Peruto seeks end to grand jury probe in bathtub death
Criminal defense lawyer A. Charles Peruto Jr., whose paralegal was found dead in the bathtub of his Rittenhouse Square apartment in May, is calling for an end to the grand jury investigation into her death, saying it has damaged his reputation.
Criminal defense lawyer A. Charles Peruto Jr., whose paralegal was found dead in the bathtub of his Rittenhouse Square apartment in May, is calling for an end to the grand jury investigation into her death, saying it has damaged his reputation.
In a letter to District Attorney Seth Williams, Peruto called for a "speedy conclusion" to the probe, which he said has hurt his reputation and his law firm and could cost him millions.
"I am a citizen of this county and the delay of any announcement of the only findings that could be made in this case have damaged me so severely and incalculably that words cannot adequately describe what I am going through," Peruto wrote in a July 11 letter to Williams.
The Inquirer reviewed a copy of the letter.
On Wednesday, Peruto confirmed its contents but declined to elaborate.
"A grand jury investigation is secret," Williams said Thursday in a statement. "It is done to completely and accurately investigate the subject matter. Since the very nature of the grand jury process is secret, we cannot comment any further."
It is not known whether Williams or anyone else in his office responded to the letter.
Grand juries aren't known for speed; a probe can take months - sometimes more than a year - to conclude. It is unusual for a subject of a grand jury probe to try to nudge things along.
And the "speedy conclusion" Peruto seeks seems nowhere in sight.
On May 25, paralegal Julia Papazian Law, 26, was found facedown in a tub of water by a maintenance man in Peruto's apartment.
An autopsy found she had a blood-alcohol level greater than 0.40 - five times the legal threshold for driving under the influence.
Medical experts say a blood-alcohol content of 0.35 or more can be fatal.
Peruto, 58, told police he was visiting family at the Jersey Shore at the time but raced home distraught over the death of the woman he called his "soul mate."
Although the city Medical Examiner's Office has not released an official cause of death, law enforcement officials say they believe Law likely drowned in the large tub, perhaps after a seizure. The body showed no sign of foul play or trauma.
In June, Williams announced that an investigative grand jury would examine the circumstances of Law's death.
At the time Peruto said: "I've been told they are not investigating me, they are investigating the death, and there's a big difference."
In his letter to Williams, Peruto called for an end to the probe.
"I have been under scrutiny by the public for 7 weeks now," he wrote, "when we both know that this girl, who I loved, died as a result of an accident."
Beyond the emotional impact of Law's death and the public reaction to a grand jury inquiry, Peruto wrote that the rumors it generated were hurting his law practice.
He wrote that his bank recently canceled his line of credit "because it is their policy to do so when someone is under investigation for a crime."
"If this occurs," Peruto continued, "the domino effect will be the loss of millions of dollars. This letter places you on written legal notice of that."
Peruto, a lawyer for 34 years with a reputation for taking high-profile cases, is the son of A. Charles Peruto Sr., one of the most celebrated criminal defense lawyers in Philadelphia history.
Peruto's letter notes that investigators have interviewed his alibi witnesses and examined his and Law's cellphones and the text messages the two exchanged before her death, the cellphone towers used by their phones, the EZ Pass transponder from his car, and security videos from his apartment.
"I have cooperated 100 percent on this matter from minute one," Peruto wrote. "Why hasn't someone simply told the public that the cause of death in this case was drowning and/or alcohol poisoning, and the manner of death is accidental?"
Peruto has described Law as his girlfriend. Her family has said the young woman, who grew up at the Shore, had a history of problems with alcohol and had been going through a difficult time after a romantic breakup with another man.
