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Archive for “Seth Williams” news
If You Fake A SEPTA Injury, Seth Williams Will Hunt You Down
By Joel Mathis 5/22/2013
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Be on notice: If you try to make money by faking an injury on SEPTA, D.A. Seth Williams will hunt you down. The Pennsylvania Record reports that 10 people were arrested for insurance fraud last month for making such claims, up from four in all of January and February.
The latest? 46-year-old Sai Min Wang, who has been charged with insurance fraud, attempted theft by deception, and theft by deception stemming from a 2011 incident in which she claimed to be injured in a bus-on-taxi incident—telling her attorney she'd struck her head on an iron bar in the bus during the collision.
Surveillance
Inquirer Declines to Run Massive Ad Defending Catholic Church Sex Abusers
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 5/21/2013
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The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights is calling them the "Twin Philly Scandals."
Scandal #1: The District Attorney's shameful persecution of four members of the Philadelphia archdiocese, unjustly convicted of child sex abuse.
Scandal #2. The Philadelphia Inquirer's decision not to run a two-page ad in yesterday's edition, defending said convicted child sex abusers.
The Catholic League, an aggressive and steadfast advocate for Catholic priests and laymen accused/suspected/convicted of sexually abusing minors, wrote to the Inquirer on May 14th, asking them to run a two-page ad in their May 20th edition. The paper declined. The ad accuses the "ambitious" District Attorney Seth Williams
Philly Has Its Very Own Crime-Fighting Cory Booker
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 5/13/2013
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Finally, in the form of District Attorney Seth Williams, Philadelphia has its very own vigilante crime-stopping Cory Booker doppelganger:
Williams was driving along the 500 block of North 63rd Street in West Philadelphia Sunday evening when a car zoomed past in the wrong lane, according to his office. District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Tasha Jamerson says the DA’s security detail took chase and attempted to stop the car, but the driver, identified as Chanae Morris, continued to speed along the road.
The driver, 24-year-old Chanae Morris, proceeded to crash into another car. The DA's office has slapped her with a DUI, along with
D.A. Seth Williams Blasts Nutter Over Budget
By Joel Mathis 4/23/2013
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Just going to prove that no budget news is good news these days, both the local and federal court systems in Philadelphia are facing problems because of budget cuts.
Yesterday, the Inquirer reported that the federal Public Defender's Office in Philadelphia is laying off five staffers and ordering everybody else to take 10 unpaid furlough days by October. That's … a lot of furlough days. It's all due to $85 billion in "sequestration" cutbacks at the federal level, since President Obama and the GOP haven't found agreement on an actual federal budget. Thanks to that, automatic across-the-board cuts took place.
As the
Major New Gun Law Could be Coming to Philadelphia
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 4/05/2013
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If D.A. Seth Williams gets the support he needs in Harrisburg, a new state law will bring a mandatory 2-year prison sentence to anyone carrying an illegal firearm in Philadelphia. (The legislation would not affect any other cities.) According to Williams, speaking yesterday at a press conference, 85% of the 331 homicides that occurred last year were committed with guns, each one of them possessed illegally. There is bipartisan support for the bill among Philly-area legislators, but Republican House Majority leader Mike Turzai is skeptical, saying through a spokesman that existing gun laws work just fine. (Then again, there weren't
Seth Williams Was Following Pornographic Twitter Accounts
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 3/20/2013
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The Daily News, in an investigation almost as strange as the social media habits it revealed, found that District Attorney Seth Williams had until recently been following two pornographic Twitter accounts--@RateMyLatin and @RateMyEbony. Basically, both accounts post pictures of nude and scantily clad women who are either, well, 'Latin' or 'Ebony' along with lots of exclamation points and friendly requests for RTs if "you want to poke her with your tamale." Also, a lot of tweets about Kate Middleton. Williams stopped following both accounts on March 12th, and says he was unaware he was doing so until the Daily News
While You Weren’t Looking, Philly’s Homicide Rate Started Dropping
By Joel Mathis 3/18/2013
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Somebody should tell the district attorney this is like pitching a no-hitter: You don't want to talk about this stuff just in case you end up jinxing yourself:
In Philadelphia our homicide total is 42% lower than this date last year.We are making progress but still have lots of work ahead.
— Seth Williams (@DASethWilliams) March 18, 2013
Indeed, here are a pair of informative graphics from the Philadelphia Police Department. The murder rate really has fallen behind last year's rate.
And, of course, last year was a bit more of a nightmare than usual:
So what's different? Better law enforcing? Plain old luck? The
“Barbaric” Kermit Gosnell Apparently Mulling Plea Deal as Jury Selection Nears
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 3/01/2013
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Kermit Gosnell, the OB-GYN accused of killing newborn infants and performing illegal abortions, appeared to have been weighing a plea bargain yesterday at the city's Criminal Justice Center. After a two-hour session in which his lawyer relayed information between Gosnell and the Philadelphia D.A. lawyers prosecuting him, it was unclear if he had rejected the plea deal or not. All others involved in his West Philly operation but one have pleaded guilty to various charges. Jury selection for his trial begins Sunday. [Inquirer]
Seth Williams Taking on Mark Zuckerberg in Battle Over Snitching
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 2/04/2013
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who's in hot water with New Jersey Democrats for hosting a fundraiser for Chris Christie, is now pissing off one prominent PA Dem too. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams is publicly calling for Facebook to remove posts he says qualify as witness intimidation.
A 20-year-old Kensington man was charged in December with using the social networking site to threaten a woman who was testifying against his friends in a case involving straw purchases of firearms. The site has so far refused to remove posts Freddie Henriquez wrote declaring that he wanted to "kill rats," Williams said. He
Priest and Schoolteacher Found Guilty in Sex Abuse Case
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 1/31/2013
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After nine days of testimony and 20 hours of deliberation, a jury has convicted schoolteacher Bernard Shero and Reverand Charles Englehart each on multiple charges, stemming from their sexual abuse of a ten year-old altar boy in 1998 and 1999. The Philadelphia D.A. has already put another man, the defrocked priest William Avery, behind bars for charges stemming from the same case.
The defense "tried to victimize and demonize the victim," D.A. Seth Williams said after the jury delivered its verdict. "I'm very thankful that the jury listened and did what they did to hold these two men accountable and responsible
