All language subtitles for Philly.D.A.S01E02.1080p.WEBRip.x264-BAE_Track03

announcer: Previously,
on "Philly D.A."...

- Voters in Philadelphia
have chosen a progressive

as their new district attorney.

- Krasner's campaign themes

have made him a hero to some
and a bum to others.

- I think he'll be a disaster.

anchor: Dozens of people
employed by

the district attorney's office
shown the door today.

- I'm one of the few survivors.

Almost everybody's gone.
So that's kind of sad.

- This experiment
has to succeed.

Krasner: Anybody who's
dealt with this office knows

that there are secrets.

We need to find out
where the secrets are.

[background chatter]

[police radio chatter]

[children laughing]

- Ladies and gentlemen,

it's show time.

[cheers and applause]

[soft music]

♪

[whistle blows]

[epic music]

♪

[dramatic chords]

♪

[dramatic end chords]

[motorcycle engine revving]

- New tonight,
the D.A.'s office

keeps a "do not call" list

about police
accused of wrongdoing.

- A list of officers
so troubled,

prosecutors will not
call them to testify.

Corruption.
Child sex abuse.

Drunk driving. Assault.
Domestic abuse.

Drug dealing.
Mishandling evidence.

Lying to authorities.

- Police take a oath.

You give 'em a gun
and a badge and arrest power.

You expect that, you know,
the least they can do

is tell the truth
and be honest, be trustworthy.

There are police officers
on that "do not call" list

who are so untrustworthy

that they can't even
be called to testify.

[dramatic music]

- Any officer whose ability
to testify credibly

is compromised
is of great concern to us,

even prior to the list.

The last thing we want
is an injustice,

in any direction.

But these are things
that are unfolding right now,

so it's, uh... it's something
I really can't speak

with any kind of like
finality to.

- A half century ago,
the Supreme Court ruled

that prosecutors are required

to disclose information
that may hurt their own cases,

because it's in
the interest of justice.

That means prosecutors
must tell the defense

if key witnesses,
including police officers,

have a record of dishonesty.

- I've been here
ten years already,

so finding that list
was a bit of a shock.

Doesn't even feel real.

I wouldn't think that anyone

would bury information
like that.

- To me, the story is how
the prior administration

wasn't disclosing
the misconduct to the defense

when defendants
were being accused of crimes.

"Made false... a police officer
made false reports

in a police report,
and they say don't disclose?

That's incomprehensible to me.

- The truth is this office,
before we came in,

was basically
a cover-up organization.

I have seen an email,
in a prior administration,

from the first assistant to
another high-level supervisor,

about how we know that there are

these problematic officers
involved in these cases.

Let's hurry up
and try to get guilty pleas

without telling defense
counsel about the problems.

You're actually
talking about an office

dedicated to violating
the Constitution,

and we are not that.

[quiet music]

♪

- This list of corrupt
police officers...

those who have been
under investigation

or found guilty for misconduct...

there's about 24 names on it.

Which, actually,
from the Black community,

we find hard to believe
that there's only 24 cops

that are under investigation.
[applause]

The point is that
we need that list

to facilitate the release
of all of those

who have been convicted
and imprisoned

as a result
of prosecutorial misconduct.

- You have to understand,
I didn't write that list.

That list was written
by a prior administration.

A lot of that list

will be coming out
very likely next week,

certainly within about ten days.

♪

So looking at the list,

there are a lot
of bad things here,

but in terms of making sure
that a trial is fair,

the most important things
have to do with lying,

stealing,
being an unreliable witness.

So what we have to do
is we have to see

what is this shortlist that
the old guard left behind

before we build something real?

Hey, I'm sorry to make you wait.

All right. Let's talk.

- What I want you to do
is go through the list

and tell me who you think
we are gonna say

is a "do not call."
Lying is "never call."

The other ones...
It just kind of depends.

It's gonna be more
of a case-by-case basis

is what I think.

- It's just that they're also
being arguably deceptive

about what they did.

I mean, nobody writes up
police paperwork to say,

"And then I lost my cool
and busted his nose."

It's always, "Then he fell,

and..."
- Mm-hmm.

- What do you do

when an officer's
charged with burglary?

"Improper sexual touching...
by a supervisor."

- The past administration
there was, like,

a ton of [bleep]
on some of these cops,

but they only
selectively included

a little bit of information.

So as we go back
and look at the records,

and if there's
nine other reasons

why you might want to say
"do not call,"

I'll show it to you.

- Okay.

"Aids and abets a
prostitution escort business."

Mm-hmm. "Lying during
departmental investigation."

Oh, my goodness.

What do you do with fighting
at a wedding reception?

It's Philly!

[soft, somber music]

♪

- Officer, do you swear
to tell the truth,

the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth?

- I do.
- Have a seat.

With every new
police academy class,

the D.A.'s office is invited
to come assist

with their courtroom training.

We go through mock
hearing exercises.

The goal is to make
police officers

more comfortable
with the system,

and you know,
what are expectations are.

- We received information that
it was a burglary in progress.

As we arrived on scene,
we noticed no physical signs

that the door
was actually broken into.

