PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Former Philadelphia SWAT Officer Richard Nicoletti is scheduled to be retried on assault and oppression charges in October, in another Pennsylvania county.
Judge Roxanne Covington ordered the trial be handled outside of the city to ensure a fair jury.
Nicoletti was charged with simple assault and official oppression, along with related offenses, for an incident on June 1, 2020, during protests over the murder of George Floyd. He was accused of using excessive force in pepper-spraying protesters on I-676.
In May, the assault trial against him resulted in a mistrial.
Now, Covington is calling for a “change of venue.” Jules Epstein, with Temple University School of Law, says that rarely happens.
“It happens rarely, because there is almost never a basis to make the motion,” Epstein explained. “Philadelphia has hundreds, if not thousands of crimes — how much reporting is there about any of them? Only a little.”
Epstein said that when a judge does grant a retrial, it’s because the judge has been convinced they are in a “high-risk situation.”
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“The publicity has been so pervasive and so recent — not a year ago, not two years ago, but right up against the trial, the considerations of fairness have to govern.”
Nicoletti’s attorneys argued that, because of incorrect information released by the District Attorney’s spokeswoman — stating that Nicoletti was responsible for tear gassing protesters on I-676 – and lengthy, in-depth coverage about the case, their client can’t get a fair jury.
The state will now decide where the case will go, and the judge, prosecutors and defense will all have to travel to that county for the length of the trial.
The location for the retrial is not yet known.
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