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You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#111 in a series. Also, random gun crankery.)

Saturday, October 21st, 2023

There is no joy in this one.

Larry Vickers pled guilty to federal firearm charges yesterday.

“But,” you say, “Larry Vickers isn’t a political figure.” Right you are, Bob.

Mr. Vickers was charged with four other men: Sean Sullivan, James Tafoya, Matthew Hall, and James Sawyer. Mr. Hall was the chief of police in Coats, North Carolina, and Mr. Sawter was the chief of police of Ray, North Dakota. This is where the flaming hyenas come in.

Sullivan was the owner and operator of Trident, LLC, located in Gambrills, Maryland, and was also an Intelligence Analyst with the Department of Homeland Security Investigations.

He was a Fed?! I know, I know, quel fromage! But really?

Sullivan and Trident were Federal Firearms Licensees (“FFLs”) and Special Occupational Taxpayers (“SOTs”), which allowed them, in certain circumstances, to possess, import, manufacture, and deal in fully automatic firearms (machineguns) and other regulated firearms. Tafoya and Vickers owned and operated firearms related businesses in New Mexico and North Carolina and were also FFLs and SOTs.

Allegedly, all of these guys came up with a really clever scheme.

The indictment alleges that, beginning in at least June 2018 through at least March 2021, the defendants conspired to acquire machineguns and/or other restricted firearms, such as short-barreled rifles, by falsely representing that the firearms would be used for demonstration to law enforcement agencies, including the Coats Police Department and the Ray Police Department. The indictment further alleges that Hall, Sawyer, and other conspirators signed law letters with no expectation that the weapons would ever be demonstrated to their respective law enforcement agencies.
The defendants allegedly intended to impermissibly import into the United States and resell the machineguns and other firearms for profit or to keep for their own use and enjoyment. Sullivan allegedly submitted the false law letters to the ATF seeking to import the machineguns and other restricted weapons. Once the firearms were received, Sullivan allegedly kept some of the machineguns and other restricted weapons and transferred some of the weapons to Vickers, Tafoya, and other conspirators.

Now, everyone else hasn’t gone to trial, and should be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

In addition to the indictment, Larry Vickers pleaded guilty yesterday to participating in the conspiracy to import and obtain machineguns and other restricted firearms and admitted that he received some of the imported machineguns and other weapons. As detailed in his plea agreement, Vickers kept some of the machineguns and other restricted weapons in his personal collection and transferred other machineguns and restricted weapons to other FFLs and third parties. Vickers also pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions against a foreign firearms manufacturer between July 2014 and March 2021, in the Southern District of Florida.

So just not illegal import of restricted firearms, but also sanction violations. “Between July 2014 and March 2021” makes me wonder who the sanctions violations were against.

I haven’t seen any coverage of this anywhere, including the usual gun blogs. The only reason I know about it is that Mike the Musicologist sent me a link to the Justice Department press release. I feel kind of bad for Mr. Vickers, who also was dealing with cancer a while back. But this doesn’t sound like BATFE “paperwork” violations. This sounds like a pretty serious conspiracy to illegally import restricted weapons under cover of the law enforcement exemption.

While I object to the idea that what these people did should be against the law, the fact remains that it is, and they apparently (“all suspects” etc) tried to camouflage it as “only ones”. You know, “we’re the only ones competent enough to have full-auto weapons. We’re the only ones competent enough to carry a Glock.”

That, I do resent.

Posted in Cops, Guns, Law, Politics | 3 Comments »

Obit watch: October 15, 2023.

Sunday, October 15th, 2023

I’m aware of Suzanne Somers, but all the obits I’ve seen so far have been preliminary. I think I’ll wait until tomorrow on this one.

Piper Laurie. THR.

Other credits include two episodes of the 1985-1986 “Twilight Zone” revival, “The Bunker”, “The Eleventh Hour” and “Breaking Point” (both of which I was just recently reading about, and which I would love to see on home video), and three episodes of “St. Elsewhere”.

Colette Rossant, cookbook author and popularizer of French food. She may have been a bit obscure for most of you: I know of her because she was a great friend of Calvin Trillin, and he wrote about her multiple times in “The Tummy Trilogy”.