As we got inside,
we noticed five gentlemen,

and I noticed a gun
in somebody's waistband.

I never recovered that gun,
but I have reason to believe

that he shook it
into other places.

- You said there was
a firearm right?

- I believe there was
a firearm...

- Now you believe
there was a firearm.

- Yes, sir.
- My client here,

he shook it down his leg,
and the firearm disappeared?

- I wouldn't say
shook it down his leg.

- Where did it go?

- Where did it go, sir?
- Yeah.

- I never recovered it,
but at the time, I detained him

and had him sitting,

so I wasn't worried
about the firearm.

- I have nothing further.

- So you were doing great
on direct.

I wouldn't really add
additional information.

Like, you started
trying to guess, like

what happened with the gun.
You guys have anything?

- The truth
is the most important thing.

We would much,
much rather you say,

"I don't remember,"

rather than try
to kind of make it up,

'cause it's gonna go bad.

Wellbrock: A busy officer
could have

like 100 open cases at a time,

and they're in
that court every day.

There are a lot of cases
in our system

where the sole evidence
against the defendant

is a single police officer.

If you have a police officer
getting up there that said,

"Here are the drugs I took
out of that guy's pocket,"

that whole trial
could take 15 minutes,

and that's a criminal conviction

on someone's record.

Now, if you work at Dairy Queen,

like I did in high school,
and you lie at work,

maybe it's not
the end of the world.

But if you're a police officer,

and someone's liberty
is at stake, it matters.

- I don't have a police officer

running over here telling me

every time
there's been a problem.

I don't have them saying,

"Here's the key
to our personnel files."

Appreciate it.
The police department

gave a lot more information

before Larry Krasner
was elected as the D.A.

There was a real comfort
in doing that,

because the information came,
and it sat.

And then, all of a sudden,

it stopped coming over
in November.

- We're missing a word here.
[murmurs]

"Not disclosed
to defense counsel."

- I really think
that they were already

changing the way
they were doing things

in anticipation of him walking
in through the front door

on January 2nd of 2018.

[phone keypad beeps]

[line ringing]

Hey, Lieutenant, I don't want
to drive y'all crazy,

but just in my experience,
it's always so important

to be able to look
at the original,

because copies don't always
come out real clear.

And I want to make sure
we're not missing something.

Right. Yeah, so you guys
would make us a copy,

and you would give us
a certification

that you're giving us
a true and complete copy

of the entire file.

I like it. I like it.

Thank you. You
too. Bye-bye.

I feel like I'm getting
the runaround from 'em,

but he was very nice.

- It's fine.

[phone rings]

[beep]
- District Attorney's office.

- Hi.
- The last few weeks

have been pretty intense.

After Larry
asked people to resign,

tensions immediately flared.

People were fearful
that they would be next.

- I cracked a joke
at my going-away party

at the public
defender's office...

the worst part of my day

was gonna be going up
and down the elevator.

Totally true. 100% true.

There was just this
overwhelming negativity

and awkwardness.

What am I gonna say?

I can't say anything
to the people

whose friends
all just got fired,

and they all think
Larry's a dick.

He did need to do
a house cleaning. He did.

- So nice to meet you guys.
I'm Dana Bazelon.

I'm senior policy counsel.

People don't like to change
the way they do things.

And they certainly don't like
to be told by outsiders

that the way
that they do things is wrong.

So I have just been trying
to be so nice to everyone.

Like, so nice.

- Larry's not gonna allow them

to do things the same old way,

so get with the program,
or get to stepping.

- I've been in the juvenile unit

in the D.A.'s office
for the past 13 years.

Juvenile's always been
a little bit

on its own little island,
which has been lovely.

Hopefully that will continue.

- A key leadership hire
within the D.A.'s office.

- Bob Listenbee is the new

First Assistant
District Attorney.

He plans to work
on juvenile justice reform.

- This man essentially
ran Juvenile Justice

for Barack Obama
and Eric Holder.

- Hey, morning.
- Good morning.

- I've been working
with young people

for most of my adult life.

My first work with them
was actually in 1969,

which goes back a long ways.

Here in Philadelphia, you can
be charged with shoplifting

and end up going into placement.

These are dangerous facilities.

Some of our kids get hurt
or even killed

in some of these facilities.

You don't take kids
charged with misdemeanors

and put them
in detention centers.

- When I entered
the delinquency system

I was only 13 years old.

My mother thought
I would be safe.

She didn't realize
that I would be abused,

strip-searched, mistreated,

or I wouldn't be able
to continue my education.

- I got ten punches from a guard

for not doing the school work.

[somber music]

♪♪

Listenbee:
3/4 of the kids in placement

are African-American kids
or Hispanic kids.

Very few white kids
are going into placement.

Kids who are going
into our system,

they come out often worse
than when they went in.

You have to recognize

that the prosecutor
holds a lot of the cards.

What the prosecutor
will recommend

will often be followed.

Harvey: We don't have
a perfect system,

but we have
a decent enough system

to get services available.

We have treatment programs.
We don't call them prisons.

These kids are removed
from home,

and that's not
to be taken lightly.

As prosecutors, you take that
into consideration.

Does this child
need to go to a facility?

Have you tried all options
in the community?

