for BigTrial.net
District Attorney Larry Krasner loves to indict cops, even when there's no evidence to back it up.
Today, Krasner's reckless and irresponsible behavior blew up in his face. Former Staff Inspector Joseph Bologna walked out of court a free man after a judge threw out all the charges against him for lack of evidence.
At a preliminary hearing in Municipal Court, the dismissed charges against Bologna included reckless endangerment, possession of an instrument of crime, and felony aggravated assault.
Bologna was accused of striking a protester, Evan Gorski, in the head with his metal baton, which, according to the D.A., required 10 staples and 10 sutures to close Groski's head wounds.
But when it comes to indicting cops, D.A. Krasner sees only want he wants to see. In video of the June 1st incident, which was broken down frame by frame in the courtroom, no such blow from Bologna's baton was seen striking Gorski's head. Neither was any blood visible, nor any gaping head wound.
Instead, a frame-by-frame breakdown of the video showed that the trajectory of Bologna's baton was nowhere near Gorski's head. The video also showed that when Bologna's baton struck Gorski, the point of impact was on Gorski's backpack, which covered his left shoulder blade, which, under department regulations, was an acceptable use of force.
On the witness stand, Gorski, a Temple University engineering student, claimed he was exercising his First Amendment rights at a George Floyd protest. But Gorski admitted that he was interfering with Bologna as the officer was trying to arrest a young man wearing a pink bandana in the video.
The unidentified man in the pink bandana is seen spraying Bologna with an unidentified liquid shot from a spray bottle. On the witness stand, Gorski said the man in the pink bandana was a friend and co-worker at the Apple store.
Gorski also testified that he grabbed Bologna's baton. In the video, Gorski was seen throwing the baton into a crowd while Gorski was on the ground, being subdued by Bologna and other cops.
Case dismissed.
Gorski had been charged with assaulting a police officer. But in the theater of the absurd that is Larry Krasner's D.A.'s office, the charges against Gorski were dismissed by the D.A.
Then, none of the charges the D.A. filed against Bologna stuck. It was a humiliating defeat for Krasner, who now has 30 days to decide whether he will re-file charges against Bologna.
Logic would say to quit while you're behind, but when it comes to indicting cops, Krasner doesn't operate under logic.
Predictably, Krasner, who has stonewalled Big Trial for the past 18 months, told a couple of reporters at The Philadelphia Inquirer, Krasner's favorite local news outlet, that he intended to refile the charges against Bologna.
Brilliant move, Larry. Retry the same sad case with the same lack of evidence, but expect a different result. We look forward to your next humiliating defeat.
Outside the courtroom, where reporters were prevented from being spectators, Fortunato Perri and Brian McMonagle, Bologna's lawyers said that Bologna is now eligible to be reinstated as a cop. But that's a family decision that hasn't been made yet.
Bologna declined to talk to reporters.
While it famously took the D.A.'s office five weeks to get around to charging all the alleged killers of Corporal James O'Connor, Krasner moved fast against former Staff Inspector Bologna.
A day after a video of alleged brutality hit the Inquirer and YouTube, Krasner announced his intention to charge Bologna with felony aggravated assault. The prosecution was based on an amazingly quick investigation conducted by Sgt. Gerald Rocks Jr., interim head of the D.A.'s detectives, who declined comment on his hasty and obviously defective work.
Bologna, 54, chief of operations for the department's bicycle patrol bureau, was ordered to turn himself in.
"We are trying to be fair," Krasner claimed in a statement to the media. "Accountability has to be equal, and this moment demands a swift and evenhanded response to violent and criminal acts."
Yeah, right.
Krasner and Bologna have a history. When Krasner was a criminal defense lawyer who sued the police department 75 times, Krasner represented many drug dealers who had been arrested by Bologna's officers, when Bologna was head of the Eastern Division of the police department's Narcotics Field Unit.
Gorski was accused of assaulting a police officer by pushing Frank Palumbo, who at the time, along with Bologna, was coming to the aid of a fellow bicycle cop who had been pushed down to the ground by other protesters, and broke his hand.
Today's result in court was a foregone conclusion. When I wrote about the pathetic case against Bologna on Sept. 28th, the witnesses in Bologna's defense included former Police Commissioner Richard Ross, who told Bologna's defense team that the arrest of Bologna "should have never happened."
In that Sept. 28th blog post, I made this prediction:
"Fortunately for Bologna, the D.A.'s office under Krasner is so incompetent -- and Bologna's lawyers, Fortunato Perri and Brian McMonagle are so good -- that my prediction is Bologna walks."
Today, that prediction came true.