Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Time To Flip The Narrative On Rufus

Rufus and Imelda
By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

According to the feds and The Philadelphia Inquirer, District Attorney Rufus Seth Williams not only accepted bribes and extorted free gifts. He was so depraved that he stole more than $20,000 from his sick and elderly adopted mother.

This is the same corrupt law enforcement official who accepted $175,000 in unreported gifts and services. The same corrupt law enforcement official who sold his office by doing favors for business owners who were criminals. And by doing favors for friends of business owners who were also criminals.

And yet, neither the federal government nor the Inquirer has made the logical deduction that a man who would sell his office, take whatever freebies he could extort, and steal from his own mother just might be ethically compromised when it came to the administration of justice.

But as far as the feds and the Inky are concerned, when Rufus Seth Williams launched his witch hunt against the Catholic Church, this thoroughly corrupt politician somehow had angels perched on his shoulders.

Anyone see anything wrong with this picture?

When the news broke on Tuesday about the feds' 23-count, 50-page indictment of Rufus Seth Williams on charges of bribery, extortion, honest services fraud and wire fraud, I posed a question to Michele Mucellin, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia.

I asked now that everybody knows that Seth Williams is corrupt, when are they going to look at how he corrupted the justice system. By using a fraudulent sex abuse victim, Danny Gallagher AKA "Billy Doe," to send three priests and a former Catholic school teacher to jail for a series of alleged rapes that never happened.

In other words, I maintain that a man who would steal from his own mother would probably not hesitate to send innocent men to jail to boost his political ambitions.

"Our district is not handing the case," Mucellin responded. But she said she had sent along my request for comment to the appropriate press person over at the U.S. Attorney's office in New Jersey, which is handing the prosecution of Seth Williams. The appropriate person, however, did not respond to the request for comment.

Meanwhile, at the Inky, they sent a reporter down to to the nursing home where Seth's mother Imelda lives. But they won't even consider taking a second look at the Billy Doe case, which they completely blew to hell by blindly swallowing Billy's lame act, hook line and sinker.

There is one person who's in a position to clean up the mess that Seth made.

On Friday at 2 p.m., Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright is scheduled to announce her decision on whether to grant a motion to dismiss the retrial of Msgr. William J. Lynn on charges of prosecutorial misconduct.

Joseph Walsh, the retired detective who led the D.A.'s investigation of Danny Gallagher/Billy Doe, testified in January that he repeatedly caught the alleged victim in one lie after another. But when he reported Gallagher's lack of credibility to Assistant District Attorney Mariana Sorensen, according to Walsh's testimony, she replied "You're killing my case."

As Thomas A. Bergstrom, Msgr. Lynn's lawyer argued in court, the D.A.'s office, under that reprobate Rufus Seth Williams, knowingly put a star witness on the stand that they knew wasn't credible. And then they watched as four innocent men were sent to jail. One of those men, a priest who took a vow of chastity and poverty, and never had a traffic ticket, died in prison.

If Judge Bright doesn't have the courage to do the right thing, namely put the Msgr. Lynn retrial out of its misery by throwing out the case, it's time for a federal investigation.

Because the worst thing Rufus Seth Williams ever did wasn't to steal from his own mother. What he did to the blind lady named justice is far worse. By sending four innocent men to jail based on the lies of an alleged "victim" that the D.A. had to know was a complete fraud.

But when I read the 50-page indictment of Rufus, I didn't see anything in there about the crimes he committed against justice.

Somebody ought to fix that.

13 comments

  1. Who can look into other things he may be sitting on such as indictments? Seriously, you know there is more dirt. Taking from your mother should be a death penalty case!

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  2. Ralph, you are spot on. This narrative is about his greed. It should be about the lives he has ruined and continues to ruin.

    The Fed spokesman effectively cleared the entire DA's office. But it was well known that Seth was weighing in on cases, including grand jury ones. Was there still independence on the part of the ADA's? It's hard to reconcile their independence with the tenacity in which they fought bad cases.

    Then again, if the ADAs did what the boss told them to do, there's really no way out for them. Admit to being influenced, and say goodbye to your law license.

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  3. Ralph, you have a point, but I am tired of seeing too many people post that his downfall at the hands of the Feds is due to the prosecution of priests in the Church, because the Church has deep pockets and caused it to happen. It only seems to add to Catholic hate. Focus on the nastiness that actually did cause his undoing. It wasn't the Church but his own avarice.

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  4. We will never hear it from the Inquirer, they only print what the prosecution allows them to print, scripted and handed to them. How could they expose prosecutors as anything else but honest and forthright, where would their next big scoop come from if not from the so called seekers of justice.

    Why bother to get to the truth of the matter, it does not seem to bother their reporters that printing half a story is not an acceptable practice, they have a story, people will believe it, it came from a creditable source, who would think to ask questions, it has to be true.

