Amateur Hour At The Krasner Impeachment Circus

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

The curtain is about to go up on day two of the Larry Krasner impeachment hearings.

And already it's a total failure.

Sifting through the half-dozen witnesses who appeared at yesterday's hearing, one thing is clear -- not one of them laid a glove on Krasner.

Of the five relatives of crime victims who testified, only one of whom was a live witness, not one gave any evidence of any malfeasance by Krasner. Or even any evidence of any direct interaction with him, where they could have at least complained that Larry was mean to them.

The relatives of crime victims who testified, four of whom appeared on video, complained more about the cops than they did about Krasner. The testimonies were unfocused and rambling. The fact that these were video presentations that could have been edited for clarity proves that whomever was responsible for putting those videos together had no idea what they were doing.

A similar criticism could be leveled at the members of the house select committee who have presided over this disaster. If they think they're going to impeach Krasner with the weak sauce they've served up to date, they're as delusional as he is. 

Memo to D.A. Krasner -- take a day off, bud. And don't spend any more of your political allies' money on paying demonstrators to show up down here in the Navy Yard to stage "spontaneous" protests while dressed up like circus animals. 

Because thanks to the ineptitude of your political opponents, you've got nothing to worry about.

Live Blogging At The Larry Krasner Impeachment Hearings

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

We're here live at the Larry Krasner impeachment hearings.

And who do you think is supposedly planning to show up as a surprise guest?

You guessed it, the camera-hogging D.A. himself. 

Krasner supposedly has scheduled a rally across the street from the Penn State building on 12th Street where the impeachment hearings will be held today and tomorrow, beginning at 10 a.m. today.

According to the cops, Krasner has asked for, and will receive, police protection when he takes the bullhorn and presumably starts rallying the troops against MAGA Republicans, Donald Trump, and the state Legislature, etc., all of whom are surely out to get him.

Krasner's usual plan is to blame everybody but himself for the historic gun violence in Philadelphia that's already topped 400 murders this year, plus more than 1,400 shootings and more than 1,000 carjackings.

D.A. Enables Murder Suspect To Become Triple Murder Suspect

D.A. Krasner cuts off questions about alleged triple murderer

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

On the night of Dec. 28, 2020, Ebony Kitchen got involved in a physical altercation out in the street with a woman and a man.

What happened next was caught on surveillance video outside a smoke shop on the 5800 block of Rising Sun Avenue.

According to police, Savion Perez, who wasn't involved in the fight, went up to the 24 year-old Kitchen and shot her point-blank in the head, killing her. 

On April 2, 2021, police arrested Perez, 23, of the Juniata section of Philadelphia, and charged him with murder, conspiracy, two gun charges, and reckless endangerment. The police also arrested three co-defendants and charged them each with seven counts, including murder, conspiracy, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment.

The next stage of the criminal justice process involved a preliminary hearing, where a judge would decide whether the D.A.'s office had enough evidence to bind the defendants over for trial. But after a couple of continuances in court, on July 21, 2021, when a witness failed to appear again, Judge James DeLeon dismissed all charges against all four defendants for a lack of prosecution. 

What happened next has baffled homicide cops and former prosecutors who reviewed the case.

The D.A.'s office wound up refiling the charges against all three co-defendants, as is customary in murder cases whenever a judge at a preliminary hearing tosses the charges due to a lack of evidence. But in this murder case, the D.A.'s office failed to take the usual step of recharging the alleged shooter. 

Recharging Perez would have kept him in jail while the cops went out hunting for witnesses, so that another judge at another preliminary hearing could hold Perez over for trial on murder charges.

But since the D.A.'s office didn't take that usual step of recharging him, Savion Perez went free.

And what did Savion Perez do with his newfound freedom? According to the cops and the D.A.'s office, he went out and allegedly committed two more murders. Perez's lawyer, Richard Shore, declined comment.

D.A. Krasner Hangs Cop Defendant Out To Dry

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

The embattled district attorney of Philadelphia today turned a press conference at the D.A.'s office into a political rally against the members of the state House of Representatives who just voted to hold him in contempt for ignoring a subpoena.

With a blow up of the preamble to the U.S. Constitution and a blindfolded Lady Justice behind him as a backdrop, Krasner talked about "the necessity of protecting Philadelphia's democracy" against a list of enemies, real and imagined.

According to Krasner, the enemies of democracy who are trying to impeach him and overturn free elections everywhere include not only the state legislators who voted 162-38 against Krasner -- including 51 Democrats -- but also past Republican presidents such as Donald Trump and Richard Nixon, the neo-Fascist Proud Boys as well as the anti-government militia known as the Oath Keepers. 

While he was on his political soapbox, Krasner also trashed Ryan Pownall, a former police officer whom the D.A. has indicted for murder. In publicly hanging Pownall out to dry, Krasner divulged what will surely be inadmissible evidence when the former cop goes on trial in November. But as Krasner has previously demonstrated, a cop's civil rights means nothing to him. 

In the Pownall case, a state Supreme Court Justice, Kevin Dougherty, has publicly charged Krasner with abusing the grand jury process by withholding relevant case law from grand jurors about what constitutes justifiable use of force by a police officer. 

Why did Krasner do that? According to what state Supreme Court Justice Dougherty wrote in a concurring opinion, Krasner did it so that the grand jury, purposely kept ignorant of the law, would produce a "tainted" grand jury report that Krasner could feed to the media, so they would tar and feather defendant Pownall before he goes on trial.

Krasner's latest assault on the civil rights of a police officer came just days after a Common Pleas Court judge admonished Jane Roh, Krasner's spokesperson, for tweeting about an ongoing case involving another former police officer indicted by Krasner, Eric Ruch Jr., currently on trial for murder.

