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| Larry Krasner Orders Detective To Evict Reporter |
for BigTrial.net
At a press conference today, I tried to ask District Attorney Larry Krasner a question.
Actually, I tried to ask him a question three different times.
The first time I spoke up, Krasner issued a stern warning.
"That is not how we proceed," Krasner admonished me. After four years of presiding over free-for-all press conferences, the D.A. now maintains that reporters no longer have the right to speak up and ask him a question. Instead, the D.A. says, like kindergarteners at show-and-tell, they have to be called on first before they can speak.
And the one reporter Krasner never calls on is me.
"Anyone who cannot observe those rules can leave and can leave now or be escorted out," the D.A. warned the press corps.
The second time today that I dared to ask the D.A. a question, Krasner gave me another warning. The next and last time I asked, Krasner hit the eject button.
"Sir, that is the third time," Krasner said, pointing his right index finger toward the exits. "Detective [Tom] Kolenkiewicz, will you please escort him out."
As the dictatorial Krasner looked on, Detective Kolenkiewicz grabbed my arm. And then the detective and another member of the D.A.'s security team, Police Officer Chad Jeter, plus a third security officer from the church where Krasner was holding his press conference, surrounded me and escorted me out of the building.
My crime: daring to ask the D.A. a question at a press conference.
A little background here. For three years, I wrote more than a hundred stories documenting the unprecedented incompetence and corruption of the District Attorney's office under "Let 'Em Loose" Larry Krasner. At a time when the city was and still is setting historic records for bloodshed in the form of murders, shootings and carjackings.
More than 60 of those stories are archived on my own website, ralphcipriano.com. If you check it out, you'll see that I frequently have the goods on Krasner.
Each time I wrote one of these stories, I would dutifully email Krasner and Jane Roh, his official spokesperson, and ask for comment.
And for more than a hundred straight times, Krasner and Roh stiffed me. They never responded to any of my questions.
So a month ago, I started attending Krasner's press conferences. And that's when Krasner started changing the rules of his press conferences, to no longer allow reporters to shout questions at him.
The first time I went, Krasner told the reporters that they could only ask him questions about community swimming pools, which on that day he was bravely speaking out in favor of.
If a reporter had a question about another subject, Krasner said, they had to dutifully line up in the hallway, like Catholics at Saturday night confession, to have a private one-on-one conference behind closed doors with the D.A.
When the D.A. got through answering all the other reporters' questions in those private sessions, he literally hustled out of the building rather than talk to me.
The second time I went to a Krasner press conference, he again said that he didn't want any one shouting questions at him. Krasner then stated he would take questions from the reporters starting from his right, and working all the way to his left.
I was on his extreme left. And when he got to me, Krasner abruptly ended the press conference and on the way out the door, he wouldn't answer any of my questions.
At the third press conference I attended, Krasner again insisted on calling on by name every other reporter the room, including a shy young intern at one of the local TV stations, so they could take turns lobbing him softballs, in English and Spanish.
And when they were finally done, the D.A. abruptly ended the press conference, and headed for the exits. He was protected by a couple of bodyguards who physically prevented your Big Trial correspondent from confronting him as he hustled out of the room.
At today's press conference, held at the Emmanuel Christian Center Inc. at 5913 Chestnut Street, Krasner was speaking out about the convictions of two gang members indicted by a grand jury for their roles in a series of shootings that occurred in 2018 and 2019, in the Overbrook and Mantua sections of the city.
One of those gang members was Xavier Veney, who was already sentenced by the feds on Jan. 13th of this year to 30 months in jail after he pleaded guilty to being a felon in illegal possession of a firearm.
Veney was accused by the grand jury in the gang wars of Overbrook and Mantua of the non-fatal shootings of a 19 year old and a 21 year-old, plus the nonfatal shooting of a 54 year-old innocent bystander.
On July 28th, Veney pleaded guilty to two charges of aggravated assault and one count of carrying unlicensed firearms. It was a negotiated plea bargain with the D.A.'s office that involved a prison sentence of 8 to 16 years, to be served concurrently with Veney's federal sentence.
So twice, I tried to ask Krasner about Veney's new sentence, which, when subtracted from his previous federal sentence, amounted to an extra five and a half years in prison for shooting three people!
To me, it seemed like a light sentence, especially compared with Krasner's tough talk at today's press conference about "people who are shooting other people."
According to Krasner, he wants to put those people "in fear that they're going to get caught."
"Make no mistake, we're coming for you," Krasner bragged. "We already know a lot more than you think. We're gonna get you. What ever you're doing; you better stop now."
So the first time I tried to ask Krasner about Veney's light sentence, he refused to answer.
Instead, he said, "I'm calling on Matt Petrillo" of CBS Philly. "Mr. Petrillo, do you have any questions?"
Petrillo, clearly a Krasner favorite among the press corps, proceeded to ask a series of innocuous questions about a shooting in Brewerytown.
When it did, I took that opportunity to pipe up again to ask about Veney's light sentence.
But Krasner wasn't going to answer my question. Instead, he threatened me with eviction.
"Sir, that's your second warning," Krasner said. "You keep it up, you're gonna have to leave," he said, before calling on Kristen Johanson of KYW.
"You are not responding to my questions," I protested to Krasner. "What's my alternative? This is a press conference."
Johanson, much to Krasner's surprise, asked a series of tough questions that ended with asking Krasner if he was going to drop murder charges against former police officer Ryan Pownall.
"No," Krasner defiantly said.
Since Johanson had opened the door, I decided to ask Krasner about a blistering opinion from Kevin Dougherty, a state Supreme Court justice no less, who had accused Krasner of abusing the grand jury process in indicting Pownall for murder.
"What about Kevin Dougherty," I asked.
"I am asking you to leave," Krasner said. "You have three times violated the rules of how we do this. Please exit."
That's when I found myself surrounded by three security officers, two from the D.A.'s office, and one from the church.
The detective from the D.A.'s office accused me of breaking the rules of a press conference by repeatedly interrupting Krasner, and being disrespectful to our reform D.A.
I tried to explain to him that this was nonsense, that Krasner changed the rules for his press conferences every week, and that I had no choice but to interrupt him since he wouldn't call on me.
"I was 'respectful' for three weeks," I told the security guys, and it got me nowhere.
The security officer from the church advised me to leave voluntarily so the guys from the D.A.'s office "don't have to take you out physically."
While I was unsuccessfully arguing my case, Krasner was up at the podium telling the rest of the reporters, "I apologize for the fact that this press conference is being interrupted."
"I apologize for the fact that the legitimate media who are here to ask questions are being interrupted," he continued. "If you would just bear with me for a moment," he said, until the security officers guided me safely out of the building.
Outside the church's locked doors, I waited for Krasner. When he finally came out, I reminded him that he was formerly a civil rights lawyer, and that as D.A., he had just violated my civil rights by having me removed from a press conference. A press conference where I, as a reporter, had every First Amendment right to be there and ask him questions.
Krasner, of course, had his head down and didn't want to talk. Instead, he wanted to escape.
"What are you afraid of sir, what are you afraid of?" I asked as he drove off.