Former Philadelphia Police Sgt. James Graber Jr. pleads guilty to assault charges

A former Philadelphia police sergeant has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a November 2022 bar fight in Roxborough in which he allegedly hit three people and hurled racial and homophobic slurs after the country music he was listening to was turned off.

James Graber Jr., 49, pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of simple assault, and was sentenced to up to two years of reporting probation, according to court records. Graber’s conviction makes him ineligible to serve as a police officer in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office said.

Authorities arrested Graber, who public records indicate now lives in Florida, last March. An Internal Affairs investigation found that he had become enraged after a person in Maria’s Ristorante changed the bar jukebox’s music to hip-hop or R&B. Graber, investigators found, closed in on the group of people who switched the music, and used a racial slur to describe their selection.

Graber then punched a detective a number of times, and spat in a woman’s face before using a homophobic epithet to describe her, according to an affidavit for his arrest. Graber hit three people while “swinging wildly with his fists,” according to the affidavit.

The detective Graber struck was later hospitalized for fractures near his eye.

Following his arrest, Graber, who previously worked on the Police Department’s Bomb Disposal Unit, was suspended for 30 days with the intent to dismiss. Graber was dismissed from the department in April, a spokesperson confirmed.

He initially faced additional charges, including aggravated assault and reckless endangerment, but those counts were later dropped, court records indicate.

The Fraternal Order of Police said at the time of his arrest that it was not representing Graber in the case, and declined to comment on the incident. But Graber had previous legal and disciplinary problems in which the police union successfully intervened.

In 2011, Graber was fired after being arrested in connection with an incident at a Northeast Philadelphia bar in which he punched his estranged wife in the face, police said. Graber entered and completed a diversionary program, and the FOP filed a grievance that allowed him to return to the department with full seniority, according to an arbitration settlement.

And in 2013, Graber was charged with abuse of authority in a violation of the department’s disciplinary code. He was suspended for five days and transferred out of the Bomb Disposal Unit. But after another FOP grievance filing, the suspension was reversed, and a settlement had Graber transferred to another unit and “made whole for five days.”

Graber again came to public attention in February 2022, when a viral TikTok video showed another officer holding him back as he screamed at a woman amid a criminal investigation.