Rookie Judge Says Joe Bologna Must Be Tried For Simple Assault

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

"Play it again," Judge Crystal Bryant-Powell said.

Five straight times, the prosecutor played the 36-second cell phone video that showed former Staff Inspector Joe Bologna striking Evan Gorski, then a 21-year-old protester, with a single blow from his foot-long extendable metal baton known as an ASP.

On June 1, 2020, Gorski was one of approximately, 1,500 protesters who were headed eastbound on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway toward Interstate 676. As the leader of the city police's vastly outnumbered bike patrol, Staff Inspector Bologna's assignment was to keep the protesters from posing an imminent danger to themselves and to motorists by illegally shutting down I-676 traffic during rush hour.

As the judge admitted, the scene on the Parkway that day last summer was "mayhem." Protesters were throwing rocks and frozen water bottles and spraying urine at the cops. When Gorski attempted to interfere with another cop who was attempting to arrest another protester, Bologna swung his baton at Gorski, striking a backpack on Gorksi's left shoulder. As Bologna pinned Gorski on the ground and placed him under arrest, a woman can be heard on the video repeatedly screaming "Fuck you" at Bologna.

The D.A. had claimed that Bologna's baton had struck Gorski in the head, causing a blow that required a dozen staples to close. But a slow-motion replay of the video clearly showed that Bologna's baton struck Gorski's backpack on his left shoulder. That's why in Municipal Court last January, Judge Henry Lewandowski threw out all the charges that cop-hating D.A. Larry Krasner had filed against Bologna.

But Krasner refiled the charges against Bologna. And so in Judge Bryant-Powell's courtroom today, the D.A. got lucky. As Bologna's wife and fellow cops watched in dismay, a rookie judge behaved as though she was a TV rules analyst at a football game. She did it by going under the hood and replaying the cell phone video of the protest a total of at least nine times in the courtroom, and many more times in chambers, before she finally emerged to give her expert analysis.

And when she got through, former staff Inspector Joe Bologna was being held over on $10,000 bail for a criminal trial scheduled next March 15th in Municipal Court.

Judge Bryant-Powell, a Democrat of course, was elected in November, 2019. She's served on the bench since January 2020, some 20 months, but for almost a year during that time the courts were closed because of the pandemic.

So when the rookie judge broke down the video, she saw something different than Judge Lewandowski. 

When Bologna raised his baton, Judge Bryant-Powell said about Gorski, "He clearly retreats. He pulls back. He immediately cowers."

When Judge Lewandowski threw out the charges against Bologna, his lawyers called an expert witness to explain Bologna's actions in the heat of battle. 

Sgt. Kenneth Gill, the lead use of force instructor for the Philadelphia Police Department, testified that the actions displayed by Bologna on the video were “absolutely justified” under the Philadelphia Use of Force Directives. 

But Judge Bryant-Powell said that when Bologna went after Gorski, who was interfering with another officer's arrest, the staff inspector took a step toward the protester as he raised his baton.

"Is it responsible that he went that extra step," the judge, who was splitting hairs, asked about Bologna's one stride toward Gorski. 

The judge seemed to be wondering whether Bologna could have or should have halted the swing of his baton in mid-stride, like a pitcher committing a balk. 

Yo Your Honor, there was a riot going on. Bologna didn't have much time to consult the rulebook before he subdued Gorski. 

The judge did admonish Gorski, who was in the courtroom with his father, for interfering with an officer making an arrest.

"He had no business" interfering with the officer, the judge said. "He could have gotten himself killed."

The prosecutor, who was carrying water for D.A. Larry Krasner, had to concede the point. "I agree he should not have done that," he said.

The judge then declared a recess for nearly an hour while she went back under the hood in chambers, going over the video again and again, as well as the law regarding assault and aggravated assault. Then, Judge Bryant-Powell emerged to give her ruling.

She dismissed two felony counts of aggravated assault that the D.A. had filed against Bologna, because she said she didn't think the D.A. had provided enough evidence that Bologna may have committed an aggravated assault against Gorski. The judge also tossed a third misdemeanor charge against Bologna for reckless endangerment

But the judge decided to hold Bologna over for trial on two misdemeanor counts, one of simple assault, and the other for possession of an instrument crime, namely Bologna's department-issued ASP.

In court today, Bologna's lawyers, Fred Perri and Brian McMonagle, submitted two reports from Dr. Sam Gulino, a forensic pathologist who is a former city medical examiner. Dr. Gulino concluded that Bologna never struck Gorski in the head with his ASP, but rather landed one blow on Gorski's left upper back, leaving a telltale bruise behind.

Gulino also concluded that when both Bologna and Gorski hit the ground, "Bologna’s bicycle helmet made contact with Mr. Gorski’s head, causing the scalp laceration" that required the dozen staples. 

After Gulino made his initial report, Perri told the judge, Detective Gerald Rocks of the D.A.'s office, and Assistant District Attorney Tracy Tripp paid the medical examiner a visit.

What was the purpose of the visit? The ADA and the detective from the D.A.'s office were there to try and get the medical examiner to change his testimony.

Rocks and Tripp came to see the medical examiner bearing what they considered to be "additional information," Gulino told judge, to see if that additional information would "change his opinion."

Asked by the judge if the additional information from the D.A.'s office did indeed change his opinion, Gulino, who resigned earlier this month, told the judge, "No, it didn't.

After ADA Tripp and Detective Rocks didn't get anywhere with the medical examiner, Perri told the judge, the D.A.'s office filed a motion "to preclude the admission of that report" as evidence.

That's how they play the game at Larry Krasner's office when they're going after cops.

Win at all costs.

Even if it means lying about the evidence, as in the D.A. claiming the cell phone video shows that Bologna struck the protester in the head, when the video clearly shows that he didn't.

Winning at all costs also means sending an ADA and a detective out to try and talk an expert witness into changing his testimony about the evidence in the case.

And when that expert witness refuses to play along, the D.A. then asked a judge to throw out the report written by the city's own expert witness. 

Because when Larry Krasner goes after cops, he's out to win at all costs.

Sadly, in court today, a rookie judge who thought she was being so smart was dumb enough to fall for it.