Chris Emmanouilides, 63, of Rutledge, Delaware County, digital media director, award-winning filmmaker, TV executive producer, cameraman, teacher, and mentor, died Saturday, April 26, of a heart attack at his home.
Born in Philadelphia and reared in Los Angeles, Mr. Emmanouilides followed his then-girlfriend back to the city in the 1980s, earned a master’s degree in radio, TV, and film at Temple University, and crafted a 36-year career as an independent filmmaker, vice president of programming for Banyan Productions, cofounder and chief content officer of the VuNeex video marketing platform, and director of digital media at the King of Prussia-based American College of Financial Services.
He specialized in independent documentary films, commercials, and early forms of reality TV, and cofounded Parallax Pictures in the 1990s. His films were screened at the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, the Sundance Film Festival, and elsewhere around the world.
His 40-minute film Archive premiered at the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival in 2013 and earned the Audience Choice Orpheus Award. His 1989 film Suelto! earned first prize at the 1990 Sundance Slice of Life Film Festival.
In 1994, Inquirer movie critic Desmond Ryan called Mr. Emmanouilides’ film Remains “especially noteworthy.” In 1997, The Ad and the Egoearned the top prize at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
In 2001, critic Damon C. Williams reviewed TalkFast for the Daily News. Mr. Emmanouilides was the film’s director of photography. Williams said: “It does an incredible job in detailing the desire, dedication and heartbreak that go with pursuing a dream. It also shows that some do indeed find success in chasing their dreams.”
From 1997 to 2014, Mr. Emmanouilides was an executive producer, director of special projects, and vice president of programing at Philadelphia-based Banyan Productions. Working with the Discovery Channel, the Travel Channel, the Food Network, TLC, Lifetime, and other TV outlets, he and his colleagues created thousands of hours of popular award-winning programming. Among his series credits are Travelers, Reunion, Trading Spaces, Deliver Me, Cruises We Love, and A Wedding Story.
“What we pull off in four days — the emotions and the intimacy — is extremely rare on television,” he told The Inquirer in a 1998 story about the Reunion series. “It’s a constant push, trying to make a high-quality show on a limited budget, with limited time. And the question is, will it find an audience?”
He worked with Reader’s Digest and Hope Paige Designs on video marketing projects at VuNeex in 2015, and spent the last 10 years as a senior producer and director of digital media at the American College of Financial Services. “Chris was relentless in the pursuit of quality,” Jared Trexler, senior vice president at American College, said in an online tribute. “He was inquisitive, introspective, and always learning. Most importantly, he was kind, caring, and funny.”
Mr. Emmanouilides won the 2013 Audience Choice Orpheus Award in Los Angeles.
In tributes, colleagues called him “an amazing man and incredible coworker” and “very passionate about our field.” One said: “He always brought genuine fun and energy to whatever we were doing.”
Gregarious and energetic, Mr. Emmanouilides taught film and production courses at Temple, the University of Toledo, the Scribe Video Center, and the old University of the Arts. He lectured at Drexel and Villanova Universities, spoke at conferences and seminars, and taught English-language classes in Greece and Spain.
He was a longtime member and onetime board president of the Philadelphia Independent Film and Video Association, and he mentored production novices at Scribe Video in Center City and elsewhere. “These newcomers don’t respect the conventions of film that much,” he told The Inquirer in 1993. “They’re trying to find their own voice. So they’re finding new ways to tell stories.”
Christopher George Emmanouilides was born Aug. 31, 1961. His family moved from Philadelphia to Los Angeles when he was young, and he earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at Colorado College in 1983 and a master’s degree at Temple in 1992.
Mr. Emmanouilides was a talented cameraman and photographer.
He met Sandra Enck at an independent film event in Philadelphia, and they married in 2004 and had a daughter, Isabella. He doted on his family, and especially enjoyed seeing films with his wife and decorating his daughter’s breakfast pancakes with eyes, nose, and mouth cut from fresh fruit.
“We took their pictures, and we eventually had hundreds of faces from countless mornings together,” his daughter said on her website facethemorning.com. “None were the same, and each seemed to have something to say.”
His wife said: “We’d see a film and then talk about it for three days.”
Mr. Emmanouilides was an avid reader and photographer. He liked to fly-fish, ski, hike, and cook.
This article about Mr. Emmanouilides (left) appeared in the Daily News in 1997.
