Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes

Tag: Dave Sunday

  • Defense lawyers seek to block AG’s appeal of overturned murder convictions

    Defense lawyers seek to block AG’s appeal of overturned murder convictions

    Lawyers for three Philadelphia men whose murder convictions were overturned in May are asking a judge to block the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office from intervening in the case in an effort to reverse that outcome.

    Attorneys for Marc Brittingham, Jermal Shuler, and Rasheed Turner have asked Common Pleas Court Judge Jennifer Schultz to reject state prosecutors’ effort to appeal the decision that allowed the men to go free. The lawyers said the office did not have the right to intervene at this late stage.

    On June 16 — three weeks after the men’s convictions were vacated — the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a landmark decision expanding the state’s role in Philadelphia’s post-conviction cases. But that ruling, the lawyers said, doesn’t apply retroactively.

    At issue is whether the authority of the attorney general’s office extends to cases still within a window for appeal when the court issued its sweeping decision granting state prosecutors new power to step into post-conviction cases in Philadelphia.

    The answer could determine how broadly the attorney general’s office can exercise its new authority.

    Last week, the office sought to intervene in the case of Brittingham, Shuler and Turner, whose convictions in the 1997 killing of Essie Mae Thomas were vacated after Philadelphia prosecutors, defense attorneys, and the judge agreed that newly uncovered evidence had undermined their confidence in the jury’s verdict.

    The attorney general’s office filed notices seeking to intervene and appeal 29 days after Schultz vacated the convictions, prosecutors withdrew the charges, and the men were released from prison after more than 28 years.

    The move marked the office’s first effort to invoke the high court’s ruling, a sharply worded decision in which it accused Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office of repeatedly misleading courts while seeking to overturn convictions. The court ordered that, going forward, trial judges must notify the attorney general’s office whenever Philadelphia prosecutors concede post-conviction relief and give it an opportunity to review the case and potentially intervene.

    The filings also underscore a complication the Supreme Court anticipated. The deputy attorney general assigned to the case, Hugh Burns, previously worked in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, where he opposed earlier appeals by Brittingham, Shuler, and Turner to seek DNA testing in an effort to have their convictions reversed.

    Justice Christine Donohue warned that the new intervention process could create conflicts when former Philadelphia prosecutors now employed by the attorney general’s office are asked to defend convictions they previously handled.

    Defense attorneys say Burns’ involvement highlights that concern. They also described the attorney general’s effort as part of “an ongoing political and ideological battle” between state prosecutors and the district attorney’s office, arguing that Brittingham, Shuler, and Turner “should not be caught in the crossfire.”

    The lawyers say the Supreme Court’s order forecloses the attorney general’s attempt to intervene. In its decision, the high court wrote that state prosecutors have “the right to intervene” in any case where the district attorney’s office concedes relief “before [a] ruling on the concession” is made.

    The attorney general’s office, they said in the filings, is attempting to “change the rules after the fact.”

    Attorney General Dave Sunday did not respond to questions about the case.

    In a statement Tuesday, he said, “I don’t think that it benefits anyone for criminal justice leaders to editorialize a lot of the work we do. We intend to litigate in the appropriate venue — the courts.“

    He added: “The last thing individuals who live in the community want to hear are elected officials yelling at each other. They want to see outcomes.”

    In an earlier interview with The Inquirer, Sunday said that after the high court ruling, his office would be reviewing “cases that are still going through the appellate process.”

    In this case, the district attorney’s office sided with the defense, saying in its own filing that the high court’s decision created a right to intervene “before [a] ruling,” not after. While prosecutors said they would comply with the court’s directive in future cases, they argued that nothing in the decision authorizes intervention in this case.

    In a statement filed in the men’s case, Burns acknowledged that the state Supreme Court had not yet issued its ruling when Schultz granted the men their freedom. Even so, he asked whether the court should temporarily vacate its order to allow the attorney general to intervene.

    Burns’ filing does not challenge the evidence that prompted prosecutors to support overturning the convictions.

    That evidence centered on newly disclosed information about the disciplinary history of Bennett Preston, a former assistant medical examiner whose testimony at trial helped establish Thomas’ time of death — testimony prosecutors later concluded was unreliable.

    Two forensic pathologists hired by defense attorneys and prosecutors also concluded that Preston had incorrectly estimated when Thomas died. Schultz found that the new information likely would have changed the outcome of the trial had jurors heard it before issuing their verdict.

  • Pa.’s Medicaid rollback on obesity drugs is a crisis in slow motion

    Pa.’s Medicaid rollback on obesity drugs is a crisis in slow motion

    The assault on healthcare for America’s most vulnerable is not only coming from Washington. It’s creeping into statehouses across the nation — even here in the commonwealth.

