for BigTrial.net
Less than a week before the Nov. 2nd election, D.A. Larry Krasner was downplaying the city's record murder rate, while bragging to reporters about his impending victory.
Meanwhile, this morning, the cops found the latest victim of Krasner's progressive policies bleeding in the streets.
Her name was Kaleigh Miller. And this wasn't the first time this month that she had been brutalized.
On Oct. 1st, Miller's boyfriend, James White, a career drug dealer on probation, was arrested for aggravated assault with a gun, after he allegedly pistol-whipped Miller, who was pregnant, breaking her eye orbit and her cheek bone.
Why did White do it? According to a police report, White told Miller that the beating was a warning that if she went ahead with her plans to abort their child, he was going to kill her.
To protect Kaleigh Miller, the D.A.'s office could have sought what's known as a probation detainer, an order from a judge that would have kept White in jail until a hearing could have been held on White's alleged parole violation.
For decades before Larry Krasner took office, probation detainers were routinely sought by the D.A.'s office in the event of new acts of violence committed by criminals who were on probation. But all that changed when Krasner became D.A.
Instead of seeking to put White behind bars, and protect Kaleigh Miller, the D.A.'s office under Krasner gave White a pass. On Oct. 2nd, the day after he was arrested for pistol-whipping Miller, White was out on $350,000 bail after he plunked down a 10% deposit of $35,000. The judge in the case also issued a stay away order, warning White not to go near his girlfriend.
At an Oct. 18th preliminary hearing, the defense was ready but the D.A.'s office wasn't because Miller wasn't available to testify as a witness against White. So the preliminary hearing was postponed until Dec. 1st.
That gave White plenty of time to make good on his threat.
According to the cops, White, 33, shot Miller, 29, three times, in the chest, abdomen and left side. Police found the victim at 9:15 a.m. bleeding on the road outside her home at 844 Welton Street. She was taken to Jefferson-Torresdale Hospital, where she was reported in critical condition.
Meanwhile, the cops, who were drawing up an arrest warrant, were out looking for White.
While Larry Krasner was taking a premature victory lap.
This is the same Larry Krasner who has routinely and stubbornly refused to take any responsibility for the failures of his office, by lying about his record to the City Council and by conning them with some bogus crime stats to cover up his wretched record at prosecuting gun crimes.
This is the same D.A. Krasner who has never held accountable by the media for his central role in fueling the city's record gun violence. Or by city and state officials who are charged with having oversight over his actions.
As Big Trial has repeatedly argued, Krasner's progressive soft-on-crime policies have acted like an accelerant on the gun violence that's plaguing the city. But despite his horrible record, and because he has the progressive media, led by the Inquirer, in his back pocket, Krasner is cruising to re-election.
In an Inquirer story published today, Krasner was bragging about his impending victory at the polls to Chris Brennan, the Inquirer's resident political columnist and loyal Krasner apologist.
“It is crystal clear what the outcomes are going to be. It just is,” a smug Krasner told Brennan about the election.
This is the same D.A. who refused to debate his Republican opponent, Chuck Peruto, saying in a city where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans 7-1, that a debate with Peruto would be "a waste of time."
The Inquirer, of course, didn't have a problem with Krasner stiffing his opponent, or the voters. In his latest opus, Brennan actually quoted the D.A. as putting an optimistic spin on the city's record homicide rate this year.
"Speaking Monday with anti-violence advocates in West Philly, [Krasner] noted homicides in the city were up 14% that day over last year but that the rate of killings had slowed compared to the pace earlier this year," Brennan wrote.
Brennan quoted Krasner as saying the number of homicides was still “disturbing,” but the D.A. suggested to his apologist that "the big picture" is getting better.
“There are reasons to be optimistic that some of the numbers are going in the right direction,” Krasner told the gullible Brennan.
As of midnight yesterday, the city's murder rate stood at 454, a 12% increase over last year's near record of 499 homicides. The record, set back in 1990 during the height of the crack cocaine epidemic, was 500.
At this rate, the city will set a new record this year with 558 murders. But according to our D.A., things are looking up.
But that's not the case for Kayleigh Miller. While she was struggling to stay alive, the cops were out looking to arrest James White. Meanwhile, Mary Maran, White's attorney, could not be reached for comment.
Neither could Assistant District Attorney Ragha Narasimhan. She's a rookie ADA who joined the D.A.'s office last fall hoping to "make an impact and create social change in the Philadelphia community," according to the August 2020 edition of the Philadelphia Bar Reporter, the monthly newspaper of the Philadelphia Bar Association.
Prior to joining the D.A.'s office, Narasimhan did pro bono work during her first year of law school by volunteering with the Homeless Advocacy Project where she reviewed veterans' records to help get them VA benefits. During her second year of law school, she volunteered with the Criminal Expungement Clinic to assist West Philly residents in cleaning up their criminal records.