Danielle Outlaw Vs. Christine Coulter

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

Twitter fans were the first to learn that Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw was allegedly slugging it out with Deputy Police Commissioner Christine Coulter.

On Sept. 8th, reporter Steve Keeley of Fox 29 initially tweeted that the two top cops had squared off. And that after an "argument/disagreement over handling of a shooting incident, Coulter resigned," Keeley tweeted, and she was supposedly packing up her office.

That same day, Sharrie Williams, a news anchor at 6ABC, quoting sources, tweeted that Coulter "expressed disappointment" that she was being demoted to chief inspector and "is considering retiring."

Later that day, however, Coulter told Keely, "I did not resign. No decision has been made yet."

Coulter, who joined the police department in 1988, became the first woman to lead the department when she assumed the role of acting police commissioner in August 2019, after the sudden resignation of former P.C. Richard Ross.

Six months later, Coulter returned to her duties as deputy police commissioner after Outlaw took office in February 2020 as the new P.C. But if you believe Twitter, and who doesn't, the two don't get along. 

A week after the alleged blow-up between Outlaw and Coulter, Sgt. Eric Gripp, a police department spokesperson, confirmed that Christine Coulter has not resigned or been demoted. And that Coulter continues to serve the department as deputy police commissioner of organizational services.

Gripp also said he has heard but can't confirm or deny any of the rumors that Coulter hung onto her title as deputy police commissioner after reported interventions on her behalf from [a] Mayor Jim Kenney; [b] Managing Director Tumar Alexander and [c] unspecified City Council members. 

For Smug And Lawless Larry Krasner, Finally A Comeuppance

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

For District Attorney Larry Krasner, it was time for some well-deserved comeuppance after his smug arrogance and lawless nature finally caught up with him.

On Monday, an angry federal judge, U.S. District Court Judge Mitchell Goldberg, officially sanctioned the D.A.'s office for an "egregious" and "exceptional" lack of candor, which in legal speak means that the judge got pissed after he caught three of Krasner's top supervisors repeatedly lying to him.

Then, the federal judge ordered Krasner to personally apologize in writing to a crime victim, as well as three of her family members, for not informing her and them -- as required by law -- that Krasner had intervened in the case and was conspiring with defense lawyers to let the vicious killer of her parents off death row.

As D.A., Krasner a former career criminal defense lawyer, has routinely placed the welfare of criminals  above the rights of crime victims, whom he often callously ignores in his progressive crusade to empty the jails. At issue with Judge Goldberg was the case of Robert Wharton, who, with a co-defendant, was convicted in 1984 of strangling and drowning to death a minister's son and his wife. 

After Wharton and his co-defendant got through brutally murdering the couple and ransacking their home, they turned off the heat in the dead of winter and left the couple's infant daughter, then 7-months old, alone to freeze to death. Before they left, the killers even stole the infant's crib. This is the crime victim, now 38, whom Krasner had intentionally snubbed.

Then, on Tuesday, an angry state House of Representatives decided, in a massive 162-38 vote, to hold Krasner in contempt for failing to honor a subpoena issued by a house committee that's investigating whether to impeach the D.A.

The vote by the Republican dominated legislature, according to the Inquirer and KYW, included 51 Democrats across the state, as well as 10 Democrats from Philadelphia, all of whom crossed the aisle to publicly censure Lawless Larry.

Arrogant D.A. Krasner Takes No Blame For Record Bloodshed

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

He was rude and argumentative, arrogant and condescending, as well as downright insulting. 

But let's cut District Attorney Larry Krasner some slack.

After literally running away from Big Trial at five recent press conferences over the past 11 weeks, today the D.A. finally summoned up enough courage to stand his ground and actually call on somebody in the local media who might ask him a tough question.

It happened during the last five minutes of a 55-minute joint press conference where Krasner had shared the stage with Philly's other two top leaders who are similarly clueless on how to stop the gun violence -- Mayor Jim Kenney and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw. 

"Alright, Mr. Cipriano, do you have a question that's on the subject mater of this press conference," Krasner asked, at yet another forum that the D.A. was sponsoring where the topic was Philadelphia's latest senseless act of murder.

"I certainly do, Mr. Krasner," I replied. 

Larry Krasner's Impeachment Defense: Four Big Lies & A Cover Up

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

A trio of lawyers representing Larry Krasner filed a petition in Commonwealth Court last week that seeks to prevent the state House of Representatives from impeaching the D.A.

There's simply no honest way to defend Krasner's horrendous record on prosecuting crime. So to get the D.A. out of a political jam, Krasner's legal team had to resort to telling four big lies. They also had to circle the wagons around an ongoing cover up of Krasner's blatant prosecutorial misconduct in a high profile murder case involving a cop. 

Here's the lies that Krasner's defense team is peddling:

Big Lie No. 1 -- Krasner is not really "soft on crime."

Big Lie No. 2 -- Here, Krasner's legal defense team kicked it up a notch with this whopper -- "Truth be told, the DAO under District Attorney Krasner has been very effective in prosecuting crime."

Big Lie No. 3 -- The D.A., well known for cooking up his own crime stats, supposedly has a conviction rate in homicide cases at trial of "just shy of 90%." Yeah, right.

Big Lie No. 4 -- The D.A. allegedly hands out tough sentences on gun crimes. Well, not really.

Sadly, Big Trial is the only media outlet in town that will use readily available stats from the D.A.'s own Public Data Dashboard, as well as court records, to debunk these blatant lies. 

We'll also explain the ongoing cover up in the D.A.'s office that involves Krasner's defense team trying to hide the complete files and corrupt grand jury proceedings in the case of former Police Officer Ryan Pownall, whom Krasner falsely indicted for murder.