I have three teenagers,
so I know

exactly the kind of issues that
these kids are going through.

Which I think is pretty crucial,

because I think,
if you're not used to

being around kids or teenagers,

you're gonna kind of
write them all off.

Kids are kids, and you want
to see them succeed,

and you want
to give 'em a chance.

- I value the people

who are working
in our juvenile unit.

I've tried cases
against them in court,

but they worked under
an administration

that did not have a mandate

from the people
to change the system.

- I've known Bob
almost 20 years.

When he came here I was excited,

because we always had a really
wonderful working relationship.

I always felt respected
and appreciated by Bob.

There's no doubt.

- Good morning.
- I really appreciate

you guys putting together
the dashboard

that summarizes the data
for juvenile court.

But when you look at
the number of placements,

they're going up.

And I think we have a lot
to do about it,

so I want to reduce
the population

at the detention center
by two kids a day.

What are we doing
to accomplish that? Lisa?

- So we tried to go through
and change

how we handle the morning lists.

I brought an example
just to show, like,

we have all these kids...

- Is this gonna reduce
the kids to two a day?

- That we can control?
- That we can control.

- I know that's your goal.

I would like to say sure.
Let's see how this works.

- Meghan?
- We've done what we think

we can do.
- What do you think?

- I think it's a good first
step to say two a day.

It depends on what kids
are on your list.

So it could be that
there's a list

where we have everyone
who are fine with releasing.

It could be that next day that
we have super serious crimes,

and maybe there
aren't that number.

- Can I just say something?

I do not buy
the inherent assumption

that you all are making
that kids in Philadelphia

are worse than kids all over
the state of Pennsylvania

and worse than kids
all over the country.

Kids all over the country
and kids all over Pennsylvania

are being released
and not sent to placements

as much as kids
in Philadelphia are.

Why is that?

It's because it's our culture
and our practice,

and that's what we've been
doing now, for years and years.

And we gotta change that.

We can't just continue
with the status quo.

Our assumptions are the things

that are keeping kids
in placement longer.

Our assumptions.
Not somebody else's.

The people sitting
around this table.

- Look, Bob, let me ask you.
I mean, what do you see

that we're not doing
that you want to see?

Because we're really kind of
at a little bit of a standstill

of knowing who our population...

Who are the kids
that are being held.

What do you think
we're missing, I guess,

when it comes
to that population?

- There's no justification
for what we're doing, guys.

Really there isn't, you know,

except we've been doing it
for a long time.

And that's not a good enough
justification.

It really isn't.

If you want to know what
it's like to look at a kid

whose life has been
just destroyed

by us in a system,
you know, I know them.

I see them when they get
on the adult side.

I've gone over and tried
some of their adult cases,

and, you know, they say,
"Well, where did we go wrong?"

We went wrong because we...

Just hold.

We've gone wrong because
we haven't changed the system

fast enough
to address their issues.

Some of these kids
I've known for 10 or 15 years.

And we just haven't
addressed their problems.

We have not addressed
their problems.

They come into our system,
and we just push 'em through.

We can't do that anymore.

[soft, dramatic music]

♪

- Pab, let's do your hair.

It's that Puerto Rican hair.

When I was a kid,
that was the same thing.

Over the sink, do my hair.

But we didn't
have gel back then,

so it was just wet,
and it'd be poof, you know?

- He's a little child.

When they were growing up
he would say,

"I'm gonna be a Marine
and a cop, just like my dad."

And my daughter will say,
"I'm gonna be a cop too."

Now they both say,
"We're not doing that,"

'cause we're constantly
sitting here during dinner

talking about cop stuff

and things that happen
throughout the day.

- And then every piece of advice

leads to somebody dying.

[Maria laughs]

"You can't go to the movies,

because
people get killed there."

[both laughing]

- Love you. Have a good day.
Be good.

- Bye, bae.

[police radio chatter]

- Platoon.

Draw. Weapon.

- Sir, 2 platoon is formed
and ready for inspection.

- Everything good.
- Sir.

- Holster your weapons.

Replace the magazine.

- At ease.

We just went over
to [indistinct].

We're up by 50 guns
that we've recovered.

Right now we are leading
the city in gun confiscations,

so thank you all
for the work that you're doing.

We want to make an impact
on those shootings,

then we gotta get those guns
off the street.

They're still out there.

We had a shooting at Broad
and Lehigh right now.

The shootings are on the uptick
again, so in everything you do,

no matter what
the assignment is,

just use extreme caution.

Does anybody
have anything for me?

All right. Thank you.

One of the concerns
for some officers

is how their name
gets on that D.A.'s list.

Ready?
- Yes, sir.

- Nobody wants to work
with a bad cop,

but you have good officers
who might have had some mishap

or something that wasn't
interpreted properly,

some personal issue
that puts them on this list.

What are we taking? 24?

Now you got a good cop
who becomes disgruntled.

Says, "You know what? I'm done.
I'm just not gonna go out there

and hunt, you know,
and make those arrests."

And when you tie
those guys down,

or when you get them
to over-think,

it's the community
who's gonna suffer.

025.
Does he have an apprehension?

I need address, please.