He had an infectious laugh, performed magic tricks, listened to the Grateful Dead, and followed the Eagles and Phillies. “He was a big thinker,” his wife said. “He was buoyant and a powerful life force. You never forgot that you met him.”
In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Emmanouilides is survived by three sisters, a brother, and other relatives.
Celebrations of his life were held earlier.
Donations in his name may be made to the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr, Pa. 19010.
We’ll show you a photo taken in the Philly-area, you drop a pin where you think it was taken. Closer to the location results in a better score. This week’s theme is all about winter. Good luck!
Round #10
Question 1
Where is this ice rink?
Loading…
.location {
fill: var(–color-secondary);
}
ClickTap on map to guess the location in the photo
ClickTap again to change your guess and hit submit when you're happy
You will be scored at the end. The closer to the location the better the score
Charles Fox / Staff Photographer
Pretty good/Not bad/Way off! Your guess was from the location.Spot on! Your guess was exactly at the location. Here's also where a random selection of Inquirer readers guessed.
This is Rothman Orthopaedics Ice Rink located at the west side of City Hall. The ice rink opened on November 14 and will be available to skate on through February 22, 2026.
Quiz continues after ad
Question 2
Where can you find these holiday lights?
Loading…
.location {
fill: var(–color-secondary);
}
Margo Reed / Staff Photographer
Pretty good/Not bad/Way off! Your guess was from the location.Spot on! Your guess was exactly at the location. Here's also where a random selection of Inquirer readers guessed.
This is the Miracle on South 13th Street. Residents of South 13th St. have been decorating their houses for about 20 years, turning the area into a popular holiday season attraction.
Quiz continues after ad
Question 3
Where is this garden?
Loading…
.location {
fill: var(–color-secondary);
}
Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Pretty good/Not bad/Way off! Your guess was from the location.Spot on! Your guess was exactly at the location. Here's also where a random selection of Inquirer readers guessed.
This is the Shofuso Japanese Cultural Center. It was originally built in Japan in 1953 and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York before being moved to Fairmount Park in 1958.
Your Score
ARank
Amazing work. You know so much about winter! Are you a snowman?
BRank
Good stuff. Your performance was as beautiful as a freshly fallen snowflake.
CRank
C is a passing grade, but your performance was almost a slippery slope to failure.
DRank
D isn’t great. Your performance was an avalanche of bad answers.
FRank
We don’t want to say you failed, but you didn’t not fail.
You beat % of other Inquirer readers.
We’ll be back next Saturday for another round of Citywide Quest.
Famed architect Frank Gehry died Friday in his home in Santa Monica at 96 after a brief respiratory illness. And while he is gone, cities all over the world will continue to hold a piece of him — including Philadelphia.
Though he is known for the striking, rambunctious architecture of buildings like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, around here, Gehry will perhaps be best remembered as the man behind the Philadelphia Art Museum as we know it today. Gehry in 2006 was selected from a slate of more than 20 renowned architects to oversee what would become a $233 million renovation of the Art Museum.
Known as the Core Project, the effort — completed in 2021 — was designed to open up the museum’s floor plans, reclaim a ground level that had been closed to the public for decades, and add some 20,000 square feet of new gallery space. Completed in phases over more than a decade, Gehry’s planned renovations were designed to make the building more accessible, revitalize its aging infrastructure, and give the space more flow — all while not disrupting the museum’s iconic look.
Frank Gehry with a model of his design for the museum’s expansion, to be on display in the exhibit “Making a Classic Modern: Frank Gehry’s Master Plan for the Philadelphia Museum of Art.”
“Frank always felt in the design of the core project that he was collaborating with the original architects,” said retired Philadelphia Art Museum chief operating officer Gail Harrity Friday. “He often said he was following the bread crumbs left by the original architects to revitalize a building that needed a flow, needed the restoration of the east-west access, the north-south access.”
Gehry’s work on the Art Museum created “views toward a work of art that pull you like a magnet into the galleries,” Harrity said. And in a 2021 Inquirer review of the revamp, architecture critic Inga Saffron found that the redesign gave “museum officials precisely what they wanted: clarity, light, and space.”
A contentious choice
But when he was selected to lead the effort, Gehry was something of a controversial choice. At the time, Gehry was known for flamboyant architecture dotted with playful, tumbling forms — much different from the Greek Revival and Neoclassical design that made the Art Museum an icon on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Some museum lovers worried he would desecrate Philly’s art museum, while others pondered why museum officials would pick such a high-profile architect to design features that largely would not be seen from the outside.
