Under D.A. Krasner, Murders Up 79%; Gun Convictions Down 45%

D.A. Krasner fakes some tears for Murder Victim No. 498

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

In 2017, the year before District Attorney Larry Krasner took office, the city had 315 murders.

As of last night, the city had 499 murders, one short of the all-time record of 500, set back in 1990, at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic.

If Philadelphia continues on its current record pace, the city will finish this year with 563 murders, a 79% increase since Larry Krasner has been D.A.

And yet, according to Larry Krasner, the outrageous rise in the murder rate isn't his fault. In an interview with a trio of regular apologists at The Philadelphia Inquirer, Krasner blamed the rising murder rate on the backlog in the courts, due to the pandemic. He also blamed the Police Department, for failing to solve most of the murders. 

Krasner has previously blamed the city's gun violence epidemic on the pandemic, poverty, the city's failing schools, as well as systemic racism. The one person Larry Krasner never blames is Larry Krasner.

Yet, according to statistics kept by the D.A.'s office, the conviction rate for prosecuting gun crimes in the D.A.'s office has dropped from 64% in 2017, the last year Seth Williams was D.A., all the way down to 35% this year under Progressive Larry Krasner, a decrease of 45%

Meanwhile, according to the D.A.'s own statistics, the number of gun crime cases withdrawn or dismissed by the D.A.'s office has more than doubled, rising from 27% in 2017, the last year Seth Williams was D.A., all the way up to 61% this year under Progressive Larry Krasner.

'Mayor Of Maple Avenue' Told A.G. He Wasn't A Victim Of Abuse

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

On the tenth anniversary of the Penn State sex abuse scandal, Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter Sara Ganim is hosting a podcast where she claims that Shawn Sinisi, a previously unknown alleged victim of Jerry Sandusky's, was the first  alleged Sandusky victim to die as a result of that alleged abuse. 

"In so many ways, Shawn Sinisi was a textbook abuse victim: he was ashamed, confused, angry, unable to admit or discuss what had happened," Ganim says on the new podcast, The Mayor of Maple Avenue, which was Shawn Sinisi's nickmame. "He was a child who seemingly overnight went from a happy go lucky and outgoing kid to a quiet, distant, and then troubled young man."

"He began to escape his pain and bury his memories of abuse with drugs and alcohol," Ganim said. "He became an addict. And when his addiction led him down a darker path, he was given yet another label: criminal."

There's only one problem with Ganim's tragic story of abuse. Shawn Sinisi, who grew up in Altoona, PA, isn't around to speak for himself; in 2018, he died of an overdose of heroin laced with fentanyl, at 26. But "during his lifetime," wrote Don Litman, a civil lawyer for Sandusky, to lawyers for the Sinisi family, Shawn Sinisi "unequivocally stated that he was not sexually abused by Mr. Sandusky."

So did Josh Sinisi, Shawn's older brother, who attended the Second Mile camps with his brother, and claimed that they stayed together overnight at Sandusky's house.

That's the story told in a trio of contemporaneous police reports from 2011 and 2012 emanating from the state attorney general's office that are marked "confidential." That's why Litman, who's defending Sandusky against a civil suit filed by the Sinisi family on March 12, 2021, has told the Sinisis, who are the featured guests on the Ganim podcast, that they are engaged in "publishing false and misleading information." So Sandusky's lawyer has called on the parents of Shawn Sinisi to cease and desist.

Litman, who referred a request for comment to Sandusky's criminal layers, has demanded that the Sinisi family take the podcast series off the internet "or we shall bring this to the attention of the Court and seek injunctive relief along with further consequences for such blatant misconduct."

Free Jerry Sandusky!

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

Ten years after an illegal grand jury leak set off the media firestorm known as the Penn State sex abuse scandal, the evidence of official misconduct in this case is so pervasive and egregious that Jerry Sandusky deserves to walk out of prison today as a free man.

Since 2017, Big Trial has reviewed thousands of pages of court transcripts and legal proceedings in the case, along with hundreds of pages of confidential documents that are still under a judge's seal.

Taken together, those records tell a clear story -- the case against Sandusky is fatally flawed from top to bottom. A decade later, records show, the actions of many of the principal actors in this case, including prosecutors, judges, and FBI Director Louis Freeh, who led the civil investigation at Penn State, are irredeemably tainted by misconduct, incompetence, unethical behavior, conflict of interest, collusion and/or corruption. 

