Lawyers bristle as D.A. resists order to release cellphone records in Center City building collapse
As a civil trial looms in the deadly 2013 Center City building collapse, a legal stalemate over access to evidence from the now-shuttered criminal probe has reached the state Supreme Court.
As a civil trial looms in the deadly 2013 Center City building collapse, a legal stalemate over access to evidence from the now-shuttered criminal probe has reached the state Supreme Court.
At issue are three cellphones that lawyers for real estate investor Richard Basciano and for the Salvation Army say could hold evidence absolving their clients of liability in the June 5 collapse, which killed six people and injured 13 in a Salvation Army thrift store at 22nd and Market Streets.
One phone belonged to Ronald Wagenhoffer, the Department of Licenses and Inspections worker assigned to monitor demolition of several Basciano-owned buildings in the 2100 block of Market.
Wagenhoffer, 52, committed suicide a week after an unsupported four-story brick wall of a Basciano building toppled and crushed the adjacent thrift store.
The other two cellphones belonged to Griffin Campbell, the contractor whom Basciano's STB Investments Corp. hired to raze the buildings, and Plato A. Marinakos Jr., the Center City architect STB hired to monitor demolition, who recommended Campbell for the job.
The District Attorney's Office has refused to turn over the records, saying the 1981 state law that created investigating grand juries bars prosecutors from disclosing any grand jury materials not used in a criminal trial.
On April 1, Common Pleas Court Judge Mark I. Bernstein, who is overseeing the 20 consolidated lawsuits involving the collapse, ordered the District Attorney's Office to turn over the cellphones to defense lawyers for examination.
Bernstein called the prosecution's interpretation of the law "an extreme position." Moreover, he said, the cellphones were obtained by prosecutors right after the collapse through judicially approved search warrants, not a grand jury subpoena.
On April 18, the District Attorney's Office filed an emergency motion with the state Supreme Court, asking it to block Bernstein's order.
The high court has not yet ruled.
On Friday, lawyers for the Salvation Army filed a motion for sanctions against prosecutors for failing to comply with Bernstein's order. Bernstein has set May 23 to hear the motion.
A spokesman for the District Attorney Seth Williams was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.
The impasse comes as lawyers for both sides in the civil litigation work to compile all relevant documents in advance of trial.
Bernstein set Aug. 1 for a final pretrial conference and has shown every indication that he expects the case to remain on track for the scheduled start of jury selection Sept. 6.
In court filings, lawyers for Basciano and STB have said legal liability for the collapse contractually rests with Campbell and Marinakos. They have also contended that the Salvation Army was at fault for not allowing contractors access to the thrift store roof to demolish the freestanding wall.
The Salvation Army has said Basciano and STB were responsible for hiring competent people and seeing that his buildings were demolished in a way that protected public safety and adjacent buildings.
Only two people were criminally charged in the collapse: Campbell and Sean Benschop, who was operating an excavator on the site when the unsupported wall toppled.
Campbell, of Hunting Park, was convicted of six counts of involuntary manslaughter and related crimes, and sentenced in January to 15 to 30 years in prison.
Benschop, of North Philadelphia, pleaded guilty to six counts of involuntary manslaughter and testified for prosecutors at Campbell's trial. He is serving 71/2 to 15 years.
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