    In Pennsylvania, Medicaid beneficiaries rang in the New Year without the obesity treatments they previously had access to, thanks to the actions of policymakers who moved to prohibit Medicaid coverage to meet tighter state budget benchmarks.

    As a cardiologist who has spent my career treating many Black and brown patients, I have witnessed the consequences of unmanaged obesity play out in the most brutal and preventable ways: men in their 40s having heart attacks, women with decades of life ahead of them receiving stroke diagnoses, and heart failure caught too late for treatment to make a real difference. I have sat with families and explained that the disease that took their loved one was manageable — if caught earlier, with the right treatment. It’s devastating.

    That’s why Pennsylvania’s decision to strip Medicaid coverage for obesity medications, effective Jan. 1 of this year, is a sign of further catastrophe that may be coming.

    Pennsylvania has long been heralded as a champion of health equity, but our legislature is unintentionally sending a message that advances in medicine should be reserved for the privileged, the justification being cost. However, this rationale suffers from tunnel vision — the cost of untreated obesity and its complications is far greater. Treating obesity prevents its complications and saves money.

    Obesity is not a lifestyle failure. It is a chronic disease that exacerbates cardiovascular conditions, already killing Black and brown Pennsylvanians at disproportionate rates. Obesity costs the U.S. nearly $173 billion annually in direct medical costs and more than $1.4 trillion in total economic impact. Cutting access to treatment will only worsen the obesity epidemic and continue to drive up costs.

    Nearly 60% of Black women live with obesity, along with half of all Black and Latino adults. Pennsylvania is home to approximately 3.5 million adults living with obesity — one in three residents, irrespective of race or ethnicity. That number is projected to reach one in two by 2030. But for Black and brown communities, already burdened by decades of systemic underinvestment in preventive care and access to healthy food, the cardiovascular consequences of untreated obesity are the daily reality of emergency rooms and cardiac units across Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and everywhere in between.

    Gaps in state budgets shouldn’t be closed by compromising the health of the underserved, communities of color, those with disabilities, and millions of others who depend on public healthcare coverage. Access to healthcare should be more than just a budget debate — it’s both a civil rights and a human rights issue.

    At the same time, when patients cannot access FDA-approved obesity medications through Medicaid, they resort to whatever fills the void. Right now, that means a predatory market of unregulated, potentially unsafe, compounded GLP-1 drugs aggressively marketed to low-income communities.

    Attorney General Dave Sunday has already warned Pennsylvanians about the dangers of these products. The Shapiro administration itself fined a Chester County pharmacy $1 million for producing unauthorized injectable weight-loss drugs. The state knows this market exists, but fails to see how cutting Medicaid coverage for FDA-approved treatments drives patients straight into it.

    State Rep. Justin Fleming (D., Dauphin) has introduced the GLP-1 Safety Act, which would crack down on illegal compounders and protect Pennsylvanians from dangerous counterfeit medications. His bill deserves passage.

    However, enforcement without access is not a health policy. It forces patients to choose between nothing and something dangerous. For Black and brown patients in Pennsylvania, this is not hypothetical, but their current reality.

    Pennsylvania once led the nation by expanding Medicaid to cover chronic conditions like obesity. But now, with Washington dismantling Medicaid at the federal level — 310,000 Pennsylvanians are projected to lose coverage under federal cuts beginning this year — it’s important that the state moves in the right direction at the state level.

    Choosing exclusion and shortsighted cuts is weak policy and will not achieve future healthcare savings. Pennsylvania can once again lead in equitable access to obesity treatment. Our shared progress in the fight against obesity is not negotiable.

    Marietta Ambrose is a cardiologist in Philadelphia and is affiliated with the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. She is a member of the Association of Black Cardiologists.

  • Pa. Attorney General Dave Sunday talks Supreme Court’s Krasner ruling, abortion appeal

    Pa. Attorney General Dave Sunday talks Supreme Court’s Krasner ruling, abortion appeal

    Attorney General Dave Sunday has spent 18 months as the state’s chief law enforcement officer, overseeing a sprawling office that handles criminal prosecution, civil litigation, consumer protection services, civil rights enforcement, and more.

    In that time, the 51-year-old Republican and Harrisburg native says, he has taken on issues ranging from the opioid crisis to illegal crime guns. And last week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court handed his office broad authority to review the efforts of Philadelphia prosecutors to overturn murder convictions they have called unjust, a signature initiative of District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office.

    In a recent interview at his Philadelphia office, Sunday talked about that and more.

    What is your reaction to the Supreme Court ruling on the work of District Attorney Larry Krasner’s Conviction Integrity Unit?

    Obviously, it’s an unprecedented ruling.

