for BigTrial.net
Attention District Attorney Larry Krasner -- it looks like your latest attempt to cover up yet another scandal in your office has failed.
Police sources say the feds are investigating a road rage incident involving a top Krasner aide and an FBI agent.
On the morning of June 11th, G. Lamar Stewart, Krasner's chief of community engagement, allegedly responded to a motorist who swerved into his lane on Lincoln Drive by turning on his flashing lights and sirens, and ordering the driver to pull over, only to discover that the offending motorist was an FBI agent.
It was an unauthorized stop by Stewart. According to regulations of both the police department and D.A.'s office, traffic stops are only supposed to be made by armed cops in uniform driving marked police cars.
Stewart, however, was dressed un plainclothes and driving an unmarked police car; he also wasn't carrying a gun, the police said. So when FBI Agent Joseph Donahue flashed his badge at Stewart and asked who he was, Stewart, according to what the FBI agent told Philadelphia police, took off, with the FBI agent in pursuit, as well as cops from the 14th district who responded to a radio call for help.
When Krasner was asked about the alleged road rage incident at a June 14th press conference, instead of giving a straight answer, the D.A. attacked the messenger. Krasner told the assembled reporters that your humble Big Trial correspondent was "highly unreliable," not "truthful," and "should write fiction."
So OK Mr. Krasner, what do you have to say now? As he has for the past 22 months, Krasner, the "reform" D.A. who pledged to run the most honest and transparent D.A.'s office ever, did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did two of his alleged spokespersons.
Besides talking to the FBI agent, the feds, according to police sources, also want to interview a female police officer from the Philly P.D. who has come forward to report a similar incident. Last November, when the female officer was driving to work in plainclothes at 11 p.m., police sources say, G. Lamar Stewart of the D.A.'s office pulled up alongside the officer and tried to pull her over.
And when she asked who he was, according to police sources, G. Lamar Stewart of the D.A.'s office took off.
In both incidents, G. Lamar Stewart of the D.A.'s office was allegedly driving an unmarked black Ford Crown Victoria. Stewart has a 2008 black Crown Vic assigned to him from the D.A.'s motor pool.
According to police sources, a second female officer is also rumored to be coming forward to say that G. Lamar Stewart of the D.A.'s office attempted to pull her over as well.
The possible charges Stewart could be facing include abuse of authority and false imprisonment.
This isn't looking good for Krasner, because there seems to be a persistent problem in the D.A.'s office with Krasner's top aides getting involved in road rage incidents, and then trying to make unauthorized stops on other motorists.
Last fall, Anthony Voci, then Krasner's head of homicide was accused in another alleged road rage incident of abusing his authority when he allegedly pulled over a young black female motorist. When the motorist supposedly panicked and took off, Voci allegedly led a police posse back to her house, where she was arrested and her car impounded.
At the time of the alleged road rage incident, Voci was in plainclothes and riding his motorcycle back from a crime scene when he ordered the woman to pull over. She has subsequently filed a civil rights lawsuit against Voci, the D.A.'s office, the cops who arrested her, and the city.
Voci joins a long list of Krasner's employees who have been accused of unethical and illegal behavior, such as lying to judges, trying to intimidate a detective into changing the results of a criminal investigation of a police shooting, leaving a four-year-old child abandoned in a locked car, stealing porn from a stripper, and shooting a male prostitute to death.
I detailed all of the unethical and illegal behavior of Krasner and his staffers in a previous post. Be forewarned, it's a long list.
As Carlos Vega, who ran unsuccessfully for D.A. in last month's Democratic primary, said repeatedly on the campaign trail, there is no accountability in the D.A.'s office.