For Smug And Lawless Larry Krasner, Finally A Comeuppance

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

For District Attorney Larry Krasner, it was time for some well-deserved comeuppance after his smug arrogance and lawless nature finally caught up with him.

On Monday, an angry federal judge, U.S. District Court Judge Mitchell Goldberg, officially sanctioned the D.A.'s office for an "egregious" and "exceptional" lack of candor, which in legal speak means that the judge got pissed after he caught three of Krasner's top supervisors repeatedly lying to him.

Then, the federal judge ordered Krasner to personally apologize in writing to a crime victim, as well as three of her family members, for not informing her and them -- as required by law -- that Krasner had intervened in the case and was conspiring with defense lawyers to let the vicious killer of her parents off death row.

As D.A., Krasner a former career criminal defense lawyer, has routinely placed the welfare of criminals  above the rights of crime victims, whom he often callously ignores in his progressive crusade to empty the jails. At issue with Judge Goldberg was the case of Robert Wharton, who, with a co-defendant, was convicted in 1984 of strangling and drowning to death a minister's son and his wife. 

After Wharton and his co-defendant got through brutally murdering the couple and ransacking their home, they turned off the heat in the dead of winter and left the couple's infant daughter, then 7-months old, alone to freeze to death. Before they left, the killers even stole the infant's crib. This is the crime victim, now 38, whom Krasner had intentionally snubbed.

Then, on Tuesday, an angry state House of Representatives decided, in a massive 162-38 vote, to hold Krasner in contempt for failing to honor a subpoena issued by a house committee that's investigating whether to impeach the D.A.

The vote by the Republican dominated legislature, according to the Inquirer and KYW, included 51 Democrats across the state, as well as 10 Democrats from Philadelphia, all of whom crossed the aisle to publicly censure Lawless Larry.

The pro-Krasner Inquirer described the state House of Representatives' vote to hold Krasner in contempt as "a highly unusual move that even the measure’s sponsor told House colleagues he’d never seen before."

State Rep. John Lawrence, a Republican who represents parts of Chester and Lancaster counties and is the chairman of the house select committee investigating Krasner, told the newspaper that the D.A. had “willfully neglected” the subpoena and was treating it like “a worthless piece of paper.”

“What is at issue today is nothing less than the institutional authority” of the legislative body, an outraged Lawrence told the Inquirer. According to the pro-Krasner newspaper, the penalties for being in contempt of the legislature include jail.

Holy Progressive Nightmare! But, as many of us know, that's where Krasner belongs.

On top of that, two Philadelphia Democrats were actually quoted in the newspaper I refer to as The Daily Democrat as slamming Krasner. 

“At the end of the day, the question was: ‘Did he not comply with the subpoena, and is he in contempt?” said State Rep. Mary Isaacson, a Democrat who represents Center City, Northern Liberties, and Fishtown told the Inquirer. “And the answer is yes.”

Jared Solomon, another Democrat from Northeast Philadelphia, made what the Inquirer described as a "pointed comparison." Solomon told the newspaper that Krasner’s defiance the law was “exactly the same” as that of Steve Bannon. The longtime Donald Trump confidante was convicted of contempt of Congress for failing to comply with subpoenas in its investigation of the Jan. 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol.

“It’s about the constitutional powers that we as an institution have, and whether the law is to be respected or not,” Solomon the Philadelphia Democrat told the newspaper.

So even Democratic elected officials are publicly turning on Krasner.

Our lawless D.A. kicked off his week by holding a joint press-conference on Monday with the mayor and police commissioner at the Mathematics, Civics and Sciences Charter School on North Broad Street.

This was another display of arrogance by Krasner, allegedly the city's top law enforcement officer.

Why? 

Because charter schools are financed by city taxpayers. And Krasner is a habitual tax deadbeat who, on the day he held the press conference at the charter school, owed the city back taxes of $80,451.90.

It's an ongoing scandal that no reporter in the city to date has had the balls to confront Krasner about.

In the subpoena that state legislators served on Krasner, they asked for the "complete case file" and records of the corrupt grand jury proceedings in the prosecution of former Philadelphia Police Officer Ryan Pownall. 

It's a case where state Supreme Court Justice Kevin Dougherty has written in a concurring opinion that was “driven by a win-at-all-cost office culture” that "treats police officers differently than other criminal defendants."

"This is the antithesis of what the law expects of a prosecutor," Dougherty wrote, adding that under the law, a prosecutor is supposed to be a "minister of justice."

In his concurring opinion, Justice Dougherty wrote that Krasner's office neglected to inform the grand jury about the relevant case law involving justifiable use of force by a police officer so it would produce a "slanted" grand jury report that Krasner could feed to the media. So they would tar and feather Pownall before he goes on trial this fall. 

This is another scandal that not one reporter in the city has had the balls to confront Krasner about.

But despite the temerity of the local media, the tide may be turning against Krasner.

Democrats in the state legislature aren't the only ones turning on Krasner. At the D.A.'s press conference held on Monday, no sitting member of the City Council, nor any of the four council members who just resigned to run for mayor, dared to show up beside Krasner in front of a roomful of reporters and TV cameras.

And during the press conference, while Krasner was taking questions, a visibly agitated Mayor Kenney and his security detail was seen hastily exiting the building while Krasner was still talking. 

Apparently the mayor wanted to beat it before any reporter could ask him questions about either the D.A. or the latest round of senseless Philadelphia murders.

And for a fat man, Kenney was moving pretty fast as he hit the exits.