Narasimhan, another social justice warrior on Krasner's payroll, graduated from Drexel University's Thomas R. Kline School of Law last year. She was an intern in the D.A.'s office for three months in 2019 before she joined the D.A.'s office as a regular staffer last September. A year later, she passed the bar exam.
This was the idealistic rookie prosecutor that Krasner assigned to the case of Kayleigh Miller, whose life was in grave danger from her violent, gun-toting, drug dealing boyfriend.
Narasimhan did not respond to a request for comment.
White has a rap sheet that's a dozen pages long. He pleaded guilty to drug charges in 2008 and in 2009, and was sentenced to a maximum of two years in jail plus two years probation. In 2010, after he violated parole, he was sentenced to 11 1/2 to 23 months in jail plus two more years of probation.
In 2011, White pleaded guilty to more drug charges and was sentenced to two to four years in prison. In 2015, he pleaded guilty to more drug charges and was sentenced to 11 1/2 to 23 months in jail plus five years probation.
In 2017, he was arrested twice more on drug charges and was sentence to 11 1/2 to 23 months in jail and six years probation.
In 2019, he was arrested again for drugs, as well as giving a false ID to police, but the D.A.'s office dropped all three charges against him. The D.A.'s office also did not prosecute White for a parole violation.
On Oct. 1st, according to a police report, White was at Miller's home, having "a conversation over their unborn child."
During the conversation, White pulled out a gun and struck Miller in the face, causing a black eye, swelling and bruises to her cheek, and a loss of feeling in her nose. Miller passed out, and when she woke up, according to the police report, White "was standing over her pointing the firearm at her and stating that he will kill her if she killed their unborn child through terminating her pregnancy."
Miller was treated at Jefferson-Torresdale Hospital for broken bones around her left eye and a broken cheek bone. Police records state she was admitted to the hospital for surgery. Meanwhile, the cops checked the records and discovered that White, a felon on probation, did not have a valid permit to carry a gun.
The D.A.'s office has previously been warned about the perils of not prosecuting felons charged with gun offenses when they violated the terms of their probation.
On June 23, 2019, Julie Shaw, one of the few reporters at the Inquirer who held Krasner accountable, reported on the case of Maalik Jackson-Wallace, who was caught carrying a concealed gun without a license, plus a gram of marijuana.
The D.A.'s office had recommended Jackson-Wallace for a court diversionary program called Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition [ARD] that put him on probation for two years. If Jackson-Wallace could stay out of trouble while completing ARD, he would have gotten his arrest expunged.
Instead, Wallace was arrested two more times in less than a year on more gun charges, the last of which involved murder. That caused the D.A.'s office to be criticized for being soft on crime.
At the time, Jane Roh, a spokesperson for the D.A.'s office, blamed the probation office for not listing Jackson-Wallace's murder arrest as a parole violation. In subsequent tweets, Inky reporter Shaw accused Roh of being "less than transparent" for not allowing Krasner, who was visiting the Inquirer newsroom, to respond to the criticism of being soft on crime.
For her reward, Shaw was transferred off the beat after Krasner and Roh complained to her editors. Shaw, who has previously declined comment on her problems with her bosses, has subsequently left the Inquirer.
While Kaleigh Miller clings to life, there are plenty of other victims whose blood is on the hands of our progressive D.A.
One of those victims is 13 year-old Marcus Stokes. He was shot to death on Oct. 8th, while sitting in a car with five other youths a few blocks away from the E.W. Rhodes Elementary School, where Stokes was enrolled in the seventh grade. His principal told the Inquirer that Marcus was “a perfect student who was just a really popular, beautiful kid.”
The cops said that Shafeeq Lewis, 29, of North Philadelphia, fired a dozen shots into a car parked on the 3100 block of North Judson Street. One of those bullets struck Marcus in the chest. He was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Meanwhile, an arrest warrant for murder has been issued for Lewis, who was identified by the police on surveillance video as the suspect fleeing the scene.
There's an unknown fact about Lewis, buried in public records available online, that has so far escaped the attention of the crack reporters at The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the rest of the local media.
On July 14th, Lewis was in court before Judge Stephanie Sawyer, facing two felony charges and one misdemeanor charge for a trio of alleged Violations of the Uniform Firearms Act [VUFA]. The charges included possession of a prohibited firearm, firearms not to be carried without a license, and carrying firearms in public.
At a previous preliminary hearing, Judge Bradley Moss had decided that there was enough evidence to hold Lewis over for trial. On Feb. 14th, the day he was arrested, bail had been set at $350,000 monetary, meaning Lewis would have had to put up a 10% deposit, or $35,000, to get out of jail, but court records indicate that the bail was never paid.
Why? Because in court, at a "pretrial bring back" session, Qawi Abdul-Rahman, Lewis's lawyer, made a motion to quash or toss all three VUFA charges for a lack of evidence.
It was the exact opposite finding of Judge, Moss who had ruled at an April 12th preliminary hearing that there was sufficient evidence to bind Lewis over for trial.
