2 Fired Philadelphia Officers Vindicated After Alleged Courthouse Tagging Incident
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Two fired Philadelphia police officers have been acquitted of assaulting a graffiti vandal, who may have targetted the courthouse during this trial. The judge found the alleged victim lied, repeatedly, is patently unreliable, and he acquitted the defendants of the 2007 incidentg without even letting the case go to the jury for deliberations.
The defendants, former officers Sheldon Fitzgerald and Howard Hill, both 33 and five year veterans, hugged their attornies, each other and family and friends and they want their jobs back.
Defense attorney Brian McMonagle says alleged victim David lied about just about every event that took place that night.
"Once you start down a road of tellling lies, sometimes you can't stop and he couldn't stop. And when he got done lying in this courtroom, he walked out and walked down the hall and began defacing this building. He doesn't belong in the Criminal Justice center except as a defendant," said McMonagle.
The tag "OZ" turned up on a building elevator and in the stairwell near the courtroom, the judge took jurors to see it before acquitting the defendants.
Reported by Tony Hanson, KYW Newsradio
