Category Archives: Philadelphia

Episcopal Church Pokes Itself In The Eye Again

Like Lord Voldemort, the embodiment of pure evil from the Harry Potter stories, Charles Bennison, the once defrocked Episcopal Bishop of Pennsylvania, is back. The Episcopal Church's top appelate tribunal, the Court of Review of the Trial of a Bishop, last week issued an opinion that in effect exonerated Bennison of charges that he ...

Read the full article »

Third Circuit Upholds Prohibition on Credit Bid in Philadelphia Newspapers Auction

The incumbent management of the bankrupt company that owns the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News won a significant, but likely short lived, victory in the Third Circuit Yesterday. The Daily News reports that a three judge Thgird Circuit panel has upheld bankruptcy Judge Steven Raslavich's ruling prohibiting the company's creditors from using ...

Read the full article »

Fumo Guilty

Former Pennsylvania State Senator Vince Fumo was convicted yesterday on all 137 corruption related charges in which he had been indicted. The Philadelphia Inquirer has a lengthy story regarding the verdict that can be found here. I am not surpised that umo was convicted, although I am slightly surprised that he was convicted on ...

Read the full article »

Bad News For Fumo

Another of State Senator Vice Fumo's former aide's has agreed to plead guilty and testify against their former boss. Looks like the rats are deserting the ship - with emphasis on the word rat. The Philly.com has the story: In another blow to State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, a computer technician who prosecutors said carried out ...

Read the full article »

Philadelphia Sheriff Refuses To Enforce The Law

Anyone who has had the experience of trying to get a judgment enforced in Philadelphia, or has had dealings with the Philadelphia County Sheriff's Office for any reason, cannot possibly be surprised by the following article, which will appear in tomorrow's Wall Street Journal, detailing Philadelphia Sheriff John Green's refusal to perform his duty and ...

Read the full article »

Boy Scouts Sue City of Philadelphia

The Boy Scouts of America's Philadelphia chapter has sued the City of Philadelphia in federal court to block the city's May 31 deadline for the scouts to open membership to gays and atheists, or vacate their historic 1928 headquarters off Logan Square.The civil rights lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Center City, contends that ...

Read the full article »

Barnes Foundation Headed For More Litigation

Seems like the saga of the Barnes Foundation, a venerable institution in the art world, isn;t over quite yet. Three years ago a Pennsylvania state coirt judge gave the institution, which has been on financial life support, permission to move from its location in the Philadelphia suburbs to new, as yet to be constructed quarters, ...

Read the full article »

Former Villanova Star Howard Porter Dies After Beating

While not strictly "criminal law" related," I post this because it is a significant Philadelphia story. For those who are Villanova graduates, as I am (Law, '92), we are grieving this tragic, tragic death.  below the fold is today's Philadelphia Inquirer story. Howard Porter, one of the all-time greats of Villanova basketball, died Friday at 58 ...

Read the full article »

Pier 34 Defendants Avoid Retrial, Take Pleas

The Inquirer reported on the Philly.com website this morning that the owner and the operator of Pier 34, the collapse of which led to the drowning deaths of 3 youg women 7 years ago, have entered pleas of no contest and guilty, respectively, thus avoiding a re-trial on the same charges on which a Philadelphia ...

Read the full article »

Key Hearing for Mumia Approaches. So Does Death

The Inquirer reported in yesterday's paper on a critical argument that will be held in the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals this Thursday in the long running case of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal (and truthfully, have there been more than a handful of hot Broadway shows that have run longer than ...

Read the full article »

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes