A federal judge said he believes DA Larry Krasner may have broken the law, and he referred the case to the U.S. Attorney’s Office
U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond said he believed Krasner and one of his top supervisors, Matthew Stiegler, may have committed perjury, conspiracy, or obstruction of justice.
A federal judge said Tuesday that District Attorney Larry Krasner may have broken the law while overseeing a contentious post-conviction case, and he said he referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office to investigate whether Krasner should be charged with crimes including conspiracy or obstruction of justice.
U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond made those stunning statements in a memorandum in which he also ruled that Krasner and one of his top supervisors, Matthew Stiegler, could not longer participate in the case — a matter in which a man is seeking to have his murder conviction overturned.
Diamond wrote that over the past several months, as he conducted hearings to learn more about how attorneys in DA’s office handled that case, testimony from some of Krasner’s staffers revealed actions by Krasner and Stiegler that Diamond called “troubling,” “disturbing” — and potentially illegal.
Those actions, he wrote, included pressuring other staffers to take steps to protect Stiegler and blame one of his subordinates; urging staffers to lie to Diamond in court; and threatening “consequences” for those who did not follow Krasner’s orders.
“I have thus reluctantly concluded that Philadelphia’s highest law enforcement official and one of his top assistants may have violated the law,” Diamond wrote. “In these circumstances, with the issuance of this Memorandum, I refer the DAO, Mr. Krasner, and Stiegler to this District’s United States Attorney’s Office for investigation and other appropriate action.”
Krasner did not provide an immediate comment Tuesday, nor did a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which would have to determine whether or not to open an investigation or file charges. Diamond, as a judge, cannot do so himself.
The filing was the latest explosive development in the case, which is centered around Dennis Johnson’s 2009 conviction for second-degree murder. Johnson has been fighting to have that conviction overturned, and the matter before Diamond began years ago as a routine petition in federal court.
But in recent months, the case has led to a series of unusual revelations about the inner workings of the district attorney’s office as various lawyers handled the case.
Diamond, in his filing Tuesday, said those assertions were not only proof of significant internal disagreements — but also “evidence of possible criminal wrongdoing by Mr. Krasner and Stiegler.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
