Ex-Phila. cop charged in extortion attempt

Vincent Gaudini Sr., an ex-Philadelphia cop and a campaign volunteer for District Attorney Seth Williams, decided to throw a little weight around last month when a debt came due, prosecutors say.

His alma mater, Harcum College - a two-year school in Bryn Mawr where sons Vincent Jr. and Michael also matriculated - was asking for $3,000 for Michael's unpaid dorm fees.

Court records indicate the bill was not warmly received.

Rather than pay, the elder Gaudini, 55, allegedly fired off an e-mail to Harcum's dean of student life "respectfully requesting that you present Michael with a zero balance for his short stay at your facility" in exchange for silence about drugs and guns on campus.

"As I am sure your [sic] aware, illegal firearms are a major concern for the Philadelphia District Attorney," the e-mail said, "not to mention that rampant drug use on your campus."

Now, Gaudini, who served on Philadelphia's police force from 1978 to 1985 before leaving on disability, faces counts of extortion, attempted theft and other crimes in Montgomery County Court for the alleged attempt to strong-arm his old school.

He was arraigned Wednesday, with unsecured bail set at $5,000. He could not be reached for comment today. A Harcum spokesman declined comment.

Although Gaudini claimed to be an aide to Williams - with whom he is pictured at a table in a May 2009 issue of a public employees' newsletter - the Philadelphia prosecutor issued a statement yesterday saying Gaudini had never worked in his office.

"Mr. Gaudini, like thousands of other Philadelphians, supported this district attorney's candidacy, as a volunteer," the statement said. "He is also a person who is known to the district attorney personally. Mr. Gaudini's support of the district attorney does not, however, entitle him to claim a position he does not have, nor, obviously, does it permit him to violate the law."

Although his Feb. 5 e-mail to Harcum Dean of Student Life George Thornton complained of dismal, drug-riddled conditions in the school's dormitory, Gaudini is not long removed from fonder descriptions of Harcum.

In the e-mail, excerpted in an affidavit filed by prosecutors, Gaudini complains that his son, who is asthmatic, had problems with the heating, plumbing and air-conditioning in the dorms - conditions he labeled "a severe violation of the health codes in the state of Pennsylvania."

The e-mail also noted drug detritus "laying openly in the hall floor," and packets "containing marijuana and powder residue not unlike that of heroin or cocaine," as well as hidden guns.

But in the spring 2006 edition of the school's alumni newsletter, Gaudini - who had moved on to Alvernia College after his Harcum degree - smiles in a photo and praises the "extremely welcoming" Harcum campus where he and son Vincent Jr. were the first father-and-son students.

"At Alvernia, like Harcum, everyone knows me as a person," Gaudini wrote. ". . . I am grateful to Harcum College."

When confronted by police in his Northwest Philadelphia home, Gaudini “repeatedly” admitted sending the less friendly e-mail, the prosecutors’ affidavit said.