Cousin of cop-killer spared prison

Hakim Glover, the man who in 2007 thrust himself into a crime-and-punishment vortex by helping his cop-killer cousin flee Philadelphia, was spared prison time during sentencing yesterday.

Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner sentenced him to what amounts to nine months' parole for one felony count of hindering apprehension, and two years of supervised probation for one misdemeanor count of obstruction of justice.

Lerner praised Glover, 26, for cooperating with commonwealth prosecutors after his arrest and for testifying against his cousin at an emotion-packed, capital punishment trial last month.

John "Jordan" Lewis, 23, was sentenced to death for fatally shooting Police Officer Chuck Cassidy during an Oct. 31, 2007 robbery of a West Oak Lane Dunkin' Donuts.

Several days after the shooting, Glover, who has a history of gun and drug arrests, drove Lewis to the bus station in Wilmington, Del., bought him a $231 Greyhound bus ticket and saw him off to Miami.

The police department's dragnet snared Glover Nov. 5, 2007. Lewis was arrested at a Miami homeless shelter a day later.

"I'm sorry for the stress that I caused for my family and the court system," Glover told the judge, as his grandmother, mother and new wife listened in the sparsely filled courtroom.

Unlike Lewis' trial, attended by Cassidy's extended family and dozens of police officers including the department's top brass, no family or officers were in attendance to see Glover sentenced.

Lerner told Glover that his aiding of Lewis did not hurt the prosecution's case and that his decision to cooperate was helpful and the right thing to do.

"You made up by words and deeds for what you did wrong," the judge told him.

Assistant District Attorneys Edward Cameron and Jennifer Selber, who convinced a jury to sentence Lewis to death, did not object to the sentence.

"We thought it was a fair sentence by the judge given the circumstances of the crime and the attitude and behavior of Mr. Glover since the time that he was arrested," Selber said outside court.

John McNesby, president of the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, said, "If it had not been for his cooperation the guns would not have been recovered. . . . So, it is what it is."

Glover, who pleaded guilty on Jan. 7, 2008, spent nearly three months in jail before he was released on bail. Those months were subtracted from the 12-month parole sentence that he received yesterday.

"Every time that he's been in court he has apologized for getting in on this," defense attorney Michael I. McDermott said of Glover. "He has always told me that he wants to set things right, and has worked with the prosecutor from the beginning to make it right."