“Nothing [Gehry] has done gives me a good feeling,” one reader wrote to The Inquirer in 2006. “Please rethink using this man to destroy the Philadelphia Museum of Art.”
Gehry himself did little to quell his detractor’s worries. As he put it to The Inquirer at one point: “We will set off a bomb. But I can’t tell what kind till the fat lady sings. I think we’ll make it memorable.”
A $233 million Frank Gehry-designed renovation of the Art Museum focusing on the building’s bottom two floors. The Core Project’s goals were to open up the museum’s floor plans, reclaim a ground level that had been closed to the public for decades, and add 20,000 square feet of new gallery space.
Ultimately, Gehry’s design would be understated and in line with the museum’s existing structure. In fact, it was Gehry’s work on the ’60s-era Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena — which he transformed into a series of serene, classically arranged galleries in the 1990s — that convinced Art Museum officials to go with him for their redesign, so there was perhaps little to be concerned about all along.
Museumgoers got their first taste of the revamp in the fall of 2012, when work on an art-handling facility was completed. That project moved a loading dock and backstage area from the building’s northeast side near Kelly Drive to the Schuylkill side, and would allow for Gehry’s redesign project to progress.
And, at least to Gehry, big plans were afoot.
“I wonder if people in Philadelphia know what a big deal this is,” he told The Inquirer in 2014. “Bilbao was a sleepy little town before the Guggenheim came along. This is going to change Philadelphia.”
The unveiling
By 2017, the Art Museum officially broke ground on the Core Project phase of its redesign. Two years later, in 2019, it reopened a long-shut entryway on the building’s north side, leading to a vaulted walkway more than 600 feet long, running the width of the museum. An auditorium was demolished, being replaced by the area today known as the Williams Forum.
Its removal opened up the interior of the museum, allowing visitors to see through the entire building, bringing in light and street vistas through windows, and “possibly ending that feeling of being lost amid proliferating galleries of art,” The Inquirer reported at the time.
In 2021, the Art Museum officially unveiled Gehry’s work, showing off the result of 15 years of planning, design, and reconstruction. The Daniel W. Dietrich II Galleries and Robert L. McNeil Jr. Galleries made their debut, housing contemporary and American art, respectively.
“Gehry has provided the canvas,” Saffron wrote of the redesign. “Now it’s up to the museum to make the most of it.”
View of the vaulted walkway at the Art Museum.
But the design wasn’t exactly completely finished. Gehry also created the Philadelphia’s museum’s master plan that includes a proposed next phase: building more gallery space beneath the museum’s east steps. The project has been on hold for a number of years, and its status remains undetermined, a museum spokesperson said Friday.
The museum had also had informal discussions recently with Gehry about designing a learning and engagement center, but that project‘s status is also undetermined, the spokesperson said.
“The building is a landmark that is iconic in Philadelphia, that’s difficult to change the exterior of, and in many respects is on a site that is hard to expand,” said Harrity. “So in looking at previous ideas and designs I think Frank’s solution for further increasing gallery space while responding to the architectural integrity of a landmark that is beloved in Philadelphia is brilliant.”
This article contains information from the Associated Press.
A man was stabbed several times on a SEPTA train in Center City early Friday evening, police said.
The stabbing occurred shortly before 5:25 p.m. and the victim was taken by SEPTA Transit Police from the 13th Street Station on the Market-Frankford Line to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, police said.
“Two people were engaged in an argument that escalated into a fight and then a stabbing that left one of them in critical condition,” SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch said in an email.
The victim was stabbed in the neck, police said. No further information was available about him.
More than 130 drug cases were dismissed Friday — and hundreds more are expected to collapse in the coming months — after prosecutors said three Philadelphia narcotics officers repeatedly gave false testimony in court.
Common Pleas Court Judge Lillian Ransom vacated 134 cases during the first in a series of hearings that could see nearly a thousand criminal prosecutions collapse because the testimony of three officers on the Narcotics Strike Force has been deemed unreliable.
Philadelphia Police Officers Ricardo Rosa, Eugene Roher, and Jeffrey Holden were found to have repeatedly given false testimony against people suspected of selling drugs after lawyers with the Defender Association of Philadelphia recovered video footage that contradicted their statements, the district attorney’s office said.
