Philadelphia DA Drops Charges Against More Than 20,000 Criminals

That's right, just when I figured it couldn't get much more unbelievable, the "system" surprises and disappoints me again.  In Philadelphia, our neighbor to the east, The District Attorney's Office dropped cased against approximately than 20,000 criminals.  All of the cases had reached "Fugitive Status" which means that the defendants had "skipped out" and not reported to court or to jail when required to.   Every case that was dropped was approved by a Judge.

These aren't  people who failed to pay parking tickets or speeding citations.  These are 20,000 criminals who committed actual CRIMES, including child molestation, aggravated assault, theft, and just about everything else.  One example is Indecent-assault charges against Douglas Gaines, who police said molested a 5-year-old girl in 1989.  Police and anyone else with Google know where Gaines is.  He lives free and presumably happy, in California.  In other examples, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports, they've found scores of people living in other states who are quite happy to hear that their criminal cases no longer exist.

The real injustice here is that no victims have been notified by the courts or by the DA's office that their cases are dismissed.  And the REASON for the cases being dropped: because the system was clogged.  In fact, the Inquirer reports, the dismissal came at the urging or Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille.


Talk about a get out of jail free!  This has to be the stupidest thing I've heard in my tenure in Criminal Justice.  Are we trying to tell criminals that if they hide long enough, they get away with whatever they've done?  If I were a victim of one of these crimes, I'd be at City Hall wanting answers; answers I'm sure I'd never get.