Sunday, August 21, 2016

The [Real] Corruption Of Seth Williams

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

For the past five years, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams has been given two complimentary all-access sideline passes to Philadelphia Eagles games.

This is the same District Attorney who last month decided that Eagles wide receiver Nelson Agholor wouldn't be prosecuted for the alleged sexual assault of a dancer at the Cheerleaders Gentlemen's Club.

Anyone see a problem?

For the past six years, D.A. Williams has accepted $160,000 in unreported gifts, including $45,000 in free roof repairs, and more than $20,000 in free airfare and lodging for vacations in Key West, Las Vegas and the Dominican Republic.

This is the same District Attorney who prosecuted Thomasine Tynes, a 71-year-old former Traffic Court judge, on a bribery charge for accepting the unreported gift of a Tiffany bracelet from a lobbyist worth $2,000. [She got up to 23 months in prison.]

Anyone see a problem?

It's great that a federal grand jury and The Philadelphia Inquirer are investigating the finances of Seth Williams. As bad as how the D.A. has flouted campaign finance laws, however, what he has done to Lady Justice is far worse.

As a grand jury report in this town once said, it's like comparing inappropriate touching with rape. And the rapist, a large bald man who wears bow ties, is still at large.

While the federal grand jury and the Inquirer are hot on the trail of Seth, it's a great time to look into his prosecution of the Catholic Church.

This is a district attorney who decided back in 2011 to prosecute Msgr. William J. Lynn for endangering the welfare of a child. Even though Williams knew that his predecessor, former District Attorney Lynne Abraham and a 2005 grand jury, had already decided -- and put it in writing -- that the state's original 1972 child endangerment law didn't apply to the monsignor.

The original child endangerment law, D.A. Abraham and the 2005 grand jury stipulated, only applied to people who had direct contact with children -- parents, teachers and guardians -- and not supervisors like Lynn, who had no direct contact with children.

And then Abraham led a successful state-wide campaign to get the state Legislature in 2007 to amend that child endangerment law so it did apply to supervisors like Lynn.

So why did D.A. Williams, with no public explanation, go after Msgr. Lynn under the original 1972 state law that a previous D.A. and a previous grand jury had already decided didn't apply to him? As did the state legislature, which went ahead and amended the law retroactively so that it would apply to supervisors?

Pure politics.

Seth Williams was planning to stage a state-sponsored witch hunt aimed at putting Catholic priests in jail, because he knew it would be raw meat for the media, so-called victims advocates, and the rest of the Catholic-hating rabble.

A grand jury and the city's paper of record should investigate how Seth Williams went about staging his state-sponsored witch hunt. By rounding up two drug addicted criminals who were transparent, non-credible liars and frauds, and passing them off as victims solely because their fables fell under the statute of limitations.

Star Witness No. 1 was Danny Gallagher, AKA "Billy Doe," alias the "lying, scheming altar boy," as described by Newsweek.

Gallagher was a drug addict who'd been in and out of 28 different hospitals, clinics and drug rehabs, and had been arrested six times, including one bust for possession with intent to distribute 56 bags of heroin.

This is the guy who told doctors and numerous drug counselors that he was a paramedic and a professional surfer. And that he'd been sexually assaulted five times between the ages of 6 and 9 by suspects that included a couple of friends, a neighbor, a teacher, and an older boy.

And then he admitted all of it was lies.

This is the same guy who told one set of fantastic rape stories to a couple of archdiocese social workers. And then he told a completely different set of fantastic rape stories to the police and a grand jury. And when questioned in a civil deposition about all the staggering factual discrepancies in his twisted tales, he solved the problem by stating that he didn't remember MORE THAN 130 times.

Star Witness No. 2, Mark Bukowski, was another drug-addicted criminal who went AWOL as a Marine, and who had pleaded guilty to charges that included filing a false report, furnishing authorities with false information, forgery, identity theft, two counts of filing a false statement, and possession of a controlled substance.

