The headline pretty much says it all. That’s the news here in Philadelphia, today. Thank you to Ruben Amaro, Jr., and to Cliff Lee, for giving Phillies fans one heck of an early Christmas gift!

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 covered up the sexual misconduct of his own brother.

What is most remarkable to me about this story is that Bennison, during the time he served as Pennsylvania’s bishop, made a series of statements questioning fundamental tenets of Anglican faith, as embodied in the Nicene Creed, sufficiently frequently that one would be justified in questioning whether Bennison was fit to be called a Christian, let alone to serve as a bishop. But he was never called to answer for his apparent apostasy. And when he was finally brought up on charges that he had, years before being elected to lead the Diocese of Pennsylvania, concealed his own brother’s sexual improprieties – a prosecution that seems akin to charging Al Capone with tax evasion – he dodged the ultimate eccesiastical penalty on a legal technicality. The Court ruled that the statute of limitations had run out on the conduct forming the basis for the concealment charges.

The Bennison case tells us much of what we, I suppose, already knew about the Episcopal “Church”. That Bishop Bennison can repeatedly and publicly question foundational principles of the faith without fear of reprisal is bad enough. That the church hierarchy cares more about technical legal niceties than it does about whether its own bishops are in fact believers confirms that the Episcopalians have forfeited their right to claim to be any kind of church.

UPDATE: Many thanks to those visiting from Stand Firm and Transfigurations for checking in here.

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 the debt that they are owed as a credit with which to bid in the upcoming bankruptcy auction. I would expect that the creditors will seek en banc review of this decision which, if upheld, would substantially increase the possibility that the bid backed by current management could prevail at the auction. I would be surprised, however, if this decision were to survive en banc review. As Judge Thomas Ambro noted in his dissent, the decision appears to run contrary to 30 years of precedent, and the legislative intent underlying the bankruptcy code, that supports the rights of creditors to “bid their credit” in bankruptcy court auctions. While no doubt encouraging to those – including current Philadelphia Newspapers CEO Brian Tierney – who want to see the Inky and Daily News stay in local hands, the decision, in my view, rests on a very shaky legal foundation and ought to be, and likely will be, overturned.

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 ALL counts. While Fumo appears to have some viable appellate issues, I would be stunned if his motion for a new trial were to granted, and even more stunned if the Third Circuit were to overturn the conviction. Bottom line is that Vince will almost certainly end up doing prison time. The Inquirer story indicates that prosecutors are expected to seek a sentence in the range o 10 years. I haven’t done the math, but I expect that 10 years might be a little below the guidelines range. Nonetheless, I would anticipate that the judge would impose a sentence of something less than that. More to come on this one.

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 an electronic cover-up for Fumo has agreed to plead guilty and is expected to testify against his former boss.

Leonard P. Luchko, 51, who worked in Fumo’s South Philadelphia office, is scheduled to plead guilty on Monday before a federal judge, according to a document filed yesterday in U.S. District Court.

Luchko and another computer technician are charged with systematically deleting e-mails and other potential evidence from computers used by Fumo and Fumo aides as well as by staffers at a key nonprofit organization that figured in the federal investigation.

The cleansing of the computers was allegedly done at Fumo’s behest and for the sole purpose of thwarting the federal investigation into Fumo’s activities.

Fumo, 65, a Philadelphia Democrat who has been a political powerhouse for decades in Harrisburg, is to stand trial in a sweeping corruption case starting next month.

He is accused of defrauding the state Senate and two nonprofit groups, misusing their employees and money for personal and political advantage. He is also charged with staging a cover-up to obstruct the FBI and IRS investigations.

Luchko is the second new prosecution witness to emerge in the months leading up to the trial before U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr.

In June, political consultant Howard J. Cain, for years one of Fumo’s closest confidants, pleaded guilty to tax evasion and agreed to testify against Fumo.

Another computer aide in Fumo’s office, Donald Wilson, has been cooperating with federal prosecutors since before the indictment. He, too, is on the prosecution’s witness list.

James C. Schwartzman, a longtime friend of Fumo’s who is representing Luchko, did not respond to e-mail or phone messages. Fumo’s lead defense attorney, Dennis J. Cogan, would not comment about Luchko’s decision to plead guilty.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Pease and Robert Zauzmer also declined to comment about the scheduled guilty plea.

