Head of Philadelphia Bar Association calls for independent probe of Porngate

Nov. 19--AL DANDRIDGE, head of the 13,000-member Philadelphia Bar Association, added his voice yesterday to a growing drumbeat of calls for an independent investigation into Porngate.

Dandridge cited "an erosion of public confidence in our justice system" and said an outside investigation is needed "to once and for all, tell us the full unvarnished truth of what happened, when it happened and who was involved."

"Only when there is a full accounting of all the facts can we take necessary action to restore the public's trust in our justice system," Dandridge wrote in a statement released yesterday afternoon.

Dandridge was referring to an email scandal involving a state Supreme Court justice, top prosecutors and other law-enforcement officials.

Earlier this week, civil-rights advocates and city and state leaders, including state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, said they believe that state officials engaged in a "coverup" to protect Justice J. Michael Eakin and others with power who sent and received misogynistic, pornographic, racist and homophobic emails.

Last year, the state's Judicial Conduct Board and the special counsel hired by the Supreme Court cleared Eakin of wrongdoing, concluding that the emails were largely unremarkable.

Earlier this month, the Daily News reported that Robert Graci, chief counsel for the Judicial Conduct Board, is an ally of Eakin's and served as general counsel to Eakin's retention campaign committee in 2011. The article prompted Graci, who did not publicly disclose that conflict, to step aside from the current Eakin investigation.

Then, the Inquirer reported on Sunday that Eugene Dooley -- one of the 12 members of the Judicial Conduct Board -- had himself received pornographic and racist emails from former Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery and others employed in criminal justice and law enforcement. Like Graci, Dooley, a former Philadelphia police inspector, failed to publicly disclose the potential conflict.

Dooley was among the recipients of a March 3, 2009 email -- subject line "Men in Training" -- forwarded to multiple people by Lawrence Gerrard, then a supervisory special agent in the state Attorney General's Office. The email contained images that sexualize little boys, including a photo of a wide-eyed baby boy reading a Playboy magazine while seated on the lap of a shirtless man and another photo of a diaper-clad boy, with his hand on a computer mouse and fingers on the keyboard, looking at the backside of what appears to be a naked or near-naked woman on a computer screen.

In addition to Dooley's inbox, the email chain included the inboxes of then-state prosecutors Frank Fina, Marc Costanzo and Pat Blessington. All three now work as city prosecutors for District Attorney Seth Williams.

Gerrard sent another email blast, which included Fina and Dooley, on March 27, 2009, with the subject line: "7 XXX Ways to Serve a Man a Drink." The email included images of naked women with alcoholic drinks wedged in their vaginas and buttocks.

On Jan. 2, 2009, Gerrard, who retired later that year, circulated an email, which landed in multiple government computer inboxes, including that of Dooley, Fina, Costanzo and Blessington. The subject line read: "A New Year Wish for you . . .XX."

The "New Year Wish" email included several pornographic photos, including one depicting four women engaged in an orgy in the back of a limo with the caption, "A Big Luxurious Car. . . .," and another featuring a naked woman with her legs spread seated at a computer with the headline, "A New Secretary . . . "

And those examples are not the worst of the emails either sent or received by prosecutors, state investigators and law enforcement officers.

Dandridge, a partner at Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, said he has not seen the emails.

"I don't particularly want to see them," he said yesterday. "I think that someone who is independent ought to be able to give us a full picture. . . . and give us all the facts."

Last week, women leaders and members of City Council called on Seth Williams to fire Blessington, Fina and Costanzo.

Blessington joined the city District Attorney's Office in June 2011. He now earns about $145,300 a year as an assistant unit chief in charge of special investigations.

Seth Williams hired Costanzo and Fina in January 2013, when Kathleen Kane was sworn in as the state's new attorney general. Fina earns about $124,000 as an assistant district attorney. Costanzo makes roughly $130,000 and oversees the prosecution of insurance fraud and auto theft, according to city payroll records.

Williams has said that he believes the emails, while "offensive," only required Fina, Costanzo and Blessington to receive sensitivity training. Williams has ignored repeated requests from the Daily News, including a phone call and an email to his office yesterday, for details about any such training. Williams has stressed that the three prosecutors did not work for him at the time the emails were circulated.

An email dating back to 2009, sent from Fina's state account, depicts college men, with their pants down and butts exposed, stacked in a heap inside a dorm room. Fina, or someone using his email account, writes, "How friggin gay are you?"

Also in 2009, Fina appeared to forward several pornographic, misogynistic and disturbing emails with the subject line "New Office Motivational Policy Posters." At least four of the photos show women performing sex acts on men, purportedly their male bosses. Fina, or someone using his email, writes "My favorite is Rainbows!" referring to a photo of a woman wearing rainbow-colored thong underwear. The photo caption reads, "RAINBOW. Not as gay as you might think."

Another 2009 email forwarded from Fina's account includes a different batch of "motivational posters." One shows an elderly white man fending off two young black men as they appear to fight him over a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Another shows a boy in a hospital emergency-room setting with a dart stabbed just above his eye. The caption reads, "Parenting. Next time he will get you a beer faster."

On Twitter: @wendyruderman

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