The Black D.A. And The White D.A.

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

During his last six months in office, as he ran the gauntlet of ethics officials, prosecutors and the media, former District Attorney Seth Williams got nailed at every turn.

So when Williams watches his successor in action, he could be forgiven if he feels a pang of envy.

After all, Williams went to jail for accepting as gifts -- the feds called them bribes -- occasional free flights to sunny locales, where he was also treated to free meals and hotel stays. But when District Attorney Larry Krasner took office, he made Williams look like a piker.

During his first 28 months in office, Krasner went on a globe-trotting, barnstorming all-expenses paid junket to 47 cities across the nation, as well as Vancouver, Berlin and Portugal. While the known tab ran over $100,000, taxpayers picked up 85% of the cost. Krasner's campaign contributors such as the Real Justice PAC of San Francisco, paid for the rest.

Ok, so one D.A. sold himself cheap, while the other D.A. obviously knows how to play the game so that a dollar never leaves his bulging wallet. 

But Krasner's also a tax deadbeat -- he owes $53,966 in taxes this year on a building he owns at 1221 Locust -- and he's brazenly breaking the city's campaign finance laws.

While the local limit on annual donations from a PAC is $12,600, just last year, the Real Justice PAC pumped more than $100,000 into Larry Krasner's campaign coffers, in the form of cash, in-kind service payments to Krasner's campaign staffers, and nearly $30,000 in rent money for office space leased at Krasner's tax delinquent office building. 

And not only is the city's Board of Ethics snoozing through Krasner's blatant lawlessness, but Krasner's also skating in the media, thanks to the sweetheart coverage he enjoys from his relentlessly progressive soulmates at The Philadelphia Inquirer, which has enthusiastically endorsed Krasner for reelection. 

So the question is, was there one set of standards for the black D.A. and another set of standards for the white D.A.? You know, Larry Krasner, the great white hope who's currently being hailed nationwide as that big progressive reformer of the criminal justice system?

"It’s a very, very interesting question that needs to be answered," Seth Williams said when I asked him about it.

"Yes, I was the first African American district attorney in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania," said Williams, 54, who served from 2010 to 2017.

When he took office, Williams said, "I was told by many people that I would have a target on my back from day one." Williams, however, thought society had evolved.

"I had hoped I we were in a post racial world," he said, adding, "I was wrong."

Williams quickly added that he was his own worst enemy.

"I should have reported all the gifts I received and there were some gifts I should have not accepted," he said. "I accepted responsibility for that with the negotiated settlement" that he signed with the city’s ethics board. 

I asked again about the disparate treatment he received, and he finally said, "I have seen many of the expenses and contributions made to Mr. Krasner. And I can only assume and conclude that different people are working in the prosecution office now than investigated me."

Williams's troubles began on Jan. 17, 2017, when the city’s ethics board fined the D.A. $62,000, its largest fine ever, for taking in $175,000 in unreported gifts over a six-year period from 2010 to 2015. The gifts that Williams received included a new roof worth $45,000 and $690 worth of Phillies and 76ers tickets. 

In the aftermath of the record fine, all of these unreported expenses were reported in detail in the press. And Williams was publicly excoriated as a disgrace to his office; the Inquirer's editorial board called on Williams to resign. 

Next, the Inquirer and other media outlets began reporting leaks from a grand jury that was investigating Williams, and had subpoenaed his campaign finance records. On March 21, 2017, the grand jury indicted Williams on 23 counts of bribery, extortion and fraud, prompting a new crop of headlines, and renewed calls to resign. 

“I am merely a thankful beggar,” Williams texted Mohammad Ali, the businessman from Jordan who testified at a federal corruption trial in 2017 that he bribed the D.A. with a trip to Punta Cana worth $6,381.

On April 26, 2017, the Ethics Board whacked Williams again, fining the D.A.'s PAC $2,000 for failing to report $11,677 in spending in 2016. Many of those unreported expenses were for personal services supplied to Williams, such as a deep tissue massage and a deep-pore cleansing facial at the Sporting Club at the Bellevue Hotel for $209. All of these expenses were reported in the media.

On June 29, 2017, the D.A. finally did resign his office and he was immediately sent to jail by an angry judge after the D.A. pleaded guilty to taking bribes such as a $3,000 chocolate-colored couch from Raymour & Flanagan, a Luis Vuitton tie worth $205, and a beat-up 1997 Jaguar XK8 convertible that no longer ran. 

Williams, sentenced to five years in jail for corruption, was released last April after serving just three years. He got out early after he successfully completed a drug rehab program, in addition to time off for good behavior.

What does Williams have to say about the grand reforms of his successor?

"We are being sold a false bill of goods," he said. "It's a false choice that we either have to reform the criminal justice and address systemic racism and systemic classicism, or improve public safety. We can do and we must do both simultaneously."

How does he feel about the sky-high murder rate? The city recorded 499 murders last year. And this year, with 192 murders so far as of Friday, a 38% increase over last year, we're on a pace to hit 688 murders.

"As a lifelong Philadelphian it breaks my heart because I know it doesn’t have to be this way," he said. Williams watched in dismay as Krasner dismantled GunStat, a program initiated in 2012 by Williams and then Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey.

GunStat sought to reduce gun violence in certain hot spots by having prosecutors seek state sentences for gun possession cases. Under the program, prosecutors tracked offenders and shared that information with other agencies. 

So it doesn't sound like the former D.A. is a fan of Larry Krasner's. What does Williams think of Krasner's challenger, former homicide prosecutor Carlos Vega?

When he came to the office as a baby ADA in the early 1990s, Williams said, he was struck by how "everybody really respected" Vega. Williams said he was also impressed by how much Vega "cared about victims' families."

"Carlos was very passionate about that," Williams said. He remembered that Vega was a popular choice in the D.A.'s office to lead CLEs for other ADAs.

And in the courtroom, Williams said, Vega was a workhorse, prosecuting some 450 cases during his 30 years in homicide.

"He specialized in the cases that most people never hear about, black on black crime, brown on brown," Williams said.

When Vega was raising his two kids a single dad, "He could have gone out and doubled his salary as a private defense attorney," Williams said. 

"Instead he chose to work overnight at UPS loading and unloading trucks. It took me to a whole 'nother level of respect for him."