    Oftentimes, the best outcome is through the adversarial process. We work with the Philly DA’s office in a lot of different areas, and I viewed this ruling as any other that provides me with instructions on a way on which I have to run my office.

    Moving forward, the ruling requires your office to review any post-conviction concession that Krasner’s office aims to pursue. How will that work?

    There are questions. How many times will we have to intervene? What will that do to staffing? Will we have the logistics and resources to do it appropriately? I think that process will unfold over the next month or so.

    There’s no other real comparison for this ruling, and so what I can say very simply is this: It is absolutely crucial that there is a voice for the families of victims, and at the same time, I think it’s crucial to make sure that we protect the rights of individuals who are charged with crimes and convicted of crimes.

    That balance is found in applying the law and the facts to the issue. That’s something we will enthusiastically do.

    .Assistant General David Sunday, in Philadelphia, June 23, 2026.
    Since Krasner first took office, his prosecutors have supported efforts to overturn around 115 convictions. Given the Supreme Court’s findings, do you now question whether some of those overturned convictions should be reconsidered?

    Well, we have to look at the legal process there. For individuals who the court has already ruled in a manner in which they’re out of prison, those cases are done.

    But with cases that are still going through the appellate process, individuals that are incarcerated, those are situations where we’re going to have to take a look at it. I mean, this is very serious, and when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules in this manner — not just the ruling itself, but the verbiage — I, as attorney general, take that extremely seriously.

    We will do our job, and we’ll do our duty, and we’ll review it, but it’s also important to understand that this isn’t a quest to prove someone wrong. It’s a quest to ensure that all parties are zealously advocated for.

    Krasner has strongly opposed the ruling. He’s likened this issue to the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement and said that the decision undermines the votes of those who elected him to office. What is your response to that?

    I don’t think that it benefits anyone for criminal justice leaders to editorialize a lot of the work we do.

    It’s critical that the citizenry knows and understands that their case will be dealt with by applying the facts to the law — and I know that’s not the most exciting answer, but there are things that are in my control and there are things that aren’t in my control, and his reaction to anything is completely out of my control.

    The last thing individuals who live in the community want to hear are elected officials yelling at each other. They want to see outcomes.

    Earlier this year, justices ruled that mandatory life sentences without parole for those convicted of second-degree murder are unconstitutional. What are your thoughts on that?

    Third-degree murder, second-degree murder, those are cases where the acts resulting in the crime are vastly different case to case. As a prosecutor, I’ve tried horrific second-degree murder cases — one was an in-home burglary where an individual was left face down on the ground, duct-taped, and they ultimately died from positional asphyxiation, which really is torture.

    At the same time, there are second-degree murder cases where you have multiple codefendants, and — this case is highlighted a lot — one of the codefendants pulls a gun out, kills an individual, and all those codefendants, because they were acting in concert and furthering some conspiracy, they’re all guilty of second-degree murder and they’re in for life.

    So there are second-degree murder cases where the individuals should have an opportunity for parole, and at the same time, there are cases that are absolutely horrific, where individuals should spend the rest of their lives in prison.

    The important place we’re in now is the legislative process, moving forward to ensure that the punishment is commensurate with the harm caused in the crime.

    Violent crime has fallen dramatically from its pandemic-era highs in Philadelphia and across the state. Should the attorney general’s office get some credit for that?

    There is no one individual or agency that can take credit for these outcomes. We’re with our federal partners, we work with everybody.

    After I was elected, some of the very first calls I made were to the Philadelphia mayor and the police commissioner, and I made it very clear that we’re partners. I’m excited, let’s go. And that’s what we’ve done.

    The Attorney General’s Gun Violence Task Force is a huge part. We do everything we can every day to go after gun traffickers, illegal straw purchasers. We’ve removed more than 500 crime guns off the streets [statewide] in 2025.

    In addition to that, our Bureau of Narcotics works every day in Philadelphia. Last year, we removed 56 million doses of fentanyl from the streets, and a large portion of that was in the city.

    The Commonwealth Court struck down a decades-old law that banned Pennsylvanians from using their Medicaid benefits to pay for abortions, and last month, your office appealed. Why?

    A lot of people don’t understand the role of the AG in a lot of issues. In Pennsylvania, we have the Commonwealth Attorneys Act, the rules that dictate the job, and one of the rules in there is that the attorney general shall defend the constitutionality of statutes in Pennsylvania.

    I have irritated the entire political spectrum, because I am defending statutes whether you like them or not. That’s literally my job. What a lot of people don’t understand is that the [Medicaid] law is part of the Abortion Control Act — the same law that allows abortions to occur up to six months of pregnancy, the very same law.

    In that law is a subsection that also says that government funds cannot be used for abortions — so I’m defending the abortion law in Pennsylvania, just like I would any other section of that law.