    Until they realize its not true, then its too late to go back and say they were wrong. Which is almost as big an injustice as what prosecutors do to innocents.

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  5. I wonder how many of those hundreds of drug convictions he threw out due to falsely accusing the narcotics police officers of corruption can be linked back to his favors? More to come I hope.

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  6. So here we are after over four years of speculating what on earth could the possible motivation of Rufus Seth Williams and yes, you too Ed McCann be for the illegal, unethical and immoral behavior of unjustifiably releasing hundreds of violent drug offenders back on the streets of Philadelphia to prey on the innocent people of this city. The victimization of these offenders on the tax paying citizens who trusted in you both to abide by your so called solemn oath as protectors of their safety was not only violated, it was trampled upon by your illegal conduct. There is no doubt whatsoever that you both and more in your office have blood on your hands as it can easily be shown and proven that by your corrupt actions of releasing these violent offenders, innocent people have not only been victimized, but many others have lost their lives. The truths of your sins, corruption and crimes are and will continue to come out. For those of you who blindly followed those illegal orders you know you should not have in violation of your sworn oath with the dilusional belief that Rufus would continue to be around to protect you, be prepared for what is coming to you as well. Now that we all know factually that Rufus did willingly sell his office to the highest bidders for consideration of those who had criminal cases or friends who had criminal cases being prosecuted by the District Attorney's Office, a deeper and more intense look needs to be taken into the actions of Rufus Seth Williams and Edward McCann as to why they did and continue to dismiss hundreds of criminal cases against violent drug offenders. Now that the Federal authorities are aware of what Rufus has done and is capable of doing, an independent investigation should be opened into his and Ed McCann's motivation for dismissing those cases. Ultimately and justifiably both Rufus Williams and Edward McCann should be stripped of their law licenses and prosecuted for their crimes in this horrific event that will cost the city and its citizens for many years to come. To the federal judge who is presiding over all the lawsuits lodged against the city by the very criminals that Rufus Williams and Edward McCann illegally released, will you now pause and consider all the facts you already knew and now know as a result of Rufus's indictment. Remember judge, there was never any Brady material to justify the writing of that letter to the former cowardly police commissioner Charles Ramsey who also allowed this illegal act to occur. Yea, you too Ramsey, you knew the truth and you did nothing, you are equally responsible and should be held accountable. Lets see if some who knew the truth all along will now do the right thing since Rufus has been properly indicted as he should have been a very long time ago.

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    Replies
    1. Mr. Anonymous is on to something here. It's time for a full-blown investigation.

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  7. Ralph - what do you think "will max" means?

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  8. You are so right
    Drug dealers out on street before the narcotics set free allowing them to deal, rape and commit murder again. While the narcotic officers were arrested, a costly court case for the 6 officers only to lose their jobs, and dismantling of the unit. They should Sue Rufus.
    c

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  9. No Federal investigation would be complete without a thorough look at Mariana Sorensen and the motivations behind her 'intellectually dishonest' Grand Jury report.

    And how about the late Judge DeFino who was on Seth's payroll as some kind of consultant or interface between the DA's office and the court. If memory serves, he was at the Engelhardt / Shero trial, meandering around nattily dressed with a flower in his lapel and a smile on his face. Was he just an usher, a greeter, a judicial advisor - or what?

    How many other retired judges are on Seth's payroll, and how many of them have special 'badges' that they like to flash (sarcasm intended).

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  10. I have heard people ask how Williams could have been so blatantly corrupt, I think I have the answer. No one was reporting the other errors he was making as a DA, Williams was allowed to make outrageous allegations and have the Inky print it as truth, inflaming the public against those that Williams targeted.

    Making up non-truths and having them made truth by the media must be an incredible feeling of power. Swaying people to your way of thinking aided by the media.

    Who is questioning prosecutors, who is doubting them? Who is asking them questions about truth ? Asking them about hiding evidence that could help a defendant ?

    The answer is no one, no one would have ever considered that a representatives of our government would speak a falsehood for a career advancement.

    Does this sound so ludicrous now, now that we have reached a point where we have no faith in our government to do right by its own people. I thought government was supposed to work for the people not against them.

    Now we have come to realize that prosecutors are just as or more devious than any other professional without morals that wants to succeed in their chosen fields.

    But prosecutors and agents of our government hold our fates in their hands,without ever having to answer to anyone for anything, its easy to see how Williams thought he was above the law, because he got away with breaking the law over and over again. No one holds prosecutors accountable for their actions, especially not the Inky who runs with the false allegations.

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  11. Taking a defendants life through a false allegation of an invented crime, should be treated the same as a murder charge. The prosecution takes a defendant life and the life of their family the same as if someone walked up and shot them dead. Prosecutors should be charged with murder, that would stop invented charges and needless trials .

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