PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The judge in the case against former Philadelphia homicide detective Phillip Nordo, on trial for sexual assault and tampering with evidence, denied a request for a mistrial on Thursday, after the defense said an accuser had brand-new information they did not know about.
This man, the third of three accusers to testify, said that Nordo tried to kiss him and grab at him in an elevator at the Philadelphia Police Department headquarters.
He said he first met Nordo in 2015 at a Philadelphia prison, when he was behind bars, accused of being the getaway driver in a shooting. He said Nordo told him he was a high-ranking officer and asked him that day if he was a “freak.” He testified that Nordo made suggestive gestures toward him.
The man testified he was vulnerable and he felt like he needed to keep Nordo close, to help him out, because he seemed to have influence. He told jurors about an incident when he was brought down to the homicide unit, and Nordo called another man to confirm that he had been given $20,000 in reward money — so the accuser would know it was possible. The man said he thought that, by doing so, Nordo was showing him his power.
The defense said this was new information that had not been disclosed to them, and they argued for a mistrial. Prosecutors said they learned of that phone call Wednesday night, but they admitted they did not disclose the new details to the defense.
Ultimately the judge denied the mistrial request.
Both parties played several phone calls the accuser made to the defendant. On some calls, the accuser called Nordo “champ” and tried to make small talk while sometimes giving bits of information. Other times, Nordo made promises to him about making him safer or doing what he could to get him out of prison. On one call from prison, the accuser told Nordothat he had been doing 500 push-ups a day. He said it was flirtatious, and he felt he needed to do that to keep Nordo doing things for him.
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A second accuser, a former corrections officer at SCI Graterford, testified on Wednesday. He said he met Nordo because he was a witness to a 2011 homicide on Broad Street, as he was leaving a bar.
He made a statement that night, but later recanted saying he felt coerced by detectives to give that statement and that he had been drinking too much to know if he was right about what he had said.
He says Nordo repeatedly called and texted him over the next few years, once wanting him to meet up at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel to discuss the case, but he declined — until, he says, he was pressured by his supervisor, who said it would ruin his reputation if he didn’t cooperate.
In 2016, he says the defendant sexually assaulted him inside a detective car — groping him and pinning him down with an elbow against his neck. The man said he was able to get away and get back to his house, and eventually he called an employee assistance hotline, because he was so upset. They sent him to a nearby mental health facility for 24 hours, but he didn’t report the assault until two years later.
During his testimony, the man was mostly quiet, sometimes answering in a whisper, sometimes tearful, saying the alleged assault ruined his life — and he’s traumatized.
When the defense crossed, they poked and prodded at his stories, trying to point to inconsistencies the man made during investigative statements. They tried to go through details of the alleged attack, and the accuser had some problems remembering — because he said it happened years ago and was something he had tried to forget.