His own mother accused of him stealing from her and her husband, and she told police she was suspicious of her son's claim to authorities that he had been the victim of a violent home invasion.

How did Seth Williams pass off these two drug-addicted criminal frauds as victims? By rewriting sworn grand jury testimony so it would conform with story lines the D.A. cooked up in his fraudulent 2011 grand jury report.

Danny Gallagher's mother, Sheila Gallagher, a registered nurse, told a grand jury she noticed a behavior change in her son's personality at age 14, when he entered high school as a freshman, and got busted for having pot and brass knuckles.

But that didn't fit the official story line. So the D.A. rewrote the mother's testimony to say she noticed a "dramatic change in her son's personality that coincided with the abuse," back when he was a 10 and a 11-year-old parochial school student and altar boy at St. Jerome's parish.

Mark Bukowski told the grand jury that he had his boxer shorts on when he was 14-years-old and got into bed with Father James J. Brennan. And then he felt the priest's erect penis pressed between his buttocks.

But as bad as that incident was, it didn't fit the D.A.'s even more outrageous story line. So the D.A. wrote in the 2011 grand jury report 11 times that the priest anally raped Bukowski.

To pour more gasoline on the situation, the grand jury report stated that Bukowski cried himself to sleep that night asking himself over and over again, 'Why is this happening?' as Father Brennan anally raped him."

Even though at Father Brennan's first trial, which ended in a hung jury, Bukowski admitted on the stand that there was no anal rape, and that he and the priest were wearing T-shirts and boxer shorts the night they shared a bed.

While the grand jury is still hearing testimony, why not call in Lynne Abraham's former top prosecutors? Then ask if Danny Gallagher was actually raped in separate savage attacks by two priests and a Catholic school teacher, as he had claimed, why did they let that spectacular victim's report of alleged sexual abuse sit for a year and do absolutely nothing about it?

Was it because they knew Gallagher's claims were transparently ridiculous and that he had no credibility?

While we've got a grand jury investigation going, why not bring in Detective Joseph Walsh? He's the retired detective who led the D.A.'s investigation into Danny Gallagher's claims.

In a civil deposition, Walsh testified that he repeatedly questioned Gallagher about nine different factual discrepancies in his testimony. And that Gallagher's response was to either sit there and say nothing, say he was high on drugs, or tell a different story.

Why did Detective Walsh keep questioning Danny Gallagher years after the D.A. had already run with Gallagher's lies in that 2011 grand jury report?

Was it because Detective Walsh knew that Gallagher's story didn't check out with every witness he had interviewed?  Was it because Detective Walsh came to believe that Danny Gallagher was a complete liar? And that the D.A.'s office shouldn't be in the business of putting innocent men in jail?

Another big question: Why didn't the D.A.'s office turn the record of Detective Walsh's continued questioning of Danny Gallagher over to defense lawyers in two previous criminal trials? As they were required to, according to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brady v. Maryland?

But hey, we're just getting started here.

While the grand jury is in session, why not dredge Danny Gallagher out of the sewer and ask him who in the D.A.'s office hooked him up with a civil lawyer, as Gallagher has previously stated in court. This is the same civil lawyer who was able to procure a $5 million civil settlement from the Catholic Church, a subject the archbishop of Philadelphia, "Checkbook Charlie" Chaput, refuses to talk about.

None of these subjects are dead topics. The D.A. has already announced that he will retry the Father Brennan case, starring Mark Bukowski, on Oct. 24th, as well as the Msgr. Lynn case, starring Danny Gallagher, on May 1st.

How many more taxpayer dollars have to be wasted on these two fraudulent cases? Four men innocent of an imaginary crime spree have already been sent to jail, one of whom died there. Isn't it finally time to call off the witch hunt? And put the witch hunter out of business?

By the way, if the grand jury does investigate these topics, wouldn't it be great if somebody leaked all that information to the Inquirer? So they can pursue it as relentlessly as they've pursued Seth Williams' undisclosed campaign gifts?