Luchko and a second computer technician, Mark C. Eister, were charged with leading an effort to cleanse computers used by Fumo, his staff, and workers at Citizens’ Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, a civic nonprofit organization funded with millions of dollars through Fumo’s efforts. Eister is awaiting trial with Fumo. His lawyer, Brian P. McMonagle, could not be reached for comment.

According to the federal indictment, the effort began in earnest Jan. 25, 2004, after The Inquirer reported that the FBI was investigating Fumo.

“The FBI probe into the Senator has really set him off. . . . He wants all the Blackberries wiped,” Luchko wrote in an e-mail to Eister that evening.

Even as Luchko and Eister worked assiduously to clean others’ computers, they failed to cleanse their own, an oversight exploited by the FBI to obtain copies of hundreds of e-mails.

In those messages to other staffers and Senate contractors, Luchko repeatedly cited demands from “the Boss” that potentially damaging e-mails be deleted.

“Mail from the Boss needs to be deleted!” Luchko wrote to one Senate contractor. “. . . You really have to clean your mailbox up this is the kind of s- that can get us in trouble.”

In another, Luchko boasted about his ability to outwit the FBI, saying investigators could never extract data from a particular Citizens’ Alliance computer.

“Good Luck to them because they are going to need it,” Luchko wrote. “They aren’t getting s- off that PC.”

In the e-mails, Luchko portrayed Fumo as absolutely determined to have the staff’s computer cleansed.

“The Boss is driving us ALL nuts with this FBI madness. . . . Life just got so complicated it isn’t even funny and the killer is I can’t tell anyone about it.”

Now, it appears, Luchko is talking about it, to prosecutors.

Might not look good for Fumo, but I still wouldn’t bet against him. Dude has more than nine lives.

Source: Philly.com

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 conduct auctions on foreclosed properties:

Sheriff John Green has spent 37 years in law enforcement. But these days he’s best known around town for the law he won’t enforce.

With the economy soft and thousands of Philadelphians delinquent on their mortgages, Sheriff Green this spring refused to hold a court-ordered foreclosure auction. His move raised eyebrows on the bench and dropped jaws among lenders and their attorneys, who accuse him of shirking his duty to enforce legal contracts.

It also prompted a sweeping, court-endorsed deal, scheduled to go into effect next week, that aims to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. Even as Congress moves forward with a federal plan that could insure up to $300 billion in refinanced mortgages, Mr. Green’s unilateral approach has pushed Philadelphia to the leading edge of local responses to the national crisis.

“More of our neighbors, our families and our friends are falling behind on their mortgages and losing their homes” to foreclosure, the 60-year-old Mr. Green writes in a “Declaration of Neighborhood Stability” on his Web site, www.phillysheriff.com1. “My staff and I watch the suffering every day and witness the heart-wrenching scenes as families lose their primary means of wealth-building and face eviction.”

Mr. Green’s 241-person sheriff’s department is the armed wing of Philadelphia County courts, charged with transporting prisoners, securing courtrooms and auctioning off foreclosed properties at sheriff sales. In a city beset by poverty and crime, Mr. Green has emerged as an unlikely blend of lawman, politician, spiritual leader and social worker.

Desperate Homeowners

A dozen or more desperate homeowners appear in the sheriff’s lobby each day, seeking solace and counsel from Deputy Sheriff’s Officer Marquette Parsons, who sits at the front desk wearing blue and packing a sidearm. “This is the end of the line,” Mr. Parsons says. “They have to face reality now, because they’re facing a sheriff sale.” Mr. Parsons helps homeowners understand documents they’ve received from the court and advises them how to reach housing counselors. Sometimes he’ll contact the lender’s attorney to mediate a misunderstanding. The sheriff runs ads in local papers urging people to take “Sheriff Green’s Important Steps to Saving Your Home.”

Mr. Green, a police sergeant when he was elected sheriff in 1987, has a politico’s eye for his job. Last month, he presented a commendation for valor to an officer who was robbed at gunpoint while sitting in a barber’s chair and wounded one thief in the ensuing firefight. Standing next to the taller officer for the photo opportunity, Mr. Green hiked himself onto his toes. “Just one second,” he said. “I’m going to become a politician.” Everyone laughed. But he stayed on his tiptoes until the photographers finished their shots.

