Philly cop arrested, charged with perjury

A Philadelphia police officer has been charged with perjury and related offenses for allegedly lying under oath about a 2019 drug arrest in Kensington, District Attorney Larry Krasner said Wednesday.

Officer James Saxton, 34, also was charged with official oppression and unsworn falsification in connection with a criminal case against Juan Torres, who was arrested April 28, 2019, on suspicion of selling narcotics at A Street and Indiana Avenue.

In a news release Wednesday, the District Attorney’s Office said that Saxton “lied under oath at a preliminary hearing about observing two Latinx males engaging in an attempted illegal drug transaction.”

Saxton “is alleged to have arrested one of the individuals without legal justification, and to have falsified official reports,” the District Attorney’s Office said.

Saxton, a seven-year member of the force who most recently had been assigned to the 24th Police District, was arrested Wednesday. Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw suspended Saxton for 30 days with intent to dismiss.

Michael Neilon, a spokesperson for the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, the union for city police officers, said in an email: “The FOP will represent Saxton but has no further comment on the specific charges.”

In a statement, Krasner said: “Official corruption and abuse of power impact whole communities, which in this case included witnesses who provided cell phone and surveillance camera footage that disproved Officer Saxton’s initial reports. Official lying undermines all law enforcement. This case illustrates the importance of Body Worn Cameras, and of following the rules of conduct within the department — especially rules regarding the usage of body worn cameras and the correct filing and storage of BWC footage.”

Krasner did not provide other details about the case.

In 2019, The Inquirer reported about the arrest involving Torres and six police officers at the scene, including Saxton. Surveillance cameras and bystander phone video showed events differently than how the officers reported. The officers had bodycams, but none were activated to record the arrest.

Michael Mellon of the Defender Association of Philadelphia had documented 60 investigations from March 2018 to April 2019 and only once did officers activate their bodycams before a person was in handcuffs. “They rarely turn their body cameras on when they’re supposed to and almost never turn them on the entire time,” Mellon said in the 2019 Inquirer article.

Krasner’s office ended up withdrawing the charges against Torres after viewing the footage, according to Mellon, even though police reported retrieving 31 packets of heroin from the man’s “underwear area.”