[siren whoops]

[soft music]

♪

- There's been
a circling of wagons

that protects police misconduct

when it comes
to the police department.

And what we have right now

is had a wagon leave the circle.

- There's never been
a clear policy that we,

on the outside,
have been able to discern,

from the Philadelphia
District Attorney's office.

Sometimes things are disclosed,

sometimes they're not,

and what we hope to do
is establish a workable policy

that complies with
the United States Constitution.

They've had over 50 years
to get it right by now,

and they haven't.

- You got long arms.
We're good.

- Yep.
- Yeah.

- The list that came out before
seems to have, I think,

three categories
of police officers.

There's officers
who seem to have problems

with telling the truth.

There's officers that seem to
be abusive and beat people up.

And then there's other.

- We are gonna have
more categories...

- Oh, good.
- Than that.

Typically, most offices,
in addition to figuring out

what goes on the list,
they also have policies about

when you take people
off the list.

I don't think it's as black
and white as that.

- Well, it actually is
black and white.

I think that,
once they're on, they stay.

- Oh, well, you're saying
something totally different

than what I'm saying.
- Yeah. I understand that.

- Okay. Okay.
- No, I know you're saying...

- And I don't know that
I agree with you on that.

I don't know
that I believe that,

once you put somebody
on the list

that they stay
on the list forever.

You know, let's take a good cop
who just screwed up

and got a DUI.

I think you want them
to feel like their name

could come off the list,
at some point.

We've got to keep,
as much as possible,

some goodwill going with these
folks to get their buy-in

so hopefully,
we get the really bad,

nasty [bleep] out,
and y'all get it,

and you do with it what you
think you can in a courtroom.

- I've been a public defender
now for 40 years,

and I've been doing issues
involving police misconduct

since 1995.

The federal government indicted

a series of police officers
for misconduct.

anchor: Six Philadelphia
officers have pleaded guilty.

They planted phony evidence,
stole drugs and money,

sent innocent people to prison.

- I thought that someone
needed to reopen all the cases

involving
corrupt police officers.

No one had ever
done that before.

Unfortunately,
the district attorney's office,

while it's supposed to act as
a check on abuse by the police,

all too often sees themselves

indebted
to the police department.

We went to the police station,

and they brought out
300 file boxes.

- Now, as a result
of the scandal,

55 convictions
have been overturned so far.

- This is one of the
best days of my life.

- So as a result of this
D.A.'s "do not call" list,

I filed one mass
post-conviction petition

with 6,100 different names
on it.

Each one of these people
had been arrested by

any of these police officers.

There'll be a number
of these cases

where people are in custody...
We'll get them out.

Those number of cases
where people are on probation

or parole, and we'll get them
off probation or parole.

Same police officer.

Theoretically, if we had all
this information beforehand,

the disruption in all theses
lives would not have occurred.

- We need to figure out

why are the cops
are not sending us

any information,
you know, of course...

- Since when is it
supposed to be sent?

- We haven't gotten anything
from 'em since November.

- Let me just do this.

Let me try to reach
Commissioner Ross.

[line ringing]

Hey, Commissioner, how are you?
I'm sorry to bother you.

I just wanted to mention
two things to you.

Number one...

- The police department has been

working on compiling
their documentation,

and I felt like everything
was amicable.

They promised that they were
gonna get the first round

to me several weeks ago.

All of a sudden,
I don't get anything.

They know I'm not gonna let go,

and I just can't believe
the police department

would want to be
on the wrong side of that.

I just don't understand.

[light music]

♪

- I do want to meet,
like about your...

- You can meet with me anytime.
- I know, but...

- Stop pretending
that it's hard.

I'm not gonna make it hard.
Lisa, come on.

- But it is hard.
I mean, I can include

Tripp on it,
and maybe he'll schedule it.

- Just send an email.
- Okay.

You know what I mean,
because, like...

- I'm always gonna meet
with you period.

- I know you say that,
and you're gonna cancel on me.

- I'm not gonna cancel on you.
- Okay, well...

- All right.

- See you, Bob.

- So I see you got
a lot of files in here.

- I do, so these
are the pretrial...

this is the pretrial list
from last week

which I have gone through,

file by file.
- Mm-hmm.

- I don't understand
what the mission

of the juvenile unit is,
other than processing files.

We drug test every single
one of the defendants,

regardless of whether or not
we think

that they have any problem
with drugs.

We have them all do
a lot of community service.

I mean, it's just like
it's sort of like...

it feels like a menu.

- Now you know.

You know a lot more,
and it's scary.

It's downright scary.

We're the ones creating
the problem in family court,

'cause we're causing kids
to be held

when they shouldn't be held.
We are doing it.

- I feel like we rope
these kids in,

and then they just end up
getting placed,

because they can't...
- That's probably

what's happening,
so the question becomes

what set of policies
do we fashion?

And that's really
where you come in,

to help us fashion
those list of things

that we need to do
in order to make this work.

- Mm-hmm, well, Lisa is
supposed to bring more numbers

to the meeting.
I mean, I reminded her.

- Let's remind her
several times,

because... you just
have to remind her,

because I've asked
for this stuff.

This is the third time around.
- I know.