The defenders said the officers regularly watched surveillance cameras to monitor suspects in drug investigations in real time, then didn’t disclose it to prosecutors or defense attorneys in court, officials said. The video footage later showed they also testified to things that never happened or that they could not have seen from where they were positioned, according to court filings.
Prosecutors later conceded that they could no longer vouch for the officers’ credibility and are expected to dismiss scores of cases built on their testimony.
Michael Mellon and Paula Sen, of the Defender Association, began looking into whether officers on the narcotics squad were lying in court starting in 2019.
After a review of cases and convictions involving the officers’ testimony, lawyers for the defender association and prosecutors identified more than 900 cases and expect to ask the judge to dismiss them over the next year. It was not immediately clear how many people, if any, served time in jail, or are still in custody, as a result of the prosecutions that are now in question.
Holden, reached by phone Friday, said he was shocked to learn that his cases and testimony were under scrutiny, and said he had not been told of the move to end the cases at Friday’s hearing. He declined to comment further.
Rosa and Roher did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The officers remain assigned to their narcotics squads.
The district attorney’s office said it provided the police department’s internal affairs unit with details of the officers’ false statements in multiple cases last March.
Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, in a statement, said the department takes “potential credibility issues with our officers extremely seriously.”
An internal affairs investigation into the matter was launched last March and remains ongoing, he said.
The department requested and reviewed cases flagged by prosecutors, he said, but “thus far we have not identified any evidence that would raise concerns of misconduct or criminal behavior on the part of those officers.”
He added: “We will, as always, take appropriate action if and when evidence supports such action, but we will not preemptively sideline officers absent some verified findings.”
Bethel said he learned of the plans to dismiss the cases on Thursday, and has asked prosecutors to provide additional information to assist with their review. He also said the police department has been working with the district attorney to develop a clearer protocol on how officers can use surveillance cameras during investigations.
District Attorney Larry Krasner on Friday declined to say whether his office was investigating the officers’ conduct, but noted that “the statute of limitations for police officers in their capacity is much longer than the statue of limit for other offenses.”
“I have dealt extensively with Commissioner Bethel. I know he and the mayor are committed to rooting corruption, lying, stealing, and cheating out of the police department,” he said.
District Attorney Larry Krasner declined to say whether his office was investigating the officers’ conduct as criminal in nature.
‘They’re lying’
Assistant District Attorney David Napiorski, who reviewed the cases for the office, stopped short of accusing the officers of lying, but said “there’s enough of a pattern of inconsistencies across testimony that we can’t rely on them as critical witnesses in court.”
But Paula Sen and Michael Mellon of the Defenders’ Police Accountability Unit disagreed.
“It’s a fancy way of saying they’re lying,” said Sen, who has worked with Mellon to uncover the officers’ credibility issues since 2019.
The unfolding scrutiny is the latest in a series of large-scale conviction reversals in Philadelphia tied to misconduct in the narcotics unit. Over the past three decades, judges have thrown out thousands of drug cases after officers were found to have fabricated evidence, lied on the stand, or stolen money from dealers.
Bradley Bridge, a longtime public defender, was often the driving force behind those reviews and estimates he’s worked to overturn about 2,500 drug convictions since 1995.
In 2015, Bridge filed a petition to vacate more than 1,400 drug convictions tied to six ex-narcotics cops after they were charged with robbing and beating drug dealers, then altering police paperwork to cover their tracks. The officers were later acquitted by a jury and got their jobs back through arbitration, but more than 950 cases were thrown out after officials agreed they couldn’t trust their testimony.
Bridge, who returned from retirement to handle the cases tied to Rosa, Roher, and Holden, said, “Tragically, nothing is unique about this. It’s exactly the same problems that keep arising since 1995, including the lack of supervision and oversight of police officers on the street.”
A video camera used by Philadelphia police located at Somerset Street in Kensington.
Sen and Mellon said they first noticed a pattern of false testimony in 2019 after they reviewed surveillance footage that contradicted statements Rosa gave about drug cases. As time passed, they said, they continued to monitor his narcotics squad, and found inconsistencies with Holden and Roher’s testimony, too.
They said the officers used the city’s surveillance camera systems to monitor suspected drug activity in real time, but didn’t disclose it as part of their investigation — a violation of due process because the evidence wasn’t shared with defense attorneys.
In court, the officers denied using the cameras, Mellon said, and often said they witnessed hand-to-hand drug transactions that video later showed either never happened or that they could never have seen because the suspect was out of sight.
