A Municipal Court judge yesterday dismissed all charges against former Philadelphia police homicide commander James J. Brady in the cover-up of a 1998 car crash, but prosecutors vowed to refile charges against Brady and his alleged accomplice.
Municipal Court Senior Judge Francis P. Cosgrove also threw out all felony charges against former Capt. Joseph J. DiLacqua, the officer prosecutors said had orchestrated the cover-up along with Brady.That left DiLacqua facing only misdemeanor counts.
Cosgrove offered no explanation for his decisions.
In winning the favorable ruling, Brady's defense lawyer argued that prosecutors could not prove that Brady had gone along with the cover-up.
Two rookie police officers did testify that DiLacqua had ordered them to move Brady's crashed car in an action that prosecutors said staged a bogus accident scene. But Brady's lawyer, Brian McMonagle, told the judge that the rookies never heard the talk that night between Brady and DiLacqua. Hence, McMonagle argued, no evidence existed that Brady had joined DiLacqua in the cover-up.
The episode that led to the arrest of Brady – well-known as the blunt and telegenic head of the homicide unit – and caused a major embarrassment for former Police Commissioner John F. Timoney began on Feb. 12, 1998, when Brady joined other homicide detectives for beers at Finnigan's Wake, a tavern on Spring Garden Street.
After leaving, Brady struck a parked car a few blocks away.
Brady drove on but was later stopped by Officer Ricardo Colon, who saw that the front of Brady's city-owned unmarked car was severely damaged.
When Colon learned the driver was the commander of the homicide unit, he called for a supervisor. Then-Lt. DiLacqua arrived.
DiLacqua, often the subject of Internal Affairs inquiries during his career, ordered Officer Gregory Yatcilla to move Brady's car toward a Market-Frankford El pillar, Yatcilla testified yesterday.
DiLacqua then ordered Colon to write in police reports that a reckless driver forced Brady into the post, Colon testified.
Colon testified that DiLacqua and Brady spoke privately and at length at the scene.
“Somehow, somewhere . . . DiLacqua came up with the idea that an unknown driver . . . forced Capt. Brady off the street and into the El pillar,” Colon testified.
But McMonagle told Cosgrove there was no evidence that his client committed any criminal act. McMonagle said his client wrote no false records nor submitted any statement to the city for insurance purposes.
“The mere presence at an accident is not evidence of a conspiracy,” McMonagle argued. “They're not within a hundred miles of making a prima facie case against this man.”
Cosgrove, 73, a senior judge, dismissed charges of conspiracy, insurance fraud, tampering with public records, and obstruction against Brady. He also threw out conspiracy and insurance-fraud charges against DiLacqua. The judge ordered DiLacqua to stand trial Aug. 6 on the tampering charge and three other misdemeanors, including obstruction and false reports.
“I disagree with Judge Cosgrove's decision. My office will rearrest,” Abraham said through spokeswoman Cathie Abookire.
While Brady's lawyer said his client was not part of any cover-up, DiLacqua's attorney, F. Emmett Fitzpatrick, told the judge that his client simply conveyed to the officers what Brady told him at the scene.
“All he knew is what he heard, and he gave that to Colon and told him to prepare a proper report,” Fitzpatrick argued. “It was not a false piece of information.”
Some potentially powerful information against Brady and DiLacqua was not introduced into evidence yesterday.
In their own interviews with police, both Brady and DiLacqua made statements that Internal Affairs investigators said were proven to be lies.
Police investigators interviewed both men in 1998, after the District Attorney's Office wrote the Internal Affairs unit to say it would not press charges against the pair. With that statement from the District Attorney's Office, Brady and DiLacqua had to talk to investigators or be fired.
They did so. Those statements – or any evidence showing the statements to be false – were not legally admissible, however, because the pair had spoken to Internal Affairs only under the threat of being dismissed.
When investigators interviewed DiLacqua in 1998, he insisted that Brady's car had been against the El post when he arrived. Colon and Yatcilla testified yesterday that Yatcilla moved the car on orders from DiLacqua, who used hand signals to direct him onto the sidewalk and against the post.
Four years ago, Brady told Internal Affairs that he had little memory of the events of that night because he had suffered a concussion when the air bag inflated in his Plymouth Grand Fury.
Colon and Yatcilla testified yesterday that Brady seemed shocked and tired that night but did not request medical attention.
Timoney initially gave both officers 20-day suspensions, but the District Attorney's Office reopened the case in March 2001 after The Inquirer reported the details of the cover-up.
Brady, 48, and DiLacqua, 54, were charged in January. Brady resigned shortly before his arrest, and DiLacqua was fired.
During their reinvestigation, police came to believe that Brady struck a 1992 Honda Civic parked outside a North Fourth Street apartment. They traced paint and plastic fragments recovered from Brady's car, and last year, they located the owner of the Honda.
Yesterday, neither Brady nor DiLacqua would comment on the judge's ruling.