38 comments

  1. Great work Ralph in keeping the spotlight on Williams and his selective pursuit of justice.

    Spend a little time investigating the prostitution rings in the Gayboorhood, and the bars like Woodys and multimillionaire whorehouse landlords like Mel Heifetz,who runs brothels masked as Inns, who can donate millions to candidates like Obama and Clinton to keep their criminal enterprises thriving and expanding.

    You can bet that the Mayor and DA have benefitted personally from endorsing and protecting these criminal enterprises as was disclosed concerning the relationship between Weiss Brothers, owner of Woodys and that closet queen Williams.

    But the continued publication of grand jury testimony that is engineered to fit the Inquirer's predetermined narrative is equally significant.

    Shouldn't we examine the criminality committed by a news agency to participate and encourage an illegal act, by publishing these reports grounds for prosecution.

    When the media is allowed to stack the deck we are left with hacks of the lowest ilk to dictate the policies that are dragging our society down.

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    1. Finally, Seth Williams is getting his reward for his relentless pursuit of injustice against Msgr. Lynn. Williams cannot prosecute Cardinal Bevilaqua because he is dead, so he is making a scapegoat of Lynn. With his pursuit of Lynn, he hopes to make a name for himself--"Champion of Justice," Ha! Seth Williams is nothing but a small-time crook. Hope he goes to jail. He is also wasting tax-payers money having the monsignor put on trial again. For Williams money is no object as long as it isn't his!

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    2. There is a freight train that runs between the prosecutors in this town and their favorite newspaper. Laws are broken, reputations are destroyed, and lives are ruined. Cases are prejudged; jury pools tainted.

      And the freight train keeps on running.

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  2. I just wanted to mention that Seth Williams sat with Judge Sarmina's husband on the last day of Monsignor Lynn's trial. They were very tight and chatty. Wonder what they received?

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    1. he probably got his cut of the "referral fee" Slade McLaughlin paid to the DA for referring the alleged victim danny gallagher to his firm....

      I'm sure it was "cash", on a park bench

      .....no checks to provide a trail...

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  3. LOCK HIM UP!!!!!!!!!!!

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  4. This nonsense with the PA Grand Jury as told in this story is nowhere near unique. It seems to have reached the point where every PA Grand Jury features the same malevolent prosecutorial misconduct to the point that the Grand Jury is nothing more than a well-run railroad to PA's very profitable prisons. While putting this particular which hunter out of business is worthwhile endeavor I think it really stops short of what we absolutely must do in order to return sanity to PA's courtrooms. We need to put ALL the witch hunters out of business buy burying the witches' tribunals where they ply their trade. It's way past time for us to abolish the irretrievably and irredeemably corrupt Pennsylvania grand jury system altogether. Throw it on the trash heap of history where it belongs alongside other famously failed railroad systems like Germany's Nazism and Soviet communism.

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  5. Based on what I've seen in Pennsylvania, I would agree with you. Grand juries were originally designed to protect citizens from unfounded accusations. Now they're just tools for prosecutors to gather evidence in private, and then, when it suits their cause, leak it to some friendly reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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  6. here's one of the problems, one of the key players in the disgraceful prosecution of Fr Engelhardt and Bernard Shero, ADA Mark Cippoletti left the DA's office immediately after the malicious prosecution of those 2 men and joined the US Attorney's office assigned to "POLITICAL CASES" ...the regional office of the US Attorney's office should not be the ones investigating Seth Williams failure to report over $ 160,000 of so called gifts showered upon him by well connected friends as well as a professional sports team. He prosecuted several local politicians for taking "CHUMP CHANGE" size gifts in what was an obvious sting, far below the 160K he's now admitted taking. He's a disgrace to the city, a disgrace to the legal profession and both the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania along with the US Attorney's office should investigate and prosecute him for his malicious wrongful prosecutions of those innocent clergy and the teacher along with this newly disclosed corruption. Looks like he sold his office for some roofing, glamorous vacation trips, etc etc etc....

    and as for Patrick Blessington, one of the numerous state Porngate wastes that he hired, he simply shouldn't still have a job in the Philadelphia DA's office. It just shows you the type of person the taxpayers of Philadelphia are paying for, compliments of DA Seth Williams. Just another lying scheming scumbag.