In addition, psychologists in the case used scientifically discredited recovered memory therapy to elicit suspect testimony from many of the alleged victims, whose improbable and constantly evolving stories to this day have never been vetted by anyone. Finally, the defendants' own medical records cast doubt on whether Sandusky was physically capable of performing the acts he was accused of.

Based on the evidence that I will present here, there's no longer any reason for any sane person to believe in the findings of both the civil and the criminal investigations conducted at Penn State. A decade later, the prevailing story line in the Penn State sex scandal about the man who's supposed to be the most notorious pedophile in America amounts to an X-rated fractured fairy tale that, when viewed from multiple angles, makes no freaking sense. 

There's a looming shadow that's cast over the entire Penn State scandal, and that's the egregious conduct of an overzealous prosecutor on a rampage, former Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina, who was the lead prosecutor at Penn State.

Amelia Kittredge, the counsel for the state Supreme Court's disciplinary board who ran the investigation that resulted in Fina losing his license to practice law, memorably described Fina to the state's highest court as "someone who cannot or will not separate right from wrong."

A decade later, Fina's fingerprints are all over this travesty of a case, particularly when it comes to illegal grand jury leaks. But when we're talking about bad actors in the Sandusky case, Fina's got plenty of company. 

The tragedy of all this is if the state gets its wish, Sandusky, who at 77, still professes his innocence, may die in prison before the truth about the scandal behind the scandal at Penn State is finally known. 

Samantha Melamed -- Larry Krasner's Official Propagandist

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

When does a major legal defeat for the District Attorney of Philadelphia turn into a victory?

When Samantha Melamed, Larry Krasner's faithful propagandist, is writing the story for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Melamed, a full-time "justice & injustice" reporter who's paid by the Inquirer to write only pro-Krasner puff pieces, really outdid herself today.

On Tuesday, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled that a "Do Not Call List" of allegedly tainted cops compiled by D.A. Krasner -- a list that would prohibit those cops from testifying in court as witnesses -- is unconstitutional.

But when Melamed showed up two days late in print with today's Inquirer, she allowed D.A. Krasner, a habitual liar known for cooking up his own phony crime stats, to falsely claim that "We won" the case. Next, Melamed quoted Patricia Cummings, head of the Conviction Integrity Unit, as saying the D.A.'s office always treated the cops fairly by giving them an opportunity to correct the D.A.'s allegations of misconduct against them. 

Melamed, who did not respond to a request for comment, obviously never read the 34-page opinion written by Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough.

Had Melamed read Judge McCullough's opinion, she would have discovered that the judge specifically stated that the former process that the D.A.'s office employed to allegedly give the cops a chance to correct allegations of misconduct -- the exact same process described by Cummings in the Inquirer story -- was woefully inadequate in terms of protecting the cops' constitutional rights. 

The judge even went a step further to say that the D.A.'s office could not be trusted to be fair to the cops. 

But Melamed didn't report any of that. Instead, she quoted just six words from the judge's 34-page opinion that ruled that the D.A.'s office for the past four years has been trampling on the constitutional rights of cops. And then Melamed allowed Krasner to falsely claim victory in a case that he clearly lost.

A Holiday Black Eye For The City: A Murder At Christmas Village

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

Shortly before 9 p.m. last night, a cop  heard gunshots inside Christmas Village, an outdoor peddler's market currently under construction in Love Park, at 15th and JFK. 

The cop subsequently discovered a 29 year-old white male from Lancaster County who'd been shot in the head, neck and stomach, according to CBS3. 

The victim, who was seen just an hour earlier walking around Love Park with a blue backpack, was transported to Jefferson University Hospital where he was subsequently pronounced dead.

"We found two spent shell casings on the sidewalk at the intersection of 15th and JFK, not too far from where the victim was lying," Chief Inspector Scott Small told ABC6. 

The annual peddler's village billed as Philadelphia's authentic German market, was scheduled to open Nov. 24th. It features some 80 vendors in wooden booths serving up waffles, gingerbread, bratwurst and mulled wine. The village also offers holiday decorations and trinkets for sale, along with free pictures for kids who want to pose with Phil the Reindeer, the market's official mascot. 