“They just straight up lied and invented acts of criminality,” Sen said.
‘Who are they gonna believe?’
In one case, Roher said he was seated in an unmarked police car when he saw Darrin Moss sell drugs to two people near Somerset and Helen Streets in Kensington in April 2022. He said he could see Moss inside the fenced lot retrieve drugs, then hand them to a buyer and accept money in return.
Prosecutors later said in court filings that video footage captured by a surveillance camera on the end of the block showed that one drug deal never happened, and the other supposed deal was behind a building and would have been impossible to see.
The charges against Moss were withdrawn.
When prosecutors learned of the discrepancies, they asked Roher to meet and discuss the case, but he failed to appear in court twice without explanation, they said in a court filing.
Prosecutors said this became a pattern — once the officers seemed to learn their testimony was under scrutiny, they stopped showing up to court.
Court filings identify at least nine cases in which the three officers allegedly gave false testimony. Napiorski, of the district attorney’s office, said prosecutors reviewed a few dozen videos from other cases that suggested a systemic pattern of false information in court.
Sen, of the defenders association, said it was troubling that the officers remained assigned to the narcotics squad and have been able to continue making arrests.
“How is the public supposed to have trust in a department that continues to employ people who have so clearly proved themselves to be liars, that has resulted in thousands of people being arrested and jailed?” she asked.
Most of the cases dismissed Friday were drug crimes that led to a sentence of probation, prosecutors said. Seven included a gun charge.
The drug charge against Ramoye Berry was among them.
Berry, 29, from North Philadelphia, said that in April 2023, he was standing on the 1300 block of West Boston Street talking to some friends when a group of officers tackled him and accused him of selling drugs.
When they searched his car, he said, they found a small amount of weed, but he wasn’t selling it. He was charged with possession with intent to sell drugs.
Berry couldn’t recall which officer testified against him in court, but he said he remembered telling his lawyer that the officer wasn’t telling the truth.
He said he pleaded guilty to drug possession and accepted a year of probation because he didn’t think he could prove his innocence, and the court dates were challenging to keep up with. It kept him from being able to get a job, he said.
When he learned on Friday that the officer had a history of giving false information and that his conviction would be vacated, he said he felt vindicated — but frustrated by the time and jobs he lost to the case.
“This is what I was saying from the beginning,” he said, shaking his head. “But who are they gonna believe? The cops, or me?”
Transport Workers Union Local 234, SEPTA’s largest union, may soon strike, according to president Will Vera.
At a Friday afternoon news conference at TWU headquarters in Spring Garden, Vera said his “patience has run out,” and he said the union’s executive committee was meeting to decide when to call a strike.
“I’m tired of talking, and we’re going to start walking,” said Vera, who was elected president in October.
Local 234’s latest contract expired Nov. 7, and the 5,000-member local voted unanimously on Nov. 16 to authorize leaders to call a strike if needed during contract negotiations.
The union represents bus, subway, and trolley operators, mechanics, cashiers, maintenance people, and custodians, primarily in the city.
John Samuelsen, president of TWU International and former president of NYC’s local, joined Vera at the news conference.
“A strike is imminent,” Samuelsen said. “SEPTA is the most incompetent transit agency in the country … SEPTA is triggering a strike.”
In an email sent Friday evening, Samuelsen called on leaders and staff members of TWU locals to travel to Philadelphia to help Local 234 in the event of a strike.
Andrew Busch, spokesperson for SEPTA, said negotiations were “at an impasse,” noting that the negotiating committees met only twice this week. He said SEPTA’s leaders hoped TWU would “take us up on the offer to continue to talk so we can avoid a strike and the massive service disruption it would cause.” No meetings are scheduled for the weekend as of Friday evening.
Vera agreed there was room for the two groups to keep talking, if SEPTA provided “a fair and reasonable” contract proposal.
The union says it is looking for a two-year deal with raises and changes to what it views as onerous work rules, including the transit agency’s use of a third party that Vera said makes it hard for members to use their allotted sick time.
SEPTA officials have signaled they are open to a two-year deal as a step toward labor stability.
In recent weeks, TWU and SEPTA have been negotiating contributions to the union’s healthcare fund. Pensions have arisen as a sticking point.
Union sources told The Inquirer that TWU leaders are increasingly frustrated with the pace of negotiations.
Vera said the executive board meeting began at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. He hoped the board would reach a decision on when members would walk off the job.
