Judge orders new trial for former Philadelphia officer over juror’s ties to DA’s office
Daniel Levitt was convicted of perjury for lying under oath about how he recovered a gun during a 2021 traffic stop.
A Philadelphia judge has ordered a new trial for a former city police officer who was convicted of perjury, finding that one of the jurors on the case failed to disclose ties to a law firm representing the district attorney’s office — an association she said deprived the officer of a fair trial.
Daniel Levitt, 52, was found guilty of perjury in June for lying under oath about how he recovered a gun during a 2021 traffic stop. But on Thursday, Common Pleas Court Judge Natasha Taylor-Smith vacated the conviction and ordered that Levitt be retried.
Her ruling centered on the jury foreman, a personal injury lawyer who did not disclose that his law firm was representing the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office in ongoing civil litigation against opioid manufacturers and distributors.
The foreman’s relationship to the law firm became public moments after the jury returned its verdict. Taylor-Smith questioned the jurors and concluded that the foreman’s affiliation had not affected the verdict.
In a letter to the court earlier this month, Levitt’s attorney, Coley Reynolds said he would have exercised a peremptory challenge to strike the juror had he known about the firm’s work for the district attorney’s office.
On Thursday, Taylor-Smith reversed her earlier decision and granted Levitt a new trial.
Reynolds welcomed the ruling, saying, “We believe he did not get a fair trial.”
District Attorney Larry Krasner said Friday that his office would appeal the ruling and if necessary, retry the case.
Prosecutors said Levitt found an illegal firearm inside a bag that he did not have probable cause or a warrant to search during an April 2021 traffic stop. Then, they said, he lied about how he found it during the prosecution of the man he arrested.
Levitt, a 12-year veteran of the force, was the first officer charged after a department review raised concerns that some officers had conducted unlawful searches of people and vehicles before recovering guns. He was fired following his arrest.
