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for BigTrial.net
On Friday, when the Philly D.A.'s office was closed due to frigid weather, assistant district attorneys were getting calls on their cell phones, telling them to come right down to the office.
Inside, people were lined up, waiting to be fired.
The first list of the newly fired people that went up had 28 names on it. The man on the right, Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington, was No. 25 on that list.
But by the end of the day, a new list of 31 names went up. And Blessington's name was nowhere to be found. Rumor had it that some last-minute lobbying had saved the job of the lead prosecutor in the case of Msgr. William J. Lynn.
Blessington, who had been targeted in the "Porngate" scandal -- unfairly, truth be told, because he supposedly never opened any of the pornographic emails sent to his cue -- had been spared in the purge by Krasner.
"District Attorney Lawrence S. Krasner requests the resignations of the following," the memo from the new chief of staff said, "with the understanding that they are not to return."
Three of the names on the list were circled, highlighting the ADAs with gun permits.
So if Krasner chooses to retry the Lynn case, he still has Blessington around to prosecute. But Deputy District Attorney Ronald Eisenberg, the head of the D.A.'s law division, resigned before the purge to take a new job with the state attorney general's office. And Hugh J. Burns Jr., chief of the D.A.'s appeal unit, was No. 2 on the second list of people fired.
So the two men who worked on the appeals that kept the Lynn case going, when the monsignor's conviction was twice overturned, are gone.
Here's the first lis that went up:
1. Derek Riker
2. Mike Barry
3. Andrew Notar
4. Stacy Hughes
5. Laurie Moore
6. Tom Lipscomb
7. Gwen Cudjik
8. Carlos Vega
9. John Delaney
10 Jan McDermott
11. Jen Hoffman
12. Jim Carpenter
13. Nicole Pedicinio
14. Brian Zarallo
15. Yvonne Ruiz
16. Michelle Seidner
17. Melissa Francis
18. Mark Gilson
19. Joe Whitehead
20. Tami Levin
21. Caroline Keating
22. Lauren Realberg
23. Namratha Ravikant
24. Jason Kleinman
25. Pat Blessington
26. Mark Constanzo
27. Greg Rowe
28. ADA Cavanaugh [First name missing]
Here's the second list:
1. Michael Barry
2. Hugh Burns
3. James Carpenter
4. Thomas Carter Sr.
5. E. Mark Constanzo
6. Gwen Cudjik
7. John Delaney
8. Monique Wescott
9. Melissa Francis
10. Elizabeth Graham-Rubin
11. Mark Gilson
12. Robin Godfrey
13. Jennifer Hoffman
14. Stacey Hughes
15.Salena Jones
16. Jason Kleinman
17. Bridget Kirn
18. Tami Levin
19. Laquan Lightfoot
20. Thomas Lipscomb
21. Carl Mahler
22 Carolyn McGlynn-Keating
23. Laurie Moore
24. Andrew Notaristefano
25. Nicole Pedecino
26. Namratha Ravikant
27. Lauren Realberg
28. Derek Riker
29. Greg Rowe
30. Yvonne Ruiz
31. Michelle Seidner
32. Joseph Whitehead