    Critics say that by appealing the ruling and prolonging this issue, you are denying Pennsylvanians of what the court called a “fundamental right to reproductive autonomy.” How do you respond?

    Just like every law we defend — every single one — there are people that like it and don’t like it, and they will have commentary. I certainly respect their absolute right to have that commentary.

    What I will say is, this decision has nothing to do with that. It is the job of the attorney general to defend the statute.

    .Assistant General David Sunday, in Philadelphia, June 23, 2026.
    What would you say has set your tenure apart from your predecessor, Gov. Josh Shapiro, and his appointed successor, Michelle Henry?

    Very simply, I came into this job as a prosecutor. I ran on public safety. I wasn’t a legislator, so when I look at the office, I view it as a place where you follow the facts in the law, and you fight hard to keep people safe.

    With that being said, I have hyper-focused on issues impacting citizens. We have huge crises in Pennsylvania that need to be addressed, specifically the mental health crisis.

    When I came into office, I saw our prisons are full of people that have mental and behavioral health challenges. Individuals go to jail solely because they have a mental health crisis, and what I want to see are people getting treatment.

    What we did was create a new initiative that gives police a toolbox, so when they come into contact with someone in a mental health crisis [who is committing a low-level criminal offense], they can get that person into treatment [if the person chooses to do so]. At the same time, that person can be charged, and the police have the flexibility to hold that charge.

    This is brand-new, and we have nine counties that are already signed up and are rolling. We have five more lined up and ready to roll over the next few months.

    President Donald Trump held a rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, and he was joined by some of the state’s other top Republican officials, such as Stacy Garrity. Is that an event you would have liked to attend?

    In all candor, I have events that have been scheduled for months and months, and the reality is, a lot of these [presidential] events pop up pretty quickly.

    On Tuesday, I had an event with the first elected attorney general in Pennsylvania, LeRoy Zimmerman. I was with him at a fireside chat, talking about what the AG’s office has looked like, and how it’s changed over the last 30 years.

  • Forceful Pa. Supreme Court ruling constrains one of DA Larry Krasner’s signature initiatives

    Forceful Pa. Supreme Court ruling constrains one of DA Larry Krasner’s signature initiatives

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to limit Philadelphia prosecutors’ ability to seek to overturn old convictions not only took aim at one of District Attorney Larry Krasner’s defining initiatives — it altered the work of an office he will one day leave behind.

    The high court’s ruling adds an extraordinary new layer of oversight to an issue that helped make Krasner one of the nation’s most prominent progressive prosecutors: correcting what he has described as injustices of decades past.

    But the newly established changes to the appellate processes in Philadelphia will outlive Krasner’s tenure and reshape the way the office reviews post-conviction cases for years to come. It could not only apply to high-profile exonerations in murder convictions, but also extend to cases that even Krasner’s more conservative predecessors were eager to undo, like drug and gun convictions linked to corrupt cops.

    It also deepens a yearslong conflict between Krasner and his critics in the justice system. Several justices, in dissenting opinions, raised concerns that the change could inject politics into a high-stakes legal process.

    Since taking office in 2018, Krasner has made post-conviction review a centerpiece of his reform agenda. His office said it has overturned the wrongful convictions of 59 people — almost all of them Black men. It has also struck deals that allowed defendants to plead guilty to lesser charges in dozens of other cases in which prosecutors did not say those charged were innocent, but agreed their original trials were unfair, often because of prosecutorial or police misconduct.

    But the high court, in a forceful majority opinion written by Justice Kevin Dougherty, said Krasner’s prosecutors had misled judges in several of those cases, that the prosecutors were not acting as the necessary adversaries to test the cases’ merit, and that the courts could no longer trust his prosecutors’ word when deciding whether to overturn a conviction.

    Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Kevin Dougherty greets supporters during an election night party in November 2025.

    Moving forward, the justices ruled, if the district attorney’s office agrees to alter a sentence or overturn a past conviction, judges must ask the state attorney general’s office to review the case before proceeding. The ruling applies only to Philadelphia; prosecutors in every other Pennsylvania county can continue to evaluate cases on their own.

    Krasner declined to comment this week. While it was not immediately clear whether he had a legal path to challenge the ruling, he said in a video statement last week that it “undermines the value of a vote in Philadelphia.”

    He compared criticism of his post-conviction review efforts to attacks that have been leveled against other social and racial justice movements.

    “We know where we are in the fight,” he said, “and once we get past the fight, we all win.”

    But the Supreme Court’s ruling sharply curtails part of that effort, and it is expected to significantly reshape — and likely slow — one of the most consequential parts of Krasner’s agenda.

    It was “an extraordinary remedy for something the court thought was an extraordinary problem,” said Aaron Marcus, chief of the appeals division at the Defender Association of Philadelphia.