The sheriff says his political life merges with his religious calling. “Everything you do is part of your faith,” he says. For the past 20 years, Mr. Green, who is married and has six children, has hosted an annual prayer breakfast that has become a see-and-be-seen event for the city’s political elite.

The 80-page program from this year’s breakfast is jammed with paid congratulatory ads from businesses and unions, clergymen and subordinates, office holders and office seekers. “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice,” wrote one pastor, quoting the Book of Proverbs.

‘Stop the Bleeding’

The sheriff first made his mark in the foreclosure issue in 2004, when he noticed a spike in the number of delinquent properties the court was ordering sold. He postponed one month’s auction and then went to Judge Annette Rizzo of the Court of Common Pleas seeking to legalize the move.

“We have to stop the bleeding,” the judge recalls the sheriff saying in a courtroom crowded with worried homeowners. The sheriff says he doesn’t remember making such a statement.

“Really what he did was not legal,” Judge Rizzo says of the sheriff’s decision to stop the auction.

During a recess, she summoned the lenders’ lawyers, the sheriff, consumer advocates and the city solicitor into the back room. She asked them to form a committee to determine which individual homeowners deserved a delay, aid through existing government programs, or just a graceful exit from their house. But she declined to order a blanket moratorium on sales.

In 2007, the foreclosure wave began to swell again. Because Philadelphia didn’t experience a big run-up in home prices, it isn’t in as bad shape as hotter markets in Florida and Nevada. Nonetheless, foreclosure filings in the city rose to 6,237, from 5,288 the year before. Early this year, approximately 1,000 properties a month were going on the block at the sheriff sales, according to the sheriff’s office.

The trend caught the attention of Curtis Jones Jr., who had won a seat on the City Council a few months earlier and was eager to make a splash. He teamed up with consumer advocates and a senior colleague, Councilwoman Marian Tasco, to write a resolution calling on the sheriff and the Court of Common Pleas president judge, C. Darnell Jones II, to impose an indefinite moratorium on foreclosure sales.

On March 27, in its gilt-and-green chambers, the City Council unanimously voted its approval. It was a nonbinding resolution, more of a political statement than a practical one.

But as the council meeting moved to other matters, one of the sheriff’s senior aides phoned Mr. Green to tell him the resolution had passed. The sheriff decided on the spot to postpone the next sale and go to court seeking a longer moratorium. The aide relayed the decision to Councilwoman Tasco, who interrupted the meeting with the news. Housing advocates and their allies in the audience broke into applause.

“We knew [Sheriff Green] would do that,” Ms. Tasco told the council. “He cares about the citizens of Philadelphia.”

Mortgage lenders, servicers and their attorneys thought Mr. Green was acting more Robin Hood than sheriff. “It’s not his job to postpone things in favor of certain people,” says Michael VanBuskirk, a Philadelphia attorney, who describes the city as a “legal free-fire zone.” The city, he says, is “less attractive to business if you can’t be certain that the sheriff won’t invalidate a contract.”

Mr. Green and Judge Jones are casual golfing buddies. Still, Judge Jones warned the sheriff at a meeting soon after the announcement that a blanket moratorium on the sales was “unwise and more-likely-than-not illegal.”

Mr. Green says he never considered the legality of his decision to halt foreclosure sales. His aides say he is being cagey and that he saw himself as a catalyst to get the court to take action.

People Are the Law

“It’s not the sheriff’s job to sell houses,” says Deputy Sheriff’s Officer Paris Washington, a veteran of the department and its head of training. “It’s the sheriff’s job to serve the people who elected him. Because he was elected by the people, he has to listen to the people. Aren’t the people the law?”

In closed-door negotiations in April with lenders’ attorneys and housing advocates, Judges Jones and Rizzo worked out a streamlined process intended to make loans more affordable for delinquent borrowers who live in their houses.

Such homeowners are entitled to a free lawyer at court-supervised conciliation sessions with their loan-servicing company. Housing counselors are lined up to help assemble financial information to enable servicers and their lawyers to assess borrowers’ ability to pay. The lenders are under no legal obligation to reduce principal or interest, but they face strong pressure to make allowances.