- So I'm not gonna ask again.

I really want the information
this time, so...

- Mm-hmm.
- I'm at my wits' end,

in terms of being patient
to get the information.

I didn't think it was
gonna be like that,

because I was very clear
about me wanting it.

And the fact it didn't happen
is a direct... you know,

it's kind of insubordination
or whatever.

- It is. There needs to be
an office-wide...

A message about how you respond

to leadership here.
- Yeah. I'm nice,

but I'm not gonna be pushed over

on this kind of thing.

There's gotta be some, you
know, pretty definitive stuff.

It's gonna be our way
or it's gonna be the highway,

in some sense, so...
- Yeah.

All right. I'll see you soon.
- Thanks.

- When kids are in trouble,

this idea that the juvenile
system is helping...

it's just not always true.

- One kid had a $173
retail theft from Target,

and he didn't even get away
with the stuff

that he tried to steal.

And he not only had to,
like, pay restitution,

but also was in placement
for over nine months.

And his mom died
while he was in placement,

and when he got out, there
was nowhere for him to go.

- The law gives
all prosecutors' offices

a huge amount of power,

but I fundamentally
don't buy the idea

that we can fix people in
the criminal justice system.

I don't pretend to know
what the answer is.

I just kind of feel confident
that, like,

what we're doing now
is not working that well.

- I think you'd be hard-pressed

to find a prosecutor
that didn't say,

"Hey, you know,
we could make some changes.

We could, you know,
do things better."

- One of our policies...

- A lot of people
who come in now,

they see their role
as to change the system,

and at a global level,

but that's not helping
the person that was robbed

or that person
whose house was burglarized.

You can make the changes.

I just think you don't
have to destroy the system

to get the results you want.

- It's a big project,
partly because

of the history of the city.

City Hall is the center
of the city,

and there's only one statue
of any recent mayor

which is up near City Hall.

That is a statue of Frank Rizzo.

[cheers and applause]

Rizzo: You're dealing
with criminals,

with barbarians.

You're safer in the jungle.

This police department
in Philadelphia

could invade Cuba and win.

Krasner: He was a beat cop,

and then
he was the Chief of Police.

- Frank Rizzo has been called

the toughest cop in America,

and that reputation
has made him a hero

to lower and middle-class whites

who think he may become the
toughest mayor in America.

Krasner: In the 1960s,
he became the mayor,

and he was brutal and racist.

- Police in the City
of Brotherly Love

shoot about 78 people a year,

and about 1,100 complaints
of police brutality

are filed there each year.

- Things got so bad that the
U.S. Department of Justice

brought a lawsuit
against Frank Rizzo.

- Philadelphia today was charged

by the federal government

with permitting police brutality

on a scale
that shocks the conscience.

- According to the suit,
the victims were

overwhelmingly
black or Hispanic.

- When Rizzo left office,

the culture

within the police department
was solidified.

- "The Tonight Show"
starring Johnny Carson

will be delayed briefly,

in order to bring you the
following special broadcast.

- Until today, there was
a house in Philadelphia

filled with people who,
for years,

confounded everybody.

They call themselves Move.

They tried to live in the city
as if it were the forest.

They offended the neighbors
first, and then the city.

Today, the city went to move
them, and there was tragedy.

- The Move house
exploded into flames

soon after a police helicopter
dropped an explosive charge

on the row home's
rooftop bunker.

anchor: 65 homes were
burned to the ground.

Six Move adults and five
children were incinerated.

- The entire city block
looks like a warzone.

- And the fallout encouraged
young Philadelphians

to fight back.

And they went into
federal court,

and they were able to win cases.

- No matter how ridiculous
it is that there was a weapon,

that there was an assault,
that there was an attack,

this is a standard
cover-up tactic.

Temin: What's happening now
is that

Larry's able to do it
on a big scale.

- Well, you know,
there's two sides to this.

One is the actual
police department,

consisting of living and
breathing police officers,

many of whom
are people of color.

Many of whom would like

not to have corruption
supervising them.

On the other side, you have
the Fraternal Order of Police,

which is their union.
It's their bargaining unit.

There are roughly
14,000 members.

More than half of them
are retired police officers

but are in a position
to control its leadership

and therefore
control its policies.

It's a voice that is
overwhelmingly male,

overwhelmingly white.

The FOP is the voice

of Frank Rizzo's
generation of cops.

♪♪

- It does no one any good
to have a dishonest cop

or crooked cop.

It leads to mistrials.

It leads to watering down
charges and plea deals.

It leads to prosecutors
losing cases outright.

- It's also how
guilty people walk.

Guilty people walk
because of that.

Voci: So a couple
of detectives

conducted an illegal search,

and that severely compromises
the strength of the case.

So now, we're losing
a homicide case

or maybe losing a homicide case.

[uneasy music]

♪

[police radio chatter]

- A neighborhood was rattled
by a shooting this afternoon.

- The 23-year-old man was shot.

He was rushed to
and pronounced dead

at Penn Presbyterian
Medical Center.

[somber music]

♪

- You just had to know him.

Tafari had the
most beautiful smile.

This was my boy.

This might sound strange,

but I hear my son
in this house a lot.