    But, he added, “the remedy might go beyond what was necessary in the court’s mind to address the problem in front of it.”

    While the decision gives the attorney general broader authority to intervene when city prosecutors support post-conviction relief, it remains unclear how often — or when in the process — it will weigh in.

    Brett Hambright, a spokesperson for the office of Attorney General Dave Sunday, a Republican, said in a statement this week that officials were still evaluating the order and its potential impact. Because of the many unknowns, he said, “it may be difficult to fully assess … until the process truly begins.”

    Still, on Wednesday, Sunday’s office filed a notice of intervention in a murder case that Philadelphia prosecutors helped overturn just last month — setting up a potential test case for the new legal landscape around the issue.

    Marcus, of the Defender Association, said the ruling could cause confusion — and delays — in cases that the conviction integrity unit does not typically handle, such as weapons and drug-possession cases, as well as more routine matters, like correcting prison sentences that had been miscalculated.

    “There’s already too few attorneys with too little time and insufficient resources,” he said.

    Marissa Boyers Bluestine, assistant director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania’s law school, said that because the courts did not set a timeline for how quickly the attorney general’s office must review each case, the added oversight could draw out an already yearslong appellate process filled with delays. And, she said, it could create “confusion on who exactly is representing the state.”

    “Now you have two entities who are potentially in opposition to each other,” she said. “It raises confusion and diminishes the real trust in the criminal legal system.”

    Dozens of people have been released from prison in Philadelphia after prosecutors agreed their trials were unfair. In this 2021 photo, Christopher Williams, center, gathered outside the Criminal Justice Center to announce a lawsuit against the city of Philadelphia, police and prosecutors. Williams was exonerated and released from prison in February 2021 after more than 25 years on death row.

    Several defense lawyers who handle post-conviction cases were similarly concerned about the unknowns of the ruling — and said the majority opinion did not address the decades of problematic police and prosecutorial behavior that led to this moment.

    Michael Wiseman said Krasner’s office has opposed most of his clients’ petitions over the years. Like other district attorneys before him, Krasner is not perfect, Wiseman said, but the high court “is vexing in its willingness to ignore all the times when Krasner’s office got it right.”

    At the same time, he said, “It is similarly vexing for not recognizing the imperfections of past administrations, who, unlike Krasner, defended every conviction without regard to innocence or unconstitutional convictions.”

    Adding to the complexity of the issue, some justices believed the majority’s decision could threaten to reignite long-running feuds between Krasner and prosecutors he has clashed with in the past.

    In one of his first actions after taking office in 2018, Krasner fired dozens of veteran prosecutors, effectively describing them as unfit to serve in a reform-oriented administration. Some who were ousted then went on to work in the state attorney general’s office, and Krasner, in a remark that was widely criticized, jokingly referred to that office as “Paraguay,” a South American country where Nazis fled after World War II.

    Justice Christine Donohue warned in a dissenting opinion that the majority’s ruling could threaten to inject personal disputes between rival lawyers into a process that is supposed to be unbiased. In addition, she said, giving the attorney general’s office authority in those cases could give some state prosecutors a role in defending convictions they helped obtain when they worked for the city.

    “This is in stark contrast to acting as a friend of the court,” she said.

    Ben Lerner, a former Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge and former chief defender, said Krasner deserves credit for creating a meaningful system to revisit convictions — something he said previous administrations largely failed to do.

    But state and federal courts have repeatedly raised concerns about the office’s methods, he said, including allegations that prosecutors excluded investigating officers and former trial attorneys from parts of the review process, and focused disproportionate attention on cases tied to prosecutors Krasner had clashed with during his years as a defense lawyer.

    “In my view, it’s a shame,” he said, “because this was basically a very important thing that he was doing that previous district attorneys had had no interest in doing.”

  • A Wynnefield man’s title-washing scheme put 65 luxury cars in the hands of criminals, AG says

    A Wynnefield man’s title-washing scheme put 65 luxury cars in the hands of criminals, AG says

    For a little over a year, Adam Richardson was known among local car thieves as “the title guy,” state investigators said Monday. They could steal a car, visit Richardson’s title shop and resell it, either to a coconspirator or a unwitting bystander.

    From his office on Golf Road in Wynnefield, Richardson, 40, created false title, registration, and insurance documents for luxury vehicles stolen from New Jersey, Philadelphia, and its suburbs, including a Ferrari Portofino worth $260,000 and a bevy of Mercedes, BMWs, and similar vehicles.

    All told, Richardson facilitated the illegal transfer of 65 vehicles, the street value of which is nearly $4 million, according to state Attorney General Dave Sunday.