TWU last went on strike in 2016. It lasted for six days and ended the day before the general election. Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was worried about voter turnout, and the city sought an injunction to end the strike. It proved unnecessary.
SEPTA’s financials
TWU’s contract negotiations are happening as SEPTA is emerging from what it has called the worst period of financial turmoil in its history.
Like many transit agencies, SEPTA was facing a recurring deficit due to inflation, fewer federal dollars, and flat state subsidies. It reported a $213 million recurring hole in its operating budget.
Following a prolonged and contentious debate over mass transit funding in the state budget, Gov. Josh Shapiro in September directed PennDot to allow SEPTA to tap $394 million in state money allocated for future capital projects to pay for two years of operating expenses.
And last month, he allocated $220 million to SEPTA, the second time in two years he’s flexed state dollars to support the financially beleaguered transit agency. While the $220 million is expected to go primarily toward capital expenses related to Regional Rail, the move helps SEPTA’s overall balance sheet.
What riders should know
SEPTA riders are no strangers to service disruptions.
A former top Philadelphia labor official claims in a lawsuit that she was passed over for a promotion because she’s a woman, and was later fired afterraising concerns about gender-based discrimination spanning two mayoral administrations.
Monica Marchetti-Brock, the former first deputy director of the Department of Labor, said in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday that Mayor Cherelle L. Parker fired her last year, days after Marchetti-Brock had reiterated complaints about gender bias at the top rungs of the city government that had occurred before Parker took office.
Marchetti-Brock had worked for the city since 2013. Under former Mayor Jim Kenney, she rose to the city’s No. 2 labor role.
The man hired for the position was Basil Merenda, a former top state labor official whom Marchetti-Brock claims “had a problem with women.”
What started as a change in boss under then-Mayor Jim Kenney culminated in spring 2024 with Parker firing Marchetti-Brock after she complainedof sex-based discrimination, according to the suit. The lawsuit says an outside investigator probed Merenda’s behavior and in 2023 recommended he undergo implicit bias training.
The lawsuit accuses the city of minimizing the results of that investigation and of terminating Marchetti-Brock and a second woman who was mistreated by Merenda.
“When [Marchetti-Brock] asked if her termination had anything to do with her sex discrimination complaints, [the city] refused to answer the question,” the complaint says.
Merenda is currently one of two commissioners of the Department of Licenses and Inspections. Parker announced his appointment in February 2024, a few weeks before Marchetti-Brock says she was fired. It is common for there to be significant turnover in personnel at the beginning of a new mayoral administration.
A city spokesperson declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
Attempts to reach Kenney were unsuccessful. The former mayor appointed many women to his top staff through his more than two decades in City Hall. When he took office as mayor in 2016, the majority of his cabinet were women.
Marchetti-Brock began reporting to Merenda in January 2023. He ignored his deputy, excluded her from meetings and communications, yelled, and “unjustly” criticized her, the suit says.
Marchetti-Brock says she complained of sex discrimination in the labor department to a long list of officials, some of whom still work for the city, including City Solicitor Renee Garcia and Chief Administrative Officer Camille Duchaussee. Marchetti-Brock “described how she was treated compared to how male employees were treated, including that Merenda ignored what female employees said and focused on what male employees said,” according to the lawsuit.
The city opened an investigation in the spring of 2023, the suit says.
After Parker was elected in November 2023, Marchetti-Brock again expressed her interest in the top labor role. However, the incoming mayor ultimately tapped Perritti DiVirgilio, who was previously the city’s director of labor standards. Marchetti-Brock described DiVirgilio in the suit as a “noncomplaining, male employee.”
In February 2024, Marchetti-Brock received a letter summarizing the findings of the investigation into Merenda. The letter said that the probe concluded that “no violation” of the city’s sexual harassment prevention policy occurred. According to the complaint, Marchetti-Brock was told that Merenda had received a warning and the investigator recommended he undergo implicit bias training.
The policy says city employees are protected from sexual harassment regardless if it’s “unlawful,” and it prohibits retaliation against employees who raise concerns or complain. Marchetti-Brock had a role crafting the policy following a critical 2018 City Controller report that said the city’s sexual harassment reporting protocols were inadequate.
According to the suit, Marchetti-Brock pushed back on the summary letter in an email to Andrew Richman, a city attorney, saying that even though no unlawful behavior was found, “there were findings of bias toward me and other women.”
