(Philadelphia) – A surviving Philadelphia police officer and the families of two deceased officers have filed civil complaints alleging that toxic contamination at the former Frankford Arsenal caused fatal or life-threatening brain cancers. The officers, who worked in the Philadelphia Police Department’s Narcotics Unit offices on the site, are represented by attorney William M. Davis of McMonagle Perri McHugh Mischak Davis and co-counsel James McHugh of Lopez McHugh.
The lawsuits were filed on behalf of Michael Francis Deal and Andrew Schafer, who both died from glioblastoma, and Joseph P. Cooney, who was diagnosed with the same aggressive cancer in 2024. All three officers spent years working in Buildings 201 and 202 of the converted Army facility.
According to the complaints, decades of testing, historical assessments and federal reports documented contamination at the Arsenal dating back to its early use as a munitions research and production center beginning in 1816. The filings state that hazardous materials, including radioactive substances, heavy metals, PCBs and carcinogenic compounds, remained present long after the site was converted to commercial use and leased to the Philadelphia Police Department.
A 2016 analysis by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers identified multiple areas on the property containing elevated contaminants and recommended remediation, including soil removal and capping. One of those areas, the complaints allege, is located directly adjacent to or beneath the Narcotics Unit where the officers worked. The complaints further allege that the officers were never warned about environmental hazards inside the buildings and were exposed primarily through inhalation over the course of their assignments.
Deal, who joined the department in 1980, worked in the Narcotics Unit beginning in 1994 and was diagnosed with glioblastoma in 2018. He died in 2019. Schafer joined the department in 1999, served in the Narcotics Unit from 2002 to 2015 and died in 2025. Cooney, a Philadelphia police officer since 1995, began working in the unit in 1998 and was diagnosed in March 2024.
“These officers dedicated their careers to protecting the public,” said Davis. “They had no reason to believe that the buildings in which they worked every day posed severe dangers to their health. They should have been protected.”
The plaintiffs assert that they could not reasonably have discovered the connection between the contamination and the officers’ illnesses until recently and are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
Any individual who was employed or involved with a business or organization situated on the grounds of the Frankford Arsenal, and who believes he or she may have contracted illness due to the property’s toxicity, is encouraged to contact McMonagle Perri McHugh Mischak Davis to discuss their own legal options. You can contact the law firm via text message at (215) 372-8528, by calling (215) 981-0999, or messaging the firm online at https://www.mpmpc.com/contact.
Formed in 1995, McMonagle Perri McHugh Mischak Davis is a nationally known criminal defense, personal injury and family law firm based in Philadelphia. The firm consistently litigates high profile cases resulting in acquittals and/or million-dollar awards/settlements. Practice areas include criminal defense, personal injury and family law. For more information, visit www.mpmpc.com or call (215) 981-0999.
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