    Richardson was arrested Friday and charged with racketeering, forgery, tampering with public records, and related crimes.

    Sunday, speaking at a news conference in Northeast Philadelphia, said Richardson’s actions — referred to as “title washing” — created “a veil” behind which criminals were able to operate.

    Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said Monday that the title washing of stolen vehicles allows criminals to operate undetected throughout the state.

    “What should be most concerning about this conduct to individuals and families in our communities is that title washing enables criminals to move in and out of communities without being detected by law enforcement,” he said.

    Sunday declined to disclose whether the 37 vehicles recovered by Pennsylvania State Police were involved in other crimes, but he said that title washing is often linked to drug trafficking and other violent crimes.

    The state’s investigation into Richardson is ongoing, he said.

    Richardson remained in custody Monday in Dauphin County, denied bail due to the extent of his alleged crimes. There was no indication he had hired an attorney.

    He will be prosecuted in Central Pennsylvania, investigators said, given his abuse of his power as a third-party contractor eligible to do business with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

    State Police investigators began investigating Richardson in May 2024, when a trooper at the Trevose Station and Barracks impounded a BMW X7 that he suspected held a fraudulent title, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Richardson’s arrest.

    The vehicle had been registered in South Carolina, using a VIN that did not conform with the standard for that state and possessed a fake insurance policy, the affidavit said.

    The true VIN, investigators said, matched a car reported stolen a month earlier in Montville Township in western New Jersey.

    Investigators later interviewed a confidential informant who had facilitated the resale of the car. The informant had gotten the car, knowing it was stolen, from a man who told him to see Richardson, identifying him as “the 24-hour title guy” who had a reputation to meet sellers “anywhere and anytime,” the affidavit said.

    The informant told troopers that Richardson helped him put the car in another person’s name, using a photo of their driver’s license.

    The investigation into Adam Richardson, codenamed “Operation Hot Wheels,” found that he helped facilitate the sale of luxury cars, including multiple Mercedes sedans.

    Using the unique identification number issued to Richardson’s business by PennDOT, investigators were able to identify the 65 cars involved in the title-washing scheme.

    During the investigation, investigators spoke with multiple vehicle owners who said they had been paid money in exchange to have the stolen vehicles registered in their names, despite never meeting Richardson, visiting his business or driving the vehicles, according to the affidavit.

    Previous audits by PennDOT in 2022 and 2023 found that his title business was violating multiple laws, including issuing plates to salvage vehicles and selling cars without a license.

  • Pa. company pleads guilty in illegal video gambling scheme, but charges have been dropped against the owners

    Pa. company pleads guilty in illegal video gambling scheme, but charges have been dropped against the owners

    A Pennsylvania company has pleaded guilty to a crime stemming from its work installing hundreds of illegal video gambling devices across the state — but its owners appear to be off the hook.

    Schuylkill County-based Deibler Brothers Novelty Co. pleaded guilty Friday to corrupt organizations, a first-degree felony, and was ordered by a judge to forfeit $3 million to the state in cash and assets, according to the office of Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday.

    The company is owned by brothers Arthur Deibler, 34, and Donald Deibler, 33, and their friend Joel Ney, 35, each of whom was charged in 2024 with multiple felonies, including corrupt organizations and conspiracy.

    Court records show the charges were withdrawn Tuesday. Sunday’s office said that was part of the plea agreement, which also required the company to pay the asset forfeiture up front.

    “We expect those charges to be dismissed by the attorney general,” said defense lawyer William J. Brennan, who represents the Deibler brothers along with Michael T. van der Veen.

    Prosecutors say Deibler Brothers marketed its illegal devices as legal skill games — the slot machine-style games that have proliferated across Pennsylvania — and paid kickbacks to an executive at a device vendor.

    State lawmakers have repeatedly pledged, but so far failed, to tax and regulate the games. The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office has argued that the games are illegal slot machines — essentially unregulated casino games — but courts have thus far disagreed.

    “For many years, the legal status of games of chance has been a ping-pong ball in the court system,” Brennan said. “From day to day, it’s hard to follow what the current state of the law is. This corporation has done everything it can to try to remain compliant in a changing legal landscape. This result allows all the parties to move on and put this matter behind them.”

    Sunday, a Republican, said in a statement Monday that the plea resolution “secures a substantial forfeiture of assets to the commonwealth.”

    “This company was warned time and time again and continued to snub its nose at state regulations by flooding Pennsylvania counties with illegal gambling machines,” he said.

    A grand jury presentment accused Deibler Brothers of supplying thousands of illegal video gambling devices — modified slot machines — to convenience stores, bars, and gas stations across more than a dozen counties.

    From April 2021 through November 2023, the company received more than $1 million a month from the distribution and operation of the machines, according to the presentment from the 50th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury.