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  7. Everyone seems to forget that Lynn had one of the best defense attorneys in Philadelphia, Tom Bergstrom. If this is all true, how come Bergstrom isn't publicly screaming about all this railroading and unfairness? Was he asleep at the wheel? Beware of getting your legal advice from a reporter who is spinning the story to get a reaction

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    1. Gary, don't know what planet you've been on but Bergstrom has been screaming about all of this and more for the past five years.

      All of the above facts are true. Don't know how you can "spin" rewriting grand jury reports, or what the arrest records and deposition testimony have to say. The "spin" has all been from Seth.

      And by the way, Seth, for five years running, has had no response to any of the questions about the rewrites in the grand jury report. Even he couldn't figure out a way how to "spin" his way out of that.

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    2. Bergstrom may be a really good lawyer but his defense of Lynn really left something to be desired!

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    3. He still also hasn't given an answer as to why he wouldn't accept testimony from the "Rogue" Narcs

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  8. He hasn't given a response because he is a filthy, lying criminal who continues to use the term "no comment" as his escape from his criminality regarding the issue of why he withdrew prosecution on hundreds of cases involving violent drug dealers in an attempt to cover up his corrupt actions leading up to those withdraws and dismissals. His criminal conduct has lead to him putting the safety and very lives of all Philadelphians at risk. There can be no doubt that his illegal actions and criminal conduct has already cost lives. You, "Rufus Seth Williams" are and will continue to be a lowlife, despicable piece of crap and your criminal actions will forever continue to have a horrific, negative impact on the progress of this city and the criminal justice system within it. Your criminal actions have and continue to cost the citizens of this city millions of dollars that could have and should have been used for worthy causes for the citizens of this city. Rufus, do the right thing and resign and begin to prepare for your federal defense, you lowlife, poor excuse for a human being.

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  9. Kathleen Kanes trial also showed us what happens when prosecutors attack, we were made aware because they attacked one another, how does the average citizen stand a chance against prosecutors that lie to a grand juries.
    When will the Inquirer realize how they are part of the prosecution,being used by the prosecutors to condemn a defendant before they step into a court room, hence the high rate of plea bargain, who could take a chance with a jury that thinks your guilty before you are even able to defend yourself.
    Who is going to expose the FBI agent that lied during the Traffic Court trial, he lied to a grand jury and again at trial. He lied for the prosecution. The media who was present in the courtroom said nothing, not one word about the agent being caught lying by the defense lawyers.
    Prosecutors lie to grand juries and again at trial,judges are an extension of the prosecution.
    Its about winning for prosecutors, not about families or lives or reputations.
    Prosecutors all need to be exposed personally for the lies they have told and the lives they have ruined. Jail time is kn order for many.

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    1. I find it disturbing to think that there are no IT companies in the state of Pennsylvania that were able to handle the relay from Traffic Court on Spring Garden St to Harrisburg to report the findings of guilt ticket holders. The only company that was chosen was a company in Tarrytown, New York, or was it the fact the feds wanted an interstate commerce charge added to all the judges sentences.
      Wonder who chose the Tarrytown company, the AJ not indicted or the Supreme Court of Pa.

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  10. Gary: let's consider the fact that the prosecution was successful in obtaining Judge Sarmina's approval to bring in decades and decades of archdiocese archives into Lynn's trial, irrelevant to the case of danny gallagher accusing those men of assault at St. Jerome's while in the 5th or 6th grade. Sarmina allowed those prosecutors to use those exhibits of dead, infirmed priests and ex-priests to taint the due process that should have existed. How on earth could Lynn and subsequently Engelhardt and Shero expect to get a fair and impartial trial in this city including a fair and impartial judge in that trial which Ceisler was not. Just as sarmina ruled against the defense time and again on key issues, so did Ceisler during the latter trial. All of this promoted by the local media with a few exceptions....