And I can tell when he with us,

because we still feel
his presence.

And, you know,
sometimes people can walk in,

and be like,
"Well, what's going on?"

And it's nothing
that they can understand.

Yeah.

- We received evidence
from a defense lawyer

that has two
homicide detectives...

Searching a cell phone
without a warrant

and then lying about it.

The case law is very clear.

You cannot look through
people's phones.

You need a warrant.

They did it literally under
the surveillance camera.

Very good quality.

Like, the police misconduct
is not usually this clear.

That is Detective Mole,
and that is Detective Murray,

and that is what we are alleging

is the defendant's cell phone.

The time stamp says 3:31:45,

and the warrant
was signed at 8:00 p.m.

And when the defense lawyer
asked Detective Mole,

"Did you look in his cell phone
to see if there was, like,

anything there to, like,
give you new leads?"

Detective Mole said, "Not yet.

I waited until after
we got the warrant."

It's critical evidence
in the case.

The cell phone, the
messages on the cell phone.

They're like basically just
a play-by-play of the murder.

If this case is not provable,
the biggest reason is because

these cops didn't give
a [bleep] to do it right.

- Can we do a search warrant
who the phone belongs to?

- The phone doesn't exist,
in the eyes of the court.

The phone doesn't exist,
because it was in a pocket,

in pants, in a bag,
and we didn't have a warrant.

- All right.
- No. I know.

Keep thinking.
Never stop thinking.

[ambient background noise]

[ice cream truck tune]

- We still think... I still
think about him every day.

Like, it's crazy.

- Like, my brother gone
and, like, he having a trial.

And then the bad part about it

is what if, like,
we don't get justice for it?

That's just the worst part
about it.

- It could cause
a whole commotion, like,

if they let the person out.
- Yeah.

- My mom will be devastated

if they just let
the person run free.

[somber music]

♪

[dog barking]

- Isaac.

- Come on.
Where's your sneakers?

- It's upstairs.

- Okay. I'm ready, guys.
I'm gonna go to the car.

I'm very anxious
just to find out the results.

A lot of prayer.

When you have younger children

it's not easy
simplifying things to them.

And if this doesn't turn out
for the best...

They have to stand there
and hear them say

that the person
that murdered your brother

is gonna walk away,
'cause we can't prove it.

We know it,
but we can't prove it.

[soft music]

♪

Before I go,

where does the police
commissioner stand on this,

in reference to the behavior
of the detectives?

What will be done,
in this situation?

Not only for my son,

but for every Black man
in Philadelphia...

- I cannot speak for him...
- For every wrongdoing?

- I can say this.
I know they pulled these guys

out of Homicide right away.
They're not out on the street.

- So you do me a favor.
- Yes.

- The next time you see them

you ask them
this question for me,

and this is all I want to know.
Some kind of closure. Why?

What benefit did it do for them

to tamper with that evidence?

It wasn't the police officer
on the street that picked up

my son's limpless body
with 11 bullet holes in it

that took evidence
and tampered with it.

But for the detectives that's
supposed to be investigating,

to do the right thing
for the justice of the city,

to behave that way?
Despicable.

- I totally agree with you.
I will do anything I can.

- And thank you so much.
I appreciate it.

- Listen, I'm happy to talk
to you again.

- Listen, these are policies

that we're all in support of,
we can all agree to,

we can all train
our attorneys on, work with.

Lisa and her team,
why don't you guys

walk us through any changes
you think need to be made.

- So this was a policy that
we thought we had discussed

and you had agreed with us
on about

if it's a felony,
you gotta call it what it is.

Most of the time this comes
out if it's a robbery.

- Robbery.
- I may offer simple assault

and theft, right,

but once I bring
my victim into court,

I'm gonna move under
the robbery,

if that's the appropriate
charge.

- My understanding
was we walked away from it

where people were comfortable

with the language
where appropriate.

- My understanding was
it was nixed by Bob.

So I have a hard time
going up to a victim and say,

"Hey, I know you were robbed,
but rather than robbed,

"I'm just gonna move on
that you were assaulted,

and something
was stolen from you."

Like that, to me, is...

to us, as prosecutors,
is not acceptable.

- Okay. Wait. I'm a prosecutor
now, too, so please...

- So we move on the most
appropriate charge at trial.

- Whether you described it
as a misdemeanor

or a felony doesn't mean
anything to the victim.

It means something to you.
- It means something

when they step into a
courtroom, I'm telling you now.

When I have to bring
my victim into court,

have them miss school,
and then to say to them,

"I'm not gonna move
on the charge that is

the most appropriate charge
under the law,"

it's very difficult for us.

I don't want to butcher the law,

and I have a hard time having
my prosecutors doing that.

- The only purpose of dinging
that kid on the felony

is that it's gonna raise
his prior record score.

- So like, we would take total
offense to the language

saying that we're trying to go
after the highest felony

that we can get.
That's... I mean, I'm sorry.

- Insulting.
- Almost ridiculous to say.

- Insulting.
- So if we did not offer it

at pretrial then...
- No, no, no.

You're talking about F1.
The hypothetical is an F3.

- They're two different...
But yes, we do.