In a 1981 article in The Times with the headline “The Inspirations of a Global Cook,” Craig Claiborne, the newspaper’s august food critic, wrote that he “found it impossible to refuse an invitation to a Rossant meal, which turned out to be a feast,” including a blend of fresh and smoked salmon christened with rillettes of fish as an appetizer, a roast of veal “cooked to a savory state in milk” and other delicacies.
Mr. Claiborne noted that Mr. Trillin, the celebrated author, humorist and food writer, had once written that whenever he was invited to dine at Ms. Rossant’s, his wife, Alice, was “forced to grab me by the jacket two or three times to keep me from breaking into a steady, uncharacteristic trot.”

Tommy Gambino, of Gambino family fame.

He was the nephew of “Big Paul” Castellano, who succeeded Carlo as the head of the family but was rubbed out in 1985 on the orders of eventual Gambino godfather John Gotti.
Tommy Gambino arrived at Sparks Steakhouse on East 46th Street just moments after Castellano and his driver, Tommy Bilotti, were gunned down outside the eatery.
Tommy Gambino, once described as the a “quintessential Mafia prince of New York City,” was convicted in 1993 of two counts of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy for controlling gambling and loan sharking operations in Connecticut.
He served in federal prison from 1996 to 2000.
The prosecution’s evidence in his trial included secretly recorded conversations with Mafia turncoat Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano.

Posted in 1970s, Food, Law, Movies, Obits, TV | 1 Comment »

Perhaps you’re NOT going down in flames. Also, while you may be tax-fattened, hyena might be a stretch.

Friday, October 13th, 2023

Mike the Musicologist sent this over to me, asking if it counted as flames. I told him I thought it was worth noting, but didn’t think it was a flaming hyena. To which MtM responded “It’s your publication. You make the call.”

Inna Vernikov is a councilwoman from Brooklyn. She’s a Republican from a “conservative” district. She’s also Jewish. And she has a concealed carry permit.

Councilwoman Vernikov went to a “pro-Palestinian rally” at Brooklyn College yesterday.

Councilwoman Vernikov was carrying a “Smith & Wesson 9-millimeter pistol”.

She was “observing a pro-Palestine protest” when she was seen with the butt end of a firearm “protruding from the front portion of her pants”…

She couldn’t afford a decent IWB holster?

Cutting to the chase, the councilwoman has been charged with “criminal possession of a firearm”.

You see, even though she had a concealed carry permit, it seems like:

1. Being seen with the butt of the gun protruding from her pants isn’t “concealed carry”.

2. Quoth the tabloid of record, “Although Vernikov has a concealed carry permit, it is illegal in New York state to have a firearm at sensitive locations such as protests or school grounds.”

So why no flaming hyena? I question her judgement in not using a good, discreet holster. I halfway want to question her judgement in going to the rally armed in the first place (“Avoid stupid people in stupid places doing stupid things”) but she may have felt obligated to as a politican, and may have felt she needed to be armed for her protection.

And: I Am Not A Lawyer, But: I think the ban on having firearms at “sensitive locations” is very likely to get overturned if it ever goes to the appellate level. And as I’ve said before, it’s hard for me to sling imprecations at someone who’s committing a crime that I don’t believe should be a crime.

Posted in Guns, IANAL, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Biz news.

Friday, October 6th, 2023

I thought this was a mildly interesting business story, mostly because it starts out in one direction and then goes in another.

Molekule Group has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Molekule made (makes?) air purifiers. I remember a time when they advertised pretty heavily on some of the podcasts I listened to.

The claimed reason for bankruptcy seems to be wanting to get out of their office lease, because San Francisco.

Molekule started a seven-year lease spanning the entirety of the building in February 2019. The monthly base rent began at $209,231 with an annual 3% increase.
The bankruptcy petition alleges that the company abandoned its headquarters in May “out of concern for its employees’ safety” and attempted to negotiate with its landlord to terminate the lease.
“San Francisco’s homeless crisis created a dangerous environment around the SF Headquarters, especially in the area between the SF Headquarters and the nearest public transit stop,” Tyler stated in his declaration.

Except:

But three former Molekule employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the safety situation described in the filings was an exaggeration. Although there were issues with cleanliness around the office location, the former employees don’t remember safety being a primary concern while they worked there.

…

According to the former employees, the office was only intermittently used after March 2020, and far from dissuading workers because of safety concerns, Molekule attempted to draw people in by installing a pingpong table and touting the effectiveness of its products in keeping the office clean and safe.