“As you are aware, our policy holds our leaders to a higher standard than the law,” Marchetti-Brock wrote, according to the complaint. “It is misleading to say there are no findings under our policy.”
Three days later, in early March 2024, top officials from Parker’s administration informed Marchetti-Brock that her employment would be terminated, according to the complaint. The suit states that another female employee who had complained about Merenda was terminated as well.
The lawsuit asks the federal court to find that the city violated antidiscrimination laws and award Marchetti-Brock an unspecified amount of damages.
A Philadelphia journalist was sentenced Friday to 20 years in federal prison for possessing thousands of images and videos of child pornography.
Michael Hochman, whose work was published over the years by outlets including Visit Philadelphia, the sports website Crossing Broad, and The Inquirer — where he once contributed a freelance column — came to the attention of investigators in 2022 after they learned that he exchanged explicit messages with a teenage girl. Authorities later found that he had downloaded more than 2,000 photos and videos of children being sexually abused onto his computers and other devices, prosecutors said.
Hochman, 52, of Huntingdon Valley, compiled that collection over the course of more than a decade, prosecutors said, and did so even after he’d served prison time for sexually assaulting a teenager in Kansas in 2002.
In sentencing Hochman on Friday, U.S. District Judge Kelley B. Hodge cited that conviction as she imposed a prison term five years longer than prosecutors sought.
Calling Hochman’s actions “shameful” and “vile,” the judge said, “The level of depravity … is without words.“
Hochman was convicted of child sex crimes two decades ago after prosecutors say he had sex with a 13-year-old girl he met online. He was convicted of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and sentenced to 55 months in prison, court documents said.
In 2022, prosecutors said, a Missouri woman discovered that her 15-year-old daughter, who had developmental disabilities, had been exchanging explicit messages with an older man online. The mother alerted law enforcement, and authorities traced the messages back to Hochman.
After investigators seized six devices from Hochman’s home, the documents said, four were found to contain sexually explicit images and videos of children being abused.
In all, prosecutors said, Hochman possessed about 1,900 photos and 130 videos of child pornography, many of which depicted rapes, and some of which had been downloaded more than a decade ago.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rotella said it was “very troubling” that Hochman began downloading materials of children being abused not long after he’d been punished for similar crimes.
“The seriousness of his crimes can in no way be argued with,” Rotella said.
Hochman’s attorney, Michael Diamondstein, said no one should be defined by their best or worst actions, but acknowledged the gravity of Hochman’s misdeeds.
“This is a bad case,” he said.
The judge noted that some of the images on Hochman’s computer depicted children as young as three.
Moreover, she said, Hochman’s exchanges with the 15-year-old girl in Missouri were “beyond offensive.”
And Hochman, she said, had a solid upbringing and was a working professional with a college degree, who had opportunities to avoid acting on criminal impulses.
“You knew better,” she said. “You know how to access help.”
Hochman apologized for his actions, saying he recognizes the harm he’s caused and will work the rest of his life to avoid doing so again in the future.
“I made these choices, and I must accept the consequences,” he said.
Wilmington received its first measurable snow of the season — a mighty 0.4 inches — and snow coated roads in parts of southern Chester County Friday.
But Philly once again had to settle for a “trace,” as the flakes that appeared at Philadelphia International Airport failed to meet the minimum requirements for a snowfall — a tenth of an inch.
Yes, PennDot was aware of the potential flake invasion, and crews and trucks were on standby, said spokesperson Krys Johnson. But evidently they can save that salt for another day.
It is possible that the city may see a few flurries this evening, or perhaps freezing rain, said Eric Hoeflich, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Mount Holly.
But you aren’t going to pull a back muscle shoveling. Philadelphia stayed to the north of the snow line as the dry, cold air refused to give it up.
Snow in early December does happen around here, but lack of it is the norm. The “normal” value for snowfall through a Dec. 5 is 0.4 inches at PHL.
Philly’s snow season typically peaks in late January into February as the prime moisture source — the Atlantic Ocean — has a chance to chill, and the cold air in the upper atmosphere ripens.
It’s certainly cold enough for snow. Lows overnight fell into the 20s, officially 25 degrees at PHL. Mount Pocono set a Dec. 5 record with a reading of 4 below zero. That’s Fahrenheit.
Temperatures may not get above freezing Friday, and no higher than the low 40s Saturday and Sunday, which would be several degrees below the long-term daily averages. Another cold front is due Sunday, and readings likely won’t get out of the 30s on Monday and Tuesday.