Yes, we do.

- It's a robbery.

- Wait. No, no, no.

Let me finish.
- This language is saying...

- No. Let me finish.
- Carol, let her finish.

- That's not what the community
wants to hear, you know.

- I'm out there
in the community,

and I talk to them all the time.

I'm a member
of those communities,

'cause we're really talking
about African-American

communities, for the most part.

And yeah, they will say that
the kids are out of control,

but they don't mean
that they want the kids

to penetrate
the delinquent system.

What they want is
they want more rec centers.

- Yes...
- They want more programs.

They want services.
They want things.

They want the schools
to be better.

They want things for the kids
to do, so they can have adult...

- There was this weird thing
that happened

where the people
who stayed saw themselves

as the progressive people
in the office.

It was like they were
the progressive people,

in the old world, and we,
like, took the paradigm,

and took it,
and put it someplace else.

We weren't even having
the same conversation

that they had
been having before.

- If a kid's selling drugs,
a kid's selling drugs.

It is what it is.
Like, I'm not taking it

and making it to be
a bigger deal

or a lesser deal
than what happened.

Whatever the reason is,

it's easy to paint us
as a big, bad prosecutor,

'cause it fits what they want
to believe about us,

rather than really what the
reality of the situation is.

We're Philadelphia.
We have a lot of crime.

We have a lot of guns,

so I think
just to say prosecutors

are causing
mass incarceration here

would be an easy way out.

- All right, so should we do
the drug testing thing here,

like, we shouldn't
drug test kids...

- But that they're...
- Just because?

- That same kid could be
at home with his mother

making all kinds of mistakes,

and we just gotta wait for 'em
to grow out of it.

- Right.
- And we gotta love 'em

through it without being
shipped off someplace.

- Okay.
I love talking to you, Ebony,

because you make me
feel like I'm less crazy

for thinking
the things that I think,

'cause you think them too.

And then I'm like, "Okay, well,"

but from my perspective,
what I do see is, like,

these meetings where
we're hearing the same things

about, like,
"This is not my problem.

These are the obstacles."

Like, it just seems like there
isn't a lot of actual

progress being made.

- I think what might be
beneficial...

patience and empathy.

- Empathy. Okay.

- And empathy,
because here's a person

who has done this work for
probably her entire career.

And literally, in one election,
have someone say,

"Nah."

30 years for nothing.

You're actually hurting kids.

You're actually ruining lives.

You're actually in the way.

I don't know.
That might be hard.

And so a little bit
of empathy around that.

- Okay.

[background chatter]

- There's probably
no more sacred obligation

that a prosecutor has
than to turn over things

that are helpful to the defense,

in one way or another,
to make it a fair process.

Now that we have set up this
police misconduct database,

and now that we have policies

of turning over this information

and turning it over early,

this is a fundamental,
radical change

in how the Philly
D.A.'s office has operated.

- If you had subpoenaed before,
you know, 2:00 p.m.

that Friday,
or anytime before that,

it wouldn't have caught
these officers that were added,

as of Monday.

As best we can, we try
and mark front officers

that have
like a large amount of cases,

but we're not gonna
catch 'em all.

In order to kind of
modernize the way

in which we subpoena officers,
the tech guys

put together something
called D.A. Workstation.

If you happen to subpoena anyone

who is on the police misconduct
disclosure list,

you would get a big
red warning at the top.

If it's a presumptive officer
we're not calling,

the subpoena won't go through.

- We've got to make sure that
prosecutors are getting

all the information
about a case from the police.

Then the defense is getting
all the information

from the prosecutors.
And as Dr. Phil says,

"People who have nothing
to hide hide nothing at all."

♪

- We showed the entire
trial division

the damaged goods folder
on the screen.

Hopefully that gave them
some perspective

as to what we're working with.

- Yesterday was one of
the few times

where me not knowing many people

was a real advantage,

because I didn't know
these people well enough

to know how ugly
they were being to me.

- Yeah.
- Andrew did.

Andrew was getting
really angry with them,

because he said
the hostility was...

- Yeah.
- One of the issues

was the prosecutors
were frustrated

about us disclosing
to the defense so early.

They don't like the idea
of the disclosure being made

before the preliminary hearing,

because preliminary hearings
don't deal with credibility.

I don't agree with them,
but there is a very easy,

workable solution to
accommodate for their concerns

and not give up
what we're trying to do.

And that is we would...

- No.
- No?

- No.
We believe in transparency.

They're gonna have
to get used to it.

Their reaction to this comes
out of a decades-long culture

of not just holding
the information back,

holding it back forever.

Shredding the information.
Having two files.

Destroying the information.
I mean, that is a culture

that needs to have
its spine snapped.

And the best way
I can think of to do that

is to just make it really clear

that that will not
be tolerated, at any level.

The other aspect of it is this.

Officers make a ton of money
off of overtime,

and they make the overtime
off of testifying.

So what we're doing
by revealing this stuff early

and making it an issue
with their supervisors early

is we're getting some of the
police department supervisors

to think twice about
whether, you know,

Officer X here who helped his...

- Girlfriend run
a prostitution business.

