Philadelphia Police Officer Says Shooter Said Nothing Before Ambushing Him

Joseph A. Slobodzian at the Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the testimony of Philadelphia Police Officer Jesse Hartnett (seen in the above photo), who was shot and wounded in an ambush.

Whatever motivated the gunman who seriously wounded Philadelphia Police Officer Jesse Hartnett in a volley of bullets, it remains a mystery to the officer of five years.

"I didn't hear him say anything," the 33-year-old officer, speaking publicly for the first time about his ordeal, told a Philadelphia Judge Thursday at a preliminary hearing for suspect Edward Archer.

Hartnett was shot multiple times while sitting in his parked police cruiser on Jan. 7. and investigators said Archer, 31, of Yeadon, confessed doing it "in the name of Islam."

But at the hearing before Municipal Court Judge Marsha H. Neifield, no additional information about the statement or any alleged religious motivation came out.

After the hour-long hearing, Neifield ordered Archer held on all charges, including attempted murder and aggravated assault, assaulting a law enforcement officer, several gun counts and receiving stolen property - the pistol prosecutors said he obtained from someone who stole it from a city police officer in September 2013.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:  

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20160311_Hearing_set_for_man_charged_with_wounding_cop.html 

Former Gosnell Employee Testifies In Abortion-Murder Trial That Problem Abortion "Really Freaked Me Out'

Joseph A. Slobodzian at the Philadelphia Inquirer offers a reporter on the trial of Kermit Gosnell (seen in the above mugshot).

Kermit Gosnell had been Sherry West's doctor for more than 20 years and gave her a job when she was ill and out of work.

Still, West testified, she hated working in the room where Gosnell performed abortions - never more than the night a staffer asked for help with a problem at Gosnell's Women's Medical Society clinic in West Philadelphia.

"There was this clear glass pan, and I saw it, and I thought, 'What do you expect me to do?' " West testified Monday at Gosnell's murder trial.

"It wasn't fully developed," West told the Common Pleas Court jury, referring to the 18- to 24-inch-long newborn in the pan. It didn't have eyes or a mouth but it was like screeching, making this noise. It was weird. It sounded like a little alien."

Questioned by Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore, West, 53, said she did not know what happened to the "specimen" - the term she said she used because "it was easier to deal with mentally."

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20130409_Former_Gosnell_employee_testifies_that_problem_abortion__quot_really_freaked_me_out_quot_.html

A Macabre Mystery: Gosnell Abortion-Murder Trial Focuses On Jars Of Preserved Fetus Feet

Joseph A. Slobodzian at the Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the strange abortion-murder trial in Philadelphia.

It's one of the macabre mysteries in the case of Kermit Gosnell: Why did the West Philadelphia abortion doctor keep the severed feet of fetuses preserved in specimen jars?

In testimony Tuesday, Adrienne Moton, a former worker at Gosnell's Women's Medical Society, told a Philadelphia jury that Gosnell once explained that he did so in case patients requested them for future identification or DNA samples.

But an expert on fetal development, testifying Wednesday at Gosnell's abortion-murder trial, said that was news to him.

"Do you think there is any medical reason to save the foot of a baby?" Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron asked.

"In my practice, we would have no reason to save the foot, and I've never seen that done," replied Daniel H. Conway, a physician and neonatologist at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130321_Gosnell_abortion-murder_trial_focuses_on_jars_of_preserved_fetus_feet.html?c=r

Philadelphia Prosecutor Says Kermit Gosnell Is A Murderer, Not An Abortionist

Joseph A. Slobodzian at the Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the trial of Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia.

Calling it a case not about abortion but about murder, a Philadelphia prosecutor this morning opened the trial of West Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell.

Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore told the Common Pleas Court jury that evidence would show that Gosnell, 72, was a "wolf in sheep's clothing" who "used and abused desperate women."

Pescatore told the jury that abortion is legal in Pennsylvania up until the 24th week of pregnancy. Gosnell, however, specialized in what the prosecutor called "high-volume high-profit" illegal late-term abortions that "almost guarantee a live birth."

"If a baby is born alive, it's alive and no one has the right to take some solution to kill it," Pescatore said. 

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20130318_Prosecutor__Gosnell_a_murderer__not_an_abortionist.html

Not A Trial By Video: Philadelphia Police Officer Acquitted Of Puerto Rican Day Parade Assault

Joseph A. Slobodzian at the Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the acquittal of former Philadelphia police Lt. Jonathan Josey.

Triggering a deafening eruption of cheers from a courtroom packed with scores of Philadelphia police, a city judge this morning found ex-police Lt. Jonathan Josey not guilty of simple assault for swinging at and decking a woman during an unruly street party after last year's Puerto Rican Parade.

Municipal Court Judge Patrick F. Dugan said he remained troubled by Josey's conduct on the 10-second video that shows Josey hit Aida Guzman from behind and knock her to the ground during the Sept. 30 incident at Fifth Street and Lehigh Avenue in the Fairhill section of North Philadelphia.

Dugan, however, cited Josey's testimony that the 19-year decorated police veteran was trying to swipe a beer bottle from Guzman's hand and accidentally hit her. Josey said he acted in the context of an escalating melee in which some spectators were throwing beer bottles at police trying to arrest a driver doing "donuts" in the middle of the intersection.

The judge also cited other police testimony and character witnesses and an defense expert on police procedure who approved of Josey's conduct.

Dugan said the video alone was not enough to prove that Josey intended to harm Guzman: "This is not a social media contest, this is not trial by video."

 

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

 

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20130226_Officer_acquitted_of_Puerto_Rican_Day_parade_assault.html

 

You can also read an earlier post and watch the video via the below link:

 

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2012/10/a-punch-captured-on-video-scars.html 

Alleged Mobster Charged With Murder In South Philadelphia Slaying

 

Robert Moran and Joseph A. Slobodzian at the Philadelphia Inquirer offer a report on the apparent mob murder in South Philadelphia.

Anthony Nicodemo, a reputed mob soldier, was charged Thursday night in the daytime slaying Wednesday of Gino DiPietro outside his home in South Philadelphia, city police said.
 

Authorities matched a bullet fragment found on DiPietro's clothes with a gun found in an automobile registered to Nicodemo, a police source confirmed Thursday.

Nicodemo, 41, of the 3200 block of South 17th Street, was charged with murder and related offenses.
Also Thursday, a federal judge said he would individually question the 15 jurors in the federal racketeering trial of seven alleged Philadelphia mobsters when court resumes Tuesday to see if they had been exposed to news coverage of the slaying.

DiPietro, 50, was gunned down in the 2800 block of South Iseminger Street shortly before 3 p.m. A black Honda SUV was seen speeding away, and police later matched the description with Nicodemo's 2011 Honda Pilot, which was parked in the block where he lives with his wife and two children. A gun was found in the Honda.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20121214_Alleged_mobster_charged_with_murder_in_S__Phila__slaying.html