By Ralph Ciprianofor BigTrial.net
When you cover a trial, you run into everybody in the men's room.
The prosecutors, the defense lawyers. Even the defendant, Rufus Seth Williams.
Talk about an uncomfortable situation. There I was face to face at the sink with the guy I've been ripping for the past six years.
I've called the D.A. out for publishing an irresponsible grand jury report about the Catholic Church that was riddled with more than 20 factual errors; a grand jury report that passed off as gospel the fraudulent fables told by "Billy Doe."
I've castigated the D.A. for not prosecuting perpetrators of domestic abuse, because it might lower his conviction rate at election time.
And his response for six straight years has been to stonewall me.
So. while covering his political corruption trial, the day after I called him a sleaze ball and a shakedown artist in print, when I ran into him in the men's room, I did not expect Rufus Seth Williams to thank me for my work.
But he did. What he was happy about was that I had publicly expressed skepticism about the relatively paltry official acts that the feds had accused him of selling his office for. In exchange for the free gifts he was taking as a "thankful beggar," such as free airplane tickets, a chocolate-colored sofa and a beat-up old Jaguar convertible.
Imagine meeting you here, he said with a big smile. To my surprise, he actually wanted to talk. He told me that his defense lawyers, Tom Burke and Trevan Borum, were old friends who had stood by him. Two guys he had met back in 1992, on the first day they all reported to the D.A.'s office as brand new assistant district attorneys.
The next day of the trial, I wrote about Mohammed Ali, the shady businessman who was allegedly bribing the D.A. Ali had more than $200 million in his bank account, and the feds had him under surveillance as a suspected money launderer. But the feds never charged Ali with money-laundering after he agreed to become a cooperating witness against the D.A. That was the real quid pro quo in the case, Tom Burke told the jury.
Seth liked what I wrote so much this time that he actually came over in the courtroom, addressed me by name [for the first time in six years], and shook my hand.
On trial for his life, Rufus Seth Williams figured he still he had the touch. One on one, with somebody who'd been ripping him for six years, he thought he was still such a charmer that he could play me.
Amazing. I wound up thinking to myself, and not for the first time, that this wasn't a mature individual I was dealing with. This was a man child, a flimflam artist, the worst kind of con man who actually believes his own B.S.
Someone who never accepts responsibility for his actions. Someone who always blames others. Someone who doesn't even consider, let alone understand, the consequences of his actions when it comes to hurting other people.
Even when he sends an innocent priest off to jail, where he dies, as in the case of Father Charles Engelhardt.
Rufus Seth Williams is somebody who thinks he can always con anybody, no matter what.
From that angle, the trial of Seth Williams was an immensely satisfying public spectacle. Because for perhaps the first time in his life, the man child was held responsible for his actions. Even though in his last moments on the public stage he was still playing everybody, doing his crying act about not having any money left, and no car, only a bicycle to peddle around with.
But this time he didn't get away with it; this time, a judge refused to buy it.
"I don't believe you," Judge Paul S. Diamond told the man child. You have no credibility, the judge said. That's when the judge ordered the marshals to take Williams into custody.
And the man child, who had had been coddled all his life, now has almost four months to sit alone in his 8 x 10 cell at the SHU. Where, without any cell phones or computers to distract him, and only a few visitors, he can ponder the consequences of his actions.
So on one end, it was satisfying to see the man-child not get away with it. Keep in mind that eight years ago, Rufus Seth Williams, then a candidate for D.A., was hauled into the city's Election Court and kicked off the ballot, after he got in trouble for playing with his mother's credit cards and screwing up his campaign finances.
He learned nothing. Instead, over the next eight years, he kept doing the same things. And taking money and freebies from lowlife friends like Mohammad Ali and Michael Weiss. And thinking he would get away with it forever.
My overriding thought is how on earth did this irresponsible man-child get to be the highest law enforcement officer in Philadelphia? How many people knew he was a fraud, but said nothing?
That's when this trial becomes a nauseating spectacle. Because the media and the government can now pretend that the corruption of Rufus Seth Williams has been hermetically sealed; confined to a few sordid relationships with a couple of sleaze ball business guys.
And that when it came to justice, somehow this completely corrupt individual who would sell his office and steal from his own mother always did the right thing.
And now, thanks to a chain of events set in motion by the corruption of Rufus Seth Williams, Larry Krasner, a Black Lives Matter ideologue, is about to take over as our new D.A.
And plunge the city further into lawlessness.
It's not enough that Rufus Seth Williams staged a with hunt of the Catholic Church, and used a fraudulent victim to send four innocent men to jail.
It's not enough that Williams smeared six narcotics officers and irresponsibly freed more than 800 drug dealers, so they could collect millions of dollars in cash from the taxpayers, and commit more crimes.
It's not enough that Williams wouldn't prosecute perpetrators of domestic violence, even though the cops had suspects in custody, because he was worried about lowering his conviction rate.
Now, the city of Philadelphia is prepared to sink even lower with Larry Krasner as our D.A.
We're replacing a criminal with a lawyer who has dedicated his life to setting as many criminals free as possible.
And the media and the government get to pretend that the only thing Seth Williams did wrong was help himself to a few free vacations, a free sofa, and a beat-up old Jaguar.
Everybody's off the hook. While we're getting ready to sink even lower into the abyss.