- His girlfriend run a business
of prostitution...

whether he might need to be
in the "cat up a tree" unit

instead of in some kind
of patrol unit

where he's gonna go
to court a lot.

- It helps everybody.
- Listen...

- My point of view.
- We might affect

actual police misconduct,

'cause they might
get the message

that if they do something,
it's gonna be public.

Very public.

- We've requested that
the police department

send us information,
and they just got back to us.

I don't know how accurate
any of this stuff is.

Part of the problem is we're
not getting original documents.

They instituted
a redaction policy,

not in connection with any
kind of conversation with us.

It just shows that they don't
trust us with the information.

The bottom line is
this does not have

half of the relevant
information we need.

- So I'm late because a friend
who's a judge in Texas

is in Philadelphia,
and he wanted to have lunch.

So I hardly ever go to lunch,
so... and I didn't.

You're looking at me like
I was drinking or something.

I wasn't drinking.
[laughter]

- Do you want to be?
- I wouldn't mind,

leading into this, maybe.

- So they sent all this to us
in a way that they felt

we were not going to
be able to sort it.

Like, we sent them an index.

They didn't respond back
to the index.

- We were at least being nice.

And you told me not to be.

Ay-yi-yi.

I'm just, like...
is this just untenable?

I mean, is this just something

where we say
what they've done is untenable,

and that we're not gonna
try to process it?

I mean, I gotta ask
that question.

I mean, this is so ridiculous
what they're doing, right?

- Yeah.
They're just messing with us.

And some of these officers
testified yesterday, so...

- You know, at what point
do you kind of

throw down the gauntlet and say,

"Let's do this a different way,"

rather than trying to do it
together, as partners?

So I'm struggling with that.

- We need to get extremely
broad information from them.

We need to turn it
over redacted,

but we need to get it
un-redacted.

They can't be the judges
of what we're allowed to see.

They will always... they cannot
help professionally,

but always shade it in favor
of non-disclosure.

- Mm-hmm.
- That is totally unacceptable.

- Yeah.
- That is not the way

this is supposed to work,
and we have

an actual obligation
to go after them to get it,

even if they
don't want to give it up.

Although I think
the much bigger picture here

is called the F-O-P.

So, I mean, it may ultimately
turn out

it's just better to go
to war right now.

[background chatter, whooping]

- Philadelphia's police
union has filed a lawsuit

against the city's district
attorney, mayor,

and police commissioner.

- The union's attorney says
the "do not call" list

violates certain rights.

- Including their ability
to perform their functions

and their due process rights.

We don't know how
an individual police officer

could challenge being included
on such a list.

- I don't know.
I don't have any kind words

for the district attorney,
and he knows that.

Enough's enough.
[applause]

- Even though
the police department

gave us information
that is heavily redacted,

it has enough information
to build up our own database.

- If you don't know
Larry Krasner,

if you had a dealing with him,

you wind up on that
"do not call" list.

- There's about 50 names
waiting to go on the list,

because they are officers
who have been arrested

and convicted of a crime.

- We have enough officers
on that "do not call" list

to invade Cuba.
It's really sad.

- There's about another
140 names,

and that's what came
from those hidden files.

So the list is gonna
double in size

within the next two weeks.

There are some
very prolific officers on here

that it's going to
shake the office,

including homicide detectives.

- If you're too corrupt
to testify in court,

you're too corrupt
to patrol the streets.

If you're on that list,
you're gone.

- You should be done.

- You will no longer abuse
your power,

because you will answer
to the people.

And the people will judge you.

- That's right!
All: Get off our streets!

Off our streets!
Yeah!

Off the streets! Yeah!
Off the streets! Yeah!

Off the streets! Yeah!
Off the streets!

- We're here to make sure
that we send a message

to Larry Krasner that we have
the officers' backs.

[cheering, applause]

♪♪

announcer: This season
on "Philly D.A."...

- We have breaking news
at this hour.

A Philadelphia police officer
has been shot.

- This is capital case.
It deserves capital punishment.

- Not one cop's gonna tell you
that he's on our team.

- Is there a public safety
crisis in Philadelphia?

- "He pulled the gun out

and shot the victim
in the stomach and the head."

This was an assassination.

- We are here to talk about
mass supervision,

the evil twin
of mass incarceration.

- Having done this for 30 years,

I don't like someone
telling me what to do.

- I'm on probation till 2027.

"Arrest warrant warning."

I don't know if I'm going
back to work

or if I'm going to be
going back to jail.

- A Black man has been shot
by a police officer.

- You need to argue this,
and we need to prove it.

- Arms!
- My guys don't trust you

as far as they can throw you.
What am I to tell them?

- I suggest you don't shoot
unarmed people in the back.

- You're the D.A.

But your job is not just
to go after dirty cops.

- The police do their jobs,

lock everybody up,

and Krasner lets 'em out.

- Who was D.A. when there
were dozens of people

shot over the weekend?
- I was.

- The burden on Larry

is to get people to believe

that this is gonna be
better for all of us.

- We all need to get this man

out of the
district attorney's office.

- If you're being told
by people in law enforcement

that this D.A.'s office
will not prosecute,

you're being lied to.

announcer: "Philly
D.A." on PBS.