Michael McKeever, a partner in Goldbeck, McCafferty & McKeever, says that his clients — large loan servicers and investors — welcome the court initiative’s potential to help borrowers resolve their debt problems. This week Mayor Michael A. Nutter offered $1 million to finance borrowers’ attorneys and counselors.

To give the plan a chance, Judge Jones ordered that sheriff sales on such owner-occupied properties be suspended at least through next month. The foreclosure wave “is a problem,” the judge says. “Is there a way we can do this in a way consistent with the law?”

Mr. Green downplays his own role. “All I did was provide enough time for a solution to develop, which was the easy part,” he says.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

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 the city’s ultimatum violates the scouts’ rights under the U.S. and Pennsylvania Constitutions.

“The City has imposed an unconstitutional condition upon Cradle of Liberty’s receipt of a benefit that Cradle of Liberty has enjoyed for nearly eight decades, and that many other organizations that limit members or services to members of a particular group continue to enjoy without punishment or the threat of punishment,” the scouts’ lawsuit reads.

City Solicitor Shelley R. Smith said the city would respond to the federal lawsuit and would likely file an eviction motion next week.

In the meantime, Smith added, the beginning of litigation would preserve the status quo pending a court ruling. Until that ruling occurs, Smith said, the scouts will be able to continue using the headquarters building.

The suit asks the court to permanently block city officials from attempting to evict the Scouts from their building, which sits on a half-acre of city land at 22d and Winter Streets.

The Cradle of Liberty Council’s predicament is one that has faced local scouting councils nationwide since a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case the scouts won.

The national organization appealed the ruling in a suit filed by an openly gay New Jersey scout barred from serving as a troop leader.

Scouts must swear an oath “to God and my country” and to “obey the Scout Law” that includes keeping oneself “physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.”

In 2000 the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale that the scouts are a private group and thus have the right of “expressive association” under the First Amendment to set their own membership rules.

The legal victory was short-lived as municipal officials nationwide began reexamining longstanding relationships with local scouts. Unlike the scouts, local public officials were bound by another line of Supreme Court opinions that barred taxpayer support for any private group that discriminates. Other mainstream supporters, such as United Way, also dropped them.

Last October, after several years of sporadic talks between city and council, the city imposed the May 31 deadline: Change your membership rules, vacate the building, or pay a fair market rent of $200,000.

The scouts have maintained that they cannot change their membership policies without being ejected by the national scout organization and cannot afford the rent.

Source: Philly.com

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, in Center City Philadelphia. Today comes the news that a group of residents who are neighbors of the Barnes in its current location have filed a petition asking the court to reopen the case and reconsider its earlier ruling, and to put the Barnes into receivership. Many of the allegations in the petition, as reported by The Bulletin, are rather scandalous. If they are to be believed, the petitioners would have us believe that there has been a far reaching conspiracy, of which the participants included Governor Rendell, many prominent Philadelphia lawyers, business people and philanthropists, the board of trustees of a local university, as well as the board of the Barnes, and the CEO of Comcast, among others. The story seems more than fanciful and the petition is, I would predict, doomed to fail

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 after being severely beaten and found in a Minneapolis alley last week, university officials disclosed today.

Mr. Porter resided in St. Paul, Minn., where he worked as a probation officer. He reportedly suffered brain damage in an assault. Police said no one had been arrested and they had no suspects.

“The entire Villanova family is saddened by the news of Howard’s death,” Wildcats coach Jay Wright said. “Howard provided so many Villanovans with thrills on the basketball court playing for Coach [Jack] Kraft. Since his playing days ended, he has been an outstanding role model for our current players and coaching staff.

“Howard was a kind, gentle, and humble man who loved his family and Villanova. We will all miss him.”

Mr. Porter’s basketball career and life were filled with peaks and valleys, including a run to the NCAA title game that was later vacated, a battle with drug addiction, and a remarkable recovery. But his ties to Villanova were always a point of pride to him, his friends said.

“I thought he very much relished it,” said Tom Ingelsby, a teammate of Mr. Porter’s. “He was a very proud graduate and was happy to be welcomed back in.”

