Philly DA Larry Krasner says police commissioner ‘spread misinformation’ about alleged cop killer’s past murder case

District Attorney Larry Krasner on Friday said Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel had “spread misinformation” this week when discussing an earlier, failed murder case against the man now accused of killing Police Officer Shane Seiber.

The sharp accusation levied by Philadelphia’s top prosecutor against the city’s top cop came as Krasner sought to defend his decision to record an explosive video last week that blamed the mistakes of two police officers for Eric Lewis’ 2023 murder acquittal.

In the video, Krasner said his prosecutors did “everything humanly possible” to save a deeply flawed case and convict Lewis, but that “arguably criminal” behavior by a former police officer and homicide detective tanked the case.

Krasner suggested that those failures contributed to the fact that Lewis was free to kill Seiber and seriously wound Officer Hector Rodriguez III three years later. On Friday, Krasner said he was considering criminal charges against the former officer and detective.

But much of Krasner’s news conference focused on his escalating dispute with Bethel, who criticized him a day earlier for publicly assigning blame in the wake of the shooting. Krasner also took aim at Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, describing a lack of communication with both the mayor and police commissioner.

“Sadly, ‘One Philly, a City United,’ is not what is happening,” he said.

A spokesperson for Parker declined to comment Friday.

Standing alongside federal law enforcement officials Thursday, Bethel called Krasner’s decision to point fingers in the earlier murder case in the immediate aftermath of Seiber’s killing “absolutely unacceptable.”

“I’ve never seen that in my entire career, where when my family was suffering, when the city was suffering ... my officers were suffering, and you stand up, and you talk about something that is unnecessary?” Bethel said.

He also suggested Krasner’s prosecutors played a role in the failed case, and said they had a responsibility to ensure that detectives gathered the evidence needed for a successful trial.

Krasner said he released his video statement because an official in Bethel’s “inner circle” told media outlets that Lewis was acquitted because the prosecutors in his office “blew it.”

“The first entity to talk to the media before the funeral ... was a member of the inner circle of Kevin Bethel,” Krasner said.

He declined to identify the official but suggested Bethel knew who it was.

Amid mounting criticism of his office and the two prosecutors who handled the case, he said he was forced to respond.

“I had no choice but to correct this communication initiated by the inner circle of Police Commissioner Bethel, and to tell Philadelphians the truth. And so I did. And the truth is that the acquittal is the direct result of one of the worst investigations that I have seen in nearly 40 years of criminal practice,” Krasner said.

When asked about his decision to address the matter in another news conference, instead of directly with the commissioner, Krasner said there were “consequences” to Bethel’s statements Thursday.

“There might have to be consequences for spreading misinformation. And if I have to go to the people for [there to] be a consequence, then that’s what I’ll do,” he said.

Sgt. Eric Gripp, a spokesperson for the police department, said in a statement that Bethel stands by his comments. The department’s focus, he said, remains on supporting Seiber’s grieving family, and Rodriguez through his recovery.

“These families have endured enough, and we will not prolong their pain through a public back-and-forth. We will continue supporting them and focusing on the work ahead,” he said.

Krasner again defended his office’s handling of the earlier case against Lewis, 35, who was charged with the 2019 road-rage killing of Christopher Williams, 32, in West Philadelphia.

Homicide Detective Laura Harris first identified Lewis as a suspect in the killing after then-Officer Naeem Crawley brought her a tip that Lewis was the gunman, police records show. A woman who was in the car with Williams when he was shot and killed identified Lewis as the gunman in a photo array.

But Krasner said Crawley, who was engaged to Lewis’ sister, lied to prosecutors about an alternative suspect, didn’t show up to court, and sought to “torpedo” his testimony before trial.

Harris, the detective, also failed to secure investigative records, including Lewis’ cell phone location data, records in the case show. She said prosecutors lost the records she acquired from Lewis’ Facebook account, but couldn’t reproduce them, records show.

Common Pleas Court Judge J. Scott O’Keefe, who presided over the case, later criticized the fact that Harris didn’t appear to investigate how an eyewitness’ account did not line up with the physical evidence in the case.

After the judge acquitted Lewis, he took the rare step of reporting Harris to the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit.

Harris was later disciplined, and Crawley was fired, Krasner said. Harris declined to comment last week, and could not be immediately reached Friday. Crawley did not respond to requests for comment.

Krasner defended Assistant District Attorney Erica Rebstock, who inherited the case in October 2022 and led the April 2023 trial.

Because Harris’ records said she took certain steps in the investigation that she actually had not, he said, it was difficult for his prosecutors to know how they might strengthen the case before trial.

His prosecutors, he said, should not be expected to do the “job of detectives who wrecked a case.”