    And it all started with about a dozen different accusations of abuse, amended time and again by Danny Gallagher with the help of the DA and his ADA's to put innocent men in prison. As EX-Judge Bryant so clearly stated while arguing and shouting down those defense attornies in the very first preliminary hearing, "someone is going to jail for this".....doesn't sound like a fair and impartial start to me.....

    but it all started with the DA's office running with Gallagher's pack of lies after having him released from Graterford prison during one of his numerous stints in jail to be interviewed with his parents present (unusual to say the least).....arrested several times in Philly, the suburbs and new jersey for numerous drug and theft and burglary charges, approximately 2 1/2 dozen different stints in drug rehab, that was Seth's key witness, danny gallagher...

    Kane isn't the same as Seth who can't seem to be able to live on a couple of hundred grand of taxpayer's money. She's paying the price now for being vindictive against one of the 3 porngate PA attorney's that Seth brought over to his office. Seth's not vindictive, he's just evil, he'll lie and cheat and get his people to do the same and violate innocent people's rights to get a conviction....

    I'll be anxious to see if the Eastern district US Attorney's office where some of Seth's old cronies now work (I believe that was mentioned above) will actually investigate how he sold his office for several years of Eagles sideline passes, lots of cash money along with several luxury vacations all over the US and the Carribean from his so called "friends".....and he was also picking the pocket of his political campaign at the same time or so it appears....

    forget the Inquirer and daily news and most of the other local rags, they couldn't define nor even go after the truth in the clergy case because they desperately needed to sell papers....

    and that putz Avery who pled out to get a sweetheart deal of 2 1/2 to 5 for a crime he didn't commit, he's still in jail most likely because he won't tell the parole board that he committed the assault....which he didn't....



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  11. Until the laws for both judicial and prosecutorial (Rufus) misconduct are modified, nothing is going to change for the better.

    Specifically, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 ruled that prosecutors cannot face civil lawsuits for prosecutorial abuses, no matter how severe. How's that for a kick in the chops?

    The only immediate solution that I can see is to embarrass them so badly in the press resulting in the outraged public voting them out of office.

    Then again, look what happened to Kathleen Kane.

    Now, if we had a real newspaper in this town instead of that emasculated rag.....

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  12. God works in mysterious ways, first the "victim" is exposed, then the prosecutor. When do all the defendants that have been maligned by this " Christian" have their say on what happened to them . Williams use of destroying humans as a means to advance his career, is another form of human trafficking, right to prison. Civil rights don't exist for defendants. Judges don't get it, juries don't see it, we need an informed public to now see what is really going on in the justice department.

    Defendants need to speak out, we need a platform to help us tell our side of our plight. The time is now, we need to take back our lives.
    Ralph , help us expose prosecutors that lie and ruin lives and reputations of the innocent for generations.

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  13. I've been working on it. In this town, it's a full-time job.

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  14. Ralph, is there a chance that Rufus solicited a donation from Gallagher or his surrogates to his non-profit?
    Was the Attorney for Gallagher listed as a donor?

    If the Cardinal was so engaged to settle with the lying junkie dope dealer, would there have been incentive to drop a few shekels on Williams' Charity to make him go away?

    I'm sure that Woodys and the other homo hangouts would love to promote a benefit for all the rapists and their prey that hang and solicit in their dens.

    Have you been able to peruse the donors list of this sham charity and perhaps jump the shark on the Inky?

    Are there not rules that prevent a sitting DA from running a non-profit who may solicit from donors who wish to protect their immoral and fraudulent activities?

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  15. Is it illegal for a citizen to expose a prosecutor that lied to a grand jury and a federal judge . Where would one go, what outlet would listen ?

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Nope. I'm all ears: ralph@bigtrial.net.

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    3. Your email address is not working, is this correct ?