But the second time around, Judge Sawyer granted the defense's motion to quash the charges against Lewis.
According to court records, Judge Sawyer, who did not respond to a request for comment, ordered Lewis to be "immediately released," so he walked out of court a free man.
ADA Matthew Gehrke, who's been a prosecutor since 2017, did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did Abdul-Rahman, Lewis's lawyer.
It was a pretty good deal for Lewis, a convicted felon on probation. Lewis is also a rapper who as FeeqAlmighty posted one of his less-than-eloquent "songs" on youtube, entitled "Fuck You Too," that featured growling pit bulls and guns that an editor's note claimed were fake.
On Nov. 1, 2013, Lewis pleaded guilty to using an incapacitation device, such as a Taser, to assault a victim. He was sentenced to 9 to 23 months in jail, plus three years probation. A year later, after he attempted to escape, on Sept. 11, 2014, he was sentenced to an additional to 11 1/2 to 23 months in jail, plus five years probation.
On Sept. 27, 2017, Lewis violated his probation again and was sentenced again to 11 1/2 to 23 months in jail plus 5 years probation.
His first arrest was in 2005, when he was only 12, for a variety of offenses that included aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, terroristic threats and resisting arrest. A year later, in 2006, he was arrested again for aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and possession of a weapon.
A veteran prosecutor who reviewed Lewis's court records said the D.A.'s office had repeatedly failed to protect the public by not pursuing the case against Lewis, or prosecuting him for a probation violation.
"You can’t play fast and loose with gun offenders," the veteran prosecutor said. "That’s why there’s a murder epidemic. You need to aggressively prosecute gun offenders."
But the D.A.'s office did nothing, and now Lewis is on the lam for allegedly murdering a 13-year-old boy.
This month, the cops have been preoccupied with gun violence at city schools.
Ten days after Marcus was shot, a 16-year-old student was critically wounded when he was shot during an argument outside of Abraham Lincoln High School in the Mayfair section. A stray bullet from the same gunman who critically wounded the 16 year-old also killed Jeffrey Carter, a 66-year-old grandfather who happened to be driving by.
Meanwhile, our lawless D.A. is already declaring victory five days ahead of next week's general election.
For Krasner, who thumbs his nose authority, he seems to be on an endless cakewalk, seemingly immune from all legal repercussions from his own lawless actions, and piss-poor performance in office.
The city's top law enforcement officer is still a tax deadbeat, a fact that the Inquirer's Chris Brennan refuses to report.
As of Tuesday, at 1221-23 Locust Street, a property co-owned by Krasner with an assessed value of $3.8 million, still owes the city some $40,282 in taxes that are past due.
"PAY NOW" the website says.
While cruising to victory, Krasner has also gotten away with brazenly violating the city's election law on campaign finances.
The city has an annual limit of $12,600 on contributions that a political action committee can donate to a particular local candidate. But after Krasner won the May 18th Democratic primary for D.A., the Real Justice PAC of San Francisco bragged online about pouring $1.3 million into Krasner's reelection campaign.
And when I asked J. Shane Creamer, the executive director of the city's Board of Ethics if he was going to do anything about it, he clammed up, and went into hiding under his desk.
It was the same thing that City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson pulled when I asked Johnson if he was going do anything about Krasner coming to testify before a gun violence prevention task force that Johnson chaired, and lying through his teeth about his horrible record of prosecuting gun crimes.
But Johnson, who was openly disrespected by Krasner, wouldn't dare criticize our progressive D.A.
It's the same deal with state Attorney General Josh Shapiro. It was Shapiro who gave passes to Krasner's employees who were accused of breaking the law. Shapiro gave a pass to Krasner's former gun violence coordinator, who was accused of shooting to death a male prostitute he had arranged a tryst with during officer hours.
Shapiro also gave out a couple of passes to a couple of Krasner's ADAs, one of whom was arrested for abandoning her child in a locked car, and the other who was accused of stealing porn he had co-starred in from his stripper girlfriend.
Everybody, it seems, is afraid of Larry the untouchable.
Meanwhile, Krasner was crowing to the Inky's Brennan about the very fact that minority residents in the areas hardest hit by gun violence in the city were dumb enough to keep voting for him in the Democratic primary, so that during Krasner's second term in office, more of them could be shot and killed.
But the great white savior is still getting away with it, and laughing all the way to the polls. As he tools around this increasingly dangerous town with his private security detail shielding him from the consequences of his deadly policies.
“Maybe what I’m most proudest of is if you look at the communities most affected by gun violence, we’re taking 80 to 85% of the vote,” Krasner told faithful apologist Brennan.
“The very issue they thought was a winner for them went the other way," Krasner exulted. "What people wanted was not at all what siloed political insiders and siloed political institutions thought.”
It's amazing that he's getting away with it.
As one black cop told me, Krasner is responsible for the deaths of so many so-called people of color that if he was in the Klu Klux Klan, they'd make him the imperial wizard.