…

One of the other factors in the company’s bankruptcy listed in its legal filing was a fractured partnership with Aura Smart Air, an Israeli air purifier company.
Aura’s failure to submit source code for a product known as Molekule 360 Hub led to the product’s suspension shortly after its launch and “severely impacted the Debtors’ revenue and growth strategy,” according to the bankruptcy filing.

What gets glossed over in the coverage: Molekule was a scam.

Wirecutter (back in the day when they were decent) called their products “Some of the worst air purifiers we’ve ever tested“. Molekule was forced to withdraw almost all of their advertising claims. Consumer Reports panned it.

How big a scam was it? Big enough that at least one of those podcasts went back and removed the ads, and any mention that Molekule was ever a sponsor, from their feed. There was at least one class action lawsuit which appears to have been settled.

So, yeah, at the very least, this looks like a dodge by a troubled company to get out of their lease by blaming San Francisco’s problems, not a legit example of the Bay Area’s ineffective government.

Posted in California Über Alles, Law | Comments Closed

Obit watch: September 29, 2023.

Friday, September 29th, 2023

Dianne Feinstein. NYT. LAT. WP.

NYT obit for Michael Gambon.

This doesn’t quite qualify as an obit, but I don’t have any place else to put it (other than a separate entry, which I’d rather not do) and I feel like it is close enough for government work. The Las Vegas Police department has made an arrest in a 27-year old cold case.

Las Vegas police have arrested a man in the deadly 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur, a long-awaited break in a case that has frustrated investigators and fascinated the public ever since the hip-hop icon was gunned down on the Las Vegas Strip 27 years ago.

But:

…the exact charge or charges were not immediately clear, according to two officials with first-hand knowledge of the arrest. They were not authorized to speak publicly ahead of an expected indictment later Friday.

The other point that I think should be made: an arrest is one thing. A conviction is another. More from the tabloid of record.

Edited to add: A two-pack (see what I did there?) of additional coverage from the NYT and the LAT.

“Dwight, shouldn’t you be linking to the actual Las Vegas newspapers?” Well, yes, except: the Las Vegas newspapers are generally not great. Though they have had some good columnists working for them in the past…but for the record, here’s the Review-Journal coverage.

Also not quite an obit, but within this blog’s area of coverage:

The husband of Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola was ferrying more than 500 pounds of moose and antlers from a remote hunting camp in Alaska when his small plane crashed shortly after takeoff earlier this month, officials said.

This is just a very preliminary report from the NTSB: we probably won’t get the full report for two years or more. And no, I’m not noting it because moose. RoadRich can argue with me in the comments if he knows more, but I believe this is one of the biggest killers of pilots out there, especially pilots of small aircraft: trying to take off with an overloaded aircraft, or an aircraft out of balance.

“The meat was strapped into the rear passenger seat area with both the seatbelt and rope and was loaded into the airplane’s belly pod, which did not have tie-down provisions,” the NTSB said.

Posted in Law, Movies, Obits, Planes, Politics, TV | 1 Comment »

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#110 in a series)

Thursday, September 28th, 2023

This isn’t a normal flaming hyenas watch, as the subject isn’t quite a politician. But I think the exceptional circumstances justify this.

Jose Torres used to be a politician. At one point in his life, he was the mayor of Patterson, New Jersey. Fortunately, he was convicted of using city workers and city money to renovate a warehouse being leased by his daughter and nephew.

The workers’ labor was marked as overtime and paid for by Paterson’s taxpayers — a move that landed Torres in front of a judge, who later sentenced him to five years in state prison.

He spent 13 months in the joint. But that’s not why he’s a flaming hyena.

After the plea, Torres agreed to a forfeiture order that banned him from ever holding public office or employment in the Garden State. If he broke the agreement, he’d face a contempt charge.

Would you like to guess what happened next?

If you guessed “he tried to run for office again” take two gold stars and advance to the next blue square. Last year, he filed to run for mayor.

But it gets better.

When the Paterson city clerk rejected his petition, Torres sued, according to a statement from state Attorney General Matthew Platkin.

Yes! Not only did he try to violate the order, he actually sued when he was told he was violating the order.

Mr. Torres is now facing a criminal contempt of court charge.

“It takes remarkable brashness to flout a state court order and then attempt to strong-arm the city clerk, via civil litigation, into allowing an impermissible campaign to proceed,” [State Attorney General Matthew] Platkin said.
“That is bold. And, according to the grand jury, it is also indictable.”