Think you know your news? There’s only one way to find out. Welcome back to our weekly News Quiz — a quick way to see if your reading habits are sinking in and to put your local news knowledge to the test.
Question 1 of 10
This nearly 100-year-old pizzeria, considered Philadelphia’s oldest, closed on Sunday:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
The Marra family says they’re exploring a new location for Marra’s — one with better parking. The building, which the Marras bought in 1927, has been sold after being on the market for several years.
Question 2 of 10
There’s already a plan for what will replace Marra’s in its original Passyunk Ave. location. What kind of cuisine is it expected to be?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
EMei, arguably Philly’s most acclaimed Sichuan restaurant, is taking over the building occupied by Marra’s for the last 98 years. The East Passyunk EMei would roll out in phases, with takeout and delivery launching in February during renovations and full dine-in service targeted for summer 2026.
Subscribe to The Philadelphia Inquirer
Our reporting is directly supported by reader subscriptions. If you want more journalism like this story, please subscribe today.
This musician with Pennsylvania roots slammed the Trump administration this week for using their song without permission in a video promoting ICE.
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
On Tuesday, Sabrina Carpenter condemned the White House for posting a video featuring ICE arresting protesters and undocumented immigrants to one of her songs. The Bucks County native replied to the post, “this video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”
Question 4 of 10
Quinta Brunson of Abbott Elementary has started a new fund in partnership with the Philadelphia School District to provide free ____ for students.
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Through the Quinta Brunson Field Trip Fund, district teachers and administrators will be able to apply for money for field trips by completing a short application subject to evaluation by an independent, internal group of educators. Field trip grants will be made twice a year. Brunson said she recalls her class selling hoagies to pay for field trips and that the trips played a seminal part in her Philly education.
Question 5 of 10
The Rittenhouse estate sale of the late lawyer Bill Roberts opened to the public this week. The house is said to be filled with 100,000 of this object:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Roberts, a longtime lawyer at Blank Rome LLP, was a bibliophile whose interests — and library — spanned genres and eras, touching on microeconomic theory, beekeeping, botany, classical music, poetry, and much else.
story continues after advertisement
Question 6 of 10
Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo's Moorestown house was pelted with what after the Eagles' Black Friday loss to the Bears?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
According to the Moorestown Police Department, Patullo’s home was vandalized with multiple eggs at about 2:50 a.m. Saturday, hours after the Eagles lost. Patullo, the first-year Eagles offensive coordinator, has shouldered the brunt of the blame for the Eagles’ struggles on offense. A website calling for his firing surfaced. Fans chanted for him to be fired during the game Friday. Police are still investigating.
Question 7 of 10
Philadelphia scientists won an Ig Nobel prize for studying this flavor of breast milk:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Julie Mennella was one of two scientists at Monell Chemical Senses Center to win a 2025 Ig Nobel Prize, the satirical counterpart to the Nobel Prize for her work illuminating how babies respond to garlic-flavored breast milk.
Question 8 of 10
What did N.J. Senator Cory Booker notably do over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
After a brief engagement, New Jersey U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and real estate executive Alexis Lewis celebrated their nuptials Saturday in Washington, after a courthouse wedding last Monday.
Question 9 of 10
Punk icon Patti Smith recently told The Inquirer that she was formed by her time in Philadelphia and rural South Jersey. Where did she grow up in Philly?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Smith calls Philadelphia a formative force in her life. “Culturally, it was the city that helped form me,” she said. “It was where I discovered rock and roll.” Smith grew up in Germantown with stops in Upper Darby and South Philly peppered in.
Question 10 of 10
Sixers’ Joel Embiid’s latest signature shoe has dropped. What brand is making the new sneaker?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
The SKX JE1 marks Skechers’ first foray into signature basketball shoes. For years, Embiid was signed to and developed signature kicks with Under Armour. Embiid entered a partnership with Skechers in 2024. “I’m excited to share it with the world,” Embiid said. The shoes will retail for $130.
Your Results
You have skipped .
You scored XX out of 10.
The average reader scored XX out of 10
Seems like you’ve been skimming more than reading there, buddy. There’s always next week.
You’ve read some articles (or made some educated guesses) but we wouldn’t come to you first for our local news recaps. Better luck next week!
Do you work here? You’re a local news stan with the latest updates on Philly happenings. Your friends definitely ask you for summaries on what’s going on and it shows.
