Pawlowski's photo up in courtroom again

John Pawlowski's portrait was back on a table by a Municipal Court bench in the 35th Police District yesterday, a day after a judge set off a firestorm of protests from police when he turned the picture of the slain officer facedown.

As officers continued to simmer over Judge Craig M. Washington's action, another judge - William A. Meehan - took Washington's place in the dual courtroom/police roll-call room. Before conducting the court's business of the day, Meehan asked those in the room to stand for a moment of silence for Pawlowski, who was shot dead Friday when he intervened in an argument.

"Tensions are really high and everyone is just stressed out," police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore said. "We're just trying to get everyone through this."

In a brief interview last night near his home, Washington declined to comment.

The president judge of the court, Marsha Neifield, has said Washington was following rules that require courtrooms to avoid any appearance of bias.

The district's commander, John McCloskey, said he was pleased by yesterday's changes but was still puzzled by Washington's reasoning.

Washington - two hours into the court day - initially ordered Pawlowski's picture removed from the courtroom. But what stung McCloskey was an apparent contradiction: The judge's bench is sandwiched between an honor wall for Charles Cassidy, a district officer slain in 2007, and another wall that honors all the district's slain officers. Above the bench are photographs of the police commissioner and his top staff.

"It doesn't affect [his impartiality]," McCloskey said of Pawlowski's picture. "He had already been up there for two hours hearing court. You mean, that part wasn't impartial?"

Tuesday, after district officials rebuffed Washington's request to remove Pawlowski's picture, the judge placed it facedown. Less than two hours later, outraged police union leaders demanded that, until an investigation is conducted, Washington be dismissed from the bench and all court hearings in the station be suspended.

Officer Blanca Rodriguez, the court liaison who sounded the alarm to her superiors after Washington asked her to remove the photograph, said she felt insulted by his request.

"If he had asked me politely before court started, I would have taken it down and put it back later," she said. "I took it personally. He took it down and laid it flat on its face. If anything, have respect for the dead."

Pawlowski, 25, whose funeral will be held tomorrow, was killed when he intervened in an argument between a hack cab driver and another man, Rasheed Scruggs, 33. Police said Scruggs, a career criminal, shot Pawlowski with a handgun hidden under his coat. Scruggs is recovering from wounds suffered in an exchange of gunfire with police.

Vanore said he did not anticipate that Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey would take any disciplinary actions against 35th District officials who refused Washington's order.

Gretchen LeClaire, whose husband, Sgt. Joseph E. LeClaire Jr., 53, was killed serving a warrant in Germantown in 2004, called Washington's decision "absolutely cruel."

"He has no idea what he's done. What he did was totally unacceptable," LeClaire said during a telephone interview, her voice quavering as she recalled meeting the families of the other slain officers in Philadelphia and the loss of another. "If that was someone in his family, he would understand."

Joseph LeClaire, sergeant for the First Judicial Circuit's Warrant Unit, was killed while pursuing a fugitive who did not show up for a court hearing. Two other officers were wounded when the fugitive started shooting. The room for the warrant unit at 1401 Arch St. is named in memory of her husband.

"Every time another officer is killed, we relive it," LeClaire said. "It's so tearful and hurtful."

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