Big Trial's Moving To Substack

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

Effective today, Big Trial's moving to substack.com.

Why? Since Big Trial lost its sponsor seven years ago, I've been doing this blog pro bono.

And every year, not only has the workload steadily increased, but in my opinion, so has the need for this type of reporting.

Using the courts as a base of operations,  Big Trial provides an independent voice in the local media by doing some essential muckraking, asking the tough questions, and always insisting on holding public officials accountable.

It's become indispensable journalism, I would argue, in a city that for the past two years has been setting historic records for shootings, murders and carjackings.  City Council members who are still afraid to meet in public -- they only meet on Zoom -- openly admit that Philadelphia has descended into a state of lawlessness. And become a place where every day, armed and violent criminals brazenly go about their business, with no fear of consequences.

Against this desperate backdrop, our only daily newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, where I once worked, continues to function as the official house organ of the Democratic Party that's controlled City Hall for the past 70 years, while shilling for the "progressive" leaders who have run Philadelphia into the ground.

At Big Trial, we do things differently. We aren't PC, we don't suffer fools gladly, and we don't believe in sacred cows.

What does the move to Substack mean for readers? Instead of getting Big Trial for free, now you'll have to pay $5 a month, which at Subbstack, is their lowest subscription rate. I hate having to ask people for money, but in a city that's in crisis, it's the cost to preserve independent journalism.

So consider this my invitation to readers to follow me over to Substack, where we'll continue to shine a bright light on the dark place that Philadelphia has become. 

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Big Trial On Dom G's Show

Ralph Cipriano of big trial.net was on Dom Giordano's show for 13 minutes yesterday afternoon talking about identity politics, the Inquirer, D.A. Larry Krasner, Police Commissioner Outlaw and the demise of the Philadelphia Police Department.

Major revelations include Cipriano has more patrol experience than Outlaw and he's so down on the Inquirer that he doesn't even trust their pizza reviews.

A link to the segment can be found on both the second and third items on this page.

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Apocalypse Philly: A Deadly D.A., Cowardly Mayor & Lightweight P.C.

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

In this apocalyptic year, the citizens of Philadelphia had to endure riots, a pandemic, and a record number of murders. 

They also had to put up with incompetent and corrupt leadership from a trio of top city officials. We're talking about our "reform" district attorney whose radical policies have repeatedly proved to be deadly. Next, there's our lying, cowardly but politically correct mayor who repeatedly refused to defend his city. And finally, we have the mayor's "diverse" new police commissioner, who turned out to be a real lightweight.

Cranking out an average of three stories a week, many of them scoops, Big Trial was the only local media outlet to rise to the occasion, and hold our public officials accountable throughout the year by documenting their lies, incompetence, and corruption.

It's a full-time job, but here in Philadelphia, official incompetence and corruption have deadly consequences. We're up to 498 murders for 2020, the highest number in 30 years. 

As far as our corrupt city officials are concerned, let's start with District Attorney Larry Krasner. This man, bought and paid for with $1.7 million of billionaire George Soros's money, is a walking, talking perversion of what a district attorney should be.

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Big Trial On Dom Giordano Talking About Cops & Social Media

Ralph Cipriano of bigtrial.net was a guest on Dom Giordano's radio show yesterday. 

The topics included the police department's double standard in enforcing its social media policy, and the continuing travesty of the homeless encampments on the Parkway, where for the past four months, Mayor Kenney has been too afraid to enforce the law. 

Meanwhile, the camps have been the site of several stabbings, rampant drug use, and unsanitary conditions.

Cipriano also discussed how it's become a full-time job at bigtrial.net holding the mayor, the district attorney and the police commissioner accountable because the city's paper of record isn't interested in doing that.

The talk show segment can be heard here. Cipriano's segment is the second featured audio clip, after attorney George Parry discusses the Breonna Taylor grand jury.

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Big Trial On Chris Stigall's Radio Show

Ralph Cipriano was Chris Stigall's guest on 990 AM yesterday morning. The topics of discussion included

Philadelphia's two Progressive nightmares, District Attorney Larry Krasner and Mayor Jim Kenney.

