for BigTrial.net
"Play it again," Judge Crystal Bryant-Powell said.
Five straight times, the prosecutor played the 36-second cell phone video that showed former Staff Inspector Joe Bologna striking Evan Gorski, then a 21-year-old protester, with a single blow from his foot-long extendable metal baton known as an ASP.
On June 1, 2020, Gorski was one of approximately, 1,500 protesters who were headed eastbound on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway toward Interstate 676. As head of the city police's vastly outnumbered bike patrol, Staff Inspector Bologna's assignment was to keep the protesters from posing an imminent danger to themselves and TO motorists by illegally shutting down I-676 traffic during rush hour.
As the judge admitted, the scene on the Parkway that day last summer was "mayhem." Protesters were throwing rocks, frozen water bottles and spraying urine at the cops. When Gorski attempted to interfere with another cop who was attempting to arrest another protester, Bologna swung his baton at Gorski, striking a backpack on Gorksi's left shoulder. As Bologna pinned Gorski on the ground and placed him under arrest, a woman can be heard on the video repeatedly screaming "Fuck you" at Bologna.
The D.A. had claimed that Bologna's baton had struck Gorski in the head, causing a blow that required a dozen staples to close. But a slow-motion replay of the video clearly showed that Bologna's baton struck Gorski's backpack on his left shoulder. That's why in Municipal Court last January, Judge Henry Lewandowski threw out all the charges that cop-hating D.A. Larry Krasner had filed against Bologna.
But Krasner refiled the charges against Bologna. So in Judge Bryant-Powell's courtroom today, the D.A. got lucky. As Bologna's wife and fellow cops watched in dismay, a rookie judge reprised the role of a TV rules analyst at a football game by playing the cell phone video of the protest at least nine times before she finally gave her expert analysis.
And when she got through, former staff Inspector Joe Bologna was held over on $10,000 bail for a criminal trial scheduled next March 15th in Municipal Court.
Judge Bryant-Powell, a Democrat of course, was elected in November, 2019. She's served on the bench since January 2020, some 20 months, but for almost a year during that time the courts were closed because of the pandemic.
So when the rookie judge broke down the video, she saw something different than Judge Lewandowski.
When Bologna raised his baton, the judge said about Gorski, "He clearly retreats. He pulls back. He immediately cowers."
When Judge Lewandowski threw out the charges against Bologna, his lawyers called an expert witness to explain Bologna's actions in the heat of battle.
Sgt. Kenneth Gill, the lead use of force instructor for the Philadelphia Police Department, testified that the use of force displayed by Bologna in the video was “absolutely justified” under the Philadelphia Use of Force Directives. Specifically, Sgt. Gill cited Section 10.123, which permits the use of the ASP if a person is grabbing a police officer.
But Judge Bryant-Powell said that when Bologna went after Gorski, the staff inspector took a step toward the protester as he raised his baton.
"Is it responsible that he went that extra step," the judge asked about Bologna's stride toward Gorski. The judge seemed to be wondering whether Bologna could have halted the swing of his baton in mid-stride.
The judge did admonish Gorski, who was in the courtroom with his father, for interfering with an officer.
"He had no business" interfering with the officer, the judge said. "He could have gotten himself killed."
The prosecutor conceded the point. "I agree he should not have done that," he said.
After she spent nearly an hour under the hood in chambers, where she went over the video again and again, Judge Bryant-Powell emerged to give her ruling.
She dismissed two felony counts of aggravated assault that the D.A. had filed against Bologna, because she didn't think the D.A. had proved that Bologna had committed an aggravated assault against Gorski. The judge also tossed a third misdemeanor charge against Bologna for reckless endangerment
But the judge decided to hold Bologna over for trial on two misdemeanor counts of simple assault, and possession of an instrument crime, namely his ASP.
In court today, Bologna's lawyers, Fred Perri and Brian McMonagle, submitted two reports from Dr. Sam Gulino, the city of Philadelphia's former medical examiner. Gulino concluded that Bologna never struck Gorski in the head, but rather in his left upper back, leaving a telltale bruise behind.
Gulino also concluded that when both Bologna and Gorski hit the ground, "Bologna’s bicycle helmet made contact with Mr. Gorski’s head, causing the scalp laceration" that required the dozen staples.
After Gulino made his initial report, Perri told the judge, Detective Jerry Rocks of the D.A.'s office, and Assistant District Attorney Tracy Tripp paid the medical examiner a visit.
What was the purpose of the visit? The ADA and the detective from the D.A.'s office were there to try and get the medical examiner to change his testimony.
Rocks and Tripp came to see the medical examiner bearing what they considered to be "additional information," Gulino told judge, to see if that additional information would "change his opinion."
Asked by the judge if the additional information from the D.A.'s office did indeed change his opinion, Gulino told the judge, "No, it didn't.
And after ADA Tripp and Detective Rocks didn't get any where the medical examiner, Perri told the judge, the D.A.'s office filed a motion "to preclude the admission of that report" from being admitted as evidence.
That's how they play the game at Larry Krasner's office when they're going after cops.
Win at all costs. Even if it means lying about the evidence, as in the video shows that Bologna struck the protester in the head, when the video clearly shows that he didn't.
Winning at all costs also includes sending an ADA and a detective out to try and intimidate an expert witness into changing his testimony about the evidence.
And when the expert witness doesn't play along, you ask a judge to throw out his report.
Win at all costs, that's how Larry Krasner plays the game when he's going after cops.
Sadly, in court today, a rookie judge who thought she was refereeing a football game was dumb enough to fall for it.