D.A.: Lawyer for building-collapse defendant is in contempt of court

The lawyer representing the building contractor charged with causing the 22nd and Market streets building collapse that killed six people last year is facing his own legal battle.

The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office has asked a judge to hold William Hobson in contempt of court for talking to reporters about the case after the judge issued a gag order barring such communication.

"On Oct. 2, 2014, the webpage for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News posted a story by reporters Sam Wood and Brian X. McCrone which attributes quotations and case details to Mr. William Hobson, attorney for Griffin T. Campbell," read the motion filed Oct. 2 by Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron.

"This interview appears to violate the court's imposed gag order. Therefore, the commonwealth would request that the honorable court hold a hearing on this matter," the motion continues.

Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner scheduled a contempt hearing for Oct. 14 in courtroom 1105 of the Criminal Justice Center.

On Sept. 16, Lerner issued a gag order barring all lawyers working on the criminal case of Campbell, 50, and co-defendant Sean Benschop, 43, from talking to news organizations.

Lerner issued the order at the request of Cameron and his co-counsel Jennifer Selber and over the objections of Hobson.

Lerner said the gag order would remain until he assigned the case to a trial judge, who would decide whether to keep it in place.

A contempt of court conviction is a summary offense that carries a maximum sentence of five months and 29 days in jail.

Gag orders are often issued in high-profile cases to prevent prejudice and to stop lawyers from trying cases in the media.

Hobson, contacted by phone Monday, said he did not violate the gag order because he answered the reporters' questions pertaining only to a civil suit related to the collapse, not the criminal case.

Nevertheless, he said he plans to ask the trial judge - who has not yet been named - to lift the gag order because it violates his ability to represent Campbell, whose charges include six-counts of third-degree murder, which would result in a life in prison sentence upon conviction.

Hobson noted that District Attorney Seth Williams issued a press release denouncing Campbell after a grand jury indicted him in November.

"I hope Griffin Campbell's arrest today will give the victims and their families some small sense of relief, though I know their pain will never go away," Williams said in that press release, which was still posted on his office's webpage as of Oct. 7.

"He can't speak for himself. My client has 1st Amendment rights and I have 1st Amendment rights. When you put a gag order on me you are putting a gag on my client," Hobson said.

"To me, a gag order is a bad-faith muzzle on constitutional rights - the thing you put on a damn dog," he added.

In the Oct. 2 Philly.com article cited by Cameron, Hobson is quoted corroborating claims made in a lawsuit filed on behalf of the 22 victims who were killed or injured in the June 5, 2013 building collapse.

Among those claims is that Richard Basciano, owner of the building that Campbell was hired to demolish and which toppled onto an adjacent Salvation Army thrift shop, was present at the time of the catastrophe.

"As the building actually fell, Richard Basciano was standing next to my client . . . That's reflected in statements given to the Philadelphia police detectives and the OSHA investigators," Hobson is quoted saying in the article.

Hobson has said that Basciano - who has not been charged - and others are more responsible for the collapse than is Campbell, who has pleaded not guilty.

Campbell, the general contractor on the project, and Benschop, whom he hired to operate the 18-ton excavator machine, are the only ones charged in the collapse to date.