A Philly man who was convicted in the killing of an off-duty officer, then freed from prison, is suing for ‘malicious prosecution’

A Philadelphia man who was convicted in 2009 of fatally shooting an off-duty police officer — then released after 18 years behind bars when prosecutors said they discovered that a key trial witness said she was coerced into giving a false statement — has sued the city, the district attorney’s office, and police detectives, alleging “malicious prosecution” and that his constitutional rights were violated.

William Johnson, who was released from prison last year after a Common Pleas judge agreed to dismiss all charges against him, alleges in the complaint that he was wrongfully arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and incarcerated for the 2005 killing of off-duty Philadelphia Police Officer Terence V. Flomo, blaming the district attorney’s office at the time for “intentionally suppressing exculpatory information.”

Johnson’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania earlier this month, names the city, the district attorney’s office, and several current and former Philadelphia police detectives.

Charges against Johnson were dismissed in June, after prosecutors said they became aware of letters the trial witness sent to top staffers, including then-District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham, before the woman went on to testify against Johnson in two trials. The second trial ended in a third-degree murder conviction for the shooting death of Flomo, and a sentence of at least 30 years behind bars.

In her letter, the woman, Brenda Bowens, said she was “forced” by detectives into implicating Johnson. “ … they told me what to say!” she wrote, according to the lawsuit. In motioning to drop the case, prosecutors said those letters were withheld from Johnson’s lawyers, and went undisclosed for years as Johnson appealed his case.

They were found after Bowens recanted in 2020 while speaking to Johnson’s lawyers, and they and prosecutors found the notes to Abraham and former Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega in Johnson’s case file from 2006 — before the case ever went to trial — saying that her statement had been coerced.

» READ MORE: Suspect in murder of off-duty cop walks free after former top prosecutors committed ‘egregious’ misconduct, officials say

Attempts to reach Abraham on Friday were unsuccessful, but she previously said prosecutors supporting dismissal of charges against Johnson provided the court with “false information,” and questioned why she was never called as a witness in the years Johnson’s appeals moved through the courts.

In an interview Friday, Vega — a longtime city prosecutor who was fired along with 30 others when District Attorney Larry Krasner took office in 2018, then ran against him in 2021 — questioned the process by which charges against Johnson were dropped, saying he was told he could only review the decade-old case file if he agreed to be videotaped, and was denied the ability to testify in court.

The city’s law department declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing the ongoing litigation. A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office stressed that it was Krasner’s office that had supported Johnson’s petition to have his conviction vacated, and declined to comment further.

The complaint points to several other overturned convictions due to so-called Brady violations in Philadelphia in recent years, alleging that Johnson’s case was the product of the city’s “acquiescence to improper police practices and customs; and the unconstitutional policies, practices, and customs of former District Attorneys.”

“You have kind of a confluence of issues in this case that are pretty remarkable,” said Johnson’s attorney, David Rudovsky.

The lawsuit seeks a jury trial, calling for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

A jury in 2009 convicted Johnson in the killing of Flomo, an undercover narcotics officer, husband, and father who was fatally shot while off duty in North Philadelphia on Aug. 26, 2005. During the trial, prosecutors said Flomo drove to 20th Street and Cecil B. Moore about 2 a.m., speaking with two women who were sex workers on the street. Prosecutors at the time said that Johnson and another man, Mumin Slaughter, then fired into Flomo’s car, killing him.

Statements from the two women, including Bowens, were key evidence against Johnson and Slaughter during trial. Both women, the lawsuit asserts, “were vulnerable to police pressure” as they struggled with drug addiction and engaged in sex work.

A jury in 2007 convicted Slaughter of charges including third-degree murder, but failed to reach a unanimous verdict for Johnson. Slaughter then provided a statement incriminating his codefendant, but when prosecutors retried Johnson two years later, Slaughter repudiated the statement and refused to testify. A judge allowed prosecutors to present the statement nonetheless, and the jury convicted Johnson of crimes including third-degree murder.

When charges were dismissed last year, prosecutors said they no longer had confidence in the evidence against Johnson but did not fully support his claim of innocence.

This article has been updated to correct a reference to a previous statement by former District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham about William Johnson’s case.