Philly DA: We’ve Been “Vigorously Investigating” Police Brutality Claim of Teen with Ruptured Testicle, Now Combining Efforts With Police Investigators

Philadelphia’s district
attorney says he doesn’t usually confirm ongoing investigations,
but when he does it’s because he wants the city to know that his
office is doing something about something. In this case, the DA has
confirmed an investigation into an
incident where a female officer allegedly frisked a teenager so
violently she ruptured one of his testicles. But in coupling the
announcement that his office has been investigating for several
weeks with an announcement that the DA and police would combine
their efforts sends a pretty mixed message.
Via the Philadelphia Tribune:

“We don’t normally confirm ongoing investigations,”
Williams said. “But given the nature of this case, we felt it was
important to let the public know that we have been vigorously
investigating this case since it occurred. Both the police
commissioner and I have worked extensively to combat the perception
that justice is not dispensed equally in Philadelphia, and that is
why we are joined together today. We are using all the tools
available at our disposal to bring this to a fair and just
conclusion. And as has been the case since I took office in 2010,
we will continue to investigate and prosecute every person in this
city who has committed a crime, no matter who they are.”

When asked if a grand jury was being convened to pursue the
investigation, Williams didn’t say yes or no to that
possibility.

“What I stated was that we would be using every means we have at
our legal discretion to find out what happened. That is the maximum
I can say to answer that question,” Williams said. ”We’re going to
do everything that we can. We’re getting the Internal Affairs
division and the Special Investigations unit of the District
Attorney’s Office to gather as much evidence as possible; medical
records, documents, video tapes, everything that we can to get the
truth about what happened that day and report back to the
public.”

The whole thing doesn’t sound too inspiring, a generic comment
about going after “every person” who commits a crime in the city
ends with a promise to “report back” what his office finds out
about an incident that started with a questionable police encounter
and ended with a teenager’s testicle ruptured. That teenager,
Darrin Manning, incidentally, was already charged by cops on
multiple misdemeanor counts, including one for resisting arrest.
The officer who allegedly ruptured his testicle is as yet unnamed,
and presumably uncharged.

The Huffington Post, which does not mention in its story that
the DA and police department are combining their efforts,
talked to the Manning family’s attorney, who explained that he
recommended Manning not to investigators from Internal Affairs
because that was not an “appropriate party.” When the
incident was first reported in the media, the police
commissioner, Charles Ramsey, like the DA now, wanted Philadelphia
residents to know he really wanted to get to be bottom of what
happened, but lamented why the teen, who had been charged by cops,
wasn’t willing to come to them with his complaints. No wonder
Ramsey gets the
big bucks.