I’m not sure “brashness” is the word I’d use. I think I’d call it “stupidity”. But oddly, it’s only the second most stupid thing I’ve seen this week.

(I’m still trying to decide if I want to link to the most stupid thing I’ve seen this week. It does relate to some of this blog’s areas of coverage – cocaine and aircraft. But the details are pretty R-rated, and I actually sort of feel bad for the subject.)

Posted in Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Obit watch: September 26, 2023.

Tuesday, September 26th, 2023

David McCallum. THR. Tributes from Deadline.

I was a little young for “UNCLE” first-run (and I don’t recall it being in re-runs on any of the Houston stations) and I’ve never been a big fan of “NCIS”. But I did kind of like Mr. McCallum. I have no idea what his politics were, which I think is worthy of praise in the current era.

And this kind of made me choke up a bit:

“After returning from the hospital to their apartment, I asked my mother if she was OK before she went to sleep. Her answer was simply, ‘Yes. But I do wish we had had a chance to grow old together.’ She is 79, and dad just turned 90. The honesty in that emotion shows how vibrant their beautiful relationship and daily lives were, and that somehow, even at 90, Daddy never grew old.”

So did this:

Donations can be made to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation.

Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation.

(Mr. McCallum served in the British military. But his second wife’s father was a Marine who fought at Iwo Jima.)

Other credits include “The Master”, “Babylon 5”, “Hell Drivers” (which I have to admit sounds interesting: check out that cast), “A Night to Remember”, and “The Six Million Dollar Man: Wine, Women and War”.

Dick Clark, one-term Democratic Senator from Iowa. He was famous for walking 1300 miles during his 1972 campaign.

Matteo Messina Denaro, Italian Mafia boss.

In 2020, Mr. Messina Denaro was convicted in absentia for his role in the high-profile murders of two of Italy’s top anti-Mafia prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, in 1992, and for deadly bombings the next year in Milan, Rome and Florence that prosecutors believe were part of a Cosa Nostra strategy against the state.
He also received a life sentence for his involvement in the kidnapping and death of the 12-year-old son of a Mafia turncoat after the boy was strangled and his body was dissolved in acid, and in the death of a police officer.

He’d been “underground” since 1993, but was still running the “family business”. The authorities tracked him down because he was being treated for cancer:

Since he was not treated under his real name, they used national health service records to identify patients with similar conditions and narrow it down.

Posted in Law, Movies, Obits, Politics, TV | Comments Closed

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#109 in a series)

Friday, September 22nd, 2023

I had to go to the eye doctor this morning, and the Robert Menendez story broke while I was there. My eyes are still a little messed up, and I’m kind of behind on this story – at this point, everyone and his brother is on it like flies on a severed cow’s head at a Damien Hirst installation – so some short random observations.

I’m impressed he was taking payoffs in gold as well as in cash, though I wouldn’t have left so much cash lying around the house. I absolutely believe you should diversify what you accept for bribes: cash, negotiable securities, precious and/or strategic metals, etc. I’m not yet sold on cryptocurrency as a bribery mechanism, though.

Sen. Menendez is actually a repeat hyena: I noted his indictment back in 2015, though I missed that the jury in that case hung and he wasn’t retried for reasons.

Speaking of the previous charges, the tabloid of record has an amusing run-down of those, complete with photos of “Bob’s Babes”.

Posted in Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Obit watch: September 20, 2023.

Wednesday, September 20th, 2023

I didn’t find out about this until late last night, so I’m a bit behind. Apologies.

Two pilots, Nick Macy and Chris Rushing, were killed in an accident at the Reno Air Races on Sunday.

According to the reports I’ve read, both pilots had been competing in what’s called the “Gold Race” in the T-6 Class. The race had completed, and the pilots were in the post-race recovery period when they collided in mid-air.

Preliminary analysis from the Air Safety Institute. Reno Gazette Journal coverage. As the linked articles note, the remainder of the races was cancelled after the crash: this was the last year for the Reno Air Races in their current form.

Buddy Teevens, football coach at Dartmouth. He was badly injured in a bicycle accident in March, and died of complications from his injuries.

JoAnne Epps, acting president of Temple University. She was attending a memorial service when she collapsed. Ms. Epps was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

James Hoge, noted journalist.

