty of murder earlier this year and is serving a life sentence behind bars.

The federal civil suit against Tepper, the city and the police department claims that the department should have known he was a " 'loose cannon' with an uncontrollable temper, who routinely engaged in acts of violence and repeatedly violated the policies, rules, and regulations of the Philadelphia Police Department."

In subsequent court documents, Binns wrote that despite amassing 35 Internal Affairs complaints and logging 66 calls for assistance to his own house during his 16-year career, Tepper was never investigated or disciplined in any "meaningful" way by the department.

Tepper's Internal Affairs complaints range from drinking in uniform to pointing a handgun at a child and pepper-spraying teens, none of which resulted in real discipline, something that shows "a critical breakdown in the internal disciplinary mechanism of the Philadelphia Police Department," according to Binns.

"They either chose to avert their eyes from what was readily apparent to the most casual observer or just plain coverup and allow Tepper's rampage to continue unabated until he finally committed the inevitable murder of Billy Panas," Binns wrote.

It's unusual to hear Binns criticize the department.

He founded the Hero Plaque program, which has honored more than 250 fallen cops in its 11 years, and he's donated untold amounts of gear and money to city police. In 2007, then-Commissioner Sylvester Johnson bestowed the title of honorary commissioner on to Binns.

The 72-year-old lawyer is also slated to enroll in the Municipal Police Academy at Delaware County Community College in January.

When asked if his close connections to the department might be a conflict of interest in the case, Binns said, "Of course not."

"This is my day job, I'm an attorney," he said. "This has nothing to do with the valor of the individual police officers, it's simply a question of the shortcomings of the customs and practices within the department."

Binns said his faith in the department is still strong, but he hopes this suit will result in oversight reforms.

"They could do it," he said. "It wouldn't be rocket science to ferret people like him [Tepper] out."

Jury selection is slated to begin Monday morning in federal court.

The city and Tepper are co-defendants on the case, although the city is not representing Tepper. According to Binns, Tepper is unrepresented.

Blog: PhillyConfidential.com