But Phil the Reindeer was nowhere in sight last night as the cops wound up cordoning off the village with yellow police tape.

A witness told the cops that the suspect, a black male dressed in all-dark clothing, got into a Jeep that was festively decorated with green wheels and green lights, and was last seen traveling west on JFK Boulevard toward 16th Street. 

State Court: D.A.'s 'Do Not Call List' For Cops Is Unconstitutional

Illustration: Philadelphia Weekly

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania yesterday ruled that a "Do Not Call List" of allegedly tainted cops compiled by District Attorney Larry Krasner -- a list that would prohibit those cops from testifying in court as witnesses -- is just plain unconstitutional.

The list, which was subsequently published in the district attorney's favorite public relations outlet, The Philadelphia Inquirer, amounts to a "black list" in that newspaper, the court stated, because it did not afford the accused cops due process where they could contest the charges, and have a chance to clear their names.

The 34-page opinion of the Commonwealth Court, written by Judge Patricia McCullough, was issued in the 2019 case of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 5 vs. the city of Philadelphia, Mayor Jim Kenney, District Attorney Krasner, and former Police Commissioner Richard Ross.

Judge McCullough's opinion overturned a 2019 Common Pleas Court ruling that dismissed the FOP's complaint with prejudice after the lower court mistakenly ruled that District Attorney Krasner had absolute immunity from civil damages for his actions relating to his prosecution of criminal cases.

Instead, the Commonwealth Court ruled that the FOP lawsuit "was not within the rule of immunity" because the FOP was simply seeking "constitutional compliance through equitable relief" by restraining the D.A. and the city from trampling on the constitutional rights of cops.

In other words, the Commonwealth Court, in what FOP President John McNesby described as a "landmark ruling," basically informed D.A. Krasner, Mayor Kenney and the police commissioner that, as McNesby put it, "police officers are entitled to the same constitutional rights as the average citizen."

Cop Bloggers: Inspector Targeted For Telling The Truth In Court About Kenney & Outlaw's Tear Gas Cover-Up

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

Cop bloggers claim that Mayor Kenney and Police Commissioner Outlaw have targeted a police inspector for retaliation, after he gave truthful testimony in court about who gave the final order to launch tear gas against protesters who were illegally blocking the Vine Street Expressway during rush hour.

According to Kenney and Outlaw, the teargassing of the protesters last year during the George Floyd riots was a rogue decision made solely by Dennis Wilson, a  since-demoted deputy police commissioner.

But Inspector Winton Singletary, who was at the Vine Street Expressway on June 1, 2020, before the tear gas canisters were launched, testified in court last month that on the day of the riots, Wilson was in "constant contact" with the "on-site incident commanders," whom Singletary repeatedly identified as Police Commissioner Outlaw and Mayor Kenney.

Singletary further testified that he heard Wilson say over police radio that he had received final approval to tear gas the protesters, an approval that Singelary said came not only from Outlaw, but also her boss, the mayor.

The bloggers, widely believed to be cops, made their charge today on muckrak. The bloggers also claimed that the police tapes from the day of the Vine Street riots have been deliberately removed from public access on broadcastify.com to facilitate an ongoing cover-up.

"Mayor Kenney and Police Commissioner Outlaw are hiding them because they are clear evidence of their lying," the bloggers wrote.

Report: "Extraordinary" Outlaw On Short List To Be NYC's Top Cop

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

Her troops call Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw "MIA," as in Missing In Action.

One of her senior police commanders just testified in court that Outlaw lied to the press and public about who gave the controversial order to teargas protesters during last year's George Floyd riots. [She did, and not the official scapegoat who said he did, and then took a voluntary demotion and pay cut].

Some bloggers who are probably cops recently posted an inside exposé that everybody in the Police Department, including Outlaw, read, an exposé that painted Outlaw as a coddled, lightweight desk jockey and identity politics hire who is universally disrespected within the department because she has zero practical experience out on the streets as a patrol officer.

But Danielle Outlaw is still black and female. And so, according to the New York Post, she's an "extraordinary" police officer who's on the short list of black female candidates that Mayor-Elect Eric Adams may appoint to be New York City's top cop.