PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A former Philadelphia police sergeant, facing jail time for starting a bar fight and throwing punches in Roxborough more than a year ago, has negotiated for probation time in exchange for a guilty plea.
James Graber Jr. admitted to striking an off-duty Philadelphia police detective and the woman he was with multiple times in their faces, during an altercation inside a Roxborough bar. The prosecutor told the court that the 49-year-old Graber, then a police sergeant, was also off duty in November of 2022 and patronizing the bar, adding that he became agitated when country music playing on the jukebox was switched to hip hop music.
That's when the assistant district attorney said Graber approached a group and used a racial epithet to describe their choice of music. Graber then assaulted the detective and the woman. Both of them suffered facial injuries.
Graber was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, making terroristic threats, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person in connection with the fight. He lost his job with the Philadelphia Bomb Disposal Unit over the incident.
The maximum sentence could have been two years in prison for each of the two simple assault charges. Lawyers on both sides proposed a lesser sentence in exchange for a guilty plea. The judge agreed, sentencing Graber to two years probation, which he will serve long distance from his new home in Florida.
It comes after a separate incident in 2011 when Graber allegedly punched his wife in the face. He was fired from the police department, but reinstated following a Fraternal Order of Police grievance process.