    In an effort to “disguise” its use of illegal slot machines, Deibler Brothers also paid $150,000 in illegal kickbacks to an executive at device vendor Pace-O-Matic, the presentment said.

    The executive — Ricky Goodling, a retired Pennsylvania State Police corporal and Pace-O-Matic’s former director of national compliance — pleaded guilty last week to state money laundering charges. He also pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion charges.

    Deibler Brothers sought to commingle its illegal games with legal Pace-O-Matic machines to try to “dupe” law enforcement authorities and store owners into thinking they were the same, the presentment says.

    Pennsylvania courts have ruled that Pace-O-Matic games are legal games of skill, not chance, because they include a memory component that distinguishes them from casino-style slot machines. But most of the machines distributed by the Deibler Brothers had no such secondary element and were therefore illegal, the presentment said.

    Goodling used his authority at Pace-O-Matic to quash complaints about Deibler Brothers and another firm that paid him kickbacks, according to the grand jury.

  • ‘Violence will not be tolerated’: Woman who pepper-sprayed conservative influencer on SEPTA bus charged with assault

    ‘Violence will not be tolerated’: Woman who pepper-sprayed conservative influencer on SEPTA bus charged with assault

    A former WHYY intern who pepper-sprayed a conservative influencer on a SEPTA bus was charged with simple assault and other crimes by prosecutors in the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office on Thursday, officials said.

    Video of the Jan. 19 incident between 22-year-old Paulina Reyes and 22-year-old Francis Scales quickly went viral on social media, garnering millions of views and spurring reactions from right-leaning influencers and Elon Musk.

    During the confrontation, Reyes — whose internship with WHYY had ended before the incident — accused Scales of being a “fascist” and a “racist” for posting content online she viewed as insulting to Muslims and people of color.

    Attorney General Dave Sunday, in announcing Thursday that his office’s mass transit prosecutor would oversee the case, said “violence will not be tolerated as a means to conduct political debate, protest, or exhibit differences.

    “This type of violence is senseless, as we have an individual facing criminal charges over political disagreement,” the attorney general said in a statement.

    In addition to simple assault, Reyes is charged with possessing an instrument of a crime, a misdemeanor. She also faces charges of harassment and disorderly conduct, which are summary offenses.

    Reyes was arraigned Thursday morning and released without having to to post bail.

    The mass transit prosecutor for Philadelphia, Michael Untermeyer, worked with SEPTA police to bring the charges, according to Sunday.

    The special prosecutor position, created in 2023 to pursue crimes committed on SEPTA, had been slow to take cases up until last year.

    It has drawn criticism from District Attorney Larry Krasner, who last year challenged the law that created the post, saying it was unconstitutional, unfairly singled out Philadelphia, and stripped his office of authority.

    A spokesperson for Krasner did not immediately return a request for comment on the special prosecutor’s decision.

    Footage of the South Philadelphia incident ricocheted across conservative media, and some influencers had accused Reyes of being an “Antifa agitator” and called for her arrest. Musk’s comments on X, suggesting Reyes had “violence issues,” generated hundreds of thousands of views alone.

    Reyes told The Inquirer in an earlier interview that she had been defending herself against Scales, who was filming her, and that resorting to pepper spray was “not something I wanted to do.”

    She said she has since received death and rape threats for her role in the confrontation. She did not return a request for comment Thursday.

    Reyes and Scales knew each other from attending the Community College of Philadelphia, where Reyes is still a student.

    Videos on Scales’ social media page, Surge Philly, show the commentator interviewing attendees at protests, asking them questions about charged topics such as immigration enforcement. He has also been a vocal critic of Krasner.

    Scales said Reyes’ pepper spray got in his face and eyes, and Sunday, the attorney general, said Reyes also punched the man. A friend who was with Scales filmed the incident. Scales, too, filmed Reyes, saying he did so for his own safety.

    Scales said in a statement that he was grateful for the attorney general’s decision to bring charges, and that he hoped that would deter others from similar actions.

    “No one has the right to physically attack another person because of different opinions,” Scales said.

  • How an anti-Trump crusader and a ‘boring’ Republican prosecutor forged an unlikely partnership

    How an anti-Trump crusader and a ‘boring’ Republican prosecutor forged an unlikely partnership

    Right after Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday was sworn into office in January, he received a lunch invitation from across the Delaware River.

    It didn’t matter that they came from different political parties, said New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, a Democrat appointed to his post by outgoing Gov. Phil Murphy.

    Platkin wanted to get to know his neighbor, and invited Sunday out to lunch in Philadelphia.

