88 more drug convictions thrown out
Eighty-eight more narcotics convictions were thrown out by a Philadelphia judge Friday after an investigation determined they were tainted by allegations of police corruption.
Eighty-eight more narcotics convictions were thrown out by a Philadelphia judge Friday after an investigation determined they were tainted by allegations of police corruption.
Common Pleas Court President Judge Sheila Woods-Skipper's rulings were part of the continuing fallout from the federal prosecution of seven city police narcotics officers.
The officers - Thomas Liciardello, Brian Reynolds, Michael Spicer, Perry Betts, Linwood Norman, and John Speiser - were acquitted of all charges at a federal trial in May.
A seventh narcotics officer charged, Jeffrey Walker, pleaded guilty to separate federal corruption charges and testified against his six former colleagues at trial. Walker was sentenced in July to 31/2 years in prison by a federal judge who credited his cooperation with prosecutors.
The six officers Walker testified against got their jobs back - Spicer was recently promoted to sergeant - after they were acquitted. Betts was fired in August when he tested positive for marijuana.
Despite the federal trial's outcome, the Defender Association of Philadelphia and the District Attorney's Office have been reexamining the integrity of hundreds of arrests in which the seven officers were involved.
Assistant Public Defender Bradley S. Bridge estimated that Friday's dismissals brought to 481 the number of reversed convictions involving the officers who were acquitted since they were indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2014.
None of the 88 are in prison as a result of the arrests and convictions, said Bridge. Those reporting under state parole or county probation programs will be discharged. All will also get a refund of fines or court costs associated with the reversed convictions, Bridge added.
Bridge said an additional 167 drug cases involving Walker have also been dismissed - a grand total of 648.
Bridge said his office has completed reviewing about half the convictions involving the officers. However, 600 to 700 cases remain to be reviewed.
Woods-Skipper set another hearing for Feb. 5 at which another group of cases will be dismissed.
Assistant District Attorney Robin Godfrey, who reviews the cases investigated by the Defender Association and recommended for dismissal, has said her office's consent to the reversals "is not a question of guilt or innocence" but an "exercise in discretion to grant relief" by the District Attorney's Office.
Beginning in 2013 - a year before the federal indictment - the District Attorney's Office refused to prosecute cases tied to the squad of officers after numerous allegations that they planted evidence, doctored paperwork, and beat and robbed suspects.
Bridge said his office had also begun reviewing 550 drug convictions involving Christopher Hulmes, a former police narcotics officer.
Hulmes, a 19-year veteran of the Police Department, was arrested in May and charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, false swearing, and other charges for allegedly falsifying paperwork used to justify drug arrests.
Though Hulmes admitted in court in 2011 that he had falsified information in a drug arrest, he has pleaded not guilty to the current criminal charges and is awaiting trial.
The drug convictions reversed thus far make it the most serious police corruption scandal in city history. The 39th District scandal - a rogue group of four narcotics officers convicted in the mid-'90s for preying on drug dealers - resulted in 162 convictions being vacated.
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