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  16. not surprisingly, the executive director of this nonprofit (also works in DA's office making mucho bucks), had resigned several weeks ago as this scam unraveled, the chairman/Laborers business manager resigned this week citing he was not given any info on the way the nonprofit was being run
    also not surprisingly the owners of Woody's, the providers of all of Seth's free rides to and from those numerous florida, california and carribean vacations Seth enjoyed over the past 6 years is involved in the nonprofit....

    how many different wells does this district attorney drink from, seems he has money, free roofs and home repairs in the 50K range, free trips,

    I wouldn't be surprised if we see him connected to one of those "nonprofit" charter schools that are siphoning all of the monies from the school district while at the same time, enriching the founders of those schools, thru real estate leases, high salaries....

    nothing ceases to amaze me when it comes to this morally corrupt DA

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  17. When the mob controlled the strip joints in the old gayborhood, and Frank Palumbo was in control he had Rizzo and Specter under his wing. Regularly, there was vice enforcement for prostitution and other criminal enterprises.

    In this "sanctuary city" all criminals and perverts are welcome.

    When a Mayor and DA arbitrarily refuse to enforce vice laws and prosecute, we now have rampant abuse and decline that is condoned and protected by the powers that be. All for the votes and protection money that criminal entrepreneurs, today's mob, enjoy.

    Gallagher is the poster boy for all the hustlers and slime that populate these clubs and turf and commit crimes, including murder and extortion under the guise of a "protected class." They operate out of these clubs and on the streets and make the donors to the DA Charity fabulous gains and allow them to expand and profit.

    The Gallaghers of that world are down there preying on their victims and murder cases that originate in these havens are conveniently swept under the rug.

    Under the just rule of law these clubs would be shut down and Halloween would not be a year long festival.

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  18. Seth Williams for President

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  19. Today we find out that Williams has a sociopathic girlfriend that slashes "his" city vehicle tires and he chooses to ignore and not prosecute her.

    This guy has been a known disaster long before that crack investigative reporter Cipriano exposed him.

    But wouldn't she make a great informant on the activities of that slimeball. Much like the inner circle decided to work for the prosecution of AG Kane.

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  20. Ralph, Thank you, as always, for your excellent reporting. There is certainly no one else reporting as you do, free from all the bias that comes from working for a "news organization", and I use that term loosely. The Inky and the local Philly news stations are clueless and pathetic. You are so appreciated, please keep up the great work!

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  21. Archie, so great to hear from you. Hope you are well. I do plan to continue my mission. Although respect for journalism has hit an all-time low, it's needed more than ever.

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  22. GOES AROUND COMES AROUND!!!! SCREW HIM!!!!!!!!

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  23. Looking forward to coverage of the Market Street Building Collapse Trial that begins next week.

    Counsel Sprague and Partners,as well as other Legal Titans have been masterful in protecting the evil killer Basciano with the aid of an understanding DA.

    A great example of Williams legacy of selective prosecution and efforts to manipulate the Grand Jury process to gain his desired result.

    Do you think Richard Basciano, Porn King, made contributions to DA Williams Charity to persuade a positive result implicating him in the death and mayhem he participated in.

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  24. Ralph, considering your in depth evaluation of Judge Sarmina,are you concerned about the gag order she has imposed on the case involving Mob Titan Daddy Warbucks Porn Slimeball Richard Basciano.

    A man that Italians with integrity and regard for positive reproach should distance themselves from.

    Judge Sarmina predictably will be an advocate for the rights of this lowlife unlike her stance towards Father Lynn who she maligned and unfairly manipulated, coordinated by DA Williams.

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  25. I thought the bow tie represented a Ethical standard in the U.S.A

    SMALL GOVERNMENT IS BIG business 💰💰

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    1. @Detroit - Probably a clip on tie as Rufus' neck is huge - along with his ego and his girth.

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  26. Look no further than the dedicated career prosecutors who have jumped ship and continue to jump ship since this TOADS arrival at the DA office. He has no shame. I suggest we all go to his scheduled fund raiser at Chickie And Petes and start asking him these questions. He would shit himself.

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  27. Seth Williams is a real classless act.

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