PHILADELPHIA(KYW Newsradio) — A Philadelphia Common Pleas judge had harsh words for District Attorney Larry Krasner Thursday in denying a right-to-know request of a former assistant in his office.
Judge Anne Marie Coyle ruled in favor of former assistant DA Beth McCaffrey, whom Krasner’s office accused of withholding evidence in the murder case of Dontia Patterson when Krasner sought to overturn Patterson’s conviction in 2018.
“The accusations leveled against you had no good faith basis,” Coyle told McCaffrey in court. “They were maliciously intended. They were the product of the perfect storm of political puffery, for lack of a better term. There is no evidence in this record that would remotely justify the accusation of prosecutorial misconduct against you.”
The exoneration prompted tears of relief from McCaffrey, who’s been trying to clear her name for seven years.
“She fought back and she cleared her name,” said her attorney Bryan Lentz. “She felt proud and she felt happy.”
McCaffrey filed a right-to-know request for her notes from the case that she says she put into the trial file and would prove there was no misconduct, but the DA’s office denied the request. Coyle heard the appeal, which included four hours of testimony from Krasner last month, in which he said the notes did not exist.
Coyle, though, found that the notes had been “intentionally misplaced.”
“I believe at this point in time, there are certain documents that have been destroyed, omitted, moved, misplaced, what have you,” she said.
Coyle turned the accusation against McCaffrey on its head, accusing Krasner’s office of a “documented pattern of conduct of bad faith and abuse of authority throughout all of these proceedings.”
“I find as a fact that the level of bad faith that has been demonstrated here is most egregious and worthy of sanctions, and I will impose them,” Coyle said.
She imposed fines totalling $120,000 plus court costs and ordered 12 hours of training for every DA’s office employee on the rules of professional conduct.
“Let's start with rules relative to competence, diligence, communication, safekeeping of property, meritorious claims and contentions, candor towards the tribunal — I will put that in big letters,” she said.
A spokesman for Krasner emailed a statement, saying, “The office will be appealing judge Coyle's decision, and we are confident that the right decision will be made in this matter.”