Sources say Laurie Malone told her boss, D.A. Seth
Williams, to charge the Local 98 boss with assault. Soon after, she was
reassigned.
Was
a high-ranking member of the District Attorney’s Office demoted over a
controversial investigation into Local 98 leader John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty?
Multiple
law enforcement sources have told Philadelphia magazine that Laurie
Malone, a deputy district attorney who oversaw the office’s Pre-Trial
Division, was abruptly reassigned to a lower ranking post last month, not long
after she recommended filing criminal charges against Dougherty
for allegedly punching a non-union electrician at a South
Philly worksite in January. The D.A.’s office denies that there was internal
disagreement on the matter.
The
case has been a political hot potato. District Attorney Seth Williams
referred it to embattled state Attorney General Kathleen Kane because
of a “long-standing professional relationship” with Dougherty, the D.A.’s
spokesman, Cameron Kline, has said. Local 98 has made political donations to
Williams in the past.
It
was a notable decision for a district attorney who had previously boasted
about his willingness to pursue criminal investigations no matter where they
lead. “There are no free passes when it comes to political corruption. You
don’t get a pass just because you are a friend, or a member of my political
party, or race,” Williams said last March, when he filed charges against three
longtime Philadelphia politicians who were ensnared in the infamous Tyron Ali
bribery case that Kane had refused to prosecute.
But
Kane pointed out that she had a similar conflict of interest when it came
to Dougherty; she’d also received campaign contributions from Local 98.
She tasked other members of the Attorney General’s Office with deciding whether
to file charges against Dougherty. The FBI is also investigating the incident,
according to an Inquirer report.
Dougherty’s
spokesman, Frank Keel, has insisted that the union leader wasn’t the
instigator of the winter fistfight, and had only thrown a punch after dodging
one himself.
This
being Philadelphia, it’ll probably be a little while before the Rock ’em Sock
’em South Philly Throw Down of 2016 gets fully sorted out.
Malone,
who has worked for the D.A.’s Office for more than 20 years, is now overseeing
private criminal complaints. It’s an assignment that one former city
prosecutor, speaking on the condition of anonymity, described as the
“Siberia of the office.”
Malone could
not be reached for comment.
The
D.A.’s Office emailed Philadelphia magazine a statement that read:
“There
was never any disagreement within the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office
about whether charges were appropriate in the Dougherty matter. In accordance
with the law, the District Attorney made no decision on the matter because of
his prior relationship with Mr. Dougherty.
“As
soon as the matter was brought to the attention of the District Attorney and
his senior staff, they promptly recognized the need to refer the matter to the
First Assistant Attorney General, so that an independent determination could be
made about the merits of the case.
“That
decision was clearly correct as stories like this show that any decision we
might have made about the merits of the case would have been attacked as
political. Regretfully, the Dougherty matter was not promptly brought to the
attention of the District Attorney and his senior staff. The District Attorney
took corrective measures to insure that such inaction will not occur in the
future.”
It
is unclear what delay the D.A. is referring to, and the office declined a
request to clarify.
In
2010, Williams promoted Malone from chief of the Repeat Offender’s
Unit to bureau chief of the office’s Southwest Division. A year later, he made
her a deputy in charge of the the office’s Pre-Trial Division.
Malone’s
recommendation to charge Dougherty wasn’t the first time Malone had disagreed
with Williams on a high-profile matter. The sources said Malone was also among
a small handful of top prosecutors who urged Williams to fire Frank
Fina late last summer, after the public got a look at hundreds of
pages of pornographic, racist and misogynistic emails that he’d sent and received while working
years ago for the state Attorney General’s Office.
Williams
offered a lengthy defense of his decision to retain Fina,
along with E. Marc Costanzo and Patrick Blessington, two
other former state prosecutors who were also linked to the email scandal. He
made the three men undergo a day of sensitivity training.
But
the D.A. faced considerable backlash from female City Council members and the
National Organization of Women for standing by Fina, Costanzo and Blessington.
The uproar was about more than just the emails themselves; the messages
raised questions about the judgment of prosecutors — and state Supreme Court justices — who trafficked in
humor that was demeaning towards women and minorities. Williams ultimately reassigned Fina, Costanzo and Blessington.
News
of Malone’s unexpected demotion spread quickly through local law
enforcement circles, leaving many surprised.
“Her
performance as a deputy when I was in the office was exemplary,” said Ed
McCann, a former first assistant district attorney who resigned in November
after 26 years in the D.A.’s Office.
McCann,
who now works as the first assistant district attorney in Montgomery County,
said Malone played an instrumental role in helping the city to land a $150,000 grant last May from the prestigious John
D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to reduce incarceration rates and
revamp the local justice system.
“She’s
been in the office for over 20 years, and her dedication has never left in the
time that I’ve known her,” he said.
Malone,
sources said, worked extensively on a hallmark of Williams’s first term —
implementing a zone prosecution system, which called for assistant district
attorneys to handle cases from specific neighborhoods that they were
assigned to across the city.
Malone
also oversaw a small team of city prosecutors who were tasked in 2014 with
handling Traffic Court cases in the wake of
a massive ticket-fixing scandal that all but destroyed the
old court.
Source: PhillyMag
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