Philadelphia paid $2.3 million to victims of a retired police officer who is behind bars for sexual assault

Patrick Heron is in prison, but Philadelphia’s taxpayers continue to pay for the former police officer’s heinous crimes.

The city paid $2.3 million last month to settle a lawsuit brought by two women who were sexually abused by Heron when they were children a decade ago.

A lawsuit by another victim is ongoing in Common Pleas Court.

Heron, who retired from the Philadelphia Police Department in 2019, was sentenced in 2023 to 15 to 40 years in state prison after pleading guilty to avoid a trial on more than 200 counts of child sexual assault, pornography, kidnapping, and related offenses.

The 56-year-old was arrested in 2022 and accused of using his position for years to lure girls, often targeting victims who had run away, been arrested, or struggled with addiction.

The women’s lawsuit accused the city of “reckless disregard for the safety of the public” by allowing a “morally corrupt sexual predator” to remain on the force and victimize at least 48 women and girls, despite years of sustained complaints of misconduct against him starting shortly after he joined the department in 1995.

The department even began the process to terminate Heron in 2008, the complaint says, following sustained allegations that included “associating with known criminals,” “little to no regard for his position as a police officer,” and having been detained by police officers for soliciting a sex worker in Kensington.

But Heron maintained his badge and went on to assault the two girls, among other victims.

“Instead of just firing him, they were moving him around different districts,” said Joshua Van Naarden of VSCP Law, the firm representing the two plaintiffs.

Heron eventually resigned in 2019 following an internal affairs investigation into an allegation that a uniformed Heron was caught by a CVS surveillance camera attempting to steal a phone charger.

Heron assaulted one of the two women in 2016 when she was 9 years old. He held her captive in his bedroom, took 22 illicit photographs while she was unconscious, and sexually assaulted her, according to the complaint.

The former officer sent her a Facebook message in 2021, when the victim was 15, and solicited photos from her as well as sex for money, the suit says.

And when the teen accused him of acting inappropriately, Heron threatened to have her arrested.

Heron assaulted the second women in 2016 while on duty. He picked her up from Temple University Hospital’s emergency department when she was 11 years old, after responding to a report that she had run away from home.

After she was discharged from the hospital to Heron while he was on duty, with instructions to take her home, Heron gave her a laced drink and took photos of the unconscious child.

Two days later, Heron picked up the 11-year-old from her house and again took illicit photographs of her.

Both women were involved in Heron’s prosecution, the complaint says, and he pleaded guilty to counts resulting from his crimes against them.

The woman who was victimized as an 11-year-old did not know about the abuse, which took place while she was unconscious, until law enforcement found photos of her on Heron’s devices, Van Naarden said.

“There are tons of other victims out there that may not even be aware that they were victimized by him,” Van Naarden said.

The city deserves credit for settling the lawsuit, which was filed in December 2024, relatively quickly to prevent the women from having to relive their trauma through depositions, testimony, and court hearings, the attorney said.

The lawsuit was settled in April and the city paid $1.3 million on July 31 to the woman Heron assaulted when she was 9 and $1 million to the woman assaulted when she was 11, a spokesperson for the city’s law department said. There were no other conditions as part of the agreement.

The city declined to comment further on the settlement or on the ongoing lawsuit.

A second lawsuit from an alleged victim of Heron was filed in April in the Philadelphia court and tells of similarly harrowing abuse.

The victim was a 16-year-old mother of a newborn when she met Heron in a courthouse in 2014, the suit says.

“She was, by every measure, among the most vulnerable individuals Defendant Heron could have encountered in his capacity as a uniformed Philadelphia Police Officer,” the complaint says.

Heron groomed her, the suit says, and starting in 2015 assaulted at least once a month for a period of four years, often drugging her “to prevent her from accurately recounting or reporting what had been done to her.” The assault included rape, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit says Heron threatened the girl to secure her silence.

“He repeatedly reminded her of his status as a police officer and his ability to weaponize that status against her, her child, and her incarcerated family member,” the lawsuit says.

Ashley Garland, an Anapol Weiss attorney representing the unnamed victim, said her client deserves the same accountability as the two victims who received payment.

“We are continuing to pursue justice on her behalf,” Garland said in a statement, “and we hope the city changes how it handles officers with sustained misconduct records, preventing them from harming the residents they are supposed to protect and serve.”