PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Philadelphia police officer faces removal from the force, after three charges including perjury were filed against him.
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw has suspended Officer James Saxton for 30 days "with the intent to dismiss" afterward. The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office charged him last Thursday for allegedly lying under oath in a 2019 preliminary hearing.
Police arrested Saxton, 36, on Wednesday. He also faces charges of unsworn falsification and official oppression. If convicted, Saxton faces up to 11 years in prison.
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Saxton is accused of lying under oath at a preliminary hearing about seeing two men engaging in an illegal drug deal in Kensington in April 2019.He is alleged to have arrested one of the men without legal cause, and to have falsified police reports.
“In order to earn the public’s trust, it is imperative that our officers be held to the absolute highest of professional standards," said Outlaw in the department statement.
She called the case "alarming, and there is absolutely no place for this type of conduct in the Philadelphia Police Department. We want to assure the public that we take any allegations of police misconduct seriously as incidents such as these damage the legitimacy of law enforcement.”
Saxton has spent seven years on the force.