Few editors at major American newspapers have been as young as Mr. Hoge was when he rose to the top at The Chicago Sun-Times, a tabloid aimed at a working-class readership. He became the city editor at age 29, editor in chief at 33 and publisher at 44.
He shook up the staff, strove for sprightlier writing and, like other newspaper editors in the 1970s, introduced new sections on business, food and fashion. “I am always agitating,” he said.
The payoff was six Pulitzer Prizes on his watch: two each for feature photography and criticism and one each for spot news reporting (concerning violence by young radicals in Chicago) and local news reporting (on new evidence in the 1966 murder, still unsolved, of Valerie Percy, a daughter of Charles H. Percy of Illinois, then making his first United States Senate race).

He was also behind the Mirage Tavern investigation, and went on to become publisher of the New York Daily News and the journal Foreign Affairs.

Aware that some council members fretted over his tabloid background, he had some fun with them, offering a mock magazine cover with the model Cindy Crawford and teasers like “sexiest ethnic rivalries.”

Roger Whittaker, British musician.

Burning in Hell watch: Billy Chemirmir. I’d never heard of him, but he was convicted twice of capital murder, and was suspected of 20 more murders. His MO seems to have been smothering old folks.

Most of Chemirmir’s alleged victims lived in apartments at independent living communities for older people. The women he’s accused of killing in private homes include the widow of a man he had cared for while working as an at-home caregiver.

You could also classify this as part of the “fool around and find out” watch:

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot told WFAA that Chemirmir was killed after apparently making inappropriate comments sexual in nature towards his cellmate’s children. According to Creuzot, the cellmate allegedly beat Chemirmir, dragged him out of his cell and killed him while other inmates watched. No one intervened and Chemirmir may have been stabbed with a pen, Creuzot said.
“Even though they are on lockdown, apparently [the cellmate] somehow opened the door and dragged [Chemirmir] into the hallway and there were other prisoners who saw it and not one intervened and no one called for help,” Creuzot told WFAA. “He was basically there for 15 to 20 minutes before anybody with authority could figure out what happened. When they got there, they tried to revive him, but he died.”

Posted in Cycling, Law, Media, Obits, Planes, Sports | Comments Closed

I do love a good classical reference.

Wednesday, September 13th, 2023

Shot:

Chaser:

Look, I know this is a story of mostly local interest. I know this is from a second-rate tabloid newspaper, which has been covering it to excess.

But, wow, these people sound…bats–t crazy. I find it hard to pick out just one element to highlight how bats–t crazy they sound, though the horse’s head in the bed is certainly a favorite of mine. Then there’s the mysterious house fire.

Following the fire, recalled Tatyana’s friend, “The police were called to the house. Officers asked for Tatyana’s ID and there were four loaded guns in her purse. Police arrested her for gun possession.”

Two is one, and one is none. But what is four? I guess four equals two plus two, so four is two. And does she have back problems from carrying four loaded guns in her purse?

(I’m reminded of the old joke with the punchline, “Not a damn thing in the world, Officer.” If you haven’t heard that one, leave me a comment.)

Amazingly, that is not even the most shocking incident involving the couple and firearms. “Mark got arrested once,” said the friend, “because he was standing naked at the top of the driveway with an elephant gun. He had come after her with a knife and she had to run out of the house in her underwear.”

I have to wonder if the “elephant gun” was a real elephant gun, or if we need an “elephant gun” entry for the Journalist’s Guide to Firearms Identification, alongside the AK-47.

Also, is it just me, or are horse people as a general rule just…bats–t crazy? Not that I hang around the horsy set a lot, but I’ve seen more than a few horse cases on the TV court shows…

Posted in Guns, Horses, Law | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: September 13, 2023.

Wednesday, September 13th, 2023

Howard Safir, former NYPD commissioner and gun grabber.

In the final years of his life, Safir, who founded his own intelligence and security firm, has advocated for stricter policing on guns.
Last year, he floated the idea that those who purchase firearms in the city should be required to conduct yearly safety check-ins so authorities can make sure the weapons aren’t lost or sold off to unknown parties.

Neil Currey, noted bodybuilder. He was 34.

Brandon Hunter, former forward for the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic. He was 42.

Mike Williams, former NFL wide receiver for Tampa Bay and Buffalo. He was 36, and died as a result of injuries sustained in a construction accident.

Posted in Cops, Law, NFL, NYPD, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: September 8, 2023.

Friday, September 8th, 2023

And speaking of police: William Phillips has passed away, and this is one of the most interesting obits I’ve read in a bit.

Who was William Phillips? He was a cop with the NYPD. He was also corrupt.