    The two men could not have more different approaches to their jobs. In a hyperpolarized political era, where attorneys general play an increasingly important role in national politics, Platkin has become a face of Democratic opposition to President Donald Trump’s administration. He has led or joined dozens of lawsuits by blue-state attorneys general and governors in arguing that the executive branch is acting unconstitutionally on issues like birthright citizenship, withholding congressionally approved funds, and more.

    In contrast, Sunday, a Republican elected last year, has largely avoided suing Trump and has said he strives to be “boring,” focusing his efforts on oversight of his own office.

    Pa.’s new attorney general won’t be suing President Trump. What you need to know about Republican Dave Sunday’s quest to be a ‘boring AG.’

    Even their jobs are different, despite sharing a title. New Jersey’s attorney general is in charge of the state’s 21 county prosecutors, oversight of state police, and protecting consumers, among other duties; Pennsylvania’s attorney general has wide-ranging powers to investigate corruption, enforce the state’s laws, represent the state’s agencies and interests in lawsuits, and more.

    New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin on Monday, June 17, 2024, at the Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton, N.J.

    Platkin, 39, is an ambitious lawyer who grew up in northern New Jersey and attended one of the best high schools in the state before attending Stanford University and Stanford Law School. He went on to work in private practice in New York and New Jersey before being appointed as chief general counsel to Murphy at 35 — the youngest person to ever hold the office.

    Sunday, 50, grew up in a suburb of Harrisburg and has described his high school years as lacking direction. He joined the U.S. Navy after high school before attending Pennsylvania State University for undergraduate and Widener University Law School for his law degree, working at UPS to help put himself through school. He returned to south-central Pennsylvania for his clerkship, and was a career prosecutor in York County until his election to attorney general.

    Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday stands to be recognized by Council President Kenyatta Johnson before Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker gives her budget address to City Council, City Hall, Thursday, March 13, 2025.

    But over salads at the Mulberry, Platkin and Sunday found common ground. And ever since, the two said in a joint interview this month, they have worked closely on issues affecting residents in their neighboring states.

    “Just because you may not see eye-to-eye on [Trump] doesn’t mean you can’t see or don’t see eye-to-eye on many, many other issues,” Sunday said.

    “​​When we have an auto theft problem, [residents] don’t care if there’s a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ after your name,” Platkin added. “They just want to see us working to solve it.”

    The two have since worked together on issues that stretch from criminal investigations and human trafficking cases to challenging Big Tech companies as artificial intelligence rapidly advances, Sunday said.

    Earlier this month, Sunday and Platkin led national efforts of coalescing approximately 40 attorneys general across party lines on the issues they say are most pressing for residents. The group wrote a letter to Big Tech companies in mid-December, detailing concerns about the lack of guardrails for AI chatbots like those available from ChatGPT or Meta’s Instagram AI chats, and the potential harm they could cause people in crisis or children who use them.

    In two more letters sent this month, the attorneys general also voiced support for a workforce reentry bill before a U.S. House committee and requested that Congress approve additional funding for courtroom and judicial security to protect the nation’s judges from safety threats. Platkin and Sunday said they were some of the first attorneys general to sign on to the letters.

    “While the undersigned hold differing views on many legal issues, we all agree that the legal system cannot function if judges are unsafe in their homes and courthouses,” the group of 47 attorneys general wrote in a Dec. 9 letter to top leaders of Congress.

    When it comes to lawsuits against the Trump administration and other litigation authored by partisan attorneys general associations, Sunday has largely avoided the fray. Earlier this month, he was elected Eastern Region chair of the National Association of Attorneys General, a nonpartisan group composed of the 56 state and territory attorneys general.

    Platkin, on the other hand, has led the charge in pushing back against the administration’s policies in New Jersey, signing onto dozens of lawsuits such as ones challenging Trump’s efforts to end birthright citizenship and to withhold SNAP funding if a state does not turn over personal information about its residents.

    Still, Pennsylvania has joined many lawsuits, including several challenging the federal government for withholding congressionally approved funds for electric vehicles and more, as Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, formerly the state’s attorney general, has signed on in his capacity as governor.

    Platkin, who has served as New Jersey’s attorney general since 2022, will leave office when Murphy’s term ends next month, and Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill will appoint someone new to the post. Sherrill, a Democrat, earlier this month nominated Jen Davenport, a former prosecutor and current attorney at PSE&G, New Jersey’s largest electric and gas company, to be Platkin’s successor.

    Sunday’s team has already been in touch with Davenport to forge a similar cross-state working relationship.

    What’s next for Platkin? He said he’s a “Jersey boy” and will remain in the state but declined to say what his next move might entail.

    And both Platkin and Sunday say they will maintain their bipartisan friendship going forward.

    “It’s OK to say we don’t agree on everything. We shouldn’t hate each other,” Platkin said. “We should be open about the fact that we like each other. … I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”