Stigall wondered out loud why Krasner acts the way he does. The radio talk show host was also bewildered by Mayor Kenney's hostility to his South Philly neighbors.

A podcast of the two-hour show can be heard here. Stigall introduces Cipriano at the 31.21 minute mark.

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A Reporter's Rogues Gallery

His Eminence

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

If you're looking for some light reading while under Coronavirus-induced house arrest, I've recently updated ralphcipriano.com. It's a virtual rogues gallery of all the lowlifes, hypocrites and scoundrels I've had the pleasure of exposing during a long career in journalism.

Among those prominently featured: the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who presided over a criminal enterprise as archbishop of Philadelphia, and his faithful spinmeister, Brian Tierney, who later went on to own and then bankrupt The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Rufus Seth Williams, our first Philly D.A. to land in jail, is another juicy target, as is Billy Doe, the lying, scheming altar boy.

I've also spotlighted the negligent and corrupt behavior of the board of trustees at Penn State who to this day are still in full cover-up mode, as well as the unscrupulous prosecutors who presided over the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case.

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For Big Trial, A Look Back, A Look Forward

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

If they made a movie out of Big Trial's top stories from 2017, it would be called Trading Places, starring former District Attorney Rufus Seth Williams and convicted child rapist Bernard Shero.

Shero, falsely accused of rape by a lying scheming altar boy, got out of jail nearly a dozen years early, thanks to the dogged reporting of this blog, and the revelatory testimony of retired Detective Joe Walsh.

Williams, the corrupt D.A. who cooked up the fraudulent "Billy Doe" prosecution that sent former Catholic schoolteacher Shero to jail, along with three falsely accused Catholic priests, wound up in prison for political corruption, thanks to the work of the U.S. Attorney's Office from Jersey, which prosecuted the case.

If it wasn't legal justice, it certainly was poetic justice -- Shero, finally a free man, and Rufus, in a jump suit, and finally where he belongs, behind bars.

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Big Trial On With State College's Morning Guys

He's Moved On From Dealing Cocaine To Pay-To-Play

Scandal-plagued Penn State University has just elected scandal-plagued Mark Dambly as chairman of its board of trustees.

Isn't that great? The July 19th radio interview about Dambly can be heard here. The July 20th radio interview can be heard here.

 “When I was young, I made some mistakes. I deeply regret those actions," Dambly said. "I’ve learned from those mistakes, and I’ve moved on to live a productive life, both personally and professionally."

Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/education/penn-state/board-of-trustees/article162976988.html#storylink=cpy

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Big Trial Featured On Lions Of Liberty "Felony Friday" Podcast

The "Lions of Liberty" are a bunch of freedom-loving libertarians who sponsor a "Felony Friday" podcast.

On today's podcast, Ralph Cipriano of Big Trial joins host John Odermatt to discuss the parallels between the sex scandals that rocked the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and Penn State.

The podcast can be heard here.

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Big Trial In The News

It was a good week in the media for Big Trial.

First, The Philadelphia Inquirer discovered by reading Big Trial that former L&I Deputy Commissioner Dominic Verdi had been found not guilty of the political corruption charges against him.

The Inquirer, which had hung Verdi out to dry publicly when he was indicted, but didn't bother to cover the trial that exonerated him, remedied that injustice by putting Verdi on the front page two days after a jury found him not guilty.

Then, the rest of the media pounced on a story that Big Trial's Ralph Cipriano and George Anastasia wrote for our partners at phillyvoice.com, about the mystery of the 12th juror in the Chaka Fattah case. That's the white guy from Lancaster County who was convinced that the government hadn't proved its case against Fattah, but the trial judge booted him off the jury. The news peg: the former congressman is due in court Monday to be sentenced, and faces 17-22 years in the slammer.

First, a bunch of Fattah's former staffers put up a website, thefattahcase.com, to raise questions about the case, starting with the mystery of the 12th Juror. Then, the Inquirer's Clout column weighed in on the mystery, and whether the congressman had gotten railroaded.

Finally, The Philadelphia Tribune followed up with a great column by lawyer Michael Coard, that went through the applicable legal standards and concluded it was high  time for the trial judge to clear up the mystery by unsealing a transcript of a closed-door hearing with that 12th Juror.

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