He acknowledged that he partook in police corruption as a patrolman in the 1960s and early ’70s. When not golfing at a country club, flying his plane, taking ski trips, playing the horses or darting around town in his red sports car, he was walking a beat in Gucci loafers and collecting bags of cash from brothels, gamblers, drug dealers and others “on the pad” — cop slang for payoff lists.
Finally, he was caught by investigators taking bribes from Xaviera Hollander, the madam who wrote the best-selling 1971 book “The Happy Hooker.” Mr. Phillips wore a wire and went under cover to avoid prosecution. He joined Officer Frank Serpico and Detective David Durk as star witnesses at the hearings of the Knapp Commission, which detailed endemic police corruption in New York.

(On a side note, Xaviera Hollander is still alive, according to Wikipedia. She’s 80. And she has a website.)

Then it gets weird.

Mr. Phillips may have been a hero to the public, but a homicide detective who saw him testify on television told prosecutors that he resembled the sketch of a man wanted in a cold murder case. Reports later emerged that the detective who had started the inquiry was a close friend of a police lieutenant who, believing that Mr. Phillips had identified him as a grafter, killed himself.
Mr. Phillips was arrested and charged with murdering a pimp and a prostitute in a Manhattan brothel at about 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 24, 1968. But from the start, evidence against him was contradictory. A half-dozen relatives and friends gave Mr. Phillips hour-by-hour alibis, placing him in three homes on a round of preholiday visits from 4 p.m. until past midnight.

The only evidence the prosecution had was the testimony of a man named Charles Gonzales, who was patronizing the prostitute at the time of the murder. Mr. Gonzales was also shot by the killer.

A drinker and a former mental patient, Mr. Gonzales described the killer as older, grayer and shorter than Mr. Phillips and with a “pockmarked Italian face.” He had initially picked someone else out of a lineup that included Mr. Phillips.

Mr. Phillps was tried twice. F. Lee Bailey defended him the first time: “…the jury deadlocked 10 to 2 for acquittal. Jurors said they had not believed Mr. Gonzales.” Mr. Phillips was convicted in the second trial. The conviction was overturned on appeal by New York state appellate courts (“It was later revealed that a juror had applied for a job with the Manhattan district attorney’s office during the trial, and that the prosecutors did not tell the judge until after the verdict.”) but the Supreme Court allowed the conviction to stand.

His options exhausted, Mr. Phillips became a model prisoner and a jailhouse lawyer. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees with perfect grades from the State University of New York, wrote legal briefs and taught law classes for inmates, ran a prison library, worked for charities and, with an unblemished record, became one of the state’s oldest inmates.

…

When he became eligible for parole after 25 years, his records were filled with recommendations for his release from wardens, college deans, judges and federal agents. Manhattanville College, in Westchester County, offered him a job. But the parole board denied his application. His defenders said it was because he had refused to admit guilt.
At another hearing, in 2003, he acknowledged being guilty of “reprehensible conduct” but not of murder. Parole was again denied. The board called Mr. Phillips “a criminal of the worst kind whose danger to public safety is in the highest degree.”
He appealed, and Justice Alice Schlesinger of State Supreme Court in Manhattan called the board’s ruling “perverted” and “contrary to the law.” She asked, “Does the board honestly believe that Mr. Phillips, a 74-year-old man, half-blind from cancer, who has helped countless people and learned and taught the principles of law to many, truly is a continuing threat to society?”

Another judge ordered his release in 2006, but the parole board argued sucessfully that the judiciary didn’t have that authority.

Finally, he told the board what he thought it wanted to hear, saying he was guilty and voicing regret. He was released in 2007, ending 32 years in prison.

…

The authorities over the years have agreed that the commission helped break a culture of police corruption. But the immediate fallout was minimal.
Dozens of officers were charged, while top police and city officials were not. Many prosecutions were dropped because Mr. Phillips’s murder conviction destroyed his credibility as a witness and to some extent undermined the findings of the commission.

I don’t know if he was guilty or not, and the paper of record certainly puts their own pro-Philips spin on things. But I think at the very least there was reasonable doubt.

“The entire case they had against me was the identification that I was a 5-foot-8 pockmarked Italian,” he said. “Do I look like a 5-foot-8 pockmarked Italian?”
He was six feet tall and, friends said, had a ruddy Irish face.

Posted in Cops, Law, NYPD, Obits | Comments Closed

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