Shady's Case Goes Into Overtime

The bruises on Tamarcus Porter's neck

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

Thanks to some grandstanding from the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, the state attorney general's office has announced it will review the now-legendary Feb. 7th fight at the Recess Lounge.

On April 4th, District Attorney Seth Williams, backed by a choir of four assistant district attorneys, announced that no charges would be filed against LeSean McCoy or any of his friends at the Recess because of insufficient evidence. But then John McNesby, the FOP president, sent an incendiary letter to the state attorney general.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, McNesby in his letter to the attorney general described the D.A.'s decision not to prosecute as "an outrageous cover-up and dereliction of duty by a public official." McNesby, according to the Inquirer, said that the only reason D.A. Williams let McCoy off the hook was "because McCoy is a prominent professional athlete." [But maybe the above photo had something to do with it.]

"I think it's completely accurate to say LeSean McCoy and anyone else allegedly involved in this incident are not totally cleared," Bruce Castor, the state's solicitor general, told Walt Hunter of CBS Eyewitness News. The state attorney general isn't the only party that plans to investigate the fight at the Recess Lounge. The NFL and the NFL Players Association are also expected to investigate as well.

McCoy's attorney, Dennis Cogan, didn't seem too worried. He said that he has a high regard for
Bruce Castor's professionalism and was confident that Castor would find no abuse of discretion by the D.A. in his decision not to prosecute.

Shady McCoy "is in the clear because he did nothing wrong," Cogan said.

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The D.A.'s Dog And Pony Show And The Piles He Left Behind

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

The D.A. put on quite a dog and pony show today.

But when the dog and pony departed the stage, they left behind a few fragrant manure piles.

The first pile dropped when the D.A. and four assistant district attorneys told a room full of reporters and TV camera crews that the Feb. 7th brawl at the Recess Lounge, featuring Shady McCoy and a couple of off-duty cops, was just another routine case. And that the D.A. treated it just like he would any other investigation. As in, just the facts, ma'am.

Yeah, right. We're talking about a barroom brawl over a $350 bottle of pink champagne that featured a celebrity pro football player and a couple of off-duty cops who got beaten up. It's a story that made it onto WIP, TMZ and ESPN, as well as The Washington Post, and every pro football blog in the country.

Our D.A. is a well-known publicity hound. And we all know that R. Seth Williams doesn't devote nine weeks and assign at least a half-dozen ADAs and a bunch of detectives to investigate every barroom brawl.

So please Mr. D.A., don't try and tell us what we're smelling after your press conference is a bunch of daisies.

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Shady Walks

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

Expect to see puffs of white smoke today emanating from the district attorney's office.

According to multiple sources, after nine weeks of investigating a ten-minute bar fight, the prosecutors, detectives and politicians in the D.A.'s office, have finally reached a consensus. According to multiple sources, the district attorney will call a press conference this afternoon to announce that NFL star running back LeSean "Shady" McCoy and his buddies will not face any criminal charges as a result of a Feb. 7th brawl at the Recess Lounge.

In February, both the mayor and the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, after seeing a 30-second cell pone video posted on TMZ Sports, had called for McCoy to be arrested for the brawl that resulted in serious injuries to two off-duty police officers.

But after nine weeks of investigation, the district attorney's office has concluded that because there's such a cacophony of versions of what happened inside the Recess Lounge, no single account can be discerned, much less proven. So no successful prosecution can be brought

From the outset, the D.A's investigation has been hampered because the off-duty officers involved in the fracas supposedly had been drinking, not only at the Recess Lounge, according to witnesses, but also at another Old City bar earlier in the evening. There was also a witness report that one of the off-duty cops at the bar was packing a gun, in violation of department policy.

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Big Trial On WIP

The story of what went down between "Shady" McCoy and a trio of off-duty cops at the Recess Lounge has largely played out on WIP, the city's sports talk radio station.

While The Philadelphia Inquirer has basically ignored the story, WIP Morning Host Angelo Cataldi has led the way, getting key interviews with FOP President John ["Hang 'em high"] McNesby and District Attorney Seth ["We're still investigating"] Williams, our bumbling, ethically challenged fraud of a district attorney.

Big Trial has played a key part in WIP's Shady coverage, beginning with this story that led to this appearance on the Feb. 22 WIP Morning Show and continuing with this update  on March 23rd. [Scroll down on the page to March 23rd to hear the replay].

Cataldi used Big Trial's reporting and appearance on his show this week to flush out McNesby, and this time the heavyweight FOP prez was singing a different tune. By the end of the week, Cataldi was still lobbying to get D.A. Williams to come back on the show and explain why his office has taken seven weeks to investigate a ten-minute bar fight.

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The Shady Bar Fight: What's Taking So Long?

Seth's ADAs hard at work?

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

It's taken more than six weeks for the district attorney's office to investigate a 10-minute bar fight.

And they're not done yet. We still have no idea what the D.A. ultimately will do about LeSean "Shady" McCoy, the former Eagles and current Buffalo Bills star running back who got involved in a Feb. 7th fracas at the Recess Lounge.

It ain't Watergate that the D.A. is investigating. After six weeks, you have to wonder what's taking so long.

For the past several weeks the rumor mill has it that prosecutors realize the case has so many problems they won't be able to charge anybody. The bar fight has been described as a can of worms that the D.A. doesn't want to open. Supposedly, the D.A.'s office was going to call a press conference in the near future to explain why Shady and friends will walk.

But Cameron Kline, the D.A.'s spokesman, shot that down. "I can say the office is continuing to investigate and no press conference is being scheduled," Kline said today.

Considering the facts of the case, a couple of prominent criminal defense lawyers who prefer not to be identified predict that the D.A. won't be able to prosecute anybody. But Seth Williams does have a political problem on his hands. Two off-duty cops were seriously injured in the fight and our hang-em-high mayor and FOP president have already called for arresting Shady and his pals. That's what appears to be taking so long: our publicity hound of a D.A. is still trying to figure out how to explain no arrests without taking a political hit.

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Why "Shady" May Walk

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

It's been exactly two weeks since former Eagles running back LeSean "Shady" McCoy allegedly got involved in a Feb. 7th brawl at the Recess Lounge, supposedly over a $350 bottle of pink champagne.

It took only four days for Mayor Jim Kenney to pronounce McCoy guilty. On Friday, 12 days after the incident, John McNesby, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, went on the WIP morning show to announce that the district attorney's investigation should be over by now.

"I've never waited this long, ever, to see somebody arrested," McNesby told WIP morning show host Angelo Cataldi. "So it doesn't pass the smell test. Something's funny going on. I know that they have more discovery on this case than they had in the O.J. Simpson case."

That prompted the district attorney to respond, "We're not going to rush because some people are impatient. My only goal is to get it right, not fast. The last thing we need is a rush to judgment."

So why would the district attorney be dragging his feet? The factual chronology from the previously undisclosed Shady side of the story indicates that there may be plenty of valid reasons. McNesby may be right about the case not passing the smell test, but it might be his guys who reek of too much pink champagne.

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