In 1971, Mr. Porter, a 6-foot-8 forward, helped guide Villanova to the NCAA final at the Astrodome in Houston, where the Wildcats lost to UCLA, 68-62.

Mr. Porter fell out of grace for a time with Villanova, after it was discovered that he had dealt with an agent as a student. The NCAA vacated Villanova’s runner-up status and Mr. Porter’s award as most outstanding player in the Final Four.

From 1968 to ’71 at Villanova, Mr. Porter averaged 22.8 points and 14.8 rebounds per game. In the championship game, he played 40 minutes and collected 25 points and eight rebounds.

In 1997, the Wildcats retired his uniform number. His No. 54 jersey hangs from the rafters at the Pavilion.

“I watched him play and idolized him as a kid,” Wright said.

After a seven-year NBA career with the Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons, Mr. Porter began abusing drugs.

The native of Sarasota, Fla., underwent rehabilitation in Minnesota in 1989 and fell in love with the area, deciding to make it his home.

“Teammates never had any problems with him at all,” Ingelsby said. “He was just a really great guy.”

Ingelsby expressed pride at the way Mr. Porter turned his life around.

“Every time I had seen him, he was in great shape,” Ingelsby said. “Everything in his life was positive. He was starting a new life with his wife. He was very enthused about the possibilities of his future.”

Wright was happy to welcome Mr. Porter back into the fold.

When Mr. Porter walked into the Pavilion in 2001 for a legends gala, 30 years after helping Villanova’s basketball team reach the championship game, Wright recalled Mr. Porter’s happiness and humility.

Wright was eager to introduce his players to Mr. Porter.

“They saw a big, handsome, classic guy in a derby hat and shirt and tie,” Wright recalled. “He was very humble, almost shy. It was really cool for guys to see. There was a kind of class about him. It shows the guys this is what you can become.”

In the early 1970s, Mr. Porter was the big man on campus.

“He was a player with tremendous talent,” said Rosa Gatti, a student at the time Mr. Porter played and later the Villanova sports information director. “It was an exciting era and a great achievement by the team.”

The details surrounding Mr. Porter’s death remain a mystery.

Mr. Porter was hospitalized after he was found unconscious in an alley without identification on the morning of May 19. Mr. Porter vanished about 9 p.m. the previous day after leaving his home in St. Paul.

His car was discovered May 20 and police asked the public for help in finding him.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Mr. Porter suffered a severe brain injury.

According to former teammates, Mr. Porter’s wife, Theresa, and family members were by his side at an undisclosed Minnesota hospital.

It remained unclear whether Mr. Porter’s death was linked to his job as a probation officer for Ramsey County, a position he had held since 1995.

Wright said Mr. Porter will not be forgotten at Villanova.

“He is a beloved figure here,” Wright said. “The way he had come back and been embraced, it’s increased his legend. This is tough.”

A few years ago, Mr. Porter attended a conference on sports and spirituality at Neumann College, where former Villanova teammate Ed Hastings now works.

“He had been through a lot,” Hastings said. “He really talked about how significant his faith was, especially when he was really down. He talked also about how significant his teammates were.

“The great thing for me is he just went through some hard stuff, but he just turned his life around. Part of it was his faith and part of it was his wife, Theresa. Another part of it was the work he was doing.”

Playing alongside Mr. Porter was a dream come true for Hastings.

“We were just in awe of him,” Hastings said. “He was just 6-8, but his shoulders were huge. He was a tremendous rebounder, a great shot blocker and a great shooter. He wouldn’t just tip a blocked shot. He’d put them 10 rows up.”

Facing UCLA did not give Mr. Porter the jitters. He was confident, as always, Hastings said.

“He was not intimidated by Sydney Wicks or Curtis Rowe or the UCLA mystique and John Wooden,” he said. “It didn’t bother him. He was awesome in every sense of that word.”

Funeral arrangements were pending. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made in Mr. Porter’s name to Villanova’s V Club.

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 jury deadlocked last November. It has been widely reported that the jury had reached a stalemate at 10 to 2 for conviction. Each defendant had been charged with, among other offenses, three counts of involuntary manslaughter, which carries a sentence range of 2 1/2 to 5 years. Sentencing is scheduled for June 22nd.