A sure sign that Krasner is in trouble is that at 7:30 tonight at Mother Bethel AME Church at 419 S. 6th Street, the city's Black Clergy, the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers are holding a joint rally.

According to a notice sent out by the Lawerence Krasner for District Attorney committee, the rally is being held to "support Larry" against the forces of "fascism" who are trying to "overturn the election because they don't like our reform policies."

Wait till those 51 Democrats in the state house of representatives find out that in voting to hold Krasner in contempt, they're a bunch of fascists!

In the case of the Commonwealth v. Wharton, the D.A.'s office under Larry Krasner was trying to convince Judge Goldberg to let Robert Wharton off death row. In doing so, the D.A.'s office claimed that Wharton the convicted killer had supposedly rehabilitated himself while in prison. 

In making that argument, however, the three supervisors in the D.A.'s office neglected to tell the judge that in 1986, the supposedly rehabilitated Wharton had tried to escape a courtroom in City Hall, and was only stopped after he was shot twice by a sheriff's deputy.

The D.A.'s office also neglected to inform Judge Goldberg about the six times that Wharton had been disciplined in prison, twice after he was caught with pieces of a metal antenna that Wharton had fashioned into a key to unlock his handcuffs.

The D.A.'s office also misled the judge into believing that they had gotten around to notifying the only surviving daughter of the murder victims, as well as their family, and that nobody supposedly had objected to letting Robert Wharton off death row.

In delivering his sanctions on the D.A.'s office, Judge Goldberg noted that during a two-hour hearing, he asked David Rudovsky, a longtime Krasner ally who was representing the three supervisors, for an explanation as to why the D.A.'s office, after decades of defending the death penalty conviction of Robert Wharton, was suddenly reversing course.

And, the judge noted in his memorandum opinion, Rudovsky replied, "We don’t think any explanation is necessary . . .  We are not bringing [the attorneys] in to explain anything.”

When asked if the public deserved an explanation for the turn-around, the judge noted, Rudovsky arrogantly replied, “Absolutely not.” 

In his opinion, Judge Goldberg noted that in claiming that Wharton had rehabilitated himself in prison, none of the D.A.'s filings in the case "contained any mention of possibly the worst type of prison adjustment — a violent escape from City Hall in 1986 and subsequent escape conviction."

"The District Attorney’s Office continues to press that although it is a public, prosecuting office, a heightened duty of candor does not apply to its communications with the Court," the judge concluded.

And when the judge called the D.A.'s office on its lack of candor, "the District Attorney’s Office has steadfastly insisted that it has done nothing wrong, owes no explanation, and will provide none," the judge wrote. 

Once again, the arrogance of Larry Krasner came back to bite him.

In sanctioning the D.A.'s office, Judge Goldberg spelled out the penalty for its lack of candor. He also directed the sanctions personally at Krasner:

"First, within thirty (30) days of the filing of this opinion, the District Attorney’s Office shall send separate written apologies to victim family members Tony Hart, Michael Allen, Patrice Carr, and to victim Lisa Hart-Newman for representing that it engaged in 'communication with the victims’ family,'" the judge wrote.

"As the testimony of the two Law Division supervisors was that the District Attorney approved and implemented internal procedures that created the need for this sanction, and that the District Attorney had the sole, ultimate authority to direct that the misleading Notice of Concession be filed, the apologies shall come from the District Attorney, Lawrence Krasner, personally," the judge wrote.

"Copies of the apologies shall be filed with the Court."

During the two-hour hearing where Judge Goldberg grilled Krasner's top supervisors, one last act of hypocrisy in the D.A.'s office was revealed.

It happened when Nancy Winkelman, the supervisor of the D.A.'s law division, gave a speech to the judge about being a woman of integrity.

"My professional reputation is extraordinarily important to me," Deputy District Attorney Winkelman told Judge Goldberg.

"My integrity, my reputation, my candor, my ethics have never been questioned. And it's something I take very, very seriously," she told the judge, adding that she was "stunned" to learn that Goldberg had dared to question her integrity.

But this self-proclaimed woman of integrity, who gets paid $176,171 a year, was subsequently revealed to be using a phony address to get around the City Charter's residency requirement.

Twice last year, Winkelman declared on campaign finance reports that she lives in a rundown rental property featuring one and two-bedroom apartments with a coffin in front at 650 S. 51st Street in West Philadelphia.

But Winkelman, who, as an employee of the D.A.'s office since 2018, is required by the city charter to live in Philadelphia, really lives in a house on a scenic lake in scenic Medford Lakes, N.J.

She's one of three top supervisors in Krasner's office who earn a total of more than $500,000, but have been publicly outed by Big Trial for being carpetbaggers flagrantly violating the residency requirement.

I tried to ask Krasner about the carpetbaggers in his office during an Aug. 29th press conference. But Krasner's response was to abruptly end his press conference and run away from me past a bunch of bewildered invited guests, including City Council Member Kendra Brooks, who were left to wonder what was going on.

But Krasner couldn't run away from Judge Goldberg. And now he can't run away from that subpoena from the state House of Representatives.  

A subpoena that will expose the egregious prosecutorial misconduct in the case of Ryan Pownall, where Krasner in secret tampered with the evidence and the law presented to a grand jury so he could falsely indict a cop for murder.

It's evidence of egregious prosecutorial misconduct that may be presented at an impeachment trial in the state Senate. That's another proceeding that Krasner won't be able to run away from.